Nestor's Cola

Our racist buddies over at minori has fired another shot, this time at No Name Losers, a fan translation group of dubious ethical quality. The bullet? Well, their site has an open email they sent to NNL last week. Asking them to to stop you know, translating their games. You read through a good portion of what they have to say, and you know what? they’re absolutely in the right. You know what? I’ll say that straight up: They might be racist fucks, but they’ve got a (legal) leg to stand on. Have a look:

You have translated into English without our permission and offered to the public our works [...] which is illegal with respect to both our Copyright act that was collectively ratified by other nations as well as our distribution rights. [...] The act of offering an independent functioning version of the software to countless people is a violation of the rights we have as producers, isn’t it?

In this, they’re absolutely 100% correct as far as legally and morally binding obligations. On the one hand it wouldn’t surprise me to see NNL stop production on their minori games, but at the same time, on the other side of the coin, it wouldn’t surprise me at all if NNL simply thumbed their nose at minori, called them a bunch of racist cunts, and kept going with what they were doing. I could care either way- I’m not losing anything.

A point I’d like to make is this line, which strikes me as hilarious:

???????????????

I read that as, “(we) risk our own lives to do so”, (the entirety of the statement being “We use enormous amounts of money and spend a long time to produce our games, and furthermore risk our own lives to do so.”) Isn’t that just the pinnacle of overdramatic posturing? Could they grandstand just a little more? Making a game is not a harrowing, life-threatening experience. You do not gush blood, internal organs do not rupture, your head will not explode. Well, I’m not sure of that, but I’ve done a little programming, a little scenario writing, etc and you know, I’m DOING JUST FINE. Maybe it’s with prolonged exposure?

This final bit is something that makes me a little upset.

If there are any amongst you who are truly fans of “minori”, and hope for us to carry on producing works in the future, please please stop illegal acts which our destroying our future.

Now they acknowledge foreign fans? Isn’t that a little backhanded? Well, wait. They don’t. You see, they still don’t sell to anyone overseas. Filthy gaijin dollars are filthy after all. You have to be Japanese and live in GRORIOUS NIPPON to buy and play their games. They’re not really losing money or livelihood because this (blatantly illegal) piracy is happening in a market they refuse to acknowledge. You can’t deny a market, and then complain you’re not making money off that market when you discover they’re using your product. I’m sorry, but that’s like refusing to believe that your car runs on gasoline and then bitching when the car no longer runs. Actually, a better analogy would be, “don’t lock the barn door after the horse has been stolen” You brought it on yourself. You had a damn good opportunity to expand into a decent market and you walled yourself up. You don’t have the right to complain that the world has passed you by.

If I were asked, “Nestor, What’s your official stance?” I’d say NNL is functionally in the wrong, but minori brought it on themselves, so they should acknowledge some responsibility too.

Nestor Adult Games, Dissertation, Japanese Games, Rant, Tech

It’s been a while since I played (and reviewed) a japanese game. There are several reasons for this hiatus. The one that sticks out most visibly is minori, a notably racist, isolationist, and terminally xenophobic game maker from Jolly ‘ole Japan. See, refer back to my posts on Equality Now. It can be easily concluded that minori are chafing under the yoke that their own government placed on them by blaming foreigners. Their response at first was to block foreign IP from their site. Another response was to post a thinly veiled message on their redirect page, essentially boiling down to “unless you are japanese living in japan, we don’t want you buying our games, participating in our activities, or even visiting our website.” Their solution? MOVE TO JAPAN. Literally, it says that right there on their website. “You want to play our games? Move to japan. We won’t have a problem with that.” Riiiight. I’m going to move overseas to play a game. I’ll get right on that.

I’ve heard some interesting defense in favor of minori. That they’re in the right to block foreign business. In this context, they are. Here in the US, you’ll frequently see the signs “we reserve the right to refuse service to anyone.” and generally speaking that’s perfectly okay to do. But this blocking of foreign business only started after Equality Now started their shit. This sophomoric reactionary stance is pretty fucking childish. Hello, it was your own fucking government that passed the goddamn regulations. The US didn’t do it. England didn’t do it. Zimbabwe didn’t fucking do it; It was your own goddamn politicians that couldn’t stand up for themselves, for the nation of Japan, for their rights, for anything. They’re the ones that said “You can’t do this.” End of line. Accept some goddamn personal fucking responsibility.

A second defense I’ve heard is that by blocking foreign IPs from visiting their site and purchasing/ using their games, they are defending their games against piracy. This is ALSO a crock of shit. It’s the Japanese that buy the games (IN JAPAN, LOLOLOL), it’s the Japanese that make digital copies, and upload them to P2P sites. Blocking foreign visitors from their website does nothing to “stem the tide against piracy” at all. Straw man defense: defeated.

So in any case, they’re taking out their impotent frustrations on the only people that can’t fight back: foreign fans. When you think about things like that, it’s not just insulting, it’s a brutal assault on your own humanity. You’re not worthy of playing their games by virtue of your birth- something you can no more control than the weather. Ultimately foreign fans have two (realistic) choices (I’m not even going to factor in minori’s outrageous idea of moving to another country just to play their games- let’s not be completely fucking stupid) when it comes to playing their games:

1. Give up on playing their games altogether. (no way!)
2. Get their games from another source, bypassing minori altogether. (Can do.)

In addition to that, my desire to play these games comes and goes in waves, and this was essentially ebb tide. Part of that is my completionist nature: I have to complete every game I play. I tried my hand at Clannad, and I ended up stopping after playing through the best route, simply because I have absolutely no desire for any of the other girls. Since I can’t start a new game because I haven’t finished Clannad (and won’t ever) I simply stopped playing altogether. Well, I got over that and soon I’ll have a good review of SWAN SONG up on the site. Maybe within the next couple of days. Look forward to it!

Nestor Adult Games, Dissertation, Games, Japanese Games, Rant, Sociology