This is rubbish. It has nothing to do with image compression. Yes, eroge images are almost always compressed, but it’s almost always lossless compression (lossy compression is generally only present in free and doujin games). The source images, however, ARE drawn at a much higher resolution so it may be difficult to convincingly redraw the mosaic’d areas (which, in some cases, are very large) without the originals. Certainly possible though
So :roll: ? Then, please ask them if writing suggestions and/or requests anywhere on this BBS is merely a waste of time and electrons (does Peter check this forum on a regular basis?) 
.
honestly i haven’t seen any of the moderators get involved in discussions on the forums for several months maybe even a year or 2
Like I said a bit earlier, if you want to suggest something or request it, contact them via the J-List site and make a request in the Dating Sim category. Another thing is, Peter actually has been reading this thread while he’s been here, so bear in mind just because they don’t post doesn’t mean they aren’t there. Although I did hint that part of the reason MangaGamer seems to get so much attention is because they’ve got people who DO post regularly, whether it be on their forum, their blog or their twitter account.
Another thing that I forgot to mention earlier, Demonbane is pretty much done, and the only things slowing them down now are technical quibbles.
This could be a good thing, depending what the L-man and Shingo are doing that keeps them away from the forums. Hopefully Peter has them traveling up and down the length of Japan, hunting for new partners and leads.
They were here during the Family Project uproar last year. They had to show up to address the issue.
As for the general lack of participation, I’d guess that it has something to do with the fanbase itself. I’ve seen it happen wherever a vocal and often intolerant audience exists, such as the old Square Soft, Interplay/Obsidian, and Andromeda forums. The same happened at AnimeOnDVD and the MangaGamer board (Kouryuu is there now, but EvoSpace was rattled by all the “fuck you, MangaGamer” posts. He stopped participating long ago).
People don’t want to stick around if they’re dealing with impolite and angry people.
Sorry, but Baldo is a naive, spoiled geezer 
, he really believes that a public BBS is the best place to “make a request in the Dating Sim category” for getting an answer of some sort, it’s great policy for catching the interest of the eroconsumers and I’m also sure it would be good for a laugh or two :lol: …
Yeah, unfortunately you’re totally right (it’s also the reason of the Vow of Silence taken by moderators and boss alike, I’m sure), but still…
Come to the (Darth Baldo’s) Dark Side! :twisted:
To say the truth I always loved those “impolite and angry people”, I admit it was total fun (for me, at least) to see the flaming debates of the past with the moderator running in circles screaming for love&peace… 
:lol:
These boards are quite supportive of the company. Even during their crisises, there’s always been a large segment that actively defends JAST from the more critical elements. I doubt there’s a more supportive message board for English bishoujo localization anywhere on the Internet.
While it’s improving a bit, Mangagamer’s forum attracts a less dedicated fanbase that includes a number of people who mostly just follow fan translations. These type of people tend to be far more critical of localization efforts and accepting when it comes to piracy. You might say that this type of fan is the product of a subculture of entitlement.
Mangagamr has a forum? Do you mean the staff blog? I don’t really consider that a forum. If they do have one though please post the link.
In regards to Jast. I believe they lost a ton of money from the whole Family Project and X-Change affairs and it is not likely that they will mistakenly forget to let the consumer know again. If they do read this though I highly recommend that they let the consumer know a few months in advance so that they can cool down. Personally I would probably buy whatever even if they did censor it. I hate (abhor really) censorship but I do not usually buy these games for the “sensitive material” but for the story and characters. I responded that I was disappointed in jlist for not letting the customer know before hand and like many others they offered money back or complete return (even after install). In order for this business to succeed though we the consumer must support them. I (like I’m sure many others) accepted their apology and did not take the money or the chance to return when offered. The game has many flaws but even some of the blatant bad translations in Family Project actually made me smile.
I like my share of fan translations but considering it is expensive to buy the legitimate games for those it happens less often than I would like.
Also I’m sure it has already been asked but what was Jast’s response to download only of games that may have controversial subjects (whatever those may be)? Or do they ever plan to repeal the policy? There are a number of great games that probably will not get released simply because of one character out of many being too loli. Hell I said it before even if they censor it (many will be disappointed at first and mad only if they do not say anything well in advance) the games would probably still be worth buying and fans would probably still buy them. I think the biggest issue with x-change 3 and family project was that the fans were not told until they already had the games. They would have been much more cooperative and understanding had they known well in advance.
MangaGamer’s forum: http://mangagamer.site11.com/ It’s nowhere near as active as this one but it does exist, and Kouryuu does respond there from time to time.
If something isn’t going to get a physical release, or is cut from a physical release, it’s not going to be up for download either. For example, while I was talking about import games for J-List he mentioned that some games they just won’t carry, games from Illusion for instance (can’t blame him there) or Kud Wafter (too loli). So if it crosses whatever line they’ve set down, it won’t be available through them in any way.
I completely understand mind you. Although kud wafter if I remember correctly is Key (related to little busters?) and all of their characters look a bit loli even if they are of a decent age. It’s just how they use their artistic expression. I guess. It’s sad but I do understand. Hell those games aren’t usually for graphics anyway…they’re for story. Also some of them have safe versions do they not?
I just hope jast understands that it is not that we are upset about the censoring of the loli characters but that it’s the knowledge that they knew but did not tell us ahead of time…although this may only hold true to some. I’m sure a number were pissed that they censored ever in the first place.
Illusion I would definitely stay away from. I don’t even consider their games to be visual novels and it would be PR suicide to even attempt to do those type of games in the land where the first anger originated.
In the end though I agree that it all depends on whatever line they’ve set down.
Hopefully it is squiggly/wavy one.
Well they don’t seem to have a problem with Al Azif, then again she’s an ancient grimoire so it’s okay.
I’m upset that loli characters are being censored. I just realize that yelling at JAST over it is not productive, and is in fact counterproductive. The material is going to be censored regardless (either by removal or not licensing the game in the first place). Yelling at them will only make them more sensitive about it and likely to choose the latter option (the more severe form of censorship).
Oops. I stand corrected.
It’s still true that you can’t just take the images from the game and work on those, but it’s because of lower resolution, and not lossy compression. Thanks.
In practice, it turns out that this question has come up before, and Jast’s answer has been to abandon the property. (Look at Cleavage, for example.)
It’s not just a matter of what would be most pleasing to the customer base. There could be a lot of reasons why Jast would prefer not to go there. Off the top of my head, it could either cost a lot more to do this, or it could offend the Japanese companies.
Well, for story-oriented games, there’s always the third option of just keeping the images mosaiced, like MangaGamer with Suika.
IIRC the sales of cheaper, mosaiced Critical Point were low enough that Jast didn’t think it was worthwhile to go that way? (I bought it but for various obvious reasons I’m not quite the average customer.)
As far as mosaics are concerned, why does JAST to expect the eroge companies they’re working with to keep the uncensored data if the companies never initially intended to release the games uncensored in the first place?
I mean, yeah, there’s a chance a game could be released outside of Japan, but there’s only been around 80 VNs released overseas in the past decade (with JAST, MG, and Hirameki titles combined), whereas there’s been 10,000+ games released in Japan within the same timeframe. Even if an eroge company makes close contacts with JAST, the chances of any particular title being released overseas and uncensored (and in a timely manner, now that you mention it) is still slim to none, so why would they bother wasting time keeping track of the uncensored data? Why does JAST limit itself to releasing titles whose developers are forthcoming enough to keep the uncensored data, as opposed to just getting the original artists to draw an uncensored image over the censored portion of the CGs?
What I don’t get is why is there such a need for the original or without mosaics? If we had a choice between having big titles with mosaics or never seeing a release I’d prefer the mosaic. It may just be because I like the drama and even the adventure styled eroge and not the extreme fetish games, but it isn’t a big deal to me. The H-scenes are irrelevant to me compared with the charm of seeing the characters develop.
Maybe they don’t want to hassle the original developers any more than they already do. There’s also a possibility that the original studios just aren’t interested in going the extra mile to make the localization possible.
Apparently, games like X-Change and The Sagara Family are their best sellers, so the straight up porn titles traditionally represent their bread and butter. That’s probably why they make a big deal about mosaics; those accustomed to non-Japanese porn won’t settle for anything less.
They could experiment with a story centered game using mosaics, but then again, popularity is already marginal (aside from the Nitro+ games, which represent a new experiment, I don’t think any one title had a pre-existing sales advantage. For instance, had Snow Sakura been unavailable, they could easily have swapped in something else and no one would care), so it’s tempting to just pick a similar title where censorship isn’t an issue. There’s no data on how many customers they’d lose, but I think some loss of business is a given.