* The Great Merry "F--k You!" (Better late than never)

[NightWolve]

Recap: Christmas 2004, I gave you the "Ys IV: Dawn of Ys"? patch and you happily took it. Christmas 2006, I gave you an incomplete Felghana patch per donation as part of an early-access program, something I first used with the "Ys II Complete" patch the year before. This limited donation-ware program, designed to be temporary and as a way to avoid a permanent/difficult payware model, lasted for some ~4 weeks; it was cut short on January 29, 2007 when the patch was leaked on GameFAQs, much to the delight of a great many disgusting pieces of excrement out there who then happily took/spread it by the thousands (tens of thousands to-date, ~50,000++)...

My estimate as to the financial losses was around $1000-$1500 based on, a) the donation frequency prior to the leak, and b) how many more weeks the program had left... Evidently, 4 weeks was too much for you cheap, freeloading, warez f--ks to handle, for something that you were "supposed"? to get 100% free anyway, cause yeah, that's how things are "supposed" to work (per the leaker's lecture). The very idea simply short-circuited your natural free-for-me entitlement complex in this context. You're supposed to get the completed patch, and I'm supposed to get nothing - That's how things work; that's the most moral and proper outcome, purty simple... You wouldn't wanna spoil me, right?

So obviously, the mistake was on my part in daring to ask butt-pirates for money - I see that now... Asking Ys "fanholes" (read: videogame thieves) for money is kinda like going up to beggars/panhandlers on the corner and asking them for some spare change (before they get a chance to ask you)... Pretty dumb and you wouldn't be surprised when 99.99% of 'em tell you to f--k off, which is the same percentage result I ultimately got in this context. I have been naive at times, I will admit.

Present: So here we are towards the end of the Christmas 2010 season and I thought to myself, hey, I've neglected my lovely Ys "fanholes"? for 4 years, I should come up with something to give 'em... BUT WHAT ?? What can I come up with that would be appropriate and on such short notice? Then it dawned on me as to exactly the kind of gift that you deserve, THE ONLY ONE I ever should've been giving you in the first place! I got the idea from...YOU!!!

This Christmas, I'm giving you back that which 99% of you have been giving me for some 7-8 years! Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you...the middle finger! *MY* middle finger to be precise! <Mark Levin>THHAAAAAAAT'S RRRRIGHT!</Mark Levin> Today, I finally flip you the bird proper, and I wanted to do it in such a way that I hope you'll ALWAYS remember me by! I am returning the gesture to the source...

I'm a memorable figure, I'd like to think (and you freaks do love talking about me, I give meaning to your otherwise miserable lives apparently), and as such I wanna leave you miserable, disgusting bastards with a long-lasting memory... My feelings towards you are now visually official for all time! I want the image of my middle finger imprinted in your stupid birdbrains the next time you're ranting and raving about me behind my back (I'm looking at you, Spinner_8, among many others!)... If I can achieve that, I'll be a happy man.

(YES, that's my hand flipping you the bird in front of my Felghana Limited Edition box, along with other neighboring Ys originals. Believe it or not, creepy Ys trolls from GameFAQs conspiratorially think I asked *somebody else* to flip you the bird and take the photo for me... Tru Story... But I ask the humble question, WHO the hell would do a weird favor like that on my behalf ?? Anyway, despite conspiracy theorists, that is indeed the hand and the box that gave birth to the Felghana patch that you pirate-happy f--ks (meaning 99% of you) got to enjoy... And hey, this photo's a collector's item I'd say - I even signed it for ya too! What do you think?? LMAO!)

Some of you dumbf--ks can be found even today ranting about "viruses in my patches" and my evilness for doing so... For f--ks sake, lemme spell it out for you stupid, butt-pirating a$$clowns: that was nothing more than anti-warez propaganda based on conspiracy theories that began on GameFAQs by know-nothing pirates whereby such nutjobs starting accusing me of crazy things, so I played along with it for a time and you sorry f--ks bought it all hook, line, and sinker...! That was YOUR crazy conspiracy theory, NOT MINE!

The sad fact is EVERY single one of you f--ks got away with your thievery, EVERY ONE, including the leaker... I never got ANY form of justice which would only ever have been directed at the leaker gang anyway... Has someone ever raised their hand to say that their computer got trashed by one of my patches? NO, but yet the belief is still out there... It's either a testament to the effectiveness of the troll 4 years later or to the IQ/intelligence level of Ys "fanholes..."? Which do you think it is ?? I mean, I don't think I tried very hard when I played along with that psycho twerp, FrayedHoped, the petty GameFAQs manchild that was so certain my ambiguous phrase of "special surprise" meant "F*ck up your PC!" if pirating the game, so he started harassing me!

Stupid f--king sorry thieves, what a complete f--king disgusting disaster you all are and you only seem to grow more miserable... If you pirate without any kind of restraint, without regard, whatever and whenever, you shouldn't be as angry as say I am, now should you? Just go f--king steal something else, enjoy it, and shut the f--k up already instead of the endless crybaby routines that you're the victims!

Anyway, Merry Christmas, fanholes, and a Happy New Year too!!! :-) Congratulations are in order as well; you've achieved a sustained 99% freeloading rate as of late (~1% up from 97-98%)! Kick ass! The notion that [nearly] "everybody loves free"? has been vindicated...

[tsbaron]

Wow NightWolve, hold a grudge much? I still disagree with you that ys fans are freeloading pirating @ssholes. The problem is simply that if the game is not made readily available for domestic sale, nobody is able to buy it, and if they only way to obtain it conveniently is to steal it on the internet, they will. I have donated to you since i respect the work and effort you have done, and lately any time a ys game is made available for sale on these shores, I make it a point to buy them. So far I have collectors editions of the north American releases of the following: Ys for ds,  Ys seven, Ys: Oath in Felghana, and this coming week I will put in an order to amazon for Ys I and II chronicles for PSP. I had also purchased Ys Book 1 and 2 for tg16 on virtual console and I also purchased the PSP version of ys VI. I am looking out for the PS2 version of ys VI as well. On top of this, I really firmly believe that I am not an exception to this rule, and that I am among many who are able and willing to support domestic releases of Ys games with their money and encourage future releases of the games.

It's a shame you wern't able to do with falcom what Carpe Fulgur did with the creators of Recettear and make it so that their game and your translations could have been sold via digital distribution. Ys on steam would be awesome as hell.

In my opinion, I think Falcom could make a lot of money releasing iPhone/iPad/iTouch and Android versions of their game library. Digital distribution on the smartphone marketplace is a good idea, and I'm certain that they will find success there.

I know you were greatly wronged NightWolve, but I really think you should let go of this grudge. The games you are so upset about now have legitimate domestic releases, and your translator friend was tapped to have his work featured in that release. I think as far as that whole situation goes, time has come to make things right in a way.

As for your political stances... actually nevermind, i'm not going there. I'm ill equipped to even approach your feelings on those matters. I can only disagree with you as quietly as I can.

I hope to see good things happen with Ys, with this site, and with you, Nightwolve. Despite your terrifying rage, I at least respect you and appreciate all you have done for the ys game series, even if sometimes it didn't turn out well.





 

[Bernie]

hmm..  Although I see your point about him "holding a grudge", I have to say I can see where he is coming from.  Sure, a lot of people arent able to buy the games.  I can understand that.  However, if they can download a patch, to apply to a downloaded game image, I feel they can donate at the very least 5.00.  And thats at the VERY least.  If every download just donated 5.00, think about what that would do for the translator.  Im a huge Turbo Grafx/PCengine fan, and I hope to own every game at some point just from a collectors stand-point.  Did I own Y's IV before I heard of Nightwolve's patch?  Not hardly, so I applied a patch to a downloaded image.  I donated out of my appreciation since I now had a new game to play, that I could not have played without the translation.  Now, I own the actual game thanks to ebay.   

We have to remember, translating takes a HUGE amount of time and effort.  The least we can do is show our appreciation through donations.  I find it mind blowing that so many people have applied his patches, and never once thought to give something back for the translator's efforts.  Its simply unreal and selfish.  The first thing I read when I downloaded the Y's IV patch, was the readme.  And in that, was everything I needed to know, including donation info.  I didnt have to think twice.  Why do so many other people??  I give you an example.  Recently TruMisery released a translation patch for Startling Oddyssey II for the PCengine Super CD.  One of the first things I did was contact him about donations, and permissions on sharing his work.  Although Tru did not want to accept donations, I am sure the thought was appreciated.  Thats what its about people, appreciation.   

[tsbaron]

I totally understand where you (and NightWolve) are coming from. Appreciation is a big deal to me too, and I've certainly donated to NightWolve an amount beyond 5 dollars. In fact, every time some official effort is made to domestically release a Ys game, I make it a point of sending a donation, as I believe that those domestication efforts happen because of passionate people like NightWolve, who are willing to put great effort to localize the game on their own time when the original company has not made it available. Now, here is where my ideas get complicated: NightWolve is certainly within his rights to solicit donations so he can cover operating costs of creating the translation patches. As an aspiring developer and someone who has had to produce working program code, I know programming takes a lot of time, effort, and concentration. But I also believe that Ys is ultimately Falcom's property, and things get iffy when the situation is that though NightWolve has worked hard on domesticating the game, he is using someone else's IP he may not have the rights to. This is why I say that I often wish NightWolve could have had a discussion with Falcom to get US digital distribution rights to the games and release them on a marketplace like steam, since that way he can legally profit off his work, and Falcom's work, and everyone has an agreement that benefits them.

Let me make a better example. Jonathan Coulton, the famous geek-culture musician, made  a mashup of a Beatles song and a Chicago song. He has no license to either song. Selling the songs is illegal: Therefore if he distributes the mashup, he may not earn money from it. I support NightWolve's effort with donations, but I don't believe he can ask for compensation for the effort done on someone else's property. He can certainly ask for donation support to keep operating, but should not demand money in exchange for a patch. Doing so infringes on Falcom, and I really would not like to see Falcom attack someone who merely loves their work and wants to see it enjoyed by more.

I support NightWolve with a donation, but I donate noting that he has sold me nothing that shouldn't be freely available. Because of the nature of his work, until he gets permission from Falcom, he shouldn't try to sell anything. He doesn't have that right. If you enjoy the results of his work, he certainly should be donated to, but if he's to distribute a translation, he doesn't have the right to do so in exchange for money. This isn't even an anarchocapitalisim situation where it's "pay what you want." since that implies an exchange of currency for goods. Until he has distribution rights from Falcom (i'm not even talking about distributing game binaries here. Falcom owns the content in NightWolve's translations), NightWolve's only real legal option is that he may distribute his work for free, and ask for others to donate if he's to continue working on projects like these.

[TDOMMX]

Whoa, what happens when I haven't been around for a while...

tsbaron, there's something fundamentally wrong with your understanding of the situation that I feel I should point out: NightWolve wasn't charging for the Felghana patch.  He was granting early access to the work-in-progress patch to those who had donated to him or Psycho DeuceBag in the past.  After a while, he decided to extend that thank-you to new donors, and he has been regretting that decision ever since.  NightWolve was planning to release the patch to the public after 4 weeks had elapsed (ie: after the donors had the time to play through the game, comment on it, and report any bugs; leechers typically don't give useful feedback).  It's the same thing that happened with No Name Losers' English patch of Wind -a breath of heart-; the moment someone tells 4chan or the like that they can't have something (even if it's just "not yet"), they'll find a way to forcibly get their hands on it.  The pirates just made up the "he's charging for work that's not his!" spiel to rationalize their antics.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: it really is past the time to let this go.  My translation group released the English version of Rosenkreuzstilette back in July 2009, but the game was ripped and uploaded to MediaFire, RapidShare, MegaUpload, etc. despite our expressed wishes.  I've been keeping an eye on the sales of the game (digital download for ~$13.50) versus the number of English patch downloads; two years later, the stats are 108 legitimate purchases to 1516 patch downloads from our backup MediaFire account alone (we also have a primary HTTP mirror which does not count downloads, so the real value may be many times more than that).  While I'm irritated by the blatant disregard for our wishes and the obvious greed of the pirates, I'm not going to post a rage-fueled tirade about the situation on our website, far less give anyone the finger.  It's unprofessional and unbecoming.  The best I can do is ignore their pleas to remove the anti-piracy measures in the patcher and redouble my efforts in the next release.

[JoeQuaker]

*Shrug*

One word comes to mind on this rant..

"COOL."

HaHa 

[IinoSama]

I'm personally just loving how much this collection resembles my own.

That and the finger underneath Felghana is the perfect final touch.

Turbografx for the win! (My favourite case art ever)

Also, I just synced my emails to a new computer and found the very friendly email Nightwolve sent me after I donated. Is that email still active? Instead of being dick like all the other Ys Fans, I think I'll make yet another donation. Speak with my wallet as it were.

It's been a long time, where has the paypal donation link gone to these days?

[NightWolve]

Turbografx for the win! (My favourite case art ever)

Ys Book I&II and the Turbo Duo is what started it all for me. I wouldn't be an Ys fan without it. As the first CD-ROM RPG that I ever played, it left quite a mark on me with its awesome soundtrack, respectable dubbing and interesting story/adventure to boot (they're short games, but they were great for their time). No Ys collection is complete without owning an original! I waited till TTI collapsed and ran a clearance sale on whatever stock was left; I got the $99 deal for a TurboDuo and 5 games: Ys Book I&II, Ninja Spirit, Gate of Thunder with hidden Bomberman game. A great deal for its time considering they used to try to sell it for $299. Prior to that, I actually entered a contest that the Chicago Sun Times ran in 1990 and I won a TG-16 with Keith Courage and Bloody Wolf. Historic I tells ya!!  However, after I bought a TurboExpress for $99, the contact pins were so tight and new, that they broke my Bloody Wolf HuCard after I inserted it and tried to play it. I had played the hell out of it by then so it wasn't a big loss, but still, that sucked. I never got to see what it looked like on a portable.

It's been a long time, where has the paypal donation link gone to these days?

You seriously couldn't find a paypal link, like to the bottom left of this site? If you just execute any of the PC patches, you'll have a paypal image link on the first screen, that being the result of me doing my damndest to spam the hell out of my cheap, parasitical, pirating, patch-consuming public... *Sigh* And yet, to have someone tell me that they couldn't find one?!?!?!??!?! Do you realize how frustrating that is?!?! *shakes fist*

Just messing, you already donated; it's the rest of the 60,000+ parasitical pricks that I care about, that are the problem! So, the latest counts are ~430 donations out of 60,000+ patch consumers, so we're talking about a fraction of a percent that donated when it's all said and done. Truly disgusting, but in that department I digress...

Anyways, when life permits I'll eventually respond to some of these posts. Hello BTW and carry on in the meantime. =\