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So this past week I was kind of bored and decided to dedicate a lot of my free time to this one level ROM hack I did about the Fuwanovel community. Basically I just hacked into one of my favorite video games (Fire Emblem 7 for the gba) and completely customized the text, events, characters, etc. It's just a parody of the VN community with a particular focus on Fuwanovel and with Tay as the main character. Here is the entire Intro and first chapter: Part 1:

I'm not a big fan of crowdfunding for-profit projects. I find it exploitative. If I'm investing in a for-profit enterprise, I expect a return on my investment--i.e., if I contribute 1% of the funds to create a game, then I have a 1% stake in that game, and I expect a cut of the profits that result from the game's sale. Now, it would be different if crowdfunding was used to develop a game and the game was then freely distributed afterwards. But that's not what's happening. I'll grudgingly support a new developer that needs the funding to get their first project off the ground. But after that? They better start funding themselves using the profits they withheld from investors. I'm extremely skeptical of traditional crowdfunding campaigns, and I would only support them for a product that I really want, or for an innovative cause that I think is worthy of donating to (to date, these requirements have not been met). And more than likely, I would contribute at the minimum level to obtain the primary game assets. Sekai Project's continued reliance on crowdfunding is just one more reason I continue to regard them and their business practices with suspicion. As for a glorified preorder campaign, I'm not necessarily opposed to that concept, though I'd be extremely wary if they said they would charge me in advance for a product that is still in the planning stages with no projected release date. I'm not opposed to preorder campaigns to gauge customer interest (similar to Steam Greenlight). I'm opposed to assuming financial risk for the profit of others--i.e., being exploited.

According to my Googlings Latte is a coffee drink made with espresso and steamed milk.

If by "depend too much" you mean that the problem is a moral one and not a financially risky one—I don't see how the latter could be the case—then I entirely agree. Excuse my capitalist inclinations, but in an ideal system of business, the profits of a company should be proportional to how much customers are accurately expecting to get out of and thus pay for a product; if this proportion does not exist, then somebody, either the business or the customers (but most often the customers, of course) is being treated unfairly. JAST and Mangagamer get by on this. Kickstarter is a clever way to draw money from people without any guarantee of ultimately delivering the "supply" aspect of "demand and supply," an artifice on which South Park has a nice episode. Naturally, the inherent justification for this business behavior is that the customer is consenting to paying this money, as stated above ("blame the people who fund all their projects if anything"). I personally believe, however, that full consent requires full knowledge, and I see the Kickstarter funders as victims, not criminals, of this misbusiness, even if many of them are indeed stupid. In the United States, at least, I'm aware that the government (very occasionally ) cracks down on pseudo-science companies that advertise health supplements at exorbitant prices, which, in actuality, obviously benefit one's health in no manner, but customers who are unaware of this consent to purchasing them anyway. I do not deem those companies to be in the moral right.

An older picture, this is the one that's on my public transit pass and the best one I have that's not 2+ years old Back when the ole Beard was still trimmed

I guess you win this round.....

(Image provided by The Major and his super dank maymay skills. Watermarks included for originality) Hey everyone, I wanted to take the time to post a semi-serious (but mostly serious) post about how much all of the Skype/PM birthday messages meant to me today. After signing into Fuwanovel and having an exploding inbox of messages (and a thread that only the gods could have created) and personal offline Skype messages, I just want to say thank you. Being in Japan is sometimes a little lonely, but I always know I have some pretty awesome people to come back to at the end of the day. I understand a lot of updates are slow on my end and that I always try my best to post new things because I just like to spew all of my ideas out on the table at once, but that doesn't mean I never want to stop following through with what I love doing for the site. Thanks again guys for being so understanding this last half year since I moved out to Japan. Thanks so much for all the support and kind words, and above all, thanks so much for being my friend. See you real soon! OR

I don't believe contributors are investors, they seem more like Sponsors. And people who use Kickstarter seem like they're competing for Patronage.

So your problem then is the quality of their titles, not that they're using Kickstarter. What if all of these titles were super appealing to you? Would you still be singing the same tune about overusing Kickstarter? Sekai Project is new to this industry, and they are attempting a rapid expansion strategy. Part of this rapid expansion strategy is trying to use Kickstarter as much as possible. They aren't just sitting on the money or pocketing it all. They are using their cash reserves to get a lot of the doujin stuff you're seeing, like both of those yuri titles they've announced recently, while using Kickstarter to additionally fund the more expensive or potentially riskier stuff since they don't actually have a lot of money setting around. And also, again, some of these projects aren't even for SP. It is entirely possible that they are expanding too quickly. Just because all of their projects have met their goals and been profitable doesn't mean that this is a good strategy. I can foresee a future where they start to buckle under their own weight as they grow too big too fast. I'm not sure that's actually going to happen, but it's a possibility. But right now that's the strategy SP is going for and Kickstarter continues to be vital for propelling them so rapidly. I won't begrudge them for using it in that way. I don't buy into the whole philosophy of Kickstarter being a tool that must be used in very specific ways. It's a very versatile tool and companies should be encouraged to use it in any way that can assist them, as long as they aren't running scams.

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From what I understand, many of your criticisms are of the Japanese writing tradition in VNs, not merely the translation. I doubt even the original Japanese would satisfy you.

Didn't I already do this? Mmm, can't remember now. I'll look into it tomorrow maybe, will have to get the game first. Through entirely legal and above-board means, naturally.

Dear PETA People who live in glass houses should probably stop killing and abusing real animals. Sincerely Cat-girl Lovers Everywhere.

Translation: 8034/32977 Yay! 8000th mark! Our internet is up so I'd be able to update the thread frequently. edit: made a post on website kekeke

Congrats on the year here, bro. One day, I will make a single, giant meta post to highlight all the "milestones" I ignored while spending my time on Fuwa. It'll include such memorable moments as my first post, my 69th post, my 1000th post, and of course, the day Ren made me into a grown-up woman.

Krills speech evaluation was yesterday they gave him 4 test and she said its not anything cognitive at all he has Apraxia of Speech he needs to go to therapy with her 3 times a week and start reading more at home out loud

Hi Everyone Time for an Update on my husbands condition....He is doing great other than still having trouble with communication He cant type as many of you in the chatroom have seen and he cant say everything he wants to say He did have a Therapy session this week and She said we need to reboot his brain if you will So Starting Monday June 15th he will be starting Speech and Cognitive therapy at a facility a few times a week so he can try to regain as much back as possible Our son EJ whose turning 3 in July is his motivation He wants to be able to read to him again because when he brings him a book and ask It kills him inside to not be able to So sorry for the update not being at the start of the week but im a very busy woman as of late Have a great weekend and i will try to update earlier next week

"Katawa Shoujo" is the first VN I'd ever played and I imagine that applies to many of us. Also like many of us, it took my breath away when I first played through it, had my thoughts and soul filled up with the content during playing, and was deeply disappointed when it was over. Then I replayed it to see how I would feel towards it after I had grown as a person and I ended up being disappointed (bar Rin's route). The flaws of it appeared so obvious that I was shocked that I hadn't noticed them before. So I'd like to examine the sorcery that this game seems to cast on people and I'd appreciate the help of this community. This first entry is not all in-depth but rather an ice-breaker and I intend this whole thread to be an exploration rather than a thesis since I'm a little mystified myself and I encourage anyone to dispute me on my points. If it helps, you could consider my viewpoint to be "It shouldn't work...but it does". As if the budget constraints led the team to make choices that would hamper other works but somehow bolster this one (possibly). Origin. Frequently, I would repeat to myself the amazing fact that total strangers across the world had united (on 4chan of all places) to create a fully scripted visual novel with CGs, music, and even animations. This fact amplified the already strong feelings I had for the game into a sense of wonder. It makes me wonder that if the creation process were not known, would the game have the same impact? If a professional company had created the game with a greater budget for assets, would we think less of it? Music The music in Katawa Shoujo is good but off. Not off-key or anything, but that it sometimes seems to be at a higher emotional pitch than the scenes usually suggest. But more importantly, it's completely scattershot. By that, I mean that if you took the music and released it on its own album, there would be absolutely nothing to unify the tracks together. It's like each track came from a different composer from a different game. Consider "G-senjou no Maou". All the tracks are unified by the theme of being remixes of classical music pieces. "Muv-Luv"'s tracks are unified by being being in mostly the same genre akin to a movie score and utilizing mostly the same instruments (or synthesized instruments) such as strings, piano, and others that might be found in a film orchestra. In Katawa Shoujo, there is no such unity. There is a bossa nova piece, a weeping strings piece, and Kenji's theme, a completely wacky jaunt, as well as others. And yet...it works? Why? Perhaps because of something Palas mentioned in a review of "Fate-Stay/Night" (I don't have the link so if anyone can post it for curious souls, you're welcome to do so). That, eventually, the repeated tracks come to create a conditioned Pavlovian effect. We like the music not just for itself, but for what it represented and accompanied in the past. These are all the thoughts that I can spare right now. I'll be back to post more in the future but, until then, I'm interested to know what you all think. Ciao.

Well, kickstarter really became viable for Adventure and isometric (old-school) RPGs because those were dead genres. The adventure genre had been (sorta) dead since the 90s, and nobody had made an RPG that catered to actual RPG fans since … NWN2? Fans were desperate for new games, and they threw money at developers to make them. I understand why because I am one of those RPG gamers, and look at all the goodies we now have (Shadowrun, Pillars, Divinity, Wasteland. Torment’s coming.) It’s a second Golden Age really. Kickstarter was necessary because Publishers wouldn’t fund the games we like to play. And companies wouldn’t assume the risk when failure meant bankruptcy and going out of business. So the fans assumed the risk instead, and they assumed those risks willingly. That being said, that doesn’t apply to stuff like Shenmue 3 (which already has funding) and Grisaia (which was already released illegally.)

Okay, so whats your alternative? Compete with MG to get all the nukige? Or go the Jast route and relase like one game a year? Since you're the moral and business expert here, whats your solution?

I'm a bit eh about kickstarters but a more fundamental issue would be them bringing over interesting games first

from my point of view that only works, because there´re viewed by people as some fresh & hip newcomer, who needs them fans backing them up abit. but as time goes by peoples thoughts on them might change, regarding overuse of kickstarter, not soo..uhm well done product policy (sortiment) & other stuff. edit: guess he´s NOT talking about the smaller indie game kickstarters going on, more them ones from bigger announcements, like the one upcoming (rewrite?)

I used to really like this song. It kinda matched my mood I guess, or could relate to it in a way.

Recently finished Nanairo Reincarnation. Though i only play the Main Heroine's route, i can safely say that the Romance between the MC and her is just that good. A pretty good ]achievement considering the setting of the story.

This is always a sort of double-edged humor, haha. When it's a show you don't know or don't care about it can be very funny, but when it's something you like it's a much bitter smile... Since it's mostly based, paradoxically, on dishonesty and decontextualization. As for ZnT, it's one of the biggest waste of potential of those last few years imo. It's a well directed show with a very interesting premise and a lot of ambition but the lack of a good writer pretty much ruined it. Lack of skilled scenario writers is the bane of most serious/ambitious anime of those last years.

Bloody hell, 9 is totally me. Except I didn't actually submit that fact. And how can you not know 19? Hint:

Excellent parodical depiction of Fuwanovel. Except that most of the troll eradication squad was composed of veteran trolls. Now that I think about it, most of the staff are veterans. I guess it really takes one to know one. As an aside, I'm also saving this for all eternity. Might come in useful later.

You've made the right choice.

This is the version that has my favorite translation, personally. All the versions are quite good xD If I remember correctly, Wasurenaide translates into 'don't forget' - it's quite a useful word, theoretically, in terms of songs with strong themes attached to them. Theoretically. Confession: I haven't seen nor read Tokyo Ghoul at the moment. xD

I can only think of one word to describe my feelings

As per usual this is my reaction to anything PETA does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WH0z00t8OlM

Oh Paul Kwon... Good choice.

"Within one month" What the hell?

Juniper's Knot had really nice GUI

Normally I'd link to a certain Penn and Teller episode but since it's only legally available on Hulu Plus... I'll go with this instead:

I've thought about it for a while, but can I have my 'happy birthday' wish back? Thanks.

Hey Stay Cat! Thanks for being such a fun person on the site, and for always being interested in what I have to offer. Appreciate it!

Happy to be of service honey bun

screw that we're definitely not going to be friends jokes aside it's probably a matter of personal taste. Let me know if you need anything

Yeah, definitely... take that, disabled people! But no, I mean the tsun attitude, I find tsundere characters annoying usually - the more tsun they have, the worse. So I hope she gets better later, she's just a bit bothersome in the beginning. Will probably do her route first, since it's apparently praised as the best one too. Edit: Just finished Himatsubushi in Sui. Oh my god, that epilogue killed me with feels, the culmination of utsuge and meta in that part was absolute genius. Sasuga Ryukishi, there's nothing else to even say at this point. But what does this even matter, when the Wrap-up Party afterwards was so good that it alone justifies the purchase of this VN?! Side-heroine revolutions! Epic fights over line counts! The birth of the Four Dark Emperors and their evil chuuni ecchi plans!!! Chie-sensei finally evolving into her true Ciel appearance, complete with parody sprites, killing for the glory of curry, accompanied by Umineko sounds!!!!!!!!! I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING BUT I WANT MORE OF IT!!!!! Another edit: Well, I thought the day would never come, but I'm actually done with Senshinkan. Feels weird now that it's over, after how long it took me to finish. It was a very enjoyable ride for the most part, though I have to say that I also felt it was bothersome to read at times - which is also why it took me so long. Can't really blame that on the VN rather than on my Japanese, though I do feel like Masada did mince words a bit too much at times (where he would spell out what was happening to the last letter, even when it wasn't really necessary at times), but there were also moments when those details and incredibly flowery prose were greatly appreciated. My favourite parts were the fights where new mechanics were revealed and the details of its inner workings were explained, and the plot parts dealing with the actual structure of the VN and its setting. It's also those two places though that were most problematic at the same time. As interesting as some of the fights were, there was a number of them that felt like a mere rehash. They were predictable, and save for the ridiculous scope, also rather boring - this applies mainly to the later parts of the VN, though there are exceptions. This also ties directly to the VNs unusual structure, that lead not only into some less than satisfactory fights, but also into a rather unfortunate set of endings. This is a rather objective thing, but I prefer true endings in these sort of stories, for their definitive conclusiveness and impact - and with Senshinkan's solution... well, without spoiling anything, lets just say that the ending gets quite diluted. There was also one part that I didn't quite like, and that was the absurd focus on shiny ethics and heroics in stark contrast to the brutal and gloomy narrative, as it at times liked to switch from one to the other, but I understand that it was a very conscious decision and I'm not going to knock it just because it borrows from Hakkenden so much. Not every chuuni can be the beautifully grim Muramasa, after all. All in all, I'll give Senshinkan an 8.5. It's definitely worth the read, and I am looking forward to digging into Bansenjin one day. I hope the rumours that it is better than Senshinkan are true.