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Showing content with the highest reputation on 06/12/18 in all areas

  1. MaggieROBOT

    Hello

    3 points
  2. I don't know what you guys are doing with the steam store, but I have never been forced to look at or buy a shitty game. When I buy a shitty game on steam, it's because I typed it's name into the search bar.
    2 points
  3. This version will be included Main Story and Requiem for Innocence, and also, an additional chapter called "Reincarnation" with voice actors! So hyped for new content here!
    1 point
  4. The problem While spurred by recent events, this essay touches on something that seems to have been a pattern in site moderation for some time now. Let me make a claim: if a rule, especially one that is vaguely worded, is not enforced, for a decent amount of people that rule does not exist. This nonexistence integrates into the mental model of the rules that forum members construct, no matter what the formal rules may say. For members using this mental model, beginning to enforce a rule that was previously unenforced is equivalent to creating a new rule. As such, the same procedures as those used to notify forum members of new rules should be applied, possibly with some adaptation on the lines of "we will now actually enforce this rule", as the rule effectively did not previously exist. The ur-example of this is the loligeddon of yore. The takeaway from the loligeddon when it comes to this essay is this: mods repeatedly stated that no rules had actually been changed. Yet nevertheless the appearance and subsequent removal of a particularly problematic post sparked sweeping policy changes, a cleanup operation, a tl;dr post by the administrator explaining the changes, et cetera. This should make it clear that changing policy is a big deal, even if no written rules actually change. Recent policy changes, however, have been very different from what happened during the loligeddon. Frequently the only indication that effective rules have changed has been moderator action, sometimes fairly strict. In essentially all cases this action has been explained either inadequately or, most commonly, not at all. When this occurs the target(s) of moderation will likely feel that they have been unfairly, erratically targeted by a capricious, uncommunicative bully. What do you do when you get bullied? Well, you could talk to HR, but the mod that bullied you is probably in HR anyway and you might not even know who did it. Another option is to fight back. You annoy me, I pay you back in kind - and if I can get some fun at your expense, sure, why not? You're a bully, you deserve it.[1] I do not mean to suggest that we need to have a tl;dr writeup every time a rule is changed, but a simple statement of intent would be appreciated. I estimate that writing this should take no more than 20 minutes. As an example, here's a hypothetical notice regarding the changing of rules on gifs that took me ~10 minutes to write. Note that the policy mentioned here could be reversed or altered to be more specific if it turns out that it was unclear or did more harm than good, which is arguably more difficult to do if the rule has been made official.[2] In the light of this, I would like to present some recommendations. Recommendations When moderating, consider if your action is effectively creating or modifying rules Remember: in the minds of some of your users, unenforced rules may as well not exist. If you decide to moderate something that was previously typically not being moderated, this will cause confusion and consternation. As such, whenever you make a decision, ask yourself: am I changing the rules? If so, you need to consider both whether your action is actually justified, and how you are going to inform the public of your policy change. You are not a cop, you are a judge in a precedent-setting court. This is especially true due to the (understandable) current policy of supporting other mods' decisions near unconditionally. Do not make controversial decisions when following up is difficult On some occasions moderators have moderated while on vacation, using their phone, with bad connections et cetera. I strongly recommend against making anything close to a controversial decision in these conditions. You will end up both ruining your vacation and doing a bad job. Talk first, shoot later If you are performing a moderator action which reasonably should include notifying the target of the action, write up the informative PM or otherwise establish communication before enforcement. You could also consider writing up the notification of intent to change / differently enforce / clarify rules before moderating. Most of the time nobody is harmed much by leaving something up until you can handle it properly. For things that require more urgent management such as a fast-evolving derailment, consider either using a PM template for 1-2 people or making a post stating that you have removed derailing posts in the thread you moderated. Make people feel heard One key theme of this essay is the importance of communication. This extends beyond just notifying people of changes to the rules. I am under no illusions that your actions will go uncontested or that people won't meme and fling shit at you even if you try your best to communicate as advised in this essay. In part this is due to the frustration some people, and certainly I myself, consider you responsible for creating due to your actions up to this point. However, when hostility meets well-practiced civility its fires often run out of fuel. If you constructively engage with those who would oppose you, you can both soothe their frustration and create better, more precise final rules. Obviously there has to be a limit and ultimately you set the rules to follow. But explaining, refining, and justifying your position elevates it from that of a dim-witted bully with little justification for their actions to someone who has a well-grounded but different opinion of what the rules should be. The first one deserves punishment, the second, grudging respect. As a personal observation: in general, you should assume that much less of your decisions are obviously justified than you currently think. One man's common sense is another man's borderline acceptability is another man's utterly idiotic rule enforcement. Moderation is a hard job If this all seems like a lot of hard work to you, congratulations! That's what I thought too when the mod applications came along, so I didn't apply. Any moderators that cannot actually moderate disputes should either confine themselves to routine, uncontroversial moderation tasks or step down from their position. Believe me, nobody will die either way, and you'll get to spend your free time doing something that suits you better. Notes [1] I personally don't consider the mods bullies when I do this kind of thing, but I do consider them deserving of public ridicule. The intention is both to correct behaviour and to extract some entertainment out of people that deserve to be made fun of. And yeah, I have no respect for authority. None. I will judge you by your actions alone. [2] This is an assumption based on my conception of normie considerations like pride, sticking with your decision, whatever. Obviously if a rule does more harm than good it should be removed whether or not it was enforced temporarily, but it is probably easier to do so politically if it was in fact considered temporary. Look, I'm trying desperately not to kill all normies every day here. Give me a break.
    1 point
  5. I like choices in VNs. I like branching stories, and comparing all different branches to each other has always been fun to me. At the same time, I can't help but feel that the way most VNs use their choices is very uncreative. Basically, you either have a very standard system of routes based on several romanceable characters, or linear stories where choices don't even matter at all. Clannad, I know, tries to make its branching more complex, but the problem with it is that this basically makes playing unnecessarily hard, and in the end it all still comes down to routes. My question today: do you know any VNs that try to be creative with their choices and actually succeed into making them into something different?
    1 point
  6. ShiatBoya

    Hello

    I'm Shiat, you may know me, or probably not. The case is, I forgot my display name, password and email that i used for my old account, so I'm making a new one, No bannerino plox (;^ω^. I'm from argentina, 20 year old boi, and gay. Anyway, here's a pic of me
    1 point
  7. Lets get this straight: This review will talk about a certain, common mechanic and criticize and it will not be a buying instruction full of euphemisms. If you are look for this, you are at the wrong place. I'll also spoiler some story, but it won't be too bad. Well, let's go! Hello everyone, my name is Hata and I'm bringing you my review of a game which lurked around in my steam library for a while. The game I'm talking about is Fatal Twelve by aiueoKompany. It has been start-upped by the usual kickstarter like we know and expect it from Sekai Project and brought to the west. It's a rather obscure title, as not many people I talk to know it. It found its way on our home computers on the 30th march via Steam. To be honest, I bought the game because of its visual and the clock-time-aesthetics without really looking into the characters or the story. I didn't play the demo either. If someones hoping for a complex time-mechanic like Chrono CLock and magic.battles like in Tokeijikake no Ley-Line you might be fairly disappointed. The game is a Battle-Royale (I can hear you yawning), but with a twist. The participants are already dead and they have to kill themselves completely? Story: We slip into the role of Shishimai Rinka who leads a small cafe called lion house while her grandma is absent in the Inaka. One day shes on the way home with the train and gets involved in an explosion that would've killed naomi if rinka didn't sacrifice herself by jumping in front of the shock blast. She loses her life but because of mysterious reasons shes back alive in her Café talking happily to her friends. Those know nothing about the explosion and what Rinka thought she remembers. Gokigen yo, unmei no dorei no minnasama (Nice to meet you, all you slaves of fate) Rinka finds a peculiar cardbook and experiences weird dreams. Dreams in which she is thrown together with 11 other people in some surreal, cosmic hall. She is there acquaintanced with Destiny Goddess Parca who informs all participants that they died all at the same instance and thus became part of the Divine Selection. This disguises itself as a game to halt Parcas Boredom and its structured like a battle royale - One will survive. The rules are fairly easy: All participants have secret cards (Name, cause of death and regret). Whoever can elect someone and recite these three cards correctly removes the other from the divine selection process and dies irrefutably. The others then have to endure the last moments of that person before they die. Every week the participants try to invade others privacy and lives to find out these cards contents. The ritual is held over 12 weeks. Rinka notices that her school friend Mishima Miharu is one of the participants. In the course of the story Rinka gets to know about the origins of her death and how far the other players would go to be the final victor. Characters: Shishimai Rinka: (VA Matsui Eriko) Federico Carminati Destiny Goddess Parca (VA: Nomura Kanako) Mishima Miharu (VA: Komagata Yuri) Mechanics: Next to the previously mentioned rules of the Divine selection we receive a book which we can access from the menu. We don't see tips or trivia in there, rather simply an overview about the characters and which cards they own and which are still hidden. Sadly theres no detective mechanic or gameplay. It could have been useful here. The choices are also very superficial, but I'll rant about that later. Unlockable things: Extramode where you can relive all the divine selections and see the CGs of the game. Standard stuff. Perception: When I began playing fatal twelve I was overwhelmed by a rare event. Not every day the protagonist dies tragically and I thought this could make for an interesting setting, but if I am honest, it might have the potential to be refreshing and even to be innovative but it often drags and feels lame. Why?`I want to explain this now: When theres a battle royale setting then you know beforehand that shits going to happen and people are going to die - all of them mostly and this inhibits character development. This is exactly how it happened in the game, at the start. To fulfill the previously mentioned condition the game progresses like a staircase. The first deaths are cannonfodder, some chinese dude dies and the characters are badly characterized. This is desired, but it lets the beginning feel like chores. You just want to click and click until you reach an exciting point but you get disappointed quickly and quit. During the course of the story the character development increases and there are 2 or 3 you can sympathize with. Sadly the akame ga kill syndrome also appears here...maybe you can cry for one of them? I couldn't. Visually Fatal Twelve looks great. Theres lots of nicely designed CG and a lot of places. None of it is animated though which is another issue that leads me to the conclusion the developers hobby is wasting potential. Especially during fighting sequences this mightve been nice. The character designs are ..fine (the jacked woman and Parca are nice) Especially the characters who die early suck. The game is fully voiceacted and the voices and performance is believable. I like that. Parcas voice is the cleanest and most annoying at the same time, i really wanted to twist her neck during some scenes. The sound effects are nice but the soundtrack sucks. I listned to spotify meanwhile. Other reviews stated that the game is around 10-15 hours long and I can't really resonate with that. I need 36hours to reach the true end and theres still a bunch of routes to clear. It could be because I played the game on japanese? (Screenshots are english for convenience). Another positive point i can mention is that the game has Dual-language setting which is good for learners like me. I'm probably what you derogatively call a JoP so i like this. Games should do that more often, thankfully the trend is increasing. During the first hours Fatal Twelve can't manage it to flash me except in the scenes in parcas hall which is nicely designed. It just doesn't flash me as much. I caught myself in flagranti scrolling the text because I just don#t care for scenes like "Naomi learns how to pour coffee Part-VI" or "Mao and Rinkas relaxing walk in the park" if there is no character developement. This is what you call "padding" artificial elongation of your game by putting redundant scenes. That happens a lot during the 12 weeks the game lasts. You will have 12 election scenes too, which makes the games length and ending predictable (Achievements spoil you too) The game also switches between screentransitions often and in the same moment it changes the narration style which is very confusing. You either play as Rinka or Federico. But sometimes it switches to an omniscient narrator.
    1 point
  8. TAfter 4 characters are eliminated the game becomes interesting and manages it to actually make you care a little for the characters by creating some substory to keep attention. The substories require the characters to crossovers in their private worlds and form alliances and fight against one another. Mostly real fistfights. You also realize that Fear, Grief and Fault are elemental points of the story. (Regrets) Another thing i like are the rules of the divine selection. If you dont pay attention (or play in japanese) you get confused by the rules because players can exchange, block, skip turns or refuse election. This brings some tactic into the game (another lovely way to implement gameplay...but I digress) Well lets say you need to know the rules so stay focused when reading. This is everything thats positive because now the game starts to stagger and disappoint. The story progression becomes very predictable and the plottwists are sometimes pulled out of your ass (literally Miharu says: "I just so happen to be ______" which shows how much bullshit this plottwist is. Shizuku no oto had the same issue sadly. The pacing also sucks near the end and the try to fix plotholes with bandage aid without explaining things correctly. People who are villains suddenly turn good because (the look in your eyes) or other bullshit reasons. Also people build up groups which is nonsense in a battle royale where everyone should go solo. Near the end (if you play in english probably around 20h there are additional endings and ypu can reach the true end aftert 25. Now I progress to the most atrocious point of the game to my opinion. The choice system is ABYSMAL. There are games where you have pseudo-choices like (beyond two souls) or (dunno dude...eeeeh Nekopara?) The game has 19 choices are ALL of the choices over the course of the first hours are mandatory to solve. you mess up once it goes to BAD END 1. Nice system right? People consider this "difficulty" nowadays. I consider it Bullshit. Also the choices are not so much like "kiss that person, don't kiss her" or "visit Miharu/visit Naomi" that can fuck you up, no. Even something like "See you later/Goodbye" can fuck you up hours later. I had to play with a guide because thats just simply TRIAL AND ERROR which is terrible game design. Also it tries to bait you into routes with "go to miharu, go to naomi, go to mao" and the ones that ar not miharu are wrong. This is terrible, the game pretends to have choices and pushes you towards the relationship the developers want? Why then make choices at all? I need haerts route guide to clear the game... Shizuku no Oto also fucked up the choices, because in this game there were just a bunch of random death traps and now this game messed it up too. aiueoKompany are just terrible at choice design. Conclusion: All in all Fatal Twelve is the incarnation of wasted potential because it does have interesting concepts but completely wraps things up badly which lowers my overall enjoyment with the game. It starts with underdeveloped characters and then slowly increases pace and developement. Then it hits a wall then wants to board a rocket and fly to mars with a sudden bs about determinism, philosophy, existentialism and such things. Also it forces you to date the probably most unlikable female heroine in this game which is bad game design and completely devalues having "choices" After the true end you unlock two routes too but i only got one of them i refuse to play the Miharu ending. Not everything that shines is gold. I would not recommend it because it has too many weakpoints that drag it down, theres far better games I assume. Too ambitious of a project, too many characters not enough love in each of them. Bad game 5/10 If you enjoyed reading my long af review check out our discord where we talk about games, vns, novels and just become friends! https://discord.gg/gtNRnbe Also the same review will be published tomorrow In german. I extra translated it for you. Its more formal than this mess though. https://visual-novel.info/ Thanks for reading. Ramaladni is cool (Â´ăƒ»Ï‰ăƒ»`)
    1 point
  9. Giving it way more benefit of the doubt that it deserves, it's still a violent/messed up loli nukige made by a company doing solely violent/messed up loli nukiges. Any kind of good writing exploring pedophilia or incest (because, if you look closely, that's all that the OP's claims point to, a romanticized vision of pedophilic relationship between a father and his [teen? Pre-teen?] daughter) will just be a flavour on top of tons of the pedo porn. I would not touch this for a million dollars and I'm ok with the 0,2% chance that I'm missing on something of value that way.
    1 point
  10. just make me a mod and everything will be better again
    1 point
  11. That some interesting research there, although to me it's too overwhelming to read though. So let me try to comment the four pointers that you said below. As for the first point, I admit that it might be the case. I can say that because we have three examples of this one, and those three examples were Gahkthun, Himawari, and Shiny Days. As for the matter of fact, the latter two did have some controversial contents that might be not comfortable for the Westerner, especially Shiny Days in which it was even prompted JAST to censor the loli H-scenes which something that I believe the first action of censorship that was initiated by JAST themselves. Also as the matter of fact, those three VNs did have the sharpest drop of VNDB average score over the year (More than 0.5), especially Himawari. Perhaps it might be the case, or maybe we can attributed that to have the Westerners did have very high expectation in regard of the untranslated VNs and therefore very happy whenever a new VNs that they want was about to be localized, only to met with the disappointment or at the very least the VN in question was in turn not as grand as Japanese reader said. In short, I would say that this is probably the usual case of high expectation. It might be the case then. But keep in mind that majority of the VNDB score is still more or less equaling Erogamescape average score, or even higher. The example of higher VNDB score than Erogamescape would be Princess Evangile, in which VNDB average score was at 7.44 while at Erogamescape it was only 68. While arguable both of Gahkthun and Sharnoth was the victim of this because the score difference was pretty steep (0.5) and translating Sakurai Hikaru prose was quite difficult according to some people, I would say that perhaps once again it's the matter of expectation and taste like point 1 and 2 point out. Besides from what I saw, Inganock is also quite well liked almost equally with the difference both of VNDB and Erogamescape score not as steep as earlier ecamples (VNDB 7.89, Erogamescape 81), so at the very least the translation issue (so-called) shouldn't affect Inganock there even with the translated version. I don't know of how much this would be affected the scoring much, but what I can say is that I would say that the author at the very least ideally should care to their work. If anything, I think the bad translated VNs could be attributed to the VNs story itself in which it's probably already bad in the first place. So I think that's all for what I can say for now, and keep in mind that my opinion here might come as very subjective. But one thing to keep mind that the VNDB score is always fluctuated, so maybe we'll gonna see more new reader cast some votes in which it could affect the VNDB scoring as well (Duh). PS - Just in case you want an example of what VN that almost equally liked by both of Japanese and Westerner and the VNDB average score didn't fluctuated much, there's Yurirei in which the scores for both of Erogamescape and VNDB is almost equal (VNDB 7.96, Erogamescape 80).
    1 point
  12. rito was teasing me with this shit like a year and a half ago. I waited for far too long but now my time has come and so have i
    1 point
  13. Funyarinpa

    E3

    THE FUCKING HOUSE IN FUCKING FATA FUCKING MORGANA VITA/PS4 LIMITED RUN JUST WON E3
    1 point
  14. Yeah I agree, Japanese speakers are spoilt for choice. That theory also aligns well with the popularity chart, where even fairly unpopular EGS VNs can still attract large audiences on VNDB, probably because our selection is quite limited so we'll read everything.
    1 point
  15. In my opinion, this is the dominant effect. We don't choose VNs to play randomly; we pick games we think we'll like. If I have a greater selection of games to play, I can choose VNs that I'm more likely to like. Whereas if my selection is limited, I'm stuck playing games that have less intrinsic appeal to me, and I'm going to be harsher on them.
    1 point
  16. Always remember the core idea of moege: The girls you don't pick, will die lonely, unloved and depressed by their traumas and issues.
    1 point
  17. Plk_Lesiak

    Hello

    Welcome back (?) Shiat, I wouldn't expect any less than forgetting all your login data from you.
    0 points
  18. Akshay

    Hello

    0 points
  19. You never really leave a place you love, you take part of it with you.
    0 points
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