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Ok, so I think I can throw in a few observations connected to the EVN scene specifically: some lewd games gained pretty wide popularity with the Western otakus and that's pretty much the closest thing to VNs going "mainstream" so far – people fapping on mass or meme'ing to Nekopara and Winged Cloud's Sakura games. DDLC became a massive meme and brought many people into VNs, but generally, the aggressive gatekeeping drove many of them off and made them organize into a separate community that doesn't really know/understand much about VNs. Most VNs, as a see it, do not have the appeal to bring mainstream crowds, with the prevalence of porn and questionable themes pushing them even harder in this shady, obscure corner. In the West, outside of the particularly dedicated otakus, VNs thrive in basically two places: among women that enjoy romance stories/otome and within the queer crowd. For example, while in Japan yuri is very much created for the male audience, in the West you'll see lesbians/bisexual women being both devs and avid consumers of VNs, simply because it's one of the main forms of media touching on their experience and prefered romantic setups. On the BL side, you'll see more "bara" VNs created by openly gay developers and geared towards male readers. As a medium that is relatively easy to make and story-oriented, VNs in the West became a tool for minority groups to express themselves and create their own brands of entertainment, which is interestingly detached from what they (usually) represent in Japan. This approach, of course, is by default niche, aiming for very specific audiences. I'm kind of stuck thinking that without the specific trajectory and cultural context that made VNs important in Japan trying to push them into mainstream is kind of hopeless. The idea of porn with story has its appeal, but it's not something the Western audience wants in mass (one could argue that it's because they don't know they want it/aren't familiar with how VNs do stuff, but I'm not sure). The storytelling formula of VNs is also not automatically attractive – just observe the bewilderment of people that stumble upon VNs randomly on Steam. Literary buffs usually scoff at the anime aesthetic and cliches inherent with the otaku media. While VNs are growing in the West and people are more aware of their existence, but I just don't see them expanding out of those few, very specific niches they're confined to now.

Yup, as @Mr Poltroon said, but I'd argue this undersells MGs importance. They're a company with a particularly diverse offering and one that is very consistent with their releases. They also tackle projects that no sane company should be willing to take, like translating Rance X (which is an absurdly large and complex game). While you have companies like NekoNyan focusing purely on moege, Sekai Project trips on its own legs every other month and JastUSA is lost in its own dimension where the timeflow doesn't follow the rules of our universe, MG gets stuff done. Right now, while there's generally more competition on the market and some developers, like Key and Frontwing, translate and publish their VNs in-house, it might not seem that important, but I think it still is. If MG suddenly disappeared, we would feeel it, particularly when it goes to more ambitious/niche VNs reaching the West. So, even though their image definitely suffered through all this drama, they're kind of indispensable and when they take on a project, you can be fairly sure it'll get done unless something really unusual happens.

Uh, yes they are. As much as anybody else. They translate titles into English and that's that. Not much else really matters, despite what loud vocal minorities might claim. Somebody having problems with translations has always been common and underpayment is supposedly getting better but Mangagamer is terrible in that area and for that they deserve all the flak. That all said, as long as they put out titles people who want translated VNs will get them, regardless of the company. Some boycotters exist, but not really a majority and given the piracy levels I'm not sure how much overlap there is between the "boycotters" and the pirates. From the Japanese side they're well placed with headquarters in Japan and, considering the Japanese side often is unaware of the quality of translations (Hello SakuraGame), Mangagamer likely does not have problems landing deals on that front. So, all in all, I'm not sure I understood what you're trying to say. As long as they have money and they continue to want to translate titles, they will do so.

Hello people I'm C. Kitsune and i'm currently developing a Visual Novel as a sole developer for a couple of months thus far. It's a WWII Visual Novel regarding the life of a jew who tries to survive in the Holocaust. I'm taking this subject as serious and cautious as i can, once it's a very delicate subject. The Demo is available on itch.io: https://c-kitsune.itch.io/kz-a-holocaust-tale-demo What i really need and want for this project is to get a public of people who are willing to follow the game progress with me (either via discord, forums, twitter, reddit, whatever useful social media may be). If you could take a look at my Demo and give any feedback, i would really appreciate it! Mostly Important, give me any information about marketing and any helpful tip/way for me to spread the word about my game in order to make it more known. The fact i'm not famous in any social media nor have people actively following me doesn't help me, i'm pretty much a nobody. But i want to change that now, and with your help, i can make it! Thank you guys for listening!

I was kinda curious if there was some kind of policy for Visual Novel streaming since it's becoming a more popular thing and there's so many companies releasing visual novels now. From my research and asking around here's what I found: MangaGamer - They have a Policy on their website. Short version is full Streaming is OK, but Full VODs are only allowed for 20% of the VN or whatever covers any demo content. Any other saved videos have non-sequential clips that are a few minutes long at best. JAST - The exact words from a representative "As long as the VOD is transformational, including your reactions and commentary, it's fine. We can't have a video up of the complete, unedited game that would serve as a replacement for the original work. But as long as you are adding to it, that's your work. Basically, fair use rules: https://www.youtube.com/about/copyright/fair-use/". So basically Stream/VOD away as long as you add to it. Sekai Project - They actually have a list of which specific Visual Novels have limitations or not. TLDR, most of them are fine to fully stream/record. A small handful can only be done up to first route or demo content or non-18+ version. Some are fully banned. Sol Press - Streaming/VODs fully allowed. Nekonyan- "It's okay for us if you want to stream the game but we aren't fans of 100% playthrough VODs. VODs of the common route/trial route are totally okay though. " ShiraVN- TLDR "respect the devs' wishes". Since most of ShiraVN's releases are linear VNs, it may be safer to only do the first 20% of the VN or so. In all cases, you HAVE to provide a link to the company's store (assumedly direct link to buy the VN). And obviously explicit sexual content on any Streaming Site would likely get you banned so just avoid that. I have no idea what to do with fantranslated stuff. And I'm not sure what the other companies do, these are the main companies I was most interested in finding out about.

I know I am late to post one of these, but I thought I would do one anyway. My name is Jardic and I am a writer. I got some things on the back burner of my mind and I dream to have some VNs to share when I am done. I have a ton of ideas for my works and I can always take any ideas you may have to consideration. I'm currently working on some stories I have written last year and I have been thinking about putting them on the net after I get them published. I mainly play VNs now. Before, I would play video games and be done with them. I put down the controller and started writing when I was in high school and I never looked back since. I still play games on my pc, but not as much anymore. My love for VNs happened 3 years ago and I got into them by boredom from playing video games. I found my calling from this medium and I have written a lot of stories that my be a base for VNs. I found purpose through them and I have been happier the past three years than the time before finding VNs. I hope you all can learn a few things from me and I want to learn a few things from you guys. If you guys are wondering, I am always on here, so if you want to chat, I am here. So take care and i will be wandering this place called the net. Take care.

Nah man, no drama was caused. None of us have any reason to be militant about MG, or be offended by the suggestion they're losing importance. It's just not the case when you look at the realities of the VN scene in the West, and don't focus on the occasional flamewar.

Mangagamer releases an VN that interests me, I buy it just as always. On the points in that thread. Dude can definetely work as a TL in the right circumstances but it was kinda blanket TLd which isn't really optimal, the pressure the translator felt could probably have contributed to forgoing a more nuaced approach. Lot's of TL criticisms are rather uninformed imo, when people kick up a fuss about a noun -> noun TL choices and then point to some stilted TL that include all their favorite Japanisms but bungle the JP grammar and context in ways that completely change what's being said at points as "how a good TL is done" it becomes somewhat hard to take them seriously. I mean if it wasn't framed as some crusade against the evil "localization" conspiracy so often and people presented their questions in a more open manner it would be fine I guess. On the working conditions point, that is concerning but it's extremely hard to judge from the outside though, so I'm just hoping that things resolves in a way that no one gets screwed over. On the discord stuff, I just think people are being divas and should calm down and not be so easily offended. And on the Fatamoru stuff, outrage outlet saw lots of easy add money to be made and whipped up people who have no idea what they are talking about into an fit.

I have enjoyed this community since I started back in 2017 and I haven't been actively started posting until now since I was trying to get a feel for the community for a while. I like it here a lot, Thanks @Plk_Lesiak

Welcome to Fuwa! It'll be cool to see what you come up with your own projects and in the meantime, I hope you'll enjoy your time here.

This would have felt a lot less ominous if this wasn't Higurashi:

Haha, I was actually about to edit my post to mention some of the stuff you did. I think YU-NO is a great TL;DR answer for the first most influential story based VN. But of course the story isn't that simple. In my opinion I think a lot of influence could be traced to one specific individual, Kanno Hiroyuki. Who was the primary writer for Eve: Bust Error, DESIRE, Xenon ~Mugen no Shitai~, and of course YU-NO. All of these mentioned VNs are classics imo. I also want to give Umemoto Ryu an honorable mention because he often collaborated with Kanno Hiroyuki, and his compositions often captured the tone of Kanno's writing excellently. I think he worked on the compositions for all those VNs I mentioned above, so the two were a great combination.

What about earlier C's Ware's attempts like Eve: Burst Error or DESIRE - Haitoku no Rasen (written by YU-NO's writer nonetheless)? Or ~1995-96 JAST titles (San Shimai & Meisou Toshi)? Mugen Yasoukyoku? Well, I guess neither of those had the impact and scale of the YU-NO (and JAST titles had much more dating sim elements), so there's some merit in highlighting it.

I've been researching PC-98 visual novels quite a bit lately. And simply put, while you could argue on details, I would say Yu-No is an excellent starting place for what defines the modern story-based VN.

alright, bought fire emblem. i feel like i bought it too soon cause i was already torn betwenn playing botw and animal crossing and now im torn with a third game to play. next purchase will either be mario kart, dragon quest XI, smash or mario odyssey

Senshinkan- Ayumi Semiramis no Tenbin- Eru and Fumika Sakigake Generation- Yuria, Ouka Cocoro@function- Mina Otome wa Boku ni Koishiteiru 3- Mimi Mirai Nostalgia- Uta Hikari no Umi no Apeiria- Mashiro (really all the heroines to a greater or lesser extent) Tomofure- Sakurako Psychologic Love Comedy- Mitsuki (she's also a yangire though) Akabanzu- Hotaru Doshikuro- Urara Sanoba Witch- Meguru Golden Marriage- Touko Puramai Wars- Minori Nanairo Reincarnation- Iyo Dekinai Watashi ga, Kurikaesu- Yume Tokyo Babel- Lilith and Raziel Harvest Overray- Lilia Shirogane Spirits- Mei Nekonade Distortion - Kotoko Sankaku Ren'ai- Maho 11eyes- Kaori Akatsuki no Goei- Aya Otome domain - Hinata Floral Flowlove- Riku Butterfly Seeker- Haya Irotoridori series- Kyou Wakaba-iro no Quartet- Sofia Realive- Kaya Orefuka- Towa Unionism Quartet- Tia Hataraku Otaku no ren'ai Jijou- Akira

Can't believe google lied to me

I don't think it's fair to imply something is unacceptable to have in fiction just because it's unacceptable in real life.