Kaguya

I think visual novels already have a public perception of being dating sims, with the overwhelming success of Nekopara compared to everything else, and how the Sakura series has been able to thrive. Sex scenes existing and a big part of the active community losing their shit over them whenever they're removed from a game certainly doesn't help either (though amusingly, that part of the community seems to have an incredibly low effect on sales. Certainly helps outsiders to shape their view of what the community wants when they see constant bitching about it, though!) From what I know, the western market did start a long time ago with people buying nukige in jp to masturbate and being unable to read a single word of it, too, which certainly doesn't help either. In the end, I believe that perception already exists, that it won't harm the community or story-based titles and that otome games have little to do with it.

There's a lot I disagree with on your perception of otomege, but all of that would take way too long to talk about and ultimately doesn't matter to the point I'll try to make, so I'll just not touch that. I also think not classifying them as VNs in the first place is almost ridiculous, but that also doesn't matter here and I'm just going on a tangent about my dissatisfaction with it. The same way bishoujo moe games like Nekopara won't destroy the medium despite being overwhelmingly more popular than story-driven VNs, otome games won't. They're even marketed towards different audiences (unlike those bishoujo moe games, which plot and character driven games also appeal to the audience of) and on different platforms. Guys won't stop buying their games about cute girls with swords because there's suddenly an influx of games about being wooed by hot vampire guys. Guys who don't even buy games about cute girls with swords because they care about the story of those games certainly won't stop buying their hipster fata morgana or whatever else it is they buy. Ultimately, I believe otomege thriving or not simply doesn't matter for the health of the niche you're worried about. Now, I know there's a point about otome games shaping the public perception of what a visual novel is that can be made here, but I don't think that'd ever be a problem (at least not more than what it already is), since the VN community has worked out pretty well with people already having very warped ideas about what VNs are anyway. In fact, I believe getting people more used to the VN style in general is already super likely to drag in fans (like those guys who started reading VNs because they played some Neptunia game,) so it's probably something worth celebrating.

Welcome. Enjoy the forums. Should be in my sig.

Hey I read this thing. Kinda. I did the first route, then the 2048 one, and then I went back to 2050 and did the Aqua route. I'd play more but I could not bring myself to care less about Asuka even if I wanted to and at that point, having just done those two endings in Aqua's route, I just wanted to read more of Aries, since it seems like they could have a whole route of wonderfully twisted romance that I would buy into faster than a *insert appropriate animal/weird fast thing here* though it seems like that wasn't a thing. It was alright. I mean, it was pretty good. I liked the 2048 segment, if only because reading from Aqua's perspective was fun. I also really liked Daigo. And I liked Aries from the beginning + Aoi was a cutie. Also the adults were interesting to me. I can't say it was very deep until where I got and I think I got pretty far but maybe not. Either way, after the boring initial slog it was a fun ride. 2050 had too many characters I didn't care about, so that might've been why I thought that part dragged on like a bitch while I didn't care for that in 2048 because I liked everyone around.

Cute Kurome image. 7/10.

A cute Mages picture. 7/10.

Lord and savior, huh. I did play it. It was kinda fun. The highlights of the game to me were the whole bestia chapter and the sountrack was pretty good.

This is actually really hard to answer well and it got me thinking about some pretty fascinating aspects of how I view things, so I think they're pretty great questions! I'll probably stumble a bit with this one so please do bear with me. So, sometimes it's really hard to capture what is the appeal of a show or VN to someone. There are a myriad different things that can bring someone to really enjoy a story. I think it's harder to do with anime because there are a lot more aspects to it from the handling of scene transitions to balancing out a story in 22 minute tidbits and general direction as well as, of course, animation that is not present in a VN the vast majority of the time, but I digress. I don't know if you're aware of it or not, but I am a VN reviewer for the fuwa team and we do have a 5 star rating system for the games we review, and so I do actually have to give out numerical ratings to some games and say if I thought they were bad or good. And I do think bad products can exist, and certainly do. Anyone who's spent enough time talking about oddities with me has heard me talk about how much I dislike a specific VN quite a few times. And it's very important to have these good and bad labels because it makes branding the excess amount of VNs available for one to read a lot easier, and we should absolutely call things bad. The reason I don't consider someone's taste to be bad when they enjoy something I find bad is related to why people consume media and how they value different aspect of a work. People's experiences, even when viewing or reading the same show will vastly vary from one another and in reviewing I try to capture my own subjective thoughts on something, as well as to explain what my experience with it was to people who have similar tastes to me. For a personal example, The last game I played, Enigma, spoke to me very deeply. It reminded me of experiences I had in my life, and it told a message I really got and agreed with, and it had characters that were very charming to me and I could totally empathize with, as well as a protagonist that had my favorite type of dynamic with those characters, being in a teaching position to them. I gave that game a 5/5 because I felt celebrating that and speaking out for other people who enjoy simillar things was worth more than trying to be as proper as I could for a wide audience. In the same vein, I can't understand the charm of plenty of works that are very beloved by a large group of people, like Clannad, and that's probably because of our different priorities and wants of a work. And understanding those wants is important for recommending new works that person may enjoy, and it's what I try to do, as I ultimately find it counterproductive to label someone's preferences as bad when they differ from mine, since by categorizing their standards for a good show as bad and mine as good, my recommendations get less precise and overall pointless as we're evaluating things with completely different priorities while refusing to recognize one another.

Wow Nosebleed stealing my AMA no shame. We actually did an "ask us anything" who knows how long ago, it was cheesy as hell

Unfortunately I don't. I think @Nosebleed is the one who added it but I'm not sure

Nice to see you! Playing Flowers right now because I'm in the mood of seeing cute girls not kissing. Moyan. Pretty interesting stuff on chinese history and abortion, from what I hear. Haven't started it yet, but I'm literally just about to. Yes, it's lovely.

Unfortunately, I do not. I wonder. My biggest issue with him is his stance on climate change. Other than that, I'm pretty ok with the man. Well, we'll see how it goes.

I do, and I actually use that judgement in part to try to get someone's mindset going into stories, who I think I'll get along with and what I think that person will enjoy, but ultimately I don't believe any preference type to be superior to others and I'm as fine with moege-only fans who think nekopara is the best game to be created to people who carefully analyse prose and writing in their stories and prefer something more akin to "pure" literature than genre fiction.

Something something the way media is perceived is highly subjective and I don't believe in "bad tastes"

Dunno. You got me beat

I'll try ACCA, Little Witch Academia and Hand Shakers this time. We'll see how it goes.

I imagine so. He's quite a sly fox.

I may or may not have spent some time talking shit about other users to him in another PM, and this may or may not be a measure to ensure the secrecy of that.

I'm not sure. Maybe it was good for advertisement in some way. No, I wouldn't really mind it. Can arrange a speech next time I'm drunk, no problems.

Have I said I hate freedom during some pretentious chuu2 rant before while I was drunk?

I spent the whole day shilling it, so I'll just do it again now. Phenomeno. It's very very short (a 1 hour read for most people) and it's pretty fun and kinda spooky. Almost no one played it and it's a shame. Try it. Dunno. It was actually not one of my childhood shows. The blue one?

Tay Rooke Bats Decay Flutterz Frederico the Chef

Wow caring about the candidates at all. I can't endorse that ship because I ship half the cast with Neptune, so Nepgear is already taken. The rest of the cast, I don't care about.

Thanks! Neptune is, and Neptune did. I've actually ranted in-depth about why Neptune is almost the only thing I care about in the series at all and how I'm always pissed that new games have some co-protagonist that I always like less than Neptune without a doubt. It's to the point where I legit disliked Uzume in VII just because she was there stealing Nep's screentime. I liked Plutia, though. Oh, and Nepgear is a terrible terrible protagonist but I like her as a side character.

The galaxy angel series, Edelweiss, Clannad, DraKoi and Steins Gate. Thanks. Comparing how smooth and great our moderation is compared to how it's been. Always brings a tear to my eyes when I see how we've effectively dealt with everything that came our way for the past year or so with little to no internal strife.