Darklord Rooke

Free Steam keys handed out to reviewers.

Well, there are 3GMs, and 3 or 4 or 5 (however many) BMs, it shouldn't be too much problem really to recruit 1 or 2 in the opposite timezone than the others.

I've seen it happen a few times at this time of night (for me.) Just never on this scale. The forum could really use a mod on at this time of night, TBH.

You mean the 30 topics started by OqwerdsSkljkioy? Mods aren't on at this time, so spammers get free reign. It tends to happen now and then.

I get the feeling you can reuse this 'negative' for almost every Visual Novel released. It is an annoying trait of the medium - they're rarely tightly plotted. Still a damn good VN, with a damn good translation. Definitely a better review than the previous one.

Unfortunately, it's too pricey and not well known enough to do well on Steam, imo. Would love to be proven wrong, though. EDIT: Keeping in mind that 'doing well' is relative (I suppose,) and that MG may be happy with relatively low sale figures. Who knows *shrugs*

His criticisms are sound, he reached his conclusion through a reasoned argument, therefore it's definitely valid as a review. Key fans who don't wish to acknowledge it are doing nothing more than chucking a colossal tantrum. TBH, I don't see why fans want to stick their fingers in their ears when it comes to the negatives of the game in the first place. I don't have the time to play every single game which 'looks interesting'.

Seeing as most people in the VN community interested in Gahkthun have already got it, I fail to see why everyone should be excited about this news. It’s a good chance for Gahkthun to widen its appeal and sell more, which should excite MG, but as a fan I feel decidedly underwhelmed by this ‘shocking and radiant’ piece of information.

And most of them are warped. To be honest, I like reading negative opinions of games more than positive reviews. Mainly because I get little out of a positive review except 'everything is roses', but with a negative review I have the opportunity to discover potential problems and have the opportunity to think whether it'll affect me. Also, Bats' review of LB was incredibly valid - I rate it similarly and never finished it. People have different opinions, if Key fans want a positive review, they can take their little sobbing hearts to Google and find one. It ain't hard.

Well, you don’t have to go crazy with it, but I will tell you that many editors can instantly spot a writer who doesn’t read. Anything published is competent, or at least competent enough a reference that you can learn from. You aren’t getting an ‘incorrect’ vision but rather a host of writing that has passed the ‘editorial eye’ (although that’s becoming less true in modern times for various reasons.) There are no rules in writing, no ‘right or wrong’, what there is instead is an expectation that you can use language to convey a story to the audience and a host of ‘guidelines’ to guide you on the way. How do you create an impact with your words? How do you develop character? Pace a novel? Develop tension? Develop atmosphere? You can’t be told these things, rather you learn by reading. Going by the rule that anything published is at least competent to some degree, heading to the library you observe a thousand different writers doing things a thousand different ways. You start developing preferences, and getting an understanding of how things should sound. There is a chance you can pick up bad habits, but a writer should also try and join a writing group with a qualified writer on board. Otherwise there is no hidden formula, no ‘text book’ to tell you what is ‘right’ or what is ‘wrong’. You succeed if you can weave your words into an enticing image for the reader, which can be done a thousand million ways (a billion by US terminology, or a milliard by the old, correct usage.) Pity then that most beginner writers make the same mistakes, which wouldn’t happen if they read more. Because reading competent writers of the past is the only way a beginner writer will learn, there is no short cut or easy way here. And yes, I have read parts of C++. Not Java though, and I will add the caveat that I read it well over a decade ago.

What Ki(ri)^4 said. Most translated VNs are moe or nukige (which have little story ... and point.) Or reportedly good stuff translated badly. Or self-insert VNs with a personality devoid protagonist (which is actually a no-no in fiction writing in first person.) Or stories where character development occurs in hundreds of scenes which don't forward the plot, thus detracting from the plot. Or character development consisting of unrealistically forced drama which breaks all suspension of disbelief (good old Little Busters.) And other stuff. There are a few I enjoy, but like all mediums the majority of stuff I don't *shrugs*. Even if I knew Japanese, I doubt I'd enjoy most VNs. There'd be more for me to enjoy, but also much more for me to hate. I'd probably end up playing all the eroge-RPG stuff instead. I remember Sanah teasing me with a pretty decent looking game the other day ...

You should read everything you can grab and have time to get through. The whole purpose isn't enjoyment, the purpose is to develop your 'ear', and to recognise and think about the techniques used. What style do you like and how do people pull things off? What styles do you hate and what techniques do you want to eradicate from your tool box? What are things you should never do, or never want to do? All of this stuff you learn through reading and thinking about what you read. Once you learn to recognise bad writing, reading 'bad' stories is nice as an example of what 'not' to do. Not so useful when you're beginning though, cause if you're not at the stage where you can recognise bad writing you can pick up bad habits. Don't filter when you choose. In fact, the advice is sometimes modified to say 'read everything outside your target genre', that is, if you want to write fantasy, read everything outside of fantasy. Also read plenty of non-fiction, because how can someone write convincingly about stuff if they don't know how things work? Bradbury famously stated he spent 10 years in the library, finally graduating when he turned 28. But seriously, if you want to write you first should spend years reading. And also living ... but that's debatable, I suppose. *Shrugs* Most VNs are boring and written badly in English. Probably depends which community you hang out on, I suppose. For example, I've never seen it raised in the Adventure gamer community. It really shouldn't be raised to begin with, considering Rapelay isn't at all a VN, so I'd wager it's only very mainstream/casual/stupid sites. I tend to stay away from those.

I read everything. Well ... I used to read everything, but I have nowhere near the same amount of time these days. But if someone wants to be a writer, the first piece of advice given to them is to 'read everything'. I have a few VNs I've enjoyed - Tokyo Babel, Deardrops, etc. Nothing I'll read over and over though, and most VNs I enjoy come with RPG/sim/strategy gameplay (because I usually find the story isn't strong enough to sustain my interest by itself.) This is more an excuse than a reason. When VNs are released at a pricepoint the market deems acceptable, they can sell hundreds of thousands of copies. Nekopara 1 sold 200k, for example, which is pretty good for such a crap VN. The term 'visual novel' is used in areas of the general public as a buzzword used to describe popular Japanese adventure games, like Ace Attorney and 999. You have members of the public trying to convince people Telltale games are VNs. However, whenever VNs don't sell well the 'rapelay' excuse gets trotted out because it's easy and it places the blame elsewhere. I think the use of this excuse is a cop out, to be honest, a needless distraction away from the actual issues.

I suppose if you use a sledgehammer to the face, it could still be called a 'hint'. One wonders what the point of 'hinting' is once it passes a certain line, though.

A) No, I'm talking about all aspects of writing. Content, pacing, ... you know, let's talk pacing. Most VNs have trash pacing, compromised by including copious slice of life scenes within a story with a plot. Setting, the reuse of the high school setting is really quite telling - rule of thumb, a piece of entertainment tends to be aimed at people who are the same age as the protagonist, so if you have a young protagonist it's a story aimed at young people. Generally speaking. The content in VNs tend to impress a lot of young people, especially because they're (as a whole) fascinated with ideas and don't really care much about execution, but I don't see how the content is much to write home about, tbh. Even Gahkthun managed to set the damn thing in a school. B) Another rule of thumb, don't compare pieces to authors who wrote their 1st drafts in publishable prose. Dostoevsky wrote in a raw manner, and his works benefited from being written in a raw manner, and some of his translators later went on to say his prose style was carefully crafted. It's extremely difficult to write something which comes off as clumsy and raw while not being actually anywhere near as clumsy as first appeared. Its rawness amplified its passion. Its rawness amplified its authenticity. In general, you (the normal public) cannot write like Dostoevsky (one of the greatest genius' in the world of literature) so don't even try. Also, EVERY writer gets criticised a lot. It's the way of things. C) It happened in English also, but it had nothing to do with his 'ugly writing'. His works were 'localised' into 'Victorian' English (a very polite society) so it would appeal more to the Upper Class audience. D) We don't "pay too much attention to 'writing'". A storyteller's job is to convey the story to the reader, convey the imagery to the reader in an effective manner. 'Writing' or 'prose' is the way which we achieve that. Without visuals, we create impact with words, with sentence construction, with passive or active, we create images through description, this is how the reader feels or views the story, through our words, and that is why those words are important. To say 'we pay too much attention to the writing' well ... that's how the reader experiences the story, it is thus very important. Unless you do a Telltale and go interactive movie.

Everything's digital these days. Also don't buy hardcover. The best quality books you can get these days are 'Trade Paperback'. Hardcovers don't use the same techniques as they did decades ago, which compromise stability. As in, they're really heavy, held together only by gum, and it'll probably fall apart at some stage. Trade Paperbacks don't have the same weight, have a quality spine which doesn't bend, and nice easy to read words. Unless you buy a book and custom bind it yourself, of course.

Anime watchers rarely read ... anything other than manga or really light stuff anyway I have my own theory, but it seems to be unpopular so I'll keep it to myself at the moment. I'll switch to suggestion B: Episodic content on mobile and PC platforms, sold at 5 bucks a piece. Also VNs can also no longer sustain being as big as freaking Clannad, so size will have to come down and that could be a good thing, it'll reduce the amount of bloat that goes into them for starters. Lastly, VNs need to be better at being able to be picked up and played. VNs are supposed to be books but you launch the application as though you're playing a game. To be honest, a lot of self-published books contain the same sort of English and writing techniques found in translated VNs. I don't want to harp on about it, but the standard of writing in VNs is low. Also, some published ebooks sell for 5 bucks a pop.

So I was in the Tokyo Babel thread reading comments about how 'the gaming press doesn't understand VNs' and that inspired me to make this little post. Visual Novels are pieces of entertainment one reads, and yet I can buy and read 10 books for the price of one VN, all thoroughly enjoyable and probably better written in English. I know people like to quote the ’50 hour’ thing, but that’s not accurate. The voice acting, the slow appearance of the text, and the small text box all serve to slow the reader down, which while being annoying also serves to bloat the 'number of hours' it takes to read. VNs are large, but (on average) not nearly as large as the ‘number of hours’ suggests. So people can 'scrap' the hours of entertainment thing. For readers, the visuals and sound aren't necessary, and definitely don't justify the (in their mind) exorbitant price. VNs appeal to those who value graphics, sound, appreciate a good story, don’t mind playing on the PC, and don't mind forking over the price of a game. These people are mostly gamers, and yet, for gamers the lack of gameplay will always be a big negative. So VNs straddle these two communities, at the moment not really appealing to the gamer market or the reader market. And while straddling communities can be a good thing, it's only a good thing when the product appeals to both. VNs appeal to neither, and people’s first impressions are solely negative: Gamers will never appreciate the lack of gameplay, while readers don’t value graphics and sound as much, like to read on mobile platforms, and aren’t willing to fork a premium price to pay for it. And VNs will not become popular until they overcome this hurdle and target the correct portions of the community in the proper manner.

While the term ‘bitch’ could be used to indicate lewdness (and this is debatable, as in this meaning isn’t in the Oxford dictionary type of debatable,) it’s most commonly used to indicate difficult, unpleasantness, or maliciousness. When you refer to your boss as a ‘bitch’ you mean they’re spiteful and mean. A ‘slut’ is someone who is very sexually active. Using the two words synonymously would, at minimum, likely create obfuscation and at worst be inappropriate. Replacing the word ‘bitch’ with ‘slut’ completely changes the meaning of the title. Is it important? Well, it depends if you want the correct meaning to be portrayed or not.

No harm. Just not as much salt ... Accuracy is good, but a system designed to be taken as an accurate system (out of a hundred to two decimal places) gives the impression of something to be taken seriously. "We are accurate and have this rating malarky down to a science." But because such a system gives off the impression of accuracy, and taking into account that no rating system is actually accurate, what it does do is just encourage people to throw tantrums when the score given doesn't match their impression. Whereas something that's just meant to give a 'ballpark indicator' and is clearly designed to just be a 'ballpark indicator' shouldn't have nearly as many complaints because it's designed to be a little vaguer. So if someone complains, a valid response would be "eh, it just felt like a 3 star game" whereas a score of 83.27/100 with 20.1 for art and 15.22 for writing (etc) requires much more of a justification.

All scoring systems are inaccurate and/or silly to some degree, I haven't seen one to buck the trend. It just acts as a TL;DR summary for people who don't want to read, and tbh if people don't want to read and get a better indication of the game, then meh it's their problem. "Oh wow! 4/5, must be good" Billy-Bob said, and he raced to his local gamery merchant, cash in hand, zeal in his eyes. Too bad he didn't see the qualification "only if you're a teenage girl," which was placed just under the spot where he stopped reading. Tsk tsk.

Only kids try and dress piracy up as something it isn’t. If you steal, you steal, most people on the internet have at some point. Rationalising it with excuses like ‘they’re rich enough, how dare they try and make more money’ makes my eyes start rolling.

Blame @Flutterz for starting the thread ...

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=salty People use it whenever they are feeling those emotions. Needless to say, it can be included in almost every one of Bats' posts, he just omits it because it's implied

“Pursuit of objectivity” my arse! ‘Pursuing objectivity’ is just that, pursuing objectivity, not watering down the concept so you can use it as a freaking buzzword as to why your reviews are better than someone else. Who falls for this shit?