Plk_Lesiak

I've started writing that it's not up to date with what FuwaReviews puts out, but it seems this problem was more or less fixed in the meantime. ;] The admins, while maybe not active here still seem to be alive on Steam so we could start a discussion there. It's clear what would be my first idea on how to expand Curation, but I will try to contain my unhealthy lust for exposition and power. I would love to hear more voices from the review team though, I know @Decay is very busy, but I would be healthy for someone to claim responsibility for day-to-day functioning of the reviews hub and make discussion about it possible.

Aye, I've just read that old blog post without proper attention and interpreted a view you were describing there as your own - I've realized that l was wrong later but forgot to correct what I wrote. I really don't even see much point in this kind conservative guarding of genre borders, site such as VNDB should be focused on utility for its users and not measuring whether the amount of VN "essence" surpasses some abstract threshold, unless in obvious cases, where there's simply no good arguements for including such title.

I guess it did? It was very engaging, at times disturbing and I dropped it twice after the protagonist pretty much ignored my input and decided to be an asshole on his own volition (had to cool off a bit before coming back). But I've got optimal endings for both Sekai and Konohona at pretty much first tries, with only minor backtracking and like I've said, I've really enjoyed both girls as characters. Makoto being a spineless asshole made for some interesting drama, as much as I hated him, it was something very different than the usual anime romance. And from technical point of view, the game was very impressive. Don't get me wrong, School Days is filth and I completely understand people like Tay hating it (he gave it one star if I remember well). I've just played it with a very specific mindset - basically trying to find a path around Makoto's horrible personality, as if it was a adventure puzzle game rather than a VN. And from that point of view, finding a path in which he didn't set the world on fire and getting a heartwarming conclussion was very gratifying. Enough to make me actively look for more VNs.

Hah, this was actually exactly the thing that re-ignited my interest in VNs, the anime was so messed up that I had to find out what the good routes look like - basically to see if the story can have a happy end at all. I really liked both of the girls and wanted to see them getting some happiness. I've played Analogue: A Hate Story a few years earlier and loved every piece of it, but didn't really get interested in the genre. From School Days however it somehow escalated into yuri OELVNs, than Flowers and I was hooked ever since. So, there was no real "entry barrier" for me, I picked them up being so old that neither reading nor sexual content could really scare me off, as long as I've enjoyed the story. It just took me cutting down on other games to "free some space" for VNs and truly appreciate them.

Well, I understand that completely, but while there are things that are indeed hard to do something about (like making significant changes the frontpage) there are probably ones that are much less complicated, but the lack of communication makes them problematic. Like, I don't think I'm the only one willing to contribute content (which is, obviously much simpler than programming something, but the lack of it is also one of the reasons that the site looks a bit dead), my experience was that I simply had no one to talk about it with. Same goes for Steam curation, it's not a hugely involved task, but I don't even know who was administrating that. It wasn't my intention to criticize anyone by the way, it's absolutely normal for people to be driven away from this kind of projects by everyday life, the worrying part is lack of any "generational change" - that is, the old team cannot do much to keep the site in shape and new people that join have no way of influencing things or remedying the problem. This is a type of thing that can kill a community in the long run.

Uuuuh... It's a tough one. When I'm reading a VN for some time, I usually get deeply, emotionally involved and seeing a really bad conclusion can f*** me up in serious ways, like make me lose sleep and be emotionally broken for a day or two. The better the story, the more being surprised by something really bad/disturbing will influence me. So, I only approach bad endings in "controlled environment", when I'm in the right mood and knowing more or less what I'm getting into. Otherwise, it would just wouldn't be worth it (especially when I rarely can afford to be barely functional for longer periods of time). Most of the time I read VNs to relax and escape sad parts of my reality so tragedy is not really what I'm looking for, I can be very much ok with it in the middle of the story, but I pretty much need that slither of hope at the end.

Well, many people definitely do that (which infuriates me whenever I see it - I despise close-mindedness and bigotry in every form). But that doesn't mean they're that big of a majority or can't be converted to some extent. And yeah, there are notable exceptions when it goes to "weebness" of OELVNs and the are also games that still take a lot from their JP sources but also mix in decent amounts of their own cultural context and ideas, which makes them much more approachable for people without "weeb" sesitivities or any knowledge about Japanese culture. I think that's the right way to go for western devs (and if you go for Japanese themes and setting, at least do it for a reason, like for example Strawberry Vinegar is just a charming, weeb love letter to Japanese food and it's pretty much impossible to hold it against the author ;)). I would love to! Still, the hard part is getting cordinated with Fuwa's administration. The formula of the Frontpage and FuwaReviews probably should be a topic for another, open discussion on the forums but it won't take much sense without authorisation from people actually having access to the site, and to Tay. There's a lot of things that could be done, but won't happen without getting through to people in charge. What do you mean by that?

Unless the adaptations are so shit that they rather discourage people from looking at the source material than anything else. I think this happens more often than not.

Well, when I came here my idea was to contribute to FuwaReviews/The Frontpage with OELVN-centric reviews and interviews (that eventually turned into the blog thingy, as I basically couldn't get a response from the anyone up top about whether they're interested in what I'm offering). Other easily achievable thing is getting more active with Steam Curation and generally promoting VNs there. Endorsing reliable OELVN developers. That's at least when it goes to somewhat easily-achievable stuff. Lack of manpower and the admins being "ded" (direct quote from Nosebleed) is probably the biggest obstacle here, probably more than the OELVN-sceptic mentality. If you Google "visual novels" Fuwa is very high on the results list, I think it can influence quite a bit, the frontpage simply doesn't have much life in it and doesn't offer many reasons for people to pay attention to it. That's the first thing we would have to fix.

How do you know about them? WHO DO YOU WORK FOR??? PS Pierogi are definitely awesome. I think I've just had too much of them during my life to include them among favorite dishes any more. :>

That tagline is literally what brought me here after I've (re)discovered visual novels and decided to devote more of my time to them. What makes me a weirdo is that from the very beginning I was actually infatuated with OELVNs and I'm only very slowly digging into the "proper" VNs. My personal view is that VNs will always be a niche genre in the West because of their strong connection to "weeb culture", which grosses many people out (that very much includes OELVNs) and to a lesser extent because of the stigma connected to sexual content in them. And because people playing video games or watching anime around here are not really that much into reading. Apart from the super undemanding titles like Nekopara or Sakura games, there's simply no mass market for them. I'm also pretty sure that VNs will never go far in the West without a healthy OELVN market. The actual "hardcore" VN community is very niche and hermetic, like most fandoms of this kind and as long as people are told to learn Japanese if they want to get involved and western stuff is treated with disdain, the community like ours really won't help things much. Progress is obviously happening thanks to more and more major JP titles being translated, but those also might hit a wall quite soon, if the fanbase doesn't expand steadily - I don't think those horrible sale numbers of A Sky Full of Stars are just because people were bitter about h-scenes - there's simply not that many people interested in buying quality JP VNs and the market is getting saturated. I think an interesting question is what we, as a community, can do to popularize VNs in the West. I desn't look like we're doing much right now, because outside of the forums, the site is rather stagnant. While the VNs in the West are booming, at least in some respects, we're just cuddled in our own, super-niche corner, ignoring the filthy masses roaming around Steam and other places. Optimally, we should do something to reach people outside of our own little circle, how and who should do it is a nice topic for discussion. EDIT: And when it goes to setting and giving VNs a "western" feel, definitely. But I don't think I've seen a VN developer that didn't come from the "weeb" culture and wasn't heavily inspired by some JP VNs. It would be extremely hard to escape that association because it's a core feature of the genre and part of its identity. The thing that we should do away with is mindless copying - there are situations where using Japanese setting adds something to the game (DDLC is a good example because it tried to look as generic as possible to make the twists more powerful and unexpected), but usually, it's just lack of imagination IMHO.

Oh my, so little love for Amane... She was always the best girl for me, especially with her unique connection to Yuuji and stuff. I like all of them though.

Don't the h-scenes speak in a universal language?

The level of expertise in this discussion between Chewy and Clephas is scary. When it goes to my tastes, I'll pretty much eat anything so it's sometimes hard for me to pinpoint real "favorite dishes", but the list would include: - All forms of Italian pasta (my favorite, for a few years now, is gnocchi gorgonzola in my local italian restaurant, classic lasagne being a close second) - Shitton of various Indian dishes - Sushi (especially california rolls & nigiri) - Tempura in all form and shapes - Ramen - Toasts... Simplicity is sometimes the best thing. Especially when you get some good-quality toasts in a cafeehouse, with a large latte and an hour or two to read something - if I can have that I'm pretty much happy with my life.

Or 10! With detailed descriptions.

Wow, this is a thing? So many possibilities. I ship @MaggieROBOT and @SeniorBlitz in a semi-platonic relationship, filled with long, romantic evenings of reading BL VNs and manga together. :3

The recommendation subforum is pretty much full of stuff lately, but from me I could suggest Katawa Shoujo, Cupid and Cinderella Phenomenon, all of those are very good, free western-produced VNs. And I will mention my personal favorite, Analogue: A Hate Story. Also if you didn't play Doki Doki Literature Club and didn't get the plot twists spoiled to you, you should try it out (another great free game). "A little" might be the key word here. ;p

To be honest, the local varieties of shitposting are rather exceptional (unless they spill out of the Coliseum and make an actual mess). I just belive there's meant to be some balance in the universe. ...that is, someone should still post normal stuff while you guys are taking the piss or we'll become /b/ with a neat blog feature attached to it. I'm mostly joking though. :>

Welcome, welcome! And, well, you really shouldn't be shy, we don't bite (even Narcosis don't, he just growls a lot). And with the amount of shitposting that's going on around here lately, any semi-serious contribution will be appreciated.

Anime was probably not what you were looking for, but Teekyuu. It's a short with 2,5 minute episodes, but there's 9 seasons of it and it's a very... Unique experience. :3 All anime shorts work best when you're marathoning through them IMO. When it goes to YouTube... I guess I mostly watch video game-related content, are you into that? Like Ross' Game Dungeon for example, I can watch this kind of stuff on old/niche games forever. From modern gaming news/commentary, I've watched everything ever done by Jim Sterling. Can give you a few more recommendations if you're interested.

It's not that bad really, but it derailed the effort for creating serious recommendation lists a bit. Also, the mods cleaned things up, so you can't see the full extent of trolling that happened back then. BTW, as the effort of creating new, integrated top list failed in a way, maybe a mod should make a list of the serious "top x" recommendation lists and pin it next to the Kaguya's list? Or maybe even replace Kaguya's list with such index (obviously including it as the first position)? That could make all the effort people went through more usefull to new users, without pinning 5 or more threads at the top of the subforum or creating a new one.

Hello there! You're definitely right that it's harder to find good Otome/BL recommendations, as someone already pointed you towards Maggie's top list, you should also try following her blog, so far she's the only one regularly posting about female-oriented VNs around here. You could also explore the "original VN projects" section on the forums, usually there's a decent number of otome and BL projects there, sometimes even free ones. Also, I strongly recommend you to try Cinderella Phenomenon, it has an indisputable advantage of being completely free, even without piracy being involved. <- this also can be the answer for your question on Maggie's toplist thread. And once more, welcome to Fuwa and have fun posting.

Well, can't say I'm that much into clicker games (they're, like, by definition just time-wasters, I've only played Crush Crush because I've heard so much about it) but they're usually not the worst when it goes to business model. I mean, you can spend unlimited amounts of money on some of them and they obviously play on your impatience to make you buy microtransactions, but they rather don't shove the ads in your face at every other minute or block the content in unreasonable ways like MNG. They're somewhere in the middle between pure mobile scams and actual games.

That setup is beautiful though. <3

That tsundere character is probably the only redeeming quality of the game. Maybe it's simply hard to get tsundere so wrong that she'll be unappealing, especially if you have a decent artist on character design front. I've only stopped playing today and I think I've only managed to go this far (3 seasons) because of the addictive nature of these mobile game mechanics, rewarding regular playing and getting you emotionally involved in the stats and events rather than in the story. Because the writing is slightly above Winged Cloud level maybe, in better moments. It should get boring as f... after the first few chapters, but it just makes you used to logging in every day and using your tokens, it's a bit hard to just drop it in the middle of the event/chapter/etc. At least for someone with an addictive personality like mine. What really makes me curious is that legion of pay-to-win mobile otomege, they wouldn't produce those of there wasn't a major market for them. I mean, these games are probably super-cheap to develop, when compared to possible income from microtransactions, but teenage girls must be somewhat easy to extort money from...