Jptje

http://testyourvocab.com/result?user=9521029 Not sure what everyone is so disappointed about... I actually expected a lot less. I consider myself to be fluent when it comes to speaking English, but I'm not nearly as confident when it comes to reading. High school Latin helped, I suppose. For a lot of these words, especially some of the 'easier' ones I don't know, I feel like I'd be able to judge what they are if I read them in context, like atorq mentioned.

As it stands now, I think anime/manga becoming more and more mainstream is the main reason visual novels as a medium have grown the past few years. I think all of us were happy to see big titles like Grisaia and Clannad appearing on steam. When it comes to that, it's honestly gone a lot faster than I anticipated, which is great. I do, however, feel that we're going to stagnate, as Lesiak pointed out. To make this medium work for a western audience... I think we simply need to wait for a few good, radically different OELVN's to be written. Something, preferably, with western art and themes. Now, I don't dislike the Japanese style (on the contrary), but I do think it would impact how the medium as a whole is seen. Even though visual novels are possibly the most open type of medium I know, allowing for virtually any kind of story to be told, I do think visual novels are impeded by exactly the three factors Zander mentioned. If the kind of OELVN's I have in mind were to appear, the first two (the stigma on sex and the Japanese setting) would be overcome. The last of the three hurdles is the simple fact they require lots of reading, and reading just isn't that popular of a hobby nowadays. I don't think this is one that really can be solved... though then again, perhaps if visual novels were popular, maybe people would read more as well. So to answer this question... I think fuwanovel could (I'm not steadfast enough to say should) focus more on supporting OELVN projects. My inner weeb would hate for that to replace what we have now, so I would hope directing our eyes to OELVN's would not stand in the way of our own super-niche corner, as you put it. As for the masses huddling to nekopara and the sakura games on steam... I think/hope that a part of them will find sites like fuwanovel, and thus hopefully get more invested in the medium. It would be good for fuwanovel (and hopefully visual novels as a whole) to welcome these audiences. It'll open up a whole new can of worms, but growth inevitably brings new problems, and we can tackle those as they come. Whoa, all of a sudden I sound really optimistic. It sounds a lot better now that I wrote it down than the image I had in my head... The crux of it is that I think we should open up more to OELVN's. How do you think we could best open up fuwanovel to OELVN's? I know it's cheeky to ask it like that, but I'm honestly not sure myself... and I'm curious to hear what you all think.

Since he's getting somewhat desparate, I figure I'd help a friend out. Here's your ship, @Chewy

That's a good point, that distinction is there in Japan. We're stuck with the blanket term 'visual novel', on the other hand... never thought about it like that.

Thinking about it, I have two reasons to think the image visual novels won't change. The first one is, again, the fact that sex sells, being the tried-and-true method as it were. In order to avoid confusion, let me be specific that by 'h-scene' I mean any sort of pandering material unnecessary to the plot in the following. Even if many more visual novels appear which don't rely on h-scenes, I think there'll always be at least as many that do. As was mentioned in the podcast, it is fairly easy to write in h-scenes after the story itself has been written down, too. Inserting h-scenes seems to be something that costs relatively little while paying back big from a company perspective. I do agree that this may very well be a short-term vision, but that brings me to the second point. H-scene-less (man I wish there were better terminology for this) visual novels would have to break free from their bad stigma. Think of a separate name for this kind of game/novel, separate steam tags, selling them in different stores (looking back at what Dergonu wrote, if I'd walk into a store like that unknowingly, I'd also be tempted to think everything in there must be porn), that kind of thing. These visual novels would need to profile themselves as being distinctly different from 'the stuff with porn in it'. I don't mean this purely on the business side, though - fan communities, too, would have to split lest you be named together with porny variant of your hobby. As such, I don't think stigma visual novels have will change anytime soon. Now, I should mention that these are purely my thoughts on the matter - I can't exactly back this up with anything and I might be wholly mistaken, but these are my two cents. Sorry for the bombastic opening, I initially had four points but then I realised three were really the same thing, please don't lynch me.

This was a nice listen, thanks for making this. One reason I like visual novels is that they don't shy away from, well, just about anything. The roots of that are, no doubt, in h-scenes for the simple reason that sex sells. I don't think the image of visual novels as glorified chinese porn powerpoints is one that'll ever be really changed for the better - I've tried introducing friends to visual novels, with mixed results. I'm sure I'm not the only one who is somewhat unwilling to mention it to people due to the prevalence of h-scenes. Still, with there being a good number of vn's without them and even a few examples of sex being used to aid the plot (instead of, y'know, the plot) as you mentioned, I think the medium is in a pretty good place as is. Dies Irae is tucked away somewhere in the depths of my backlog, but I'd also wait for the full version, if only because I'm the type who wants to see and know everything there is... even if it is just trashy porn, I can at least ascertain that myself. I won't claim to not like... the other kind of plot, but visual novels (besides maybe nukige) are kind of awkward when that's what you're looking for, as you have to typically read for hours on end whereas the internet is filled with plenty of nice images to please your libido. "I thought I knew this person..."

Allow me to second what Plk (Plk? Lesiak? How do you shorten that?) said. Personally, I'm fine with it if it stays in the coliseum of chatter, but if that's not the case it is problematic. It's fun and dandy when you're in the loop (and to get back on topic, yeah, lately it has been fuwaspammers), but to the outsider it's not. If it actually affects whether people want to post proper content, like a blog in Zander's case, then I can only hope it stops.

I have been triggered.

Is this the real jinsei? Is this tada no fantajii? Tsukamaeta in a jisuberi Open o前 no megane 見re up to the soras and mire... I'm tada no a kawaisou 坊ya, atashi iranai no shinpashii, Because atashi ha kantan kuru, kan単 ike, Chiisai ハイ, chiisai roo, Any shi方 the kaze 吹kus, shinai tokuni atashi ni, atashi ni... Kaasan, ima koroshita a hito, Oita a 銃 taishite aitsu no atama Hiita atashi no TORIGAA, ima ha mou s h i n d e i r u. マma, jinsei ha shita bakkari 始まtta, 🈓も 今 atashi きた to nageta ito subete away... Kaamama, oをOオ, した not kokorozasu to 作ru omae 泣く (;_;) Moshi atashi ha notto bakku mata kondo ashita, Tsuzuki on, tsuzuki on as moshi 何も hontou ni kakawarazu. Tsuu reeto, atashi jikan ga kimashita, Okuru SHIBAASU shita atashi no SUPAIN, Karada ga 痛み suru O O R U no jikan. Sayounara, minna, atashi ha ikanaito, Shitて 残su omae minna BEHAINDO ando FEESU za shinjitsu. Mamasama, ヲOｗoお, Atashi ha 死takunai, Atashi ha tokidoki nozomu atashi 決shiて umareたkunakatta.

「人生は選択の連続だ」なんていうのは、失敗してから振り返って思う、後悔の絞りかすみたいなものだ。過去の少し先にある、当たり前の明日へ。

Why?

Sheesh, this is dangerous... I'll make sure to keep my eye on you guys from now on... For the record, the whole thing is a sham, I've already found nine duplicates in there. Back to you, Nagi!

I'm bumping this for the same reason I made this thread; to recruit people. The past three weeks, the courtroom hasn't been going on as a result of people being busy with other things and people taking showers, but I think it'd really be a shame if this were to die out so easily. For those interested, we're currently somewhere in the middle of the third case (Turnabout Big Top) in Justice for All, just after the first day in court. If the time is inconvenient for you, then it can be changed as long as everyone else agrees, but it might be hard to do so since there's people from all sorts of time zones. If you have any questions after reading the first post, feel free to ask away. I hope to see you next Sunday!