sanahtlig

I find many moege boring for exactly the reason that nothing happens and there's all this chatter (read: filler) that doesn't go anywhere. There's nothing wrong with description that tells you something new, presents insights, and generally brings the world alive. The problem is unfocused rambling that doesn't serve a purpose in the story. That can just as easily be dialogue as description--and in VNs, it's often dialgoue IMO.

More content, less fluff. I typically evaluate a VN on two scales: quality and value (determined in part by length). Padding decreases quality and raises value to some extent. But if quality drops below a certain threshold, value becomes meaningless. Tighter writing with more content is always better than padded writing with less content. Padding could be defined in many ways. I'd define it as using grossly more words than needed to convey a given idea. The anime equivalent is spending an entire 25-min episode depicting a few minutes of time in the fictional world (think Dragonball Z). In essay terms, you could write an essay that touches all points in 3 paragraphs, or a longwinded rant that spans 5 pages--all containing the same basic amount of content, condensed to fit in 3 paragraphs or drawn out to fit the 5-page target. We're all guilty of the latter, because that's how English class taught us how to write. And so are VN writers, because they're paid by the word. My recommendation to aspiring fiction writers is to plot out each scene and use the minimum number of words necessary to fully realize each scene. Make sure every scene tells us something new about the characters and world, and every word serves a purpose. If only baseless dismissals were an effective way to demonstrate a point. Maybe if I put this into Google and hit EN -> JP the point would come through?

I'd remove the following: Bazooka Cafe Eroge My Girlfriend is the President + Fandisc Steins;Gate Throb Yukkuri Panic Boob Girls Cat Girl Alliance Da capo Escalation Harem Party Yume Miru Kusuri Amorous Professor Cherry Boob Wars 2 Chain Da capo 2 Harukoi Otome Orion Heart Sexy Demon Transformation Yumina Brave Soul Conquering the Queen Demonbane Grisaia Princess Waltz Super Sexy Spy That should save quite a bit of space.

I'm baffled how someone could not fall in love with Saya at first sight. The grotesque surroundings just accent her devilish, cherubic charm.

I fixed that for you. And I've never seen JAST or J-List promote an OELVN, much less sell one. I knew there was a reason why I liked JAST so much despite their Valve-like release schedule.

When Aaeru created this site, she attracted followers with views similar to her own. Let's term them the "Old Guard". The site has morphed over time, particularly during her absence, moving away from some of its founding ideals. The Old Guard liked the site as it was, so naturally it's not happy with the changes that are occurring. It wishes to turn back the clock and revive the ideals of the site's founder. Opponents of the Old Guard would argue that the founding ideals were incoherent and in some cases, incompatible with each other in the first place. Thus a new direction is necessary that emphasizes certain ideals and downplays others.

Unity was certainly a talking point of the podcast. While unity has it uses, so does dissent (and Tay has acknowledged that also in the podcasts in his choice of moderators). Being able to consider an issue from multiple perspectives is so valuable, we even have a term for it in business: diversity. The best of both worlds is being able to unite to work towards a common goal, without losing the diversity of ideas that drives innovation and thoughtful discussion. That said, I do find barefaced allusions to Aaeru as some sort of prophet in a cult--by her own followers--to be disconcerting. Aaeru made many many enemies of people from all walks of life, even pirate communities. I think it's worth reflecting on how she managed to make so many enemies given the relative moderateness of her actions compared to other thriving pirate communities. Wherever she went Aaeru sowed division in the VN community, not unity. Our viewpoints diverged so much in this respect that Aaeru once called me a "collectivist", which is ironic considering how much time I spend arguing with people. If Fuwanovel is to grow and embrace the rest the VN community as whole, it can't cling to the divisive ideals which Aaeru championed in the past.

That's true enough. Ironically, a subforum is at once both an opportunity to highlight topics and remove them from sight.

I'm not sure promoting original VN projects is so important it's worth its own forum. Though I'm surely biased since I don't play OELVNs, I'm not terribly enthused about the Fuwanovel forums becoming a place for Indie developers to run marketing campaigns, so to speak. I think it's important to support fan projects, but the key there is that these projects are unpaid nonprofit.

People interested in debating a point will typically quote the relevant part of the post, which obviously can't be erased from the conversation anymore. And assuming the reply is at all constructive and relevant, it should be specific enough that the topic would be clear even if the original post disappeared. Such a "misdirection trick" only works if the reply was lazily written to begin with--and on well moderated forums like this such abusers would be quickly identified and slapped on the wrist. Notice that if you deleted your post right now, the arguments in this post would stand alone--even if the quote was removed. It might be unclear why I wrote it, but the information content wouldn't change.

I see this statement a lot, and I disagree. I've played innumerable games via machine translation (the worst possible corruption of the original) and I can easily distinguish generic fluff and uninspired filler from tightly written information-filled communication. Good VN story primarily comes from good scenario design, interesting characters and setting, and the ability to communicate situations and ideas clearly and succinctly. These elements come across even with machine translation. Comedy does require a developed writing style (and coincidentally doesn't machine translate worth a damn), but I'm not typically a fan of games in the comedy genre anyway. Style is really the only element that gets lost in translation. But writing style is actually only one of several elements that make a story enjoyable--and it's not even necessarily the most important one.

Members should be able to delete their own posts, as software limitations permit. Deleting a post is no different than editing out all content, which is already possible--except the latter leaves a gaping wound in the thread, while the former doesn't. Some forums go the opposite direction--they either don't let you edit posts at all (this leads to really sloppy writing), or they don't let you edit posts after a fixed period of time passes. We're not negotiating financial transactions here so an inviolable record of all communication isn't exactly necessary. Users shouldn't have the power to delete threads. As soon as it displays in the forums someone could be writing a response to it, which belongs to them. It's no longer "your" thread once it's publically posted.

Cliches are a problem when they're part of cookie cutter storytelling with characters that seem like cardboard cutouts rather than individuals. A trope can form the start-off point, but a good writer will bring the characters and story to life with unique elements.

I've never played Katawa Shoujo--I have a lot of other VNs I'd like to play first. But Saya no Uta is really good (tightly written, highly entertaining, and very interesting from a philosophical standpoint), officially available in English, and it's quite short so the required time investment is low. It's also fully voiced (including the male protagonist). Seems like a better entry VN to me: it's impressive and demonstrates the potential of the medium to tell a riveting story. It also has some bizarre themes that seem like good "bait" for mainstream haters.

I'm still confused why Katawa Shoujo gets so much attention. I don't think anyone claims it's the best VN ever made. I'd think gameplay VNs would get much more attention considering the interests of typical Western gamers.

I think this show would be a lot more interesting if the protagonist made mistakes like an actual human being. Even really intelligent people can come to the wrong conclusion based on incomplete evidence, and those with exceptional abilities can make a single glaring mistake in the heat of the moment. A perfectly flawless character is static with no room for development. It's also difficult to have any real drama because the outcome of any conflict is known at the start. Currently, I find the romantic tension with Miyuki to be the main draw of the show. Some failures--even conflicts with Miyuki--would make this relationship more interesting.

Lawful Neutral (according to the D&D quiz). Honestly, that's the alignment the majority of people would get in today's society. We live in an advanced society bound by laws which is functional for the most part. Evil is punished, and the Good are taken advantage of. If you believe in the rule of law, have any semblance of moral integrity, and look out for yourself the majority of the time, you inevitably fall into Lawful Neutral alignment.

I'm expecting we'll hear a final verdict on the Grisaia / Planetarian torrent question and accompanying clarification of Fuwanovel policy. Tay mentioned these changes would be rolling out over the next couple of weeks, so we should find out soon enough.

With this change of direction that Tay's bringing, and the discussion of Aaeru's burnout, I feel there's a question that needs to be asked. Tay is in medical school. He must be a very busy person, even without holding the reins of Fuwanovel. He's acknowledged that he puts many many hours into this site. He's also mentioned he has medical school rotations coming up. He's about to get even busier. How long can Tay keep up this level of commitment to Fuwanovel? If he's going to step into this greater leadership role and change Fuwanovel's current course, is he going to be able to stick around to see it through?

Neat. While I usually stick to eroge, I occasionally ponder playing some select PSP titles like the official Ore no Imouto game. Overall, this is pretty big news for those who play VNs with text hooker assistance. Someone should post this on the Visual Novel Aer blog.

Artstyle in VNs is pretty subjective. For many, "artstyle" is just a polite wording of "are there hot girls?". If you're treating a VN as a sort of romance sim, then "are the girls hot?" is going to be an important factor. Such sexual tastes are incredibly varied. I lean towards the loli side myself, and if all the heroines are big-breasted and very mature looking that can be a dealbreaker for me.

I disagree. The point is to spotlight people the community is interested in knowing more about. It's not necessarily to recognize people for their achievements or contributions. OriginalRen isn't in the position to make that sort of decision (Tay would have to be calling those shots--and I doubt he wants to!), but OriginalRen can certainly find people that seem like they'd have interesting things to say in an interview. In general, that's probably going to mean people that are active on the site and in the community. As for a sidebar, I agree with others that that's unnecessary. The spotlight episodes shouldn't necessarily receive any more marketing than any of the other podcast episodes. The more special privileges you ask Fuwanovel to grant you, the more you have to give up the reins of the podcast to the administrators of Fuwanovel (because they can't endorse content yet to be released that they have no control over). At the moment, I doubt that's something either you or they want.

I originally listed this next to "child gravure idols" as an example of Japan's problem with sexualization of children, but decided that there's many reasons not to ban possession of child pornography that don't relate to societal sexualization of children. Banning possession of child pornography, especially in the digital age, is actually a very invasive encroachment on free speech. While we've decided that protecting children from molestation is worth the sacrifice of personal liberty, wrongful prosecution is still a very serious problem. If someone plants child pornography on your computer (there's various means to do so) and it's detected by authorities, there's actually very little you can do to defend yourself in court. Such a conviction could easily destroy your life, especially if you work in a sensitive environment like hospitals.

I've played Empire, Abyss, Frontier, and Gaia. Each game stands alone--there's no need to have played earlier games in the series, and there's not much shared mythology. Gaia is a fine point to jump in, and it certainly has the best gameplay in the series to date. While some of the Venus Blood games can be pretty dark, Gaia is fairly tame because the protagonist is a rational idealist and not driven by revenge. Corruption is also not a central theme as it was in Empire and Frontier. Most of the sex scenes are "optional", and there's even a menu option to skip them entirely. The "rape" is mostly consensual, and the heroines ultimately agree to the humiliating treatment for story-related reasons: their role as incubators for the super soldiers is necessary to preserve the way of life they're fighting for. The game, like most games in the series, has two distinct routes, with one route being rapey and dark and the other being more normal. Tentacles feature prominently in most of the H-scenes, but there's also scenes with the protagonist and each heroine copulating normally and even lovingly. The protagonist is certainly a pervert, but much of the sex is for furthering his agenda, which usually coincides with the heroines' long-term agenda (if not their immediate agenda ). The H-scenes themselves compose an optional story arc for each character and some are fairly well written as far as H-scenes go, making them more than just superfluous fap material.

I'm currently playing Venus Blood Gaia, the latest game in the Venus Blood series. I'm always impressed how Dualtail manages to pack together so much tentacle ero with a compelling storyline. The gameplay gets better and better with each iteration of the series too. They've refined it to the point that the gameplay is almost up there with top tier eroge RPGs. There's dungeon building and defense, a complex system of skills and affinities, monster breeding and stat customization, item collection and resource management, on top of the interactions with heroines that unlock H-scenes, power them up, and unlock endings.