sanahtlig

Does anyone have any comments about discussion that occurred during the podcast or questions for those who participated?

That's a really bad idea on VN boards because people tend to choose a favorite character as their avatar. For guys, that's usually a girl. For girls, that's often a guy. Assigning gender identities like this might actually lead to a false gender assignment greater than 50%--in other words, worse than if you randomly flipped a coin for each user.

If Windows 10 takes off and their plans for integrating code across platforms (Continuum) gains mainstream acceptance, it's possible that localization companies could start doing multiplatform releases. Doddler has recently started porting some titles to the Unity engine, which allows seamless MacOS and Linux ports (but not iOS or Android, which are based on ARM rather than x86/x64 architecture). He has commented on the feasibility of multiplatform releases.

I wonder if you use computers as much as I do, and as much as the people I know do. 16hrs staring at a laptop screen is no fun. They're not designed to be used like that. VNs are more like books, but book readers typically don't read books on a computer. Gamers play PC games, so that's basically the audience by default. VNs are a niche in part because they can't reach the right audience. For VNs with gameplay elements, I recommend the likes of Aselia the Eternal and Kamidori Alchemy Meister. School Days tends to appeal to those who like anime, and the many choices keep players engaged. Unfortunately, if he can't last through 10min of reading, he probably won't get past the prologue of any of the gameplay titles. You should ascertain whether the VN medium itself bores him, or if Narcissu in particular has certain elements that turned him off. There is no single VN you can hold up to everyone and say, "You'll love this!" Interest has to come from within. The characters, setting, and premise have to interest them or it won't matter how compelling the VN is; they'll give up before the game has a chance to draw them in.

Consider the audience for VNs: gamers basically. You need a PC to play most VNs. That limits your audience right off the bat. On top of that, most VNs worth playing are of considerable length. The need to sit and watch a screen for extended periods of time further turns away laptop gamers. Laptops aren't designed to be used like that; the ergonomics just don't work. That leaves people with dedicated home PCs. Then consider typical gamer expectations of what a game should be. Gamer culture is focused on interactivity and gameplay elements. VNs are typically missing these. Then consider the anime culture element. VN fans are mostly a subset of anime fans, which is problematic since anime culture is pretty synonymous with "not paying for content". To anime fans, VNs are graphically less interesting, further making VNs a difficult sell. Add on to that the porn element. Most VNs have adult content. Again, the prevailing wisdom is that it's stupid to pay for porn. The porn element also prevents the games from being marketed in mainstream channels: e.g., review sites, retail outlets, gaming communities.. Now consider the target demographics for VNs: young adult males (with dedicated home PCs). This demographic is generally technologically savvy with a lot of time and not a lot of money. In other words, they're a bunch of pirates that won't pay for anything unless they absolutely have to. Add all these factors together, and it's incredibly hard to market VNs to people.

I have brothers who I've managed to influence to some extent. At some point, you have to decide if coercion will achieve your ends. I managed to get one brother to play School Days (mostly through threats of physical violence), and the other to play Steins; Gate. I literally had to sit there and play it with them. They both enjoyed playing the games--with me. When I'm not around, they'd rather do other things. My efforts to get them into anime were more successful; they actually watch anime when I'm not around and actively seek it out. Getting past the mental barrier for new genres is difficult. But once you get past that, there's two different kinds of "interest" that could result: interest in VNs themselves, or simply interest in enjoying an activity with you. It's really really hard to achieve the former with an arbitrary person, but the latter is achievable by leveraging the power of friendship / social coercion (peer pressure).

It really depends. For gameplay titles (which are annoying to replay), I want to know what routes exist and what the conditions are for getting the route I want. I don't like following a walkthrough like a recipe. For games with highly branching scenarios like School Days I'm perfectly happy playing through blindly a few times to see where I end up; much of the fun is experimenting with different choices to see what will happen. If I get stuck I'll use a walkthrough to brute-force myself onto a different fork. For your typical VN with one route per heroine I simply want to know what heroines are winnable, and make sure there's no hidden catches like routes that open up only once you've completed other routes. It's very frustrating aiming at one heroine the whole time and ending up either with a bad end or with a heroine you weren't expecting.

Yes, simply pointing your mouse cursor at the word does an automatic lookup. Furthermore, it's almost instant, so you can read an entire sentence with one sweep of the mouse even if you don't know a single word in it. http://forums.jastusa.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=5220&p=96509#p96509 (I posted a screenshot where my mouse is hovering over a word, though the screenshot doesn't show the mouse cursor)

English is the language of science, yet research is frequently performed by non-native English speakers.

I feel like discovery of child porn on a flash drive is probable cause to search the guy's home PC. They must have done this. Why isn't it mentioned in the article? Maybe because the search turned up nothing?

Not necessarily. It's quite possible he was using the stick as a portable OS / browser so he could synch his favorites and such across different computers (remember, this is an IT guy). It's possible and even likely that he downloaded the porn from a home PC (possibly forgetting that his browsing history was being saved and could get him in deep trouble if anyone ever inspected the drive). I'd be cautious about making assumptions based on the scarce facts we have in this case.

I recently stumbled on this groundbreaking research, and I thought I would share this new insight with you all to show that your tax dollars are making a difference. When contacted for comment, the senior researcher in charge of the project wrote:

The image of an inorganic object doesn't give me a sense of the author or his voice. It is unique at least. 5/10

The guy was banned from the Internet. Possibly forever. That sounds like a fate worse than death.

I'm not a very good speaker, but I think I got across the main points I wanted to convey: namely that School Days is the best VN ever, original English VNs are inferior, and Mangagamer is a role model that all visual novel publishers should emulate.

How is this tool better for reading VNs than JParser or MeCab in Translation Aggregator, which look up a word simply by hovering your cursor over it? The English -> Japanese function seems useful, but that doesn't help for reading VNs.

Fuwacast! Episode 12 - Introducing a Genre: How to Attract Newcomers to the VN World Members featured include: OriginalRen (host) Ryechu (nukige gamer) suikashoujo (gal gamer) InvictusCobra (newcomer) traveler101 (inbetween newcomer and veteran) sanahtlig (veteran)

He's apologizing for disconnecting in the middle of the podcast (in the midst of a comment, even).

The podcast just finished recording. Expect it to go live soon . Edit: Now live! Direct Google Drive Download: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B7ivNNDDfsj5cGFMTUFfcTY0enc&authuser=0 Mixcloud Upload: https://www.mixcloud.com/OriginalRen/test-test Fuwacast! Episode 12 - Introducing a Genre: How to Attract Newcomers to the VN World Members featured include: OriginalRen (host) Ryechu (nukige gamer) suikashoujo (gal gamer) InvictusCobra (newcomer) traveler101 (inbetween newcomer and veteran) sanahtlig (veteran)