VN eSports?

[Tay]

Chances are good you've seen a VN streamed, but what if one was streamed as an eSports event? It's a bizarre idea, but which VN (with gameplay elements) do you think would make for the best eSports event? Little Busters baseball? Strategy game VNs?

(I guess what I'm really asking is: are there VNs with gameplay that legitimately or humorously could make for good eSports commentary?)

[Kendjin]

Sono Hanabira ni Kuchizuke wo is a sort of sport.

 

But I don't think its really a sort of play by play VN.

[Mephisto]

I'd imagine a fighting game like Melty Blood would work, not sure how well some other games would work since they're single player. It might be interesting watching a grand strategy game like Madou Koukaku (although the gameplay is boring as fuck). 

[Nerathim]

Demon king's route in Sengoku Rance. Unavoidable game over but you can do a great last stand, might be interesting.

[Kaguya]

The VN probably needs to be free of H-scenes for that to work. Meaning no SR. With all the comedic rape in that game, I'd think western audiences wouldn't like it too much. 

It's a tricky question. Most of the VNs with gameplay that I know have some sort of H element, and their gameplay isn't fun to watch at all. I supposed it would also need to be translated, which narrows things down even further...

Honestly, I can't see it working. The closest you can get is probably some other games with dating sim elements, like persona (which still wouldn't be enough for an E-sport), but actual VNs are tricky. 

 

A VN stream can be successful, but it'd probably be one of a VN which doesn't have any gameplay. Well, Dangan Ronpa could work out, but not as an E-sport- the gameplay is secondary and way too easy to be taken seriously. 

This might just be an issue of me having poor memory, though. I'll look out some VNs, maybe there is something which could work out.

 

From tld ones, Daibanchou may work out- who you talk to and all the character events have some importance in their combat performance, and the gameplay is a really major element- not too boring either. It's an alicesoft game, though- so it's full of H-scenes, just like rance. 

[Nerathim]

The VN probably needs to be free of H-scenes for that to work. Meaning no SR.

Of course but the Demon King's route is essentially about gameplay, no dialogues or whatever,the bad end aside (when you lose your last castle).

[Nerathim]

i have hard to see esport. (personally)

 

speedrun? most clicks per minute during dialouge

Speedrun ? Reading out loud a whole VN is a great idea

[Flutterz]

Speaking of SR, the Symphonic Rain minigame might work, although that's basically just Guitar/Fortelle Hero.

[madvanced]

How about a nukige? 

[Rose]

eSports are all about competitiveness. I have yet to play a VN with gameplay features in it but I highly doubt any would provide the same competitive feeling as games which were made to be that way. Not sure if unfortunately, but I don't think VNs will ever have a spot as an esport.

[Snowtsuku]

First to get the true end in VNs with Key-like choices?

Otherwise a VN that focuses on gameplay and I don't think it will be that much of a VN in that case.

[zhurai]

eSports are all about competitiveness. I have yet to play a VN with gameplay features in it but I highly doubt any would provide the same competitive feeling as games which were made to be that way. Not sure if unfortunately, but I don't think VNs will ever have a spot as an esport.

[Darklord Rooke]

I'd imagine a fighting game like Melty Blood would work, not sure how well some other games would work since they're single player.

[Yukiru]

How about a short VN with rpg gameplay, the victor being decided by who finishes first?

[zhurai]

I'm not very familiar with esports but that seems like the way to go. 

that would indeed be the closest, although only the VS mode and not the storymode for that matter

 

but then it'll have to compete with the other games in the fighting game category instead.... e.g. Street Fighter

(keep in mind also the fighting game community)

 

 

 

How about a short VN with rpg gameplay, the victor being decided by who finishes first?

 

That would be a speedrun, not exactly what everyone calls esports.

while they are close, speedruns are fundamentally single player, but racing.

 

the speedrun community is a different community than esports.

[Darklord Rooke]

but then it'll have to compete with the other games in the fighting game category instead.... e.g. Street Fighter

(keep in mind also the fighting game community)

 

Keep in mind that I have no knowledge of fighting games here, but how would Blazblue fare? VNDB considers it a VN and it seems like it could compete with the bigger name titles?

[Kendjin]

The story kind of feels like a VN, but its not that long, but a hell of a lot longer than usual fighting games.

[zhurai]

Keep in mind that I have no knowledge of fighting games here, but how would Blazblue fare? VNDB considers it a VN and it seems like it could compete with the bigger name titles?

Note that the fighting game community isn't something I dipped myself into (considering it's stigama)

 

but I don't see anything wrong with it

 

just note these principles:

1) esports generally need to be fun for the viewer to watch. Not Just Play  (pretty important, while you can have it not as fun to watch, it probably won't bring in money,and the longevity won't work out... you'll probably have to balance this with the developer of the game pitching in money and making big prize pools+hype though...)

2) challenging (some sort of skill gap between the professionals and normal players), also aspects shouldn't piss off the hardcore crowd as much (ahem, why are my fighters tripping in Brawl?)

2a) note that I consider the SSB series as esports quality (there's a scene around it after all), even though it was looked more like a "aww how cute" by others /shrug   (could become one if things go right in the SSB4 tournaments. or it'll be more of hobbiest tournaments like how brawl/etc are like though, depends on how nintendo deals with it -- which hopefully isn't the same way they dealt with Brawl)

3) needs to have some sort of way to bring in the competitive bunch, and possibly hardware companies/other sponsors to even bother sponsoring the said competitive bunch of people (or the competitive bunch can't get money for playing the game, therefore why play it professionally)  - e.g. for computer game based (DOTA2/LoL/SC2, it would be hardware/energy drinks)

4) Tournaments (with big prize pools, this can usually set things off in a big way. e.g. DOTA2's The International when it came out for example)

5) a lot of times needs to have support from the original developer of the game - or it'll slowly die (except for say BroodWar which survived because of Kespa + pirated copies playing UMS or something + custom ladders (e.g. PGTour/iccup/etc)   but it obviously does help with it - e.g. Valve/Riot/Capcom/Blizzard

6)  forgot what else. my head isn't working but I think there's a couple more aspects.

 

note that even in this case, we're just comparing the fighting game aspect of the game rather than the VN/story aspect of the games

 

 

 

blazblue has loads of tournements and stuff already so

I don't know nor play blazblue (and don't follow fighting games...other than ssb4 now)

 

this could be because it needs growth in viewership, and/or it's also competiting with other fighting games.

 

But again, I have to reiterate that we're just comparing the fighting game aspect of the game with fighting games, and not the actual VN portions.

[Kaguya]

I do play Blazblue... Wouldn't call it a VN, but it has VN elements, that's for sure. Choices affecting the story, long story segments presented in a VN fashion (well, about as long as you'll be able to get in a fighting game). They even have an advice corner for bad endings. Type-moon anyone? 

 

 

It already has pro players and a bunch of tournaments, though. Don't think we can do much to boost it's popularity. But I do think it's about as close as you'll get with it. 

[Rose]

I've been a fan of esports for a while now, I've followed Starcraft 2 for around one year, Dota 2 for one and a half (Still check it someones), fighting in general for one year (now I just check it around EVO time) and I do watch CS:GO competitive tournaments every once in a while for no reason actually. From my experience, I don't think we'll ever have a VN turning into esports, and my main reason for saying this is pretty simple: Competitive esports and VNs are made to entertain people in completely different ways.

 

When you read a VN, you want to immerse yourself into a great story. You wanna know the characters, their stories, everything around the universe you are presented in the novel. Now if you look at games which eventually become esports, you'll hardly get that. There are some exceptions like SC2, but the whole story falls short in reputation when you compare to the gameplay. Starcraft got a really interesting plot, some really great characters and an absurdly huge universe to explore, but what matters to esports is how good the multiplayer is, how much hype you can get from the crowd as the casters shout at brilliant plays. I can't really say it'll never be possible, but it very likely won't. VNs are not meant to be competitive, and competitive esports almost completely ignore any plot given in the campaign.

[zhurai]

There are some exceptions like SC2, but the whole story falls short in reputation when you compare to the gameplay. Starcraft got a really interesting plot, some really great characters and an absurdly huge universe to explore

SC Vanilla + SCBW's single player/plot was pretty good

Yeah. SC2's has been really lackluster on the singleplayer/storytelling part. yes, and that's not the important part of that franchise anyways

(sc2 maybe spoilers)

Yeah, let's turn the epic story told into a random lovestory between jim raynor and kerrigan.

and then do some weird retconning on zerg to make it seem like the overmind was actually good, and then implement the weird primal zerg bullshit.

original SC's storytelling/storyline/etc was so much better.

 

(in SCBW it was the competitive scene + the UMS scene that made it popular, and in SC2, just the competitive scene, slightly the UMS/Arcade but less so because of blizzard's screwups .... note that single player isn't actually a factor in this, as it's appealing to a different audience.)

 

 

I do play Blazblue... Wouldn't call it a VN, but it has VN elements, that's for sure. Choices affecting the story, long story segments presented in a VN fashion (well, about as long as you'll be able to get in a fighting game). They even have an advice corner for bad endings. Type-moon anyone? 

 

It already has pro players and a bunch of tournaments, though. Don't think we can do much to boost it's popularity. But I do think it's about as close as you'll get with it.

 

I don't know too much about the game nor the scene but really it would just be to make and/or sponsor tournaments. (except if the developer of the game is antagonistic to esports, or prevents you from broadcasting game content legally...)

 

(Technically you can do this from within Fuwanovel. Note that I'm not talking about the VN aspects, this is just the fighting game, as the VN aspect has nothing to do with esports honestly) (but you can tilt the angle that "this is a fighting game, but it does have a VN, and maybe the noncompetitive people may play the story mode and like the VN/story aspects and get into VN's as part of the Fuwanovel mission)

 

More tournaments for ANY competitive game that is fun to watch for the spectator (with hopefully a VOD/Stream setup) with a prize pool would obviously help the scene more

 

well the problems here would be

- funding the tournament

- getting the attn of the pro players to play in it

- tournament logistics

 

but yeah, there are ways to help any competitive title that the game is fun to play and fun to watch... Basically by pumping money or events into it. (although it does need the blessing of the developers...)

But if you're just focusing on the VN aspect then....... not really......

[Monmon]

Hm....

Blazblue and persona arena are considered a vn rite? since they got vn style story.

and both of em have a solid gameplay for fighting games.

[sirjabberwock]

Chances are good you've seen a VN streamed, but what if one was streamed as an eSports event? It's a bizarre idea, but which VN (with gameplay elements) do you think would make for the best eSports event? Little Busters baseball? Strategy game VNs?

(I guess what I'm really asking is: are there VNs with gameplay that legitimately or humorously could make for good eSports commentary?)

[Funyarinpa]

Speaking of SR, the Symphonic Rain minigame might work, although that's basically just Guitar/Fortelle Hero.

 

Uhh... I think SR stands for Sengoku Rance in this context.

 

As for the question, there are none I know of that will work.

[Flutterz]

Uhh... I think SR stands for Sengoku Rance in this context.

 

As for the question, there are none I know of that will work.

I know, but it made for a good segue.