Something to keep in mind: Why my perspective is different than yours
Entry posted by Clephas
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One thing I've noticed over the last seven years is that people frequently have subtly different opinions than I do, and I get asked frequently how I can play so many moege/charage despite the fact that it isn't my preferred genre.
The answer is relatively simple... I read about 20 times faster than most of the rest of you - with the exception of a few bibliophiles. What is a true chore, taking up tens of hours for you, might very well only be a short eight to ten hours for me. Reading that fast - whether in English or Japanese - gives me a greatly different perspective than a lot of the others here.
1. Stamina- My stamina for reading in general and reading VNs in particular is far higher than the rest of you. Fundamentally, the idea of breaking a VN up over the course of weeks or months is alien to me, since even the longest ones will only take me about thirty hours (even in a busy week, I can usually manage to squeeze that in during breaks and meals).
2. Stress- Because VNs aren't drawn out for me, I don't suffer through the slice of life and daily scenes like some of you do. I can sit back and enjoy what I'm reading without feeling any stress whatsoever from the reading itself, as long as the VN isn't too bad. In addition, even scenes too difficult to read for the average VN-player are relatively simple for me to read, so i don't get significantly stressed out by that factor either.
3. Stimulation- One of the reasons people tend to get tired of VNs is a lack of stimulation due to low reading speed. I read fast enough that a good VN's stimulation will be close to constant, whereas a slow reader will sometimes come to feel 'in-between' scenes that are meant to be short and informative as painful and long.
4. Pleasure in reading- The act of reading in itself can bring me something close to sexual pleasure if what I'm reading is interesting. The reason I like chuunige is because to me, the stimulation from a good chuunige is actually better than sex. There is always something going on and that something is usually meant to shake up the emotions or engage the intellect. Since, for me, reading something like this really does give me so much pleasure, I can honestly say that concerns about length don't bother me at all, lol.
5. Burnout- I burnout less often than you (this applies to most people so I'm saying it in general to the community, apologies to those this doesn't apply to). For me, burnout is a process that takes months, usually when there has been only charage for two to three months in a row (thus leading to insufficient stimulation to keep me sane). There is another type of burnout that I experience when I play a truly great VN... but this is something that is almost like that feeling you get after a night of good sex, so it is closer to 'pleasurable exhaustion'.
So, for those who wanted a reference for what it is like to be me when it comes to VNs, there you have it.
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