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Thank you all for coming along for this ride! (Indefinite Hiatus)


Plk_Lesiak

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Hey there all!

 

I will start with saying  that I really treasure my time spent writing this blog and interacting with various people involved in the EVN community. You guys were awesome company in this journey and despite the obscurity of this project, I feel like it benefited me personally in many ways and maybe even helped people appreciate the value within the non-JP visual novel scene. I'm really thankful to all the people that read my blog, the devs that offered me their time and gave me their games for review – they all made these 2+ years into something special.

When I started this project, there were two main things that motivated me. The first one was the frustration over dismissal of EVNs which is still common sense in the large parts of the VN fan community – belittling of the very games that made me fall in love with the visual novel formula. I wanted to create a space that is fully dedicated to discussion and promotion of EVNs as worthwhile and significant part of the genre. The second part was even more personal – my personal struggles with video game addiction and other issues, my ambition to shift my focus into a more challenging and creative activity. In many ways, I consider both my goals relative successes. While slowly, the perception of EVNs is changing and the scene evolving in interesting ways – while it shares pretty much all the suffering of other indie niches, with PC gaming in general being oversaturated and hard to navigate, I feel that it at least established itself as a significant formula that is attractive for story-oriented devs and appreciated by a significant audience. In other words, EVNs are here to stay and in time fewer and fewer people will be able to easily dismiss them as poor imitations of Japanese games. Whether my work had any impact in this regard? Apart from a bunch of people on Fuwanovel that I know I influenced in personal interactions, I honestly have no idea. I want to think there was some minor impact, but I had enough fun in the process and learned enough that I don't mind either way. I did my best and changed a few things about myself, which was the most important part for me.

Of course, I'm in no way saying that I'm putting the blog on hiatus because my job here is done. The real reason is much more prosaic – I just can't keep up with it. The last month was particularly devastating in this regard, with very little time for me to either read or write. And while an obvious answer would be to just work at my own pace and publish stuff whenever I'm able to, it's not really something that would work out for me. Missing deadlines, thinking about future projects, it all became a source of stress rather than a source of fun, and I feel it would only get worse with time. While I really wanted to keep the project alive, I don't want to do so at any cost. I feel burned out. I barely read VNs for fun. I don't watch anime for a few months now. I need a change of pace and ability to rediscover my love for these hobbies. The blog, sadly, became a prime obstacle in this.

So, what's going to happen now? The blog will cease to get updates, unless something special happens. I might still do game jam summaries, as those are something I massively enjoy. I might also publish something on Fuwanovel from time to time – I'm theoretically still an editor there. The one part of the project that's definitely here to stay is the Steam Curator account. The devs that sent me their games deserve to at least get a Steam review and, generally, an evaluation of their work. I will also use my Twitter to publish updates about new games listed on the Curator account. The Steam reviews themselves will likely be a bit more polished – not that much though, I don't want to jump straight into the same burnout-inducing rabbit whole.

 

So, once more, thank you for sticking around and I hope my project gave you some amusement. And, of course, see you around – I'm not giving up on EVNs and the community around them any time soon. :)

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Well, it's a bit sad that you're stopping doing the blog, but it's totally understandable. Your blog was one of the most enjoyable ones I've been following on this site, and there were quite a few VNs that I found pretty interesting and added to my backlog. By the way, I'm still yet to play Heart of the Woods, but I have really high expectations for it. :)

Well, in the end, thank you for everything you wrote here! Can't really talk for everyone, but you did manage to change my personal perceptions of EVNs a bit. I think, before you started talking about them, the most common thing I heard about them was that they are mostly pretty low quality and mostly aren't worth playing, but now I know that there are plenty of ones that I should probably check out eventually, as long as I don't drop VNs entirely.

Edited by Dreamysyu
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Yours was the most comprehensive and well cataloged EVN blog. You did really good work. And regardless of whether you just take a much needed and well deserved break, or end up retiring from this kind of thing. You have a strong library of reviews as a legacy!  

Slightly disappointed I didn't manage to release my VN in time to request a review from you. I hope I can at least convince you to read it once your burn out cools down. I'm not presumptuous enough to say you'll like it, but I can confidently assure you it's quite different from most VNs you've read.  

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You know, if it weren't for you, I might not even consider reading EVNs. I still haven't, but I will eventually! I've got Highway Blossoms sitting in my library!

And yeah, mate, enjoy your break. Maybe in the meantime you could try watching something like Bofuri? That might help to alleviate some of your stress. ^_^

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Probably not the right place to ask this but what are EVN?  I've actually never heard that term before until now and I wasn't aware of the blog until littleshogun posted in it (since I'm following him).  I've even read over 100 visual novels so you would think I would of heard this term somewhere along the way but I haven't until now.

Edited by Shaun
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So even my alter-ego burned out?  There's something vaguely nihilistic about watching successive generations burn brightly and then be snuffed out by the ravages of time.  It's like watching the community slowly approach heat death.

Edited by sanahtlig
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13 hours ago, Shaun said:

Probably not the right place to ask this but what are EVN?  I've actually never heard that term before until now and I wasn't aware of the blog until littleshogun posted in it (since I'm following him).  I've even read over 100 visual novels so you would think I would of heard this term somewhere along the way but I haven't until now.

EVN, a term that stands for English Visual Novel, and it refers to Visual Novels that were developed by English-speaking developers. Other similar terms that might be used are OELVN (Originally English Language Visual Novel) or Western VN.

Examples consist of Highway Blossoms or Mutiny!!, and, of course, the titles in his Steam Curator page.

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