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Showing content with the highest reputation on 09/26/17 in all areas

  1. Clephas

    Playing and Replaying old VNs

    First, I should define what I consider to be 'old' VNs. I essentially define 'old' VNs by the 'ten year rule'. When ten years have passed, generally the cultural references, the artwork, and even the sound styles have changed enough to be almost completely distinct from the most modern VNs. At present, that means VNs made before 2007. Now, next I need to make a statement... I am not an art bigot. One of the most negative issues I've run across in dealing with newer VN readers is art bigotry. To be blunt, there are lots of people who won't read anything made before 2010 simply because the art style is so different. To those people I say... 'every era has its own taste'. While VN art has indeed gotten more refined in the ten years, to the point where it has gotten to where you hardly even notice the characters are drawn in the first place, I can straight-out say that quality art is quality art, regardless of the era. Now for sound... setting aside music, which really hasn't been refined at all in the last ten years (if anything, it has regressed, especially usage), voice-acting and sound effects have actually evolved a great deal in the last ten years... at least to the point that you are less likely run across the 'comical' sound effects common in a large portion of VNs ten years ago. Voice acting has mostly evolved in the sense that people that once would have become pros don't make it anymore, so the industry has become higher cost (for the developers) and higher quality (for the consumers). In that sense, I can understand some degree of prejudice. However, when it comes down to it... I'm a story addict. Yes, I became an otaku because of the way the Japanese treated animation art. However, it is the stories that have kept me going. Now, in my less than copious spare time, I've been re-reading some old VNs... and I've noticed a few things I probably would have missed a few years ago. 1. Slice-of-life was less oppressive ten years ago- I don't think I would have realized this if I hadn't taken this little trip to the past, but the excessively long slice-of-life scenes that define modern charage have been getting longer and longer per scene with every year. Part of this is probably because of the nostalgia quotient rising for the long-time otakus in comparison with how it was previously. However, it is a poisonous trend that is actually making the experience less pleasant and more tedious as time passes, unfortunately. 2. A well-drawn line can be as pretty as any hyper-quality modern artwork if done right- This is something I always asserted in private conversations, but I wasn't sure if it was pure nostalgia until I went back and actually re-experienced a few old VNs. Yes, the styles were somewhat cruder back then... but the aesthetics were, if anything, more distinct and beautiful in and of themselves. 3. Ero was weaker... except when it wasn't - To be blunt, the emphasis placed on erotic content and the effort put into it was far lower in non-nukige VNs ten years ago. Less interest went into making heroines more erotic and more was put into making situations erotic, probably to let the libido-poisoned brains of the average male actually look at the characters before they saw them naked, rather than focusing on projection oppai. That isn't to say the erotic situations weren't erotic... but there was a far stronger emotional element involved because of the way they handled the character designs outside of h-scenes. 4. A good story might age badly, but the ones that don't, don't- Some VNs lose all their attraction as they age and more modern VNs exceed them in every possible way. However, there are still gems out there that are as awesome now as they were the day they were made. Rejecting VNs simply because they are old is a short-sighted approach that makes me feel nothing but contempt, after my experiences of the last few months.
    3 points
  2. 3 points
  3. Scripting comes before testing. Testing and beta testing are the same thing. Beta testers play on an actual build of the game and their duties involve proofreading and testing for stuff involved in script implementation, like lines that display incorrectly, are cut off, that kind of stuff. They also test the program itself, making sure that there are no bugs or crashes. You need the script in the game to do this or else there's not much point. The main effort involved in "scripting" is making sure the game works with English text on a English locale computers without any issue. Sometimes, this actually involves rewriting the entire game engine from scratch. This is often what's happening when a game is stuck in "scripting" for a long time. Another reason for it to be stuck there is sometimes the Japanese developers actually handle all the technical work and the process of requesting features/changes and waiting for Japan to implement them can take a very long time depending on the company. MG not wanting to rely on this process is one of the reasons they started reprogramming many games with their own engines in Unity. Once the programming groundwork is laid, updating the actual game script into a live build of the game tends to be not much effort at all, so there's no real reason for them to wait until after proofreading to do that tech work. This is true sometimes even with amateur projects. On Dracu-Riot, it takes us no more than a minute to get the game running on the latest version of our scripts.
    2 points
  4. Beichuuka

    Playing and Replaying old VNs

    Not reading stuff before 2010 seems a bit extreme. I feel like stuff since the turn of the century are similar enough that most people would be ok with them. Stuff from before 2000, however, I myself have a hard time finding the desire to try. To Heart is probably the only pre-2000 game I've played.
    1 point
  5. Glorious Showoff

    Introduction

    Pretty cool! I think I've seen you in a few Youtube comments, especially on my video "Every Version of My Glorious Days", thanks for that btw. (: Let me know how you do in Daibanchou!
    1 point
  6. Was also one of the few series i personally actually liked. It has been a long time since i enjoyed a comedy series.
    1 point
  7. https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/daily-briefs/2017-09-25/a-certain-magical-index-season-3-briefly-listed-by-animax-show-website/.121828 So is it true? Do we finally get Index 3?? Will the best parts of the series finally be animated after all those years??????????
    1 point
  8. borisjoker

    Introduction

    Welcome! I also like The Rance Series and am actually playing Daibanchou right now! I hope you have a great time here
    1 point
  9. Clown: Hey guys, I have donuts down here!
    1 point
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