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Certificate expired?
Kenshin_sama and 4 others reacted to Nayleen for a topic
I'm bad. Automatic auto-renewal failed and I ignored the emails from LetsEncrypt while on vacation.5 points -
+1 I mean, in which way was that an unexpected result?2 points
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Revised rating system and the eroge food chain or "why certain genres can't attain enlightment"
Chronopolis reacted to Narcosis for a blog entry
I've been meaning to do this for a longer while now, but various circumstances always prevented me from making it. Before we start, let me make this clear. I dislike value-based rating systems, where numbers are supposed to be an estimate on how "good" something is, or how much quality there is to it. In my opinion, those systems are all fair and square but don't really work the way we'd like them to, not to mention a simple number is vague as hell and doesn't really provide anything except a scale between "good", "bad" and "mediocre" in-between. Why is that? Because vns don't work that way, sadly. You can't really rate a visual novel in the same exact manner as a standard Hollywood movie, plastering a number on top of it; it's because vns are insanely diversified works with many unique sub-genres, built with particular audiences in mind. It's a world, where one fan's treasures are another fan's trash, often within the same genre trees. The same can be said about almost every other work medium belonging to japanese pop culture. Discarding this tiny nuance might actually have a pretty detrimental result in terms of ratings, that are either too vague, unfair or way too hedonist, without actually trying to get the gist of what the game actually is and to whom it is addressed. I'd rather want to think of actual ratings as something that helps in deciding how much a game is in line with one's personal interests and how high that goes. Different groups of players have different needs, therefore it's probably easier to explain the whole thing in form of a diagram: Don't think of it as "things consuming things", but more as "things supporting other things". Moege aren't particularly worse than high-rated vns, they simply have a completely different target audience, with completely different set of tastes and demands. Obviously, certain genres are more common - because there's a much higher demand for those, but at the same time it means lowering standards to match tastes of a far wider audience, which uniquely leads to genre blandness (this happened to moege and majority of charage already). The games higher on the list in terms of complexity are more streamlined and niche, requiring more refined tastes and greater knowledge in a variety of topics, which leads to them being far less approachable by majority of players. This by default leads to subsequent categorization and further alienation which is one of the major reasons why it's so hard to get into those games and communities that surround them. Those tiers are permanent and games belonging to them remain forever bound to their respective positions within the chain. It can't be changed, nor affected in any way, as accessibility by ease of understanding is the sole factor that decides about their fate. This also lead me to believe, that a proper rating system should actually take this into consideration. As much as you play a high-tier chuunige for it's cool story and characters, you play a simple charage not for the plot, but for character interactions and protagonist finally connecting with one of the heroines; you want to see where their relationships will lead to and it's the only actual thing you will care about. It's not really possible to compare both through the same exact value-based rating system. Obviously, we could argue about this forever, so without further ado - I present my new rating system, I'll be using onwards for my vn reviews. Basic ratings go as follows: Awful - When things get so bad, you might as well ask yourself what kind of wrong have you committed to end up with such game in your hands. Somehow, you ended up picking it along the way - maybe because it had a cute maid on the cover or a synopsis, which looked particularly interesting; who knows. The point is - the more you play, the less impressed you are and by the time you reach the end, you might be banging your head against the desk in utter disappointment and resentment you ever got yourself into vns. Looks can be deceiving, after all. Avoid whenever possible, since there's probably a thousand things more worth wasting your time on, than crap in p(r)etty disguise. Hopefully, I won't ever stumble upon a game, that will prompt me to give it a lower score. Imperfect - Games that strive to be good, but fail somewhere along the way - in one or more aspects. Typically a result of many problems piling up on the dev side of things, including lack of proper knowledge, skills, financial aspects, neglect, and/or faggotry. Those titles might (and prolly will) be enjoyable, but often most, the amount of issues outweighs positive aspects, successfully lowering the enjoyment factor to a large degree. They range from being mildly obnoxious in their issues to outright annoying and might be even riddled with bugs. Needless to say, they should be played in moderation to avoid salt overdose and in most cases, only the most devoted fans are arguably able to look past their flaws. For every imperfect game, you will find at least few similar titles that don't suck as badly. Mediocre - Games considered a widely accepted quality norm, stuck at their designated level. Mediocre titles tend to be far simpler in nature and typically offer fair value from a consumer standpoint, but lack in soul and technical aspects, making them cheap in comparison with anything above their tier. They tend to be mostly forgettable and don't leave a long-lasting impression (exceptions happen), but remain enjoyable while they last, giving you something to do for a bunch of cozy afternoons. In overall, they tend to leave players with hunger for more and unfulfilled dreams. Expect whatever being mass-produced at current moment to fall under this group, including majority of moege. At times, I tend to leave them with a tiny +, to indicate devs at least tried. Impressive - A game, which elevates itself above norm and skilfully uses tropes, settings and standards along with various medium-related mechanics to create memorable experiences. Those are typically good games by default, albeit not devoid of flaws, often times being a part of their very nature. They still tend to be far from perfect, but you'll love them regardless of those tiny mistakes and bumps, which remain an indicator of hand-crafted approach. Titles as such aren't uncommon, but more than often - they will leave you thirsty for more and that thirst is something, they aren't really capable to quench; after many of those, you will most probably want to delve deeper. They will purposefully tingle your ego, but don't expect them to give you clear answers, nor solutions to problems they create. They are more often about the voyage itself - asking questions and leaving their readers in a state of bewilderment - rather than the end result. Nonetheless, they are almost always a truly enjoyable ride till the very end. This group tends to attract simpler story-heavy games, as well as more ambitious charage titles. Outstanding - Very few games reach this sort of artistry, that could be only matched with writers' attention to detail and cleverness in which they build their settings and play with commonly found tropes, much to everyone's surprise and delight of their more hardcore fanbase. In those, the definition of up and down doesn't really exist and any sort of distinctions between what's considered widely accepted moral norms blur to the point of being almost indistinguishable. They rarely give a damn about normalfaggotry conceptions of the perceived genres. Such games will often have great heroes and even greater antagonists - actual people made of flesh and blood, driven by most primal human desires and emotions that will defy physics, bend time and space, obliterate entire armies and cause nations to fall. Such characters often find themselves fighting no less with their enemies, as much as themselves - their flaws, imperfections, inner demons hidden somewhere between the folds of their souls and enjoying to peek outside at times. In those tales, people will die and things get destroyed, with certain fates becoming far worse than a visit to the nearest afterworld. Don't expect your favourite characters getting selective treatment; in realm of outstanding stories, characters considered to be "redeeming" or "favourable" often go through even bigger hell than defeated antagonists - at most if they win - with worst possible cases including moral event horizon induced insanity, gruesome deaths or eternal suffering (preferably all in a never-ending cycle). Those stories will make you laugh, they will make you cry, they are frequently emotionally draining - and boy oh boy - entertaining as hell, provided you're capable to grasp concepts behind their inner workings. Considered a desired habitable zone by many aspiring and skilful writers, simply because it allows badassery to exist without hurting immersion in the process. Brilliant - Games that ultimately defy laws and conventions of genres they belong to, written by literate geniuses, capable to mould words into whatever the hell they want. Plot no longer functions like in normal space and characters are akin to visitors on a vast plane of reader's subconsciousness. Those games are typically considered difficult to grasp for most people and with a good reason, because you're expected to deal with creators themselves and whatever personal issues, grudges, hate and passions they throw at you, while you're trying to make sense of everything. They are extremely rare and as such, prone to complete subjectiveness, becoming battlefronts for fan-based warfare. They always attain a cult following and grow endless forests of epileptic trees, which serve as fuel for discussions, that will go on for years - AND YEARS, if not decades after release. Masterpiece - This, my ladies and gentlemen - is what any fan could consider a holy grail of eroge... if one would only exist. I doubt I'll ever come across a visual novel as good, to be able to freely - and without doubts - give it such a high rating. It didn't happen yet, perhaps I'm yet to read them, who knows. Most of the really good games I know fall somewhere between outstanding and brilliant, to give an example. This rating is more of a gimmick to keep myself at bay there are no perfect games. In addition, I use the following special tags as well: Highly recommended - Games I consider being capable of showing "how things should be done", both in terms of writing as well as genre standards and rules they operate under. Such works, are - more or less - exemplary and at the same time - provide both content and enjoyment in a way, that's easy to grasp even for novices and people unaccustomed with their tropes or elements. Guilty pleasure - You DON'T question why certain games get this tag. Period. This is something I typically reserve for titles, that might not really be the best or most worthy of attention or general context (I could quite possibly not play them under most circumstances), but definitely deliver elsewhere. Where the former doesn't apply, they simply have things I have a strong and particular fixation about and approach them in such an excellent way - including fetishes I can't really live without anymore - I'm able to forgive those games any other flaws. I don't really play them because of their depth or plot, I play them for my personal enjoyment on a very carnal level and you might find them of equal interest. Wicked - A game that breaks any contrived norms or standards and does it in a fashion, that's definitely worth praising. I use this tag specifically for games that are a cherry on the top amongst the more morally ambiguous titles, often scaling between "cute", "awful" and outright "disgusting". Those games usually throw players into a vortex of extreme emotions, crushing their hopes and uplifting them seconds after, only to cast them into despair once again; The sort of games, that leave you both with sense of a profound disapproval and an almighty grin on your face. TL&DR Games that are literally a blast to plough through, provided you are both physically and emotionally strong enough (lol). For those of you, who ever wondered how do I rate the games I play, or what's my perception of vns in general this hopefully clears things up, even if a little bit.1 point -
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Confession: I didn't see that. I didn't log in until it was fixed. That gave me a day off from Fuwa1 point
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Maitetsu VN Discussion (Released at June 29th)
Kenshin_sama reacted to tymmur for a topic
Yeah it's a leadership problem, not a problem with a specific low level worker. Considering he has the steam version, it's quite possible he did QA/QC on the steam version only and that version isn't affected, or rather it's intentionally affected. In other words you can't blame quality testing of the steam version at all. What you can blame is how fast the 18+ was made, which is a leadership decision. Somewhere a leader made the decision to make the 18+ version in a single day or something like that, including testing. Even if the worker in question wants to make it perfect, there simply isn't enough time to catch issues if you don't have the required number of days. In other words it looks like it's a cost cutting issue with the leadership, which backfired. Imagine if all the non-H scenes were identical, then they would have skipped out on paying for testing and nobody would have noticed. Playing the blame game gets us nowhere. That's kind of like knocking over a trashcan and then blame each other for days instead of cleaning up. Right now the case is very simple. SP messed up as a company and SP has to take responsibility and fix it. If one person screwed up, leadership made a bad decision, their internal structure is screwed or whatever. It doesn't really matter to anybody other than SP. Even if it happens to be the QC guy, who failed, the problem is still elsewhere for allowing a structure, which can ship such a blunder due to a single point of failure. Also it should have been fixed prior to QC meaning if QC is to blame, somebody else is also to blame. Personally I don't care who did what to lead to this problem. Just fix it ASAP and get it right this time. EDIT: Japan has already revealed the outcome of the blame game. At some point in time, the media bashed all doctors whenever a single doctor made one mistake. As a result, young people stopped wanting to study medicine because such people are all horrible and are on public display for being bad. Now people are dying due to hospitals being understaffed because more doctors retire than new are trained. It might have improved today as this is a few years old, but the idea is the same. If you are always bashed for having anything to do with a translation project even if you do everything right, you might quit or not start at all, effectively kill off the localization of VNs.1 point -
Fuwanovel Confessions
Templarseeker reacted to tymmur for a topic
Another reason is to be prepared for the unexpected. Even if you don't drive regularly, you never know if you suddenly need to drive. I once got ill while driving and a passenger took over and drove me home. We would be stuck if he didn't have a license despite not owning a car. Another reason is to get a government issued picture ID, another item you might need when you least expect it. Last, but not least you live in the country where General Motors have been buying public transportation companies with the intension of shutting them down. They were convicted and fined back in the 50s, but that haven't recreated the severely damaged public transport system. Now you pretty much have the choice between driving or go hikkomori.1 point -
Revised rating system and the eroge food chain or "why certain genres can't attain enlightment"
Narcosis reacted to Chronopolis for a blog entry
Brilliant seems similar in tier to Outstanding, except one is a meta focused work and the other isn't. Works in the outstanding category have not only a great story to tell, but several good design choices exist made by the author in order to strengthen the experience or theme. This could be choice of moods, point of view, guiding expectations, or skillful incorporation of visuals/gameplay. I agree with the pyramid, it makes sense after reading Narcosis's comments.1 point -
...Have you seen Maquia? Similar concepts, but with actual long lived humans and other humans. I haven't been able to get its story out of my head for days it was so moving.1 point
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1 point
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Post pics you like (Powered by Jun Inoue™)
Jun Inoue reacted to Kenshin_sama for a topic
https://www.pixiv.net/member.php?id=23157451 point -
Post pics you like (Powered by Jun Inoue™)
BlackCatPrincess reacted to Jun Inoue for a topic
My kokoro hurts.1 point -
Yeah, let's single people out and make fun of them. Real mature. Especially when you have no evidence that this person is in any way responsible for the issues with the game (hint: they aren't).1 point
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Revised rating system and the eroge food chain or "why certain genres can't attain enlightment"
Chronopolis reacted to Plk_Lesiak for a blog entry
I'm not sure why you claim that this problem is especially important in VNs, numerical scores are always deeply flawed - they're, however, quite convenient and can be still useful if you make clear how you use them and keep some levels of consistency. They may reflect something very specific (your level of enjoyment with the game) or many things at once (many people on the Forums described their elaborate systems of rating VNs, with various amount of points attached to different aspects of them) - the real problem is that people both treat them way too seriously and compare them in ways that are grossly misleading. I think you could easily replace those basic ratings you've laid out with numbers without losing much of their meaning, the argumentation you add to your reviews and the additional tags that explain what kind of enjoyment these games might offer and who they're targeted towards are much more important. EDIT: Also, I wonder, would that second category be closer to "Deeply flawed"? I know it doesn't sound as good, but I think "imperfect" is too mild of a term to communicate a game being one tier above pure trash.1 point -
A heroine like Kawakami Momoyo from Majikoi
adamstan reacted to NowItsAngeTime for a topic
Tsujidou-san to me is super fun and has similiarities to MajiKoi in terms of comedy and overpowered heroines and stuff. Just don't expect lots of the friendship stuff and variety and power scale of MajiKoi series1 point -
youtube - Most random
FinalChaos reacted to Jun Inoue for a topic
Good god, I just discovered this. Truly beautiful, a work of mankind's true ingenuity.1 point -
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Devils Devel Concept: Why I love it.
Chronopolis reacted to Clephas for a topic
Taichi was basically human, just broken by his experiences. Sora's problem is inborn and inseparable from his nature. To one extent or another, all of the Hunters are 'broken'. Most can experience emotions such as love, hate, etc. However, they lack anything resembling hesitation born out of morality, and they have a tendency toward 'emotional reaction based on rationality'. As long as they have a logical or emotional reason to do so, they generally have no problem staying hidden in human society. However, without such a reason... Sora is fundamentally worse than even that. He lacks most of the 'softer' emotions. The closest he gets to friendly emotions in the classic sense is the fondness an owner has for a particularly stupid pet (toward Shinnosuke), or companionable emotion born of similarity (同族意識). Oh, he also feels a general sense of ease in the presence of his mate (in the animalistic sense, rather than the human sense of it). Sora's bloodline, the 'genryuu' (original bloodline), is basically the purest form of Hunter... but Hunters, though they can breed with humans, fundamentally aren't human, at some level (I'm deliberately glossing over a spoiler here). Those closest to him by nature, the 'ro' (all but one of the heroines are of this type) are still closer to humans than him. They can comprehend humanity and feel most of the things humans do. However, he can't. It is as simple as that. The first time I played this, I thought he was a sociopath, but he lacks a sociopath's narcissism and complete disregard for others as anything more than furniture or tools. He just happens to lack a lot of the emotions most vital to be considered a human being, lol.1 point -
Koko The Gorilla Is Dead
Kenshin_sama reacted to Ranzo for a topic
Koko the gorilla who learned sign language and spoke to our hearts is dead. It feels like we just lost a worldwide treasure. First Snooty the manatee and now Koko is dead. We are running out of beloved animals. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/06/21/koko-the-beloved-gorilla-that-learned-to-communicate-using-sign-language-has-died/?utm_term=.4e3dcaa20d30 “Her impact has been profound and what she has taught us about the emotional capacity of gorillas and their cognitive abilities will continue to shape the world.” Here, have some tears.0 points