Darklord Rooke

This should be in G&C Tay!!! Get to work mods, chop chop *claps his hands*.

...
 
 
 
 
 
 
(A GTX 670 with 2MB of ram? I pity you.)

Finally, the .bin error is now fixed with NeroDragon12's help (again). xDDD
Editing resumes, but not updating anything until there are significant updates for the translations.
 
Cheering! ヽ༼ °ل° ༽ﾉ

Why would there be controversy over MotM?

While it is true that words do change meaning over time, chivalry is not one of them. Chivalry is not politeness or kindness and I doubt it will ever evolve to mean politeness or kindness. If I showed kindness to my neighbour that isn't chivalry, if I showed kindness to my very elderly and frail neighbour by helping him down the stairs, that IS chivalry. If a bunch of thieves broke into my elderly neighbour's house and I helped drive them away, that would be chivalry. If my neighbour is an able-bodied marine wielding a rifle, not chivalry.

Chapter 0.5
The Taylor of the Batman
 
(Authors Note: I have no clue if Tay's name is Taylor. It could be Jawaharla for all I care.)
 
Batman walked into the steaming bath house. No one was around for miles. It was a really big bath house. Batman removed his hockey pants, and then his baT-shirt (It was summer). He left on just the mask and slowly lowered himself into the warm bath. The hot water washed all of Batman's worries away. Who cared about solving riddles and stopping silly clowns. This was life. Suddenly, he heard footsteps. 
 
Using all 7 of his senses (touch, smell, sight, hearing, taste, sonar, and flying), Batman quickly identified the intruder. It was a male, likely 7 feet tall, and 180 lbs (thats American for fuck the metric system). 
 
"Oh, I didn't know anyone was in here." Tay's soothing deep voice caused ripples to move across the water.
 
"It's fine," Batman growled in a raspy voice. "You can stay citizen."
 
Tay slowly took off his clothes revealing a finely sculpted body no doubt due to a vicious training regime involving typing and doctoring. Batman was jealous. Why should this 7 foot man have a body that would make the Statue of David weep in envy?
 
"Nice abs." That is all that Batman could say to this person. 
 
"Thanks. Nice mask." 
 
Batman blushed. He liked the mask. He must be a good person. Tay lowered himself into the water and let out a sigh.
 
"Long day?" Batman asked. 
"You could say that. Someone is always angry."
Batman didn't know what this man was talking about.
"So what is your name?" the man asked Batman.
"I'm Batman!" Batman yelled.
"I see. I am Tay. I have no last name that is publicly known but for the right price certain people will give it out."
"I understand. So if people want to know your last name, they should send $37.56 to [email protected]."
"Exactly." Tay let out another sigh. Batman felt awkward. Bats fluttered around in his stomach. 
"Say... you don't think I could see yours?" Tay suddenly asked.
"What what what what!?" Batman began panicking. What if Tay didn't like it? Batman put a lot of work into it and was filled with pride by it. But this 7 foot Tay might not like it. Who knows what went on behind that sexy face of a god?
"I'll show you mine if you show me yours." Tay was upping the ante. How could Batman refuse now. 
Slowly, Batman wrapped his fingers around the base, slowly pulling up. Being very careful, Batman continued to slide his fingers up as Tay watched on with a gentle smile. 
The mask finally came off. Tay gasped in delight upon seeing the man behind the mask. He now knew who Batman was. 
"Your turn," batman whispered.
Tay then tore off his mask revealing his true identity. He was Batman. 

In response to the amount of individualism that followers of the Fuwanovel podcast have requested, I have decided to begin making weekly "get to know your community" episodes. The 1st episode has been released on my Mixcloud account (featuring Nosebleed), and I was wondering if we can find a way to feature these episodes on a sidebar for the main forums page, much like the member of the month is featured. I have uploaded the .mp3 file to my Google Drive, and can easily share it so it can be downloaded.
 
My idea is that each week these "feature episodes" would be rotated out for new members, and members of the site could listen to them if they choose to.

I did a tally of the most recent 50 or so threads, and:


Interpretation: In the last week (=first two pages of threads), there have only been 7-9 s seperate VNs for where there has been discussion about the content of the game. I'm sure the fuwanovel community is playing many many more games then that.
 
Many VN's have few enough players so that people are playing them months apart. Heck, VN's in general take long enough that you can finish weeks apart even if you start around the same time. Basically, if what you are playing isn't translated and at least somewhat popular, you're pretty out of luck. There are too few people at one time to support a specific VN thread.
Here's what I'm proposing:
 
Everyone put down a list of the VN's they are open to discussing. It could be most of the VN's you've played recently, or just a few. Then when you or someone else finishes a VN and are looking for someone else to talk about it with , you can search the VN title in this thread and try PM'ing that person.
 
You can edit and keep your list updated as you read more VN's, or if you don't want to get PM's anymore.
 
To start off, here's my list.
Midori no Umi
Aiyoku no Eustia
Houkago no Futekikakusha
Gin'iro
 
 
 

Pretty much this snippet from Rooke's post:
 
 
When you put women on a pedestal, you're playing into gender stereotypes.  You're conforming to the notion that women are delicate, weak, need special care, need to be protected.  Sound familiar?  That's how we treat children.  Chivalry is born from a long tradition of condescension towards women.  Shirou Emiya is the prototypical male with "knight in shining armor" complex who feels it's his duty to protect the weak woman beside him--and his idiocy should be self evident.  It's one of his more glaring character faults.
 
Chivalry in VNs is all fine and dandy--as long as you recognize that it's a fictional idealization of gender roles for the purpose of entertainment.  You know, like lolis and devoted little sisters.  As for the real world, true equality means breaking free from the constraints of the outdated concept of gender roles.

Chivalry ey? Let me post an article which deals with an interesting point.
 
Pop quiz. A professional man holds the door open for a female colleague. Is that sexist? A husband always insists on driving during tiring trips to save his wife the effort. Is that sexist? What about that nice guy on the train who stands to allow a woman he's never met to sit down. Is THAT sexist?
 
New research has sparked fiery debate over a question I've long been unable to answer. Is chivalry sexist? The study, conducted by two female psychologists from Pennsylvania State University and Phillips University Marburg in Germany, sought to examine how much people recognise sexism on a daily basis and if awareness of sexist exchanges altered their perspective.
 
Male and female colleagues were asked to record instances of both "blatant sexism" (derogatory name calling, unwanted sexual advances) and "benevolent sexism" (which includes well-intentioned behaviour or philosophies that differentiate women as needing special consideration, having feminine skills or as being vulnerable. Women needing to be protected by men or rescued first in a disaster were examples cited in the study.)
 
After becoming more aware of blatant and benevolent forms of sexism around them, women tended to view the behaviours as inappropriate. Men, however, did not believe the "benevolent" incidents were sexist.
 
<snip>
 
It's true that women are biologically different. So should they be treated as such? Part of me feels that, with monthly pains, like childbearing and perpetual double standards of womanhood, I am owed some grocery lifting, pedestal placing, and occasional spider killing by the men in my life. Likewise, certain gendered behaviours have such deep roots in romanticism - he pays on the first date, he gets down on one knee - I would truly be sad to see them go.
 
The danger, however, is if gallantry begets the notion that women are less than or need special favours in order to succeed. Men and women might subconsciously receive that message and carry it with them to their schoolyards, workplaces and marriages. If your girlfriend is too "delicate" to change a tire, is a female manager too "weak" to run your board? And if you believe that he should pay for dinner, are you more willing to accept a lower salary?
 
Because I would answer yes, that would be sexist.
 
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennagoudreau/2011/06/28/is-chivalry-sexist/
 
Now, having met many feminists who DO hold the above view I can state that this viewpoint is both real and valid. So, does this kindness reserved specially towards women have a place in a world which emphasises gender equality?

Fuwanovel Podcast Status Updates -
 
A lot of new problems and suggestions have popped up in the past week, and as such I wanted to address everything that was brought up and try to answer all of the questions and concerns I noticed to the best of my ability. Listed below is a list of all the new items that in some way or another have been brought to my attention. If I didn't quote anyone specifically, I decided to put things into my own words to help everyone understand it a little better and how I viewed the feedback that was given to me. Hopefully this list will alleviate some of the questions and concerns everyone has been having.
 
For everyone reading this post, please remember that while I may not always follow the advice that is given to me about the podcast and its direction, I am always listening to what is said to me via feedback and suggestions and that I take all of it to heart. I will always do my best to listen to the people, so please don't ever forget that.
 
Anyways, I hope this helps:
 
1. "I really think you should focus on content rather than presentation and marketing--leave those to for-profits.  A focus on content means picking topics that are compelling and trending, and finding guests that are knowledgable and have interesting viewpoints to share."
 
I agree 100% with this concern, however what I want to address is that no matter how much I try to make the Fuwacast have a cool title or no matter how much I try to get some cool art designs for it, none of that will ever, ever make me produce poor quality episodes. The reason I made a suggestion thread for a poll in the 1st place was to give members of the community something to keep them interested in the podcast itself. Nobody wants to see the same format over, and over, and over again. For those members who may not find many topics that interest them, the revamped look of the podcast will give them the chance to be apart of something that is being hosted on this site. Don't want to speak? Topic isn't interesting? Help me make the podcast look cool! This is our baby, something we have made; I am simply the man directing the performance. Without actors/actresses, what good am I?
 
In short, this project makes me happy, and I want to look at all sides of it and say to myself, "man, we did an awesome thing on the site."
 
2. "Each episode needs a prominently displayed title.  I listened to the Special Episode (which I was interested in due to the post above), looked around afterward and all I saw were episode numbers.  It's not the best way to keep listeners interested."
 
Easy fix! I will go back and label the episodes with the appropriate topics tomorrow after work. As for the open ended random questions in podcast episodes 1-3, I am not really sure what I should label these as, considering they are a mesh of many questions, so if you have any suggestions, let me know via PM and I can put something up!
 
3. Talent is something you have to seek.  The people you want the most aren't necessarily going to take the initiative to volunteer.  People tend to respond better when you appeal to their ego than if you just cast the widest net possible.  Finding the right people for each topic is going to require some familiarity with the community, use of social connections, and some good old fashioned persuasion.
 
As I stated before in a previous address of the podcast, finding volunteers is a challenge, however after reading this comment a little more, I think I have found a solution. Everyone talks about Ren, all we ever hear about is Ren this, and Ren that. Ren makes the questions, Ren chooses the topics, and Ren leads the charge. Well, enough about me! Let's shift gears for once and start talking about you, the community. So many people do so much for Fuwanovel, and I think it would be awesome to represent them in a 1-on-1 podcast. No topics, no discussion, just questions about what each member does and why they enjoy doing what they do.
 
To give some examples that come to my mind, Nosebleed posts his anime preview posts, Clephas posts his VN of the month, and SieghartXx makes some mean signatures for a huge portion of members here on the site. Let's get to know them! I understand that not everyone will want to be interviewed in a 1 hour podcast, but I think we can reduce that time if we want these interviews to be shorter. I think there are a lot of people (some who I know personally) that have a lot of stories to share and that everyone would love to get to know more about.
 
4. "Hey Ren, your recent episodes are taking a long time to get started. What's the deal?"
 
My original intent was to release 2 podcast episodes every 2 weeks, meaning 2 a month. For July, we are all caught up on that total except for the the 4th episode of the podcast. I understand that this episode has had some issues with time, and I will be honest in saying that I have not emailed the group for that episode in awhile. I do apologize for this. I promise I have not forgotten the episode, I just haven't taken the time to sit down and finish it. With the current 3 episodes on the list, the end of August will see everything caught up, with a total 10 episodes for the podcast. As for the special episode which was recorded recently (located at the end of this post in case you missed it), as well as the 1-on-1 episode suggestion I posted in the previous concern, I don't think those should count against that release limit and should be a separate entity all together; whatever day works best for those being interviewed will be the best time to record and upload them, however I will never post more than 1 a week.
 
I hope this helps make people understand how I am working the podcast. As for other time delays, sometimes personal life and other projects get in the way. Also, I lose motivation at times, so bear with me if there is a lull period between each episode due to that reason.
 
5. "I really don't understand the point of a podcast when text is so much more informative..."
 
An interesting point, and I am glad you brought it up. Not everyone likes to speak, and some people feel they can address things better in text than they are able to in speech. For the next round of podcast episodes after the current 3, I have an idea that may seem like a stretch but I feel could be interesting to try. We have tried group volunteer recordings and I have suggested the new 1-on-1 member episodes. Now let's try a round table discussion. Instead of having only speakers in the actual podcast, let's have people who want to participate use text as well. See point #6 below for more details on this.
 
6. "It's just my opinion, but I think many of the current topics lack general appeal, especially ones that focus on a single visual novel.  I think controversies would make better topics: issues such as the impact of piracy on the visual novel market, sexualization of children in VNs, censorship in VNs.  Think about the threads that always rise to the top in the forums, and the issues people are passionate about.
 
Let's do it. The people speak, and I will listen. I think these podcast episodes are a great way to involve the entire Fuwanovel community. For each topic, I can choose the most passionate people to be featured on the actual speaking portion of the episode, where (as suggested in point #5) other members are allowed to join an IRC while listening to a live stream of the cast. People can discuss the content in the IRC and host their own discussion, while we in the podcast host the same discussion side by side. I will pull comments, questions, and other material from the IRC while we discuss, essentially giving everyone a chance to talk about the actual episode. During the recording, I can capture both the IRC chat in 1080p, full size, while at the same time recording the audio. While the audio portion will be the only thing recorded for download, the YouTube videos which are currently being worked on will have the recordings of both the chat, as well as the speech.
 
In short, we will be making a live forum thread via a podcast episode. As for the guests in the IRC, anyone will be welcome to come and join as they see fit. Stay for the whole thing, or leave early, it doesn't matter. If the discussion is big enough, we can add time and take a break between recordings, essentially splitting the episodes into parts. There is a lot of potential for this.
 
7. "I can't download any of the podcast episodes! Help me!"
 
I am currently uploading all of the recorded episodes into my Google Drive which I will publicly share with the community at the end of next week. My internet is not the fastest, and since I like to do other things on my computer during the upload times, please bear with me while I get each one on the drive. In addition, maefdomn and The Major are working on the YouTube side of things. As soon as I start handing them the episodes, they will hopefully start working on that as well.
 
For the time being, please wait patiently and I promise I will get them to you as fast as I can.
 
And that's it. I am terrible at closing posts, so instead, here is that special episode I was talking about on the Mixcloud for those that haven't had a chance to listen to it:
 
http://www.mixcloud....wacast-special
 
Feedback please. I am always listening.

Indeed, in fact the same line has been spouted for the past decade... so how's that working out for you? The whole 'more players equals more buyers' thing?
 
Before Steam took off, despite exponentially increasing the fanbase over the years, the highest selling game from MG was a smidge over 2,000 copies and JAST wouldn't be able to survive without the aid of J-List.
 
Do you actually have any evidence that increasing the fanbase through piracy is actually increasing the number of sold copies? Because all the implied evidence says it isn't.
 
MEANWHILE, one of MG's games gets on STEAM, a DRM service ensuring people PAY FOR THE PRODUCTS, and automatically one of the VNs sells 10,000 copies. It's done in an instant what increasing the fanbase through piracy couldn't do in a decade.
 
 
Fuwa's original aim was to aid the production of visual novels in the West. How you would go about this aim in a serious manner while fully supporting the piracy of official products will be fairly amusing to watch.

I had a classmate go on a rant once about how every man that ever opened a door for a woman, regardless of the situation, was a chauvinistic, sexist pig that deserved to be castrated.  The same girl said that she hated man haters because they made feminists look bad  lol  Didn't even see the irony.
 
See, the Catch 22 is, if you do things like that for women, you're viewed as being sexist, but then if you let them do it for themselves all the time, people think you're a lazy, inconsiderate jerk.  You can't really win in that regard.  Not denying that polite actions, when in regard to women, are usually rooted in sexism and the belief that men are superior, but really, you're damned if you do and you're damned if you don't.  More people need to realize that being a feminist ≠ being a misandrist.  The definition of feminism is "equality for both genders", not "women are more equal than men".  That's from Animal Farm.  I'll be happy when things like this stop being issues.  They really don't matter as long as there's no ill will behind the action.

The main problem it imposes is a lack of interested in a repeated topic. When a person creates a new topic that has already been discussed in the past, the people who have said their part in the old one will be less likely to post in the new one (I often ignore topics i have thoroughly answered in the past).
The opposing problem is reviving an old post where the information can be outdated or the topic has so much content that new members will not want to read through.
 
Finding the proper balance is the difficult part for every forum.
 
There cannot really be a simple policy, it is up to the feels and information of the topic poster - is there an old topic discussing exactly what you are going to discuss? Is the topic relevant to this day? Can opinions of the posters in the old topic change over time so much to justify a new topic for them to express a new opinion?
Those are all relative question that the topic poster should ask, and usually the only way it can work on a forum.
 
If I would give an example, I just revived the AstralAir topic as the topic itself was about a game that is coming out this month - it is not out yet so any information relevant to that topic is still relevant today and a new opinions of former posters and new posters can add to such topic.
However once the game comes out, it will easily warrant a new topic, because people might want to discuss the game from a different perspective, not from a perspective of someone who is waiting for it but someone who is in the middle of playing it or has finished it. The new topic will be full of spoilers and new opinions about the game, that were impossible to be formed in the past (as obviously the game wasn't out yet).
 
So instead of imposing a rule of like "don't revive if the topic has been dead for more than 2 months", we need to educate the people posting on how to differentiate between a topic that needs revival and topic that needs a new post from scratch.
 
And that can be a hard thing~

Here is my submission for the contest:
 

 



 
Adjusting the hair on the side so it doesn't get cut off is an easy fix by the way.
 
Anyways, fun contest. Thanks for hosting!

Yes.  It isn't the anime art style or Japanese storytelling idiosyncrasies that make me enjoy visual novels.  I do enjoy those, just as I do in anime and manga, but I can't say that they are the reasons that I enjoy visual novels any more than I can say that they are the reasons I enjoy watching movies or reading books and comics.  Visual novels are a medium, and there is nothing about it the medium's attributes that makes it necessarily Japanese, just like there is nothing that makes video an American medium just because we had the first televisions.
 
Considering that there is a fair amount of variety within the medium, I could see western visual novels taking on everything from light action/dramas like superhero comics to film noir style weird fiction(think Frank Miller meets H.P. Lovecraft) to cyberpunk/body horror mashups.  There is a lot to draw on that would suit the medium, and I would certainly buy into any that were well done.

Sure. But Japan already has an established market for VNs. Also, story- and ero-oriented titles aren't really targeted at completely different audiences - they only serve a different purpose, their markets are quite similar (at least, the difference isn't as big as in the OELVNs' case).
 
If you want to sell your VN on the West, you have pretty much two choices:
- Aiming at the existing niche market, that is biased against OELVNs already and won't buy random crap. You'd have to write something actually decent, that would rival at least mediocre Japanese titles. High risk, a lot of effort, small reward.
- Aiming at a different market, that has no idea about VNs, and apparently will be happy with just T&A. You can write anything, no matter how bad it is, then you add boobs and put it on Steam. Low risk, not much effort (you only need decent artist), potentially much higher reward.
The difference between those two options is absolutely overwhelming. It's not that hard to imagine a flood of cheap T&A moneygrabs. They apparently sell after all, so why not make more?
That doesn't mean there won't be any decent OELVNs anymore. But, they have to make their way through a sea of garbage even now. If you add more thrash, those rare decent titles will completely drown.
 
Japanese VNs are good as they are, but OELVNs that try to imitate Japnese style and setting, almost always fail miserably. KS isn't exactly an exception here (to me, inconsistent pseudo-Japanese setting was among it's bigger flaws actually). Also, only newbies liked it. More experienced readers generally place it only among slightly above-average Japanese doujins at best.
If Western VNs' writers were sticking to the settings they are more familiar with, I think the amount of epic failures would have dropped a little.

*sigh* You missed most part of my argument.
 
The problem is not them copying, the problem is them misrepresenting.
 
I don't care if you hate your own culture, I don't care if you think japan is the holy land, I don't care about anything you like.
But don't misrepresent whole cultures that deserve respect, that's my one and only issue with weaabooism and any other culture degrading fandom.
 
But this is becoming a rant about weeaboos nd not about this VN  and I don't like weeaboos so I shall stop here.
 
Regarding this VN:
If you're going to sell a VN in the west and want to be taken seriously, then make sure it's properly westernized, and while you're at that make sure you have at least a highschool diploma and that you passed English class so it doesn't look like the VN was written by a 10 year old.   I rest my case now.

C'mon waffle-chan, you know it was a noble sacrifice on my part.
 
I basically took one for the team.
 
#kamihelpus

I could have sworn I just heard Steve ask for a ‘male only’ themed contest. The sexier the better ...*fufufu*
 
Sounds awesome Tay.

It just shows there's a huge market for story-driven doujin games, be it jrpg's, simulations or visual novels; Carpe Fulgur is a good example of that as well. Ero content aside, there's a whole lot to reach out for. I only hope SP remains as perceptive.

It means that a seller is selling the product it question via Amazon. There is still a guarantee as far as I know, though.

As much as I like cute lolis I don't think it's fair to rule out male characters.
We host Otome games too.
 
Also if it's every character possible you could get Renge there for example
 
"Fuwanovel nanon~"

Why don't you go for the whole class of Free. Everyone would love that!

 
Look at those Non-Nipple dudes. 
 
((Just pick a male characters since a certain loli has been around for too long.))

Then find or start an alternative distribution method that has as much sales potential as putting a game on Steam so that unedited versions can have a financially viable way of getting said versions to the west.  Otherwise all you're really saying is "I don't support the sale of Japanese visual novels in the western market."
 
First comes awareness.  Then comes economic viability.  Then comes options.  If no one knows or cares about the medium, and if you can't prove that the medium can sell, then you have no choice but to work within the existing constraints of the western market.  You have to be able to bring something to the bargaining table(i.e. customers) before you can set terms.
 
Let me put it another way.  You won't support this release due to cut content(or rather that they are using a version of the VN that doesn't contain the content you want).  But let's paint a possible scenario here.  Let's say that people do support the official localization of Grisaia no Kajitsu.  Let's say that it makes enough money that Frontwing gives the greenlight to an official localization of the sequels.
 
Now let's say that due to the success of those sales, we can then convince Sekai Project to release through distributors other than just Steam so that an unedited version could be available for those that want it.  After all, once we have proven that such an effort could be worthwhile economically, our own voices then count for more than they would if we all just continued to pirate or only buy Japanese versions.
 
Would that not be a favorable situation?  Would that not be worth putting money down, and furthermore, contacting Sekai Project and letting them know your reasons for putting your money down?  You claim that there is no turning back, but that sentiment ignores that there is currently no road leading where you want to go.
 
Shouldn't we take steps to build one?