Tyr

I'm open about my VN playing in high school of all places. I get called a pedophile, a freak, a sick fuck, and other nicknames, but I'm not embarrassed of my hobby. If people can't handle being called a pedophile or a rapist by some ignorant pricks, they can stay that way. Sure, it's mostly the opposite party's fault, but you should accept that you're gonna be called these things right from when you start playing VNs.

I dont like being put in the same category as those Steam all-ages loving weeaboo pleebs who know nothing about a great visual novel and just writing reviews filled with dank memes to get funny/positive marks and comments.
So yeah, like OriginalRun, I consider these motherfuckers lower than dirt and they give visual novels a bad name for their attitude towards our favorite Japanese entertainment medium.

Professional Japanese voice acting and graphics design for the CG is expensive.  That's most of the cost right there.  The Sakura series games are super short and designed by amateurs.  By comparison many of the top eroge feature hundreds of detailed CG and 50+ hours of writing by talented professional writers--longer than entire book series like Lord of the Rings.  You get what you pay for.

It's a marketing ploy that benefits both users and the company.  MangaGamer gets its name out, and users get a free copy of the game / another game to add to their Steam profile to show off in their collection.  It also encourages users to buy through them rather than Steam (so Valve doesn't get its 30% cut) and justifies selling adult versions at higher prices on their site (since you get 2 copies for the price of 1).
Seems like MG/Valve could get around this issue by making the keys bind to your Steam account on purchase from the MG store (or others).  The way this would work is that you'd list your Steam ID in your MG profile.  MangaGamer would then deposit the activated game in your Steam account.  It couldn't be resold then, curtailing the illegal activities that caused their current problem.  Alternatively, you'd been given a key with a very short expiration timer (like 1hr).  The criminals wouldn't have time to resell it.

Uhm, not really ^^
https://vndb.org/v9545 is not based on Nabokov's novel in any way. This VN is a just a product of the "lolita boom" which was prevalent in Japanese entertainment in the 80s.
The lolita boom, despite what one may think when he hears that name, isn't exactly based on Nabokov's novel, either. Japanese obsession with little girls comes from a pseudo-psychological book written by Russell Trainer named "Lolita Complex" where he tries to explain in a pseudo-scientific way (he wasn't actually a scholar) why little girls are obsessed with older men.
When Lolita Complex was translated into Japanese, it was quite popular with the middle-aged men there. They probably liked the idea of little nymphs who are into them. The first mangaka to draw a "Lolita" was also inspired by Trainer's book and his "Lolita" manga was a big success with the audience and the beginning of that what's now called the lolita boom.
You see, the term "Lolicon" derived from "Lolita Complex", Trainer's book, and not from Nabokov's novel. Many people nowadays also think that it means "older men who are attracted to little girls", but that's not true either! It actually describes not the men but the girls and means "little girls who are attracted to older men". Thus the "Lolita"-character isn't just any little girl, it's implied that she is a nymphet, Humbert Humbert's term for these "special" little girls. Those little succubi who target older men with their adolescent innocence, just like Humbert himself was targeted and bewitched by his Lolita (although many moralfags probably think of this interpretation as victim blaming, haha).
If you look at the cover of this VN, you will also see one of these little devils! Just look at her expression, she's probably confused by her budding sexuality and how she's getting wet under that innocent little-girl dress when she's fantasizing about mature middle-aged men! ...at least that's what Japanese otaku in the 80s thought.
What most people are classifying as "pedophiles" nowadays are in many cases not actual genuine pedophiles. I think most otaku who are labeled as "Lolicons" (which is a misnomer as I explained before, but we will just go with it now) are not attracted by the appearance of little girls per se (which is the definition of a genuine pedophile) but by their innocence. The artificial attraction to little girls is in many cases a result of social awkwardness, especially with normal(-aged) women. Which is probably true for most otakus, haha.
Little girls don't judge you, they don't care how you look or how much money you earn. All there is to make them happy is to spend some time with them and play with them. It's truly the ideal relationship for many otakus. I'm pretty sure that's why otakus are so fascinated by Lolis and that's also the reason why in the 80s they very much liked the idea, that little girls are actually interested in them and not only the other way around.
Alice Soft games are a good example for the lolita boom, they are full with Lolita-characters. (At least in the 80s and 90s they were.) Elf's games are full with nymphets, too.
That said, you shouldn't confuse a "Lolita"-character with the "Loli"-character today. Just like the term Lolicon changed its meaning, a "Loli" nowadays is entirely different from its 80s counterpart. Though it would probably go to far to explain that, too. I actually just wanted show why so many old eroge are "Lolita"-focused and where the term, how the Japanese use it, really comes from.

plz for the love of god stop.

Pretty much. Most other people usually don't openly admit that they are driveling idiots.

That sounds like a compliment considering it's coming from the Netorare Queen herself. 

That sounds like a compliment considering it's coming from the Netorare Queen herself. 

That sounds like a compliment considering it's coming from the Netorare Queen herself. 

It's because the target audience can't self-insert into a protagonist who actually gets laid. That's unimaginable.

I still cant fathom the fact that people play the all ages version, its a nukige ffs

And this, my friends, is why adults sites get charged an arm and a leg for payment processing.
Offbeatr FAQ
After this fiasco MangaGamer may be charged significantly more for payment processing because they're now a high-risk client.  They might even have to raise prices.

Huh, posting picz of your 2D waifus while wasting Valentines Day alone in front of your screen ? How pathetic. Please, just get a life and experience the joy of having a healthy relationship in 3D!
 

This whole thing inspired me a blog post. Which is probably a bit too long because I tend to stray off but if you're interested...

If you are reading vns on steam (not everyone but in general) you obviously don't care about censorship or having a complete vn butchered, you do it to gain likes in your funny reviews, that you probably didnt read in the first place you just left the novel open for a hours so it looks like you did, and look cool to the whole world and friends on steam, and maybe if you are really really lucky a cool page like kotaku, IGN or any great great site will grab your comment and paste it in a super ultra profound article of that novel and then you can read the super ultra profound comments on that article about how visual novels are porn. YAY \/

Meh. I'm stuck in the 90s anyway, the modern vidya game market is complete nonsense to me. 
I'll be on the bench there with Rooke if you're looking for me.

When people say "Hitler" on the internet, I automatically assume they know nothing about the historical person and just mean it as a synonym for "the worst". That's how memes work, I guess.
Edit: I'm not saying he isn't the worst, lol. I just think you shouldn't think too deeply about memes. They are based on prejudice, not facts.

Me watching hentai animu since the 80s lol.
To name a few: Cream Lemon, Urotsukidouji, Sei Michaela Gakuen Hyouryuuki, La Blue Girl, Injuu Onna Kyoushi...
Hentai nowadays are pretty much impossible to watch if you know how they once looked.

And that's exactly why people call Sekai the Hitler of visual novels.

I think the voice acting gets worse during the hentai scenes. Especially with vanilla eroge using famous seiyuu who don't want to dirty talk. I can't fap to this. It's so obvious that seiyuu and writer don't care at all that the h-scenes aren't ero at all.

Mangagamer and Jast may have their issues, but I always felt that they at least cared about their fanbase to some degree. I feel nothing but bubbling contempt from Sekai Project, if you hate your work and the people you are working for.... just stop. Why do you continue to torture yourself?

This made my day:
 

This made my day:
 

This made my day: