adamstan

Quoting myself from this thread:
The only thing that changed since then is that I decided to start using half-integers again for the cases where none of the integer ratings feel appropriate. 

I used this sale to snatch Root Double - its regular price was bit too much for me, but after 65% off it became much more accessible

Is this promised improvements? If anything I would prefer original version. Face looks a little different. Or Sol Press just put PSVita/PS4 images?
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/124827
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/124828
http://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/124829

I've heard that "神ゲー" translates directly to "games that I really like and I'm going to shill for every opportunity I get".
At least, it's the only definition that matters.

I'm starting YMK. Wish me luck

I read VNs sitting by the table, using my main laptop (17" Lenovo Z570), while having 10" netbook (old Asus EeePC) on the side, with the walkthrough open
Reading or watching anything in "weird" positions, like lying on the bed, is actually uncomfortable for me, as it seems to put more strain on my not-so-good-eyes and neck.

Can we discuss it here, or is it just announcement?
Anyway, I'll answer
Wanting to read untranslated VNs was one of my reasons for starting learning Japanese. The two titles that were the source of that are Konosora (it was back when I didn't know if and when retranslation patch will be ready) and Mashiroiro Symphony. Now they are joined by many others (like Clover Day's for example, and bunch of '90s PC98 titles, like Love Escalator or Kakyuusei).
As for the first question - I still don't have confidence to tackle those big ones, but recently I started with Hanahira to get my feet wet . It looks very approachable from the learner's point of view - the writing is very simple, and - since there is no narration - all lines are voiced, so it makes looking up unknown words easy even without hooking software.
As for the resources I'm using for learning - I started with JFZ online course. I also use Tae Kim's book, and currently mainly I'm learning kanji with WaniKani (and I'm about halfway through, at lvl 30). I'm also thinking about joining some actual class/course next year, to have some speaking pratice and some more structured learning schedule.
For now I feel pretty confident with basic grammar, but find my vocabulary and kanji knowledge considerably lacking, so reading bigger VNs would for now still mean looking up many words. But I hope, that maybe in a year or so I will be able to do it

To be clear about this: Piracy is not an advantage or great in any way. And I can see the thought process of "well great, 200.000 people just STOLE our product". I get it, it sucks.
However, you can't make the mistake of seeing these, lets say, 200.000 downloads as "lost sales". Because they are not lost sales. They aren't lost because nothing was ever sold. They are nothing. If you sold, lets say 500.000 copies of your product and 200.000 also pirated your shit, getting rid of piracy would still mean you only sold 500.000. 
The only way to actually turn the pirate numbers into customer numbers, is to make pirating more of a hassle than purchasing. And no, that is not accomplished by 23,7 different accounts and 4 spy programs connected to the software,  like game developers seem to think. Put it on steam for 10, 20, what have you, bucks. Slap a discount on during release week. Don't break their balls, tickle them. (which also why the "make VNs more expensive" idea is up there with the dumbest plans I've ever read).

All that recent talk about YMK piqued my curiosity, and despite my fears I bought it today and added to my backlog
Just like that old meme:

For me it was Grisaia no Meikyuu and Rakuen, since they didn't have translations at the time, and I absolutely loved Kajitsu. While it wasn't the reason I started learning in general, it certainly was a strong motivator. The Kono Oozora fandisk was as well, which was the first game I ever tried reading in Japanese. I was pretty terrible at the time, but the motivation it gave me certainly helped me improve a lot faster than I would have normally.
I'd personally recommend the Genki books, tbh. We used them at our university, and Genki 1-2 gave us enough knowledge to get by when we studied abroad in Japan. Stuff like Tae Kim's guide is way too overwhelming for beginners in my opinion, and I don't think it should be used as a primary learning resource, but as a secondary source that you check for specific pieces of grammar instead.
While it isn't a resource for learning per se, another thing I recommend is for people to start looking up definitions of Japanese words in Japanese dictionaries as soon as possible. (Like this site.) Sure, you might not understand the definitions fully early on, but there is definitely tons of benefits to looking up definitions in Japanese, as English translations won't always carry over the correct nuance of a word, and might even give you the wrong idea of what a word means altogether.

All that recent talk about YMK piqued my curiosity, and despite my fears I bought it today and added to my backlog
Just like that old meme:

Very good actually, no mistakes and very liberal with cursing and other things.

I'd say you exaggerate a bit, or rather jump to quick conclusions. But, tbh, after reading some tags and discussions on VNDB I was hesitating too - but after all I don't regret reading it.
I said about "utsuge" somewhere eariler - IMHO Miyu's route it's about as utsuge'ish, as AIR true route, so take it however you see fit.
As for "girls dating other guys" - if you're afraid of NTR, it isn't present here. In one route heroine breaks up with her current boyfriend, to be with MC, but it's all resolved pretty peacefully. No "stealing", cheating etc.
 
And speaking of "whore"...
That's why I say her route is brilliant. Because at the beginning, from the first impressions, everyone (player and MC included) sees her just as that, but during the route you're in for some surprises.
Overally, I'd say Crescendo is definitely worth reading - and it isn't exactly what it appears on surface. It isn't exactly made for "feeling good" (that's what moeges are for ), has some heavier moments/themes, but I liked it.
 
To summarise - I understand your doubts, and I also have some things I prefer to avoid in VNs (like gore, or some other dark, disturbing themes, as well as "true" utsuge, where there's only death and despair, and no trace of hope), which rules out some "kamiges" for me, but I'd say - give Crescendo a chance.

To some degree yes, but not only this. In some routes MC also has to fix or change himself, as he's the part of the problem too (for example in Ayame's route).

A little, but not exactly. However music reminded me of Katawa Shoujo - although it is different, its mood felt similar.
Hmm... difficult to say without spoiling too much. I'd say the romance is used as a kind of "plot device"? So yeah, maybe like Katawa Shoujo or Clannad? With each heroine comes some issue that is main theme of the route, and MC, while he gets closer to her, must face those problems.
I'm not sure if I'm wording it correctly... but it definitely isn't pure romance as seen in moeges.

I wouldn't sell myself short if i were you. I absolutely don't get a hint of you being as bad as a bad vn protagonist. You have your opinions and you stick with them. Bad protagonists just go with the flow, like the sheep that they are. Just read rewrite and see how the protagonists thinking varies from one end to the other based on which girl he's with.
As for me, i'd chock it up to experience and age. I've given up on dating. I've dated exactly 2 girls before i said "enough". First time i got ntr'd.. Yup, it totally happened. Not because of my dick mind you  Second time i dated a girl for a year before finding out she'd been sexually abused for many years by a relative and still wanted to maintain a happy relationship with said relative. Yup, the whole relationship felt like a lie and i couldn't and wouldn't deal with that. Call me a bastard for abandoning her, but with what happened and how she was acting because of it it just simply wasn't worth it. To put it really bluntly. Fortunately for me, i'm quite used to not having a girlfriend so it doesn't matter in the end.
Well, as you'd realize, those two themes piss me off.
As for self insertions. I think most of us either self insert of heavily empathize with the protagonists. I'm the latter as i rarely agree with anything the protagonist does. I'm sure i was similar at that age as some protagonists (i had a personality though) but i was bad with women. I've come to realize later that a few girls liked me, but i did not realize at all (guess i've been quite the donkan ). Point is: isn't it more inspirational reading a protagonists that is better than you are, yet still similar, rather than one who is potentially as bad as you think you are?
Hopefully that didn't become too heavy or too personal  history for me so i don't really care anymore.

Another week, so here's another update for this week below:
Common: 100.0%
Sora: 0.0%
Marika: 100.0%
Natsuki: 0.0%
Misa: 70.59%
Rikka: 0.0%
Touko: 0.0%
Total: 32.23%
Good that Trip did took a liking at Misa's route, and that he already finished with Misa's school arc along with reach 30% translated mark. Oh and even if we have Misa's route fully translated at the next week (Which is almost certain), Trip did say that it's still didn't mean that we'll gonna have Misa's patch at the next week because there's still some editing work (I assume that he'll release it two weeks later).
That's all for this week update.

I liked Kaho's route just as much actually. School nurse was on par for me. Yuka was alright for me but was too realistic seeing as I actually had a relationship with a girl who had those issues (but did not sell her body of course). Kyoko's route was the most innocent and pure hearted to me, so it was pretty good too. School nurse reminded me of a time at the school I went to where somebody there got with the PE teacher and she resigned after graduation that year. (He was 19, she was 23 so its a better age range than 10 years ). Anyways, it was a good game for its age.

I partially agree and disagree at the same time. The problem isn't in the pirates who won't buy something because they don't want to, but you also need to note that the higher you set the price, the bigger will be the number of people who simply can't afford it. I mean, what's the point in increasing the price by two times if they are going to lose 80% of their customers? Of course, only actually doing that will show if this change will be effective from the companies' perspective, but I can clearly say that I would never be able to afford this hobby if I actually had to pay the Japanese prices for all VNs that I read. Well, I guess, I don't belong to the demographics to who VNs are generally marketed since I don't leave in the most well-off country, so maybe I'm completely wrong in this reasoning, but, I'd say, the problem of the price barrier for the newcomers still exists no matter where you live.
Well, I'm the end, we should probably leave question how they fund their products for the companies themselves to decide. The ones who will find the best way to do it will survive, the others will go bankrupt. The capitalism will do its job.
Yeah, and most VN fans come from the other otaku media anyway (and probably because they we dissatisfied with something these media do).

I think saturation is actually a much bigger potential problems for VNs in general than most other mediums. VNs are usually rather long compared to most medium. If you for instance decrease the price of VNs the sales might not increase that much since a lot of those who buys VNs won't have time to read it all. If you just build up a really long backlog you will probably end up only buying the most highly rated of the new stuff regardless of it costing almost nothing or consting a decent amount. With VNs you then also have to not only think about how much a customer is willing to pay but also how much time they have to read. As for how the current market is increasing in terms of amount of released titles I am a bit worried that there simply won't be a large enough community to actually keep the translation companies going. So even if we assumed that the fanbase didn't get bored of it I still think the saturation poses a problem.

Toradora nukige? Blasphemy!!

New pickup line: you are so cute that I'm convinced you are the ugliest person I've seen in my life 

Imo, they look like they could easily belong to a shoujo manga. And it's not a bad thing.

Yeah finally after two years in beta testing because of Chuuable's bankruptcy, we'll about to have it released at December 13th later. Here's the tweet from Mangagamer for the proof below.
As for the reviews, so far there's none so it's quite hard to expect what we'll going to get from this VN. Although perhaps it shouldn't be hard to guess that we'll going to have anther moege here with one unique archetype that one of the heroine is former girlfriend of the MC, and that we'll have three full route and two side routes looking from the CG number (I may be wrong abut this). I'll add the character and seiyuu info later.

Ah, yeah, S;G too. There's also Harmonia and Planetarian.