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blackrose

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Posts posted by blackrose

  1. 7 minutes ago, TexasDice said:

    I don't think it's a completely hopeless cause.

    For one, cash in on the vtuber craze. Modernize the formula with animated sprites, moving backgrounds and other gimmicks.

    And speaking of cashing in, it always felt to me that the medium has completely missed it's opportunity to cash in on anime trends in the past. The amount of Isekai VNs is laughable, even according to me JP reading friends. Manga, Anime and LNs milked that trend for every penny and VNs just... didn't even bother?

    While that can work, it likely would be very expensive. Only well off devs or well known studious could pull something like that off, and even than with a vn it still may not sell. A person has to read a vn but with a vtuber you just watch them. Your method would likely help, but only for those who can afford it. Even then, it can be risky.

  2. I'll be honest, I'm not too sure on the whole reading is declining debate. Don't get me wrong, I do believe people are reading less and prefer tv and video games, but I do feel like a lot of young people enjoy reading as a hobby. I just remembered that my sister, who is a teacher, says that her kids do love reading despite also loving their phones. I do think less people read, but at the same time that people who love it wont go away. Still, people will love video games and tv more (obviously). I realize though that I and some others here are being a bit too negative about this topic. 

    As for visual novels, it depends on where you look. I admit Steam is a bad place to see if visual novels are on the decline or not because it's so hard to get noticed. However, I've been on itcho and have seen games like this that do very well 

    https://lunarisgames.itch.io/wtnc

    Note, this is an LGBT game and VN's seem to kind of thrive in the LGBT community. 

    Whether they are dying in general I do not know and hope not. It's just I notice how hard it can be for people to get into them.

  3. This was a good watch, but I have to wonder if this holds much truth, especially for creators outside of Japan. I mean, if people are reading less, why would they read a vn? Most vns are just reading with the occasional choice. I mean yeah having art may attract some, but I'm just not seeing visual novels as a medium that can grow outside JVNs. Another problem is, are vns really growing? I mean what's the point of writing one if no one will take the time to read it. Just look at Steam, it's over flooded with vns and it seems its hard to even get 10 reviews. I don't mean to sound negative and it would be great for vns to grow, but I also am hoping this isn't just about jvns. Anyway, I hope they don't die and do become a medium people can go to to create, but I'm just no sure it's possible..

  4. 18 minutes ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

    No, that's definitely not why I quit writing the blog. And well, the point... Depends on why you want to make something. If to want to make good money, making a VN in the West is not the way to go, unless you already have a strong brand that consistently attracts a decently-sized audience. But the whole indie market is suffering from the same plague of over-saturation and most titles released failing to gain traction. The more niche the genre, the bigger the risk and VN are still very niche, but they're not some unique story of failure.

    The thing is, while I might be somewhat frustrated with how the VN market fails to grow, it's not something I care about too much. If I were on a mission to do something with my blog, it was to show the value of EVNs to other VN fans, not to bring "enlightenment" to the masses. Because VNs staying niche doesn't mean they're going to die out tomorrow, or within a year, or necessarily ever. And I love the formula the same whether it goes mainstream or fails to do so.

    Okay, thank you for clarifying. That second paragraph was more about the website because someone had mentioned it, not at you. As for myself, I know going into the vn market is not going to make me a lot of money. Not a problem for me because it's more of a hobby. My problem is if no one reads it then I don't find a point in doing it. Honestly, I hope the VN market hasn't failed too much...Seems people were pretty hopeful visual novel readers were growing, but now not so much. 

     

    Is there honestly a point though for EVN's creators to make visual novels. This site, for example, proves people aren't fans of EVN'S. I mean it's better, but still many dislike EVNs. Honestly, maybe another big problems is that visual novels don't often branch out and that might be why. Though I'm not sure. . Or maybe should people branch more out into things like Yuri and Yaoi stories. Do those even do well? And honestly, will the visual novel market die in the next year? Seems so to me

  5. On 10/13/2020 at 9:47 AM, Plk_Lesiak said:

    You guys kind of underestimate the effort and resources necessary to make a decent VN. Art is really expensive, and voice acting even more expensive if it's meant to not sound like shit. VNs are a really good, cheap tool for people that want to create basic interactive stories for fun or are artists and want to apply their own skills in such a way... But when we get to levels of quality that could be attractive to a mainstream audience the difference between VNs and simple 3D game or other types of 2D games isn't that massive. And I'm not sure I have to remind anyone how huge 2D/retro gaming is right now, so we shouldn't really have to use AAA games as the point of reference...

    Anyway, I think most arguments people already listed are valid (massive amounts on text in aggressively pushed "kamige", questionable porn, anime aesthetic)... But an important point people forget about is how many, often high-quality VNs don't have mainstream appeal because they defy expectation/do not provide the kind of interactivity Western audience wants. Every time I see Steam users complaining about a VN they played not being a game or having too few choices, it reminds my how either bizarre or dull the idea of interactive literature is for an average gamer... And at the same time, people who are not into games in the first place have few incentives to get into this particular niche of otaku media. And the way the industry handle stuff hardly helps. One genuine perk of VNs over other otaku media is conclusive romance, but for example, we in the West never get the anime tie-in titles that let you pursue a non-canon romance from popular shows. We never see VNs coming to the West with a proper marketing budget either. The result is that you have things like Steins;Gate and Clannad, with legendary-status anime adaptations, being the only VNs with proper reach, alongside gameplay-heavy adventure games such as Danganronpa or Ace Attorney and occasional lowest-common-denominator moe crap like Nekopara...

    I don't know if I'm right about it, but the longer I look at it, the more botched the whole "bringing VNs into the Western market" feels. Mostly because it relies on the existing fan community nearly in 100% and its ideas of outreach stopped at MoeNovel's delusions of 12-years-old French girls playing Pulltop's waifu games. Either VNs truly have no appeal in the West outside of porn and the small crowd of people looking for romantic stories, or they are selected and marketed in an atrocious way. I would hope it's at least partially the latter, because that still can be remedied to some extent... Like not letting this category on VNDB to forever stay massively neglected.

    So then honestly, whats the point of making visual novels if they're still in limbo? I get JVN creators still doing it because they have a shot of getting decently noticed I guess. But with EVN's, what's the point? Honestly, visual novels should just stay on the JVN side of things if it's this bad. Didn't always use to think like this till recently when seeing just how anyone who makes a VN barely gets noticed unless they are lucky enough to be seen, Is that one of the reasons to why you quit your oEVN blog due to how visual novels, especially EVN, failed to make a market? Not trying to be harsh, but at this points it just seems like visual novels are failing and honestly  I don't see much of a point in making them, especially EVNs 

    Funny enough, one of the things this site was made for was to make visual novels popular in the west. Given this topic and responses, it seems it's failed in that to a degree, especially for the EVNs.

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