Narcosis

Truth to be told, it's how it looks with a lot of eroge nowadays. Calling them a filler is the right thing to do, because in most cases they are there because of the genre requirements; at times, devs do not even propably imagine whether they should indeed become a part of the game, or not. They just have to go in there, that's it. In most cases, it comes out of the fact their games simply won't sell because the japanese visual novel market is completely oversaturated and there's a lot of competition going on around. A lot of visual novels I know could actually work well without any explicit erotic content; there's just not enough of those, that come with a more subtle approach, instead trying to sell your typical smut. In one way or another, it makes the genre shallow and decreases it's overall quality. One cannot be surprised people tend to link visual novels with porn. It is because THEY ARE porn by the definition in that case. Sadly, sex is not only about the intercourse. Eroge writers tend to focus on the intercourse and neglect other, more important factors. I can hardly remember a visual novel that truly made the whole romantic/sexual aspect really enjoyable, mainly since everything fails to deliver all those strong sensations and feelings related with our own sexuality; because most of the stories are written by incredibly poor writers, and their texts simply radiate with their immaturity. Sadly, intercourse itself is just a poor conclusion to one of the most blissful experiences we, humans are able to perceive.

Preety much this. The other reasons are preety straighforward for our culture; there's nothing wrong with erotic content, the issue lies within it's execution. Don't forget, we're simply a bunch of lucky people being graciously allowed to read and watch japanese popculture; most of it was never meant to leave their borders. It's meant to look different and cater mostly to japanese audience (more like, anime fans and otakus) and remains other from our point of view. Do not take it for granted. Japanese game industry owes us nothing, it's us who owe them everything we currently have.

People tend to misinterpret eroge. It exists because of H-scenes. It's been always a major factor, and I doubt it will ever change. The fact whether the reader really wants to see them, or not and whether he trully enjoys them is subjective. Visual novels actually derived from classical ero games, which used to be complete sex romps back in the past; in time, companies like Leaf and Nexton tried to make them better and it lead to creation of the classic formula for a "crying game" - nakige, which still involved erotic content, but driven by a strong storyline and an end goal to induce strong emotions in readers; that was the day when modern eroge was born. The major difference between them is the said "substance"; sex romps became nukige - true "porn" games which sold basically nothing except sex and eroge became the games with erotic content being mainly a part of the story; games suddenly started to show sex in them not only because consumers wanted that, but simply because there was more to it from the artists and writers themselves, as the genre developed along with it's industry. All of them are "visual novels", not because of what's in them but because of the way content is shared with the reader. Now, the general question is what the person wants? If he only wants to indulge in porn and doesn't care that much about the story, he should chose nukige or any other borderline hentai visual novels. If he wants a classic experience, that consists of decent storyline intermixed with eventual romantic relationships and erotic content, he should chose eroge. A lot of galge falls under this as well. There are titles with very subtle erotic content as well. If he is interested only in the storyline and/or dislikes the erotic content, he should pick an all ages title. There are exceptions. A lot of them. There are visual novels, which have a very strong storyline and are completely devoid of erotic content. There are games, in which the erotic content is a strong, integral part of the storyline or IS the storyline itself; there are visual novels, which tend to climax with the erotic content, but are still story driven and do not focus on sex as the main selling point (to be honest, only nukige does that). A lot of succesful titles often gets ported to consoles and handhelds, with erotic content removed and new content added to suffice for the deficiencies. Some titles include an option to either remove or turn off the erotic content. I find it quite peculiar for western readers to actually ask that sort of questions, "whether H-scenes are really necessary". Instead of debating whether it's trully needed (which is up to the creators themselves, not the readers), people should be grateful to have such a great variety in choices.

Erotic content is an integral part of the visual novel genre. You have both all ages titles and eroge intended for 18+ audiences; said content gets separated further, starting from mild erotic content and going as far as to hardcore pornography, involving some really disturbing fetishes. There's a whole lot of different things to chose from and this without doubt, helps to satisfy the audience in a sense that everyone will find something to their liking. The rest is a matter of a subjective, personal opinion. Then, you have the typical old discussion about whether the 18+ content should be tolerated for western releases and console ports and the integral conflict between artistic freedom of expression and all the distribution-based issues that come with it. There are studios, which use porn as an easy source of money (sex sells, it's as old as the world around us), and those who make it an important aspect within their works, in one way or another; since a lot of these works often cope with romantic relationships between the characters, it's a foregone conclusion the said characters will propably get involved in sex, sooner or earlier, since it's a human thing to do. It is arguable, how certain writers and artists perceive erotic content within their own works and a lot depends on their own approach towards it. In the end erotic content is what makes eroge so distinct in it's own way; in fact it is, what made eroge in the first place. Most of the complaints come from the fact a lot of the western fans aren't satisfied with the general level of the erotic content within the visual novels and our skewed, western/european perception of sexuality, where it's still considered a taboo in a lot of cultural circles around the world; I'm not saying the japanese are that different from the rest, but there is a bigger sense of openess and distinction between the reality and fiction. TL & DR What do you expect by reading eroge? It's like watching porn and complaining it has kinky sex in it. Reminds me of people who play mmorpg's on pvp servers and complain about getting constantly ganked. Modern gaming communities are completely unbearable.

MangaGamer is the last thing I'd like to see localising WAB series, If I am to be honest. They should stick to their cheap nukige. Do you have any source on that, though?

For those who are interested, you can find it here: http://4NN.cx/153129 I rarely talk about releases and subjective matters, but this one is particular since the game is basically made by former members of the now defunct Littlewitch, I used to be really fond of; known for such great titles as Quartett! and Girlish Grimoire and featuring the art of Oyarii Ashito, that studio made quite an impact on general perception how vn's can not only be good enertainment, but hold some artistic values as well. Unfortunately, I don't hold TENCO in such a high regard as I used to before, mainly due to their skewed approach towards western fans (which shares a lot in common with studios like Minori), bad management and major change in how Oyari Ashito approaches his own artwork so far, after his previous studio broke down. Something tells me this is going to fail anyway, unless becomes a completely mediocre success at all. Meanwhile, TENCO continues to block access to their own services and website for all the foreign IP's.

A longer while ago, Hikaru Sakurai mentioned she and Liar-Soft are both interested in bringing the WAB series to the west. Haven't heard any progress related news about it yet, though. There's no particular order in reading, though there's some sort of a chronological order within the series. I'd still recommend reading Inganock before Sharnoth, as it gives a lot of insight on the general world setting, techonology and certain aspects Hikaru meddles with in her stories, making everything easier to understand.

If you compare the japanese market and western visual novel scene, including the so called "oelvn's" and indies, it will only be a drop in the sea. Most of the titles here barely scratch the numbers of sales they get in Japan (and those are titles that are either A. cheap to translate and buy B. popular, which happens less often). There is still NO viable market for the visual novels on the west and except for a couple of accidental successes on a larger scale (mainly Analogue, which sold tremendously good for a western vn - selling 40k+ copies is something most average japanese studios can only dream of), there's nothing else to support it. Mangagamer and JAST are lolcompanies that sell thousands of copies in most scenarios (which is comparable to weak in terms of japanese sales numbers, but enough to cover the costs and at least go on in poverty; not like most titles they sale did better in Japan, anyway). On the other hand, japanese visual novel industry is facing some serious issues right now; their market is completely oversaturated, with plenty of studios simply going out of business as prices drop down to maintain competition, whilst low sales numbers are not enough to cover their expenses. In natural state of things, this leads to constant quality degradation - consumers get more mediocre, short and "budget-friendly" games cause they are a safer bet for their creators, who prefer to stick to certain safezones in terms of game design; a high quality, high-budget title in most cases becomes a hit or miss for most companies, more often becoming a final nail into their coffins. Everything has positive and negative aspects, though. You asked about whether they finally started to notice the possibilities in western audience. Personally, I think it's more over a result of progressing globalization and massive rise of handheld electronics; developers actually see handheld devices as some sort of "new chance" for the visual novel medium and more and more of them are slowly starting to develop their games for them, if not even shifting to that market entirely. This market also has a much bigger reach and it's much easier to maintain; there's plenty of hidden potential in it. Perhaps - as well - japanese creators slowly see that western audience might pose some chance and capacity, to the point of being profitable enough to extend their business overseas. With such hard situation on their own side - an industry completely overflowed with similiar products on a very confined space with them being sole creators and consumers of those products, it's not hard to decude, that market will finally collapse sooner or later, having a big and bad impact as an end result. Whether it will make them really open towards western audience, or not is another question, as centuries had shown they are preety rigid and mostly unable to adapt; they simply don't see any reason to do so, yet which brings us back to the very beggining (no western market, no demand).

It seems so. Honestly, I knew this will happen sooner or later and either they will take it down, or someone full of jaundice will report it to them; I'm not even sure why the site was hosted at Wordpress.com - it's the worst possible idea to get mixed up in grey zone stuff and hope that guys from Automattic will turn a blind eye on it, while it was clearly violating their TOS. If you want to keep such a site, it's best to host it privately. I already reported this to Aaeru. I hope she has a backup.

Have a wonderful Christmas, everyone!