Narcosis

Dude, I will say I disagree with you, but Im very very glad to find someone like you. In my opinion, all elements of a work of fiction must be treated equally. Writing can be just as powerful as art or cause the same amount of damage, if bad, imo. I also watched that video but what opened my mind about the subject was this post. Before reading that, I also thought that story and characters> everything else. But then, I started searching and studying more and I finally realize art, soundtrack, animation, voice acting, etc. can all bring emotions and be intelectually stimulating just like story and characters.
It makes me sick seeing people saying stuff like: "I dont care about art" because that is not an opinion, that is a lie. People 'think' they dont care about art because they never studied how it is used and thus do not realize its impact. Those people tend to think good art is just being pretty and therefore it is easier to make than a good story. Now even if I disagree that writing is inferior to art or soundtrack, it makes me really glad to see people like you, at least to balance the amount of overrate writing gets from the community.

It's really weird, as it's almost like another language. Because I'm so used to seeing American spelling as well, I easily switch from one mode to the other. As you're likely not used to seeing regular English spelling, you wouldn't have been fluent in it so I can understand why it would be so hard for you. Yes, quite a few still needed to be corrected after your edits, but I've mostly automated that process with my own programming scripts since the bulk of my editors use American spelling.
For what it's worth, I was quite pleased that I was able to translate the explanation of the theory of relativity and am sorry it didn't flow to your liking But then, that's why I paid you all those peanuts to improve it.

This was and still remains one of the best free doujin vn's out there; I'd actually go to such lengths as to say anyone who hasn't read it yet should feel awfully bad and guilty about it. It's definately worth a read, especially if you're a fan of Sakurai and WAB series, since her and Shiba's writing bear a lot of similiarities and Shiba is a master when it comes to skillful usage of moody settings.
That aside, if you're a proud owner of a 3DS (or simply have an emulator), there is a renewal version available, called TRUE REMEMBRANCE ～記憶のかけら～, released in 2012, which - suprisingly - almost no one knows about. It's worth a grab, mainly because of new, polished art and music, as well as new content.
 

I guess it's something to look forward to as an addition to a more serious game lineup. I'm propably going to pick it up and see how they handled the localization, once it's out; there's still a shortage on decent vn's involving vampires.

I'd say honorifics should be always dropped, when they bare no significance to the context of the story. It's a japanese thing and it should be left for japanese; there's literally no valid reason to keep them, aside from translator's whim, when all they add is nothing more than another layer of flavor to your moe.

>Is this an OELVN?
I chuckled... a bit. Thanks for making my day.

>Is this an OELVN?
I chuckled... a bit. Thanks for making my day.

Just think: if you took all the time you spent Internet posting about the inadequacies of the English VN market, you too could be playing VNs in Japanese--10 years later!

Meh. I'll stick with not learning Japanese.

There seems to be a similar theme to your answers, but for the life of me I can’t figure out what it is. I think you’re being a little too subtle...

You finally submitted to your darkest urges.
Well done.

I basically agree with IceD.  The VN market is oversaturated and that makes producing quality works very difficult.  Ironically, the industry may need to constrict and reconsolidate to produce more quality titles.  Either that, or reach out to a new audience to tap a new cash source (such as the English market).
 
If you haven't already, you might want to check out Ninetail's Machina Chronicle series the next time you're looking for gameplay eroge.  I think you might've played Gears of Dragoon, but that's considered the weakest entry in the series.  I played Amatsukaze and that seems like it'd be up your alley.  You might want to play them in order since there is some continuity to the setting, unlike the Venus Blood series.

This trend has been somewhat slowly growing within the past few years. It might be temporary, but given the fact japanese market is heavily oversaturated at the moment, it's propably even harder to produce high quality vn's which at least cover the production expenses and bring in some profit to the companies. This, coupled with the everchanging trends might make a lot of devs shudder, especially when it's often just a single flop that might bring an entire studio crumbling down.
 
I'm not surprised the quality is dropping in overall. A lot of studios simply revert to fail-safe practices, milking their franchise/flagship games as much as possible, since it's usually produces enough revenue to survive.

Are Japanese the xenophobic ones or are we the ones that forced them to take action against something that used to be normal for them?

I really don't like thinking that the Japanese are just xenophobic, we're a huge part of the problem, we're the ones that overreact and have power over them, that's why they don't want to consider us, because we give them a hard time for it.

I really liked seeing this side of a developer, it really goes to show that it's not just because xenophobia, but because they want to avoid legal trouble we western folks give them.

You should keep in mind that it's the Rapelay incident that caused this whole "Japan only" thing to begin with, and it has nothing to do with Japanese and everything to do with the dumbasses from UK. It's not about them being xenophobic, but about west being openly hostile toward their product.
 
Try looking for a "Japan's Sales Only" label in a game released before 2009 -- you won't find one. This wasn't a thing before the west outright attacked eroge industry. Also, from the way it's worded I'd say the "is that ok? Where's the line?" is a question that's partly directed at you, the west, as in: will you come with burning stakes at our door again if someone has brought home a game he bought in our country?
 
What we need is to make west accept the concept of visual novel and eroge, and the "Japan Sales Only" label will swiftly go away. No one's so xenophobic here as to ignore profit, as long as it doesn't mean you're gonna end up lynched for it ( ). How would you fix this is beyond me though, eroge aren't particularly respected in Japan either. Aaah, just remembering that RapeLay debocle fills me with so much rage... It's as if some ppl exist solely for the purpose of ruining good things.

Otherwise, yeah, what Clephas said.

出る杭を打つ is drawn from a Japanese saying that is basically the opposite of the American saying 'the squeaky wheel gets the grease'.  He is taking an even larger risk than Sanahtlig is hinting at by saying this.  Japanese companies in general do not take kindly to their employees putting the company out there on a limb, and the industry already suffered badly as a whole from the infamous Rapelay incident and a number of follow-up incidents. 
 
I don't think those of us over here can really comprehend the pressures the average Japanese companies are under.  For one thing, social pressure can turn into economic pressure with alarming swiftness over there.  For another, Japan is reliant enough on other countries' trade for its survival that these kind of scandals overseas can cause hysterical reactions from their lawmakers.  The eroge industry, being a niche industry by nature, is vulnerable to crackdowns in a way that the car and food production industries aren't.  Since eroge are basically a guilty pleasure and a luxury, there are plenty of lawmakers that wouldn't see a problem with doing away with them if it meant they could improve their own chances of remaining in office.  It isn't like they are universally accepted, even by otakus... so before you criticize eroge-makers for being 'xenophobic', you should at least try to see the bind they are in.