daniel

It would be interesting to talk with developers in Japan and see how they felt about fan translation projects. There is certainly a loss of revenue, but there is also the creation of demand. If they took advantage of that and coupled a good translation with decent distribution (say across Steam or via DDL on a website) they could make pretty decent profit. My opinion keeps going both ways, I'm really giving this a lot of thought. Recently, I've thought that the creators of the content don't view me as a consumer and haven't provided the product to me. In the end, a US company would buy the rights, translate it, and the original artists wouldn't receive anything in return. Since it is because of the original content creators that I was hesitant to download the games, there's no real (and I mean that literally) loss to them.

Ok, I've come to the conclusion that the international copyright treaty, Berne Convention, is to protect goods that are actually sold between countries. Many of these games have not been made available. So a good compromise is to buy games that are translated and released in America, but otherwise it seems fine to take advantage of torrents. This means that additionally, I'm going to have to refrain from torrenting licensed anime now to be consistent, but at least there's still places to view it streaming and anime that hasn't been licensed.

I looked at getting a few of the games I wanted to play. The prices are astronomical! What do consumers in Japan pay for these games? Maybe I'll just make a deal with myself, pirate the game, and give the price of the game to a local charity.

Hey all, I recently deleted all the VNs I did not purchase myself. I was wondering if downloading a VN you didn't own could be legally permissible in any case (no longer up for purchase is the only case I can think of, and even that seems questionable if it is still under copyright in Japanese law). Of course, there are free VNs too, Katawa Shoujo and various Ren'py games... I'd like to play without feeling guilty of depriving the artists and writers of their due. I had an experience of not getting recompense for some of my work and felt that karma was a b! So, any recommendations for legally free novels?

Haha, I was wondering about that "starter" part of the list in the picture as well. Still, Saya no Uta is in the Top 50 list too. Not a good starter. Ah, I would throw in a recommendation for Katawa Shoujo. It's a good length and the plot feels like it has a bit more "normalacy" to it than other VNs.

I saw someone else is wondering if they should finish Grisaia...I'm kind of having a hard time getting around to it myself. I wanted to go Michiru's route first, since she was the only heroine that semi-interested me, but I got too wrapped up in wanting to see what Amane was about...what a weird path...I think I'll just go reload and continue to Michiru, because I have no motivation to Hahaha, there are mods that make it even worse than some eroges out there...

The only 18+ games without sex that I have ever bought are the Orange Box and Unreal III. Mostly, the 18+ is reserved for sexual themed games. I expect that if a VN's plot deals with extra violent themes, it could be rated for adults only, but extreme violence is more of a selling point in the US than it is in Japan.

Oh, that's good news! Thanks for the heads up, Doc

I just got Minecraft last month, and I've had no luck finding a fun server, so I was thinking of starting my own. The point is to play with people, so I'm trying to find what would be a good community to open up with - anyone here interested in joining if I start a Minecraft server? I've no experience in being a server admin, I would just be running a vanilla 1.7.4 server on an old computer.

Saber's H scenes are horrible. She goes from being a strong willed girl who has the characteristic burden of being a king to some weak girl who wants the D.

There's also the problem where the bad end is written well enough that you can't tell it is the bad end. Or conversely, the good end is so poorly written you think it is the bad end. I can see why you'd want the "wrong choice" to not end the game right away, but I don't want to invest too much time on it. I'd rather make a bad choice and have a short wrap up. Like you said, F/SN did a good job balancing between "wrong choice" and "end game story," and there's parts of the story that you can understand better by having chosen those wrong paths. Back to the original question: I play through once, even to a bad end, and then use a guide after that. It's just fun to see where my own choices would lead me first.

Ok, I haven't read all of this thread, but the topic did catch my attention. I have never liked the H-scenes in VNs. I'm not a prud or anything...in fact, I started playing VNs for the H scenes because masturbating to them felt more satisfying because there is an emotional connection to the characters that isn't there with other forms of pornography. Even then, I didn't like sex scenes because they felt so out of place. Every character I have encountered is completely different during sex, and it's very unsettling for me. Add to that, they aren't even necessary for a good VN. I just finished Wanko to Kuraso and the end of Risa's route, which has no erotic content, is far more satisfying than any or all of the H scenes. It may be a pipe dream, but I wonder if a group would be able to produce patches that would cut these scenes out without losing any of the story. They really do leave that bad of an impression on me.

Welcome! ...though I feel weird saying that since I just got here myself...

Ah, Fate Stay Night was also my first. I didn't like Shiro. I didn't like the H scenes because everyone went so out of character. I didn't finish Heaven's Feel because it was so...I didn't like it, to not spoil you. The music and art were good, and the story was novel in some ways. I may be rating it generously since it was my first, but I'd probably put it at 7/10. I prefer novels with less drama and more routes.

I picked up Bastion for $2.50 a couple days ago, this is a great little game. I recommend it on its sound track alone! Check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8cELTdtw6U

So that you don't have to keep starting it like that, right click the program, go to Properties, select the Compatibility tab, and check the box for "Run this program as administrator". Be careful about using this with some programs because it could be used as a backdoor into your computer, but with a game, it should be fine.

Search for an artist no longer, here is my work!

This is the first I've thought of a new year resolution...probably just overcome a couple of my bad habits and pick up some guitar for social purposes.

Oh yeah, there was an anime of that. I tried watching it after seeing F/SN, but I didn't get past the second episode. I know, but it's my favorite route! And I really don't want to see Heaven's Feel...

I enjoyed the F/SN anime, but I watched it a long time ago. It doesn't compare to Zero though, so I'm really looking forward to this new one even if it does follow a different route (fingers crossed for UBW).

I usually tear up during most games, but I can't say I've really let myself go and cried. Katawa Shoujo hit me pretty hard because I had a girl that broke up with me very similar to Emi's route. She put up barriers and pushed everyone away...

Girlish Love Revolution was fun - it's more like a dating sim where you have to level up your character than a standard VN though. It was also my first Otome game, and not a bad introduction to them. I'd love to hear some recommendations from others too!

Lilly's route was good, but I felt like Hisao had most of the acction in the story. The route felt more tied to the MC's disability than to Lilly's... As far as heroines, I haven't played Rin or Shizune, but I really enjoyed Haneko's route. I had gone back to check out the bed ends...they are really tough to read lol

I haven't used JapanesePod101, but I have been using the Italian pod, and it is pretty good. Here's a link for anyone curious to try it: http://www.japanesepod101.com/ I'll warn you now, I get frequent spam mail from ItalianPod. Go ahead and set up your mail filter if you register with them.