Rose

I just want to give a shout to an amazing individual who essentially runs the entire visual novel community with his amazing work. @binaryfail is a hacking master who has saved me and I am sure other people countless times with his amazing personality and awesome help to this community. I just want to say thank you for actually doing what we as a VN community should always be doing: bettering visual novel fans and their love for the genre everywhere.
If you want to know more about him, check out this podcast episode I did with him awhile back:
https://www.mixcloud.com/OriginalRen/get-to-know-your-community-episode-9-binaryfail
Thanks again man for all that you do.

In all honesty though. If you went to Japan and went around telling new people you met that you like playing moeges and eroge, they would treat you with the same disdain they do with regular Japanese who are obsessed with this stuff. In fact, they may even think you are weirder because you are a foreigner in to that stuff. I remember one of my Japanese friends giving me the advice when I go to Japan to say that I like "manga", but to avoid mentioning anime or games, because those still have negative connotations. So yeah... 
OP: If the point of this thread is to complain about how over used and boring the High School setting is in VNs. Well then I completely agree with you. I hate how over fucking used it is. And this is also coming from somebody who liked their high school days. I really don't see why VN content creators can't get more creative with their settings... I mean, a part of me knows why they continue to do this bullshit, but it still bothers me nonetheless. 

Sweet. 

Their best song is also the gayest, lol.
 

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Rooke is a stealth master. As such, under the cover of darkness (and many prank and distracting telephone calls,) I have snuck into Tay’s office and snagged some ripping correspondence from his secretary’s desk. Let us see what we’ve uncovered today!
Oooh, interesting. A little hard to read, a little heated. I'm also holding a reply in my hand, I wonder what it says.
So there you go, people are falling over themselves to congratulate Tay on his excellent coverage of otome VNs on Fuwanovel. I am pleased to see this I wonder if SecretOtomeLover has received his reply? Well, I suppose if I’m holding the only copy in my hands, it may be a bit difficult. I should return it but alas it’s too risky - breaking and entering is serious business. Oh well, learning the value of backups is never a bad thing.

Not really. I feel like most people who do like VNs are more likely to be anime fans than anything else... Plus there's the light novel crowd (who tend to be gigantic when added up - same thing with manga, really. They can get really out of hand.)  
VNs can appeal to anime watchers through anime porn and the type of romance that can't really go on TV 
It also lets you know characters before using H scenes for erotic purposes, which provides the ultimate type of erotica for some people. 
You might or might not argue that's why we're a niche and that VNs should focus on reaching other audiences... But if they stop marketing towards that niche I'll no longer have an interest in VNs, so  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

... FSN?

I might think Imouto Paradise is an 8/10 and Little Busters is a 4/10 in their own respective fields, but just looking at the scores makes it sound like I think there's one sole objective scale and Imouto Paradise is clearly superior to Little Busters when most people will think that's a dumb statement to make. If there were no scores however I could explain why I think Imouto Paradise is amazing in its genre and Little Busters fails in its genre, listing pros and cons and not giving a numerical value to it, thus letting the reader evaluate it. That's the main problem with numeric scales, they're not all encompassing and are too subjective to give any real help as far as judging a game goes, it just says this person thinks a game is a 9/10 but I have no idea what a 9/10 means to them and more to the point a 9/10 to me probably means something else entirely.

lol

I think you should get rid of the numerical score but keep the summary of the pros/cons.
That's probably the best way to sum up stuff without attempting to use an "objective" scale that's always up for interpretation.
Then again, I don't think keeping it actually hurts FuwaReviews, so really it's just personal preference.

Seconded. Also globally, almost as many people speak Russian as Spanish.

Russian.  There are lots of interesting Russian writers I'd like to read in the original language...

So I have a great announcenment. The Steam Greenlight for One Thousand Lies is a go! http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=660334350

I wasn't really planning to do this at the beginning but a lot of people told me to try it out and that it would be cool to see the game in Greenlight, and here we are! If you liked the novel or just feel generous, I would appreciate your votes, and also share around online so everyone finds out.
The support until now has been great, a lot of people seems to like it and we are close to the one thousand downloads. I never expected this much, and for that I love you guys <3

"how clephas ate the world" fanfic contest

also suggesting you try out "one thausand lies", as it really delivered language-wise, especially when considering that its actually non commercial. cant await the authors/writers next work(s), if there´re going to be any.

One Thousand Lies is legit.

A lot of people say the same thing – “writing VNs is quite different to writing novels.” I would say it’s a quarter truth. There ARE some differences, like having better and fuller control of where you end a screen, and less narration of external events due to background images, but the basics are the same, and 99% of what is needed to write VNs can be learnt better in the novel world than in the VN world. After which, you just apply different techniques to produce the same effects.
For example: Question – with the ability to describe external events largely taken away through the use of background images and sprites, how would you slow down the pacing of a scene? Answer – You can still describe changes in the environment not revealed with static background images, or focus on internal dialogue. Question – But wouldn’t ADV format cut down on your ability to write long pieces of external narration, even if you could technically narrate changes in the environment? Answer – Most people get around this with either an ADV/NVL blend, OR a greater focus on internal dialogue which is, in essence, dialogue. These are applications of standard novel techniques.
Dunno, I don’t really see the virtues to be honest . I can’t think of many prose techniques which stem from the Visual Novel landscape that I’d actually like to employ. Overuse of ellipses? Well you can do that with novels, but you actually learn more (and better) alternatives if you choose to read novels and not VNs. Timing is a little different due to the box/page thing, but eh, all that does is encourage the writer to use less prose, and that’s hardly a new technique. ADV does exclude the ‘he said,’ ‘she said’, lines … which is actually kinda irritating cause you can slot those words in the middle of a sentence to slow down the pacing: 
“I suppose,” she said, as she gazed out the window, "but I’d rather have the option.”
As you can see, the pacing of the sentence has slowed using that interjection thingy. ADV cocks this up, but you can still get around it by selecting different techniques. I bet most VNs would use ellipses here:
NameGoesHere: I suppose … but I’d rather have the option.
It’s not like it’s a new or grand technique or anything. You’re more limited in what you can do, and you might choose different techniques to apply to VNs than what you would in novels, but what I’m trying to say is that learning to write novels gives you a more rounded writing education, imo. What writers actually need to learn from VNs is how you compose a narrative using pictures, but that won't help your prose any.
Of course, a lot of prominent people disagree with me, but eh. I suppose that’s just another example of how there’s no ‘right or wrong’ in writing, I guess.

Well, obviously and as has been said before, if what you want is to get a taste of the range of possibilities of the english language, you're better off reading Nabokov, Woolf or Shakespeare than even the best translated VNs like Grisaia or Dra+Koi.
But the thing is, and that's pretty obvious, you don't write a visual novel like you write a novel. Not that visual novels have bad prose or w/e, it's just that for two media with two different ways of delivering text, the approach to writing has to be different. In particular if your VN is going to be in ADV format.
Therefore it would actually be good for you to read visual novels in order to see what kind of writing techniques are used. The issue is that I'm not sure there are really a lot of good samples in EVNs. There is definitely a whole range of available interesting prose and techniques in japanese VNs, but you don't write in japanese like you write in english either so it's all kinda useless to you.
So yeah, idk. Maybe the best thing you could do is to read theater. Theatrics is probably what's closest to ADV dialogs. Reading great english prose books certainly can't hurt anyway. But contrary to previous advices I wouldn't say to avoid VNs, because you need to understand the medium you're using too.

First thing to do - get away from VNs. I would wager the same rule applies for aspiring Japanese fiction writers also, VNs aren't the kind of place you find exceptional prose. If the prose in VNs were exceptional, they'd make a living off only that prose.
Most authors start off mimicking their favourite writers ... kinda. It's a natural stage in a person's development as a writer and one of the first steps toward developing your own style. A person reads a lot to get an understanding of what works, what doesn't, what they enjoy, and how they pull that off. This includes mimicking stuff you think is awesome, and shunning stuff you find terrible.
You're going to have to narrow it down. 'Exceptional' is a subjective term, it tends to differ from person to person. What you're really after is how writers build the sort of effects you want to create, in an effective manner, because different styles are created with an end effect in mind.
Some authors use adjectives and adverbs so powerful that a single word is all it takes to produce a clear image. It should be noted that these adverbs and adjectives are often not in standard use and it takes someone with a pretty complete control over a language to do this. Someone with this sort of control (and it's rare) can create vivid images with short, punchy sentences. 
Some authors prefer a smooth, flowing, conversational style. Some authors seem to require the reader to hurl their novel across the room in frustration, and they'll craft complex sentences which are hard to decipher. Each style benefits from different techniques, which is why you read extensively when you're young so you have an understanding of different styles and the techniques used to create them. To be honest, if you're asking for examples at this stage it's an indication that either a) you haven't read enough or b) you haven't paid enough attention or thought enough about what you're reading. 
Then you go away and find authors whose style matches what you desire to create and you mimic, then you find other authors who do something slightly different and you mimic them also, then after a while you take the best points and you make your own style. However, nobody else can find this 'exceptional' prose for you, that's your homework as a writer. My heros are Pratchett, Adams, those kinds or writers. I also model my style off some romance novels cause I like a kind of flowing style (which you more often find in women authors.) During this process, I've learnt to identify stuff which is 'undesirable' to me, analysed what made it 'undesirable' and learnt to stay away from those practices. Nobody else could identify this stuff for me, it's a personal process because nobody knows what you like.
Bad writing is always the same, making the same sorts of mistakes - however good writing is good in different ways. Different writers will give you theories, very few of these theories will be iron clad rules but most of these theories will be what works for them. It's hard to copy, because what works is different for different people. Your homework as a writer is to develop your own style through research and study. This is why everybody's first advice to writers is the same - 'read everything and read widely. After you think you've read everything, read some more.'
... Except for VNs. Don't read those. There are some OELVNs written by professional authors, but you'd be better off reading their books rather than their VNs. Studying prose in VNs will give you a limited education and appreciation of prose. Reading writing advice from different authors doesn't count - it's good as a supplementary material, but you need to think about stuff yourself.
Good luck  

agree with this, even if some things got lost on the translation still has an amazing writing which can be consider "hard" to read for its prose