The Decline of Reading in Relation to VNs

[InvertMouse]

This so much. I always praise any developer that makes a portable port of their VN for mobile devices so I can read it comfortably in my bed.

When I read a book I shift my positioning every 10 seconds (one could say this is the most exercise I ever do) and with a VN on a computer it's annoying having to sit still for many hours straight, no matter how interesting the VN is I just get tired from being in the same position clicking a button.

Same reason I don't read manga on my computer and got a tablet for it instead.

 

This so much from me as well . I have recently realized just how fun it is to read on my iPad in bed with the lights off. Immediately, I hoped onto the App Store to see what was available, but the selection was pretty limited.

 

Also, I really must say something. Despite our greatest efforts, in the end, the fanservice games sell the most. In some cases, it is so extreme that you might not even be able to call it reading anymore. We are almost talking about something that is completely different from books, then. Some of us are reading for a purpose that is completely different from novels. So, it is not like VNs are just books with pictures and audio, perhaps.

[Flutterz]

This so much. I always praise any developer that makes a portable port of their VN for mobile devices so I can read it comfortably in my bed.

When I read a book I shift my positioning every 10 seconds (one could say this is the most exercise I ever do) and with a VN on a computer it's annoying having to sit still for many hours straight, no matter how interesting the VN is I just get tired from being in the same position clicking a button.

Same reason I don't read manga on my computer and got a tablet for it instead.

 

This so much from me as well . I have recently realized just how fun it is to read on my iPad in bed with the lights off. Immediately, I hoped onto the App Store to see what was available, but the selection was pretty limited.

Hmm, it sounds to me like you guys wish there was some sort of device that is portable like a tablet yet doesn't need VNs to be ported specifically for it, almost like some sort of computer you could put on top of your lap.

[Narcosis]

Hmm, it sounds to me like you guys wish there was some sort of device that is portable like a tablet yet doesn't need VNs to be ported specifically for it, almost like some sort of computer you could put on top of your lap.

INB4 a new indie handheld, designed specifically for visual novels. One can only hope it won't end like OUYA.

[InvictusCobra]

I don't think the two are THAT connected. I mean, I couldn't read an average sized book (around 300 pages) if my life depended on it (and yet I do, because my grades depend on it heh). Anway, I don't like reading books, but I can go on VN reading binges and have a lot of fun. For example, I read F/SN during Summer vacations and I read UBW in one sitting, in one day; HoshiMemo was like one route per day or two (due to classes). They involve different tools and ways of reading them. Books have words only and you imagine the rest; a VN has words, audio, visuals, etc... which make for (in my opinion) a better, enhanced experience.

[Kosakyun]

I was thinking that visual novels only have a niche simply because its impression is that of a 'porn game' or something where you 'go and get girls'. That's basically the responses I got when I asked people from my soon-to-be college if they played visual novels. It's kind of sad, but it's true lol. I don't think the whole scene should be determined by those words alone though. Not all of them are like that.

 

Anyhow, like you've said, I'm sure that the decrease in the reading frequency of people can contribute to the overall success of the industry. But, like some of them have said, it's the percentage of readers when compared to the population of the world that's decreasing, not the number. You'll think that the number should be increasing as the population grows, but y'know. It's hard to stay focused on reading only, given that the world has sprung forth a lot of entertainment mediums besides that of books, which were the dominant medium back in the days. It goes to show that as time passes, habits do change. Though I do hope it doesn't change continually that way. Reading is still an important part of life. That's what I believe.

 

I don't get why people don't like visual novels though. You basically read, get entertained, and get porn at the same time!

[Zalor]

Studies have shown that youth spend far less time reading than previous generations. 

 

I always claim bullshit on these claims, as throughout most of human history we were hunter gatherers and didn't even have writing. And even if you exclude that and only take into account the generations that existed after writing was invented. The majority of the world was illiterate for the longest time. Even if people are generally reading less than 2 generations ago, we still beat most other generations since at least most of us are literate.

 

I remember this once came up in an episode of Lucky Star, and I would have to agree with Konata's counterpoint. She argued that these claims rarely acknowledge the fact that most people do spend a tremendous amount of time reading online. Be it through social media, blog/forum posts, articles, etc. So even if most people aren't reading books, we are still reading quite a bit.  

 

Regarding VNs, I think they are fantastic tool to get people back into reading fiction. Most people who do read fiction, read it because it is entertaining and interesting to them. But to be perfectly honest, TV dramas, movies, anime, video games, etc are far more entertaining for most people because they involve more senses. Visual Novels are a medium that rely on prose writing, but also incorporate music and visuals much like anime and video games. So the people who get bored with regular books, could probably find entertainment in a VN.     

[Lexyvil]

Those who read a lot from previous generations and long before that were more educated thanks to the ability of learning from different authors' notes and opinions on paper. Not everyone can read, but those who could and can were more often prone to make historical changes and improvements in the world due to having more knowledge on how the world around them worked.

 

Since the invention of the printing press--which occurred near the end of the medieval period--books have started to grow exponentially in numbers throughout the world and that led readers and curious non-readers wanting to support and enforce the studies and teachings of "Reading" to the public.

 

Innovative readers were on the rise, their contributions changed human technology like never before and it's how we got this far today.

 

I'm not using any statistic for this section, but I think since the invention of the internet or maybe even before that, since the discovery and use of electrical current (it could maybe even be right after the invention of the television on that matter, but I'm more certain it's the internet's cause), the number of people devoting time to read in proportion to the overall population started to decrease. The media and all the new form of entertainment we find today, for most people, tend to be thought as better and more enjoyable than to sit down and read a book.

 

While books can help improve reading and writing, having the internet can be useful to find information and, assuming the information is accurate, perhaps make the person more educated. Therefore, in a way, it educates more than books. But that also has flaws, it makes us read less since the information comes right away with a simple keyword in a search.

 

I know this thread is about reading VN's, so I'll talk more about what I think on that: Everyone in my family refuses to give any Visual Novel a try, and I think that's because none of them enjoy reading books and they're only used to seeing motion on a screen, which is what they end up wanting instead. You can say that it can be possible that the population is losing interest in stories that only words can describe (even if it includes a few animations). That only applies to my family and a few of my friends as far as I know and it's kind of a shame because stories from books or VN's obviously tend to be better than almost everything on TV (from my point of view, at least...)

 

I have a feeling that with every new generation, the list of used-vocabulary will gradually decrease and we'll all end up speaking and writing in broken English.

In fact, it's already started. 

[Clephas]

To be honest, I've never been able to comprehend the thought processes of the illiterate, except as one would understand the mind of a dog or a cat...

[Chronopolis]

You can say that it can be possible that the population is losing interest in stories that only words can describe (even if it includes a few animations).

I think this really hits the nail on the head..

 

To be honest, I've never been able to comprehend the thought processes of the illiterate, except as one would understand the mind of a dog or a cat...

Lol nicely put.

 

A tangent, but w/e I think it's relevant to the perspective of a literate but a beginner in regards to understanding fiction. As a child, I used to dislike fiction reading, because it felt like each story was so different and I had trouble wrapping my head around each new story. Also, for the less analytical and experienced (having experience gives you associations or helps you react to unfamiliar characters you couldn't have imagined yourself) past me, I couldn't entertain myself from on all but the most main story details, so only stories with one or two main plot lines and exciting/tense to follow were rewarding to me. I read a decent amount, but lots of that was rereading. I think it was that I had seen an aspect or plot event that I liked in ones of those stories and, even not knowing exactly what it was, wanted to experience it again. I felt there was a impassible wall between me and people able to dissect stories. Doing so felt very arbitrary. Even in high school, a fair bit of anime confused me because I wasn't flexible or perceptive enough to see the story just from the scenes. Or, perhaps, I didn't know where to start looking from or what to compared it to.

[Getsuya]

I read both VNs and LNs every night so I guess I'm an aberration in their data. Sometimes I stop reading LNs for a while to read VNs more, and sometimes I stop reading VNs to read LNs more.

[Mugi]

I think it's a bit too late for it to become a real popular thing in the west, it's a genre that is likely doomed to niche-ness for eternity over here. It's sad that the majority of westerners nowadays don't enjoy reading, and would rather stick to Netflix and the like, but it's just how it is. I mean maybe if they make a CoD Visual Novel, they could become popular...

[Soulless Watcher]

I think it's a bit too late for it to become a real popular thing in the west, it's a genre that is likely doomed to niche-ness for eternity over here. It's sad that the majority of westerners nowadays don't enjoy reading, and would rather stick to Netflix and the like, but it's just how it is. I mean maybe if they make a CoD Visual Novel, they could become popular...

There would be timed choices like duck, fire, grenade, but they would only be on the screen for a second before you get a bad end.

[kamiwakai]

In my experience, I actually got addicted to reading -after- playing visual novels.

 

There is a study that says people who read many visual novels tend to develop speed-reading (read faster) and have better text analyzing skills.

This is so true. When I first played a visual novel, i didnt like it much. I would rather watch anime because it would give me more content in less time, and because I would just listen (and thus get less tired and bored than when I was reading).

 

However, when I actually got used to reading visual novels and had fun with then, I began having a taste for reading.

At first it was tiring to read, but now I was listening and reading (so when I got tired of so much text, characters would appear and start speaking, so listening to them would be the -break- between the novel side of it, as voice-acting with tachi-e resembles anime).

 

After finishing some VNs, I realized my reading speed improved. 

Part of it was because I was bored of fillers (which made me develop a technique of text skimming to avoid the boredom but still retain content),

and had a lot of curiosity (I wanted to know "whats next" so soon I found myself reading in auto-mode in full speed).

After some time, I realized I was too used to some character styles and voices, and i found myself cutting some voices and having enough pleasure just reading the text (which was waay faster). 

 

After that evolution, I got more and more into light novels (something I could not stand to read more than 1 hour a day), reading them voraciously.

Getting used to raw text and not having to wait for character voices, nowadays I even click a lot in VNs because even in auto-mode it gets slow (mainly when you can sense what the next lines are going to be).

 

So what I can say from my experience is that, VNs are a great middle-point between anime (audio-visual) and novels (text-only), and transformed me from a formerly 100% visual person to a bookworm.

After reading some studies, I believe many high-school students here in Japan have been experiencing the same (starting with gyaru-ge for fun, and end up reading light novels spontaneously).

 

So Visual Novels are great to connect both mediums and you can feel how much you can improve as a reader.

[Narcosis]

The problem is that being literate isn't equal to the thirst for knowledge and unknown, which is the primal factor for human evolution.

 

We might have more people, who are basically educated, know how to read and write etc. but that doesn't mean we're getting more intelligent as a whole. Back in the 18-19th century knowing at least few languages and being proficient with them, widely educated in terms of art and music, good manners and interested in a wide range of different topics was common for upper middle and high-class citizens. So was reading and writing. I won't even talk about voyageurs, philiantropes and those who were reinessance people - creators and engineers proficient in basically every single skill a human could know. We owe them a lot nowadays. Compare that to the modern times, where people spend majority of their time besides TV's and computers and don't do much besides that and sustaining their lives (work, sleep, eating). We might have more advanced tools but aren't actually putting them to good use except for a very little part of our society. At the same time, we are getting a lot more lazy and automate the shit out of everything, simply because we don't want to bother anymore and our current technology gives us the means.

 

Contrary to some beliefs, reading is actually a very complicated process and requires a lot of focus, while certain topics are only avilable to more educated people. We can't forget that reading is mainly entertainment. Why bother with something so difficult, when there are other, easier and more accessible methods to entertain yourself?

[Pudding321]

Who cares about books anyway? The most boring of the forms of entertainment.

 

Budding producers who want to make a killing by transforming them into movies, animes, and other types of entertainment forms.

[Funyarinpa]

Budding producers who want to make a killing by transforming them into movies, animes, and other types of entertainment forms.

Or, you know, people who actually enjoy literature.

[Zalor]

To be honest, I've never been able to comprehend the thought processes of the illiterate, except as one would understand the mind of a dog or a cat...