Discussion Which organization or site has done the most to promote VNs in the West?

[Segai]

I'd say Steam is currently doing a bang up job but since that's only since recently, we'll have to see what happens with that.

Personally I got into the medium via a YouTuber (I think Jesse Cox but can't remember for sure) that played Katawa Shoujo, it seemed interesting to me so I downloaded the game and fell in love with the game and searched for some more, that way I found Fuwanovel and its easy torrents got me hooked even more because it was easy to get a VN, now it's a bit harder but that's a discussion for another topic.

Fuwanovel is certainly doing something for Visual Novels as it keeps me interested and I get constant suggestions from other members so Fuwa keeps the fire fueled for me.

[Darklord Rooke]

Steam.

 

Daylight.

 

Flittering tumbleweed.

 

Tay's 1999 party.

 

The rest.

[Zakamutt]

Recently, I think Sekai Project has been done much more promo than JAST / MG / whatever, probably partly thanks to their all-ages profile. Do note that SP's CEO dovac was  only minorly involved in the School Days translation by his own account, as an image editor (that said, other new!SP founding members were also in the old SP afaik.) Whether or not the official JAST release changed much I don't know, though it's quite possible. However, SP are standing on the shoulders on if not giants, then at least some pretty hardy dwarves.

 

Steam is probably the biggest game-changer at the moment, even just as a discovery service (I believe Doddler has said that sales on their main site may well increase as people find the link to the uncensored version on the steam page, even if actual Steam sales are modest). I suppose that would make the organisation Valve, but I'm not sure if I want to pick that.

 

Before that, we probably saw a decent influx from good old Katawa Shoujo (lord knows I'm part of that group). Don't think we want to pick 4LS though.

 

On the official release front, if they propped up MG as you say, not to mention providing the seed for SP's creation, then JAST/jlist is probably a good candidate.

 

4ch was, far as I know, the hangout of the hardcore crowd at the start. You could wonder if fan tl would get started much in the first place if there was nowhere weeb to gather. That said there are other places such as Hongfire/Ero-jiji/Anime-sharing, the old and now dead gemot (that ones' probably a spawn of 4ch though), maybe some of the animay listing sites etc for people to gather (not sure where or when Otome/BL forums like Aarinfantasy come into this).

 

VNDB was a major factor in me finding new VN translation patches (sort by rating was my jam fora while), and also how I found Fuwanovel (I think, can't remember). That said, what persuaded me to look up Katawa Shoujo in the first place was probably TvTropes of all places, where I also saw much about CLANNAD. VNDB definitely has had an effect in helping people find more visual novels after their first brush with the medium. It's a decent candidate.

 

More facetiously perhaps, what inspired yorhel to create vndb in the first place was Hirameki's translation of Ever17. Could they count?

 

All in all, the promotion of VNs in the West was spread between quite a few parties, from the original message boards spawning fan tls, to the official localizers, to more localized promoters at certain points in time. I don't think any message/image board was really indispensable, but both vndb and JAST are quite unique. JAST, and later SP, have likely been most important on the official loc front - JAST was there first though. With that said, if this is about doing the most to promote, then surely SP wins for their wide promotion through Kickstarters and press, not to mention getting so many VNs on Steam.

 

VNDB is technically replaceable, if imperfectly, by word-of-mouth. I hesitate to call it the most important.

 

All in all I don't think localized VNs would have taken off without fan translation though, so we should look for the most important point, if there is one, for fan translation if we can. This is problematic, though -- do we pick now-dead Novelnews/Gemot? TLWiki? I think the "movement" is too decentralized to pick a single site here.

 

...alright, that was a silly amount of unconcentrated deliberation, let's try to get to a conclusion. I'm going to pick Sekai Project here, but not without serious reservations. I think they might have done the most total PR-wise, but so much came before that, beginning with the fan translation movement - some of these cannot really be considered an organization, or did less promo but were nevertheless very important for further developments. If I was to pick in order of importance instead, I might put fan translation and weeb communities first, JAST second, and vndb third.

 

I just don't have any data on Fuwa to know how much of an impact we have - I definitely think we've had some, but I'm not sure we've done that much. We're definitely poised to be the center of the newer JVN community though.

[firecat]

as a developer who ->is <- promoting VN with these websites heres what each as done for me:

 

JAST USA / J-List = none, never got a reply back from them. they only promoting well known VN.

 

Mangagamer = age restriction, orgy games x10 popular and less people show up for the story.

 

Sekai Project / Denpasoft = none, they just kickstarter anything that they liked.

 

VNDB = its not perfect but without it we wouldn't be able to find old VN. it does bring in views so ya it works well.

 

Fuwanovel = honestly, you guys haven't been supporting it. the only popular VN get supported but that's only if the game becomes translated to english.

 

4chan = 4chan is dead

 

Steam = no, not even once. you have to pay $100 to enter a VN and if you want greenlight that will be another $100. thats not the worst part, you lose money when ever they decide to make a (name discount sale). lastly the worst part is that your VN might not even get money because people could ask for refund if they finish it under 2 hours (the fast click is real).

 

Kickstarter = yes but only if people do it right.

 

YouTube = more or so, the trick is to get people to subscribe to your channel.

 

<insert pirate site here> = none, we all know they don't support anyone.

 

Random site? = indie bloggers do help get people to play, then there's deviantart, and wiki, and google+ (thats right), and itch.io, and lastly in my list indiegamestand.

 

p.s OELVN is so over used in fuwanovel, no one calls them that anymore.

[Zalor]

Random OELVN site?

 

I think that Lemmasoft is important enough to warrant mention. It's certainly not the most important site, but they are probably the biggest community of OELVN developers. Infact, the first VN I ever read was Memo which I got from lemmasoft. 

[OriginalRen]

 

as a developer who ->is <- promoting VN with these websites heres what each as done for me:

 

JAST USA / J-List = none, never got a reply back from them. they only promoting well known VN.

 

Mangagamer = age restriction, orgy games x10 popular and less people show up for the story.

 

Sekai Project / Denpasoft = none, they just kickstarter anything that they liked.

 

VNDB = its not perfect but without it we wouldn't be able to find old VN. it does bring in views so ya it works well.

 

Fuwanovel = honestly, you guys haven't been supporting it. the only popular VN get supported but that's only if the game becomes translated to english.

 

4chan = 4chan is dead

 

Steam = no, not even once. you have to pay $100 to enter a VN and if you want greenlight that will be another $100. thats not the worst part, you lose money when ever they decide to make a (name discount sale). lastly the worst part is that your VN might not even get money because people could ask for refund if they finish it under 2 hours (the fast click is real).

 

Kickstarter = yes but only if people do it right.

 

YouTube = more or so, the trick is to get people to subscribe to your channel.

 

<insert pirate site here> = none, we all know they don't support anyone.

 

Random site? = indie bloggers do help get people to play, then there's deviantart, and wiki, and google+ (thats right), and itch.io, and lastly in my list indiegamestand.

 

p.s OELVN is so over used in fuwanovel, no one calls them that anymore.

 

 

So basically...everyone sucks? They must be trying to scam the world like eBay. Watch yourself.

[B0X0R]

Definitely Steam.

[babiker]

I would have to agree with Maef that Youtube is definitely a considerable player. After all, it's what got me into VNs, and was my only source for VN-talk for quite a while until I stumbled upon this forums. It's true that VN youtube reviews aren't exactly the most popular, but I feel like what they do achieve is rarely even noticed by most people on this forum and in the VN community in general 

[sanahtlig]

 

You forgot about LSF/Ren'Py community and Hau~ Omochikaeri~!

 

To answer your question, definately VNDB/visual-novels.net/Encubed/Gemot combo. It boogles me you forgot to even mention them on the list; they might not be active anymore, but it was those sites that began everything and most of the praise should go to them and their creators/maintainers.

 

At the moment, I'm always getting more useful information out of Ren's and Micchi's ramblings, than any other mentioned sources alltogether, although your typical average user is usually only interested in the western game lineups and couldn't care less about japanese industry.

Encubed and Hau Omochikaeri have certainly been useful, but in the end I'm not sure how important they've been.  VNDB is probably the most prominent of the information outlets, and it indexes the information Hau Omochikaeri releases.

 

The list in the OP was simply meant to be a starting point for discussion.  I never claimed it was comprehensive.

 

 

I think that Lemmasoft is important enough to warrant mention. It's certainly not the most important site, but they are probably the biggest community of OELVN developers. Infact, the first VN I ever read was Memo which I got from lemmasoft. 

That was the OELVN site I was thinking of, but I know nothing of OELVNs so I didn't know if it was the most important one.

[firecat]

So basically...everyone sucks? They must be trying to scam the world like eBay. Watch yourself.

 

then you basically saying youtube sucks, the same services that you use.

 

[douggle]

VNDB, 4chan, fuwanovel, Mangagamer, Jast and even though I don't like them as a company Sekai Project. 

[Down]

then you basically saying youtube sucks, the same services that you use.

 

[OriginalRen]

On my face boys, on my face.

[Fred the Barber]

This is obviously a personal anecdote, and thus doesn't really answer a question like "which has done the most", but I'll throw it out there nonetheless, and if you don't like it you can throw it right back.

 

The only organizations that can be credited with my playing VNs are Fuwanovel and Sekai Project. When I first started down this road, I was specifically looking for the Little Busters! VN because I wanted more Little Busters!, and Fuwanovel (and those good old torrents) were how I wound up actually playing.  Even after that, I was still not really pulled into the VN scene (I wasn't on these forums, and although I went on to read Rewrite, I was basically done with the medium at that point) until I heard about the Clannad Kickstarter, which was a big enough deal to appear on AnimeNewsNetwork. That's the point where I actually ended up back here, reading VNs and talking about them.

 

So, for me personally, it's Fuwanovel and Sekai Project, with the real driving force behind that obviously being Key and the excellent anime adaptations of their work (which would seem to not really be what the original question is looking for).

[sanahtlig]

Crunchyroll or Funimation would be valid answers, as would specific fansub / fan translation groups.

[Dark Ariel7]

I actually started down the path of visual novels thanks to Fakku funny enough

[Hayashi]

Would say SekaiProject, they been doing alot lately.

[Hanako]

I discovered VN though an hentai french site which has Katawa Shoujo and the first Sonohana (in french obviouly)

Take some month to pass the language problem but eventually I wanted to read more (Sonohana )

And at this moment I discover Fuwa and his torrent ^^

When I think about it the huge point of fuwa was his torrent so it's likely he has less impact now than before though with the popularisation of the VN I don't think the number of new people here will slow down.

[sanahtlig]

Would say SekaiProject, they been doing alot lately.

It's important not to become stuck in the present, or rely too heavily on speculations about the future.  While Sekai Project may be active now, their role in the bigger scheme of things is questionable.  Making a real splash takes time.

[Nagito]

VNDB overall in my opinion, but I know a lot of people have first gotten into Visual Novels by coming across them on Steam so I think that's a pretty great one as well. And of course, YouTube; I come across quite a few of the VNs I've played on there through gameplay videos. I usually watch a little bit and see if it looks good, and if it does then I'll buy it myself.