Does Adult Content in localized VNs affect your purchase decisions?

[Sieg]

My answer would vary.

On a general stance, I couldn't care less about the sexual content of the game and whether or not it was removed. But that's partly because I don't play nukige, and also because I don't believe I can find a VN that has actually interesting H-scenes (the medium does not seem adapted to me).

On very particular cases, I sometimes find H-scenes that serves a bit of a purpose for an otherwise plot-oriented VN and would be a bit disheartened if they were removed (eg Saya no Uta).

That's all theoretical though since I don't buy localized VNs. Thus I didn't vote.

Down, you sir deserve a medal. Taking action based on the situation, the relativity of each and every issue and acting accordingly to them is mostly the way to go with said issues (and with life in general, to me at least xD). I agree with Down completely, I only wanted to add that another factor would be the "target audience". Say, I want to give a gift to a friend of mine or I want to recomment a VN to some local organiser of anime events, my decision would be based on their preferences as well.

[Supah Kawaii Weeaboo]

Even after being a fan for years, I'm still not entirely sure if I like VNs which include adult content. I remember a number of examples in which sex scenes didn't really enhance the story or the gameplay. (One example would be Nocturnal Illusion. It had a plot and decent characters, but they mostly seemed to exist in order to justify the main character having sex with each girl.) Adding pornography to a VN, or removing it, can both go badly. If the story seems dull or pointless without sex scenes, then it probably should not have a general audience version. And trying to spice up a narrative with on-screen sex doesn't seem like a good idea.

I've chosen to purchase a number of censored visual novels in the recent past. But the number of genuinely worksafe VNs is increasing, thanks to freeware/indie game makers and some of the fan translation community.

A current marketer / professional translator's dilemma: censor an adult VN so that it meets the content guidelines of Steam or Gamersgate? Leave all the obscene content in, and only sell it through a small number of online retailers and fan conventions? Or sell an authentic worksafe VN which doesn't have steep licensing fees?

[Sprinkler]

I can sort of understand their idea though, because the most popular VNs in the west are those that don't have H-content. [steins;Gate, Clannad, Rewrite.

I think it's a big misconception of localizators that just by removing H scenes most people who like non-H VNs will be willing to buy that stuff. Even though it doesn't come with explicit scenes it's still originally ero. For those people it will look like a "porn game" with the porn removed.

Also even if (for example) a romance VN has H scenes can be very successful in the west, so I really wonder what publishers like MoeNovel are thinking.