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do you consider VNs video games


ratboi

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As long as you have a minimum of influence on whats happening, even if it's just about choices and no matter how much or little they change, I consider it as a game.

VNs without choices are a different matter, I consider those as a form of "animated?" (not sure if it's the right word, but I can't think of a better one) books, not games.

Edited by sarkasmus
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Those games that are almost a movie would be controversial too. But for me, they're videogames. They come in software format. It doesn't matter what gameplay they have.

Besides, most typical moege where you pick a girl to romance give you a bad ending if you make the wrong choices. Others have bad endings within the routes if you make the wrong choices. It's still trivial for most gamers, but there's still decision making, and some long VNs have intrincate decision trees.

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I would say VNs are hybrids between clicker games and books. It has the "click to advance", which apparently justifies them to be games. If you are wondering, just look at Sakura Clicker (a game). Might be NSFW depending on your definition of NSFW.

Spoiler

 

Personally I don't really care if they are games or not. They are VNs and they do not really fit in any pre-VN defined categories.

Edited by tymmur
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1 hour ago, tymmur said:

I would say VNs are hybrids between clicker games and books. It has the "click to advance", which apparently justifies them to be games. If you are wondering, just look at Sakura Clicker (a game). Might be NSFW depending on your definition of NSFW.

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Personally I don't really care if they are games or not. They are VNs and they do not really fit in any pre-VN defined categories.

Wouldn't Textadventures come close to it?

(I never played one since I didn't play videogames back then so I'm not sure, but from what I heard it seems to be a similar concept)

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26 minutes ago, sarkasmus said:

Wouldn't Textadventures come close to it?

(I never played one since I didn't play videogames back then so I'm not sure, but from what I heard it seems to be a similar concept)

The closest thing to a VN that the text adventures could provide would likely be Haunted house. It's the first adventure game to actually use graphics, though the interface is as heavily text based as the text adventures. Calling it a VN is somewhat of a stretch and I wouldn't do it. Also I don't think anybody here have actually played text adventures. It would have required you to be a mature gamer prior to the switch to graphics in adventure games, which took place in the mid 80s. Maniac Mansion from 1987 had such a superior interface that it pretty much killed off text adventures, or at least made it even more niche than VNs are today.

 

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One thing I can say for sure is that VNs aren't books. As for whether they are games, well, it depends on how you define a computer game. If you base your definition on more technical side of thing, then they are definitely games. If it's more about mechanics, it becomes a way more difficult question. Usually when people talk about computer games, they imply that you can actually "play" them. And, if you consider simple guidelines about game design, VNs simply suck. One thing about games in general that should be done is that, when you start the game, you need to have a basic understanding of its rules so that, without relying on a walkthrough, you would be able to "win" it, or reach its end. The problem is that there's rarely a clear indication when you actually "win" an eroge. Should you read the routes you want and stop at that, or should you read all the routes? You may understand that later on, when you analyze the story, but if you try to understand that yourself, just by the information from the VN itself, you're probably going to be lost. Actually, if you want to finish all the routes, in some cases you're basically forced to use a walkthrough.

But, in the end, honestly, who cares? VNs are VNs, that's all that matters.

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