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Help - VN history


Silvz

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Guys, you don't know how long I've been thinking about making this thread. For many reasons, such as being afraid of being ignored or because of the many doubts that emerged from my decision of doing this project to now that I am doing it.

 

For those who don't know it - I never told people from Fuwa about it -, I'm an undergraduate student of English and Literatures at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), one of the best in my country. Yeah, who'd have known?

I'm almost finishing my course and I need to write a final assignment. I decided, after a lot of thought and conversation with my English professor, to work with two things that I love: translation and Visual Novels. So, for my project, I'm going to translate one OELVN from english into brazilian portuguese, justifying my decisions according to translation theories that I've been studying for the last months.

Why an OELVN? Because of Japanese. I don't know Japanese, so I could never do a PT - BR translation without relying on English versions of games. It needed to be something originally in English. And, some may disagree, the OELVN market is pretty decent and has a lot of options for me to choose.

Of course, nobody here (except a few of you) speaks portuguese, so I'm not here asking for help on the translation. What I need from my fuwaveterans is to learn more about the VN/Eroge history - when it began, which were the first companies/games in this genre, when OELVNs started being a thing, etc.

You don't need to explain to me, just guide me to websites, articles or even academic papers that would be helpful to gather precise and trustable information.

I want to explain what is the genre Visual Novel to people who probably never have heard about it before.

This is ultra important to me, since this assignment is one of the most important ones in my academic life. And, with it, I hope I will be able to bring the word about the genre to my fellow brazilians, mainly on the Languages' and Literature areas.

 

I really hope you guys can help me in this moment. Any bit of info is enough <3

ps: I recall a text about the history of VN that I read once, but I don't recall where to find it. And I also believe some members from Fuwa already worked with VNs on college, correct?

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There's quite a bit if you want to talk about eroge history here, and if you want to know more just look at the Wiki here and you could see the refrence that Wiki had if you need the source for your paper - I understand that very well. Other than that, you could browse Fuwanovel if you want to knew old VN/Eroge and I could tell you more in regard of VN Translation history if you interested. Good luck on your final assignment there.

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1 hour ago, littleshogun said:

There's quite a bit if you want to talk about eroge history here, and if you want to know more just look at the Wiki here and you could see the refrence that Wiki had if you need the source for your paper - I understand that very well. Other than that, you could browse Fuwanovel if you want to knew old VN/Eroge and I could tell you more in regard of VN Translation history if you interested. Good luck on your final assignment there.

 I would love to have your help :D

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The history of visual novels in Japan is sort of irrelevant if your project will be translating an original English VN.  Japanese and English VNs are almost two completely different genres: the former are primarily eroge, while the latter are not.  English VNs also tend to be more focused on interactive elements and choices.  To contextualize your topic, I would start with the introduction of visual novels on Steam, which was relatively recent: 2012 or so?  If you want to discuss Japanese VNs, you can narrow your scope to something doable by focusing on the ones that have been released on Steam.  For extra credit, discuss the censorship that occurs when media crosses cultural boundaries, and how that's impacted the genre.

Edited by sanahtlig
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As a fellow almost-graduate (those final assignment things are surely hard), I'll try to help you. This article is an interesting read, it talks about those old adventure games that were focused on interactive elements, as sanahtlig pointed out: https://medium.com/mammon-machine-zeal/a-brief-history-of-visual-novels-641a2e6b1acb

Anyway, good luck, man! If you need more help, I can get you some coffee, I'm from Rio too :lol:.

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Wasn't there a comment by Decay here? Oh well

22 hours ago, sanahtlig said:

The history of visual novels in Japan is sort of irrelevant if your project will be translating an original English VN.  Japanese and English VNs are almost two completely different genres: the former are primarily eroge, while the latter are not.  English VNs also tend to be more focused on interactive elements and choices.  To contextualize your topic, I would start with the introduction of visual novels on Steam, which was relatively recent: 2012 or so?  If you want to discuss Japanese VNs, you can narrow your scope to something doable by focusing on the ones that have been released on Steam.  For extra credit, discuss the censorship that occurs when media crosses cultural boundaries, and how that's impacted the genre.

I disagree with you as, and I may be proven wrong, the English VN creation only came to be because of the Japanese one. I may not go deep into the point of explaining every aspect of both markets, but I need to get the more information I can and sort it according to the development of my essay. I need to remind you this is not a simple translation project (and it will probably never become a fan tl project), but an academic paper that will deal both with the translation itself and a topic that is almost unknown by the brazilian academy. As long as I don't loose myself in the middle, I believe my material should be as informative as it can be.

I loved your idea regarding VNs on Steam, and I have not think of this possibility before. I will look into it soon. Thank you so much for your help <3

11 hours ago, MaggieROBOT said:

As a fellow almost-graduate (those final assignment things are surely hard), I'll try to help you. This article is an interesting read, it talks about those old adventure games that were focused on interactive elements, as sanahtlig pointed out: https://medium.com/mammon-machine-zeal/a-brief-history-of-visual-novels-641a2e6b1acb

Anyway, good luck, man! If you need more help, I can get you some coffee, I'm from Rio too :lol:.

What college are you from? I'm afraid to ask because my professor said that another of her students was interested on VNs too. Too much of a coincidence?

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2 hours ago, Silvz said:

What college are you from? I'm afraid to ask because my professor said that another of her students was interested on VNs too. Too much of a coincidence?

Don't worry, man. It's not me, I'm not going to reveal your dirty VN history (aaaand you won't reveal mine haha).

I'm from UERJ! Structural engineering of all things!

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5 hours ago, Silvz said:

I disagree with you as, and I may be proven wrong, the English VN creation only came to be because of the Japanese one.

Doubtful.  The English VN scene has been influenced as much by choose-your-own-adventure books and MUDs as it has been by anime games.  It's not like the Japanese invented the concept of using a video game to tell a text-driven story.  What the Japanese DID pioneer is using the VN medium to create a bustling market for professional story-driven porn, something Westerners haven't even come close to emulating.

Edited by sanahtlig
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On 28/09/2017 at 3:11 AM, sanahtlig said:

Doubtful.  The English VN scene has been influenced as much by choose-your-own-adventure books and MUDs as it has been by anime games.  It's not like the Japanese invented the concept of using a video game to tell a text-driven story.  What the Japanese DID pioneer is using the VN medium to create a bustling market for professional story-driven porn, something Westerners haven't even come close to emulating.

Sorry for the delay. I'll take what you said in consideration, and I thank you a lot for the help!

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