Visual Novel's why DO YOU play/read them

[InvertMouse]

I enjoy storytelling and I grew up watching anime as well, so visual novels is a good mix. Novels are great, but I often read before sleeping, etc. Visual novels has pictures and music to help me when fatigue makes my imagination lacking .

[hussien-11]

because I always search for new storytelling experiences, and because I like Japanese entertainment in general.

[Zykiel]

I always feel like VN's are always more immersive for me, and they make me feel more for the characters and the way the story is going. The choices make me feel more invested into said story. If there really aren't any story changing stories, then the images and voices of the characters draw me emotionally in.

[Tawm]

I enjoy reading and am more immersed in visual novels than any other media.

VNs are a perfect compromise between manga and anime.

 

The latter I find entirely too shallow and dropped completely years ago, though.

[madvanced]

I just like the way they build their stories for the VN format and how they use a limited image support but still have to heavily rely on it, hence not being just books with choices in the form of video games, the ultimate art form in my opinion.

[Cyrillej1]

I've always loved books that gave you choices which could affect the outcome of the story & characters. VNs are like that but with pictures. The graphics can be very beautiful too. And I've always enjoyed the Dating Sim kind of games.. the first game I ever encountered something like that was an old RPG PS1 game called Thousand Arms. It was rare to find those kinds of games back then. After finding out about VNs, I saw that they usually contained that element too which is what really got me into playing them in the first place... having the main character interact and get closer to other characters.  And my curiosity also got me into the eroge kinds too.  

 

But overall.. I guess I just enjoy them. I prefer reading manga/VNs than an actual text-full book probably, since there is more stimulation for me to keep interest and I like the artworks. Maybe it could also be a vicarious thing? -shrugs-

[Guest sakanaとkoeda]

Variety. It's just another form of entertainment that I happen to like.

[John117]

I've got many reasons why I read/play them

 

-It's my main media to learning japanese. native sound, kanji, vocabulary, figure of speech, unique jargon on special fields(military,astronomy,caligraphy etc).

 

-I have a crappy laptop so I cant play the usual RPG,RTS,TBS etc.games. . . but eroge system requirement are low so I can play them.

 

-It's got hscenes which are much more enjoyable compared to usual hentai(Feeling of accomplishment after hours of reading)

 

-Eroge has so many elements the artist, voice actresses, scenario writer can effect  the final work of an eroge which can lead to many possibilities of stories unlike other media of entertainment.

 

-I love playing eroge and galge. . .

 

 

[Stray Cat]

For me, the most important part of gaming is the story.  Even if game play and all other factors are excellent if there isn't a story I'm interested in I just can't get into it.  Therefore, games built around a story are ideal. 

[Zenophilious]

I read them because they're FUCKING AWESOME.

 

But seriously.  I love feeling immersed in plot and I love romance.  Not a lot of books have decent depictions of romance and still have a interesting plot, but a lot of VNs do.  The art is also pretty consistently solid, and man...if they get the background music right, it really makes a scene.  It's kinda of a mix of traditional entertainment media, which is one of the reasons I find them so appealing.

 

For me, the most important part of gaming is the story.  Even if game play and all other factors are excellent if there isn't a story I'm interested in I just can't get into it.  Therefore, games built around a story are ideal. 

So, I take it you're not a huge CoD fan?  Dem terrible single-player storylines.

[nohman]

The medium has something special about it. Nothing else consistently pulls me in and provides the feels like visual novels can.

[krill]

i read vn's because it takes my love of art, and my love of reading and combines them in a fun way usually with a amount of game-play elements even if its just choice making or picking routes . these keep it fresh and allow me to read the story with variations over and over and i can have a say in the direction it goes same reason i like table top role-playing games. but it all boils down to a love of reading and i read just as many novels, and light-novels and manga and other forms of stories as i can. its a different format for storytelling and that is fun for me. 

[edwd2]

cuz you get to virtually experience a romance that does not exist in teh 3rd dimension. take baldr sky as an example, you never gonna get to fall in love with a girl, save her from some evil organization while fighting with robots. also VN plots and characters typically removes all the stuff we hate from the reality and replace tem with better things, i mean my girls are all nearly perfect, no family issues, not money issue, etc. etc.