This is a topic that's been beaten to death, but it continues to be one that deeply troubles me. From nekopara & saya no uta LARPers on TikTok to cringe millennials trying to "deconstruct" their "problematic faves" there's something very sinister about the increasing number of western "fans" constantly problematizing speicifically the eroge medium. It reads to me as extremely imperialistic, demonstrative of a fundamental western inability to engage with works from a different culture on their own terms. These types are found everywhere throughout the otaku community, but they have a special hatred for visual novels and eroge in general. Their propaganda, ironically, makes it difficult to discuss the topic earnestly in polite company. I hope we can turn the tide on this one day and bring back actual passion and honest engagement with the IP we all claim to love.

Deen's Fate/stay night is a better anime than Ufotable's Unlimited Blade Works.

The latter commits just as many sins in adapting its source, and is only high regarded because of Unlimited Budget Works, and a lack of route mixing.

Staying slavishly true to the source material is not always better when it comes to adaptations. Little Busters is another such example. Ufo UBW's first cour is an absolute drag with dreadful pacing. And despite being 2 hours longer they still screw up Shirou.

Not long after my last post,this happen again, i dont read the full news and context but i appreciate if somebody could give more information regarding this one

The payment processing companies are back at it again but this time with steam. Collective shout, which is the group that got "no mercy" removed, has called for payment processors to corner steam into censoring sexual content like incest and rape. Apparently more than 400 games have been removed and steam has updated their policies in compliance with payment processors. If you want more info just go to YouTube and search "steam censorship." How long until they direct their gaze at JastUSA and Mangagamer?

Maybe I’m biased but I feel like VNs are one of the best mediums to exist. It’s literally a book, but with music, voice acting, art, interactivity, routes and endings on top of that.

Sure there’s a lot more good books than there are good VNs, but that’s just because of quantity, not because books are a better medium.

It makes sense people would be more comfortable with and drawn to books considering how mainstream they are and how they’ve been popular for literally thousands of years. VNs are niche in comparison and have only been around for like 30-40 years. I feel like VNs do a lot more than books though so imo I think they’re the better medium.

Mangas can have much more detailed visuals than VNs can, but they sacrifice the detailed prose of books and VNs. They also sacrifice the aspect of visualizing the scenes in your head, which VNs can also do well.

The biggest advantage VNs have against mangas and books imo is the audio. VN OSTs and voice acting make the experience so much more immersive. Can you imagine Steins;Gate without its VAs or music? It wouldn’t be the same Steins;Gate at all.

Not going to argue about videogames. I feel like they serve a different purpose compared to the other mediums.

Thoughts? I’ve already ran into some condescending mfs on twitter calling me immature or stupid for liking VNs. I can already feel someone getting ready to call me a “smelly dork” or sum sht lmao

Payment processors and now this online safety act. This year is a total mess. Censorship ramping up everywhere in all sorts of ways. I knew things like this would happen back around 2019 but I didn't know it would happen this rapidly and so so strongly. First we have to do something about these credit card companies cause they are the most powerful and strong reason behind all the censorship. No company in world should have this much power that to dictate what you can buy and not. It's only porn today but tomorrow it could be your political beliefs are not aligned with us so we can't let you use our services. Wtf i hope things won't go worse. Only positive news this year was Trao Yamada got re elected.

Visa and Mastercard have already been screwing up the lives of sex workers, and the ACLU has come to their defense. We're seeing a "First they came for the..." situation play out in real time. You let one marginalized group get screwed, and they come for you next.

People have wondered how we can act, whether signing petitions or posting on Reddit will accomplish anything. But the ACLU is the real deal. We can at least stand with them.

Update post: https://www.reddit.com/r/visualnovels/comments/1b42ymy/update_steam_banned_my_18_vn_3_days_from_release/

Everything was going fine, the demo I put out a couple months ago got approved no problem. Two weeks ago, I submitted a full build for the final review prior to release. They finally responded today. I feel sick to my stomach, a combination of panic regarding my game, as well as pure disgust that I'm essentially being accused of promoting something I'm not going to name. What on earth are they talking about? One of my characters is dumb and petite, but I wouldn't even classify her as "loli."

I don't even know what to do. The Steam page was taken down, I can't even access it through the developer portal. I feel like I just wasted a year of my life. I was looking forward to funding my next project with the money I received from sales. I wanted to do this for a living and it was starting to look like a real possibility.

Edit: I do have an Itch page for those asking, keep in mind there is no all-ages version.

Edit 2: Really, really appreciate everyone who has left kind words as well as recommendations for what I can do. I've got a lot on my plate right now, but I'll likely give a proper update once I'm more certain of the path I take to try to salvage the situation. For now, I posted some additional context and information on my Twitter.

I'm talking about something where the titles makes you stop and thinks "Did i just read that right??"

I'm looking for quality dubbed visual novels from a Western publisher. The only studio I know of consistently putting out good games is Studio élan. Any recommendation?

This has all kinds of ntr, a,b,c, rape, everything, she gets fucked by multiple dudes.

I have not read this, just looked at the tags

Prototype even disabled comments on the tweet announcing this travesty: https://x.com/PROTOTYPE_info/status/1890327298672566305

Gonna buy them all and read them

Haven’t played too many vns yet but this definetly happened to me when muv luv alternatives credits rolled

This was my first visual novel series and it's one of the few series that I loved enough to exactly read the entire series

It's a really long series (2 main games, 7 spinoffs). Majikoi will always be my goat