Comic Con 2010 Q&A

Visual Novel Community Visual Novel Talk
#81

Yes, I do keep up with the MangaGamer forums, checking them rather often, even if I don’t necessarily reply to every topic. And as you can see, I do actually keep tabs on these forums as well (though less frequently). I do make it a point to try and answer any questions when and where I can.

@Lancer Yeah, I’m the exact same way with my eroge backlog. So many games… so little time… (It’s one of the biggest reasons I love this video.)

When it comes to which visual novel game sells more, it’s rather ironic. I can’t speak for JAST, but as some have already mentioned here–a lot of people seem drawn to their “sex-romp” or “fetish” games most (And I can’t blame them either, as I own more than a few myself.) However, the exact opposite is the case for us over at MangaGamer. The story based games–not the sex romps–are doing better, and Suika, which retained the mosaics due to lost originals, is comparable to our other releases.

#82

The social awkwardness you’re referring to arises from a lack of knowledge. Hentai is an escape from this (or simply an alternative), moreso than a cause. But sure, playing such games probably isn’t going to aid you in real relationships. If you’re interested in instructional sessions, then yes realism may be the way to go. :stuck_out_tongue:

As for DLSite…that’s where all the games go that aren’t put through the normal regulatory agencies like the EOCS. Of course it’s going to have a preponderence of fetish-type stuff. It’s analagous to putting muddy water through a filter. It’s hardly a surprise that the pool left behind ends up being muddier than the original water.

#83

That’s interesting. Heh, but maybe that speaks more to the fact that your story games are pretty good while your sex romp titles aren’t very sexy. :stuck_out_tongue: Still, I’d also expect the download medium to be more attractive to the sex romp crowd vs the story crowd. Food for thought.

#84

I guess being able to recognise 95% of the references in the video, while having only finished 30-40% of the titles is a sign of that too. :lol:

#85

Out of curiosity, what kind of numbers do you get and aim for? JAST USA once mentioned that their target for each game was 3000 copies and that story-driven titles usually struggled to meet expectations.

Is MangaGamer’s target similar, or do the games sell much better/worse? IIRC, the bestsellers are only doing half as well as the company would like, although progress is being made.

#86

To close the circle: only if you think fiction should mirror reality.

Yes, fiction reflects reality to some degree. But fighting fiction is pointless. Go fight real crime and work to educate people through nonfiction. You know, that entertainment element that’s supposed to reflect reality.

I’m not even responding to this. Bye Mr. Troll.

#87

Yeah, that’s basically how it is for me too, lol.

Unfortunately, I’ll have to refrain from answering that at the moment, since several changes have been and are being made. Personally, I’m hoping to see Koihime do well and bring in more people.

#88

If the sales figures on prodlsite are any indication, dlsite seems to have more of an ero bias than other dl sales sites (at least on the Japanese side - for example, Lightning Warrior Raidy has sold 10 to 79 times more copies than any Nekoneko Soft title). I’m just thankful that some good story-based titles keep appearing on there too, when a lot of them don’t even sell 100 copies. StarTRain’s only been purchased 14 times :(, one of which was by me.

It’s also worth adding that similar comments may also apply to works that are primarily targeted at a female audience - quite a few yaoi works on hana and elsewhere are also rape based, although perhaps not quite as blatantly as certain maniax titles are.

#89

Btw, I really do think that some people are really misunderstanding the eroero fans. If we thought the story was getting in the way, we’d just get the much cheaper and available h-manga. How much story I want between the h-scenes really depends on my mood though. :smiley:

#90

The biggest problem I have with nukiges, or indeed a lot of titles that rely heavily on ero-scenes is that many aren’t particularly good. To qualify that statement, they’re quite often stuck with second-rate or otherwise uninteresting scenarios/writing/characters/protagonists compared to story driven titles - generally the most lacking of which is the writing. Obviously, a good nukige story is generally quite different from a 1-3 scenes per character story but there’s no reason why one should be any less interesting to read than the other. I do like playing good nukiges, but not so much because of the ero-scenes, more because certain stories need to be written with a lot of scenes in order to work properly.

#91

As far as I know, it’s where all the dojin products go - okay, not really all, but a lot of them, even those that are not ero at all. Yes, of course, I do expect there to be more weird stuff on DLsite than elsewhere, especially because if you want to make a SHORT game of truly bizarre fetish, that’s got to be the best place to sell it. But if you view their marketplace as representative of dojin games as a whole, it suggests there’s something fucked up going on.

Now, it’s highly possible that they’re not representative at all. I don’t have the resources or the language skills to get a better overview of the market.

I’ve definitely seen rape-suggestive female-oriented games (on DLsite it seems mostly yaoi that gets it; I’ve heard a lot of complaints from English otome fans about the amount of rape in the fullprice titles though) but it seems to be at a more sane ratio of rapey to non-rapey, and even the rapey stuff is at least not marketed as anything near as crazy as the male-oriented stuff.

Strangely enough, for my personal tastes, I’m less offended by something like “Rape Rape Rape! Rape 200 different characters in this game!!” than by the large number of games specifically on the fetish of degrading captured female fighters. There’s an awful lot of “She had a sword / magical powers / ninja training and thought she was so hot, but now you’re going to bring her down to size and fuck her brains out until she’s a drooling vegetable” themed titles… not just my inference, but marketed exactly that way. That makes me think there’s misogyny going on.

#92

I don’t think there’s anything fucked up going on. Demand dictates supply and that’s why you’re seeing so much of the crazier stuff on DLSite.
Who is more likely to look for and buy a doujin title? I think that’s the ero fan whose particular fetish is not satified by mainstream products rather than simply someone who wants to check out amateur talent. I’m thinking the average mainstream fan will assume that the doujin are of inferior quality than their doujin counterparts and he won’t even try those. And if people won’t buy them, then people won’t make them either.

#93

I guess that’s only half the story. The doujin market kind of has a monopoly on 1000-2000 yen eroges, as there are only a handful of professional eroges being sold for 3000 yen, and almost none for less than that. Also, in the same way that there are niche ero titles, doujin creators also have the option of doing something that’s rather niche in terms of story and/or presentation too (same goes for free games as well), that wouldn’t work all that well as a professional game.

Doujin doesn’t necessarily imply amateur talent or quality either - quite a few works are by writers and/or artists who have worked on commercial titles in the past (or who have moved into the professional sphere as a result of their successful doujin works, Type/MOON being the most obvious example), two relatively recent examples being Corpse Maid from ex-Cyc staff, or Iceno! - if not for the length, both would easily pass as full price eroges in terms of production values.

#94

Look at any collection of indie games for sale in English-speaking markets and compare. Sure, a lot of indie developers cater to niches. But somehow, we appear to have a lot of niches that aren’t rape.

And DLsite does sell non-ero, non-VN games, giving the impression that it’s a general marketplace. You can get shmups and platformers and such there.

#95

Where the hell has this thread gone? I posted one thing and all of sudden we are trying to convert one another to our way of thinking. I love a good debate but there is a proper time and place for it. We are all different. We all believe other things. We may agree to disagree but does that seem right to you? As interesting as this is to read it just makes me think that we all tend to be a bit stupid at times. We are all both right and wrong. It’s merely a matter of bias and perspective. End of discussion. If you want to talk about more things like this we should probably make a separate thread for it. It’s taking up the space of the actual questions on the comic-con. Feel free to ignore if you wish I just thought it might be beneficial to simply make a separate thread for it. I apologize for helping to start this as interesting as it is. Let’s move the discussion elsewhere for now though.

Comic-con question (about time): Will Jast actually be selling items other than the games? I know mangagamer has a bunch of random items they they sell at their booths as well and I was wondering if Jast would be doing the same and if so what items can we expect to see?

#96

The booth is always for J-List, so they have a wide variety of stuff there, from eroge and manga to shirts and stuffed dolls. Of course the reason the thread seems to have gone crazy could be do to the fact that Comic Con ended on Sunday. :stuck_out_tongue:

#97

Which is why Westerners go to hentai for their fix? :stuck_out_tongue:

I’d also imagine this has to do with the Western love for realism. Realism and rape in porn aren’t exactly compatible. If we had a well developed cartoon porn industry here, maybe you would see a lot more rape stuff.

#98

That’s cause everyone is doing it wrong. First you expound on why it’s a God given mandate that Twincest be universally worshiped as superior to everything else, then flood the post with 8 to 12 pictures of twins as mathematical proof to quell all argument of illogical debate claiming otherwise.

…thusly and henceforthwith…

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#99

I approve. Actually does anyone know what the policy on images are? I’ve just become curious if there is an image thread…

#100

The policy on images is ‘narg gets to do whatever he likes’. If anyone else starts imagespamming I’m dobbing you in to Lamuness =P