Why Yuri games are so unpopular?

[Sleipnir56]

Yes, I agree that yaoi seems more popular. Maybe because (not sure just guessing) yaoi games appeal also to straight female, and females are without doubts the biggest market for VN/dating sims ?

Yeah. That's true. Females play dating sims/vn more than guys do. And yaoi is kind like an otome game but the lead is a guy instead. Also, guys might not like Yuri as much as BxG because they don't feel like the main character (I don't know if that even makes sense )

[Asceai]

Yeah. That's true. Females play dating sims/vn more than guys do. And yaoi is kind like an otome game but the lead is a guy instead. Also, guys might not like Yuri as much as BxG because they don't feel like the main character (I don't know if that even makes sense )

I can't relate to that personally-- from my perspective, GxG is just inherently better because there's at least one fewer B and one more G. I don't know how other people play games though.

(every character in my nanoreno game is female, although I dunno if I'd call it GxG because it's not really something I designed around romantic pairings. I'll try to write a proper GxG game next though)

[curry nochi rice]

It's either yuri is just plain unpopular or there's just too many yaoi fangirls in here. :v

[Fungii]

BxB to me seems to be popular mostly because a lot of girls seem to go through this phase of "Give me all the yaois" and hop onto anything with even hints of BxB. I mean, if you want an example of this you just have to look at the state of BL comics on smackjeeves. Or if you're me, then just glance at your 14 year old state.

GxG fans just don't seem to have the same kind of attitude of being all consuming? At least in my experience. Or they'd rather make GxB/BxG so the void is remaining unfilled.

I'm kind of blanket statement-ing but that's just what I think it might be.

[Hyraculon]

The demographic being largely girls (and largely straight girls, at least in theory) is probably the biggest reason why yuri isn't going to get as much traction as het or yaoi. Even amongst girls who enjoy lesbian stories, there seems to be the thought that "yuri" is usually made by men, for men. The genre often comes across as exploitative and neckbeardy, so there's naturally a certain wariness there.

[Sleipnir56]

Yeah. That's true. Females play dating sims/vn more than guys do. And yaoi is kind like an otome game but the lead is a guy instead. Also, guys might not like Yuri as much as BxG because they don't feel like the main character (I don't know if that even makes sense )

I can't relate to that personally-- from my perspective, GxG is just inherently better because there's at least one fewer B and one more G. I don't know how other people play games though.

(every character in my nanoreno game is female, although I dunno if I'd call it GxG because it's not really something I designed around romantic pairings. I'll try to write a proper GxG game next though)

Sometimes the guys in dating sims are very bland so I can see why GxG can be better. As for you game, it wouldn't be GxG if there is no romance, but it's still cool to see the friendship aspect as well.

[Sleipnir56]

It's either yuri is just plain unpopular or there's just too many yaoi fangirls in here. :v

There is defiantly a lot of yaoi fangirls

[Sleipnir56]

BxB to me seems to be popular mostly because a lot of girls seem to go through this phase of "Give me all the yaois" and hop onto anything with even hints of BxB. I mean, if you want an example of this you just have to look at the state of BL comics on smackjeeves. Or if you're me, then just glance at your 14 year old state.

GxG fans just don't seem to have the same kind of attitude of being all consuming? At least in my experience. Or they'd rather make GxB/BxG so the void is remaining unfilled.

I'm kind of blanket statement-ing but that's just what I think it might be.

I think that's a good answer as well. But do you think girls play BxG games more then they would do a Yuri, because there are still not as many Yaoi and Otome games compared to BxG

[Sleipnir56]

The demographic being largely girls (and largely straight girls, at least in theory) is probably the biggest reason why yuri isn't going to get as much traction as het or yaoi. Even amongst girls who enjoy lesbian stories, there seems to be the thought that "yuri" is usually made by men, for men. The genre often comes across as exploitative and neckbeardy, so there's naturally a certain wariness there.

That kind of sucks actually. On here, most of the Yuri games are made by girls. I only two guys who writer Yuri games or have yuri elements in them. But those games still focus on the story, characters, etc and not the eroge

[soulmachina]

Personally, I love both yaoi and yuri just fine. Most of my projects and stories have both elements, though the focus is usually heavily on BL for personal reasons.

I don't mind the fan service or romantic fluff in either, but I lean towards more darker interests which appears more frequently in yaoi. I'm not sure about the average yaoi fangirl, but I grew up on things like Ai no Kusabi, Togainu no Chi, etc. so I like a lot of gritty power play that is hard to carry out in yuri without seeming like the average hentai. My interests are more mental and yuri (of that nature) focuses too heavily on the visual aspects, not the thoughts in their heads.

That's just me, though. As others have mentioned, it's probably due to the lack of English speaking male consumers. I would wager there are plenty of eroge yuri games available in Japan, but they probably aren't often translated for those reasons.

[Asceai]

That's just me, though. As others have mentioned, it's probably due to the lack of English speaking male consumers. I would wager there are plenty of eroge yuri games available in Japan, but they probably aren't often translated for those reasons.

There _aren't though_, that's the point I've been trying to make this entire thread. I know, I play literally every single one that gets released. Japan has the mostly-male creators and the mostly-male player base but still few yuri games compared to bishoujo/otoge/BLge. That's why it's so weird, it has nothing to do with the gender composition of the player base. People just don't make yuri games!

New theory that doesn't make much sense, but it's all I've got:
- English-speaking players love GxG, but the composition of the player base isn't quite right for it to be successful.
- Japanese-speaking players don't love GxG as much as we do

[soulmachina]

- Japanese-speaking players don't love GxG as much as we do

No, Japan doesn't tend to fetishize lesbian relationships in the same way that English speaking men do, so it would make sense that less media surrounds the genre. I feel there is a lot of psychology behind both genres, as women and men tend to create things from different places--namely women are more mental and men more visual.

Although I don't, a lot of women like yaoi because there isn't a female to "compete" against, even fictional, whereas men aren't really concerned about that as long as the visuals are there, and het fulfills their fantasies more than yuri in terms of placing themselves into the action.

[noeinan]

No, Japan doesn't tend to fetishize lesbian relationships in the same way that English speaking men do.

Hm, I feel like that's not the case. From the enormous amount of yuri manga I've read (surprisingly made by men and women, and consumed by men and women via my understanding) it's very "purity" oriented. Lots and lots and lots of private religious, all girls schools with young, innocent cuties and tall, slender, beautiful ojou-samas/onee-samas.

My experience has been that Japanese fetishization is less... sexual in nature? (At least, in the non-hentai stories. There is a *lot* of GxG hentai, though.) It seems kind of like an extreme "first love" experience, sometimes with more sexual older girls molesting cute and innocent younger ones. (Strawberry Panic, anyone?)

Meanwhile, there's this kind of "broey" culture in the U.S., at least, where young guys are all "LESBIANS HELLS YEAH." This tends to be more sex oriented, and actually, less of "lesbians" and more like two straight girls so hot and bothered for guys that they have sex. They're pretty much always lipstick lesbians, too.

Personally, I like yuri more than yaoi, though I like yaoi, too. I am kind of disappointed that yuri tends to center on only feminine girls, while yaoi has guys ranging from "basically a girl with a dick" to "super masculine, but pretty." (Bara has more masculine guys, though.) I'd consume more yuri if there were more bifauxnen.

[soulmachina]

No, Japan doesn't tend to fetishize lesbian relationships in the same way that English speaking men do.

Hm, I feel like that's not the case. From the enormous amount of yuri manga I've read (surprisingly made by men and women, and consumed by men and women via my understanding) it's very "purity" oriented. Lots and lots and lots of private religious, all girls schools with young, innocent cuties and tall, slender, beautiful ojou-samas/onee-samas.

My experience has been that Japanese fetishization is less... sexual in nature? (At least, in the non-hentai stories. There is a *lot* of GxG hentai, though.) It seems kind of like an extreme "first love" experience, sometimes with more sexual older girls molesting cute and innocent younger ones. (Strawberry Panic, anyone?)

Yeah, that's what I mean with how Japan doesn't fetishize lesbians in the same way that English speaking men do. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, but that it exists differently than in, say, the US, etc. It is less sexual in nature and more "innocent" geared. But I'm really just going off of what my sister-in-law has told me from when she lived in Japan is that the fetishization is much more different, and homosexual relationships are viewed in a much different manner than here.

Like, she's mentioned that someone told her that "homophobia is a Western thing" but that it's still not acceptable for either gender to live out of the closet, whereas here it's more socially acceptable to be in a same-sex relationship especially with girls (speaking from the perspective as a woman who is happily married to another woman.)

I don't know if that has to do with yuri to yaoi content in Japan, but I've been told from many different people that gay male interactions are viewed as more acceptable than lesbian interactions due to the gender roles and/or historically speaking. I'm not sure how true that is and it may just be case-by-case from the people I've talked to. I've tried looking into specifics, but I can't find much information online so I'm going off first hand encounters from family/friends who live/d in Japan and a Japanese exchange student at my old high school.

[papillon]

It's hard to find yuri eroges, but it's not hard to find a very brief yuri scene, flirtation, or active threesome within a het eroge.

Rumor has it that cultural expectations in Japan are such that GxG interaction is considered normal but childish, a phase that girls will go through and grow out of. There's a lot of media that features girls being overly friendly with each other and crushing on each other, and then 'getting over it' and ending up with men, and others where they're clearly playing up a hint of yuri but aiming it at a male gaze. However, I am obviously not Japanese and these rumors are filtered through internet weirdos who are not always right.


Yes, I still have a serious yuri VN in my list of projects I want to do (my current project is GxG but it's not exactly a VN, it's complicated) but goodness only knows when I'll ever get to it.