Goodreads - A Place to Review Visual Novels?

[Obscura]

I'm wondering if anybody has a https://www.goodreads.com/ account. I'm unfamiliar with the site, but it seems like it shows up for practically any book I'm googling for reviews.

Currently, I don't see any VNs on there aside from some empty placeholders for Clannad and Air.

I'm wondering if this is a feasible place to review VNs? Anybody try this yet? I would love to start reviewing VNs on a book site. I can see it as a place where VNs start getting treated like books in addition to be considered games, to increase their exposure. I don't know if I'd be kicked off the site though, if I tried.

[Reikun]

I'm not familiar with the Goodreads site either (never used it, but have seen/heard of it). I did go ahead and send them a direct inquiry about the possibility of reviewing visual novels on the site though Hopefully they'll respond. I'm excited for the possibility of having VNs reviewed along side traditional books, but I'm pretty sure only "pure VNs" would be appropriate on the site, leaving out things like simulations and hybrid games.

I'm also wondering where KNs might fall into this question of reviews on Goodreads.

[Obscura]

Ahhh! Thanks so much for the legwork, Reikun!

Yeah, I'd think KNs would be considered closer to a book than any other kind of VN, for sure.

[Reikun]

I figured I'd update this thread. Goodreads has not responded to my message (not really surprised). I'm going to attempt to contact them one more time about it and if they still don't respond, maybe we should just go for it The worst that can happen is the review gets taken down and we get banned or something

[merdeamour]

I have a Goodreads account, and I have to say that I've never seen a review for a visual novel before... Although there's no explicit rule against reviewing a novel (visual or otherwise), but in order to review a book on the site, the book should already be on the site. I haven't explored if one could add a book to the list Goodreads has, though. If visual novels ARE allowed there, that would be pretty awesome...

[bluecake]

Goodreads member here too!

I don't know if I'd be kicked off the site though, if I tried.

Eh, the admins I've seen are pretty decent. They won't shoot you down if you suggested it in their club if that's what you're worried about.

I haven't explored if one could add a book to the list Goodreads has, though.

There is actually a way for members to add books to the site, but to do so you need to be a librarian and have read a certain number of books and have other stats. I haven't looked into it deeply though.

I doubt we'll be seeing visual novels on Goodreads soon, but if they have manga already there, why not? I'd personally love to see something like this implemented. It would make sorting out my collections easier and spread the word about visual novels itself.

[Reikun]

Okay! I was trying to type this up and the power went out and I lost everything OTL ROUND 2.... I finally got a reply from Goodreads!

You are welcome to add a visual novel to Goodreads' book database if it meets our standards for a book record. We have more information on this here.

From skimming their Librarian Manual it looks to me that pretty much anything with an ISBN can be listed in their database. So I did a little bit of research on ISBNs and:

Computer games solely or primarily intended for entertainment, irrespective of the age group at whom the product is aimed [are not eligible for an ISBN].

The following list provides examples of the games that are specifically excluded:

• a. Fantasy, adventure and role-playing games,
  b. Arcade and «Shoot-em-up» games which rely primarily on hand/eye co-ordination,
  c. Simulation games which attempt to simulate the operation of real or imagined situation,
  d. Competitive games in which users play against an opponent with the primary aim of «winning» a game.

Emphasis mine since I think VNs fall under those two categories as far as being games is concerned. More info on ISBN standards here. So where does that leave this now? I don't think it's impossible for VNs to be reviewed on Goodreads since they also said not all books have ISBNs. The support person (a real person!) who replied to my inquiry said that if I sent her some more information on a specific VN she'd see if it was eligible for inclusion in their database. I don't have anything in mind right now. Anyone got a suggestion I can show her?

[CheeryMoya]

c. Simulation games which attempt to simulate the operation of real or imagined situation

I wonder if dating sims will fall under C >_>

As for suggestions, maybe it'd be best to start off with short games. The userbase there should get used to the VN format first, and as they (hopefully) start getting more interested we put up longer games there. Try showing them The Thirteenth Year (really great go play it if you haven't already) and see how it goes.

[Obscura]

Oooh, thanks Reikun! I've never played Thirteenth Year but it seems like it would be a good suggestion. Or just any VN you've played and had a strong response upon playing. I think the Knife of the Traitor and A2 are ones that solicited a lot of strong responses from LSF and don't have either an RPG or sim aspect (or if so, it's rather slight)...I dunno if they'd count? There are a lot more out there but those were the first ones off the top of my head. Or any of Christine Love's games? You could probably give her anything short and engaging.

Thanks so much for following up with this! You're awesome!!!

[Fairy Godfeather]

I was actually drawn to the section that says:

2. Computer tapes and diskettes
Eligible:

1) Computer tapes or diskettes which have encoded text or static graphics which is complete within itself and specifically intended for output in human readable form.

2) Computer games primarily intended to educate through a combination of graphics and text. For example, a game for children that is intended to be educational by virtue of text responses and help screens, as opposed to a game of purely entertainment value.

3) Software that is primarily intended to instruct, such as chess software that teaches a player the moves and strategy of the game, but not software which is solely designed to allow the user to play the game for entertainment.

So I think that some visual novels could actually qualify. I think there's a thread at the moment about educational visual novels.

[Reikun]

@Fairy Godfeather; Yes, technically some VNs would be able to apply for an ISBN, but that's not really the issue ^^

Anyway, final update! I sent a few VN examples to the nice support person at Goodreads and she determined with her team that VNs are more game than book and thus inappropriate to be reviewed on the Goodreads service. To me, all this means is that Goodreads is not the place to review VNs

[Obscura]

Thank you so much for putting your time and effort in this. If VNs ever got reviewed like books I think it would go a long way toward expanding the Western world's awareness of them. .

[Fairy Godfeather]

@Reikun Sorry, I thought that someone might be interested in trying to get their visual novel classified as a book in order to have it placed up on goodreads. I guess it was just people wanting to review other visual novels up there though?

Did you share kinetic novels with them?

Is there any sort of site dedicated to reviewing visual novels in the same way as goodreads? Hmm I suppose there's http://vndb.org/

[CheeryMoya]

Is there any sort of site dedicated to reviewing visual novels in the same way as goodreads? Hmm I suppose there's http://vndb.org/

Blegh, VNDB is heavily biased towards Japanese VNs. A quick check on their highest rated VNs shows all Japanese titles, and even though we can attribute that to budget difference and length, I don't think the crowd there will give EVNs the time of day. Hell, even Katawa Shoujo only has a rating of 7.93 (EVN only highest ratings).

I mean, you can still try if you want, but it's going to be hard convincing the userbase there that the VNs coming from places other than Japan have their own merit.

[Fenrir34]

I've been on Goodreads for a while and haven't seen any visual novel reviews. Don't think you'll be kicked off though if you decide to review them. Only thing is that you might only get a few people who read it. It's mainly for books and not games.

......Now that I think about I kind of want them to have Visual Novel reviews. I think it would make the site more fun, at least for me.