I love ACG fan-centric industry and I love Visual News

[DaFool]

I've noticed that even though creators can be egotistical, they don't have to be so. More importantly, there are a lot of shy people in this industry -- people who don't really crave attention -- something which can't be said for Hollywood. In fact, there are a lot of prominent creators whom people aren't too sure about: e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Aida
It has been one of my dreams in life to become some sort of enigmatic creator who can be respected as a genuine artist but still be given freedom to live its own private life.
The best part about the ACG creation process is how people are touched by each other's creations, and can get engaged with fictional characters whom you don't have to pay millions of dollars just to act in your story.

I'm glad to be part of the creation force, thanks to Ren'Py. I don't have enough skills to create the output necessary for manga, but the things I learned in tackling visual novels enabled me to develop more talents.

I'm also glad with the latest developments such as this:
http://visualnews.net/2007/06/06/dream-with-me/

Finally I think developments like this will only help the visual novel scene. I don't like the rift between "Producer" and "Consumer" Us/Them mentality that is typically created by DRM-obsessed asshole corporate producers and anal obsessive-compulsive consumers. The doujinshi method introduced by Japan is ideal, and finally it is filtering into the English fandom. It's also a testament to VisualNews and how it has bridged together the Japanese creators, the English-speaking fans, the commercial translators, the fan translators, and finally the English-speaking original creators. So finally the community is consolidating its JP Doujinshi, Commercial English, Fan-translated JP Commercial, and finally OELVN scenes. I am proud of people here such as Enerccio and DrakeNavarone who are part of the fan translation scene and who are also fully involved in OELVN scene. Also, more of us getting visualnews domains will really push the frontier. As the Narcissus get officially sanctioned translations and distributions through visualnews, hopefully we can offer the same as well to the world in return.

[lordcloudx]

Hmm... well, it's nice to see cooperation between commercial producers and fans in the VN scene anyway.

[Jake]

The doujinshi method introduced by Japan is ideal, and finally it is filtering into the English fandom.

So, I'm curious; what is it about the doujinshi method that was introduced by Japan, other than the name? How is it that it differs from the self-publishing small-run model that's been used by - say - English-language small-press comics (or 'comix', if you insist) for ages?

[DaFool]

The doujinshi method introduced by Japan is ideal, and finally it is filtering into the English fandom.

So, I'm curious; what is it about the doujinshi method that was introduced by Japan, other than the name? How is it that it differs from the self-publishing small-run model that's been used by - say - English-language small-press comics (or 'comix', if you insist) for ages?

It's essentially the same, except that the west tend to be more restrictive with copyright infringement (i.e. fanworks... you can't publish Marvel stuff). The self-published and the 'official' are harder to distinguish in Japan, with many official creators coming from the doujinshi world, and many who still publish non-officially.

[Enerccio]

I like doujin style... in US i think you cannot use commercial characters and create something and sell it. But that is different in japan. Thousand or even more doujinshi are created that are based on popular anime or game series and they are sold cheaply.

Look at Battle Moon Wars.... based on Tsukihime / Fate/Stay Night characters but still can be sold by cheap price. That is Japan, not west...

DaFool thanks. I really like to bring translations to english speaking people. ^^

[mikey]

Finally I think developments like this will only help the visual novel scene. I don't like the rift between "Producer" and "Consumer" Us/Them mentality ... The doujinshi method introduced by Japan is ideal, and finally it is filtering into the English fandom. It's also a testament to VisualNews and how it has bridged together the Japanese creators, the English-speaking fans, the commercial translators, the fan translators, and finally the English-speaking original creators. So finally the community is consolidating its JP Doujinshi, Commercial English, Fan-translated JP Commercial, and finally OELVN scenes.

While this is not a wrong or immoral move, and can arguably be considered a win-win situation for fans and the business, it's also quite easy to see this simply as "company hires staff from translation scene".

I'm also not sure that the core of the above mentioned VN fandoms (doujin lovers, VN players, freeware OEL makers, demo translators etc,..) can be effectively brought together under a common VN flag.

You see, if I was in a bar, I'd probably want to talk to a guy who is doing that freeware vertical shooter (something not even resembling a VN), than discussing things with with a VN translator. The core of my activity lies in creating and expressing things, while the core of the translator's activity lies in finding meanings. Even though the final form of my and the translator's work is the same (a VN), my experiences from the process have much more in common with the freeware shooter maker. Similarly, a VN player may want to talk how the medium worked for him, but I would like to talk about how how I can express things with this medium.

I do realize this sounds the same and that some people have in fact done several different VN-related activities (translating, creating, playing), but I fear that the areas are so different, it's not possible to unite them. Recently I've been looking into several freeware making communities, and their experiences and comments are very similar to ours - and that made me understand that the core is not about opinion (how something looks), but about how you feel when doing it.

You can look at it this way - many people blog about millions of completely different topics. But if they quit blogging, the reasons are usually the same.

[Jake]

vertical shooter (something not even resembling a VN)

...now that sounds like a challenge - a vertical shooter that also feels like a VN...

(Although, to a small extent, some of the Touhou games already do this; there are conversations with boss characters at the end of each stage, and occasionally choices that affect the endings you [can possibly] get...)

[PyTom]

...now that sounds like a challenge - a vertical shooter that also feels like a VN...

A VN is fairly easy to combine with other genres, though. While it's a horizontal rather than vertical shooter, from what I understand "soft landing" intends to be a hybrid of the shmup and VN genres.

http://heiseidemocracy.com/2006/08/06/c ... -momo-pax/

[Enerccio]

...now that sounds like a challenge - a vertical shooter that also feels like a VN...

A VN is fairly easy to combine with other genres, though. While it's a horizontal rather than vertical shooter, from what I understand "soft landing" intends to be a hybrid of the shmup and VN genres.

http://heiseidemocracy.com/2006/08/06/c ... -momo-pax/

maybe you should implement simple curtain shooter in game (sorta like dating sim demo) in renpy

[ClintTheChocolic]

Actually, you aren't really allowed to sell doujinshis in Japan. It's illegal and I've heard some of the bigger publisher groups complaining about it. I guess some of them don't like the fact that their characters are getting gangbanged by dickgirls or tentacles or whatever crazy fetishes the Japanese manage to invent. Most publishers just decided to turn a blind eye on the whole doujinshi scene, the whole thing has gotten too big for them to tackle. Sometimes, however, they don't turn a blind eye... and things can get really ugly:

http://www.manganews.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3607

[absinthe]

So, I'm curious; what is it about the doujinshi method that was introduced by Japan, other than the name? How is it that it differs from the self-publishing small-run model that's been used by - say - English-language small-press comics (or 'comix', if you insist) for ages?

I looked dojinshi up on Wikipedia and, with the exception of the increased tolerance for fanwork, I don't see much difference either?

(And I could totally see making a VN about space or air pilots at war, and to move forward in the plot you have to fight battles. Which, now that I think of it, was pretty much Privateer/all my favorite old space RPGs. Who needs a new game idea? Not me. No.)

Thank you for the link, ClintTheChocolic. It's interesting to compare the way the Japanese fan scene works compared to the American one.