Open hostility against JRPG or indie VN gamedevs

[Watercolorheart]

I've been seeing a lot of this around the Internet where specific VN/doujin circles are targeted as competition and even death threats/rape threats against me have been made. What has been your experiences with this so far?

[dramspringfeald]

Not doing anything unless someone is threatening you with rape and murder.

[TrickWithAKnife]

I've been seeing a lot of this around the Internet where specific VN/doujin circles are targeted as competition and even death threats/rape threats against me have been made. What has been your experiences with this so far?

Sounds like you have been hanging around with the wrong crowds.
I've never had that problem, although I just hang around this forum and #Renpy.

[Cyrus]

Death and rape threats are part and parcel for the life of a VN developer.

[piano]

Uhhh...what exactly did you do the earn those kind of threats? I haven't heard of such hostility toward JRPGS or VNs...people usually don't waste their time. Aside from the occasional snark from someone's review/critique, most of the time it is just ignored.

[MaiMai]

Yeah, this sounds like that part of the internet where we wouldn't want to spend time in the first place. Too busy making/talking about VNs!

[ShippoK]

Well, I didn't get a mention that my NV was pretty gay... I mean the 'Homosexual Gay'. Not the ''Offensive Swear Gay.'
(Don't worry, it was all for jokes.)

Other then that, you might want to stay away from sites who have people who don't understand Visual Novels or take everything to seriously like Facebook or Tumbler.

[lemonscent]

Um... I don't know where you heard that, but TBH, those sites probably aren't worth visiting. You should ditch 'em. I mean most sites have their occasional trolls who totally bash whatever you do, but death/rape threats are... not something I've ever come across.

[Boomsickle]

I haven't made anything that has lead to threats but i think i might encounter a few if i ever go through with having a loli heroine so I'm looking forward to it

[Obscura]

It means you've arrived.

[Sapphi]

Death and rape threats are part and parcel for the life of a VN developer.

It means you've arrived.

Seriously? Is there some kind of trend as to who is targeted (i.e., subject matter of VN) or is it just anybody who is relatively well-known in the scene?

[LateWhiteRabbit]

Seriously? Is there some kind of trend as to who is targeted (i.e., subject matter of VN) or is it just anybody who is relatively well-known in the scene?

I would imagine it is those developers whose VNs contain homosexual content, or loli subject matter. Some people just tend to lose their ever-loving minds over that stuff.

Papillon's article on Kotaku had some rather nasty comments on "perverted old men" and "creepy freaks" JUST because her game has a young looking anime character. Nevermind that no sexual content or revealing outfits were shown. (And none are present in the game.) To some people, like a former team leader at the studio I worked at, ALL anime styled games or visual novels are "those pedophile games".

So, you know, your standard moral panic by ignorant idiots.

[SilverHyena]

You know, the one vn I have completed is bxb and I draw some comics that are also full of gay content, but I've never actually gotten any kind of hate comment/mail/etc for either one. I do get really nice messages from people who love them from time to time though. Maybe I'm just lucky or not popular enough or something. :/ I thought for sure I'd have to deal with some kind of nasty comment by now.

Still, I hate that some of you guys are getting these kinds of things.

Papillon's article on Kotaku had some rather nasty comments on "perverted old men" and "creepy freaks" JUST because her game has a young looking anime character. Nevermind that no sexual content or revealing outfits were shown. (And none are present in the game.) To some people, like a former team leader at the studio I worked at, ALL anime styled games or visual novels are "those pedophile games".

This makes me sad. Papillon's stuff definitely doesn't deserve that hate.

[papillon]

I may be jaded from spending too long on the internet, I didn't really consider any of those comments particularly hateful, just a bit dismissive. If you want really nasty comments, visit Greenlight sometime. Some people really don't like anime-style.

In any case, I've never gotten death threats, and people very rarely try to contact me personally to complain about content. The only one that I remember really irking me was someone who had never even played the game and had no idea what genre of game it was, but had heard that I wrote a game with a swear word in it, and therefore had a go at me because GAMES ARE FOR CHILDREN!!!

[MaiMai]

I may be jaded from spending too long on the internet, I didn't really consider any of those comments particularly hateful, just a bit dismissive. If you want really nasty comments, visit Greenlight sometime. Some people really don't like anime-style.

In any case, I've never gotten death threats, and people very rarely try to contact me personally to complain about content. The only one that I remember really irking me was someone who had never even played the game and had no idea what genre of game it was, but had heard that I wrote a game with a swear word in it, and therefore had a go at me because GAMES ARE FOR CHILDREN!!!

Meanwhile, said child swears like a sailor behind that parent's back while playing a violent FPS on Xbox Live.