Visual Novels and Social Media Part 2

Last time I gave an overview of visual novels, as well as one visual novel as an example of how social media effected this genre of games. This post will continue and conclude the topic.


Social Media's Influence (Cont.):
(Sources:
http://www.photo-digital-electronic.com/privacy-is-so-2001-an-anime-video-game-novel-about-social-media/
http://futurebook.mit.edu/2012/05/ebook-storytelling-possibilities/)


Another game I would like to talk about is Christina Love's "DTIP" (full name: Don't Take it Personally, Babe, It Just Ain't Your Story). This game "takes place at an exclusive private high school in Canada in 2027. (The player is) Mr. Rook, a 38-year-old substitute teacher with two divorces and a midlife crisis under his belt." The important thing is: the player will familiarize themselves with the school's computer, and then will track all of the social networking interactions that the students engage in. "This invasion of privacy goes unbeknownst to the students, and is intended to prevent cyber-bullying and other high school issues. The story forms around Mr. Rook’s attempts to help or hinder his students—without revealing his digital surveillance powers."

This game is an example of how social media has effected our lives and lives of other people. The player will piece together the story through the main character's experiences both from his eyes and from the social media outlets - the student's eyes. This is a different take than most visual novels, and more of this might be implemented in the future. This shows that social media has integrated with their lives much as it has our lives in the real world, which adds another level of realism and familiarity to the game. "One of the game’s primary themes is the societal and cultural changes brought about by social media, and the ethics of using the information it provides."

This visual novel is also a great example why that this type of storytelling can't be written in paper:

"Throughout the story, the characters are sending public and private messages to each other, both commenting on the framing narrative and providing their own narratives. The player is encouraged to switch context out of the framing narrative to keep abreast of these parallel narratives. The parallel narratives provide critical information which isn’t available in the framing narrative, and the framing narrative relies on and calls attention to this fact...The richness of the choices presented to the player could also not be easily represented in paper - each decision to read messages is a distinct choice, with implications for the player’s experience of the framing narrative."

To put it simply, it is nearly impossible to have the same experience and depth that visual novels go, in a medium as a reading book. Sure it may have book-like qualities, but visual novels are so much more.

Social Media...In Creation?
(Source: http://visualnoveldai.com/novelstream)

Social media within the production of a visual novel? There are many ways, like spreading updates through blogs, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc. I am not talking about those ways. For this example, I am talking about a visual novel platform, called NovelStream, which "makes creating, publishing, selling, and marketing visual novels easy." This is a remarkable platform for social media, because it does what other programs doesn't - the ability to write the story once, and publish them on facebook (not a link, but an actual facebook app), as well as to Blackberry, iPad, and Android phones. The way they do this is that they do basically what Netflix does with videos - they stream the content to you, instead of downloading/installing files and running it locally. Their site claims that the platform will also be social by:

• "Having rewards that keep readers coming back. They'll be able to see scores, achievements, rankings and comparisons to friends. Readers will want to get higher scores, and they'll be able to get them by reading more of your visual novels. 
• Enabling your community to complement your works by creating their own fanfiction, mashups, etc. Give them access to your assets, easy tools and encouragement. Your fans will virally promote your work by promoting theirs!
• Integrating discussion and community spaces. A very low percent of fans actually contribute to the a visual novel's community. However many more people will participate in community discussions if they are present right there on the visual novel itself."

 In my opinion, this could be an amazing thing if done right. However, I don't believe the general population would like a streaming visual novel just yet (internet connections, stability problems, tangible-ness, etc.). The built-in editor is not as wide as other editors like Ren'Py (which uses Python as the programming language). I do like the social network integration and the fact that it is compatible with many platforms, but I feel like this platform needs a little more time to be perfected and have the editor be less restricting for this platform to really shine. It is much more simple than Ren'Py and it is more user-friendly, but with that it sacrifices many options.

Conclusion

Has the American culture fully accepted visual novels as a competitor in the gaming world? Probably not. However, there is without a doubt a rise in the awareness of this genre and all the possibilities it can provide, that a simple book can't or a movie. There is potential in the American market for this, though it is still a niche one right now. Without a doubt the fanbase is growing, and with social media, more and more people will hear about visual novels at a much faster rate than before social media was implemented. There is already social media implemented in the platform (NovelStream), in the game itself (DTIP), and even the method of getting members together and forming a studio (Four Leaf Studios). Time will tell for the state of visual novels in America. It was and still is a popular game type in Japan, with many coming out every year. Maybe if some were brought over, or being talked about more via social networks, there will be more awareness.

Brainstorming Characters

I have been brainstorming on what main characters to create as potential routes. These are not set in stone, and might change in the future. Bear in mind that these are rough ideas so they are not 100% fleshed out (full looks, impact of the story, names, stuff like that).

Setting: Sometime in college

Character 1: Typical "smart" girl
Short hair, but not too short (similar to Nagato from Haruhi), wearing glasses(?)
Bio: She always attends class, usually sitting near the front. She is sometimes shy, but will always ask a question and doesn't mind answering things back if you asked.

Character 2: Semi Introvert?
Black hair, gamer, quiet for the most part
Bio: She sometimes attends class, but usually she is on her laptop. When she is not in class, she would stay in her room and chat to friends online rather than in person. Either that or play games online.

Character 3: Loud with an deep hidden issue
Comes to class late, loud, open (mask?)
Bio: She rarely attends class, but when she does, she is usually late. She seems open and loud - will try to coax the main character into her plans.

Character 4: Typical childhood friend
Bio: She has been there when the main character were kids, but was separated due to her moving in middle school through high school. She now attends the same college as the main character. Will they retain the same friendship? Will they recognize each other?

Again, these are rough rough ideas. I need to flesh them out more and add a more in-depth bio to make them seem actually plausible.

Visual Novels and Social Media Part 1

Overview (What are visual novels?):
(Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Visual_novel)
Visual novels are not new in Japanese culture, starting from the early 1980s, with novels created by Square, Enix, and Nihon Falcom. Traditionally and even through stereotypes, visual novels that are on PCs contained adult scenes, even if the overall theme of the visual novel is not erotic in nature. "The vast majority of console ports do not contain adult material, and a number of recent PC games have also been targeted at the all-age market; for example, all of Key's titles come in family-friendly versions, and two have never contained adult content at all." This is generally known as the 'eroge' genre of visual novels. There are other genres like science fiction, 'nakige' (crying game / melancholy game), and horror.

Visual novels are basically "choose your own adventure" books with more depth and story with each path. What makes this a game? Visual novels don't say "go to page xx for choice y," rather, they make it so the player would interact with the characters of the novel. The amount of choices vary from novel to novel but they usually have vastly different paths that lead to different endings. There are also one or two "true" routes that are usually more fleshed out than other paths.

Why is this not "just" a book? Visual novels add a layer of depth by adding in music which changes at key points, by adding animations, backgrounds, and the characters themselves visually so the player can see and interact with them. This is not a movie, since the player has a choice of paths to take, and the majority of a visual novel is words. Basically it takes the good of both worlds and adds in interactivity with the player.

Social Media's Influence:
(Sources:
http://www.original-gamer.com/article/3489-4-visual-novels-for-the-curious
http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/650003-katawa-shoujo/61708358)
Through the rise of social media, and anime adaptations to a minor extent, areas outside of Japan started to hear about visual novels. People fan-translate some novels while companies started to create and/or bring the Japanese titles officially to their countries. How did social media help? Due to the rapid nature of social media, word spread fast - friends that learned this told other friends that might have been interested, and so on and so on. Visual novels are still a niche thing within the American gaming circle, but it is slowly growing. One popular visual novel that may not seem apparent to gamers would have to be the Phoenix Wright series for the Nintendo DS.

One amazing visual novel that I would like to discuss is "Katawa Shoujo" (or the English Translation, "Disability Girls"). It is a free (http://katawa-shoujo.com/download.php), 18+ rating game due to some scenes, however this visual novel is categorized in the nakige genre. The scenes are, for the most part, "few and far between, and the general consensus is that they are very tastefully handled. Very little is seen in the way of genitalia (with one notable exception), although breasts are somewhat more common." As an analogy, this is like a movie that happens to have a tasteful love scene, not some porno. Also as an added bonus, there is an option to turn the 18+ content off so everybody else can enjoy the visual novel.

Katawa Shoujo's story revolves around the male character, Hisao Nakai (through the player's eyes), who is forced to enroll at Yamaku Academy because of an event. This high school is a school for people with disabilities. "While there, he makes friends with some of the students and staff and through them (depending on your choices), learns to live with his disability and the disabilities of others." If the player chooses the right paths, Hisao can even fall in love with one of his female classmates.

The amazing thing about this novel, compared to others, is that "once you get to know these girls, you feel for them, and want to protect them and help them as much as you can despite your character’s condition." This visual novel is not a stereotypical dating sim with disabled girls that are nice as choices, however, this is a deep novel about dating nice girls that happened to be disabled. "The difference is that the story doesn't glorify the disabilties, but rather presents a positive and accurate take on how a person affected as such can still experience love and relationships and what not." Here is a review (spoilers), and Kotaku has an in-depth review with minor spoilers as well

How does this relate to social media? The studio, Four Leaf Studios, was formed through the /a/ board of 4chan. 4chan, for those that don't know, is a social board where people can post topics based on the thread (/a/ for anime and manga, /vg/ for general video games, and even the notorious /b/ random board). One person usually starts a thread, and people can anonymously reply back to the thread, or start one of their own. "The writers, programmers and artists that made up Four Leaf Studios joined together after seeing an image from doujinshi (self-published) artist Raita showing a group of disabled girls." After communicating through the board, they created the the studio and started to communicate through other forums. Visual novels may not have been spread through word of mouth by social media in this example, but this shows that people can get together using social media and create something amazing and "how the power of the internet can have individuals from different walks of life come together to create a tear jerker."

To be continued in part 2...
Part 2 will cover another Visual Novel (DTIP), a program to create visual novels, and more!

What is fuelling the astronomical growth of Pinterest?

Pinterest is an up-and-coming thing and it has been gaining a lot of followers and attention recently. Pinterest is basically a place where people can pin their interests onto a board and people can repin if it also suits their interests. This is similar to Youtube's "Favorites" function. The one thing that Pinterest has, that might make them have the upper hand, is the fact that you can pin from any website, as long as the person has the Pinterest link bookmarked. They can just go to any website, press the Pin It button, and then it will be automatically added to their board. Users could not do this with Youtube - the videos have to be within Youtube's site, and not anybody else (like Metacafe, Vimeo, etc.). Flickr is supposedly the same way, however I have not used Flickr in a long time.

http://mashable.com/2012/02/01/pinterest-traffic-study/

Pinterest also "brings more traffic than Google+, Youtube, and LinkedIn combined." I believe the reason is that it reaches out to a more broader userbase, not just images and not just videos. People can pin whatever they like to the board, which might interest other people who have similar pins and so on.

And So It Begins...

Recently I have been planning on creating my own visual novel, and hopefully it would be done before Autumn. Before that however, I plan on creating smaller VNs in order to get a handle on how the coding is done and how hard it may be to write one.

My goals are:

• At least 5 character routes
• Multiple endings for those routes (Good, Normal, Bad)
• Have a decent length of time until one route is finished (Preferably above 6 hours per route)
• Hopefully publish it on a distribution site like Steam or Desura (Analogue: A Hate Story was recently published on Steam so that gives me hope)
• Make a Kickstarter page to help fund it

As of right now I am in the pre-pre-pre-planning stage, where I am just throwing down ideas and see where they take me (situations, locations, music, etc.). Since I am doing this by myself (more or less), it will probably take some time, as schoolwork comes first.

More updates to come.

Review of Digg and Reddit

These two sites function the same; they provide a feed of user submitted content, which are then voted by the people if it is popular or not. However, it would seem as though that they cater to different audiences.

Infographic from 2010: http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/27/digg-reddit-infographic/

Reddit has registered users submit links or a text post, then other users can vote it up or vote it down, which is the ranking system for the post. This rank will determine the position of the post on the page. Registered users can customize what is on their personal front page by subscribing to individual reddits through a page that shows all reddits available. The look is relatively simple, with a tiny thumbnail at most for images. There are also "promoted" posts which are sponsored by companies that show up on top. Based on the infographic, their main type of postings are images, and then reposts from Reddit.

Pros:

• Simple site layout
• Sponsored link easily noticeable and always on top of page

Cons:

• Maybe looks too simple
• Too many subtopics on the top of page that new users may not know what the term is
• Hot pages show up first, not most recent
• Controversial tab is a hit or miss

Digg also has registered users submit links/text posts, and other users can vote up or vote down. Digg shows the most recent post first, but only after it hits a certain number of up votes (to weed out the spam posts). This doesn't determine the position on the page, but if a story has enough up votes, it can be moved to the "Hot Stories" (which only lists 5 on the front page) or "Top News" (which lists 10) section on the page. The look is more sophisticated than Reddit, and most of the posts include a thumbnail image as well. There are also promoted posts, however it is sorted within the recent news, but it is noticeable with a yellow bar showing "Sponsored by ___."

Pros:

• Sophisticated site layout
• Sponsored link easily noticeable
• Shows most recent posts with enough up votes first
• Shows hot stories and top news stories on the front page as well as recent.

Cons:

• Sponsored link is sorted within the links, so it is less noticeable than Reddit's sponsored link.
• When clicking on a story, it goes to the site with Digg's toolbar up top, no option to automatically skip it.
• Much more new front link pages compared to Reddit.

Sakuracon 2012

Sakuracon was a convention that took place on April 6-8. It featured many professionals from the anime industry, as well as musical performances from Stereopony, Moi dix mois, and Kanon wakeshima. In my opinion, the event was amazing, and entertaining. There was a lot of stuff to buy at the exhibitor's hall, tons of talented artists at artist's alley, and the performances were the best in my Sakuracon-going years. I also got a chance to take a picture with the band Stereopony, got a few autographs, and even had a picture drawn for me from the artist who drew the Toradora manga. I also had a playmat done by a couple of artists in Artist's Alley.

I have talked/interviewed with a few people on their thoughts about this year's Sakuracon. They all generally thought that this year was the largest Sakuracon, mainly because the exhibitor's hall / Artist's Alley size doubled from last year. Some people complained about the exhibitor's hall, saying that the items seemed to be more expensive than last year. The new rule pertaining autograph signings had mixed reactions as well. Some liked it, because it gave them incentive to go to the person's Q&A section. Others hated it because of the same reason - they had things that went on during the same time the Q&A was, so they could not get a priority ticket.

Those that went to the concerts had both good and bad things to say:

Stereopony:

The good: They started on time (which was a first for me at Sakuracon), played extra songs that went overtime, had anime videos for the songs that were in the anime played, had a good encore.

The bad: Some early technical issues (feedback from the mic)

Kanon Wakeshima:
The good: The concert showed her talents with the cello as well as her vocal range.

The bad: Started almost an hour later than scheduled. Even though Kanon Wakeshima is being produced by Mana (a member of Moi dix Mois), it doesn't seem like the right time of opening act for Moi dix Mois.

Moi dix Mois:

The good: They knew how to get the crowd pumped up. They performed songs better live than on album.

The bad: It started during the Kanon Wakeshima autographs, so people that wanted to go to both had to miss the beginning of the Moi dix Mois concert as well as not being able to go up front to the 'mosh' pit.

Another thing that bothered people was the fact that you could not even have your phone out and on during the Kanon/Moi concerts. If the staff saw a person with a phone on, they got a warning or escorted out.

People also mentioned that Steve Blum was an awesome person for staying 3+ hours after schedule to do autographs for the people who waited in line.

Stereopony:

Kanon Wakeshima:




Moi dix Mois:

People and Visual Novels

I find it a bit odd that visual novels are such a niche thing in the States. They are essentially those "Choose your own adventure" books from when we were kids, except that each "choice" is fleshed out into a cohesive and immersive plot. There is something that visual novels do well to capture each emotion and moment, and that is adding the audio and visual parts. The music in each visual novel I have played is amazingly well-done and it fits the mood with each scene. A few examples will be shown at the end of this post.

There are animations, but by no means does this make this an anime or a long movie. The story is within the text of the novel; the animations just enhance the words. For example, when a character feels mad or sad, you can see it on the screen, instead of just saying "she sighed" or "he smiled."

It might have to do with how the majority of the population equate visual novels with porn or the like. However this is far from the truth. While some novels have explicit scenes, the ones that do are always marked as 18+. There are visual novels that are meant for all ages, and even some are directed towards the female population.

It is weird, because I would have to say a lot of American gamers have played some sort of visual novel before. Games like Mass Effect - if you take out the FPS elements, then you have a 3D visual novel. Same with Catherine, if the puzzle pieces were taken out. It might also have to do with the culture in that we are so tend to pull the trigger finger so fast, and not take in the satisfaction of patience and "the path to the end."

However, for those interested, I recommend Clannad (for romance), the Higurashi no naku series (for a psychological, mystery, horror), or Steins;Gate (sci-fi, thriller). The art is usually well-drawn, the music is incredible, and the storylines are really immersive.

Song of Saya from the visual novel Saya no Uta (horror, mystery):





The opening song from the visual novel CHAOS;HEAD (Psychological, sci-fi, cyberpunk):





The opening song from the visual novel ReWrite (Action, Drama, Fantasy, Romance):





The opening song from the visual novel Steins;Gate (sci-fi, thriller):

About Me

Started up this blog recently, for the INFO 498 class at UW (Social Media), and this is my post describing me and what I do.

I'm Andy and I go to the University of Washington, studying Informatics. On my spare time, I am in the Pen and Paper Gaming club, subbing foreign videos, and trying to create a visual novel. I am currently in a D&D 3.5, Star Wars, and a Shadowrun campaign, while running my own Pokemon Tabletop Adventures campaign (or a test run). As for the videos I sub, they are generally Korean, Chinese, or Japanese. Here is one of my videos:

As for the visual novel I am working on, it is very early in the development process, since school is my number one priority. I was inspired by novels like Saya no Uta, Clannad, and the Higurashi series. It always interested me how visual novels capture both the movie and novel experiences and present them in a way that is immersive.

Clannad: