Telling friends and/or family?

[Superdingo13]

I don't know about you guys, but I haven't told anybody I know about the fact that I play KS at all. I kind of want to, so I can actually talk to some people about it, but i feel like anyone who hasn't actually played it or know enough about it will immediately dismiss it as disgusting, fetishy hentai without giving it a chance, no matter what I tell them about it... I really don't want to be known as "that guy who loves hentai games" or something like that. Advice/discussion/whatever?

[Heartless Wanderer]

That's something of a barrier, yeah. I hang out with a lot of videogamey types who're willing to give pretty much anything a chance, though, so I wasn't all too bothered by it. Got involved in a PM discussion with a reviewer on FanFiction.Net over it, though. Basically they said it looked interesting but they probably wouldn't download the VN because they weren't into hentai.

My counter was to mention that Act 1 was available as a separate download and that all of the "adult" content was in the later acts, so this makes for a good "demo" (didn't use that word specifically, but that was the idea behind it) with which to give the novel a shot and see if the writing/art/music et cetera strikes your fancy. I made a point to note that the complete game does have a rather amusing censorship option. Something I forgot to add is that the VN's actual "adult" scenes comprise a very small portion of its content, maybe a couple minutes of a story that takes hours to get through.

I would express it in short as being the different between pornography and a romance movie that happens to have a graphic sex scene or two at a few points in the movie. The difference is that one is entirely based on sex with all the disregard for story and plausibility that comes with it, as well as all the over-glorification; the other is more tied up in the personal conflicts and characters involved, to the point where you could reasonably "fade to black" and skip most sex scenes without missing a whole lot. Also, the sex scenes in Katawa Shoujo tend to be rather realistic in spite of their occasional forays into blatant fetish territory. At this point dismissing it as disgusting is no more reasonable than dismissing sex itself as disgusting.

The problem is trying to formulate these thoughts into the kind of words that don't sound condescending, offensive, or thoughtless to the ears of the party you're speaking to. The path of least resistance is probably to refer them to the Act 1 download for an idea of how the story is presented. There's a fair bit of meat to Act 1, enough so that one can get invested in Hisao as a character and interested enough in the various characters he meets that one wants to learn more.

[Megumeru]

About a few months after its release, my sister caught me playing KS. She looked at me funny, but then noticed Kenji and said "he looks like Harry Potter". We laughed, and all ends well.

I only told those who are in my close circle of companion about KS. One of the easier lines I find to get them into it is this: "It's like CLANNAD"

And they play it, scorn me for a moment considering how 'sick' the idea is about dating the disabled, but then decide to eat their words and cry buckets after they finish the routes.

Best part? I had the best laugh watching their reaction ψ(｀∇´)ψ

[OtakuNinja]

I have I friend in my Japanese class who's into KS (At least Emi ), and we talk about it occasionally. Other than that, I have an online-friend who's played part of Act 1, and we talk about it sometimes. I'm still trying to convince her to play the other acts, but she's not interested.
My sister have seen a CG when she was in my room and my mother almost busted me during Lilly's 2nd ero-scene. That's how much my family knows about KS, although my cousin accidently heard of it ans seems interested. I really hope he forgets all about it. He's the type who copy everything I like and I'm not fond of the idea that he'll someday "steal" my waifu.

[Pokeman]

I've gotten a bunch of people around me to give KS a try. Some went all the way, some stopped, and some couldn't get past the fact it contained hentai. Some of my friends question me why I had recommended it to so many people, due to the fact it does contain hentai.
Personally, I don't really care how people view me if they know that I like hentai. I don't care how people view me overall. I don't know if it has something to do with my lack of modesty, but If I like something, I'm not afraid to admit that I do like it.
Besides, I'm already known as a pervert among my close friends.

I've told my brother about KS, and he- yeah, he never questioned it again. Some of my relatives have tried it, and they seem fairly interested.

I only told those who are in my close circle of companion about KS. One of the easier lines I find to get them into it is this: "It's like CLANNAD"

That works everytime.
I've gotten my friends interested into a whole bunch of animes and eroges just by saying that "Oh, it'll remind you a bit of Clannad."
Freaking foolproof.

[Xanatos]

Haven't told people simply because I have nobody to tell.

[Dream]

Haven't told people simply because I have nobody to tell.

Same here. I don't really trust my family, so that's part of the reason why i don't tell them. I have no friends either.

[OtakuNinja]

due to the fact it does contain hentai.

Believe me, KS in not hentai. Moonlight Lady is hentai. Ikki Tōsen/Battle Vixens is very close to hentai. KS is not hentai.

Note: It was the already mentioned cousin who gave me BV. I still haven't forgiven him.

[Xanatos]

Haven't told people simply because I have nobody to tell.

Same here. I don't really trust my family, so that's part of the reason why i don't tell them. I have no friends either.

Ah, welcome to the club then. I doubt I'm worth much as a friend but ya got me.

[Dream]

Ah, welcome to the club then. I doubt I'm worth much as a friend but ya got me.

Thanks, i don't think i'm worth much either but it must be worth something at least.

[Superdingo13]

Ah, welcome to the club then. I doubt I'm worth much as a friend but ya got me.

Thanks, i don't think i'm worth much either but it must be worth something at least.

We can all be worthless friends! We can have parties where we just sort of talk about how we have no real lives and don't really talk to anyone else... It'll be fun, trust me!

[lvl5popcap]

I can't even convince my gamer-type friends to try Portal or any LucasArts adventure games, let alone a VN . So I just tell them that KS's story is about what it's like to attend a school for the physically disabled. Sometimes I'll tell them about how the development studio formed and worked on the game over several years, which is an interesting story in itself. If they ask about an example of what happens in the game, I usually tell them about what happens when running on the track in Act 1. I mean, hardly any of them are actually going to pick up the game, so I might as well make conversation about content they can relate to.

Although I will say that I don't feel the least bit shy mentioning the adult-oriented scenes to my book club friends, given that they just recently finished group reading Fifty Shades of Grey, they have no room to criticize .

[ShadeHaven]

Ah, welcome to the club then. I doubt I'm worth much as a friend but ya got me.

Thanks, i don't think i'm worth much either but it must be worth something at least.

We can all be worthless friends! We can have parties where we just sort of talk about how we have no real lives and don't really talk to anyone else... It'll be fun, trust me!

Can I join this worthless club of loners? I doubt my irl friends would enjoy my KS ramblings.

[Heartless Wanderer]

due to the fact it does contain hentai.

Believe me, KS in not hentai. Moonlight Lady is hentai. Ikki Tōsen/Battle Vixens is very close to hentai. KS is not hentai.

Note: It was the already mentioned cousin who gave me BV. I still haven't forgiven him.

Exactly, goddammit. Sex does not equal porn. Lots of movies and books have sex scenes in them and aren't considered pornographic. And yeah, KS is a fair bit more graphic, but at the same time it's realistic and relatively tasteful about it. You know, odd thing: I'm not exactly innocent when it comes to this type of thing, but I never once found myself especially aroused during a KS sex scene. Why? Not because it was poorly done or repellant in any sense, just because by the time I got anywhere near any of it I was too wrapped up in the story and characters.

The worst that can be said is that the images that are used during sex scenes could pass as mild hentai, and that the concept could very well have been skewed into a full-blown hentai had the dev team deigned to take it in that direction. The fact that they did NOT, and instead made it into a deep and compelling story with memorable characters and engaging plotlines says a lot about it, I think. On those merits alone I think it deserves to be given a shot by just about anyone. Uh, provided they are reasonably close to legal adulthood or past it, anyway.

[Auratus]

I doubt I will or can. First, You have to understand that Thai youth have bad english which I blame terrible education system that focus way too much on grammar and end up causing Thai youth to understand neither grammar nor vocabulary. Despite trying to improve this, Some even have pride that they don't
need it. Because "Thailand is great country and don't need English. They can't even colonized us!" (Did they know Thailand, or actually Siam almost being colonized for several times that our king prevent it via dimplomacy and therefore, English)
You know. Thailand beaten by Libya and only Libya to become worst in EF English Proficiency Index. I would not wonder at all if North Korea score better. :facepalm:

Even how much I want Thai to have better morality and attitude toward disabled people. There would be only handful Thai that could get message KS trying to sent. By passing "English" ,"Hentai" and "Fuck the crippled" barrier. Not included prejudice against video game that is source of youth violence.
Thai media blame video game for a autism 14-yr old that killed his mother and injure her sister for telling him to stop playing. While blaming parent for 8-yr old girl that imitate hanging herself from soap opera. :facepalm:

Only thing I can think of to make things better is translate KS alone. Even I have little creditabilty and manpower. But to improve things here I have little doubt my willpower is enough to do this. (Need something to kill months in near future too) I wish I can do this with Thai voluteer that sympathetic to my cause which I can find none so far, and publish this to change many live as it done to some here.