Telling friends and/or family?

[Espionage724]

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 told people I played KS by simply having a game tracking program (Evolve) :p People on my friends list who were curious enough could then go to the game's profile page, read some information, maybe ask me about it, and go try it out

I had one friend ask me about the game in person, I can't recall exactly how I explained it. Pretty sure I said something along the lines of "Your this guy who has a rare heart condition who ended up going to a special school with people with other disabilities, and you try to get with a few of the girls". Not sure if that was the best explanation of it though; but in any case, my friend ended up giving it a try anyway probably because of how long he's seen me playing it on Evolve :p

How did he like it?

He liked it a lot, pretty sure that was his first VN as well. Got him interested in some other VN's as well

[Shadix-CF]

I got 2 close friends of mine that love the game, me included obviously.
I kinda started the trend really.

[Loonie]

I'd say...decide for yourself on an individual basis. Some family members/friends I'd never show this, others I really want them to see.

Also, try to tell them as little as possible upfront. I'd say that it's fair enough to label it simply as a romance/visual novel in anime style/fairly long so it'll take some of your time. And that's it. I went into KS without even knowing that Hisao was gonna have a heart attack and frankly it was a helluva better impact that way I think.

So just say it'll be worth their time (that is, if you think they might be cool with something like this on an individual basis) and that's it. It's a bit risky, I admit, but the odds are in favor I think for a favorable result if they are as surprised by it as possible. After they're done with one route, then by all means use the oh-so-popular labels of cripple porn/4chan scum/hentai/whatever the hell ever. It's still fun to throw those around, so long as they don't completely misrepresent to newcomers as to what KS is about (which they certainly can).

[Dizzeh]

I told a friend after he saw my phone background of Emi. He was saying it's sad etc but then he played it, he got Lilly s arc and fell in love with her, it's great because we are best friends but now we talk to each other about KS and the 'feels':D

[Denouement]

I wish I had people to talk about Katawa Shoujo with! It'd allow me to express feels, talk about my opinions on things, etc. Hell, it would be kind of interesting to play through it with someone again to enjoy the story with.

Though, I fall into the category of not having friends. Doesn't help that I live in Alabama where there just isn't a lot of people that would go anywhere near such a thing, let alone anything similar. My brother caught me playing it and when I explained it to him he made fun of me playfully, the probability of him playing it slim. It is funny, I find myself deliberately dropping it down if someone is near even if it isn't in a hentai scene. Not that I'm embarrassed so much as I'd really hate to be questioned about it.

Speaking of the Hentai scenes, I can't bring myself to find them distasteful despite me not being a hentai person (I'm also not the most innocent person either). To me it was really quite literally "love making", it was hard for me to think of it any other way because of the feels in the game. Only in Emi's so far did I find it hard to look at it that way because some of it seemed to lack in feels except for the last one (then again, that might have been part of the story, considering what the issue in that path is).

[Fiandra]

I wish I have any real life friends to show it. My brother already heard the soundtrack and played Katawa Crash, but he never did read the actual Katawa Shoujo.

[Girder]

Well i have a friend playing it, looking for the story. He said Hanako's route is better than Rin's. I CAN'T PLAY HANAKO'S ROUTE YET BECAUSE OF LILLY AND RIN IS MY WAIFU ARRGH

[Kelvin Goodwood]

My best friend actually told me and my other friend about Katawa Shoujo during our lunch break at school, after bombarding him with repetitive questions and sub-questions that made it seem like it was a one-sided game of twenty questions I lent my flashdrive to him so he could copy it for me. What I think I am getting at here is that guy already told our (very) small group of friends. I once told an acquaintance about it but that doesn't apply to this topic ,does it?

I'm tempted to tell my older cousin soon but things could horrible very quickly e.g. "Merry Christmas Aunt #### and Uncle #### ,your son has got a visual novel with somewhat erotic scenes in it on his laptop!"

[aminuts]

Well my family just saw me playing this so I had no chance to hide the fact from them. Not that I wanted to.

At schools and social life.... that kinda depends.

To friends who are understanding to these cultures, no way I'm hiding this!

I even constantly nag some of my friends to play.

The only barrier they can use is the fact that English is not their strong language.

But to those who are at the 'other side'..... It's a huge minefield.

I'm just grateful that my parents are very generous about me digging on the 'sub-culture' thing.

If you want to take this game out as a conversation topic, try to describe it in a less-sensitive words.

For example, I refer to katawa shoujo as a novel frequently. I know it is a game, but people are more generous about novels.

Also, this game's main function is storytelling so... I guess it's ok to refer this game as a novel.

I think if you want to talk about subjects that are vulnerable to bias or prejudice, framing is really important.

"A Visual Novel that talks about love and disability" and "An Adult rated game featuring disabled heroines." really have a different image.

[Loonie]

For example, I refer to katawa shoujo as a novel frequently. I know it is a game, but people are more generous about novels.

Also, this game's main function is storytelling so... I guess it's ok to refer this game as a novel.

Agreed here too. But I disagree with you on your thoughts that it is a game. In my mind no way is it a game - it's a lot more accurate to say it's a digital Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel. There are no mechanics whatsoever, which in my mind defines a game, so...how is it a game really? Digital VN in the style of CYOA will probably work just fine for the uninitiated. Although yeah, there's the potential then that when you say CYOA people might think "Oh! It's like those childrens books then, yes?" which...might leave them unprepared for the H-scenes heh.

Yeah. Visual Novel with a few adult scenes. Probably still the best introduction as opposed to a game or even CYOA when it comes to moreso sensitive people.

[Xanatos]

"There's this one part where you totally slather lemon jelly on your cock in a dirty school shed and bone an amputee." - That's proper framing, right?

[aminuts]

For example, I refer to katawa shoujo as a novel frequently. I know it is a game, but people are more generous about novels.

Also, this game's main function is storytelling so... I guess it's ok to refer this game as a novel.

Agreed here too. But I disagree with you on your thoughts that it is a game. In my mind no way is it a game - it's a lot more accurate to say it's a digital Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel. There are no mechanics whatsoever, which in my mind defines a game, so...how is it a game really? Digital VN in the style of CYOA will probably work just fine for the uninitiated. Although yeah, there's the potential then that when you say CYOA people might think "Oh! It's like those childrens books then, yes?" which...might leave them unprepared for the H-scenes heh.

Yeah. Visual Novel with a few adult scenes. Probably still the best introduction as opposed to a game or even CYOA when it comes to moreso sensitive people.

Well, I am referring to Katawa Shoujo as a novel not just for framing. I also think this is not a game but everyone around me were calling this as a game so I thought it's in the 'game' category. My bad. Also, look at the page title above, it also says "don't panic, it's just a game'.

[Carighan]

I am trying to make my GF play it, because I want to talk to her about two things I picked up during the game which I could relate a whole lot to.

Also, my sis started playing it after I just casually mentioned I played this video game which made me cry for 6 evenings in a row (got her curios ).

[Hisao&Hanako<3]

I got my mom playing and liking it, and even my dad watched a playthrough. I also got my good friend into it and he likes it. I feel rather accomplished lol

[mysterycycle]

I haven't had as much luck in telling others about it. It's been a mixed bag. I don't think anyone's actually come out and accused me of being a pervert, but after finally convincing my best friend to download it and play it, he got turned off by the sex scenes and I don't think he's really done anything further with it.That was pretty disappointing, because I was certain he would be as enthusiastic about the game as I was...

Anyway, I might have been a bit more secretive about it to begin with except that when I first played KS back in April, I was at an all-time emotional low in my life that I'm still slowly crawling out of, and back then I no longer cared about what people thought about me. So I've ended up being a lot more open about it as a result.

Fortunately, my wife has been fine with it; she read over the script for my KS doujinshi and gave me some feedback, and ever since then she's been encouraging me to work on it. The newest guy in my tabletop RPG group learned that I was into KS after seeing my deviantArt page, and he's finally playing it now (though for some reason I don't think he quite understood the concept; he expressed surprise that it was a game where he was supposed to be pursuing a girl romantically, and I couldn't tell if he was joking or not). So we'll see how that turns out.

I wear a nametag on a lanyard for work, and I've gotten pins of Hanako and Emi that I wear on them, in the hopes that anyone who's played the game will say something when they see them. No bites yet, but one guy did ask about them and as a result I told him about the game and where he could download it.