What If Katawa Shoujo Never Existed?

[pinballx]

I hope I do not come off as a troll or being rude or both. After reading through the forum of all the emotional and positive reactions people have gotten out of this game I am left wondering: why not me? I played and beaten the game 100% in a few days but I didn't felt it had a significant change on me or my lifestyle. I wasn't emotionally heartless as I am very sympathetic towards all the girls' problems and enjoy the lessons employ by the writers. What I most enjoy about this game as many people have said before is treating the subject of disability with respect and that none of these girls act like troupes but real people.

The feeling I am having is that everyone who got out of a roller coaster had a strong reaction while I left the ride calmly, feeling left out of the circle. Is it because I had previous experiences in playing VNs while many who played this was their first? Is it because I read previous literatures like Hamlet and Moby Dick that I didn't find this work to be a masterpiece? If this game was as eye-opening and a great test of reevaluation of yourself, what happens if it didn't exist? Would you still continue making the same mistakes, following the same habits, enduring the same lifestyle? At the end of the day while it didn't personally have a huge effect on me it makes me smile and happy knowing how much it effected you guys to be better people. Thank you for your time in reading my curiosity.

[Ivan The Mouse]

Nah, I didn't change my life after reading all the good ends on KS. You can't change me like that. My own parents can't change me, how much more when it's a bunch of crippled animu girls?

If KS didn't exist, I would have never played a VN with all boldness. Also, I wouldn't have known what kind of bastard I am.

[Tomate]

Is it because I read previous literatures like Hamlet and Moby Dick that I didn't find this work to be a masterpiece?

Quoted for Truth. Ks has a great story, but it pales in compassion to some great books.

If this game was as eye-opening and a great test of reevaluation of yourself, what happens if it didn't exist? Would you still continue making the same mistakes, following the same habits, enduring the same lifestyle? At the end of the day while it didn't personally have a huge effect on me it makes me smile and happy knowing how much it effected you guys to be better people. Thank you for your time in reading my curiosity.

Life would go on, i would be slightly more bored though.

[TheKingOfFacade]

I'd still be spending 8-10 hours a day trading items on Team Fortress 2 whilst having dark thoughts on Saturday nights as I spend them by myself.

[Snow_Storm]

While it did got at me a few points, it didn't change my life really so it's like, whatever.

[rydiafan]

The world would fly into sun and we would all die a horrible death .... Kenji was right ... they are everywhere

[dunkelfalke]

I hope I do not come off as a troll or being rude or both. After reading through the forum of all the emotional and positive reactions people have gotten out of this game I am left wondering: why not me?

Probably because you are content with your life as it is. The emotional reactions people get out of this game can only happen when something from the story hits very close to home.

[encrypted12345]

The feeling I am having is that everyone who got out of a roller coaster had a strong reaction while I left the ride calmly, feeling left out of the circle. Is it because I had previous experiences in playing VNs while many who played this was their first? Is it because I read previous literatures like Hamlet and Moby Dick that I didn't find this work to be a masterpiece?

Hmm... literature. I was talking about my friend once about no visual novel quite being literature (he hasn't played that many, but a few of the higher tier ones.) What I want to know is exactly what makes something literature? As for me, I don't really know story I can call a "masterpiece". I can acknowledge the books I novels at English class and the classics I occasionally read as good, great, or awesome, but I would never go as far as to call them masterpiece.

I'm a bookworm, so I've read a few works considered masterpieces like Shakespeare, Catcher in the Rye, Of Mice and Men, Pride and Prejudice, To Kill A Mockingbird, the Epic of Gilgamesh and other works I can't name off the top of my head. (I really should read Moby Dick. Maybe this weekend.) I never could shake the feeling that there were anything but characters, mere pieces in a gameboard created and manipulated by the author. Sympathetic and occasionally awe inspiring pieces, but still inhuman. Sure, there was the willing suspension of disbelief and I use it liberally, but at the end of the day, it never felt ... real or relatable. This is especially true for romantic works and also why I like things that are post-modern. At least they don't pretend to be real and openly acknowledge that they are a story.

I have mentioned this before in the forums, and I will state it again. The characters in Katawa Shoujo have a certain air of realism that I haven't seen before. Even though none of the stories aren't anywhere close to a masterpiece, the characters are. I mean look at Lilly's route. The last few scenes were laughably cliche. But even so, I and many people still cheered. If this Visual Novel is to be remembered as a masterpiece, it won't be because of the plot. It will be because how well the characters reflect the archetypical human.

If you don't fully get what I mean, read this

[uwa]

I have mentioned this before in the forums, and I will state it again. The characters in Katawa Shoujo have a certain air of realism that I haven't seen before. Even though none of the stories aren't anywhere close to a masterpiece, the characters are. I mean look at Lilly's route. The last few scenes were laughably cliche. But even so, I and many people still cheered. If this Visual Novel is to be remembered as a masterpiece, it won't be because of the plot. It will be because how well the characters reflect the archetypical human.

Yes, this. I've read real literature, including at least some of the works mentioned in this thread, and the only ones that made me feel something like this VN were a few parts of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. And they weren't nearly as intense. I know that in the real world there's no comparison between the writing in Katawa Shoujo and Moby Dick or (especially) Shakespeare, but I just can't care about them. They don't get through to me like KS did.

[Pl4t0]

I feel somewhat similarly in that many people (especially in the /v/ threads) continually post about crying their eyes out, breaking down at numerous points, but I have yet to get myself that worked up over it. I wonder if I'm just seeing the happier side of things (I generally get more frustrated at Hisao than sad over the ending when I get a bad end), but nevertheless for all the countless emotions that this game evokes, I can't count crying among them.

Then again, I have yet to play Rin's route, so I guess I'm still not in the clear yet

[Ry74]

And they weren't nearly as intense. I know that in the real world there's no comparison between the writing in Katawa Shoujo and Moby Dick or (especially) Shakespeare, but I just can't care about them. They don't get through to me like KS did.

And let's face it, Shakespeare did drop his own share of stinkers.

[Appius]

Well, this forum would be bit unnecessary.

[DH531]

...treating the subject of disability with respect and that none of these girls act like troupes but real people.

Yeah this is one of the things I like most about KS too.

If Katawa Shoujo didn't exist, I would have spent my time preparing for my January exams, which i'm pretty sure i'm gonna have to redo as a result of playing KS instead haha....
However what KS has shown me is that I could be doing more things in my life, just little things; I've been inspired to start drawing again, might even try my hand at animation later on, start exercising more (I was gonna do this sooner or later anyway though), hell might even try to learn Braille at some point. KS really got to me at various points while playing, not exactly life changing in all honesty but now I feel as if I should be doing more with my life right now.
I think one of the reasons for me being emotional with Katawa Shoujo is due to the fact that i'm actually in the process of applying for university, hopefully gonna end up with the required grades to get into the one I want and see what happens there, just like Hisao and some of the girls. Also because it's my first VN haha
There are probably some other reasons but I think i'm done rambling....
Basically, not a MAJOR change to my life, however i'm very glad that Katawa Shoujo was made

[(don't panic)]

Okay, this is like the second or third thread along these lines so perhaps this should just be said:

It's not weird to not have a huge emotional reaction to KS. It doesn't make you soulless or whatever. The reason why it seems like such a huge percentage of people were moved is because those are the people who actually say something on the forums. People like me who just enjoyed it as a piece of writing with lovely art and music don't tend to post about our lack of epiphanies, because who cares? That's just expected.

[A Humbled Fan]

I hope I do not come off as a troll or being rude or both. After reading through the forum of all the emotional and positive reactions people have gotten out of this game I am left wondering: why not me?

Probably because you are content with your life as it is. The emotional reactions people get out of this game can only happen when something from the story hits very close to home.

This.

If you can't relate anything in the story to your life, then obviously you won't get anything from it. For those of us who were affected, there was likely something in the story that made us think about our own lives, and realize that there was something that we needed to change.