Katawa Shoujo Forums

Lot of /v/ members popping up to complain about this article here, I see. We must be going back to the "everyone on this forum is devs" days...

Was the article a big gooshy hug for Katawa Shoujo? No. Be glad it was written by Leigh Alexander, though. I don't always agree with her, but she at least makes an effort to consider things. Any other article about Katawa Shoujo would likely have been condescending snark, or vitriol directed toward everyone who would even deign to think about something like this.

I'm one of the (doubtless many) people who found his way here via her article, and I'm extremely favorably impressed with Act 1, having finished everything but the bad end (Kenji drives me nuts). I think it's reasonable to say that the article can only help. Those who condemn Katawa Shoujo without trying it would've done so regardless of how they heard of the game. There's nothing Leigh or anyone else could've said that would've resulted in anything other than their disgust. So the volume of people who hate the concept is larger, but they'd always have hated it; all she did was make them aware of its existence. It's no loss. The flip side is that people like myself were made aware, are favorably impressed, and are telling others who may be as well. That is a gain. Net effect: positive.

And hey, seriously, whatever else she got wrong, or may have under-appreciated, she acknowledged that it's "compassionate," "nuanced," and "thought provoking." What are the odds of someone who writes for multiple significant gaming sites giving that kind of credit to this sort of material? I'm pretty happy just seeing someone not really part of the visual novel/ren'ai community taking it seriously.

From my viewpoint, the article is rather fair when it comes to the treatment of this game. It feels more like the author is "lifting an eyebrow in suprise coupled with a nod of professional or semi-professional acknowledgement" considering the circumstances of Katawa Shoujo. Most people would not act so tastefully distant.
Of course, me having never been on 4chan makes me regard most of those parts of the article with indifference.

But could someone please be so kind as to tell me how popular that columnist or site is that it warrants this amount of attention?

Deimos wrote: But could someone please be so kind as to tell me how popular that columnist or site is that it warrants this amount of attention?

Kotaku is very well known, and when a site I write for got featured on there once we had a nice spike of visitors, so it's worth noting at least.

Deimos wrote:Of course, me having never been on 4chan makes me regard most of those parts of the article with indifference.

Oh, a 4chan virgin. Now we have someone to sacrifice to the volcano god if needed.

SirMax wrote:Kotaku is very well known, and when a site I write for got featured on there once we had a nice spike of visitors, so it's worth noting at least.

Thank you. So, we are talking about at least some sort of internet attention from relatively popular sites. In that case I am most likely on Bara's side and would say that the article might bring something good, even if it is partly just an exploration of sub-cultural groups and their demeanour.

Deimos wrote:

SirMax wrote:Kotaku is very well known, and when a site I write for got featured on there once we had a nice spike of visitors, so it's worth noting at least.

Thank you. So, we are talking about at least some sort of internet attention from relatively popular sites. In that case I am most likely on Bara's side and would say that the article might bring something good, even if it is partly just an exploration of sub-culutural groups and their demeanour.

I've seen that first hand now. My brother has a wallpaper of KS on his PC now. Either he got to know about it and I didn't realize, or he read about it on Kotaku.

-abscess wrote:I've seen that first hand now. My brother has a wallpaper of KS on his PC now. Either he got to know about it and I didn't realize, or he read about it on Kotaku.

Better yet, maybe he is someone here on these very forums.

Cue vaguely worried and embarrassed gazes being thrown over the shoulder.

There are already posts from several people who signed up here because of Kotaku.

I'd say it is true there's no such thing as bad publicity in this case.

I think the worst part of the article is its lack of significant emphasis on the fact that "HEY THIS IS A DEMO THAT YOU CAN TRY RIGHT NOW WITHOUT HAVING TO TRUST MY OPINIONS ON THIS, AND THERE ISN'T EVEN ANY SIGNIFICANTLY QUESTIONABLE CONTENT IN PART 1". Many comments make random assumptions about the game that don't even seem based on the article, just on what it states KS' premise to be.

SirMax wrote:Lot of /v/ members popping up to complain about this article here, I see. We must be going back to the "everyone on this forum is devs" days...

I'm not sure we've ever left them. "Get out KS devs" is the default response anywhere on 4chan and I think it even happened on Danbooru a few time...

U.T. Raptor wrote:

SirMax wrote:Lot of /v/ members popping up to complain about this article here, I see. We must be going back to the "everyone on this forum is devs" days...

I'm not sure we've ever left them. "Get out KS devs" is the default response anywhere on 4chan and I think it even happened on Danbooru a few time...

Nah, the only "GET OUT KS DEVS" is on /jp/, and it's posted ironically on non-4chan sites.

The origin of the project on /a/ and the Nurse-kun story from /b/ is... a good hook for this article, but I'm a little upset that 'it came from 4chan' seems to be the extent of the article, even granted that it's a mostly positive review. Guilt by association with /b/ and all that. I'm very disappointed in particular that they didn't interview members of the devteam, or even someone like say Pimmy whose a Big Name Fan.

I'm also a little disappointed that they didn't, to my knowledge, confirm with the devteam that the ballad of Nurse-Kun was the impetus to make it a more serious work of erotica rather than lolpr0n - they HEAVILY imply that the Nurse Kun story directly resulted in the devteam taking the subject matter seriously. I'm willing to buy that it's a contributing factor - hell, I think that a writer mentioned that the Nurse Kun story was directly responsible for where they took the character of Emi - but stating that it's the reason KS is a serious game without confirming that fact with the devteam hurts their credibility.

Also, am I the only one here who dislikes how much the article rags on 4channers as a whole, conflating all of them with the excesses of /b/? Speaking as an occasional wee/a/boo and fa/tg/uy?

Tsundere Lightning wrote: Also, am I the only one here who dislikes how much the article rags on 4channers as a whole, conflating all of them with the excesses of /b/? Speaking as an occasional wee/a/boo and fa/tg/uy?

I'm pretty much over getting annoyed at people saying we are from 4chan. I didn't hear about it from 4chan. I haven't read the Nurse-kun stuff. I haven't been to 4chan in the best part of 4 years.

I used to get pissed off, but it is a truth. If it weren't for 4chan then the devs wouldn't have found out about it. Sure, practically none of the content from the original boards made it to the game (lol Rosa), but they were one of the many steps to here.

And, to be honest, one of the handy things about pretty much every review that mentions the 4chan connection is the following statement:
"Sure, it comes from 4chan, but it's actually alright."
This, in many forms, has been the outcome of every review I've read (except for that christian one who praised us until he found out there will be porn). Being associated with 4chan sucks, however it means that people's expectations are low. Then, when they play the game, they margin by which we exceed their expectations is increased. So that's kinda special too (I think those of you that have joined us from similar articles will agree).

One final note before someone edits this for me: Katawa.
I'm sure that the guys that continually post "OMG Katawa is like calling someone a Fucking Cripple! It's a Taboo word!" aren't here, but I'd like to make something clear.
I asked a sample of my Japanese friends about the word. Of them, only one had heard of it, and basically said that it was so old that no-one cared.
There was one (yes, a total of one) 2ch post that mentioned the name. It was roughly (most likely machine) translated to read "Katawa is a Taboo Word." English-speaking detestors of the project picked up on this, but it's not that big a deal. Really.

Anyway I have tea and rice to consume.