Katawa Shoujo Forums

How I found myself here? Well, after the Katawa Shoujo discussion died down on my regular forum I needed to find a place where it's still very much alive. And where else to turn to but the source, eh?

It was on said regular forum that I first heard of KS. It generated even more drama than was usual for that place, so it was a phenomenon worthy of investigation. It's been seven months now and it still won't let go of me.

I actually found Katawa Shoujo on my own curiosity due to my interest in Psychology. Essentially, I wanted to experiment on why people not only enjoyed games like KS (Commonly referred to as Dating Sims, which is... well, I find it to be tasteless, regardless of what it actually is.) but also got attached to the characters inside of them. Things like, 'I wonder if they get attached to them because they wish that their lives reflected the fictional character's, or wished that they could be in a similar situation?.

So I gathered a group of me and a few friends and... well, I figured it out for myself when I finished Rin's path, first.

A lot of questions raised in my mind at that point. At first, I found it utterly silly that I was actually attaching myself to a fictional character on a computer screen, but... I felt genuine emotion towards something that technically doesn't exist. It was touching, heartbreaking, satisfying, and confusing all at the same time in a splendid mix of negative and positive aspects... and that's why I came to the conclusion that maybe it was a bit more complex than just a few notes on paper. My group agreed, and one even broke down into tears in (Emi's? I believe so, it may have been Lilly's.) path.

As to the site itself... well, google mostly. Though, I probably would have found it on my own anyway.

I recall seeing a video way back last year (Something along the lines of 'I Love Rin Tazuka' or something like that. Particularly touching.) that sparked my interest in playing it, but it was held off until August of this year due to more pressing concerns with my personal life.

Now that I've eased out of my rough periods of teenage boredom, life, and reality, I find it easier to really connect with these characters, fictional they may be.

I feel that there is a lot of potential here. Potential for me to better myself and help better other people as well. It's really quite moving.

Anyway, I apologize for rambling. Truly, a marvelous piece of work.

Fate wrote:I actually found Katawa Shoujo on my own curiosity due to my interest in Psychology.

We have this guy on the forums called "Xanatos"
You should psychoanalyze him or something.... it would be interesting... he has chocolate

Jobriq wrote:

Fate wrote:I actually found Katawa Shoujo on my own curiosity due to my interest in Psychology.

We have this guy on the forums called "Xanatos"
You should psychoanalyze him or something.... it would be interesting... he has chocolate

Perhaps at a later time when I'm actually trained to psychoanalyze patients in my field. I've still got about a year to go until I'm in college anyway.

I found Katawa Shoujo a year ago through Youtuber Jesse Cox (OMFGCATA). Thought it'd be a laugh, ya' know, banging cripples.

Well, I was wrong. Changed my life. And now I've been lurking around the forums ever since.

The game was recommended on the Yogs Cast with TB and Jesse Cox.

Jobriq wrote:

Fate wrote:I actually found Katawa Shoujo on my own curiosity due to my interest in Psychology.

We have this guy on the forums called "Xanatos"
You should psychoanalyze him or something.... it would be interesting... he has chocolate

Hey! Mean.

And I actually have no chocolate. Only French Burnt Peanuts.

Fate wrote:At first, I found it utterly silly that I was actually attaching myself to a fictional character on a computer screen, but... I felt genuine emotion towards something that technically doesn't exist.

That's pretty silly when you think about it; that's like saying: "How can a book make my cry or feel emotions when all it is is just a bunch of ink on paper" or, "How can a movie make my cry or feel emotions when it's just a bunch of images that change at a rate of 30 images per second on a screen, with noise emitting from speakers?"

Fate wrote:Truly, a marvelous piece of work.

I concur!

ArcCain wrote:The game was recommended on the Yogs Cast with TB and Jesse Cox.

When was that? I kinda want to watch that video now...

Lloyd Snow wrote:I found Katawa Shoujo a year ago through Youtuber Jesse Cox (OMFGCATA). Thought it'd be a laugh, ya' know, banging cripples.

Well, I was wrong. Changed my life. And now I've been lurking around the forums ever since.

I first heard of KS through the same video, started downloading it and said, "Naw, this seems like a bad idea." stopped downloading it and threw it in the trash and emptied it. Come to think of it, that may've been one of the biggest mistakes of my life...
Anyway, I was looking on Millbee's youtube channel for his DmC: Devil May Cry series because it was suggested to me, and I saw in his recent uploads a video who's title contained the words "Katawa Shoujo". The memories of that Jesse Cox video came back to him and I think I may've done a double-take (on a Youtube page of all things...), and I remember thinking something along the lines of, "Isn't that that one dating sim? I was really sad Jesse never did a play-through of it, so this seems like something I should watch." I caught up with 50+ videos (each around 33 minutes on average I might add) and to make a long story short, ended up here.

That reminds me, maybe I should map out my "journey" on the internet, as in what led me here, what led me to the thing that led me here, what led me to the thing that led me to the thing that led my here, and so on. Could be interesting...

Jobriq wrote:

Fate wrote:I actually found Katawa Shoujo on my own curiosity due to my interest in Psychology.

We have this guy on the forums called "Xanatos"
You should psychoanalyze him or something.... it would be interesting... he has chocolate

Oh yeah!
Xan's physc eval would be . . . interesting.

Fate wrote:I actually found Katawa Shoujo on my own curiosity due to my interest in Psychology. Essentially, I wanted to experiment on why people not only enjoyed games like KS (Commonly referred to as Dating Sims, which is... well, I find it to be tasteless, regardless of what it actually is.) but also got attached to the characters inside of them. Things like, 'I wonder if they get attached to them because they wish that their lives reflected the fictional character's, or wished that they could be in a similar situation?.

So I gathered a group of me and a few friends and... well, I figured it out for myself when I finished Rin's path, first.

A lot of questions raised in my mind at that point. At first, I found it utterly silly that I was actually attaching myself to a fictional character on a computer screen, but... I felt genuine emotion towards something that technically doesn't exist. It was touching, heartbreaking, satisfying, and confusing all at the same time in a splendid mix of negative and positive aspects... and that's why I came to the conclusion that maybe it was a bit more complex than just a few notes on paper. My group agreed, and one even broke down into tears in (Emi's? I believe so, it may have been Lilly's.) path.

As to the site itself... well, google mostly. Though, I probably would have found it on my own anyway.

I recall seeing a video way back last year (Something along the lines of 'I Love Rin Tazuka' or something like that. Particularly touching.) that sparked my interest in playing it, but it was held off until August of this year due to more pressing concerns with my personal life.

Now that I've eased out of my rough periods of teenage boredom, life, and reality, I find it easier to really connect with these characters, fictional they may be.

I feel that there is a lot of potential here. Potential for me to better myself and help better other people as well. It's really quite moving.

Anyway, I apologize for rambling. Truly, a marvelous piece of work.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmurTP3MF4Y

Lianam wrote:

Fate wrote:At first, I found it utterly silly that I was actually attaching myself to a fictional character on a computer screen, but... I felt genuine emotion towards something that technically doesn't exist.

That's pretty silly when you think about it; that's like saying: "How can a book make my cry or feel emotions when all it is is just a bunch of ink on paper" or, "How can a movie make my cry or feel emotions when it's just a bunch of images that change at a rate of 30 images per second on a screen, with noise emitting from speakers?"

I moreso meant on the personal involvement aspect; with a novel or book, you aren't actually physically involved with the story, as it is already predetermined. While on your first time reading said story, article, etc. you may not know what happens, you still have no chance of altering the story a bit.

With stuff like KS you're personally involved in it; my question was more along the lines of why people play something like KS under that preset. Is it because of the personal involvement, rather.

But still, I absolutely see your point.

Sea wrote:

Jobriq wrote:

Fate wrote:I actually found Katawa Shoujo on my own curiosity due to my interest in Psychology.

We have this guy on the forums called "Xanatos"
You should psychoanalyze him or something.... it would be interesting... he has chocolate

Oh yeah!
Xan's physc eval would be . . . interesting.

Oh dear... this could be interesting.

A friend on another forum happened to have an avatar of Rin on the roof, and I believe someone else on the forum noticed it and brought up Katawa Shoujo. So I decided to google that and play it, and eventually I felt like joining the forums. So here I am.

Someone on the Questionable Content forums linked to Millbee's play through, and I started watching. And I ended up here.

Someone was doing a still-image LP of Katawa Shoujo on another forum I frequent, which initially got me interested in the game. I think I've only vaguely heard about Katawa Shoujo up to that point, so I decided to finally lay my thoughts to rest and give it a go. I didn't go into it looking for cripple porn (thought that thought did cross my mind once), rather I thought it'd be a touching story. I was right, but I didn't realize how right I was, heh. Anyway, after finishing my first route (Hanako's, I'm a sucker for the shy girls), I wanted a place to discuss the story and, well, everything. I first started with some of the random KS generals that'd pop up on /b/, and then I found /vg/ and KSG. I lurked and hung out for a while, before catching something about an updated fan fiction (it was thanatos' Akira route, if I remember correctly) and fell face-first into the fan fiction section of the site. Ended up making an account (or using an old account I made but never used, I can never remember which), and here I am now.

I was watching a twitch streamer play "Long live the Queen" when a fellow viewer mentioned KS. After reading the about section and brief info on the story my interest was peaked. After playing through Hanako's story I started googling everything and anything in the hopes of communicating how it made me feel with other people who had played it.

And here I am ^^

EDIT: I actually just remembered an obviously repressed part of the reason I found my way to this site... I recall "katawa shoujo" and "dakimakura" being in the same google search somehow (Shhh I just wanted to hug something after playing through Hanako's story!) And I believe I came across a thread about it on this very forum.