Katawa Shoujo Forums

After listening to the squadron shame podcast, there was a certain topic that they talked about that actually caught my attention. It was "How to recommend this game to people?" Seriously how would one go about recommending it to people.

Two summers ago, or when Act 1 first came out. My friend and I were talking and the topic of 4chan came up. After some talk, I began talking about Katawa shoujo. How it was a VN about dating disabled girls. I told her how it was well written. However: All she seemed to picked up was "Ewwe A porn game about Cripple girls." I tried argue back that it really wasn't and she should try playing it herself. It is extremely well written and it's worth a shot. In then end, She refused. Which is such a shame because I know for a fact she'd be able to at least relate to one ore more of the heroines in the game.

So again the question is: How would you encourage people to try at least the first act. It's as the podcast said: It's a hard sell and I don't think you can find the proper language express how good it is despite it's VN or Eroge medium.

You don't.
If you know people who actually are into VN and maybe know that they have survived Kana: little sister (I cannot say "enjoyed" because that would probably be the wrong feeling) then Katawa Shoujo would certainly be a recommendation. As the first visual novel Katawa Shoujo can really spoil you.

Ah.. Good ol' Kana: Little Sister. Ruined my summer but was still so worth it.

On the topic of trying to sell it to others. You really can't. People are fickle creatures who really like their first impressions, and there is no other way to describe Katawa Shoujo then a Visual Novel about Girls with disabilities and getting romantically involved them because thats almost exactly what it is at heart. Most people righto f the bat think it's a niche, fetish thing and will file it under "disgusting". No matter who you dance around the subject you can't avoid that fact.

Closed minded people who shun Katawa Shoujo right of the bat and refuse to read it probably wouldn't enjoy it anyways and I certainly wouldn't welcome a person who started reading Katawa Shoujo with a massive bias and expectations for bad work before they even started.

I kinda agree with the guy above.

Most people just don't want to have anything to do with stuff like KS. It's too alien, too out of the norm for them. It's a shame, but honestly just introducing it to them out of the blue would just be silly. Most will just turn there heads with the same rather arrogation preconception of KS as a "hentai game for people with cripple fetishes" - in a sense however they do have some reason to believe this; there are f*ck load of VN's are just designed to be late night fapping material. If you've got someone whom has an interest in VN's, manga, anime's etc, then perhaps you could introduce them to KS in a straight up fashion. For other's I'd perhaps just suggest the concept of VN's to them (doing sneaky things like saying they are novels with a unique twist to them, helps make the idea of VN's seem less strange and something more common) and then letting them come to there own conclusions. Then if they enjoy them, then you could introduce them to KS. It's just a case of getting past the initial preconceptions I suppose.

To me though, KS is a diamond in the rough. The right kind of people will somehow find their own way to it; one way or another.

oh I tried the 4chan-shock sales pitch, it didn't work too well:

"Hey guys I was browsing the internet yesterday, and I found this dating game where you date crippled girls!"

"HAHAHA HOLY SHIT WHAT THE FUCK"

"Here look at this google pic! Here's one of the girls, you bump into each other, but she has prostheses attached to her legs!"

"HAHAHA HOLT SHIT WHAT THE FUCK"

"I think the full version is coming out, where you have romantic sweet tender sex with crippled girls, made by a bunch of guys on 4chan!"

"HAHAHA HOLY SHIT INTERNET PEOPLE ARE FUCKED UP"

"So I downloaded the game, and was expecting the weirdest shit; I mean this is something that was made by 4chan people..
but it's... actually... really... really good, for some reason"

"HAHAHA YOU SICK FUCK GO ENJOY YOUR CRIPPLE PORN LOL"

"Seriously though, it's pretty good, it's like ordering fast food, expecting greasy shit, but then get served with gourmet seafood for free. Go try it out"

"AHAHAHAH CRIPPLE PORN"

they never followed up

-

I actually managed to get one of my typical close minded call of duty fraghead to play it by using reverse psychology. I told him to play it because it was so fucked up and gay (ofcourse not realizing that it will actually give him a game with an amazing storyline and indepth characters). He ended up crying.

I feel proud turning him into one of us even if it was only one.

It is true tho that alot of people tend to have become intolerant by becoming comformists sheep and therefor they think everything that is not common within the social norm is suddenly bad and weird. That is why i'm glad for who i am not judging people by blind intuition but rather looks things with logic and reason.

Last night, i got one of my friends into it. Which i totally thought i was going to be unsuccessful at especially since he hasn't read a VN before and told him that a lot of them include some type of erotic content but i also explained to him that the writing is especially good and gets very emotional. I thought he said he was going to so no but i got a "So whats it called and whats the website?" I was caught off guard that he was actually going to read it, given his cold hard exterior. After downloading it, his eyes wee just locked onto it for a few hours before taking a break haha.

I think the trick to introducing it is to leave OUT the "sex" side of it. Just sell it as a "romance and relationship" story more like Clannad or AIR. Let them discover the sex on their own. If they come back at you angry just show them how to turn it off in the options. I would approach it more like:

---------------------------------------
You - "Man, I'm just on such an emotional rollercoaster right now. I've been going through this new Visual Novel style game called "Katawa Shoujo", where you play this poor guy who nearly dies of a heart attack due to a defect in his heart right when this girl is confessing her love for him. Spends months in the hospital recovering, loses the girl and ends up at a special boarding school for kids with disabilities. And that's just the INTRO!"

Other person - "Wow... That's really depressing."

You - "Yeah. it kinda starts out that way, but then as you go along you meet the other kids at the school and they help you deal with your issues while you get to know them. Some of them are cute girls who really help you out and there are these soaring romance stories and tear-jerking back stories and Oh God when you accidentally make the wrong choices and hurt your friends or make them angry it's just a knife through the heart, but when you do the right things it's JUST. SO. MOVING..." *sniff* "I'm ok..."

Other Person - "Woah! And this is a GAME??

You - "Yeah. It's called 'Katawa Shoujo". You've got to try it out!"

Other Person - "I dunno. I don't have alot of money to spend on a game right now..."

You - "Oh that's the best part! It's FREE! It was a community effort by a bunch of visual novel fans who wanted to try a new approach to visual novels. It took like 10 YEARS from start to finish to put it all together and it is just AMAZING. You'd never guess a bunch of amateurs made it!"

Other person - "Seriously? Cool. where can I get it?"

You - "Oh, you can download it from katawa-shoujo.com, or I have a copy on my thumb drive here you can have. It's like 400 something megs, so you should have plenty of room for it on your hard drive."

Other person - "Sweet! Thanks!"
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And there you go. Sex didn't come up even once, and "disabled" is mentioned a single time (in english, anyway). Remember. Sometimes you need to say LESS to "sell" something. Just get it in their hands and let the game do the rest.

Interesting, I might try that method out thanks for the suggestion

Ok. Two pieces of advice comes to my mind:

1) Realise, that KS is not an undispensable work of art. Keep your head cool. It is a great piece of multitrack fiction with really decent writing, simple and entertaining stories, and great emotional potential. But still, it has it's edges. Be aware of that, and be prepared the person you try to pull into it will see it differently than you. Know something about the other person's taste, and his/her view on erotic elements within. Moderated and tastefull as it is, it still can be not acceptable for some, especially with graphical interpretation presented on screen.
And, not to be misunderstood, I'm more than okay with the way Devs managed with erotic scenes, but everyone has it's own views.

2) Don't feel better, because you played it. In case of such niche products there are always tendencies for elitist behaviour among members of closed community. It might be subtly sustained on community forums, though I've seen it much worse than here, for example in case of both World of Darkness RPG editions. If you managed to talk about KS with someone, and he doesn't feel compelled to play it leave it be. And don't think worse about the person just because of this.

Know the person you try to push it on, and at least see a chance of succeeding. Never try to convert with sword and fire. Won't work.
Edit (following Bigbishounen's post): If not mentioning the h-scenes, know the person won't be offended, or at least have a decent clues for that.

Personally I think it would be ideal, to give it to someone on a CD with a minimum follow up, just to let him see. Maybe mention what a VN is.

traitor wrote:oh I tried the 4chan-shock sales pitch, it didn't work too well:

You tried. On 4-chan. And hoped for a civil discussion. Well. You certainly had it coming.
But fear not. some of it was sheep-trolling, and it's possible few of them, and some of the lurkers might have looked it up, and ended up with their kleenex somewhere else than usual.

I'm thinking of using your last sentence as a quote in my signature. Epic laugh

When i wanted to introduce this to my friends my tactics for convincing them was using a mixture of 4chans (& other websites) reaction to it along with the main characters, who they are, their disabilty and their personality. I ended up by finishing off by showing them the 'Be the better person - Enjoy Katawa Shoujo' image that i found i think on the blog but i can't remember, I was able to convince one of the three i thought i had the best bet of the playing to play it to give it a shot, when he tried it the rest soon gave it a go, hope it helps.

To be honest, a lot of people I know, I won't even bring this up because it just wouldn't be their thing. If they've never played a VN before, what's the chance they'd play one that deals with issues a lot of people are uncomfortable with?
I brought it up with a guy I know who is slightly more familiar with this kind of thing but even he was dismissive of it, though I'm not sure of the reason. He was just like whatever about it rather than "Hahaha, oh wow".

I agree with NoOne3 that the game isn't something everyone needs, as much of an effect it had on you. Just from knowing the people I know as well as I do (or not well at all in some cases), I'd be able to gauge their interest. For example, I wouldn't bring it up with a guy I know who doesn't like anime/manga/Japanese stuff at all, because he'd be instantly dismissive, and this isn't going to be the thing to make him change his mind.

I think this is something not so easily done. First off trying to pitch a VN to someone that doesn't even like anime or manga, and is by default unaware of what a VN even is, is a monumental task. I realize it's not really the point but people who generally delve into Otaku natured activities are at least, or should be, aware of what a VN is. An explanation of what a VN is in the first place is the key, if that's something that would interest them then you'd come to a recommendation for KS. If someone doesn't even show interest in the concept of a VN it would be a lost cause.

For example most of my friends are only minutely interested in anime and whatnot, trying to pitch VNs in general to them would be near impossible and even if i brought it up it wouldn't yield any results.