Visual Novel panel

[Samurai Drifter]

Hm, haven't been around here for awhile. I kept getting 404's.

Anyway, with the "Panel suggestion" deadline running out for Anime Detour (the con near me), I've been thinking that I'd really like to do a panel on Visual Novels. Problem is, I don't exactly know what I would say. I remembered that one of the members here had done a panel at TsubasaCon awhile back and thought that you guys might be able to provide some help. (From what I heard not many people came, but TsubasaCon is pretty small and Anime Detour has an attendance of around 2500).

So, where would I even begin? What kind of things would I talk about? What games would I demonstrate (the only two I have are Kanon and Air)? Suggestions? Criticisms?

[Sir Alex]

Well, what's the reason you want to do a panel in the first place, if you don't have anything to say offhand? Do you want to simply raise awareness of the medium? Advertise for Hirameki and/or other translation efforts? Discuss certain titles?

Quite a few ways you could go, depending on what you actually want to do. The most intuitive topic would simply be describing what visual novels are and tracing their history and influence to the present day.

To keep the attention of the random convention attendees who wandered in, you should probably tie in the numerous anime adaptations every so often. It's also a good idea to have some translated works on hand. Perhaps burn a bunch of CDs full of al|together projects to give out. You might want to buy Ever17 yourself and display certain portions of it - the kick-the-can game comes to mind as being very demonstration-friendly.

First of all, how well do you know ADV games? Because if you're just going to talk about stuff from limited experiences and cite stuff off the net that may not even be from reliable sources (Wikipedia seems to be a favourite amongst people for just about everything, which just gets kind of silly sometimes, especially in the cases of the more niche pages, where clicking on "history" tells you that they're written by about three people who may not even really know what they're talking about), it's pretty much going to be the blind leading the blind.

If that doesn't apply to you, what do you want the talk to accomplish? If you just want to talk about them, you can probably just go on about their history, maybe have some other people up to talk about why they play them, and maybe demonstrate some new stuff (stuff like ef or Muv-Luv Alternative would be nice to show off how things aren't static anymore; Prism Ark or Utawarerumono or Tears to Tiara would be nice to show how some games aren't just text, etc.). If you want to do that, I personally feel that Kanon and Air would be really bad examples, considering how they're, you know, ancient and all.

If you want to introduce more people to the genre, whore off some translations (Kanon, Air, Planetarian, To Heart 2, Wind, etc.) and stuff in English (Ever 17 and whatever). You can talk about where people can buy stuff, the computer settings they need to mess with, and where to download the patches.

Considering how you say you've only got (and I presume, played) Kanon and Air, though... Just don't do it, really. Blind leading the blind and all.

Ah, the Sakura Taisen games (the newer ones, at least) would probably be pretty demonstration-friendly too.

Show off the bits with Satan and Saint Michael, the Arc de Triumph cannon, or Lady Liberty posing for extra points. Or the black lady lawyer going "YOU! ARE! GUILTY!", that never fails.

[luckyovermind]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

It's pretty much going to be the blind leading the blind.

I think I've seen similar tones just recently. But nowadays the problem is that many "unblind" is not leading anybody at all... oh well.

My advice: focus on particular games, not the genre.

I personally feel that no information is better than misinformation.

Regardless, a couple of opening movies would probably be effective. Shinkai (minori games) and maybe some of Leaf's stuff would probably do the trick.

You could also try the whole "breaking misconceptions" angle, with PS2 stuff for the jap hentai gaemz lol lot and stuff like Demonbane for the wussy gurl date simsss rofl lot (toss some Chikyuukoutei Augustus at them).

Oh, and Demonbane strikes me as something that'd be pretty good to toss in too, what with all the Lovecrafty stuff.

[Misu]

You could also relate to games in the US that have similar type of character interaction setups for people.

A good one might be comparing Disgaea to something like Utawarerumono or Gadget Trial to show that it really isn't TOO far of a jump from what they might have played in the past.

[Samurai Drifter]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Considering how you say you've only got (and I presume, played) Kanon and Air, though... Just don't do it, really. Blind leading the blind and all.

Nope, I played others on my friends' computer when I was staying in Japan (such as Fate/stay night and To Heart), and have downloaded numerous others. I haven't played a huge amount of them but I think I have a good grasp of not only what they consist of, but their history.

If that doesn't apply to you, what do you want the talk to accomplish? If you just want to talk about them, you can probably just go on about their history, maybe have some other people up to talk about why they play them, and maybe demonstrate some new stuff (stuff like ef or Muv-Luv Alternative would be nice to show off how things aren't static anymore; Prism Ark or Utawarerumono or Tears to Tiara would be nice to show how some games aren't just text, etc.). If you want to do that, I personally feel that Kanon and Air would be really bad examples, considering how they're, you know, ancient and all.

Good idea. However, I think that since Kanon and Air are the most popular ones out there, and they have anime based off of them, it would be easiest to use them to maintain the audience's attention.

My main goal is to educate people about Visual Novels and raise their awareness level in the US, since ultimately that's the path to getting more licensed.

[KawatoriShinji]

Originally Posted by Samurai Drifter

Good idea. However, I think that since Kanon and Air are the most popular ones out there, and they have anime based off of them, it would be easiest to use them to maintain the audience's attention.

But have either anime been licensed in the US? Try Fate/stay night (new license) and Tsukihime (old license).

Originally Posted by Samurai Drifter

My main goal is to educate people about Visual Novels and raise their awareness level in the US, since ultimately that's the path to getting more licensed.

Raise awareness of VNs in the US? Anything that's already come over is best since they have legal translations.

About getting more licensed, Kanon and AIR really don't have much change of getting licensed without a LOT of money. Perhaps you should focus your attention towards games that have a change of coming to the US. Maybe ones from Circus since they've actually attended a US con (AX 06).

Originally Posted by Samurai Drifter

Nope, I played others on my friends' computer when I was staying in Japan (such as Fate/stay night and To Heart), and have downloaded numerous others. I haven't played a huge amount of them but I think I have a good grasp of not only what they consist of, but their history.

割れ厨乙

Care to share what you actually know instead of just saying that you know things?

[Message]

If you want to know what he knows, I suggest you go to his con panel. ^__^;;

[ApathyEcstasy]

Originally Posted by luckyovermind

I think I've seen similar tones just recently. But nowadays the problem is that many "unblind" is not leading anybody at all... oh well.

My advice: focus on particular games, not the genre.

i agree with your advice

[Samurai Drifter]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

割れ厨乙

Care to share what you actually know instead of just saying that you know things?

I think it would be useless to spout off everything I know. It wouldn't prove anything to you anyway as I could have just as easily copied the info from any number of sources.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I personally feel that no information is better than misinformation.

Regardless, a couple of opening movies would probably be effective. Shinkai (minori games) and maybe some of Leaf's stuff would probably do the trick.

You could also try the whole "breaking misconceptions" angle, with PS2 stuff for the jap hentai gaemz lol lot and stuff like Demonbane for the wussy gurl date simsss rofl lot (toss some Chikyuukoutei Augustus at them).

Oh, and Demonbane strikes me as something that'd be pretty good to toss in too, what with all the Lovecrafty stuff.

This strikes me as good advice. It would be helpful if you stuck to this sort of thing; I didn't ask for opinions as to whether or not I was qualified to do such a panel from people who know nothing about me; I asked for ideas as to what I would focus on and how I would go about doing it.

[Agilis]

Good or bad, Knowledgeable or not. Fact of the matter is, in the interests of broadening the audience of players, no publicity is bad publicity.

Sure we'd might prefer this or that spin on the topic, but if just one person who didn't know about VNs hears about it and gets hooked, good enough.