You'll find me over in nonfic
Been lurking aramatheydidnt with a mixed amounts of interests. Never been a celebrity groupie, really. Not even for the ones who speak English. (Give me an author over a pretty face any day.)
Then people go and post things like this.
Yes, it's niche. Yes, it's a very specific market base that they'll have to appeal to. But, speaking as someone who works in a library, I have to say presenting otome games as games is really the wrong way to go about generating interest. Because they're not.
Visual Novels. And, anyone who doesn't understand the potential for these things has never seen the romance section in a bookstore.
Especially as technology begins to lean increasingly towards the eBook and tablet devices for entertainment. Having an interactive romance novel isn't that big of a stretch of imagination. Oh yes, there's potential. Because, unlike the gamer, the reader is happy to sit back and let the story flow to where it may. A little bit of effort to get pretty pictures/hidden scenes is just a bonus.
The biggest obstacle in the way of otome games is a stylistic one. As insanely popular as anime and manga are they're still considered a counterculture. And, as visual as otome games are, that's a whole bunch of people who will be thrown off by the big eyes, small mouth style that goes hand in hand with the medium.
Solution?
Well, it doesn't help all that much for us specifically jonesing for things like Heart no Kuni and HaruToki. I'm willing to admit that the style and the seiyuu are a majority of the initial appeal for me and, given a different visual style or horrendous voice dub like we had back in the first days of anime, I'd probably be among the first to leave the table.
Given time though, comicbook style otome? Various styles? 3-D? You'd pick up the market in other ways.
But, for now, so long as companies on this side of the Pacific act under the stigma of the "non-existent" female gamers and the thought that "all dating sims are porn" (Is it bad that I remember a time when people said the same thing about anime??) ...It seems that the best course of action open to me is to cuddle the thought of my Hakuoki pre-order and keep checking out how to read Kanji books from work.
...If you want something done right you gotta do it yourself.
Then people go and post things like this.
Yes, it's niche. Yes, it's a very specific market base that they'll have to appeal to. But, speaking as someone who works in a library, I have to say presenting otome games as games is really the wrong way to go about generating interest. Because they're not.
Visual Novels. And, anyone who doesn't understand the potential for these things has never seen the romance section in a bookstore.
Especially as technology begins to lean increasingly towards the eBook and tablet devices for entertainment. Having an interactive romance novel isn't that big of a stretch of imagination. Oh yes, there's potential. Because, unlike the gamer, the reader is happy to sit back and let the story flow to where it may. A little bit of effort to get pretty pictures/hidden scenes is just a bonus.
The biggest obstacle in the way of otome games is a stylistic one. As insanely popular as anime and manga are they're still considered a counterculture. And, as visual as otome games are, that's a whole bunch of people who will be thrown off by the big eyes, small mouth style that goes hand in hand with the medium.
Solution?
Well, it doesn't help all that much for us specifically jonesing for things like Heart no Kuni and HaruToki. I'm willing to admit that the style and the seiyuu are a majority of the initial appeal for me and, given a different visual style or horrendous voice dub like we had back in the first days of anime, I'd probably be among the first to leave the table.
Given time though, comicbook style otome? Various styles? 3-D? You'd pick up the market in other ways.
But, for now, so long as companies on this side of the Pacific act under the stigma of the "non-existent" female gamers and the thought that "all dating sims are porn" (Is it bad that I remember a time when people said the same thing about anime??) ...It seems that the best course of action open to me is to cuddle the thought of my Hakuoki pre-order and keep checking out how to read Kanji books from work.
...If you want something done right you gotta do it yourself.