Would that be Oka Shira ? If it is, yeah, I’ve heard it. But, if it’s another, I’d also be interested.

There is a steady OELVN community, but, it’s even smaller than the visualnovel-reading community in Asia outside of Jpaan (it’s small, one way or the other).

(Thankfully, DO’s Kazoku Keikaku is coming over to the States…. but that’s not much. )

And back to the OELVN community, i find most of it using ren’oy, and most of that stuff is ‘visual novel’ per se. Zepy’s point here, though, is eroge, and the eroge community is a bit different from the OELVN community.

I can also name other efforts to move galge offshore. Also in the States, a group has been making slow but steady progress on a dating sim which is highly reminiscent of the Tokimemo series. And the OELVN (original English-language visual novel) community is thriving, only other people don’t recognize it.

It’s like asking why it’s not easy being a write. I can tell you, straight up, that writer’s dont have it easy. The WGA strike wouldn’t happen, and writer would have more jobs. But, it seems very tempting to believe that ‘anybody’ could write. After all, it’s just a bunch of words, isn’t it ?

A person I trust remarked that, while he watch eroge-based anime (not the hentai) and so on, he won’t play eroge since the images are what he’s most interested in, which means he’d rather get it from the H… which he’d rather get from real porn…. which he’d rather get from realn sex with a partner (and that would lead to a long discussion in itself)

The eroge industry is an undesirable one, and it will be. Even mentioning it to others is undesirable, and I can bet that more people go for yaruge than story-driven galge.

If the eroge industry falls because it doesn’t prize its writer, then, while I don’t really wish to speak ill of it, it feels slightly deserved. Mind you, this is from my own bias as a writer, but it’s not as if eroge writers can go ons trike and demand equality the way the WGA did to movies and TV shows. And, artists can pproduce beautiful H, but, that’s like saying one can just got and download a 1MB H picture pack off the net for free.

It’s not just talent. The writers need to be recognised. I don’t how, but, somehow.

¬

But, even if that problem is rectified, the industry’s nature of being considered undesirable would signify it’s eventual decline. The most it can hope for is sustaining an unsteady but definitive niche market.

On the other hand, there have been moves to properly move galge off-shore. I heard Thailand was thinking of doing a visual novel first, and a galge doesn’t seem to far off. In the states, some 4channers have banded together to seriously make a galge (Katawa Shoujo) And, well, who knows what can come next.

I don’t know if you ever read your comments, but, we do share your concerns, though in other ways. Whille I believe ‘doomed’ is to strong a word, its not as if eroge can become bigger or anything.

Where’s my To Heart 2 Another Days?

Crappy eroge begats even crappier animu; reeking of T&A, blueballs, drooling and stinking otakutachi, panchira-giving merchandise, and concerts from voice actresses trying to make a buck.

I, myself, am more concerned about the ero-anime that will be made. It seems that more and more original doujinshi are being turned into ero-anime. (And, thanks to Pink Pineapple closing its doors to the market of uncensored anime, my blame goes to everyone who didn’t pay for the DVDs like I did.)

On the positive side, the talent is being redirected to other mediums and not necessarily lost. It could just as easily come back if the market conditions change.