by Angra Mainyu » Fri Dec 30, 2011 8:06 am
I believe Auro is correct in her assessment in that the EVN community has, as of late, become infused with women creators/dev teams. I can't say I know why—other than the format is essentially in the "wild west" stage right now, where anyone can do anything with it. In that regard, it makes sense that the disenfranchised would be drawn to it.
I saw it happen with OEL manga. Comics in the U.S. are synonymous with DC and Marvel, hence superheros. When Tokyopop introduced the OEL line, it was a golden opportunity for women creators to find an outlet for their work. It's just a shame TP, erm, well...
Anyway, I suspect that what we're seeing is women being drawn to the media since it's a creative outlet that doesn't have any particular constraints on it or any "baggage" that comes with it (except the aforementioned association with porn—but that's for the Japanese version).
All that said, I think LSF is a reflection of all these new creators. New creators—the ones who have been inspired to pursue the media—are going to have a much narrower frame of reference. They might have read one or two VNs, and decided that they want to make their own. It's only natural to want to emulate the very thing that inspired you.
Of course, by doing so, you get very derivative, amateurish work. You know...games set in contemporary Japan, with characters that have a mish-mash of English and quasi-Japanese names, in which characters behave in, well, I'll be generous and say in "cliché" ways, where events and character actions happen, not because they're natural extensions of the character personalities or stories, but because the creator saw the behavior used once and is reproducing it—despite not understanding WHY.
It seems LSF has become the defacto gathering location for those new creators. It's also why, every time I check out a new WIP thread, I shudder and leave as soon as I see a character description like "Sakura Smith - A spunky, outspoken half American half Japanese girl living in Tokyo...".
I'm not denigrating that behavior—I believe it's a natural part of the process to evolve one's understanding of the media—but it's certainly one of the reasons why I wanted to create a place like this, for those who have moved past that point.
And now that I've veered completely off topic, I need to find some way of salvaging my comment...uh, erm...eh, screw it. This place is new enough and small enough that we really don't need to strictly adhere to the topics. If the conversations evolve, so be it.