"The Big Three"

[Pastebin musical accompaniment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tFI9OsrjAaI]

Ace Attorney, Zero Escape, Danganronpa.

Chances are if you've ever heard of or read a VN, it's probably one of these three. Scratch that, it is almost guaranteed to be one of these three. Almost every one of the entries in these three series are actually great reads besides ZTD and DR1, but ignore those for now. Despite being great, I've almost grown to despise them. Well, not the VNs themselves, but what they've come to represent.

These VNs represent, to me, an almost incomprehensible lack of desire to explore. Recently, I think they've also started to become a way for streamers to exploit a dedicated group of viewers who might care. I mean, the streamer might actually end up enjoying the games, but ultimately they play them because the audience is willing to pay out big for an emote or two from the series and donate big to a firstplay when its offered.

They're pretty different scenarios, but the end result is somewhat the same and leaves me scratching my head, so I'll address them separately.

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Full-Time Streamer Path:

The streamer will see a friend or fellow big streamer play one of these three series (it is always one of these three). They'll make it an incentive. Fans of that series will pointlessly donate to encourage the streamer to play a game they're likely to enjoy anyways. Streamer plays game in a highly exaggerated manner, possibly ignoring the plot in favor of memes, possibly legitimately enjoying the game. They add a few emotes out of whatever memes they've dragged out of its corpse which are devoured by the fans of that series.

Then, some months later, they'll mine the other two series dry. This is the end of their entire relationship with the entire medium of VNs, regardless of how much they seemed to enjoy any/all of these series. They will never read a VN again unless it has a sudden upsurge of popularity or is of meme quality (like Hatoful or Doki Doki Literature Club). They will never look into other VNs by the same writers, with similar themes, or with similar structures. They're Just Done.

Normal Person Path:

They'll find out from a friend about one of these and play it (it is always one of these three series). They'll usually enjoy it and find their way through the whole series. Some people really, really enjoy it. Those people will read the other two series.

Regardless, almost all of them will never read or mention a VN again. They will never look into other VNs by the same writers, with similar themes, or with similar structures. They're Just Done.

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There's nothing inherently wrong with this, it's not wrong to enjoy some things and then stop. Well, there are some things wrong with the streamer model, because I think in a lot of cases it's being a little dishonest in order to bait some subs, but still.

I just can't understand it, it's really baffling to me. And as someone who likes VNs other than these three, seeing the same discussions and ONLY those discussions is really frustrating. I think there's better VNs out there, but it's so hard to discuss them or even to see someone experience them. That's why I've started to despise them. They monopolize all conversations. I'm not sure if it'd be better to live in a world where no one discussed ANY VNs again, but it's starting to feel that way.

As a metaphor, it'd be like if you were a movie buff, but instead of a thriving industry around discussing all types of movies, especially recent ones, instead everyone only talked about The Lord of the Rings and the Batman Begins trilogy. Sure, they're both great series of movies but they're pretty old and have been dissected and taken apart by everyone already. But still, lots of people say that they're movie fans, but they've ONLY EVER seen those 6 movies and no more.

VNs have always been this niche medium, but most of the cream of the VN crop live on Steam now, officially translated. If I really loved something, a game, a book, a show, a movie, I'd seek out others. Heck, that's how I find most of things I end up loving. I feel like that's how MOST people find the things they really love. And VNs are actually discoverable now, but these big three are still all there are. Even with Fate/Grand Order being ridiculously popular, no one actually reads Fate/Stay Night! It's just the big three. Fate has an anime though, so people will talk about that, too. But never the VN.

It's likely just the time investment, I suppose. No streamer wants to touch any VN that doesn't have gameplay because the average twitch viewer's attention span is 3 seconds long and heaven forbid they play something that they'll enjoy just because they'll enjoy it (they never read one of these off stream either). And the casual fan, despite loving The Big Three, might see that Umineko's 8 chapters are long or have no Escape segments or something. I don't know, I'm sure there's a bunch of reasons but that doesn't stop it from frustrating me.

For whatever reason, people just don't seem to branch out with VNs. It's just those three, forever.

If you're someone who has tried something else, whether you ended up enjoying it or not, thanks for at least giving it a shot, that's actually all I could ask for.