slop

the visual novel database

A 17 Year Monopoly

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#1 by Yorhel
2024-09-30 at 05:52
< report >It's already been 17 years since Ever17 -the out of infinity- convinced me to create a little database for this weird type of video games. Another reminder that time sure flies.

The usual ugly graphs, to compare with last year and the years before that.
- Number of database edits per day.
- Number of newly created database entries per day.
- Monthly active contributors.
- Forum posts and reviews per day.


Back at our 10 year anniversary I rambled how I was fully expecting VNDB to have been obsoleted by better competition within a few years. The fact that that hasn't happened was, at that point, still mostly seen as a positive, because it clearly meant that we must be doing something right. That was 7 years ago, and there still hasn't popped up any competition in this space.

Does that mean VNDB is really that awesome? I don't believe so. We only cover a very niche part of the gaming world and there's plenty of worthy use cases left to explore that currently aren't being given the attention that they deserve. VNDB's most glaring limitation is our inclusion criteria - there's a whole world of other games out there that we don't cover. There's a huge demand for a database that covers all sort of Japanese games, not just visual novels. Or a database that focuses primarily on erotic games, including eroRPGs and simulators. Or a database for the broader genre of narrative-driven games, including adventure games and interactive fiction. There's no way a single database can do a good job at covering all of that. At least, I'm not willing to take that risk.

There's other, more subtle decisions that have made VNDB less than ideal for parts of the visual novel community. One of which is our decision to include and attempt to accurately represent all types of visual novels out there. This has caused search engines, social media, ISPs and even countries to flag VNDB as a porn site and has significantly complicated sharing information and using the database for a subset of the community. Another one is VNDB's data model and user interface, both of which are mainly designed for power users and can present a barrier for new users to make use of or contribute to the database. I could go on, but I'm sure you get the idea: we've made choices that have worked out just fine for us, but have not always been helpful for other groups.

Another thing I wanted to point out is that monopolies are bad, without exception. The near-monopoly of the Steam store has not been healthy for the visual novel industry, with some titles not getting released at all even though there is plenty of interest and other titles getting unnecessarily censored to please Steam's policies around adult content. It's a good thing that we have a bunch of different publishers to localize visual novels, a monopoly in that space would be even worse! I often get requests to expand the scope of VNDB, so we cover more ground and take over other parts of the gaming world. But ask yourself: do you really want a single person (me) to be in charge of your main source of information for all your interests? It's bad enough that I am somehow in charge of the only* source for visual novel information.

*) Okay, to be fair, VNDB is not a full monopoly and there are some alternatives: ErogameScape is an obvious choice for those who stick to Japanese games. Platforms such as DLSite, Getchu, Steam and Itch.io also offer a lot of relevant information and share some handy features with typical databases. There's also general game databases such as MobyGames, GameFAQs, IGDB and others. While those are useful, their overly broad scope inevitably results in reduced depth: less detailed information and fewer features to help with discovering and evaluating games. The more specialized a database, the better it can focus on offering depth.

So anyway, where I wanted to go with this wall of text: I've noticed that the community can be oddly protective and territorial around VNDB at times, strongly discouraging potentially competing projects. But having competition is a good thing, we need more of it! I have no ambition to take over the world, so you have my blessing and my support: Go forth and build databases.

But before that, let's party and celebrate VNDB-chan's 17th birthday. 🎉
#2 by kataneer
2024-09-30 at 05:59
< report >Happy birthday and thank you for this great website.
#3 by AngeVNs
2024-09-30 at 06:17
< report >I still remember there WAS a vndb Alternative attempted a long time ago with a much better UI

I don't even remember the name it anymore was it like vnmanager, vnlogs? I just remember it had an actual UI That didn't look like a " suspicious porn site" as yorhel said in the OP, They had to make a new database where they were clearly copying some information from vndb But after like a year I just stopped

But yeah Even though visual novels have gotten a somewhat of a recent splurge of casuals during the pandemic, I think overall the vns scene is on a downturn in terms of retaining people who want to keep reading visual novels, so there's probably less people who are motivated to make a vndb Alternative one has just been around so long
#4 by Ezezin
2024-09-30 at 06:27
< report >🎉🎉 Happy birthday VNDB! 🎉🎉
#5 by jinokigmi2102
2024-09-30 at 07:10
< report >Happy birthday Vndb!
#6 by Yorhel
2024-09-30 at 07:21
< report >
I still remember there WAS a vndb Alternative attempted a long time ago with a much better UI
Visualnoveler, but yeah they went on to create VNs instead of building a database for them. And before that there was VisualNovelDai, but they too seemed to have lost interest within a year or so. Sad, I would have loved to see them succeed.

Strong disagree on the downturn though, all I see is growth, growth and more growth. Retention might be an issue, hard to tell, but at least there has always been a very large influx of new people.
#7 by weter
2024-09-30 at 08:54
< report >Best of luck and thrive to VNDB
#8 by Shaidishan
2024-09-30 at 09:00
< report >Happy birthday VNDB! One has to wonder what will happen once she reaches the tender age of 18...
#9 by STRONE
2024-09-30 at 09:51
< report >Happy birthday VNDB!
I appreciate the effort you put into this site, it's Respectable.
#10 by neko-metamorph
2024-09-30 at 09:57
< report >Happy Birthday, VNDB!🎉
#11 by cheekyman07
2024-09-30 at 11:05
< report >HB VNDB! I want to add a thanks for the review function and comments, I'm not any good at editing, so it's nice to contribute in some way and it's become a bit of a hobby too.

I also appreciate the mods/admins kicking/discouraging the worst of the toxic shitheads which has stopped users from getting discouraged from posting reviews (and saved me and some other regular posters a few migraines over the past few years as well lol)Last modified on 2024-09-30 at 11:07
#12 by paradoxical
2024-09-30 at 11:13
< report >HAPPY BIRTHDAYYYY!
#13 by paradoxical
2024-09-30 at 11:15
< report >Virtual cake for everyone:

🎂🎂🎂
#14 by Violetflare
2024-09-30 at 11:16
< report >POG HAPPY BIRTHDAY
#15 by Rolex
2024-09-30 at 11:28
< report >Here's to another 17 years!
#16 by taimat
2024-09-30 at 12:00
< report >Happy \{^o^}/ B I R T H D A Y
#17 by munaga
2024-09-30 at 12:38
< report >Happy birthday, VNDB!!
#18 by Erfaniom
2024-09-30 at 13:01
< report >I've been saying this for a long time, but you should've definitely shouted out nepchan.org here
I don't think we're ever gonna get a more sisterly site than this sister site
You should link to them include them on the front page so that more contributors go over there to help, since it is kinda dead at the moment, and also this way you can get rid of a lot of HRPGs that shouldn't be considered VNs but are because of archival purposes and just transport them over there
#19 by beliar
2024-09-30 at 14:09
< report >Come on, Yorhel, you know perfectly well why there are no other competitor or sister sites to VNDB. Obviously, it's because she is not 18 yet and doesn't have a licence to breed! We need to wait one more year, before any similar sites start popping up.
#20 by cfreak
2024-09-30 at 14:53
< report >Happy birthday! Only 17 means there's still lots of growing left.
#21 by Yorhel
2024-09-30 at 15:34
< report >
you should've definitely shouted out nepchan.org here
I'm hesitant to send a crowd to a barely maintained site intended "for my friends to use as a backlog tracker for doujin RPG". But if their goal is to accomodate for growth, I'll be happy to cooperate!
#22 by lordnight
2024-09-30 at 15:48
< report >So the fact that /Ever17 -the out of infinity- is V17 is intentional or a coincidence?
Anyway happy birthday!!
#23 by S7-Kudo
2024-09-30 at 16:26
< report >Happy 17th year!!!!!
#24 by thenewmohawk
2024-09-30 at 16:45
< report >happy
#25 by Yuki-Youxi
2024-09-30 at 16:45
< report >Happy birthday, VNDB!!! I still remember discovering the game Ever17 and how it sparked my love for visual novels. Thank you for creating such a valuable site for all the VN lovers!!!