The History and Allure of Interactive Visual Novels (Hardcover)

Part One: History and Interactivity 1. Introduction and the Pre-History of Visual Novel: The Ludic Genre Devoted to Stories 2. Digital Books of the Rising Sun 3. Assembling the Nest: Cultural Vehicles that Incubated Visual Novels Part Two: Genres, Sub-Genres and Tropes 4. The Aesthetics, Functions, and Perceptions of Agency of Kawaii (Cute) Culture and Dating Simulators 5. Detective Stories, Mystery, and Horror: Visual Novels are Disseminated in the West 6. Please Do Not Tell My Mom: Eroge Visual Novels and Adult Content Part Three: Fan Creators, Open-Source Software, and Genre-Melding 7. The Rise of the User and Open-Source Visual Novel Software 8. The Future: More of the Same Versus Genre-Melders Appendix: Annotated List of Visual Novels Glossary of Terms Bibliography Index