Did the game change your real RL attitude towards cripples?

[Paragon]

Yes. I am a little more open-minded. I think I would still be uncomfortable around people with disabilities at first, but if I ran into a girl with stumps for arms who thought I was hot shit I wouldn't be quite so hesitant. Not that such a thing has or would ever happen, haha.

[commissarchristoph]

In a way it has, in other ways, it hasn't had anything to change. As a kid one of my best friends was blind in one eye and could just barely see out the other. I also have a cousin who has been in a wheelchair his whole life, due to something affecting his lower body. So that, combined with my upbringing made me very receptive of individuals who have disabilities. However, I used to think that I could never possibly have a relationship with a disabled individual, thinking I'd be unable to cope with my partner having that much of a disability. After Katawa Shoujo, I thought differently. Ever since I've played it, the amount I notice a person's disability in most situations has gone down even further than it has.

However, I confess to still making jokes about disabilities. But then again. if I can find something to make a joke about (Even if its a dick move), I'll do it, to anyone. I like to think of myself as an equal oppourtunity jerkass.

[Keita]

The game didn´t change my attitude but I think it´s because I changed it already just a short while ago. I did my civilian service (in Germany a grown-up boy has to do either this or go to the army) in a residential home for disabled persons. I tried to ignore people with disabilities previous to this because I felt uncomfortable around them. You could call me an ignorant fool. Now I´m a lot more broad-minded, I did learn to see the humans behind their disability. Sounds like a stereotype phrase, doesn´t it? But it´s true. What I want to say is, the game couldn´t change any more than caring several months for these people.

[Esa94]

What I want to say is, the game couldn´t change any more than caring several months for these people.

Indeed, but it might have a very similar effect.

Also, I can't really say if it has affected my attitude, since I don't really see disabled people.
But I know that I haven't really noticed / remembered / cared about the disabilities in KS for a while now. I suppose I just cared more about the personalities of the characters than the disabilities. Hopefully it'll have the same effect in reality.

[Lawls]

Well when I first found KS I was put off by all the girls except Hakamichi but once I played it once I liked all the girls and I did not mind any of their disabilities

[Sinistre]

As far as making jokes goes... You really have to.

If you can't laugh it off, you'll just get consumed by it. Having a disability doesn't have to mean the end of your life.

[Wraith_Magus]

I'd say I didn't have much of a change in opinion. Probably, it's because I live near a military base, and have seen and known some people with prosthetics, but, yeah, I would never look at someone with a prosthetic leg as any different from anyone else, except with the potential for cool cyborg implants, like rocket shins!

Really, it's hard for me, at least, to look at Emi, and say "she's a disabled girl" in the first place. I mean, if she's a track star, and is capable of running faster than the "fully able" people, then it raises the question what "ability", exactly, deserves the prefix "dis-"? The disability to wiggle one's toes? In fact, the only way it seems to really come up is in how she behaves to prove she is not, in fact, disabled, which means you probably shouldn't be looking at her and thinking "disabled" in the first place, now should you?

Ultimately, the only character I would look at, and say that if I were trying to describe the characters, and would mention their "disability" as an important part of their persona is Hanako, and that would only be "because of her scars, she's extremely shy".

Honestly, I wouldn't think that most physical disabilities would be terribly unsettling (although blindness would definitely be a major lifestyle change for me, considering how much I use a computer, and I don't think anyone wants to be a burn victim) for me. Maybe it's just that I don't really consider my body that important, and consider my mind and my creativity and ability to reason are my most defining aspects, so a broken body wouldn't really harm what I consider "me".

For full disclosure, however, my high school had some sort of program where the mentally disabled children from a nearby school would come in and use part of the gym some days of the week. (I guess they didn't have those kinds of facitlies or the budget for them there, but they were close by...) Looking at the mentally disabled people, however, really did scare me, because I could get used to a physical disability, but if you have a mental disability, you are your mind, so to speak, it is the base from which all your ability to interpret the world around you starts, and the idea that I might be trapped within a damaged mind, unable to understand the world around me, and to have everything that makes me "me" destroyed, just by a random accident of birth, that "There, but for the grace of God, go I..." was abjectly horrifying to even try to consider. To look at them would make me start to try to empathize with how they must see the world, and it was so painful to consider, that I just averted my eyes. I doubt I actually hurt any of their feelings, there was no expectation that they and I would interact in the first place, and I certainly didn't start any conversations, but it's still something I'm not proud of.

[Kaiti]

Considering I'm my own cripple, no, probably not. PS a good chunk of Deaf people don't consider it a disability, more of a culture. Kind of like Aspies.

[Wan-wanniche]

I can't really say. I haven't had a lot of exposure to people with disabilites. I have met a couple of people with disabilities, though. Pretty damn cool people, too. And although I tried not to be a jackass, like most 'regular' people, I am sure I did something unintentionally stupid without knowing it. But in the end they were just...people.

Especially this one guy I know. He was a redneck idaho farmer-boy before the accident and, damn it, he wasn't going to act any different now that he was in a wheel-chair. Camping in the hills? no prob. Hunting? Damn Straight! You betcha! Wanna race down the hill? I don't think you know what you are getting yourself into...

Anyhow, if someone that looked like any of the KS girls thought I was cool, you bet I'd be interested. Act awkwardly, yes. But I would rather die than underestimate any of them.

[[LaZa]]

Can't really tell, I've never started a conversation with someone with a physical disability, not because I don't want to, mostly because the only cripple people I've ever seen was just a "one sight at the street and never see him/her again", [speaking_without_experience mode: ON]but I don't think their personality will change too much because of their disability, just like any other human, might be good guys/girls, as they might not.[speaking_without_experience mode: OFF]
Now, I'm pretty sure I will act awkwardly if I met anyone with a disability, but I believe is just something later you'll get used to.

[Theeyebrowsofdoom]

I think my attitude has changed. If I see that blind man again, who asked for directions that one time, I'm sure I'll be more helpful this time. Not that I wasn't helpful before, mind you. Also, if I'll ever have the chance to learn sign language, I'll take it.

[Sgt_Frog]

Actually, I've always been friendly toward people with disabilities. Though, I have starting saying "Talk to you later" as opposed to "See you later" due to Hisao's cringe-worthy moment when first meeting Lilly. And no, I'm probably not going to say "See you later" to a deaf person because s/he can't hear me anyway.

Since I work as a cashier at a Wal-Mart, I work with a lot of different people, but I don't see many amputees. There was this one middle-aged man with a fleshy lobster-claw shaped thing for a left hand, but that's more of a deformity than anything. I can hide being startled pretty well. If you sneak up behind me, I'll freak, but I'm surprisingly calm in situations like Yamaku.

On a hilariously semi-related note, I've somehow trained myself to focus both eyes on a person's remaining eye if s/he happens to be missing one. This came about in this one rather funny scene in "Iron Man 2" where Tony Stark is having a conversation with Nick Fury. "Do I focus on your eye..or the patch...?"

[DesertPhoenix]

I treat disabled people the same way I treat everyone else; I ignore them.

Honestly? Yeah, I generally treat them the same. It generally weirds me out a little if their missing a limb or something, but I don't let it show, and I don't really have a problem with that sort of disability. I do have a problem with some sorts of mental disabilities though. It really depends on the type. If they just act like kids, I can deal with that, but if their drooling and stuff, that puts me off.

[Qaenyin]

Hasn't really affected my views on them that much; I have some mental disabilities myself so I can empathize to an extent.

More or less I just try and treat people with disabilities the same as anyone else while still accommodating for any problems they might have. I know that's how I prefer to be treated usually.

I'm glad to see it have a positive effect on people though, and maybe it'll teach them a few things. Treating people who are different(whether it be due to disabilities, cultural differences, or whatever) normally is important. Treating them with excessive favoritism is going to make them uncomfortable just as much as not accommodating them. Either way it just makes them feel like they're on the other side of a wall from everyone else.

[Naevius]

While I like to think I was open-minded about the issue prior to playing this game, I'd have to say it's changed my beliefs regarding romance with someone with a disability. Earlier I probably would have seen it as too big a hurdle, but now I'd be far more willing to try it.