Katawa Shoujo Forums

Sorry, This ain't one of those life lessons learn from KS topics, already have an appropriate topic in this forum anyway.

This is about the new things you tried out after finding them out in KS and its fanbase.
For example:
To me, Chess and Tecmo Super Bowl

Originally due to the feels of Hanako, I now love to fight in chess even though the computer often kicked my butt and because of Katawa Crash, I found out why football is so awesome despite the fact I've never been interested in that sport.

So, What has KS got you interested?

Visual Novels in general (though admittedly, KS was my second; however, KS showed me just how good these things can be).

Running, thanks to Emi.

I'd like to read a Murakami novel, or perhaps Life of Pi, thanks to Hanako.

SAI, thanks to Raemz, Hanako's artist.

Anime Expo, which I most likely wouldn't have attended were it not for the 4LS crew members being there. In fact, I think it's safe to say that KS has rekindled my somewhat dormant interest in manga and anime.

And a very cool community of folks on these forums whom I feel I can open up to.

Hanako intruduced me to Haruki Murakami -- he is now my favorite author and I am devouring his books one by by. First I read the Rat Triliogy, then "Dance Dance Dance", and now I am on "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World".

I also read "Life of Pi", and it was a wild ride.

Reading.

I am well aware of how stupid that makes me sound.
It's not that I learned to read from KS. I very much knew how to do that since my very early childhood, KS sort of taught me that reading, for me personally, is the best time killer. And often, it's better for much more things than to just pass the time. Since I'm a person with a lot of free time, half of that time goes in debating on how exactly I should fill it. Seeing Hisao do that by reading made me consider the possibility. Which turned out to be a very good idea.

I would say it made me more interested in visual novels for story and made fapping secondary

Couldnt fap to KS. Too many feels

Writing fanfictions. I've never been one to take pleasure in writing anything, but another outlet to express myself and the feels' this game has given me is welcome.

Hmm..

Well, visual novels is a place to start at. I'd heard the term and did some searching, but KS was the first one I actually interacted with. I've found that I like the way it presents itself as a medium. It has elements from graphic novels, while retaining the structural integrity of a traditional novel. It's a mixed media that does justice to both of the forms it emulates.

Japanese culture. There's a plethora of little details about daily life I just did not know before reading KS. That seems like a failing on the part of other media about Japan; which I have had a lot of contact with over the years - video games, movies, comics, and some literature. KS was kind enough to present the information as part of the story, so you learn by osmosis.

Fan fiction. I really can't stress that enough. I've been a fan of a lot of things over the years, but I've never felt connected with something enough to read -much less write- fan fiction. I've created art based on media I enjoyed, but that's completely different - it's not nearly as personal (that might just be my perspective). I've never sat down and thoughtfully reminisced about the characters in someone else's story enough to formulate my own idea of how they would interact with a particular situation.

Well, that might be inaccurate. I've done that with particular characters, but never a whole cast of them. Back when I played through it originally, I identified with Squall from FF8, and thought about writing about it; but I found I didn't have the right amount of vested interest in the other characters to make anything other than an internal monologue. With KS, I've been able to identify with most of the characters in some way, and that resulted in a much more complex basis for writing fan fiction.

Letting other people read my writing. I usually don't even let my family read my writing. I'm not sure if it's ego or my lack of confidence or whatever else, but I've always been secretive about anything I've written. When I started writing fan fiction for KS, my immediate reaction was to post it here for however many people happen to browse the forums to read. I'm not sure I'd be quite so forthcoming with a completely original work, but reading people's reactions to the fan fiction has been distinctly pleasing.

Facing my own past. This one was harder. I've been blissfully ignoring my past for years -without my knowledge. Reading KS brought a plethora of memories back - things I thought I'd forgotten, things I never wanted to remember. That's probably why I identified with it so heavily - it reminded me where I came from, and how much I had to struggle to keep my sanity in my school days. It helped me realize how closed-off I've been since then, and made me start thinking about what I should be doing. It remains to be seen whether thought will turn into action.

Mainly it introduced me to the world of Visual Novels/Anime/Manga. I know have a few other Visual Novels under my imaginary belt, and have become a heavy reader.
I also have something to do, and look forward to when I get home or when I am sad. I guess you could say it opened some doors when they all looked as though they were closed. It gave me a better less cynical view of the world (Which "Yume Miru Kusuri" gladly hinted that the world still sucks Aeka's route is extremely depressing).
So I guess in all It gave me some perspective on my own life and the life of those around me.

Let me see, the obvious first answer is this ragtag bunch of misfits that is the forum fan base.

I also did read The Life of pi, it was an okay book, full of symbolism and generally enjoyable. Thanks do the iRc channel i started playing Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup. I also started running, I don't care much about Emi, but the threads about running made me curious, been running for some 4 months now, and thanks to my new running habit i started going to the Gym, made some friends over there.

I would say KS made a positive, yet indirect impact.

Starting with the simple things:

- Running, thanks to Emi. Stil in the beginning, but it's pretty satisfying, and so far quite easy. Gives a great start of the day when done in the morning!
- Jazz, a lot of it. I feel all nice and classy now when listening to it
- Renewed interest in chess, drawing.
- Renewed interest in billiard and by default, bowling too. Also thinking of trying Risk, which I don't have in my country.
- Renewed interest in reading, something that used to be my favorite activity as a kid, but slowly faded on me as mandatory school literature material grew boring on me. Thinking of trying books mentioned in KS, the fanbase seems to like them a lot.
- Preping some materials to start casual learning of Bulgarian SL and ASL. This thread http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=6682 seems to have some nice feedback and reference for anybody interested in ASL.
- Renewed interest in playing piano, even if just to learn a couple of KS OST tracks and add them to my repertoire...

- As mentioned before, a pretty cool fanbase I fit into, similarly to myself largely dedicated to self improvement.

Most importantly though, it introduced me to a new way of thinking. Right now my mind is a mot more open, thinking and more aware, paying more attention to things around me in events in general. In other words, right now I'm interested in basicly everything, though where my mind will linger and what it will graps and hold on to - only time can tell...

EDIT: When I come to think of it though, most of these are just things I more or less forgot or lost interest in, things being thrown to the back of my mind by different events and situations in my own life. The rest are things I was willing to give a try before, just never got to it - for example Jazz or running, which I didn't find necessary before due to othger sports I do.
The last one is true though, as I've been in something of a gray, apathic and mostly devoid of emotions phase. KS more or less snapped me out of it.

I was listening to jazz and playing billards before KS made it popular. Get on my level, scrubs.

For me it is mainly taking an interest into manga. Never really readed mangas till I played Katawa Shoujo. Now I'm reading a wide variety of manga.
I don't know though, I checked out several other visual novels but none of them grabs my attention. Guess Katawa Shoujo just had the right storyline to keep me hooked.

It also refocused the Deaf culture for me and ended up making me take sign language classes (but it's not due to Katawa Shoujo, Katawa Shoujo just made me think about it again).

VNs in general, KS is the first VN I've ever played/read.

The fan-base here Everyone here is awesome

Writing. After reading several fan-fics I decided to try my hand on it first chapter is online, look up Lowlands Cyclops in the fanfiction section

Jazz-clubs, never thought of it, let alone go to one. I went to one with my dad

I guess I got into a whole bunch of feelz type VNs, and even more feelz inducing anime...

In Singapore, I used to watch DragonBall about 20 years ago, but nothing since then, but after KS, I've watched One Piece, Higarashi, Death Note, Aria, Trinity Blood and heaps more animes... and I'm really getting into the Japanese art and culture, so thats a good thing.

Still introducing friends to KS, and going to play it again soon.

I do think it has made me a better person and made me appreciate what I have more...

Animating and making fighting games. Holy crap what have I gotten myself into... XD

j/k I love it