Maybe, but what you quoted is still true: look at the other replies to this thread. I can honestly say that i'm in the latter crowd, who's not playing them, but is defending their being here in direct opposition to the arrogant social planning crowd that calls them smut.

And that also makes even the positive reviews suspect. And what adds fuel to the flames is that you have people that whack off to a porn scene once and get emotionally attached to the game to the point where they can't give a solid review of the other content.

Whenever you offer the option for anyone to write a review you offer the option to allow people to give an opinion.

However, you also invite the opportunity for people to vent about a topic they don't like or one that they embrace wholeheartedly.
Personally, I don't really play them, but I doubt that you'll ever find a truly non-biased review on a genre that in itself may cause some degree of controversy.

I'll agree with the masses that you can use the Verified Owner filter and that may give you something that you are looking for but generally you'll have to accept that most of the review will either be trash or amazing.

Maybe you should start to write a couple of really good, critical non-biased reviews yourself if you are a big player of these games. At least that way you'll be helping other people to decide and it may inspire others to get on board with your train of thought.

Let me play devil's advocate: What if he (and, actually, i would fit in this scenario, myself) am a bit more curious about the genre, especially with all the controversy. How would i go about getting a real taste of what the genre's all about without going all in and emptying my wallet just to "give it a shot"?

A valid question, and I'm sure that many people may be drawn to this type of game because of that.

If you want to have a go at one of these games and get a few for the genre without breaking the bank I believe that Steam have many Free-To-Play games available to download, and also between GOG and Steam there are always massive sales which means you can pick up the ones you have to pay for at a discounted rate.

Just a quick browse on the GOG store let's me see that there's one on sale for £7.50, now considering that some people will go out and buy a Game for £45 without having ever played it then I think that £7.50 is a pretty reasonable amount.
So, if you are truly curious about the genre then you can go for some Free to Play's first to get a feel for it, and then if you want a bit more go for something on sale to get something that's probably a bit better quality and then if you really love the genre then you can go forward from there.

Obviously, if you pay for something you'll get better quality but I think if you are just curious about the genre and want to get a taster then this is a good way to dip your toe in the water so to speak.

Yeah, but you're not going to get a real taste for other genres this way. If someone asked me how to get into fighting games, i'd either suggest streetfighter or smash, for the biggest ones, and then tell them that depending on their feedback i would give 1 last more nuanced suggestion. If they're a martial artist, i'd push them into 3d games, for example, and if they're focused on semi-realism i'd then push them towards VF, or towards DoA if they're telling me they prefer Juri Han, Sakura, or something like that, and if they're more for competition, i'd push them towards Tekken. If they tell me they want gore or over-the-top stuff like pro-wrestling, i'm going to send them towards mortal kombat. If they want weapons, soul caliber. From there, those communities could direct them even further, but by that point they're probably either into it or aren't into it. If i just wanted to know what the hype is about, should i be looking for one of the horror ones, should i be looking at one of the sleezy yuri ones, should i be looking at the mystery ones, or what? Give me other genres, and i could tell you how to get a feel for the genre. I can't do that with VNs. And i know from experience that seeking a bad example of a particular genre will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth of that genre (those commercial flight sims are so numerous it's hard to convince people to try the combat flight sims, and all anyone says is "flight sims are boring," which is largely true of the commercial games unless you go nuts and start flying under bridges with a 747).

Well, if your going in to the title recommendation level of things then you need someone that has actually played the game through and thought it was worth it.
Personally I can't do that as I haven't played that many... although I did give Doki Doki Literature Club a run through at a friend's suggestion and although it wasn't for me, it certainly has in interesting take on the horror/mystery stuff.

However, we're talking about balanced reviews and ways not to break the bank. If you want to explore a genre either out of curiosity or because your a fan already or you want to write fantastic reviews then you have to be willing to do a bit of research.
I'm sure by reading the Verified Owner reviews you can get an idea of what a game is really like and again on Steam if the majority of the reviews are positive then it might be a good start.

If you know that someone can give you a few recommendations then it may be worth asking them for them, but ultimately the onus is on the end user to jump in and give it a go.
Explore the Free to Play genres on Steam. None of them are massive games that will take ages to have a play through and if all you lose is a couple of hours then it's not the end of the world.
Also, it might be that you want to play a couple of different ones to see what you like.

The content is out there either for Free or can be obtained at a low price, but ultimately if your not willing to dive in and explore your own curiosity without someone else telling you what to play a title then it's probably not for you.
Jump in and have a look around! :)

I second that.

It's hard to believe that people would buy a VN (or any other game), only to bash it.

The tag "Verified owner" therefore should be an indicator for "honest reviews" on the game at hand.

Just be aware: "honest review" doesn't mean: "reviewer has the same taste as I and therefore won't say anything negative about my favourite game/genre".

Yeah, but other genres are easier to research. VNs, in particular, with all their stigma, are difficult, for the reason the OP mentioned, and it's because those titles defined the genres. Metroidvanias: Metroid and certain Castlevania games are ideal for this genre, as they defined the genre. These are easy to research without going crazy and just finding the bad ones. But, really, it kinda does come back to the "flight sim" thing, too, since that has the same issues. Flight sims are ill defined as well, and finding the genre defining ones are a major chore, and that's why flight sims can't get the recognition they deserve, 'cause if you go looking for them without suggestions from people deep into the genre (meaning we need more than just verified purchasers, 'cause they might be stuck on that one series), you're most likely going to find the trash.

EDIT: I think that ultimately answers the big question, then. We just need about 10 people who can verified they've played a wide variety to tell us what activates their almonds.

"We just need about 10 people who can verified they've played a wide variety to tell us what activates their almonds".

I'm sure you can very easily find 10 reviews on GOG and Steam that aren't that bad.

If you are genuinely curious about a genre then the only real way to find out if you like it is to play it. Your Flight Sim analogy is pretty flawed to be honest as the people playing are the people that enjoy it. People that say Flight Sims are boring are either not likely to write a review, or it's going to be the typical "It was boring" review which easily spotted and disregarded. Or... Maybe they genuinely did find it boring...

If I really want to play a Flight Sim then I'll do a quick Google search and read some reviews, I tend to read the Synopsis of the game so if it says Commercial Flight Simulator then obviously that tells me that it's not going to fast flying military jets firing guns and missiles at each other, in which case I might go for a Combat orientated game if that's what I want.

I don't mean to sound rude at all, but really the only way you'll know is to jump in and do it. If no-one is writing the reviews you want then you probably start it yourself rather than just stating "No-one else is doing it"
Surely your own curiosity should be the biggest motivator in this. If it's not enough to get you excited to go and read reviews and browse through the hundreds of available games then I don't know if a "Good" review will make much difference.
I'm curious about Bungee Jumping.... I'm not curious enough to go and do it, hence... I probably don't really want to. And no matter how many people say to me, "It's Amazing" I still don't have the motivation to go and do it, so I probably won't.

Yeah, but how do you tell them from the bad? Especially, like i said, you have to find people who have played a ton of these games. Right, but as someone who has played a bunch myself, I find a dearth of decent flight sims to begin with. Something like Ace Combat is more arcadey, but people would find that enjoyable. Something like flightgear is great if you want to fly santa's sleigh beside a 747. Falcon 4 or DCS are great if you want to blow stuff up in a realistic environment. Simple Planes if you want to build one. Now, go search "flight sims" and tell me how many you'd end up going through before you got to something like them. How many are just 747 with an occasional storm simulators? I get why people are having a hard time getting into the genre.

I don't know about Microsoft Flight Simulator X, but next we have X-Plane, which i downloaded on my android, and after bouncing off the ground and flying through buildings, and finding out that the "usable panels" are light shows, and don't actually function, i completely regretted purchasing.

Next i see a kotaku article, which, for once, doesn't suck, and actually mentions some of the big boys, so that route i'm fine. But let's say i jumped on youtube.... Ok, let's say i'm a bit smarter than that 'cause it just turns into a bunch of things like Bright Side. How about we go to steam, like the average idiot. My god, some of them aren't even flight sims. First one it shows is a blimp sim, then MFSX (looks like the typical commercial sim), next is Air Conflicts, which, iirc, is one of the games that takes the worst of ace combat and mixes it with realism, Ace Combat (yay!), Bomber Crew (looks mobile to me), followed by X-Plane, and now we're getting non flight sims, including space RPGs and games that are advertising tanks and boats. Yeah, we got lucky with the kotaku article, but only because i actually know the things mentioned in it. Most people are going to look up multiple "top 10" and/or look at steam's store. For other genres, you pretty much almost inherently know, or it takes no time at all to find a vehement fan of the genre, or people outside of the genre who've played games for more than a year could tell you. No, bungee jumping is different. I just want to buy 1 or 2 examples of a genre and get a feel for them. Usually there's someone with a list of suggestions, and they're pretty close to the top tiers in the genre, assuming it isn't the actual top tiers. Maybe i'd like the genre, but i don't want to spend the next week playing a month's salary worth of games mixed with freebies, just to find out.

I think you may be looking in to this too deeply.

It's just a video game, do a quick search on Steam or GOG and read a couple of reviews. You seem like someone that can tell a bad review when they see it, but a lot of Steam reviews have a list of Pros and Cons on them. Look for longer reviews which have more text.

Someone that's written a couple of sentences hasn't written a review they've written a statement. Blocks of longer text are your friend here as it means that someone has probably put some thought in to what they are writing rather than just saying something sucks.

A review for a game isn't going to include a list of suggestions for other games as that defeats the object of said review, but I do understand if your Googling or just looking then it can be a bit overwhelming with the amount of choice available.

Honestly, because the market for this type of game is quite niche and therefore not that big your going to need to sift through quite a lot of crap, but do look for the longer reviews and don't visit a site that clearly has a bias against. Go with Steam or GOG user reviews have a look through.
It won't take you a month... you'll very easily decide if you like something before that long. Honestly, get yourself a Free To Play, and have a crack at it.

And if it helps I will personally recommend Doki Doki Literiture Club. :)

I am, but i'm making a case for the devil, that also happens to apply to me. Honestly, i'd still rather get 10 connoiseurs of VNs to give me a personal recommendation or two, though, 'cause that's more effective. Maybe something's really good, but a bad representative of the genre. Huniepop is high rated, but i know it doesn't represent match-3 very well. It does in gameplay, but i don't think that all these women are playing rule-34 candy games when i hear "candy crush." Columns or the Pokemon game would probably be a much, much more fair representative. But Huniepop has some honestly positive reviews. Right, at the end of the day, i just want positive suggestions, especially from connoiseurs. I really only want to spend a few hours, like most people. These days, that's usually just one sample, which is why some genres get a bad rap when someone tries that one example. Narcissu was the only one i've really touched, so far, and that was OK, but it just drug on and on and on, and it ended up not answering the quesetions it gave me from the very beginning. I got blue-balled trying to figure out who these people were or why they were in this room or whatever. It's never explained. It was the whole reason why i went to the very end: to find out why they were there in the first place. Why did they always "disappear" after their third time? Well, the one example we have is that the woman commits suicide, 'cause she didn't want to suffer what the others did. Well, i still don't know what the others went through. Was it a cancer clinic? Was it a mental clinic? Were these people to be executed for genetic defects in a totalitarian regime? Nope, no answer, just suicide. That left a bad taste in my mouth, especially after a few hours. If i were to judge VNs by that experience, I could see why alot of people would hate them. Then again, what this weirdo hate crowd of social planners is saying about them doesn't reflect my experience with narcissu: I didn't see a bunch of child porn and tentacles, nor were these things described.

However, i can see why people would suspect that kind of thing with the ones we see here on gog: almost all of them have boxart babes, and looking at some of the descriptions is absolutely hilarious. How do i think it'll end if i'm a guy going to an all girls school? Naturally i'd be expecting to bet hit on by women who want to "give guys a try" 'cause they've "turned to each other," and consequently maybe a threesome or more, especially given the notariety. And everyone has seen the gloriously hilarious "nekopara," which is easily one of the things that everyone likes to draw attention to when VNs are mentioned. Who knows, maybe some of the spicey ones are good and i'd enjoy them, too (maybe even nekopara), but i'm certainly not sure how not to waste my time again. Many of these premises seem like they're bait for boredom or cheap porn (which maybe is fine, but i honestly don't know what i'm getting into). Yay, i finally have a 3rd vote for that. So far that's all the votes i've gotten, so i may just take a look at it instead of continuing the quest for the holy gr--connoiseurs.

I allowed all the positive reviews persuade me for once, took the plunge and bought The House in Fata Morgana. I have never tried a visual novel, dislike anime as a media and haven't read manga in a decade and a half, so all I need to do now is get round to seeing what all the fuss is about and writing an impartial review of my experience. Piece of cake!

I'll be interested to hear what you have to say about it once you've given it a go. :) I have to say all this chatter about this is now starting to inspire me to just give something a crack and write a review.

Good for you sir! :)

If you are considering World End Economica, it was written by the same person who did Spice and Wolf. For folks who are unfamiliar, the author specializes in economics, with stories revolving around how trade works and impacts people. While I am a backer, I haven't yet gotten around to Economica, so I can't say how well it came out.

Umineko is a VN that I didn't like, because it likes to set up mysteries and refused to unravel any of them for the time that I played. I got pretty far if I remember rightly, but still...being denied any answers at all just got me fed up with the plot. I just can't get invested if I can't actually play detective in a mystery. Ended up giving up on it.

If you want something more interactive than a VN but want it to still have the personality, give Read Only Memories a shot. The game is very much a successor to the spirit of Snatcher - one of Hideo Kojima's better works, I feel.