What verb do you use to describe going through a visual novel?

Off-Topic
1

Basically complete the following sentence in your head:

I just finished ____ing Umineko Ep 2, I really liked the new character dynamics it introduced.

Did you say Playing? Reading? Watching? Justify why you use that word.

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2

Personally, I’ve always said that I finished playing VN’s. Most VN’s have a lot of choice and interactivity involved with them, so I tend to consider them as games, even though they are their own medium of entertainment if we are gonna split hairs.

Even with Higurashi and Umineko where there are not choices like in other VN’s I think the TIPS give off some interactivity. They are pieces of information left there by the author that may or may not be related to the mysteries of the story.

Saying that I played it just seems right to me.

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3

At some point I started using ‘reading’ for visual novels, although I still do say ‘playing’ sometimes when the context is video games. Reading I feel is the best description of what it’s like to experience a visual novel.

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4

Since I have only ever read Umineko ((and just recently made it to Episode 8)), I say ‘reading’ as my verb.

5

I do not think there’s any absolute answer to this question.
For a kinetic novel then it’s definitively reading.
For visual novels with some interactivity, in the majority of cases it’d also be reading.
For visual novels where the gameplay takes a larger part or at least as large a part as the actual story, then it would be playing. Much like how playing a videogame with 12 hours of cutscenes would remain “playing” and not “watching”.

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6

I think I say “reading” if it’s the visual novel or the manga and “watching” if it’s the anime. There’s so little interaction with the actual visual novel that it feels more like reading, than playing, like a book, but you are reading it, so you can’t really say watching. I don’t think there’s anything necessarily wrong with using any of those words, because they all sort of describe what you’re doing.

7

“Exhausting”, seeing i only use one hand for clicking and the other fo-
Oh, umineko, i’d say reatching, combo of both except playing.
For me a game has to exist mostly out of game play, some VN almost achieve that imo, but some are just fancy and digital picture books.

8

I completely agree with this and it’s what I do as well, with one exception:

That’s generally how I would refer to them as well.

9

I usually say reading, but things like Utawarerumono or something similar I would say playing for since it is rather gameplay oriented.

10

I tend to say reading or playing interchangeably, but mostly playing.