imagine if you lived in a world where salad didn't exist as a concept. instead, what we would call "salad" is actually called a "vegetable bowl" and is in the wider category of "bowls." and when people say "bowl" they generally mean "meat bowl." and when you say "I want a veggie bowl" people say shit like "oh yeah there's a great place that sells veggie bowls!" and then you go there and their veggie bowls are just meat bowls with random bits of arugula inside.
that's how I feel about video games
just replace "salad" with "hypertext audiovisual novel" (we live in the veggie bowl timeline)
when people mention visual novels to me it's like "oh what are you talking about! go to ceasar hut!" which is a restaurant that only sells ceasar salad and absolutely nothing else
