In retrospect, this was quite obvious.

I've been playing Arcade Spirits recently as my second visual novel (my first was the good but nevertheless very straight guy orientated Starlight Shores, it took me a few minutes to realize Alec was not a romance option), and while it's been very nice, I've realized that my glacial pace and somewhat sporadic pick-up schedule in terms of playing it is probably because I already spend a lot of my time reading... books. Visual Novels are still definitely in the game category (I'm not taking Dear Esther but-is-it-really faffing about here), I experience them as games, I do not think of Arcade Spirits when I groan at my endless to-read list, I think of it when I groan at my endless to-play list, but nevertheless they are mostly reading! And making decisions, sometimes, in most visual novels (the ones without, so-described as kinetic, are arguably crossing into book territory - but they're still games).

Somehow this is different with Twine? I devour Twine a lot easily. Maybe it's because the Twine games I've played have all been short, and Arcade Spirits is a much bigger experience than Starlight Shores. Or maybe there is just something about Twine that groks me better.

And Parser 'fic... I struggle with that, but that's a whole different story.