Is this a counter-argument, or are you consciously supporting my case?

By the way, did you play The Silver Case, available in GOG? Is it not what they call a visual novel? At least that is what the demo suggests: lengthy dialogue and exposition, made more palatable with a few clever tricks, but without interaction, followed by spells of (modal) interaction for the missions, in the vein of adventure games. From the demo, I'd say it is way more of a visual novel than the Sunrider series, for example. But until this week probably everyone in this site would have called it nothing else than an adventure game.

Then, Life is Strange is a visual novel? or is it just an adventure game?

Final Fantasy is a series of visual novels? Sometimes they sure talk a lot.

Anime-y characters make a game a VN?

Could it be, to a degree, that a game is a visual novel if they sell it as a visual novel (or any other commercial label)?

what do YOU think?

Ahem, since you asked...

You objectificate a person, real or fictional, when you treat it as a means towards an end, instead of dealing with it like another fellow human, with a respect for her or his rights, wishes, dignity, dreams and aspirations.

This fellow human, in spite of any differences of sex, age, nationality, race or upbringing, is equal to you before the law (in countries where it is worth living at least); in the eyes of god if you are religious, and certainly equal to you in the grand scheme of things, in dignity and in having the spark of life with the chance of doing great things or making spectacular fuckups that is the heirloom and the burden of all human beings, no matter how rich, humble, wise or idiotic they might be.

So, yeah, objectification is fundamentally wrong. It consists essentially in depriving (or pretending to deprive) someone of the human quality. And not just because of the disrespect, the blindness, the cruelty, the narcissism, supremacism, blind obeyance or plain selfishness that might drive some to treat somene else like a thing. No, the worst of it is not the inevitable self-debasement that comes from trying to delete or avoid the soul of someone else while you seek to grab a body, money, privilege or just the extinction or banishment of those you choose to treat like objects. The worst, in the end, is how much you are missing. For every human contains a world, complex and rich, and you are missing it and impoverishing yourself all the more by it.

Not really, sure, hence was asking. I was wondering whether or not to point out that "degrading" in that context is a form of "simplification."
Ok, you've established why objectifying you is wrong, not the sex doll, not the video game character, etc, which are already objects and things.

why do you think this is the case?

That the words are so? "Degrade" comes from "grade" which means to apply a rank, significance, or quality to something. For example, i grade your performance on a test as either pass or fail, if i am a test giver and you are a test taker. The "de-" means to remove or undo the verb. So "degrade" is remove rank, significance, or quality of something, which is the process of "simplification." The nuance in the word implies malice, which can't really be said of a developer who does not attribute certain qualities to his/her own development. And, furthermore, the ground on which a customer has malice upon degrading the non-human creation is a bit shaky.

Since when is a character a thing? It is was a thing it would be a prop.

If it is a character it will perform as a human in the story.

No matter how humble the role, maybe even without a single spoken sentence, it remains the depiction of a human, doing human things.

Objectificating is denying someone's humanity. No more, no less.

A human prop is still a prop. Maybe it represents more, maybe it represents less. The Christian cross, for example, represents the life an death of a man. Is it thus objectification if i say it represents the death of the man? Does this cross have the same rights as a man? Should something happen to this cross, should it be buried in a casket or cremated? What if it is metal?

Obviously, the truth is, characters are not people They represent people and/or ideas, but they themselves are not people. Making a character in a video game for the sole purpose of undressing is no less moral than making a human shaped balloon for me to stick my member in. And that, is no more or less moral than sticking my member in, say, a cantaloupe. And yet that, is no more or less moral than me sticking my member in my hand. Then again, i've heard people talk about the morality of that, as well. Shame on me for objectifying my hand.

^ This ! Soooo much this ! A made up creation that looks like a human is NOT a human, therefore the usual criteria and standards don't apply. Projecting your morality and human society ideals on an art depiction of a human is wrong. There is a clear cut difference between reality and fantasy which is evident by the words themselves and their meaning. There is no objectification of women in games and anime because these are art depictions of women NOT real human females.

It's not wrong, it's just inane. If, for example, someone killed me to protect a character, that is wrong, not because he defended the character, but because i was killed for no reason. Protection of the inanimate and non-existent is inane.

But, and i'm gonna double down here, you notice that semi-high reply rate before? Now suddenly no response. I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that my comparison to the cross made him ask himself some questions regarding double-standards/hypocrisy.

Tbh I don't really like Western-made VNs, theres just something about the art and writing that doesn't have the same feel or touch as Japanese ones. Call me a weeb if you like.

Ditto.

I've only liked 2 Western-made VNs so far. Those are Lucid9 and DDLC. I've tried other VNs but they aren't my cup of tea.

I get it, but I'm still willing to give a few of them a chance, since there's at least the slim possibility of them being good, the shining example in my mind being Katawa Shoujo.
If they should be added, I'd just request there be a "western made" tag that I would be able to filter out.