A bunch of Yes/No choices at the start, or ask each time a [insert Tag] scene come up?

[MJB]

I'm working on a game that has a bi transwoman as the MC, and so I thought I'd be thoughtful and ask players at the beginning of the game if they want to see content with her having sex with men, if they want scenes with two men, and then I realized with the possibility with threesomes, my questions would end up getting a little convoluted.

If you were playing a game like this where some stuff is fine, but there might be other stuff you just don't want to see, would simply quickly describing the next scene and asking if you want to skip it be ok? Would that even be preferred?

 

[Meaning Less]

Nothing more annoying than constant spamming people with warnings, its just a game...

If you want/care to design your game that way at least do everything at the start in a screen where people can disable what they don't want to see. Much cleaner and it will not keep interrupting the game flow for those that don't care and just want to play the game and see where the story goes without constant warnings.

 

[Sphere42]

How does your game operate to warrant such options in the first place? In an open world dating sim people just don't romance the characters they aren't attracted to. If a story-driven VN requires the MC to get raped out of the blue in gratuitous detail then you're clearly catering to niche fetishes and don't care about the approval of a broader audience. And on a smaller scale it should be quite obvious what options such as "my turn", "top", "suck me off" or "bend over" entail without a dedicated warning or confirmation prompt. If you only have one variation of a threesome scene anyway you can have the characters outline their preferences before the MC agrees to the threesome, which they should be doing in-universe anyway.

Honestly having a "bi trans woman" presumably with male genitalia as the player character will probably drive away anyone who might care about content warnings down the line, not counting niche fetishes.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

I'm working on a game that has a bi transwoman as the MC

That should be enough information for everyone to know what they're getting into by playing your game.
Also, what Meaning Less said.

 

[Bev_]

I actually prefer to have a warning/option to skip before every scene that has 'risky' content. Because even if I don't like certain tag/genre, depending on the game, setting, context I may chose to see the scene I'm not into (plot relevance, curiosity, something contextual that makes that fetish acceptable or just my usual desire to see everything the game has to offer even if I'll backtrack to my 'head-canon route' afterwards), so it's nice to have that choice.

And tbh. in some games those 'new game questionnaires' where you've got to fill in 20 different names, ages, relationships, genders and preferences from the get-go, with no context whatsoever are really annoying and most of the time I end up using the console to change something I didn't like/made little sense during the gameplay.

 

[unocrus]

I'm a fan of writers providing contextual clues for what's to come and then allowing for player agency in how a scene plays out. If there's a character who's expressed a pee kink, maybe don't go into a bathroom stall with them. If it's supposed to be a spur of the moment thing then you could still have one character ask the other before doing so, something a normal person should do anyway. If nobody wants to see pee then just say no and move on. No out of place warnings necessary.

Use the same method for bi and gay scenes. If the player doesn't want to see either then give them the option to rebuff those characters. Unless everything in the game is procedurally generated then there is no need for a list of kink toggle switches.

 

[anne O'nymous]

"A bunch of Yes/No choices at the start, or ask each time a [insert Tag] scene come up?"


None of this. You're a writer, use your story to know what the player want, then keep track of his answer to know what content you should present him.
Something that would looks like:

MtF "I started taking hormones just one year ago, what mean that technically I'm still in the middle of my second puberty. But, you know, my boobs are already not so bad."
menu:
    "I prefer vaginas.":
        $ transContent = False
        $ MtF = False
        MC "Don't take it wrong, I have nothing against transgenders, but I want my girls to have a vagina, not a dick."
    "You're a good friend."
        $ transContent = True
        $ MtF = False
        MC "You aren't trying to seduce me, are you ? You're a too good friend of mine, I don't want to loose you over a question of sex."
    "Pict or it don't happened.":
        $ transContent = True
        $ MtF = True
        MC "I'll believe you when I'll see them."

And when it's not possible to wait for the right moment, like by example when you want to present a story where a character is either MtF or female, still try to insert it into the story.
At the early stage of the game, make the MC have a discussion about transgenders with his best friend (about that girl in school, that new co-worker, or that celebrity). Or, why not, making the player buy a porn magazine and have to choice between one that have females and MtF, and one that only have females.

99% of the time, it's possible to do this through the dialogs, therefore do it that way. Prove to the players that you correctly handle your writing and don't need to throw blunt questions to make it advance.
As for the 1% when it's not possible, try to make it as invisible as possible. By example by making the MC have to fill a really weird medical form by example. It will be a bunch of yes/no, but at least it will fill natural and part of the story.

 

[PochitaTheChainsaw]

some of the filter systems i like are the ones from Ravager and Euphoria, which have the option to disable content via the options menu, and the warning system for Twisted World and Stuck at Home, where theres a little symbol next to options for trans/trap/futa etc. type content

 

[MJB]

I'm a fan of writers providing contextual clues for what's to come and then allowing for player agency in how a scene plays out. If there's a character who's expressed a pee kink, maybe don't go into a bathroom stall with them. If it's supposed to be a spur of the moment thing then you could still have one character ask the other before doing so, something a normal person should do anyway. If nobody wants to see pee then just say no and move on. No out of place warnings necessary.

Ya, I think this is the way to go, and I'm a little embarrassed that it never occurred to me. My variables.rpy file and I thank you!

Thanks to the other responses in the thread as well, it's appreciated.

 

[Deleted member 4879170]

As a player, I think it'd be better to give a choice at the start of the game rather than interrupting the player each time a sex scene comes up as Meaning Less said. So, imo, just set your variables and let the player decide what they want at the very beginning.

A good example comes to mind with WVM:

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[Narfbat]

Ravager has a neat approach here. Practically everything non-vanilla is put into its own menu and, most interestingly, these can be changed at any time. Upon starting the game you're given the choice to change these settings or not, if it's not your first play you can skip it since they're stored globally.

 

[kzaazul]

Others gave good suggestions already, so I'll only say this: having a bunch of questions being made one by one is the worst. It makes the beginning of the game feel like a slog, so people may drop it right then and there. If it's a Ren'Py game and there can't be a menu with all of these options, it's better to ask before each scene - or, even better, to have contextual clues to gauge audience opinion.

 

[woody554]

I'm working on a game that has a bi transwoman as the MC, and so I thought I'd be thoughtful and ask players at the beginning of the game if they want to see content with her having sex with men, if they want scenes with two men, and then I realized with the possibility with threesomes, my questions would end up getting a little convoluted.

If you were playing a game like this where some stuff is fine, but there might be other stuff you just don't want to see, would simply quickly describing the next scene and asking if you want to skip it be ok? Would that even be preferred?

how bout get players to show preference through choices in scenes? sort of unlock the content through showing inclination towards different things?

It always takes you out of the story when there's 'warning popups' etc.

 

[OsamiWorks]

I'm working on a game that has a bi transwoman as the MC, and so I thought I'd be thoughtful and ask players at the beginning of the game if they want to see content with her having sex with men, if they want scenes with two men, and then I realized with the possibility with threesomes, my questions would end up getting a little convoluted.

If you were playing a game like this where some stuff is fine, but there might be other stuff you just don't want to see, would simply quickly describing the next scene and asking if you want to skip it be ok? Would that even be preferred?

instead of asking the player a series of questions that will probably annoy them, why not put a window with check boxes for content options at the beginning or in the menus? it would allow the player to enable/disable flags for what content they see with minimal time spent doing it.

 

[Rafster]

Players always appreciate choices of content, and that may extend your audience even if you favor kinks that may scare players, like BDSM, urination, etc...

But at the same time take in consideration you game's design to see if it fits. I've gotten a positive feedback from the players, and I'm annoying asking everytime if they want to see or not X fetish.

EDIT: I forgot to answer the OP question: I ask every time a kink comes on. I've gone to the extreme of asking for each part of the scene in advance: Oral, anal, etc... . Of course, you don't need to go as far as I did.

 

[OsamiWorks]

My bad, because OP said "ask players at the beginning of the game" I assumed that they would do that but I hadnt read the other responses