Except the guy isn't selling it as an ntr game, he's selling it as a "CONSEQUENCES MATTER" game. And call me crazy, but labeling it that kind of a game would imply to me that there is an actual thought being put into both the ntr AND non-ntr stories. Because there's an actual choice. Like the author claims there is.
I mean, oddly enough, when I played the porn game Acting Lessons and was told the choices matter in the game, the choices actually mattered. There's a character death in that game that's genuinely heart-wrenching because even though it's a porn game, the writing had made me care about both characters and then cruelly forced me to pick which one lived and which one died. And the endings are affected by the actions the player has taken in the previous episodes and so range from happy yet melancholy to entirely alone and all of them feel in keeping with your own actions.
Hell, even the game Superhuman manages to change whether certain characters live or die and how they interact with your character based on decisions you make regarding your abilities and who you choose to romance and how. It's a lot of effort, but it is entirely possible to give the players actual choice instead of the illusion of it without lying to them.
Basically the reason I'm so hard on the plot is because it claimed that the plot mattered but more and more it's feeling like it just doesn't. Maybe it's dumb of me to feel this way but my fundamental starting point is: If it's an ntr game, than just make it an ntr game. Don't say that the choices matter if it's actually just a choice between "town bike" and "fuck you you're doing it wrong."
I am not particularly holding my breath for it, but considering the outline on page one here says that Act 1 and Act 2 are supposed to set up how Act 3 plays out, which to my understanding is supposed to be the ending/final act, we don't really know if the choices have mattered or not yet. For all we know, your choices have kept a background tally that determines if things are resolved in certain ways. Judging it now is like building 70% of a Lego set and then saying the box lied to you because what you built doesn't look like the picture on the box yet.
For the record as well, Acting Lessons is made by one of the most well known game authors on this site. So... yeah, most porn games may not have shit for plot, but his and a few others do, they just are pretty much the exception, not the rule. Acting lessons and BaD being some of the best porn games I have ever played as far as getting you invested in them. Superhuman actually doing a pretty decent job of it too, even if the art is a bit out there by comparison.
I didn't intend to say that every porn game ever is shallow and to never expect anything from them, just that MOST, are not going to give you what you seem to want. plus, we are on F95, which means we are getting a pretty wide spread of content, that is not curated at all. Even a lot of 1.0 and beyond stuff here is still not exactly quality, or comparable to other more popular or well known content.
You just seem really worked up about something that is not going to do anyone, even yourself, any good to get worked up over. Admittedly in most NTR plots, its sort of the point to get at least minimally invested or it doesn't really work, but still. Pretty sure this has always been slated to be an NTR game, like, I played it back before Act 1 was even close to finished, and it was tagged as NTR since that time. So saying they should either make it NTR or not, seems kind of... silly. Its always been an NTR game, and the choices haven't been "to NTR or not to NTR" its been based on degrees of betrayal. If everyone has just maximally stabbed everyone else in the back, it seems unlikely there is any sort of resolution that keeps the marriage together and them going forward in any meaningful way. Even if that is the only "consequence" of your choices through the whole game, I think thats still pretty impactful.
I am trying to believe that your arguement is about if your choices are impactful or not, and not about NTR being avoidable or not.
Obviously I could just be talking out my ass, and when 1.0 comes that there is literally no resolution of anything, and nothing you decide throughout makes any difference. But getting upset about it now just seems premature based on the history of the game so far. I am sure I will look very dumb if that comes to be, but oh well.
Also, many of your presented standpoints seem to present only two opposite extremes. Like either "We believe this developer 100% and treat this as gold!" or " author make game about unga bunga naked monkey sex." as if there is no in between. I approach these games with a degree of pragmatism, enough have bombed for me to not sit and get busted up over every single one I think has potential, if that happens? Hopefully get a decent fap out of it, if it doesn't? Get a good story and several faps. But I am not going to sit and go "this dev said to take his work seriously, so thats what I am gonna do this time!" no, that would be silly, and naive. I will hope it lives up to it, but I don't see the point in getting butthurt that it doesn't unless I am investing money and getting promises in return.
