OK, for me a milker is someone who makes minimum efforts and is trying to maximize the profits. Now the problem with that is that i'm pretty sure L&P is making huge efforts to get this game going. Right now, we are at approximately 4.5 renders per day. And don't forget about the rest, like the story, the renpy, the animations and so on.
Now if you tell me that you can do all of that in less than 6 hours per day. I will tell you to go make your own game. you will have great success for sure. And that's where these guys are wrong.
The guy is not a milker. He is a bad business owner. He is trying to do it all by himself. So you can dissociate constructive from criticisim with a guy like that. You are only criticizing. And its not helping by any means because he is not listening.
I am not saying you can't criticize him. You should and have the right to do that. What i am saying is that no one is listening.
I learned to take this game as it is. A good game with slow updates. If i want to play and there is no update yet, i will look somewhere else and that's it. No need for drama
There are many who will support him whatever he does. That's their choice. That he can deliver numerous, timely & quality renders, (as well as write a better story than presently exists), IMO, is shown by what was produced in the past. There are bound to be fluctuations for various reasons. Nobody expects perfection, which can only ever be a target. He's not particularly good at business but it's his choice to abandon his promise to recruit a work group or team. Nevertheless, he makes a good living, while everyone knows he could make far more with better management & with the amazing level of interest in AWAM, I mean FAR more. This thread has been at the forefront of maintaining that interest. Existing levels of free publicity, (ignore whether good or bad), would cost many 1,000s of Euros, Dollars or Pounds. [I know this because I used to write & pay for the recruitment publicity for some large organisations].
There's one main reason why I maintain any interest in AWAM & that's because this game was different. It was a step beyond the run of the mill, decent though some of those games are. I used to play a lot of other stuff but the visual novel format, along with what was, initially, a more adult approach to the genre, were enough to keep me & many others hooked from the start. I used to say that at last 3D erotica had a grown-up producing something for a grown-up audience (& after 20 years of such stuff), I privately thought it was about time. It really seemed that the adult porn game had at last reached adulthood.
As you say there's no need for drama. There is an inescapable fact, however, which is that if this thread consisted only of sycophantic tributes, along with endless questions around when will X fuck Y?, what's in the next update?, when is the next update?, I want to see Dylan, I want to see Sam, are we nearly there yet? etc., this thread would be boring. Many other game subject threads on F95 with less controversy & a lot less contributions are indeed, pretty boring.
It plays into L&P's interest to have fans amuse themselves in fruitless speculation, circular arguments, storyline debates & much more. We, the fans, have at various times, enjoyed these pastimes but in my own case...no more. It may have even helped him in his plan to delay everything...because IMO there's no doubt that he could make the necessary adjustments to not only develop AWAM at a faster pace but to let fans believe there might even be a conclusion to the saga before global warming destroys the planet....if he chose to do so. He chooses to become slower instead. If no-one highlights this then AWAM will end up as a once a year, one event fiasco, after which who knows?
Now, whilst it is true that I can realistically expect to have no influence & that L&P owes me nothing, I believe that change is always possible. It's not only possible but could well become an imperative for AWAM at this rate, before the mid-point of the story is reached. One of the dangers to a cash cow I didn't mention in my post above was that a lack of essential innovation, (& I don't mean needless animations), can lead to competitors taking advantage of product complacency, leading to the demise of that lovely cash cow.