Man, so much frustration and anger in this thread! Say what you will, but L&P's game has definitely inspired passion from the players.
Personally, I don't mind the lack of hardcore sex in this game. When I want that I can go to just about any other game in the world. AWAM is trying for something different, and that's how I calibrate my expectations. I think L&P is going to be one of those creators that I support every so often for short periods of time. When he does good work I'll support him, and when he goes on a 4 month hiatus I'll pull back my support. I think the game is fun to discuss, and I do wish a lot of things about it were different, but don't let it ruin your day if someone loves or hates it.
Originally I had planned on following the good wife path because it felt the most appropriate for Sophia's character. But there's a push/pull in that you as a paying customer are missing 90% of the game's content if you go that route- so you're literally paying for something that you aren't utilizing. To
Blockout's point, the GW path feels like a huge missed opportunity. Liam could be developed so much better on that route, and we could get a better sense of why Sophia loves him. It would also make sense that this route could have the earlier payoff for sex (and I mean
good sex) because it would be in character. This is a problem that a lot of corruption games have; the non-corruption path is devoid of content. Games like this always seem ask the player to choose the character's path, but practically speaking there's rarely a reason to chose the non-corruption story because you're missing everything. I recently started playing Jessica O'Neil's Hard News and it has the same problem. If you play her as a respectable person there are only minor benefits, but it costs you the bulk of the content. It's a big resource commitment, but if you really want players to choose then there has to be exclusive content on both paths. It does seem that the GW path is about to get more attention in AWAM, but I wonder if it's going to be enough.
From a purely creative standpoint, AWAM does frustrate me. Not because of the lack of sex, but because of how long it is taking to tell a story. As a creator it feels like L&P is somewhere beyond the Point of Diminishing Returns, and is somewhere around the Point of Negative Returns. He's putting in a lot of input, but I'm not sure it's resulting in appropriate levels of output. At some point good enough really is
good enough. Sometimes you just need to put the pencil down and release what you have. This doesn't mean you need to rush the final product, but it does mean you can't always wait until everything is perfect. I have suggested before that I think he should give himself a firm schedule- that way he knows what restraints he has. If the next release is going to be 1/3 of a day, and he gives himself 3 months to complete it, then he knows what he has to work with. He has to deliver enough content for 1/3 of a day, and he needs to do it in 90 days (just an example, but I think 3 months is a sweet spot). From there he can dedicate resources appropriately. Right now he's only doing half of that, he knows the scope of the release but he doesn't set a firm release date. In my mind that's a mistake because it allows him to endlessly tweak and change things and that results in delays.
