I have been following this game for years now, and was even a patron (at the highest tier) for a few months,
but I have to say I am simply amazed at the stupidity of his paid patrons.
Yes, I agree that this is one of the best adult games available, but from a standpoint of simple market dynamics, you idiots are enabling his in-excusable behaviour.
If all of his paid patrons were to just stop their subscription at once, and not renew it until the update was released, you would have seen a considerable increase in the release speeds.
Furthermore, if patrons were to only pay in months were new updates were released (only AFTER the release, not based on the devs statements), for a few releases, then the rate would change to something more like what he promises then what it is currently now.
Why?
Simply because once his income would actually depend on the release speed of his updates, the speed-ups would actually be prioritized, while at the moment it seems like he couldn't care less as the money keeps coming in...
The crawling pace is not L&P's fault, it is the fault of all of his patrons.
I am touched by how people worry about how I spend my money. But I don't want to worry them, I know what I spend and why.
Sorry to disappoint the romantics and the deluded, usually game developers develop games to make money, and the more the better. When they say they want to tell a story, that what matters to them is their art, that they will finish the game even if nobody supports them, blah, blah, blah. It's usually a lie, and if it's not at first it ends up being a lie. Developing a game is hard work, it takes a lot of time.Normally, if a game developer doesn't make money, or doesn't make enough money, he or she quits (I miss Au Pair Innocence so much!). Of course there are very notable exceptions, such as Fragile Innocence of DarkLove
https://f95zone.to/threads/fragile-innocence-v0-8-dark-love.42600/ which is absolutely free, is not on Patreon or Subscribestar, only on f95zone. Another example are the BeWilder games, like Noemi, Toscana, Rebirth
https://f95zone.to/threads/noemis-toscana-rebirth-v0-17-1-bewilder.15069/ , this game despite the years that have passed and despite its extraordinary quality has few subscribers, and yet the developers continue with it because it is their passion.
But that is something exceptional, and LP is a creator who follows the general rule, if he doesn't make enough money he won't continue with the game.
This leads me to explain something very obvious, but which seems to need explanation, I contribute financially to the development of the game because I like it and I don't want it to stop being developed. Moreover, I can say that it is the erotic game I like the most, the one I enjoy the most.I love the evolution of the characters, the twists and turns of the story, the quality of the images.
So, if I like something and I have money to spend on it, why shouldn't I spend it. I've played this game since it was an RPGM and I've been a patron continuously for 4 years now, and I don't regret it for a moment.
Don't get me wrong, I wish the updates were faster, that Sophia was already fucking everyone (I've played every single possible path several times). But I don't think I'm being "milked"; this game simply has three pillars: the artistic quality, the script and the speed of updates. Well, speed for LP is less important than script and artistic quality. Each update involves a lot of work, the number of renders is no less than that of the average game and the quality is certainly much higher.
Of course, there are high quality games that move much faster, I'm thinking of BaDik, MDots games, Insanerotica games and others (I have played them and I pay or have payed for some of them). But I think that the image quality of LP games is superior (in my humble opinion) and it is very hard to find it; and when I find it, I find that the story is boring or the development is even slower than LP's (Jessica O'Neil's Hard News). The problem, or one of the problems, with this game is simply that LP has so far been unable to create a working team. There seems to be a glimmer of a team now with those helping him with Blender and Renpy, but I don't know if he's going to get there; he's finding it very hard to trust others. The truth is that this problem is to his detriment. If with over 4,500 pages on f95zone and the extraordinary quality of the game he has only about 1,700 subscribers, that means he's not "milking" anyone, it's simply his perspective on how to develop the game (extreme quality, slow story development, sex when it's actually believable, solitaire work) leads him to lose money.
The reality is that he doesn't milk, he loses money.
The other problem is the bad idea that LP had at the beginning of the game saying that it would last 30 days. That bullshit of the 30 days is a heavy slab, because in the end math is stubborn. I am one of those who, due to age (unless I go to cryogenization), if things doesn´t change I do not think I will see the end of this game (or I will be a bit old for fapping, who knows), but that does not prevent me from enjoying the before, during and after each update, figuring out what is going to happen and with whom That's what I like about this fórum (thanks to xxxroro, nexer, Dr. Fap, Lord Xanatos, hzjujk, Apollodore and others).
What I don't like are the contrived debates generated by haters and trolls that bore ad nauseam due to their repetitiveness. The comments are the same on page 1,000, as in page 2,000, as in page 4,000 and they will be the same in page 6,000: if LP milks, blah, blah, blah; what if 30, 35, 50 years blah, blah, blah; that if shota, incest, forced sex is bad blah, blah, blah, that if they have passed, 1,2, 3, 4, 5… n years and there is no sex blah, blah, blah. In fact, in 1,000 pages I will republish exactly these words and everything will be the same. I truly believe that some of those who participate in this forum suffer from some type of obsessive-compulsive disorder that should be treated by a specialist because they will be talking about the same thing, and not about the game, over and over again, and again for months and years. …