- Jul 20, 2019
- 9,005
- 17,576
I was musing on the Bennett blackmail with "realism" coming up again, and it occured to me that perhaps he was just introduced too early. I'm beginning to think it could have been far more impactful if Dylan only failed the test on say PD23, and for the deadline still to be PD24. That way many of my objections about accepting his "proposal" wouldn't be at all relevant. For example, Dylan would have had the time to adjust to the new content that Bennett was teaching. And Sophia wouldn't have had the time to approach Mrs Torres and go to the school board.It was easier, IMO, to introduce rank upon rank of new characters, 2 side jobs & duplicate storylines, than to write a consistent & timely erotic narrative, which I know from experience is not as easy as it looks. There's always the received wisdom that the Dev wanted to include as many kinks as possible & that has been used to justify the ironic situation of fans with POVs like mine having to watch the actual corruption in real time, (a very, very long, slow real time), of a fictional corruption game.
Re-reading my previous post it's apparent that these days even I'm losing sight of the fact that this wasn't meant to be straightforward porn but genuine eroticism. Hence the now infamous "slow-burn." Ordinary porn holds no charms for me because I've been there, done that & damn near worn out the T-shirt. It's usually badly written & boring & in the case of the UK downright comedic but not actually funny. Erotic stories, on the other hand, can be inventive, are often very well written & take the reader on a journey where all kinds of things are possible & can be made to seem plausible. Some folks might think it's the best kind of escapism.
IMO, AWAM was definitely a well-crafted erotic tale when it started out & I can only speculate as to why this standard & yes, 'realism', wasn't maintained. There was a time when it looked, IMO, as though AWAM could become the great erotic 3D rendered story of the first quarter of the century. At last the resources available to the creators in 3D were being put to the best kind of use. This gradually ceased to be the case & though I can only speculate about the reasons, I believe I can make some pretty accurate educated guesses, all of which would go down like a lead balloon with many fans, whether true or not.
As for the specifics, I've commented several times on my belief that the 2 side jobs need to go, that duplicate storylines could be shut down, some characters written out, etc. Any & all suggestions from a pirate are "guaranteed", as in guaranteed to be totally ignored. When it comes to Aiden, I have defended this route until I'm blue in the balls & won't repeat myself. Suffice to say, however, that I was a proponent of Bennett as being the right pantomime villain people could love to hate. Frankly, I prefer Sophia dealing with & interacting with, other adults. It turned out that Mr. Bennett was so grossly unpopular, especially with those who didn't want their 'goddess' sullied by any 'nasty' man, (& this in an incest-ridden corruption story FFS), that his being written out was telegraphed by the Dev years before it was due to happen. Now to the present, Aiden & blackmail haters can be free of what they don't like, (unlike incest ignorers) but I don't really expect him back at all. Five years is a very long time in the gaming world & AFAIC, he's gone.
So, AWAM has become yet another porn game & is aiming for 2 records, i.e. longest lasting & slowest in continuous development but what about the realism?
Bennett would also have the time to properly seduce Sophia, instead of just coming off as a creep and a sleaze. He could have "innocently" raised concerns that Dylan wasn't doing as well as he could have, so that when Bennett springs the trap and fails Dylan, it doesn't just look like a ploy to get into Sophia's panties.