Releasing the game for free at some point isn't the game as releasing it completely free to begin with, then taking donations from those that want to give them. There's value in getting that game now versus later. It's the same value that has people go to midnight showings of new movies when they are first released or as soon as possible thereafter versus waiting for it to stream on a service they already pay for.
It's... not the same. The movie isn't going to be modified because people going to the Premiere didn't like something, or some part of the CG wasn't done right.
If the polls only offer the illusion of input, that's not good. If the dev leads with "This is completely informal, but here's this poll" that's one thing. What trapped Luxee with PL was asking poll questions where he didn't like the results, but to his credit honoring them. In general though, I think devs should be conscious of what their fans, paid or otherwise, want. If your paid fans aren't happy with something you did, is that element really all that important to you? Is it worth losing subscribers over something you may or may not be attached to? I'm not talking Nea. I'm talking Nea dying under those specific circumstances. I'm not a dev, but I have to imagine that as much as they want to create what they want, they also want to create something other people will like. They could please a lot of people by coming up with an alternative for Nea. Maybe they got rid of Nea because they didn't want to create the friendship route? If so, there are better ways of getting her out of the game. I'm still fond of the idea of the MC helping her get out of her house and live with someone better, even if it means moving quite a ways away.
I'll take your points in order.
1) Illusion of input isn't good
Well yeah, maybe, but usually polls are meant to help the dev on something thei hesitate over, not decide for them where the story is going. Or at least it should, as not all devs think through enough before putting up polls.
2) devs should think of what the fans want
I'd say it's debatable. Mainly because what fans
want doesn't ncessarily work with what the game is intending to be. A simple example would be if some fans of PL wanted an NTR route for the story. Since the story was planned as "Long lost dad gets home harem", that would clash with the core of the game itself. See what I mean ? What fans may want isn't always something that can work, and if some fans can't accept that not all games can go a direction they want, that doesn't mean the dev is the issue, that means the game isn't the one for them.
But not everyone accepts that.
3) If paid fans are unhappy, that's bad
That would be justified if the dev knowingly lied, for example with a tier pretending you can choose ideas or scenes and never doing them. But that's more lying on what you offer than the core of what we're talking about. What people hate to admit it that, when they choose to support a dev financially, that's what it is.
They choose to. They aren't required to. To use an earlier analogy, it's akin to putting coins in a street musician's guitar case and getting mad it doesn't lead to you having special decisional power over the guy, like making him play somewhere else or another instrument, or changing the style of music he plays. The guy didn't asked you to pay him, he left the option open, and you choose to do it. If you hadn't, he wouldn't have lashed out at you or anything, he just would have kept doing his own thing.
But so long as people put money, they like to forget that it's purely a voluntary action, and the responsability of such action is solely on them. Accusing the dev to be responsible for "stealing money" is a skewed (did I write that right ? I hear it a lot but never saw it written...) mentality when the person giving (essentially
gifting money) isn't forced to do so.
And you can see a lot of ex-supporters who simply stopped paying when the game turned a direction they didn't like. There are some that simply accept that fact instead of getting mad at it.
4) Loosing subs to something you're not attached to
That implies devs aren't attached to the story they are trying to create and thus should search to please supproters first and foremost. Unless I missunderstood your point, there.
As for your specific example about Nea's suicide, I can't argue against or for that, as I myself think that scene was likely an overheated reaction to a pushback from transphobic fans.
But for the idea in itself, supposing I didn't missunderstood (ignore this if I did, and I'm sorry), devs create games with something in mind. They're not "not attached to it". If the best course of action was to please people instead of making what you want to make... well every single youtuber and streamer would be playing Battle Royale games and nothing else. Yet, you have some that play underrated games or music. It doesn't bring in thousands of dollars of donation an hour. But it's what they want to do.
Point is, you'll have a way better quality if you make what you
want to make instead of what you are pressured to make because of people's wants.
Does it mean that nobody will like it if they don't aim to do what will bring in supporters ? No. It means those supporters won't be interested. Others will, though. Because not everyone wants the same thing.
5) didn't want a friendship route
As mentionned, I can't argue any direction on that one, since I think it was probably another issue. I'm mainly hoping that transphobic people will pipe down and Luxee will be able to calm down enough to hear other voices, for example from people like you (supporters or not) and rethink their decisions to add a new route. What's already in the game isn't necessarily set in stone.
See above where I talk about time having value, or immediate access, or convenience. Giving the bouncer a "tip" that you know will let you save time and hassle in the line has value to it, even though it isn't a physical thing. But then again, neither is this game. It has no physical form. Technically, you could say you're donating here, because you're not getting anything back in a physical sense. Except the game as an intangible thing still has value, just as time or other intangibles do.
Thing is, the basic goal for devs looking for financial support is a dream that rarely happens, and they know it. There aren't actually a lot of them that end up with enough supporters to be able to quit their job to work full time on their game. That's the dream, but most of the time, it's not happening. What does happen though, is that it eases up the financial strain, meaning for example that a dev who isn't an artist can pay someone to do the art, therefore allowing them to stress less because they have more disposable income. In some country, depending on the cost of living, it also means not having to take a second job, leading to more free time to work on their game.
But in the end, it is a donation, just like a lot of people donate to streamer to ask a question or have the thrill of hearind their name mentionned on stream. They don't do it in the hopes of getting to play with the streamer right then and there.
But when it comes to supporting games... well people forget that and start acting like they game money for the promise of getting whatever they want. And that's when everything starts going tits up : when people forget it's voluntary and not expected of them.
Other devs deal pretty well with the "optional content" thing. Sometimes there's a checkbox, or some very clearly worded questions in the game, or whatever. If it relates to a character, then either it's as if the character never existed, or it just skips all of their sexual content or any hint thereof. This is the first game where I've seen the approach of "here's some awkward sexual content, now do you want more?" Maybe this is a Luxee thing and their admission that they don't really do linear stuff well. But that's maybe another reason to not to consider things that have already happened as permanent.
Yeah but not all dev do everything the same way. And I'm not just talking gamedesign. They don't think the same way, work the same way, etc. Maybe Luxee didn't want to push Nea away from the main game to make her just a bunch of optional scenes because some people didn't want her. Arguably, her route is fairly well written (aside from the suicide thing, though fried made a lot of good points far better explained than I ever could), but as for, for example, a game entirely based on the MC being NTRed of every LIs, it's a matter of taste. For those who have no issue with sexual content with a trans character mid-transition, and I'm not talking just people into it but also those indifferent but not repulsed, it feels fairly natural.
The issue comes from those that are completely against it (meaning "not into the sex with such a character at all"), as they'd like to opt out way before the tentative awkward tries begin. But at the same time, the thing is, with the way the story flows, it sort of makes sense for the reaction and choice to happen after those tries rather than before.
Could it have been handled better ? Probably. Is it something to blame Luxee for ? No. Constructive critizism will do far better than lashing out.
But again, a lot of people don't get that.
I never said they were cutting other characters, but honestly if they said "I'm burnt out on this game, there's no way I'm getting to X character" I wouldn't be surprised. Artistically, I think it's not the best idea to rush forward with your favored character. If telling Nea's story is ultimately what motivates Nea's story, then he should pace accordingly. Luxee seems to get tired of their games after a while, which is how A69 came along in the first place. What I'm saying is that if Luxee tells Nea's story but still has other stuff left, it might seem awfully attractive to move on to a new game as soon as you can. Maybe he's got the idea for a game about an MC and their twin sisters (one of whom is trans, but they might as well be identical twins other than what's between their legs) that keeps gaining traction in their head?
And you know what would happen if Luxee were to just hold off on working on their ideas to force themselves to work on another character for which they don't have as clear a vision ? A subpar route that will get people missed off. They'll start saying Luxee doesn't care about other characters than Nea and that's why the other routes suck in comparaison.
But I honestly don't expect people to understand that. Most of the players aren't creative people that end up struggling with that type of thing, they don't think about it, let alone understand it... So in short I think saying that Luxee is only working on their favorite and ignoring the rest is unfair.
As for the "getting distracted by another project idea" thing, I'll point you out to Recreation (dev of Bad Memories and other games). Rec' always has multiple projects at the same time, because that's how they can avoid getting into burnout working exclusively on one. Not all devs function the same, some of them fare out better by bouncing between different stuff depending on their inspiration, to get the most out of themselves.
No clue what I did, but that describes a lot of what I do, including writing this rambling monster of a post. Thanks for the debate by the way or the chance to discuss the game. We come from different perspectives and like different things, but at least we can talk civilly and share our opinions, even if they differ.
I do wish more people would be as civil as you are. On this thread, I've either been met by approval from fellow Nea fans, or outright agression from haters (which in turn triggered myself to be agressive, arguably, which is why I've gotten two warning from here already...). Having the opportunity to exchange calmly and respectfully, expose my point of view with someone who doesn't immediatly insult/taunt me and actualyl takes the time to read and try to understand even if they don't agree, is refreshing (and it's fucking hot lately
).
