Well, I don't think I've ever played a porn VN that was "oscar worthy" and don't think I ever will, no matter how good it is
Most porn games that focus on story ahead of sex scenes, well at the end of the day, yeah, I have to admit will only ever be porn game quality in their writing in my opinion, so that's the lense I view it from. It's never at that point where it's going to make you think real deep on anything or unravel multiple complex layers with glee like a Coen Brothers or Tarantino movie will. And I of course say that with no insult intended towards any dev on this site or any sense of superiority on my part or anything like that. I'm pretty sure we're all aware of the same thing; we're just here to indulge our (often times immature) fantasies and free some milk from the ol' dipper
Well, most of us anyways. No insult intended ofc to people who just like to read a story that interests them
That said...
Don't think those filmmakers ever made me salivate
Yeah. Almost edited out the oscar part. But kept it as hyperbole. I basically meant every game doesn't have to be a fap game. Slow burn games will obviously have better character development & less sex scenes in exchange (the oscar & porn movie represented this)
A better replacement for Oscar might be games like Fate/stay night & Steins;Gate.
It's okay for you as a user to have low expectations, but I don't want devs to settle for making porn games. If you have a story to tell & the talent to do it in a quality that makes me irritated at the eventual sex scene(like Fate/stay night did) go for it.
Also, another point was VN is just a medium. Just like a movie can be filmed as a porn film or as an oscar film, VN's have the same range. So even if most games aren't gonna reach the level of classics, I still judge them on their individual merits, just like you wouldn't put a porn over a good movie in terms of character development or storytelling.
I met atleast one dev who was inspired by F/sn & wanted to make a similar captivating story-telling experience. And I admire the ambition.
The VN medium is perfectly capable of " make you think real deep on anything or unravel multiple complex layers with glee" though I do concede it's unlikely to happen, more for lack of talented ppl working on the medium rather than any demerit of the medium itself. Imagine an interactive Tarantino/Cameron/Nolan
movie VN with differing outcomes based on your choices
. The potential is there.
(Nolan's whiteboard would become even more incomprehensible. Guy already has such complicated story structures, imagine if he could implement routes & variables
)
I don't mind reading a story focused VN as a interactive alternative to watching a TV show (TV show quality also so fluctuating these days, some of these VN actually top those garbage
).
So I support both & wouldn't give fap games any grace on lack of plot & character development; just as I wouldn't give slow burn games any grace on lack of excitement [excitement doesn't have to be sexual, imagine a movie that doesn't pull you in & bores you instead](like you said, the quality/talent is lacking more often than not. VN needs to be a mixture of book & movie styles: just shoving a book/story into renpy line by line with some pictures will not work. You actually have to consider the medium & create a proper script, including visuals like pictures/renders, just like how books have to be turned into movie scripts & cannot be used as is for movie adaptations)
So writting is only one aspect. A great written story might not translate well to another medium if not translated properly. A great paragraph might sound tedious as a long exposition monologue whether in a movie or a VN, with the VN getting the worse of it cause of all the clicking required to get through it.
In my free time I don't mind replacing a book or movie or serial (all mediums of story-telling, all capable of delivering great stories or smut) with another medium of story telling (though quality VNs are lacking, especially by independent devs)
I hope this supports devs who look to produce quality works. Sex doesn't automatically mean low quality, I'm sure I remember a oscar movie that was full of passionate sex scenes.
Ofc making porn VNs is fine, I don't mean to look down on creators who create porn movies, books or games.
But similar to movies, to books, VNs have the potential for high level story-telling & I support that ambition if any dev has it & judge games without genre bias.
Hope you get my pov.
Have a great day
Edit: With more & more movie & tv shows releasing directly to streaming platforms, I think the day might come when professional storytellers choose VNs as a interactive medium over making movies or serials. Kaleidoscope was an example of trying to create a customised experience for each viewer.
Television broadcasts or Cinema screenings were not conductive to a personalised storytelling experience, but streaming services delivering to each individual seperately opens up possibilities as kaleidoscope showed. You couldn't choose a personalised watch order of episodes on tv broadcasts after all.
I look forward to how that possibility might pan out...
