I felt the mc waaay overreacted when Josy first shows up, so then, to paraphrase you, you'd think he'd go off the deep end when they finally reject him when he still wants a romantic involvement with them. And then strangely he doesn't. Perhaps he's already come to terms with whatever the outcome was going to be before he even confronted them. He's spent a few days (staying with Bella, Derek or Sage) thinking about the whole situation, so maybe when he tells them he's looking for "something more" he may have already emotionally prepared himself for the outcome. There are ways to justify they way things turned out, it's just for those players who felt hurt during that scene they felt their own personal reaction wasn't dealt with.
If I'm not mistaken, the library scene it's only 2 nights after the dorm's scene, which I agree is also a problem of overreaction that helps to get some players angry (those not invested in them that can not understand why the heck their MC is acting like that when he has done absolutely nothing with those girls, except a couple of mandatory kisses).
So, problems are:
- Player is not interested in them, but his MC storms out as if knowing they were a thing was the worst of the worst. You, who are not affected at all by that revelation as they don't really mean anything to you, have to see your MC mopping during a whole chapter acting like an inmature bitch. Then you finally have the option to stay friends with them, which at that moment many players understand it's a polite way to tell them good riddance. Only to discover that being friends means actually being best friends. This can be a matter of false expectations, but I can understand people being sick of them at this point: two characters you don't like from the start are constantly dragging you into their problems.
- Player is interested in one on them, or both, but either he made a little too many DIK choices, or he hesitated and didn't get physical with any of them. The storming out could still be seen as an overreaction but as you're somehow involved in their relationship it can make a little more sense. Then you face a crucial choice: do you want to have something with both of them or not? If you choose friendship, see point above (although now some players would actually want a true friendship, who knows). But oh, you choose to go for a relationship and you're rejected. You are not given any real reasons for it (we only know it's a matter of affinity or not having sex with them because it's coded, but going in blindly it could feel totally arbitrary), you're just rejected by 2 women you feel something for after they tell you they felt something for you too. And your MC just says, "fine". Well, no, that's just unrealistic and unacceptable for many players, who after that are sucked again into their problems.
And I think that there are many players in one of those situations who are currently playing a game that evolves around 2 characters they never give a shit about or that hurt them with their rejection (this anger fueled by the lack of "backbone" of the MC to at least reflect on his own mistakes or speak up some big words to call out their behaviour, depending on the reasons of the rejection).
As
Holy Bacchus suggest, if you get rid of the relationship option for DIK players (which is going to result in a rejection), some players won't be so mad because it would be just another linear conversation and they'll accept it like they accept others during the game. And if you rephrase some of the inner thoughts of the MC, or give an option to vent your frustrations (kind of what girls do when they are alone with you during prep's party), some other players will feel better about how the friendship route starts. I think we're not asking so much to improve the playing experience for a wider number of players.
Of course, we're talking about DPC, so maybe that player anger is just intended
