I'm this player, nice to meet you.
You've missed the entire game, and have odd timing.
I don't like Josy, Maya, Sage, Jill, Isabella, Quinn (and yes, Nora is trash). Remove them from the game, they will take up extra space!
You must be bored out of your mind, and simply shouldn't be playing this game.
Okay, let's see what kind of women they are.
Josy and Maya. The problems of a triple relationship are only growing, and it's going to get worse. The real difficulties will begin when they give birth to his children.
Conflict is what stories need. Hamfisted asides where the MC doesn't interact with Zoey? 0 conflict.
Pregnancy can be a form of conflict, and could be part of many paths, or just epilogues, or alluded to. You can list all kinds of potential conflicts in the future for any of the relationships?
What's your point?
Sage will graduate from college two years earlier than MC. Long-distance relationships will be a serious problem.
Considering Zoey just took off?
I've addressed this before. The story is only (seemingly) going to be one year. A distance relationship, if the story even does this, won't be a big deal.
Isabella, Cathy, Jade and Nora are much older than MC. Will he be happy in 10 years?
If Isabella, Cathy, Jade and Nora don't go on a surfing and soul searching trip to figure out if they should have a relationship, or learn how to work at a tattoo shop?
Are you treating Zoey as just a fling, comparing her to Cathy and Jade?
Quinn, Riona, Camilla, Melanie and Sarah are prostitutes.
So? They're not hundreds of miles away. Welcome to BAD, where there's 24+ girls ready to go, and see the MC nearly every week.
Nicole is a former prostitute and stripper with another man's child.
And yet people love her story. And she doesn't abandon the MC.
Lily is a stripper with drug addiction.
And yet people love her story. And she doesn't abandon the MC. And if you think she has less depth than Zoey, well, maybe try playing this "boring" game again.
Do you really think Zoey is superfluous here?
How isn't she? We have entire story lines with dedicated women who really like the MC, provided he's serious about them.
And entire story lines of women who really like the MC, provided they spent time with the MC.
And interludes within the actual story of women who really like the MC who are being introduced as romantic partners (Others.)
Zoey coming back for whatever reason is...well, it
could have been
fine. As I stated before, it was how it's done, and it's effect that's the problem. AVNs do the trope of the ex-girlfriend coming back. The Interlude -- an aside that's a gigantic waste of time -- the "ugh, do I still like him?", all this hesitation was ridiculous. The entire idea of destroying what came before ruins her, and cheapens the rest of the game. Zoey should've come back and immediately gone after the MC ASAP, not just go to parties and wait around like a sick puppy, trying to figure out her feelings, when she already did this, while allowing other stories to develop. It's melodramatic worrywarting and wastes the players time.
Now, if she was
excessively attractive, comically so (something like an inverse Tybalt, or corollary Jill; think Invader Lum), had so much going for her, and had entire arcs and dates and experiences that made her worthwhile? That would make sense. Introduce her as ACTUAL CONTENT near the end of Chapter 1, or the start of Chapter 2, and then there's an argument to be made for her, because the game would be about her. She would be an actual path without degrading what came before. It could even be one giant foreshadowing or teasing of the big ex girlfriend to blow away all other girls...
Sadly she's not all that, and she's presented poorly.
If she was just another side girl with an unnecessarily huge backstory, fine. But instead, she has to blow everything else up.
As it stands, she's not a MG, the same way Quinn is not a MG. But Quinn has been a major part of the story for several chapters now, despite not being an MG, and as we know, has much more going for her than some sorry old "girlfriend" who likes to draw.
And so do all the Main Girls and Others: Nicole, Tara, Tiffany, Lily, Nora, Camila, Melanie, Riona, Sara, Cathy, Jade, etc....heck, even Sally.
