I dunno, to me it doesn't really feel like Max is under Alice's thumb. Her blackmail always seems to involve Max getting some, the only difference is its on Alice's terms. To me the whole situation is kinda "aww shucks you've got blackmail material on us. Whatever shall we do?" Alice has yet to force Lisa and Max to do anything they don't want to do (only exception is the restriction on Max and Lisa that they can't fuck without Alice). Hell Lisa's enjoying the situation and the closeness to Alice enough that she even willingly rats Max out if you break the rule.
I think the usual understanding of blackmail is that its one person using comprising information/evidence to force another person into doing something they don't want to do. Doesn't really feel like "blackmail" to me if they just make you do something you want to do anyway. Feels more like a pretext to me for Alice to be able to take a more dominant role. As if she didn't think/feel like she could just decide to become dominant and everyone would accept it, so she needed something to help her take that step, but doesn't really have any intention of showing Anne the video.
Just my thoughts on it.
My impression of what is going on is that Max is less okay with it than Lisa. Lisa doesn't seem to believe Alice would actually release the video, but at the same time she's very happy to obey Alice's every whim, including telling on Max any time the two of them do anything sexy together. Max on the other hand seems less okay with it, both with the dialogue as is, and some of the dialog choices we can choose for him that don't make a difference in the world. The fact that Lisa is so obedient to Alice feels like a little betrayal to those of us that still harbor the illusion that Lisa feels something for us. And the way Alice treats us also works against the illusion of something caring with her. Yeah, Max is a dick. But this last update made Alice and Lisa feel both kind of empty and without feeling.
And Max is under Alice's thumb, because there is no way for us as players to say no to any of this. We're just along for the ride, even if we don't like where this is at or where it is headed. Just like we should have had an option to opt out of the pseudo-NTR stuff with Eric, we should have a choice to avoid having to be the submissive here. As people have said, it's jarring to suddenly be forced into that role without any option.
And for me at least, the easiest way to ruin something that's fun for me is to make it mandatory. I like playing games, adult or otherwise. But if I was told I had to do it, it would take at least some of the fun out of it. Especially if I'm dictated the terms of how I can play the game, or that there will be an audience. Then it's no longer fully about me and anyone else I'm playing with. Perhaps a better example is the "mandatory fun" a lot of companies like to force on people. I like to go to the bar after work and have a drink with coworkers. I do not like a not-really-mandatory-but-don't-miss-it-anyway happy hour after work where everyone will be there and still being work people.
