I think dev's engaging this community is preferable to dev's avoiding this community.
I am happy to support these devs and Chasing Sunsets - and I enjoy this creation so much that I support them on SS and I bought them on Steam - my $, my choice!
If the creators of Chasing Sunsets have decided to cease all engagement with this community, then we have lost something, and more than
a picture here and there? a promise of the biggest ever update that will come sooner than ever before?
Digital piracy does exist - and any of us that download something posted here in spite of requests by the creators - are taking the work of others for free.
Now - I recognize that some cannot afford to donate to creators at this time.
I'm not blameless in this either.
My solution is imperfect - and I own that - but here it is. I have tried out VNs from F95 and,
if I liked them enough to keep playing them, then when I had the means, I've gone back to creators and supported them (sometimes for works that they had completed a year or more in the past - maybe it was $30 over 6 months or $12 over the course of a year but it was something).
This is not Virtue Signaling; I have one pronoun that I don't beat people over the head with and I woke up this morning - which is as close to Woke as I will ever get (and yes - every human being deserves the same basic dignity we should all extend to each other).
I also believe that offering honest feedback (not trashing devs and calling 99% of them milkers because they do not produce content fast enough for some of the pirates here) can be helpful, though not worth as much as $ since electricity, hardware, rent, food etc. all cost $ and this is how some creators make their living.
For those who think your $ in any amount means nothing to creators, I can tell you that is simply a lie told by those who refuse to be honest about their actions and the consequences of Not supporting creators when you can afford to but Choose not to.
One creator I have supported for years lives in Germany. His electricity costs went up 300% last year and he's been warned that this winter, they are likely to exceed a 300% increase again over what he paid last year - welcome to a consequence Europe is getting hit with due to Russia's war with Ukraine.
Due to this, he has warned his supporters that he will not be able to afford to license as much music (you see, he has to actually pay for the digital assets he uses) for his next release or two.
For those who could afford to go with, for example, one less Starbucks Grand whatever/week and turn that into a pledge to him, enough additional $ support = more and better music.
In his case, we will end up with updates that have less of the music that we love helping to tell the story.
For other creators, the lack of support could well be the difference between continuing an AVN or abandoning it.
I'm happy to continue supporting Chasing Sunsets and I hope that others who play Any VN over and over again try to give some kind of $ support for as many of those creators as they can.
Cheers!
