- Aug 5, 2016
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No I mean turns or different routes. It's hard to talk about routes because the story is slow so are the updates.
So far I think Elsa is the one getting the spotlight even if Alice is Edward dream girl.
- Thread starter Crazygamer43
- Start date
So far I think Elsa is the one getting the spotlight even if Alice is Edward dream girl.
- Jul 10, 2017
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The facts are purely different and the instigator changes.
The instigator was MC in the case of his neighbor, getting out of his shell,
going the slow morally justifiable alpha route of being a good neighbor,
having his own interests that intertwined with his neighbor, getting to know
his neighbor better. That was righ after he read the books to improve himself.
Then came the whole Elsa debacle, where, right after he was all pumped up with rage and contempt
for her being the new shiny object all other fellas drool over in the office,
she comes to him and he becomes her man servant in the office.
Then he wants to fight back after she calls him her slave and mocks him,
at which point he mans up and asks her for a favor of her own, her car.
Now, MC takes the caveman approach to his neighbor and tries to sweep her off her feet,
using this tactic to break the ice he has been piling between him and her.
This tactic is something hitch might teach, find a way to introduce your worth to the woman you
want to get to know, then steadily introduce your own interests, real interests and see if you click 4 real.
The problem MC has tho is that he has already clicked with the neighbor, they have activity together,
he has value to her and him upping the ante so he can play james bond to get in her knickers,
well, in this game world, it works.
Make no mistake tho, she sees him as the fkk buddy,
somene just like james bond, ready to swoop in for a bang and make her panties drop
with his company and witty foreshaddowing remarks about his top secret missions.
Emma is his savior.
In this kind of dynamic, MC is this puppy who would do anything for his mommy,
something he could not turn into romance or anything signifficant, which brings us to this dead end he is
currently in the game with both Elsa, who came to him and dominates his interactions with her,
but also Emma who cannot view him as anything of interest, a boring professor selling himself short,
a corporate clown like many she has seen chasing her skirt around the office,
some guy who is throwing himself at her but does not proposition anything of value to her.
She could not care less of the exams of a boring subject she would rather enjoy failing and
take again to keep staying in school and munch on her pa money, something Elsa is happily doing also.
The instigator was MC in the case of his neighbor, getting out of his shell,
going the slow morally justifiable alpha route of being a good neighbor,
having his own interests that intertwined with his neighbor, getting to know
his neighbor better. That was righ after he read the books to improve himself.
Then came the whole Elsa debacle, where, right after he was all pumped up with rage and contempt
for her being the new shiny object all other fellas drool over in the office,
she comes to him and he becomes her man servant in the office.
Then he wants to fight back after she calls him her slave and mocks him,
at which point he mans up and asks her for a favor of her own, her car.
Now, MC takes the caveman approach to his neighbor and tries to sweep her off her feet,
using this tactic to break the ice he has been piling between him and her.
This tactic is something hitch might teach, find a way to introduce your worth to the woman you
want to get to know, then steadily introduce your own interests, real interests and see if you click 4 real.
The problem MC has tho is that he has already clicked with the neighbor, they have activity together,
he has value to her and him upping the ante so he can play james bond to get in her knickers,
well, in this game world, it works.
Make no mistake tho, she sees him as the fkk buddy,
somene just like james bond, ready to swoop in for a bang and make her panties drop
with his company and witty foreshaddowing remarks about his top secret missions.
The major difference in how he plays the Emma get to know her, is he plays the victim and
Emma is his savior.
In this kind of dynamic, MC is this puppy who would do anything for his mommy,
something he could not turn into romance or anything signifficant, which brings us to this dead end he is
currently in the game with both Elsa, who came to him and dominates his interactions with her,
but also Emma who cannot view him as anything of interest, a boring professor selling himself short,
a corporate clown like many she has seen chasing her skirt around the office,
some guy who is throwing himself at her but does not proposition anything of value to her.
She could not care less of the exams of a boring subject she would rather enjoy failing and
take again to keep staying in school and munch on her pa money, something Elsa is happily doing also.
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- Jun 18, 2022
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I like the idea that Lucy wants a mysterious, powerful man much more than the scenario where she's already planned how to spend all of Edward's hypothetical, nonexistent fortune years in advance. It makes sense when you think about her liking Game of Thrones: she loves fantasy. There's even a hint in an old sqwl post that Lucy might not be the most truthful person when she talks about her own life. The harsher side of things is that she does reject Ed if he doesn't play to her fantasies and is truthful about himself. So, if we pursue Lucy must Ed constantly pretend to be someone he's not or can their relationship evolve into something more genuine and reality-based? I'd hate to see Edward become like the pick-up artist who tries to be all things to all women but can never be himself. He needs someone he can share his problems with.
I disagree a little here because I think Edward really has caught Emma's eye due to his hard work. Her secretary Vicky even comments on how rare it is for someone from the lower floors to meet with Ms. Reid. That doesn't mean he might not just be someone she wants to use to better herself, but I think she genuinely regards him as a capable worker. I'm sure she's not giving Matt (the "cutie" guy) special assignments or promising him a room with a view in the future. Can Ed turn that professional respect into something romantic? That'll probably be really, really hard. Emma will be a tough nut to crack. She probably would be very reluctant to have an affair with a subordinate...I'm sure she thinks she's much better than a sexual harassing sleazebag like Neil (in fact, she is).
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One reason I love this game is that it draws sharp contrasts among the desires of the three main love interests in the game (Alice, Lucy, and Elsa), at least in terms of the MC's interactions to date. Each of them wants something very different from the MC, which gives the player more meaningful choices than the typical VN. The MC is not exceptional in this: everybody wants something from their partner in a relationship. The question is whether it's something the MC wants to give.
1. Alice. So far, Alice has used the MC to help her cheat at college. She blew off her own work then accepted the MC's pathetic offer to stay up all night to cover for her laziness. The MC might be willing to give this level of effort for his fantasy version of Alice--a personage who exists more in his own head than in the real world at this point--but we he still be so willing if it continues?
2. Lucy. She appears to be the classic "gold digger" who wants a man who is powerful and well-off financially. A highly successful man usually has little issue with giving to a relationship in these ways. If the MC wants a long-term relationship with Lucy (assuming the author makes this a possibility), however, he faces a problem of his own making. He has been misrepresenting his actual levels of income and power. If he doesn't actually achieve the greater financial and business success Elsa is spurring him toward, will Lucy stick around?
3. Elsa. Elsa appears attracted to the MC and sees him as having high potential. But she also appears unwilling to pursue a relationship with someone like the MC as he currently is. She wants a man who she can respect as an equal. If the MC is going to give her that, he's going to have to do more than get a promotion and make a little more money. He's going to have face down the demons that have prevented him from achieving his dreams in the past.
The saying that "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" applies to *both* sides of a relationship. What are the LIs willing to give the MC if he meets their expectations?
1. Alice. She has an attitude of entitlement and is aware of the MC's lower status. She was willing to take the MC to the hospital, which shows she is suitably empathic, but she also thought it was her fault. If the MC ends up with Alice, he should expect her to be dominant in the relationship.
2. Lucy. Lucy is very willing when it comes to sex, appears to enjoy spending time with the MC, and showed real empathy when he collapsed. She appears to be a suitably giving partner, gold digger or not. (I also think she's really hot, but that's a matter of personal taste.)
3. Elsa. Elsa is already giving a lot to the MC, even if it's not entirely altruistic. There is no question she would be a very giving, albeit somewhat cold, partner.
1. Alice. So far, Alice has used the MC to help her cheat at college. She blew off her own work then accepted the MC's pathetic offer to stay up all night to cover for her laziness. The MC might be willing to give this level of effort for his fantasy version of Alice--a personage who exists more in his own head than in the real world at this point--but we he still be so willing if it continues?
2. Lucy. She appears to be the classic "gold digger" who wants a man who is powerful and well-off financially. A highly successful man usually has little issue with giving to a relationship in these ways. If the MC wants a long-term relationship with Lucy (assuming the author makes this a possibility), however, he faces a problem of his own making. He has been misrepresenting his actual levels of income and power. If he doesn't actually achieve the greater financial and business success Elsa is spurring him toward, will Lucy stick around?
3. Elsa. Elsa appears attracted to the MC and sees him as having high potential. But she also appears unwilling to pursue a relationship with someone like the MC as he currently is. She wants a man who she can respect as an equal. If the MC is going to give her that, he's going to have to do more than get a promotion and make a little more money. He's going to have face down the demons that have prevented him from achieving his dreams in the past.
The saying that "there ain't no such thing as a free lunch" applies to *both* sides of a relationship. What are the LIs willing to give the MC if he meets their expectations?
1. Alice. She has an attitude of entitlement and is aware of the MC's lower status. She was willing to take the MC to the hospital, which shows she is suitably empathic, but she also thought it was her fault. If the MC ends up with Alice, he should expect her to be dominant in the relationship.
2. Lucy. Lucy is very willing when it comes to sex, appears to enjoy spending time with the MC, and showed real empathy when he collapsed. She appears to be a suitably giving partner, gold digger or not. (I also think she's really hot, but that's a matter of personal taste.)
3. Elsa. Elsa is already giving a lot to the MC, even if it's not entirely altruistic. There is no question she would be a very giving, albeit somewhat cold, partner.
I've at times wondered whether Elsa is somewhere on the autistic spectrum. I don't take issue with *what* she is doing; it's *how* she is doing it. She is overly cold and "Spock-like" in the way she communicates.
The weird thing about Lucy is that it was her who initiated the relationship. Claiming that she only did that to leech Edward's wifi would be a little unhinged. That she chose Edward above anybody else to watch her favourite show with should count for something. And even though their relationship was only casual, she also agreed to go on a date with Edward, even before he started lying about his career. Lucy slept with Edward after he started boasting and "grabbing her by the pussy"™, but she still wanted to keep it casual after that. It seems like she only wanted more after she came across Elsa and Edward together and got jealous.
It's not clear if she would have chosen Jenson, because he's more successful, or if she only uses him to make Edward jealous. It's not like she's gotten anything out of Edward's supposed success, so what really constitutes her gold digging ways? It could be that the problem is less with her preferences and more with Edward's mindset, because he sees all relationships as transactions. Maybe she's just into men, which commit and claim her. That's how she described Khal Drogo's attraction at least. A man who's "strong, powerful and cares about his women".
- Jun 18, 2022
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You've made some really good points. I find it very interesting that even if you play Edward more as a gentleman on the date by having him be truthful about his job and go for the kiss you still get the friends with benefits talk later on where it seems Lucy is interested in starting a serious relationship with Ed but he's actually the one who shuts it down. I've been reluctant to mention this scene because I've always suspected it might be present on that route only due to a bug...the dialogue sounds a lot more geared towards a scenario where Eddie and Lucy have already had sex. "We enjoyed having each other, Lucy. You can hardly deny that." That hardly sounds like something you'd say to someone who friendzoned you after a nice date. But the dialogue is just vague enough that I can't completely dismiss the possibility that it's meant to be there.
If that's indeed the case, Lucy genuinely is interested in Edward at that point even if he hasn't gone out of his way to present himself as a rich, successful man. Admittedly, you can't avoid borrowing the car from Elsa and Lucy also later sees Ed wearing the fancy suit Elsa paid for so even if you're trying to be relatively honest there's still a background of deception. Maybe Lucy's just meant to be a rather complicated woman.
Along those lines, the only thing in the game that bothered me was the option to grab Lucy's pussy and her reaction to that. Are there women who would react lustily to having their pussy grabbed at that point in the relationship? Probably. But it would be a roll of the dice to try it. I think the vast majority of women would reject you for doing it. Better to go for a full tongue kiss and read the woman's reaction than go straight for the pussy. In short, Lucy rejecting sex because the MC kisses her but embracing sex if you grab her pussy struck me as extraordinarily unlikely, at least in the United States, especially after Trump was lambasted for the issue. But perhaps that is the point the author wants to make: by choosing to grab Lucy's pussy, the MC is showing that he doesn't care about the average woman's reaction. She'll either submit or he walks.
- Jul 10, 2017
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We have to be real here. MC did not go do stuff out of the blue.
Trump was a married man groping some floozie who knew he was married and he was in the wrong.
Girls like to tease and groping is sometimes wanted, like lustful dancing in a crowded bar/disco.
If she accepts you and you dance together, you may both grope eachother.
Also, The way you described it, being in a relationship, that is the cue.
If you can pet her, touch her here and there, after you get heated up,
that is the meter of your intimacy.
In other games, MC would tell her he had the wrong idea, stop, get gone.
Then she would go after him and both him and her would know for eachother
that they are in intimate relationship, ”cause kissing you can do with BFF or childhood friend
and also hand holding with your friend zoned buddy you could do,
those are normal, non intrusive, if she rejects you, then you know she is out,
so you need to be whatever and leave. There is no escalation if she cannot handle touching.
You can try no problem to touch a girl after you go out a couple a times.
If she is against you holding hands, or hugging, of holding heachother and feeling close and cuddly,
then it is certain she does not see you as someone close, not even as a friend.
All the stuff you do with your childhood friend when you are young, such as hugs, even kisses, smooches, hand holding,
petting, swooping her off her feet, holding her in your lap, that kind of stuff young kids do when they know nothing
about relatinships or intimacy, her rejecting that kind a stuff will tell you she has no notion of you that way,
so you need to end it. Your courtship is going nowhere.
Trump was a married man groping some floozie who knew he was married and he was in the wrong.
Girls like to tease and groping is sometimes wanted, like lustful dancing in a crowded bar/disco.
If she accepts you and you dance together, you may both grope eachother.
Also, The way you described it, being in a relationship, that is the cue.
If you can pet her, touch her here and there, after you get heated up,
that is the meter of your intimacy.
In other games, MC would tell her he had the wrong idea, stop, get gone.
Then she would go after him and both him and her would know for eachother
that they are in intimate relationship, ”cause kissing you can do with BFF or childhood friend
and also hand holding with your friend zoned buddy you could do,
those are normal, non intrusive, if she rejects you, then you know she is out,
so you need to be whatever and leave. There is no escalation if she cannot handle touching.
You can try no problem to touch a girl after you go out a couple a times.
If she is against you holding hands, or hugging, of holding heachother and feeling close and cuddly,
then it is certain she does not see you as someone close, not even as a friend.
All the stuff you do with your childhood friend when you are young, such as hugs, even kisses, smooches, hand holding,
petting, swooping her off her feet, holding her in your lap, that kind of stuff young kids do when they know nothing
about relatinships or intimacy, her rejecting that kind a stuff will tell you she has no notion of you that way,
so you need to end it. Your courtship is going nowhere.
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- May 15, 2021
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- Jun 18, 2022
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Very well said and I agree completely. To me, the sequence of events felt off -- this is Edward and Lucy's first real date, and I'm not sure they'd had any physical contact whatsoever before Edward kisses her on the cheek at the start of the date if you go for that choice. To go straight for the pussy when they'd never even kissed on the lips at that point is a pretty dangerous move. Canto's right when he says it didn't happen out of the blue. Ed had been touching her body and she seemed to be responding positively to that, but to me the kiss was the logical next step to make at that point. Human beings in general but men especially are so prone to perceiving sexual interest/intent where it isn't really there that we've pretty much all misinterpreted a situation at some time or another. The kiss should have been a good test as to whether or not Lucy really wanted to go forward. I didn't regret making that choice considering it's what I would have done in real life, and honestly I'd have been really glad I hadn't been more aggressive if I was shut down after a kiss.
Yeah, perhaps it was all about Ed trying to show his dominance and his thinking that's what Lucy would appreciate in a man. Or perhaps he just thought of the whole thing as practice and truly didn't care how Lucy would react or feel about it...I really hope that wasn't it.
- Jun 18, 2022
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I've got to say I'm most surprised by the Matt handshake preview image. I didn't see that bromance blossoming any time soon after they very nearly came to blows in the last update. Don't tell me the "cutie" line actually worked on our Eddie?! If we lose out on Tommy bonding time thanks to this joker, I will not be pleased.
#onetruebro
Lucy's path is kinda double-edged. Using the walkthrough mod you can see that at the very start you get Lucy points for being nice to her. But Lucy points are basically meaningless, because in the end you miss out on all of her scenes, if you don't have enough alpha points. Keep in mind that the actual label is just "a", but "alpha" seems to be a fitting description for the choices labeled as "a", which are kinda dickish and macho. Anyway, at the very start you even have to forgo an alpha point to get on Lucy's path and one or two choices are between alpha or Lucy points.
With enough alpha points Edward is borderline abusive towards Lucy. He uses her to practice sex, so he can eventually satisfy Alice. He "persuades" her to stay fwb, when she asks for more, because he wants to fuck her real quick before meeting Alice. He gets demanding and pushes her for sex, because seeing her with Jenson made him jealous.
And the weirdest thing about this is that Lucy in turn becomes caring towards Edward. She cancels her plans with Jenson and nurses Edward through the night, when she finds him unconscious and also later greets him with a kiss in front of their friends. I don't know if Lucy points will eventually trump over alpha points in coming updates, but at this point Lucy starts ignoring Edward, unless you treat her badly.
The current state of Lucy's path seems like a weird juxtaposition to how she was introduced at the start. She said she likes a man who cares for his woman, but then goes for the guy who suddenly becomes very demanding, just because he wears expensive clothes. This makes me feel like sqwl is trying to shoehorn Lucy into a cliché role of a gold digger, which would honestly be a shame. To me it seems like many people are hoping for a redemption story for Edward, but, considering how succesful he is by being an asshole on the Lucy path, this might not end up being the nice kind of redemption.
Also on that note, the two Trump quotes on the Lucy path are a suspicious amount of Trump quotes, since this game isn't really full of quotes besides these two.
- Jul 10, 2017
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One good path this all edges MC is to apply his books to himself as opposed to building a double or quadrupple personality split to accound for the 4 women in his life.
Thus far he seems to have gone double bipolar + split personality into his new life.
being funny and dumb at this point, it makes him unapproachable.
Thus far he seems to have gone double bipolar + split personality into his new life.
His experiment on the alpha path is a success, why oh why is he still bipolar about it is beyound
being funny and dumb at this point, it makes him unapproachable.
- Jun 27, 2017
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I'm wondering, was this Alice image from "super secret folder" (game-images-Capetown-supersecretfolder) used in game, or this folder is easter egg from SQWL?
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- Jun 18, 2022
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Thank you so much for the detailed analysis. You probably made some choices you'd rather not have just to see where the path would go, and now you've saved me from having to do the same thing. I plan to go back and reread your write-up whenever my inner completionist tells me I need to play all the paths because Corporate Culture is my favorite VN or I get thirsty to see the Lucy sex scenes we never get to see on the less grabby path.
I think there's still reason to hope the currently less exciting Lucy path will loop back to romance eventually. When you consider all in the inner tumult going on in Edward's mind, he really probably isn't ready for a serious relationship. We can't expect him to just wake up and decide the whole Alice thing is nonsense and that Lucy is the one he really wants to be with. He's also not going to be able to just brush away all the accumulated pain he has never dealt with over the years. I think him deciding Lucy is a gold-digger might be a form of emotional self-defense that keeps from getting into a situation where he might be hurt again. And it keeps him from seeing Lucy as a complex, complete person he could actually fall for. It's just annoying how the world seems to morph to match his thoughts sometimes. The moment he decides Lucy is a gold-digger she starts to act like one to an extent.
Edward is fighting an inner war that feels like it could end in a number of different ways. I think the wrong path for him is to try to delete his old personality and become a completely different person. Like Tommy, I actually like a lot of things about the old Edward. Mostly what he needs is to be able to engage with life, feel real emotion, and become a functional, complete human being again. He needs to be able to set and achieve goals and connect with people instead of living and hiding in his safe and empty internal world. He can do all those things without being an asshole or completely changing his personality. I think both the alpha and the Elsa corporate high achiever paths (if we consider them to be different) are potentially traps. In some ways, he certainly should be more assertive -- for instance, you probably shouldn't share internal company reports with friends no matter how determined they sound when they tell you to hand them over or how mysterious and incomprehensible their motives might be. It's also perfectly healthy and positive for him to want to advance in his job and career. However, he could become the ultimate alpha and/or ascend to the very top of the corporate world and still feel empty, unhappy, and alone in the world. Success by itself isn't going to heal him.
I still have complete faith sqwl is going to blow us away with this story he's going to tell us and that the whole thing isn't going to culminate with an elaborate Trump 2024 campaign stunt. Now if the next update begins with Ed wearing a MAGA hat and holding a Pepe plushie in one hand and a pussy in the other I will concede that it's probably time for you and I to find another VN to talk about together.
- Jul 10, 2017
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Elsa is a new born, a junior with placenta still sticking out her back, dominating a whirlwind of a guy who
actually can make complex algorithms like the facebook guy or the tesla guy or any other tech whizz
using his prediction math to make interesting plays in the money market.
MC could go at any moment with his algoritm and become the boss second in command.
But no, he is dumbed over by a baby with placenta sicking out and he is living in this fairy tale whre
his life and work do not make any showing, he just lies and has fun,
then gets back to hell under the heels of Elsa.
actually can make complex algorithms like the facebook guy or the tesla guy or any other tech whizz
using his prediction math to make interesting plays in the money market.
Trouble is, he already is in the spotlight.
MC could go at any moment with his algoritm and become the boss second in command.
But no, he is dumbed over by a baby with placenta sicking out and he is living in this fairy tale whre
his life and work do not make any showing, he just lies and has fun,
then gets back to hell under the heels of Elsa.
- Jun 18, 2022
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This brilliant line made me laugh out loud. No one uses the English language quite like you do, my friend.
I wanted to ask you if you think an alpha Edward might eventually turn into someone like the MC of Bastard, a VN I know you like. Most people here probably haven't played that game -- it's much pornier than Corporate Culture and is much more focused on fun times with hot women than it is existential dread or feelings of any kind. The MC in Bastard is a businessman who can be played as a very assertive, demanding, sexual harasser type cut from the same cloth as Neil and David in CC. However, you can also play him as more of a charming, roguish seducer who can be patient and understanding (often at the cost of sex scenes) which is what I do. Either way he's still a cheating, conniving bastard at the end of the day, but I think he has two advantages over an Ed who is merely playing at being an alpha. First, he's really comfortable in his own skin...no matter what mischief or mayhem he gets into, he's perpetually nonplussed and untroubled by guilt or self-doubt. He seems to accept that bastard role and really revel in it. The other thing is he doesn't see relationships as zero-sum with winners and losers. Instead, he sees them more like a business deal which can and should benefit both parties.