Aa for expectations of different fans:
- I understand that many (maybe most) fans either want at D only path or a F sleeps around path but D does not. I also understand that any ”other male” path has a viscerally negative emotional effect for them.
- On the other hand, many feel an unfairness off locking D down to only F when he has been playing the field. On top of that, some do not see a difference between D enjoying F’s pleasure with other women, and F enjoying D’s possible pleasure with another man. (Some way that is humiliating to the male character and criticize it, but don’t say the same in defense of D when F sleeps with others). ... (Then again not everyone has bought into the idea of compersion).
At this point, DMD has become the longest adult VN out there (unless I missed something), and I think the size of it allows for the three-prong approach to the story (fidelity - F player - sharing).
A few words in defense of the position of men. There are at least three aspects of relationship perception: biological, emotional, and social.
Models A (man --> many women) and B (woman --> one man) are biologically determined, since a woman must carry a child for a long time, and a man must only take care of his child (give resources through his "wife"). It's just necessary for the survival of the offspring. Therefore, a woman who has many men risks losing them all, and most importantly, her chosen one, who may simply refuse to support her in case of infidelity (if he knows that she gives her resources for someone else's child, not his own). But the purely biological task of a man is to impregnate as many women as possible (without considering the moral aspect). This makes the species more likely to survive.
But... a man, in case of loyalty to each other, can decide to give HER ALL his resources. And he will also be right, dramatically increasing the chances for HER (and offspring). This leads us to the next problem of emotional choice.
Emotionally, there are people who want to see a partner's loyalty and love in the plot, there are those who only want deviations, there are those who do not care. I would choose the model of free decisions make by characters, when decisions about fidelity - infidelity are made based on your special attitude towards your partner (F<->D). I like deviations but those are not main prize in story for me. Those only patterns on the main path. I personally also hope to see in the novel the story in its best, most sublime version - when the standard patterns of behavior in relationships were transformed to the patterns are based on a unique biological, sensual and emotional attraction specifically to your chosen partner, and on something else, perhaps some kind of magical predestination from above. It may sound like a fairy tale, but romantic players, including myself, believe that, even if unique, such stories can happen in real life. People like me, through all the troubles , obstacles and temptations, want this so hard.
And socially these days, strict loyalty or sharing of partners does not have much of an obstacle, except for criticism like / dislike. This is some influence even to the biological and emotional factors noted above. More variety of possibilities are available here now.
And that also makes sense: the story has a wide field of decisions for the developers, and for the characters and for the players.
And this uncertainty is one of the factors that excite the hearts of the players: how will this wonderful story end? Will it be a happy ending for this beautiful couple, or a fall into the ordinary (all whores will die in old age unhappy, counting a penny on the account and without vivid memories), either a bright tragic outcome (when the world kills lovers, but they will forever remain wonderful heroes of a fairytale dream about happiness).
So, despite the understanding, and maybe even a feeling of the masculine position of the owner, I do not want the story to become a story about how the male dominant got his own and put another prize of the paternalistic society on his shelf and everyone calmed down and went to play tetris ... Not. I want the story of F and D to be a deep and powerful story of the unique coincidence of two people who are inevitably drawn to each other. It seems to me that the DMD team is capable of this.
At the same time, I personally cannot, and even more so I do not want to somehow influence the development of the story creating by MrDots and the team. This is a kind of perception of the game from the point of view of fate: it will be what it is predetermined to be from above, and then how much we value this diamond will continue.
Personally, I want the story to be exciting, deep, and amaze us, the players, and always stay with us, in our hearts (this is already in chapters 1-3 for me). But I shouldn't want any particular move, lest I destroy the magic of this spontaneous miracle with rational explanations. Dots and the team do this for us. We can only hope and see what they do, and can only want they did with the game, with the characters and with us.
Therefore, it is not necessary to block only opportunities for D. Indeed, the value of the game is not only in direct ramifications of the plot, the value is even more in that it will excite the players and pushes them to look at the real world and their actions in it. This core essense of the plot. Without conflicts that touch and can both strengthen or destroy characters, there is no development. We only hope that they are so strong and in love that they will win this quest. [And we will have the possibility to choose appropriate path for this]. And for players in real life, the great value is that the choice of the path for the characters can be very catchy and impressive for them. So far, the story is good in my opinion. Personally, I hope the DMD team wants to make a deep drama that might even become a great book later (I would buy it). We are watching you DMD))
By the way, I really enjoyed the meeting with Rachel in Chapter 3 and the subsequent F&D dialogues in the cafe, it was strong and in line with my understanding of the depth of the story.
Again, this is all my personal opinion.
NB. And again - I want deviations too, but exactly as the individual patterns of each personality in the F-D pair unity. Not as "formal must be in the genre" factors, but as something that reinforces both the characters and the tension of the story. In this way, personality-integrated deviations can be even more interesting and exciting. Not formal, "must be in the way of X". And the game was named "DMD", nor "D and Girls" neither "D sexual adventures with all Guys".