TungstenDuck
Member
- May 6, 2018
- 483
- 914
Jeff, the real problem here is that, from a commercial point of view, you are losing money. Melody is over and SL is by far not at the same level as DMD and Melody. So i suppose your hope in the commercial success of DMD in order to balance those loses has driven you in a direction where you try to satisfy BOTH lovers and haters of the so called "NTR" (just call it sharing please, coz that's what it is).
And i can only hope for you and for all of us that SL will somehow manage to fill the money gape so that you can go on with DMD. But it doesn't look very much like it, coz SL is really quite poor..
However, by now you should have seen that there is NO WAY to make both those groups of pro and anti sharing stay with you for the future in ONE single place!. The basic differences between them are simply too big! I can understand why you try to satisfy both but i am sure there is NO WAY to do that in one game. You must SEPARATE!
Because if you go on trying to please both sides you will also lose sharing fans! Apart from the "anti NTR manga fans" you already lost and will continue to lose if you go on with this "compromise".
They will never understand or agree that consented sharing is NOT NTR. For them everything that's not "exclusive" on the side of the main girl, is NTR. Unless she does it with another girl which is acceptable (if the MC also fucks that girl). But God forbid the main girl touches another man! That's not acceptable for them! That's the way they see it. That's what they love and believe. You can't change that, just as you can not make a certain president accept that he lost.. We live in times when believing beats any kind of logic and feelings beat the mind (if any)..
If you go on trying to compromise and find a "middle way" it will be still too much for some while being again to little for others. It won't work! Even if you make all optional. Coz the "non sharing" faction can not stop thinking what others may see "their girl" doing with other men on other paths which they didn't chose to play and that image alone will make them lose their feelings for "their girl". And again you lose them..
So my advise would be, due to the strong differences, which can not be brought in balance, to do what has to be done whenever the conflict is too big for a compromise between the sides:
DIVIDE! SEPARATE! MAKE A WALL!
Starting with Ch 4 you should either stop the romantic route for good if you can afford that financially (in fact you did have a good ending for that path already in the last update) or, even better, divide DMD in 2 different games. With 2 different names! For 2 different audiences:
- One for the "anti sharing manga fans" in which it's all love and romantic but you avoid any kind of sharing of D with other men (not even swinging with other couples). With other women it seems to be OK for that group and those mini harems moving into polyamory with D + other girls could be developed here with no problem.
and
- ANOTHER ONE with another name, like for instance "Sharing My Daughter" (coz Dating My Daughter would really no longer be appropriate for a VN based on sharing & open relationship) and maybe also a GIVEN and permanent name for "D" to differentiate her even more from whatever those in the non sharing version have chosen her name to be. This other VN would be for the perverts among us, who i would bet, in case you give them all they have hoped to get and waited for (MMF, swinging, sex orgies, gang bangs, sex clubs, all within an open relationship, and all by CONSENT) would then start paying you more money than you can imagine. Coz they are very frustrated now..
And in this 2nd, separate VN, where you deal with a mature audience, you could even bring a few OPTIONAL sub-paths for fans of polyamory ( 4 some "poly" but still open relationship with Graham and Olivia + pregnancy and kids ) cheating (not necessarily from the side of D but maybe Elena), hot wife (Georgiana for instance) , even cucks if you want (not F but maybe Graham.). Just don't mix up these sub -paths! And see also if you can somehow combine this new VN with some parts of SL (via sister Georgiana for instance), coz that may help SL too..
So if you separate DMD in 2 different VNs and each of them is only directed to one of the groups of followers, you will avoid all these conflicts and each side will be happy and will follow you. Make them as if they are 2 different NEW visual novels (even if they are continuations of DMD). And with clearly different names!
This way you could even have the added bonus of 2 NEW GAMES in development, apart from SL. So you could even have a 3 months release rhythm this way..
The paying followers of each of these new VNs will surely total together to more than the paying followers of only one "compromise version" which both groups would in fact hate! And would stop following..
Some would say: "Divide and impera" but i would say: when there's really no way to compromise, MAKE A WALL!
And there clearly is no way to compromise here without losing all in the end..
Dixit et salvavi animam meam
I completely agree. Build a wall. People with irreconcilable differences and very different world views and backgrounds simply cannot coexist peacefully. There will always be tension, resentment and eventually hostility and conflict. There should definitely be division and separation between peoples who cannot peacefully live together. So yes, people who simply cannot accept the existence of content they will never see should have their own game, walled off from those who would enjoy this content. Its the only way to please both camps and keep the peace. As you've pointed out yourself, no one's mind is going to change and we can't all just get along. You're absolutely right.
