Do you prefer to play Harem games with or without male competition?

[Jaike]

Given that about 50% of the world population is male, having only one male in a game (the MC) and up to 50 or something women, is not "entirely" realistic.

Never seen a game with that many LIs, but there's a solution even for that. The dual harem game. One character is only interested in men, the other only in women, you pick one as the MC and you can set the gender of both the characters. As you hoard LIs, wreck other relationships and destroy the social fabric of the town by building the MC's harem, the excess of the unwanted gender are picked up by the secondary harem. Unprecedented good and creative use of the overused "gay best friend trope". For the especially selfish there's a bi mode with double the number of LIs.

Okay, maybe not entirely realistic...

 

[DawnCry]

To be fair even if you don't add male competition there are so many ways to make a harem game something more interesting:

-Harem management: Dictate rules of the harem, manage conflicts and try to fully conquer the girls so that they don't end up leaving, a setting for this could be being a prince/king and having to choose your future princess/queen who will also be the head of the harem, the girls have multiple power struggles and they have their families that if disatisfied could generate heavy problems to the player.

-Conquest style: Something I do love about Sengoku Rance is that you feel like you earn your harem by conquering other territories and it makes sense, but on this aspect we would enter the gameplay aspect which is quite rare in current "games".

-Realistic dating games: Rather than the typical meet and fuck it would be nice to be able to truly develop relationships and trying to manage multiple relationships or even convince multiple girls to date you at the same time would be interesting.

And of course there are more adventurous options for the same types:

-Harem management plus: Add futanaries into the equation or expand the lesbian element so that the girls could even make a relationship with each other.

-Conquest style plus: Go more towards the kichikuou Rance style, bad stuff happens, your female generals can get captured and have stuff done to them.

-Realistic dating games plus: The girls can get into a relationship with other characters, they won't wait for you forever (optional to add netori/netorare stuff).

Personally I do find it more fun when I have a sense of achievement, it feels so empty having girls that are already obsessed with the MC or that they are so easy to get...

Btw something to note is that even if NTR gets added into a game be chill about it, what tends to be truly repulsive about it is that it focuses too much on the betrayal and the MC tends to be a pathetic simp, clear no if you are trying to aim for harem players, it doesn't mean that you can't show scenes between the girl and another character, but don't focus on those feelings.

 

[Diconica]

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Never seen a game with that many LIs, but there's a solution even for that. The dual harem game. One character is only interested in men, the other only in women, you pick one as the MC and you can set the gender of both the characters. As you hoard LIs, wreck other relationships and destroy the social fabric of the town by building the MC's harem, the excess of the unwanted gender are picked up by the secondary harem. Unprecedented good and creative use of the overused "gay best friend trope". For the especially selfish there's a bi mode with double the number of LIs.

Okay, maybe not entirely realistic...

overused "gay best friend trope". ~ I take affront to that. haha
The only reason I got as good as I was shooting pool in the Navy was a girl named Kelly. Hot as can be blond. She was about 2 inches taller than me. If I wasn't at a club on my nights off you could find me with her in a pool hall or we'd be chasing pussy.
I probably wouldn't have got a 3rd the amount I did without her.

So one night we are at a friends of mine's dance club. He has a brunet daughter about 2 years younger than me total lush but smoking ass hot. We're in the back room Kelly is suddenly grabbing my arm pointing through the glass at Lisa. Kelly hasn't been to this place before so doesn't realize its the owners daughter. She's like I... I... I... I respond you'd what? You want to bed her?
She's then realizes she's a bit loud in my ear goes fuck yea. I'm laughing at this point. She's a bit drunk obviously. I look at Kelly and strait ask what would you do to go to bed with her? She's like anything. Even fuck me? She realizes something must be up even a little drunk she isn't dumb by any means. She goes not that easy. You run this table and get her to go to bed with us then yes. HaHa
I pull my phone out call Lisa ask her to come to the back room I have someone who wants to meat her. Lisa response is like I'm not in the mood for some guy tonight. It's not a guy. She turns toward the one way mirror and just stares. She's hot and said she would fuck us both if I run this table. Lisa is in a sprint half tripping over the stairs. She wants to see me fail. Seriously, I know her. We went out enough times for me to know her personality. All sweet outside wicked on the inside.

30 minutes later we are at Lisa's home in the pool and it went on till morning. Two weeks later Kelly shipped out. Damn I was so lonely after that.

 

[BlackPinkX]

Never seen a game with that many LIs, but there's a solution even for that. The dual harem game. One character is only interested in men, the other only in women, you pick one as the MC and you can set the gender of both the characters. As you hoard LIs, wreck other relationships and destroy the social fabric of the town by building the MC's harem, the excess of the unwanted gender are picked up by the secondary harem. Unprecedented good and creative use of the overused "gay best friend trope". For the especially selfish there's a bi mode with double the number of LIs.

Okay, maybe not entirely realistic...

A harem game with male competition is the same as a harem game with NTR. NTR fans like to see more dicks! it's so gay!

 

[WIRProductions]

If the girl joins the harem, and then there is a risk she is going to leave cause of some competition then either A) there better be some kind of mind control/coercive element or it becomes B) why bother joining the harem to begin with? Everyone in the harem knows whats up and what the rules are, otherwise its just a person cheating on X number of others and not a harem.

It always comes down to the writing. Does the writing craft a lore/world where what is going on is believable to accept the fantasy that no one else is going after the girls? Is having the girls say no to other suitors even needed to further the plot? Sure, attractive women will get hit on in the real world because until she opens her mouth, the guy doesn't know she is taken. But the writer needs to think about 'does it progress the story better to have all the girls saying no to random dudes hitting on them?' or just not bother. Its like we don't see people eating/shitting because 99% of the time we know it has to be done, but that's not what we're here to read. Do I want to set off possible NTR/Cheating vibes by even inserting a throwaway moment of a random guy trying to flirt with a harem member, only to get shot down? Sure, he got shot down but there better be something to definitively shut down the vibes or else why even include it?

 

[Yngling]

Do I want to set off possible NTR/Cheating vibes by even inserting a throwaway moment of a random guy trying to flirt with a harem member, only to get shot down? Sure, he got shot down but there better be something to definitively shut down the vibes or else why even include it?

If a random guy would try to flirt with my girl, and gets shot down (obviously), who would there be NTR vibes?

If that random guy would be e.g. some mob boss, yes, then I'd be worried.

If my girl does not shoot the guy down but flirts back, then I might get (somewhat) worried, but unless she goes completely overboard I'd probably still shrug it off.

If my girl repeated flirts back to the random guy and then wants to spend the night, then it's probably NTR and time to load the shotgun...

What I'm trying to say though: in 90% of the cases there's nothing to worry about and not NTR, nor NTR vibes.

 

[OiJosuke1999]

Ultimate powermove : make the other males part of your harem as well.

 

[Diconica]

Ultimate powermove : make the other males part of your harem as well.

Sure if you want a game with transformation or some stuff like that.
Most "strait males" would be against that. By "strait males" I mean men who go buy what the DNA says. Even then if you transformed the person with magic we would still know it was a man at some point and that still doesn't fly.
Hell, I don't even want them around as a eunuch.

 

[khumak]

I prefer to have an adversary in pretty much any game I play, but when it comes to adult games I think the best analogy would be the bully in a non adult game. The bully probably starts off with the upper hand but at some point in the game I want payback. Carrying that back over to an adult game to me means that my adversary is a legit threat to whatever women the main character is after, but I want the option to win. I don't want a guaranteed loss just like I wouldn't have any fun playing a game where a bully pushes me around, gets the best of me in every encounter and ends up beating me in the finale as well. Most people want to eventually "win", and in the context of an adult game that means they want to be the one who gets the girl(s).

The only games where I get any enjoyment from "playing to lose" are the ones where the main character is female and I just want to have her fuck everything that moves, including the bad guys.

 

[OiJosuke1999]

Who said anything about transforming them?

 

[Diconica]

Who said anything about transforming them?

As to the comment you just made that certainly wouldn't work for anyone strait.
It might work if the person playing is bi but that would alienate most of the potential players.
You have women in it so gays men wouldn't like it. Strait men wouldn't like it because the men.

You said make them part of the harem. That implies they become of the one's you plan on fucking.
If you mean use them as security. Not without cutting their dick and balls off. Even then most aren't going to trust them.
It's just better to train females to handle security.
You don't end up with the conflict between you and the other men. You also don't risk the plot holes that goes along with trying to pretend such issues wouldn't happen.

I'm assuming the response is to me. You should use the "reply". (bottom right corner of post)
Otherwise the person you are replying to won't know it.

 

[destroyergd]

I think it depends a lot on genre/type of game and individual taste.
On my view, harem games are cool in the "Gotta catch 'em all!!!" aspect - much like a card game (pokemon, gwent, and so on).
In that sense, competition fits best in games where personality of NPCs and your relationship to them are secondary/terciary, and gameplay it's a primary thing.

But of course, the lack of males it's unrealistic, and can interfere with immersion.
Now, in games where you get engrossed by the plot and realtionships, the characters are actually interesting and with depth? Then competition can be great for plot and immersion. --> I'm thinking more of VN's so the competition itself is more related to specfic choices than actual gameplay (personal preference)

 

[DaimonFey]

A harem game with male competition is the same as a harem game with NTR. NTR fans like to see more dicks! it's so gay!

I don't mind games with ntr, you could say that I even like it as long as it is avoidable.Why? Actions should have consequences. For example if somebody will make series of bad decisions in game(making MC looking like a total loser or some bastard) should taste consequences such as girl finding somebody stronger or kinder than him.

 

[Trapitalism101]

I prefer to feminize them and add them to my harem

 

[RandyTyr]

I assume we are talking male MC here. If you add an alternative male love interest for "my" love interests, you'd end up in one of two cases: Either, I don't like the "rival". But if he's eg an asshole, then it would diminish the female LI's if they are seriously considering him as a partner. Or, if the rival is actually a great guy, then he should get some love, too. For me this would mean that he should be integrated into the harem, and fuck a particular* subset of female LI's. [* Meaning, I will have strong opinions on who he should and should not fuck. He clearly should fuck anyone he is related to. But then there is also the question of whether or not to use protection...]. But anyway, now he isn't a rival anymore, is he?

So, overall I would like to see more male characters in my harem games (because that makes it more interesting, and pisses off rabid-anti-NTR-fanatics), but not rivals.

 

[Loganfin]

I prefer to feminize them and add them to my harem

Are there any good Western or HS games where that's a thing? I've seen some 2D games that really aren't my type.

 

[whippetmaster]

I'm neutral. I don't have an issue with competition or there being none. What's more important is having good quality art, understandable dialogue, and a story that makes you care. To me, a well done game with competition is quite enjoyable but then again, some games with no competition are very fascinating. So either way works as long as I'm invested in the game and it takes some effort to do that.

 

[Mikey_Boy101]

At first I liked the game Motherless because most of the women in that VN are hot, but as time went on I slowly started to realize the everything was essentialy being handed down to Sunny. All the Money, Power, and Women in the world but barely any male competition. The street thug that wanted to hurt Sunny was killed by his cousin, the priest who made his life a living hell in the orphanage was dealt with by Sunny's dad, and his own dad is fine with Sunny marrying his wife who he hasn't divorced yet (HE EVEN ENCOURAGES IT!) The story ended up becoming boring to me because Sunny doesn't have any struggles and barely any conflicts. On top of that, some these women start to gush the moment they see Sunny because he reminds them of their dead father or dead lover or whateverthefuck .

Now, A Family Venture is one game I'm still interested in because it hasn't numerous male characters that are out to steal your women. I love Ryan's ways of keeping his women through manipulation and his silver tongue, while trying to keep men away from them. Ryan's struggle against people who are more powerful than him is a more interesting story.

 

[Ambir]

Why have other men in a game when you can just add more hot girls?

 

[Narfbat]

Competition is fine as long as I have the opportunity to intervene before it becomes serious. If he's a piece of shit I should be able to save her from making a huge mistake. If he's an okay dude, stealing her from a happy relationship makes me the piece of shit in the scenario - Better to keep it from going anywhere in the first place (and presume he'll find someone else later).

Ultimately, harem games are peak sexual power fantasy, so having the rival come up empty-handed is another facet of that.

Lack of rival can still be interesting if the challenge lies in convincing the harem to share you... (Just don't lean on the "double-standard" there because again, power fantasy.)