Do you read games you play?

[Oswaldd]

Most games here at least try to add a story, some even focus on walls of text. But do you actually read it? Or do you just look for nice pictures or a gameplay?
Wondering how important story really is for most people here.

 

[MrFriendly]

I like well-written Visual Novels that actually take their time to develop characters and tell stories, my favorites being Melody, Acting Lessons, and Depraved Awakenings. I am obviously interested in well rendered characters and animations but if I just want to see a guy bang a girl there are porn sites for that. I want the developers of a Visual Novel to spend equal amounts of time on the visual and the novel (meaning it should have a story to match the visuals). Too many of the games available think in terms of porn logic and have girls/women immediately desire the MC when they see his large penis, even going so far as to have mothers/daughters/sisters crave it from a mere glimpse. I find that entire concept amusing and would like to see someone actually write a thoughtful and more realistic story.

Now, all of that being said, I don't want to imply that I enjoy games that have walls of text. If all I wanted to do was read erotica (or illustrated erotica) there are places I can go to fulfill that desire. A well thought out and interesting story shouldn't take me 8 hours to reach a sex scene - at least not in an adult game. There has to be a balance, a story needs to be well-paced and plotted to go along with the amazing visuals.

Overall I detest grindy open world/sandbox games that require me to spend hours playing a game to be rewarded with a few seconds of sexual content. I also primarily avoid most fantasy games where the author has to establish the world and setting while also developing the characters. The fantasy worlds are too generic and require too much world building. Of course, there are always exceptions.

 

[Chr0om]

Read everything and ever. I'm a little bit pedant. Lazy pedant. So.. I really don't like walls of text. All I need: not a lot of the main character's feelings and more of the NPCs. But the most work is in my head — I associate me with my character. And if the character doesn't guess my feelings and expressed his own, I have dissonance.

The balance is really important. And.. sometimes I like to read «the walls», between some big actions. Story of the world or something..

 

[khumak]

If it's well written I will definitely read everything and try to engage with the story. If it's poorly written I will frequently just pick random choices and/or do a CG RIP and not even bother playing the game.

 

[Deleted member 229118]

The stories are (more often then not) bad.
Very few where interested enough to read.

I am here to play game.
Good dialog and story can greatly enhance a game(but never replace accauly gameplay)
Bad dialog and story can ruin it.

As for my preference's:
Gameplay>Story>looks>sound.
I am playing a porn GAME.
Not reading a book.
It is why visual novals get auto declined by me(and i believe we shoud stop considering them games)
Story is what drive's people forward.
Many games i enjoy always made me want to see what happend next.
Looks.
I am not picky.
As long i feel like i am dominating the woman the looks dont matter much.
I mean prettier is preferable but not neccery.
Sound.
God damm this music is awefull, Au those moans hurt me ears.
I rarely have sound on when playing porn games.
More often then not it is just noise.

 

[Synx]

Sometimes, but less and less lately. It's a combination of getting bored of the same setting (majority of games is a school student that just fucks around), boring story lines, and dragging on to long.

Even with stories that started out differently with an interesting setting or story they just end with the main character wanting to fuck everyone. Integrating sex into a compelling story is rare.

 

[Sphere42]

Disclaimer: I'm the type of guy who reads item descriptions and sidequest dialogue logs in (non-porn) MMOs so probably far off the average. I also have pretty good memory so for new version releases or multiple playthroughs I do love my autoskips.

For the most part I consider most porn game stories utter trash if not worse than that. However due to my fetish interests I end up playing a lot of "corruption"/"rapetown" type games, so I actually read a lot of the content to figure out what to AVOID and how to do so. This especially applies to RPGM mechanics to either use the combat system to prevent rape or to max out the "lewdness" stat because that tends to be the only way to play something resembling a female character with any sexual agency.

Then there's the text-based games. Those tend to have some kind of procedural encounter generation where I tend to skim for progression/mechanics-relevant keywords and only really focus on reading the full text for the content I like.

But don't take away that the story doesn't matter, rather trash remains trash and the mainstream interests don't align with my personal interests. I really loved following the main story of Violated Heroine for example despite being as non-pornographic as a game with that title can get, and it made the entire experience far more enjoyable than the simple pixel graphics monster fucking simulator it would otherwise be.

 

[Level9000Retard]

Some games i d/l'd to lewd over but end up staying for the story.

 

[Canade]

Unless it's a complete bombardment of text, I read all the dialog.

 

[magicnuts]

I start by reading and looking for getting a feel for what the story is about. If the story together with the accompanying visuals are captivating, then of course I continue to read.

 

[MisterManMuffin]

For me it comes down to the kinds of games I like to play. I generally avoid VNs just because it takes so long to get to the content I want to indulge in, and even then the payoff is more towards the story than the content itself in the first place. I'd much rather read a wall of text describing a sex scene in a purely text-based game than a wall of text of dialogue or exposition with visuals.

 

[HandofVecna]

I start by reading and looking for getting a feel for what the story is about. If the story together with the accompanying visuals are captivating, then of course I continue to read.

I'm the same exact way. I usually start out reading but if I don't get into I start to skip. I do this with each update trying to kind of get into the story. If the story gets more compelling I will go back and reread earlier versions. So nothing is irredeemable I guess. I started reading Sunshine but couldn't get through it. After 10-20 mins (lifetime) I just started blowing thought text. I suspect as the story develops and starts to get more in depth I might go back and read more but it was a ton of text.

 

[Droid Productions]

Always. If the story doesn't interest me, I'll put the game down and go do something else. If I just wanted pretty pictures of people having sex, there's an animation section on the site that does that, and saves me from clicking the mouse every few seconds.

 

[HopesGaming]

Honestly, this is such a heavy preference based question that you will not be able to get an accurate estimate of what the majority thinks. Better to analyze how the different style of games do in the site. Most of the comments here are just their own opinion on their own preference. Not an actual factual based comment or representation on how the market really is. Not that opinions are bad or not worth listening to, just that it will give a false idea on the whole situation.

Again, look at the top games.
How do the fuck feast games that have almost no story in them do? Some really well while others not so much.
How do the balance (lewd and story) do? Some really well while others not so much.
How does the games that have no sex for over 8 hours playtime (like mine) do? Some do really well while others not so much.

It's all about the quality of the game itself rather than a fake 'template' of "you must do it like this!" The style does not matter as long as the dev nails the part he knows will be the focus. Be that the renders, sex part or a story script. Nail it and the players will come. Quality is what draws people. Not the style. (unless we go heavy kink like beastility and ntr. People are more forgiven when their kinks are on the focus).

 

[I'm Not Thea Lundgren!]

Yes, if the story is good.
My top three favourite devs are very story-rich.
Good writing is what I look for the most.

 

[kytee]

I always give the dialogue a chance but if it sucks then I just quit, or if the visuals and the sex content appeal to me enough, I'll make up my own story in my head using the visuals and check the dialogue every once in a while and see how far off I am.

 

[Niteowl]

I'm only interested in games that, like the one I'm developing, make an effort to add an interesting story.
Now, it goes without saying but we will all have different tastes, and some people might disagree regarding what is an interesting story... anyways, to me interesting games have some world and character building, and create some interesting situations... rather than just rehash overdone tropes or introduce paper thin characters.....
And while some girls should be easy to get, I like stories with characters initially off-limits, maybe stuck up bitches who will be taught a lesson later on.

An example of games I like is Harem Hotel...plenty of content, sure, but also a world different from ours and well developed characters and quirky story lines.
Don't want to hate on any specific games, but the usual 'nerdy guy suddenly gets the hottest chicks/bangs his sister, etc' games have no interest for me. Ditto for games that have almost no content but lots of pointless click-click-click grind.

If I just want to watch girls being fucked I'll stick to regular porn... the visuals are much better and I don't have to waste time on playing subpar games (don't get me wrong, there are many fantastic developers in the field, but that doesn't change the fact that we cannot compete with the battle systems and graphics of mainstream games produced by teams of coders).
When it comes to visual I'm pretty easy but I can't stand Iray Daz games.... very ugly and uninspiring to me.

Having said that, since I started working on my game I haven't really played games anymore and don't feel the need. Creating my own world, regardless of the game's popularity, is more interesting.

 

[Back]

It's the story that drives the game. It's often what captivates and titillates the player or drives them away. Be it deep with expansive branches, or slapped-on superficial ones, they matter. Just look a the tags for a game, for instance. Some players seek certain situations while others will go out of their way to avoid certain topics. Many, many game threads on F95 often have heated debates of the merits of this or that in game; why certain routes, plotlines, or characters are desired and be expanded, or should be culled and be axed entirely, and everything in between, regardless of the visuals.

Yes, it's true that there are many players that just looks for the eye-candy that they like, or use it as one of their first criteria in what constitutes a good game for them. I won't deny that and it's a perfectly reasonable opinion. However, I believe that there are more players out there that do care about the story to some degree than not. Otherwise, why wouldn't most of us just go to a gallery or a porn site to view all the animations and CGs in a game? It'd be a much easier and a quicker way to view them after all. That's because plot matters; and, hopefully, it's something that particular player enjoys. (In fact, many of my favorite games are solely text-based outside the UI; whereas I've completely dropped other games despite some rather fantastic visuals due to the poor writing or plot.)

The visuals, if any, should be there to enhance the experience; not mar it. It's only a facet to a game. You wouldn't want a happy-go-lucky type of game filled with thematically dark and gory visuals nor would hyper stylized visuals be appropriate in a hard-nosed, super serious type of game. It shouldn't be a disjointed exercise. The story and the visuals should compliment one another. Besides, isn't it much more interesting to know who the character(s) are in a CG and what's going on at that moment versus just looking at a picture without any reference whatsoever? Knowing the context often elevates the visuals to another level than otherwise. For most of the players on here, I believe, and regardless of how much of the text of a game is read, the story matters.

 

[TotalCombat2050]

I would say I read the story more often than not. Graphics can only show so much, but the author's writing is what really brings it to life. I think that's the joy of these games where you can really explore vastly different themes.

 

[gunderson]

Depends. Some games have a very tightly written story that connects well with a deep cast of characters, and in those cases I tend to read every word. Some games, on the other hand, seem to have writers in love with the sound of their keyboard clacking away (I find this much more often, though certainly not always or only, in Japanese VNs than in Western games) with walls of text, overly grandiose language, pointlessly convoluted plots, and shallow characters. For the latter, I either ignore their games outright or just skip through the dialogue if they have pretty pictures. If the game has good gameplay, though, that makes me more likely to read more of the text, even if it's not the best-written game. I think that firmly puts me in the 'sometimes' category.