So 'Acting Lessons' then. I think DoDs usage of the plot and character developement serves a somewhat different goal or perhaps i should say the aim was a bit different with them. AL in my interpretation was more about the characters itself while i consider DoD a very good porn game. Its a crude approach but i say it just to get my point through..: in AL the porn was there to make it an adult game. To spice things up. To make it a lewd story. In DoD, though we had dramatic moments, i think the characters aaand the plot was more of a means to an end. To make the porn more spicy by giving it a solid framework while AL used story and character developement not as a framework.
In my eyes both VN considers the story an important part but to serve and fulfill a different purpose. I think you find this one not to your liking because you prefer the AL approach. Mainly a story with porn. DoD is mainly porn with story. Of course it can be done differently or to suit a different audience, a different desire but i'm a firm believer that DoD has a very good story
for a porn VN! Now obviously we could say that everything that has porn belong to the same basket but i'd say that would be like saying every human being is the same. In a certain viewpoint yes but otherwise no, not at all. We simply cannot expect the same thing from everyone. Or for example cars. We have cars for different purposes. The difference is the purpose.
That being said one should consider the fact that not everyone has the same qualities as a writer and storyteller and even beyound this fact we all know that there is matter of style. Writers do have their own style but even if they copy someone elses' its still a style they are copying. If one cares enough to compare its easy to notice how porn VNs differentiate along the lines of style, execution, goals. Not all story deals with subtlety but that doesn't make them bad. Not all people like subtlety you see. Some prefer to have explanation for everything, want to have set goals, while some just enjoys the ride and hits the road for the trip itself.
For me Dreams of Desire delivers a remarkably exciting porntale where the aim is to do lewd things with family members plus extras in a setting that breaks the montonity of sex with elements like character interaction and plot but those are not as important as it would be in a genuine drama yet we get more of it than we do in an 'average' porn game and i appreciate that a lot. The very fact that kinda lot of people still consider this story genuinely captivating and dramatic is not something that suppose to come as a suprise or cause confusion but instead should serve as sign that DoD is truely remarkable! ..within its own enviroment. Pulp fiction of the porn kind. Just as in movies there are drama, action, horror, romantic comedy, cartoon and so on. They aren't exactly competing in the same league for the same audience. They are all movies though.
The issue here rises when you sit into one expecting a horror and you get a romantic comedy. Just because we call each and every such title as Visual Novel its a mistake thinking it means the same for each title and judging a romcom through the criteras with set for a horror is silly. DoD is a VN, AL is a VN. They are very similar by the looks of it but that doesn't make them the same. One aims for lewd entertainment the other aims for lewd storytelling. DoD is a very high quality lewd entertainment within the VN genre. Acting Lessons is considered a very good one but it has a mixed review overall. For me thats nothing if not a clear sign that people expect different things from something they believe to be a drama with porn
DoD is porn with dramatic elements. Majority of VNs i've seen around here are just porn. Recently the bar for standards is rising though. Not mine but the quality of the story aspect in recent VNs is on the rise. DoD born in an era before this one so please show some leniency
