Uh yeah? Do you think its cool when someone gets serious with multiple people at the same time without their knowledge? How would you think about a girl doing that with 10 guys and youre one of the guys?
I give you a hint: You would be either heartbroken or disgusted or possibly both. You probably wouldnt be too thrilled about her idea for you to join her 10 guys harem lmao
The problem with this game is that we actually
like the characters. Porno is a special kind of media. We don't invest in the story. We don't identify with the characters, at most we self insert, but we don't empathize. It is a very reductive form of entertainment, we are here to fulfill a biological need, not stimulate our logical or emotional aspects. Because of this, we are able to dehumanize and even perhaps enjoy a bit of sadism. Be honest, how many of us have
looked at (wink wink) something that in our normal, every day lives would make us disgusted. Post nut clarity is real, but we sometimes forget it isn't just clear headedness, we are so biologically driven to reproduce (which our body thinks we are doing, even if its a "solo mission") that we will chase that feeling no matter where it leads.
Back to Eternum (and other games of similar quality, character and story depth), we actually
care about the characters. This creates a problem. By caring about them, they become real, and its much harder to hurt 'real' people than not. Now some harem games double down and emphasize how filthy it really is to cheat on someone you care about. They fetishize breaking the trust and hearts of loved ones, degrading their self worth or even manipulating them to force them to accept that they are only worth a 'piece' of the main character. Other games (like Eternum) try to find a (wildly unrealistic) everyone is somehow happy with having 1/8 of a guy's attention/affection/time. And a very very few, attempt a realistic version where its more of an open relationship, and the girls (or even guys) can be with whoever they want.
Going back to Eternum, I think the problem is groundwork. Its really hard to write the second option, and even when its done well (respectfully, its not done well here) it takes a good chunk of the story, isn't particularly sexy at times and slows things down a LOT. Sisterly Lust probably did it best. And when you got found out, even when you didn't lose girls permanently, you lost them for a chapter or two, some accepted it right away, some not for a while, others not for a LONG while. There were permanent consequences (sort of).
I'm not saying Caribdis should do this. Its a testament to his skill that we love the sexy, and CARE about the characters enough to be bothered by this. All writing is tradeoffs, there isn't unlimited time to tell your story, maybe this is the vision he has. And thats okay. I do think there is potential for some 'cheating' degradation sex and intimacy scenes (let's be honest, Caribdis ENJOYS degradation) if he wants to dip into type 1. There's potential for type 2 if we stretch things out (but it will have consequences, ie no sex with one or more girls for a while, characters being upset with Orion and not in a cute way). I feel confident in saying there would be a mass uprising if he attempted type 3....