I've explained the Nicki patch before, but in brief: I get a lot of comments, private messages, etc. from people asking why they have to 'put up' with Nicki. After getting a low-star review that was pretty complimentary other than the commenter's distaste for Nicki, I kind of hit my breaking point. So, I took a couple hours one night to write and render The Anti-Nicki Patch.
This way, rather than explain over and over again the purpose she serves in the narrative, or defend my storytelling choices, I can just post the link to the patch. The joke being that it results in a near-instant game over. It's my way of saying, "Don't like it? Don't play it."
I try not to ever directly respond to people's critiques and such. People have different reads on all the characters. Some people think Nicki is a loyal friend who hit a bad run of luck, and some think she's a conniving shrew who's only using the player. Some people think Gabby's a precious little cinnamon roll who needs protection and love, and some think she's a petulant brat. Some people think Ashe is an utter ditz with two brain cells to rub together, and others think she's an empathetic and thoughtful girl who trips over her own tongue.
It wouldn't really be appropriate for me to chime in and chastise people for reading a character one way or another. But, I find a lot of the comments re: Nicki so similar to one another that I began to wonder if I was just being spammed periodically with alt accounts of one very persistent critic.
I think the truth is just that we never really got to see Nicki be MC's friend, before she came to him looking for money. We're told that they're friends, but by the time we see it the player's already made a lot of decisions regarding how they want to treat her. Adding to that, she ticks a few boxes that can be problematic for some people: friend zone + sex work + body modification = :/
But, I think it's interesting that people began to turn around on Nicki, basically as soon as we saw her doing things unrelated to the lowest point in her life. A lot of people started to warm up to her after her interaction with Maya, a few more after seeing her joke around with MC about his naughty calendar idea, and a few more after that when we see her playing videogames with MC.
I suspect that trend will continue, but until then I'll continue to get people who play the first chapter and then write to me asking, "Is Nicki really going to be in the whole thing?!"
But nope... just sex and money exchange + friend-zone + self-sabotage... which of course is entirely understandable that multiple people would really not like that, but they forget the most important factor... which is that at the end of the day... she's just a Friend in Need ™
