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?!"
I also feel like Nicki is just using MC, but I am not a psycho, so I am not sending DMs to Dev about it.
I'll write about why I'm thinking that way, and maybe it'll help explain why I dislike Nicki. First of all, we've never seen Nicki as a friend to MC, and first thing in the game, we are getting jabs from her boyfriend, and her reaction is at best neutral; it more likely feels like she agrees with everything her boyfriend says but doesn't say it outloud out of pity. It really is a huge negative for her. She may have reasons for how she acts, but as players, we don't know those. So you put them in a group with her boyfriend, and from there she is swimming upstream for affection from the player. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, she came back late at night, ready to give everything for her boyfriend, and she confessed she was aware of your feelings about her. Then she dared to say she was there only for money and imply that you were only lucky with money, and they have rights over that money. I am pretty sure it got realized while writing because she says she tried to connect, etc., but that is an extra-negative point, not a positive one, because if it's money and her boyfriend, she can find a way to be there, but not for her friendship. We never saw her texts, calls, or willingness to reach us; suddenly, she shows up and asks for money. I really got annoyed when we didn't have the option to say 'fuck off' and throw her out, to be honest. Then, after 3 months without any contact, she shows up again, and again she is there only for your help, not even for you. Even if you were the most loving person last time, everything is the same for her. If you play both (well, 3 if you count the dark path) paths, even the dialogs are more or less the same. One of the worst things she says is that you didn't even cross her mind; she just stumbled on your way and noticed she could get your help. She even defends her boyfriend after all things happen and also confesses she was okay using people in one route. Think about it: She only comes to you when she needs help; she shows up, gets whatever she wants, then ghosts you until the next time. She even says she loved you on the dark path, which is a huge red flag that shows she is trying to manipulate MC using his love for cynical people like me. How can someone be okay with her after everything? Like you said, there was only one time she got some positive points when she was playing with the kid. Maybe we need more scenes like that.
I am mostly okay with any other character, but Nicki is filled with red flags. I think a few background scenes about your friendship with her before you decide on her faith would be helpful. Maybe a scene that shows she really tried to reach you, but MC refused to talk to her with his reasoning; a few memory scenes about their friendship; maybe a few scenes when she was talking about what happened to her in those 3 months, etc. Things like that will help us understand what you meant with Nicki. You have an idea while you are writing her, but since we don't know anything about it as players, you should show us, tell us, and remind us what she means to MC. If not, it's hard to like her, I think. A few posts above, I tried to make a joke about how she reminded me of Jenny from Forrest Gump. If you watched Forrest Gump, and the movie didn't have any scenes that showed Forrest and Jenny's friendship, would you ever be understanding of Jenny, let alone like her? I hope this will help you to see other perspective.
