Yeah, that's what I think of too, it's more believable that way; the romantic harem is a male fantasy for sure. Which is completely fine btw, I'm not trying to shame people who like that kind of stuff or anything; I mean, that's the point of VNs for a lot of us, to have fun with a fantasy. I'm just saying that if you're looking for something that feels really plausible and sucks you in, romantic harems usually don't do it.
That said, even though it isn't very believable, one of the problems is just that mature writing and complex characters are hard to come by in general. I think I could get down with a romantic harem game that had those qualities. When Neon finishes this game, if he still goes forward with his idea to add a lighter, harem-anime-style mode, I think it'd be fun to play through.
And just a quick thought about the NTR/sharing - NTR is really about shaming the MC, so it's understandable why most games wouldn't touch that, it's a very specific kink. Sharing doesn't have to be that at all, though, and in fact it can be executed in a dominant way. It makes so much sense for some stories. But alas, a lot of guys don't like it and mistakenly associate it with NTR.
Oh ok, I gotcha; I agree.
But, an open relationship also isn't NTR. So, maybe NTR is technically different from cucking, like a subcategory of it or something, but since there isn't a cuckold tag, it's basically cuckold on this website. Anyways, like I said, NTR is a very specific kink where a guy basically is quelling his own fears of inadequacy or being cheated on by controlling it (i.e., "I'm scared you're going to cheat anyways, so I'll have you 'cheat' in front of me, and you did it because I allowed it"; and maybe he's aroused by feeling in control of it); or because he's aroused by those feelings themselves (i.e., "I'm turned on by feeling inadequate, so I want you to cheat behind my back or make me watch, and there's nothing I can do about it").
Open relationships, with trust and without any ulterior motives from either partner, is more about loss of jealousy, free/open love, honesty about human nature, and so on. That's what it's supposed to be, anyways; I'm sure it's different things for different couples. I think a lot of attempts at open relationships basically become cucking because the relationship isn't actually trusting or loving, or end up feeling like cucking because there's still jealousy, but those are separate issues. Most people aren't cut out for it. (including me, sheeeiiiiit)
