Games you used to enjoy, but for whatever reason, don't anymore.

[zeph19]

Hello there,

for those of you who've been here for a while, you probably already know exactly what I'm talking about. You find a game in its early stage and you think to yourself "This is one of the best fucking games I've ever played, it has so much potential, hits all the right spots for me and I can't wait to see how awesome it'll be in one, two or even three years".

Some games keep you hooked. Your internal clock makes you _feel_ that an update is around the corner, so you check and true enough, it'll be there soon. Others, though, in time you just.. forget they exist, and when an update does come out, you kind of go "Meh, maybe next time.".

Name those games. What got you hooked and why is the magic just not there anymore?

 

[jamdan]

Being A Dik:

Yep, the most popular game around. A game in the early days, I was one of the frequent posters in the thread (over 200 posts). Why did I drop it? Takes too long to play. Too many routes/characters to keep track of. Basically, the game is good, but I don't have time for it. And I'm unmotivated to deal with the sandbox segments, which I really dislike. And honestly, with how things have slowed so much, I doubt it gets finished within the 2020's. Even the mighty Pinkcake can bite off more than he can chew.

My New Family & WVM:

Another couple games that, early on, I really liked. But they're standard harem game. And eventually, it just feels like it's dragging on forever. The characters aren't interesting anymore. Things that used to be cute and funny felt cringy (duck faces and ginger cuddle time etc.) Just feels like a POV slideshow at some point. The borderline cult-worship of MC gets irritating too after a while.

Corrupted Kingdoms:

Pixie is still best girl by miles. But the sandbox stuff just wore me down. Not grindy, but still monotonous having to go around to different locations and there are so many LI's that content still feels pretty thin. The weekly updates are great, but at the same time, it can be hard to figure out what is new and what isn't. Since before dropping it, I skipped a lot of updates to let content build a few times. And then, I spent just as much time reading the changelogs as playing the game.

There are plenty more, but these are some of the most popular ones.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Slutcraft: Started out great as sort of a horror-ish reverse trainer game. Then they had more and more of Stukov, more jokes and parody elements, and it just wasn't enjoyable anymore. Like, you've got a female MC in an alien environment that wants to break down her inhibitions. That's a great concept that's barely been explored, so why ruin it with a typical human pervert who uses phrases like "fap material"?

Cyberslayers: Great premise, but if it had more developed combat, I would have checked out the newer updates. As it is, it's just "eh, wait until it has hours' worth of new content". Walking-simulators and VNs rarely bring me back for each new update, or at all.

Hero Party Must Fall: Ditto.

Karryn's Prison: Game got ruined for me by the bloating of the combat and Passives system, it feels like a poorly-explained mess. Plus the dialogue is too corny for me to take it seriously as a corruption game.

Lust and Power: They rebooted the game, and afaik are still re-adding scenes that were in the game previously. Even if they're better-animated now, I still want new content if I'm going to download.

Witch Trainer Silver: As much as I consider this game a classic, this type of protagonist has started getting on my nerves.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Some games keep you hooked. Your internal clock makes you _feel_ that an update is around the corner, so you check and true enough, it'll be there soon. Others, though, in time you just.. forget they exist, and when an update does come out, you kind of go "Meh, maybe next time.".

You're forgetting a category, the games you liked, but decide to throw back mid update because of (what you feel as) a bad move, or because "enough is enough".

I'll not give name ; from my point of view it would be raising a red flag for what is nothing more than a question of personal thought/taste. But yes, there's few games like that. Or perhaps, since I'll not give names, few situation leading to this.

The games who don't have planed harem, but keep it really blurry, letting you pursue as many girls as you want.
You play them, enjoy doing it, and are potentially hooked by the story. Doing so, you start to pursue the girls that interest you, build your relation with them. And the game let you do it, so you start anticipating ; the day will come where she'll take me to her bed. Then boom, come the no harem police. You've the five girls you dreamed about in front of you, and you've to... It's not that you've to choose one, what you're asked to is to reject four of them.
Sorry guy, your game is good and enjoyable, but I'll not starts five parallels play just because you weren't able to prevent me to pursue all the girls I like right from the start, and never cared to say that it will not be possible.

There's also the games who add drama over drama, or don't know how to stop digging in the main drama.
If you want to make a drama game, or dark game, go for it. It's not my cup of tea, but I know that some would like it. I just ask you to not make your game starts as a My Little Pony parody, to slowly turn it into A Nightmare on Elm Street remake.

And there's what is probably the worse, the change in the writing.
Sometimes it's because the dev started to earn some money, then decided to pay a writer... that happen to be worse than himself. And for some reason he don't notice it, or don't care about it. But the more often it's just the dev who loose himself in some kind of celebrity nightmare. He starts to have fans and, since people like what he's doing, he decide to realize his long awaken dream: being a comedian.
Except that he's not one. He have the humor of a 13yo kid who masturbate on a panty that the granny next door left to dry in her backyard (yes, I have a particular game in mind while writing this). And what started as entertaining enough turn into a living hell.