Indeed, no, you aren't odd for doing that, I do it as well.
Wait, so we aren't going to march on Cornwall's place with torches and pitchforks like he's Frankenstein's monster?
*sadly puts pitchfork away*
What are you even talking about? Girlfriend? Never had one and not afraid or ashamed to admit it, so not sure how you got that idea. I am not chained by anything and that has nothing to do with this conversation, it is an entirely different topic. That 'fear' isn't why this game won't upgrade, it won't upgrade because there is only one person working on the whole thing, which is already a pretty tall order. I've done game development, for myself and it was entirely text based in an old, dead programming language, it wasn't even that easy back then and this game is even more complicated than anything I've ever programmed.
Yeah, it actuall IS that I don't like sounds, especially sex sounds, in games. They ALWAYS sound so out of place unless voice actors are hired and that means MAJOR expenses a one person developer cannot even hope to sustain. Yeah, I watch porn with sounds, but what I DON'T do is play porn games with sex sounds, those go into the trash the second any one man VN without the budget to support actual voice acting has them because it is ALWAYS some generic, prerecorded crap that is completely out of place.
I'm not scared to try something new, DO NOT assume you know how I think, what I AM scared of is something bad happening to this game's development because Runey messed up in his decision making and did something that just isn't worth the time, money, and effort required to do it right. There is A LOT that can happen to negatively impact the game because he chooses to do this. It COULD cause him to focus too much on coordinating with other people and to not spend enough time actually developing content. The F95 community is a prime example of why this is an issue, people get impatient very quickly, so quickly that I've seen update begging within a week of the latest release of a game. It COULD cause a mass exodus because Runey underestimated how many people DON'T want sex sounds. This could drain funding for the game VERY quickly and stop development in its tracks.
Selfish? Last I checked, wanting Runey and the game to thrive is anything BUT selfish. If anything, it is selfless. So far, the amount of people who actually want sound in general, or sex sounds, amounts to you and maybe one or two others. You're speaking like you are talking for the majority, but I have yet to see proof that you are. The majority is in the people who have not said anything about it either way, neither of us speaks for them. I don't think you get how development would be impacted. Yeah, it WOULD affect development of actual content because Runey would have to stop everything and focus on programming the support code for this new stuff, he would have to spend A LOT of time coordinating with voices as they send samples and he approves them or denies them, which means redoing the recording. This isn't something as simple as flipping a switch in the code, there is A LOT to get done.
You seem to think this is a new idea, it isn't, VNs do it on occasion all the time and the ones that do are ALWAYS produced by a bigger developer than someone like Runey. You also seem to be under the impression you have a majority of the player base on your side when you and maybe one or two others spoke about it positively. That's not a majority, that's a minority until the rest of the player base chimes in with a positive reaction. No, Runey's talent and experience will have zero impact on how the player base thinks of sounds that Runey did not create and only implemented into the code and file structure of the game. This is assuming that most people like having sounds, you are not speaking for most people, you are speaking for yourself under a pretense of most people when that simply isn't true or more games would have sounds like you want and Harem Hotel would already have them because Runey would see that it is popular. I have total faith in Runey, and sorry to say this Runey, but not everyone does and his talent and experience alone are NOT enough to carry this game.
I would love to hear Emma's voice match her personality, but even among the big developers with the money to pull in major voice actors, a voice matching the face of a character is EXTREMELY rare. One of the biggest complaints about voices in anime is, in fact, that their face and their voice do not match. You can't take a girl with a cute face who would look like she has some high pitched, girly voice and give her some husky, low pitched voice instead. The difference is incredibly jarring in a VERY bad way.
Not having sounds doesn't drop their importance or quality, what DOES drop those is focusing way too much time, money, and effort on them when, in the VN side of things, the story is more important than anything else, which is something Runey has already recognized and is doing an amazing job at making. This is a VISUAL novel, not an AURAL novel. It is meant to be read, not heard.
An upgrade to its reputation is once again assuming a majority of people like the kind of thing you do, that is not the case. It is also a potentially fatally incorrect assumption that this would be good for income. You do know it's you and maybe two other people who have spoken positively for voices being added, right? You can't speak for the majority of this game's players being in favor of your idea just like I cannot speak for the majority being opposed. Only maybe six people total have spoken on the subject and three of them are against it as of this comment, but there are literal hundreds who have not been heard and the majority of players in general, not necessarily this game's players, typically are against such an idea.
Exactly, it doesn't matter if you can mute the sounds if they will still impact development of the game just by being implemented.
Definitely a waste of resources, without a doubt, to only implement sex sounds. Runey would be better off committing to a full voiced game.
A lot of resources AND a lot of time, what you said here is the kind of time and effort I'm talking about that would take away from content development.
I could definitely see voice actor hate, at least if the names get credited, especially some of the major ones and one of them in particular that has been in some trouble with the court of public opinion over the last couple years.
That second bullet point is my main concern, it takes time away from content development and potentially stretches Runey too thin to maintain quality at the current level.
Another good point on the third bullet point, availability could massively delay the game and delays are a VERY real threat to funding a Patreon funded game.
No, I don't see a benefit that outweighs the risk involved here. I also don't think the timing is right, at the beginning or at the end are optimal in this case because then there is no content to get in the way of at the end and very little code to rework at the beginning. Exactly on the last part here, he should at least have all the lines done before implementing voices because then he can script the whole thing for the voice actors and doesn't need to worry about doing it in chunks with potentially multiple times having to hire people. He could hire them once for a single run of the entire game to solve the availability and other timing issues.
Agreed, short term periods are best for doing voice work for the reasons above.
Very true, Runey and ONLY Runey can make any sort of call or see what his vision is for the game and it may or may not include voice work. To be fair, it isn't just Squall14, but there aren't very many, maybe three including Squall14 have spoken positively of adding voices while most people are either against it or silent, most being silent.
For me, I would not just mute the game, it is gone if voices happen in sex scenes. I MIGHT enjoy the story voices IF and ONLY IF the voices match the faces, which is already a difficult task for large companies and is VERY rarely successful.
I do believe Runey has spoken on the subject of volumes or chapters and said no to the idea on a per game basis. Most people do prefer having all their content in one place for easier access, so at this point, it may not be a good idea. Not to mention the restructuring he would have to do to existing content and code and how it would negatively affect this style of game.
Indeed, the AAA side has way more money and way more access to voice talent to work with. Single person developers don't have that money or access and, unlike AAA developers, are beholden to the likes and dislikes of their patrons because that is their one source of income for the game to be funded by.
Muting would depend on the voice, if it fits, I might keep it on. Sex audio is absolutely a deal breaker, though, and would mean bye bye Harem Hotel without hesitation. I am not a yes man, I am not a superfan, and I am not afraid to put my foot down against something. If something is objectively wrong or I just don't like it, I will act accordingly.
