QQP_Purple

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Dec 11, 2020
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The player accepted the conceit of a porn game, as a kink. That's hardly the same thing as actually accepting slavery.
That depends on if you approach this game as just fap material or as a visual novel with sex in it. For me the visual novel aspect, and thus the writing and story are the focus of my experience with this game. The sex is secondary.

So the people who advocated for a minimum wage, five-day work weeks, eight hour work days, the civil rights movement, and the end of actual, real-world slavery were all evil? And it should be a crime to seek any form of political or social change? Well, that's an opinion, certainly.
No, they were not evil. Because I wasn't around back than to be annoyed. But anyone being annoying to me today for any reason is evil because I don't like being annoyed.

It's really simple. Evil = things I don't like. Good = things I like.
Insert the speakers name instead of I and you get the universal formula of all morality.
 

c3p0

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Nov 20, 2017
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And how do you decide that the first is the root and the second is not? For an unfished product?
Even if you measure it, it doesn't make sense as the overall content is not defined. 80% of unkown is still unkown. Only after this is finished we will know where any "roots" may be.
 
Apr 16, 2020
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And how do you decide that the first is the root and the second is not? For an unfished product?
Even if you measure it, it doesn't make sense as the overall content is not defined. 80% of unkown is still unkown. Only after this is finished we will know where any "roots" may be.
What does me not liking where the story is headed have to do with this unfinished product business you're speaking of? I'm very aware that the game is still developing. I said "root" in reference to the game's earlier stages.
 

TheDevian

Svengali Productions
Game Developer
Mar 8, 2018
14,725
34,607
And how do you decide that the first is the root and the second is not? For an unfished product?
Even if you measure it, it doesn't make sense as the overall content is not defined. 80% of unkown is still unkown. Only after this is finished we will know where any "roots" may be.
Been here since more or less the beginning, and always loved the world building and character development. Always assumed this was pretty much where it was going...
 

QQP_Purple

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Dec 11, 2020
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Been here since more or less the beginning, and always loved the world building and character development. Always assumed this was pretty much where it was going...
Same here. I was not at all surprised by the way the plot is going. Although I wouldn't say it was obvious from the very beginning. It just sort of creeps in and I am not sure if I can pin down the exact spot when I knew fighting slavery would actually be a major plot point.

But really, anyone who has any doubts should have lost them at the point where you buy Jin and realize that you didn't get a happy ending for your troubles. If that does not clue you in nothing will.

Either way there is definitively a segment of the game where it does feel exactly as demondelic.psy says. It just feels laid back and fun and wholesome and than it slowly transforms into what it is now. And I can totally understand why someone might want more of that. That sort of thing is good and fun and wholesome and it makes you happy. It is overall a good thing. Just as the way the game is going now is also overall a good thing just in a very different way.
 

c3p0

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What does me not liking where the story is headed have to do with this unfinished product business you're speaking of? I'm very aware that the game is still developing. I said "root" in reference to the game's earlier stages.
Nothing, what you like or not not like is entirely up to you and as subjectiv as any other of us and what we like or dislike.

Root of the game is what I'm curious. As I've written I can't see any "root" in this game yet. The whole harem part could be only a prolog and the whole save the elfs could be the "real" story.
For me it is the same as to rate any unfinished product, highly dubious at best.
 
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QQP_Purple

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Dec 11, 2020
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Nothing, what you like or not not like is entirely up to you and as subjectiv as any other of us and what he like or dislike.

Root of the game is what I'm curious. As I've written I can't see any "root" in this game yet. The whole harem part could be only a prolog and the whole save the elfs could be the "real" story.
For me it is the same as to rate any unfinished product, highly dubious at best.
Basically what he is saying is that the liked the prologue part, enjoyed it and hoped he would get more of the same. And he considers it to be the "root" of the game because it is in fact a significant portion of the early game. So much so that one could form a reasonable expectation that this is where the game would be heading.

Now, in hindsight we can see clues that this is not really the case. But this is with hindsight and replaying. First time in, I could see how someone could make that inference.

Than again, for my part I had my hopes set on it going the way it did pretty much from the moment Lin was introduced. Something about that cute girl being enslaved just felt all kinds of wrong to me. So who am I to say? :)


Either way, I think we can all agree that it speaks to the quality of this game that we can have conversations like this about it. I mean, let's be real here. When is the last time you've heard this sort of discussion being had about most books, let alone games?
 

allenandarth

Active Member
May 30, 2017
624
559
just because the game is unfinished doesn't mean it has no "root" FYI, root means the start and the start of the game was "Everyone in the hotel has found a slice of this world where they feel comfortable" (these were Runey's words even he acknowledges that this is a different shift from what is was, he's pursuing a true happy ending with this twist, but it's a twist from how it was at the start and there, is your root.
you keep on nitpicking the guys wordings (wrongly, might i add) because you're on board with what Runey is going for and my man is not, it's your opinion and his opinion, if you're going to critique it's fine, but don't just nitpick
 

LordofMetal

New Member
Mar 3, 2021
3
6
Nothing, what you like or not not like is entirely up to you and as subjectiv as any other of us and what he like or dislike.

Root of the game is what I'm curious. As I've written I can't see any "root" in this game yet. The whole harem part could be only a prolog and the whole save the elfs could be the "real" story.
For me it is the same as to rate any unfinished product, highly dubious at best.
Roots of the game are quite obvious. Fun cute harem hi-jinks in a hotel. It was not the prologue, it's easily the vast majority of the game. It was the entire game until runey decided to brow beat us with the lesson of "slavery is bad". Gosh I had no idea.
In no way was this plot hijack planned properly from the beginning, it blindsided a lot of players.
The game has been years in development, runey goes back and edits old events to fit the new narrative. (Hey remember when you and cromwell gangbanged your slaves in a clothing shop upon meeting? That was hot.) The game was always harem sillyness until runey shoehorned in a childish view of modern politics.

You know what you're doing. allenandarth can see it too.

______________________________________________________________________________________________

No I don't like the game nearly as much these days.
Yes I support runey no matter what he'd like to do, good for him, no problem.
Yes I like having elf slaves, I have no moral issues with owning and fucking them.
Yes it annoys me how for years I was enjoying a fetish that runey handed to me on a silver platter only to now watch his fans verbally dropkick anyone like me who just wanted to fap to enslaved anime elf tits.

I am an elf slave master and I have no shame and I will continue to enjoy the original previous releases I have saved as they were intended when they were released. Slice of life, cutesy fun with some good emotional heartache sprinkled like fairy dust.
 

GraveXMachina

Active Member
Jun 9, 2020
838
833
I dunno...maybe it's jjust me...
But anyone feel like what happened tto Maria was a little ttoo on the nose?
I mean, it comes if as a little too extreme.

Or maybe something shady is going on that we ddon't know about?
Like she's found out to be an half elf during a DNA test...and instead of what someone with common sense would do, like talking with the MC, tell him to get her registered or something...they immediately take her away by force and and in a really short time she's already being sold.

I dunno, but that's kinda suspicious.

Maybe I'm.just imagining things and am blinded by the sheer desire to punch that doctor.

We have an Android that can hack other Androids...maybe make it look like an accident? >:3

I named my Android Aigis, in honor of best pesona girl.
 

Knight_of_the_lance

Well-Known Member
Feb 23, 2020
1,059
1,977
Harem Hotel was my first Adult game of such a scope. To me the slave maid elf was just an over the top mashing of lewd tropes together. And with all the sex escalation happening it remained a kink for a long time. It took me playing other games, reading the forums and new updates to the game to see that there was more to the game than dipping your brush in as many pot of paint as possible. the NSFW game developers today aspire to make more than a simple Coïtal bringing tool. Even the ones that make their game as such go to a lot of leights to bring their own twist to it. So to me slavery was there to satisfy a Kink. It was never mine but I could understand it. The lack of reaction from the MC did nothing to hint me that it was not just to satisfy someone's fantasy (from memory of the erly parts). The story thoug brought me around to understand that it was more than kinks.

Now the MC's blank personality and foreignerness (is that a word?) is to alow the player to self insert so all reactions to Lin's presentation are valid and I think we must, to a point, insert our gut feelings and reactions to be the ones from the MC. To me the initial (lack of) reaction to slavery from the MC is due to the fact that before he was a nobody on a different continent that could hardly have any influence on the matter. the only thing he could have donne is being a +1 to the number of people in a manifestation in front of an embassy. He comme to the other side of the world with this mentality and with no footings yet. He does not have any contacts yet. The only thing he has is a building to his name that fell on is lap (a slave as well but it seams to be a footnote for the system). Of course he could not have a grandiose reaction because he never had anything to do with slavery before. There are a few example of abuse that he witness but for him (or me as a player self inserting) those where just the system derailling a bit. As the MC we treat the slaves we own well so we don't witness what hapen to slaves otside our home beside stories told by others. What hapen to Maria is a wakeup call and direct witnessing that what we heard is not deraillings of the system but the system itself. Now with the different contacts that the MC has acquierd throught his life in the hotel he can now hope to do something to modify the system.

The lack of reaction from the start of the game now seams to me because MC didn't need to have a grandiose reaction, he wasen't implicated in the system like he is now and didn't need to stress about slavery. A more pressing concern was to keep the hotel alof.
 
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c3p0

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you keep on nitpicking the guys wordings (wrongly, might i add) because you're on board with what Runey is going for and my man is not, it's your opinion and his opinion, if you're going to critique it's fine, but don't just nitpick
If I would be nitpicking my attempt for this would be lazy. I simply found it interesting, what he sees as root, when I don't see any yet.

I've stated my reason for my point of view, but to repeat it in another wording. You don't know how long the road is, you don't know where it will end, you only know the beginning of this road. For all we know from the road we have, it could lead to Paris, but the whole road could go to Bejing for all we know. So, the first 10 km could the road take goes in the direction of Paris, but the 9000 km that follows go in the direction of Bejing.
Sure, if you want the very first root of the road leads to Paris, but.....

I hope that it is clear what I mean.
Also I've written myself that the only thing we all have are opinions - and arsholes:p.
So, the last part of it is only a unnecessary repetition.
 
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Tavi13

Active Member
Feb 1, 2021
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1,033
Been here since more or less the beginning, and always loved the world building and character development. Always assumed this was pretty much where it was going...
Pretty much the same for me as well (think I first tried this around version .4 or .5).
From the first time I started this, I knew I was going to look for a way to free Lin (even if it meant harassing Runey non-stop :D). I'm not really a 'save-the-world' type but I figured it was probably going to have to go that way to help Lin, since the only alternative would have been for the MC deciding to leave the continent & finding a way to take everyone with him.
 

Runey

Harem Hotel
Game Developer
May 17, 2018
3,965
20,014
hard disagree, he didn't even go to buy her, Helen did, he didn't even think of that, he went insane, i didn't react like that and Maria is one of my absolute favorite characters in this game and for the MC to go at it that way just didn't feel right to me, i wasn't even cursing Cornwall, i was mad, i still felt that the MC could've handled that better, his priority shifted too much for me to agree with it and by the way i'm still on Lin's side of the fence, i hard disagree with Nia's side
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*Common elves live fifteen times longer than humans, meaning a 1000 year old common elf is the equivalent to a 65 year old human, and they age at a similarly reduced rate (that's how Lin can be nearly 300 and look to be about 20). Dark elves life half as long as common elves, so they can live to be about 500, though probably less because they're not getting adequate healthcare, and age at about one-seventh the rate of a human. Half elves live half as long as their parent species, so half-dark elves should live to be about 250, and age at about one-third the rate of a human.
Therefore, Maria should either look a lot younger (like about 7 or so) or be a lot older (mid-fifties), and both would have been noticeable when she was growing up. Neither is the case. I think it was a math mistake; Runey says no.
It also proves the superiority of half-elves; elves live longer than humans but learn more slowly, while Maria is a very intelligent woman who was top of her classes, which proves she learns as quickly as a human, but will live substantially longer. Is this true for all half-elves?
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Runey

Harem Hotel
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May 17, 2018
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The slavery of an entire species is very much known in the outside world, and the MC coming from a culture without it just makes his indifference to it that much worse. He moves to the continet, and one of the first things that happens to him is that he's told, "here, this elf is your property", and his reaction is just, "oh, okay then." He clearly doesn't think that owning a person is a bad thing.

Oh yeah, the elf-droids are abhorrent. I especially like how none of the characters seem to have noticed that their existence has reduced elves even further, from "slave race" to "fuel source". If the entire nations economy becomes dependent on droids that require elf blood to funtion, then elves won't be free, they'll be harvested.
You're totally right here! The fact that the whole world is going along with this for multiple reasons, and the fact MC doesn't care too much about it when he joins is telling about the state of the world. And he's one of the decent ones too. Eventually once he gets to know an elf, his views on them begin to change a bit, he sees them more as equals, he starts falling in love with one, and eventually realizes, alongside you probably, that this place kinda sucks.

And you're right about no one noticing the horrible after effects that would come with elfbots are introduced on a wide scale. This is a character flaw I wrote into Kali specifically. In fact, the only reason Mr. Trenero is doing this off of Syl'anar is because the recent Elvish Rights Act prohibits it on Syl'anar. This could be reproduced with half elves on Syl'anar though.
In any case, fuel source is definitely a step down, and a lot of people don't really see it that way. A large part of why Vanessa was introduced is so she could show Kali (and maybe the player) why these things are so bad, and maybe how Kali can turn something bad like this, into something good. Vanessa is very aware of this world, especially Kali's Dad, which has definitely caused issues in the past. But Vanessa doesn't yet know of elfbots, and would definitely have a thing or two to say to Kali when she finds out.

I mean, I am the sort of guy in real life who thinks that all activists, no matter their cause, are evil and should be banned simply because they are annoying meddlers that can't just shut up and leave the rest of us sensible people be. And even I would stand up to this.
Sometimes things can only be achieved with your voice and vote, yelling is certainly a step up from killing each other over these things, so I'll take annoying people trying to get a point I agree with across than be content with slavery, or whatever else issue.

I'm aware that's been stated, but it's a contradiction with previously stated information. We've been told that dark elves live about seven times longer than humans (half as long as common elves) and half-elves live half as long as their elvish parent. As a result, half-dark elves should live over three time longer than humans, but with Maria we're just told "nope, previous information was wrong". Runey is free to change whatever facets of his story he wants, but those still remain mutually exclusive pieces of information.
If I have ever mentioned that half dark elves live the same as half elves, that should be treated as a bug and fixed. But I think you may be assuming half dark elves were included when something like "Half elves live half as long as elves" was mentioned in the story?

Either way there is definitively a segment of the game where it does feel exactly as demondelic.psy says. It just feels laid back and fun and wholesome and than it slowly transforms into what it is now. And I can totally understand why someone might want more of that. That sort of thing is good and fun and wholesome and it makes you happy. It is overall a good thing. Just as the way the game is going now is also overall a good thing just in a very different way.
And just to be clear, wholesome and fun stuff isn't going away. Autumn will be getting some of the best exhibitionism training scenes, I'm very proud of how they're coming out, and Lin will be getting a romantic date in v0.13, romance is actually something I haven't put too much thought into before, but this is one of the times I tried making something actually romantic. But you'll have to tell me how I did on that one.

I think it's easy to misinterpret where the story is going in a developing game. A year or two ago, when Ashley's depressing story was hitting a high, people were assuming I was going to turn this game into a sad story, people told me it would be a bad idea to kill off characters, that sort of thing. Now the same thing is happening with elvish revolution. This will certainly be a big part of the story, but it is not the only part. The way I see the overarching story is that this "world" is oppressive to all kinds (except with racism, homophobia, and transphobia removed, because it's too political at this moment IRL, but it would definitely be there if I didn't want to tone it down a few notches.)
I would say a better descriptor of where this game's overarching story is going is "Bad to good". Or "Unwelcoming to accepting". The essence of MC's motivations remains in that he wants to make all his girlfriends feel happy and safe, and as much as he would like to keep them safe in his hotel, the world will always be there knocking on his door to fuck something up, which he recently realized. So MC plays the role of a protector here.

Without going into spoilers, a lot of what happens with Maria in v0.13 is date-like. Trying to make her feel better, get her footing again, caring for her. The same sort of themes other characters previously had with other issues. The focus of Harem Hotel is the characters and their stories, and how the world affects them, not the other way around.

But in the end, I don't think the overarching story of this game is changing as much as people are assuming it will. Big things will definitely happen, and the focus will shift from time to time, but I believe the essence will always remain.

Now, in hindsight we can see clues that this is not really the case. But this is with hindsight and replaying. First time in, I could see how someone could make that inference.

Than again, for my part I had my hopes set on it going the way it did pretty much from the moment Lin was introduced. Something about that cute girl being enslaved just felt all kinds of wrong to me. So who am I to say? :)

Either way, I think we can all agree that it speaks to the quality of this game that we can have conversations like this about it. I mean, let's be real here. When is the last time you've heard this sort of discussion being had about most books, let alone games?
It was my goal to attach the player to these characters in order for the player to have motivation about caring how they're treated, feel sorry for them, and wanting to see them have a happy ending. So that these moments feel real and euphoric when they're resolved, and you feel like you got a punch in the gut when something bad happens. Is this cruel of me? Sort of.
But it seems to have worked. I have less confidence that people would care about most of what happened in the recent updates if the previous stuff didn't happen before and you didn't became connected with these characters.

Of course, It's going to get very boring to keep going on dinner dates with Lin every week, so things need to be spiced up

;)
 
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Runey

Harem Hotel
Game Developer
May 17, 2018
3,965
20,014
I dunno...maybe it's jjust me...
But anyone feel like what happened tto Maria was a little ttoo on the nose?
I mean, it comes if as a little too extreme.

Or maybe something shady is going on that we ddon't know about?
Like she's found out to be an half elf during a DNA test...and instead of what someone with common sense would do, like talking with the MC, tell him to get her registered or something...they immediately take her away by force and and in a really short time she's already being sold.

I dunno, but that's kinda suspicious.

Maybe I'm.just imagining things and am blinded by the sheer desire to punch that doctor.

We have an Android that can hack other Androids...maybe make it look like an accident? >:3

I named my Android Aigis, in honor of best pesona girl.
Very suspicious indeed. These people suck, and they would sooner arrest you for holding an undocumented slave than talk to MC about registering her. At this point, they nearly see you as a criminal too. But the doctor is so kind to let you off with only a warning.
 
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