How do you actually play VNs? Three questions.

[fromplutoguy]

I’ve been reading a lot of VN threads here, and since I’m working on my own project, there are a few things I keep wondering about.

1. Do you enjoy situations where a girl’s stats go up even if you had zero influence on what happened? (Like affection rising “because the story said so.”)
2. Do you like replaying sex scenes multiple times? (Some players do, some don’t — I’m curious where most people stand.)
3. Do you actually read dialogue when it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome? (Or do you skip until something meaningful happens?)

Curious to hear how others see it.

 

[d2dacameron]

Do you enjoy situations where a girl’s stats go up even if you had zero influence on what happened? (Like affection rising “because the story said so.”)

Sounds fine but a little superfluous, it can be nice if their affection only increases when they realise the impact of a decision (realising you did something thoughtful).

Do you like replaying sex scenes multiple times? (Some players do, some don’t — I’m curious where most people stand.)

Sometimes, usually depends on the game. Most of the time I'm not playing AVNs for the scenes but if I find one that I really like then I might revisit it.

Do you actually read dialogue when it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome? (Or do you skip until something meaningful happens?)

Yeah I read everything. Unfortunately though if a game fails to keep me engaged I usually drop it and try something else. Can't remember ever skipping dialogue in a game that I was invested in.

 

[anne O'nymous]

Do you enjoy situations where a girl’s stats go up even if you had zero influence on what happened? (Like affection rising “because the story said so.”)

I fully dislike it.
It just point to the said stats being just a superfluous game mechanism made solely for the dev to be able to say that he don't make a basic VN. If it don't come from a choice make by the player it have no reason to exist.
Not that the change necessarily need to be immediate. You can by example reject the advance of a girl, then later your girlfriend will say that she heard about it and is happy, what will make you earn one point. But it need to come from a decision made by the player.

Do you like replaying sex scenes multiple times? (Some players do, some don’t — I’m curious where most people stand.)

No, but the sex scene aren't the main reason why I play. This being said, I'm not necessarily against the same sex scene happening more than one in the story; at least as long as it don't mean grinding.
If I wanted to see sex scenes, I would watch a porn movie, at least it involve real persons.

Do you actually read dialogue when it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome? (Or do you skip until something meaningful happens?)

It depend. There's games where I read every thing, but there's where I'm interested in the mystery and fully bored by the badly wrote filler scenes, that I will tend to skip.


All this being said, do the game the way you want to do it, not how less than 0,001% of a more than 9 millions community tell you they like their games.

 

[Insomnimaniac Games]

For #2, I specifically like repeatable scenes with dialogue changes. I do not like playing games where nothing is repeatable and view a "gallery" as a piss poor substitute.

 

[olaf_yaddax]

1. Do you enjoy situations where a girl’s stats go up even if you had zero influence on what happened? (Like affection rising “because the story said so.”)

Nope.

1. Do you like replaying sex scenes multiple times? (Some players do, some don’t — I’m curious where most people stand.)

If I'm watching the scenes again optionally, that's fine. But if you're forcing me to watch the same scenes, then we'll have a problem.

1. Do you actually read dialogue when it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome? (Or do you skip until something meaningful happens?)

Sure. What's the point of playing if you're not going to read the dialogue? Besides, it's difficult to tell which dialogue is necessary for the story and which is unnecessary.

 

[NeonSelf]

1 - its ok for story puposes

2 - Best part of the game is repeatable scenes. I tend to 'live' inside the game, not pushing the plot forward, just enjoying the content. Rogue-Like:Evolution is an exampe of such sandbox exprerience.

3 - I have to. Too afraid to miss something important. Filler dialogs are not marked as fillers that I can safely skip. Some dialogs are really interesting to read, because they push the story further or just funny.
But there is also an extreme example of fillers - Sweet Affection, there you have to skip for minutes and its super annoying.

 

[soprano31]

Do you enjoy situations where a girl’s stats go up even if you had zero influence on what happened? (Like affection rising “because the story said so.”)

No,i hate it when i have no control over the choices and they where made anyway

Do you like replaying sex scenes multiple times? (Some players do, some don’t — I’m curious where most people stand.)

No,the sex scenes can be made as beautifully as they want,
they remain rendered pixels..
If i want to see sex scenes I'll watch a good old porn movie with real people ( yes,they really exist !! )

Do you actually read dialogue when it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome? (Or do you skip until something meaningful happens?)

Yes,due to professional deformity i read everything,
i want to know everything about each character and their background,
the situations and circumstances.

 

[fromplutoguy]

All this being said, do the game the way you want to do it, not how less than 0,001% of a more than 9 millions community tell you they like their games.

Wow, that actually means a lot.
The project already has its direction — I’m just checking how many players think about these parts of AVNs the same way I do.

 

[morphnet]

Do you enjoy situations where a girl’s stats go up even if you had zero influence on what happened? (Like affection rising “because the story said so.”)

Generally it's not too bad unless there are multiple routes or multiple stats.

Do you like replaying sex scenes multiple times? (Some players do, some don’t — I’m curious where most people stand.)

Yes but personally I like it more if a scene is repeatable that the dev adds choice based variations. (camera angels / clothing options etc.) not many, just 2 or 3 to keep the scene interesting.

Do you actually read dialogue when it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome? (Or do you skip until something meaningful happens?)

I do and I think a lot of players do for the first playthrough of new content. Though for some games like chasing sunsets I re-read it from the start with each update because the story was that good.

hope this helps and good luck with your project

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

1. No. I don't dislike it, just... Meh.

2. In a VN, if the scene is static and is not a part of progression loop? Not really.

3. I try to read everything. Can you explain a bit what do you mean by "it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome," what would that be? An absolutely random tangent or worldbuilding lore dump? As a rule of thumb I want everything to be related to something in some way. But it doesn't have to be a hard connection. This is a very broad topic of what good writing is.

 

[lfgals1]

#2 I really enjoy rewatching scenes if the story elements and characterization has advanced.

 

[epicwaterbottle999]

1. Not really no.
2. If it is optional yes. Being forced to go to a gallery to replay sucks.
3. Depends on how into the game I am. The more I'm into it, the more I read.

 

[Goeffel]

[*]Do you enjoy situations where a girl’s stats go up even if you had zero influence on what happened? (Like affection rising “because the story said so.”)

- "because story said so" - hate it
- because for every LI runs a RNG for this day/week : cool thing (this girl's hamster died: mood -1, this girl got her requested raise: mood +2). adds "realism", girls have a life.

[*]Do you like replaying sex scenes multiple times? (Some players do, some don’t — I’m curious where most people stand.)
- force me to, and maybe even several times. bleh!
- let me if I chose so: yes

[*]Do you actually read dialogue when it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome? (Or do you skip until something meaningful happens?)
yes. if it gets too bad, and I start to feel like skipping, then I usually end not continuing at all.

 

[That other person]

I’ve been reading a lot of VN threads here, and since I’m working on my own project, there are a few things I keep wondering about.

1. Do you enjoy situations where a girl’s stats go up even if you had zero influence on what happened? (Like affection rising “because the story said so.”)
2. Do you like replaying sex scenes multiple times? (Some players do, some don’t — I’m curious where most people stand.)
3. Do you actually read dialogue when it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome? (Or do you skip until something meaningful happens?)

Curious to hear how others see it.

1- Not quite. If I took a decision early on and we then see the impact later and she actually finds out about our decision, then okay, I understand that, but if it rises with absolutely no input on my part, then no, not at all.

2- If I'm allowed to choose, then yes. It makes sense. Make it optional though, and if possible do introduce new dialogue as the characters already did whatever they are doing once and their relationship has changed one way or another.

3- It depends. Some VNs have cool stuff going on outside the romance, if I like it I read everything, otherwise I'll mostly skim over the text to not miss out on details about romanceable characters and pay attention when romance is happening.

 

[Nemurusuji]

1. I don't mind it, but I think it has to be balanced with player agency. As long as the game can handle it, I think more agency is usually better
2. Sometimes, it's nice to have the option at least
3. It depends on the quality of the writing. Ideally the dialogue is working to build the tension and interesting things are happening, but with a lot of games it's just badly written filler. I usually end up skipping that

 

[hoochimama]

1. Ambivalent as long as it's very rare. I can understand that stories can't branch infinitely and some meaningful events might be out of player's control.

2. No. What I find hot is the idea of a given teasing girl doing something with the MC for the first time or cheating around on MC for the first time, or being caught in the act for the first time. It's the "I can't believe she did that" kick that matters. If I watch the scene again then the story novelty is gone and it's just poorly drawn/poorly modeled pictures of barbie dolls fucking and I'd rather look at real women instead. But I don't see a problem with them being repeatable for those who want it anyway.

3. No. If it's a lot of text without any significant plot or character development I just start fast forwarding until I hit something new such as a choice, new location, character or sexual situation. Most of these stories are so simplistic you don't even need text to figure out what's going on.

 

[fromplutoguy]

3. I try to read everything. Can you explain a bit what do you mean by "it doesn’t affect relationships or any outcome," what would that be? An absolutely random tangent or worldbuilding lore dump? As a rule of thumb I want everything to be related to something in some way. But it doesn't have to be a hard connection. This is a very broad topic of what good writing is.

Yes, that’s part of what I meant — things like random tangents or bits of lore that don’t connect to anything.
But I also meant situations where a conversation with a woman gives you no real choices. It just plays out automatically and ends with “do you want to have sex or not,” while nothing the MC says along the way matters.
The player never influences anything, but still gets access to every scene as if their choices mattered.

2. No. What I find hot is the idea of a given teasing girl doing something with the MC for the first time or cheating around on MC for the first time, or being caught in the act for the first time. It's the "I can't believe she did that" kick that matters. If I watch the scene again then the story novelty is gone and it's just poorly drawn/poorly modeled pictures of barbie dolls fucking and I'd rather look at real women instead. But I don't see a problem with them being repeatable for those who want it anyway.

Your answer is very close to how I feel about it. Getting to know a character’s boundaries — and then seeing them crossed for the first time — is what makes those moments interesting to me.

 

[Nemurusuji]

Your answer is very close to how I feel about it. Getting to know a character’s boundaries — and then seeing them crossed for the first time — is what makes those moments interesting to me.

Totally agree, those moments of crossing the boundaries are always high points no matter what kind of game it is

 

[Everest31]

Mostly 1 and 3

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

I see. Well, random tangents are generally... bad. Unless they are good in and of themselves (99.99% aren't). Lore dumps CAN be good for setting the mood of the setting, but my opinion is that they need to be strictly optional, exploratory, and diegetic.

It just plays out automatically and ends with “do you want to have sex or not,” while nothing the MC says along the way matters.
The player never influences anything, but still gets access to every scene as if their choices mattered.

Linear dialogues are a bit better than tangents, because they still can offer characterization. Sure, having branching would be better, but audiences understand the limitations. You can't have a huge number of meaningful choices, it's just not feasible to write them all. As long as the dialogue itself reveals something about the character or relationship, it's fine.

That said... Refusing to have sex in the end is a meaninful choice and could lead to a fun route. People don't like being rejected, esp if they aren't used to that.