How important are story(plot), dialogue and narrative to you when playing an adult game?

Plot, dialogue and narration are:

  • Very Important

    Votes: 121 66.5%
  • Somewhat important

    Votes: 45 24.7%
  • Not that important

    Votes: 8 4.4%
  • An annoying thing to click past while getting to the H scenes

    Votes: 8 4.4%

  • Total voters
    182

Deleted member 1565614

Active Member
Aug 4, 2019
512
1,046
I do prefer games and VNs with a good cohesive plot. Most of the better one have an actual story which I think separates them from a quick catalog of fappy images.
 
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MOISTNESS

Active Member
Jun 13, 2018
594
1,317
You would just break-one-off to a comic, or a series of images on the web if none of those were important.

An adult gamer requires all of those (to differing degrees I guess) to make it work.

To which degree EACH is important?

"Therein lies the rub".... hehe

I see all 3 of those as one.

And absolutely KEY!

I recently fell in love with a "text based'ish" game because of those three aspects that were done extremely well!

So... for me?.... I guess the answer would be... "ALL important!" hehe
 

Alpine Eagle

Russian Spy
Donor
Compressor
Apr 13, 2019
2,930
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Here on the site I met several types of people, some only need sex scenes, others need a plot. Personally I need the plot.
After all, once the games began with the text.
Now rarely meet game which include in themselves and a good the plot and the scene. In games that have great scenes and animation, there is almost no plot. And in those games where a good story, or scenes "just painted", or developers do not have enough experience with graphics.
 
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Sphere42

Active Member
Sep 9, 2018
926
972
I tend to veer between both extremes based on quality. Basically even a cookie-cutter plot with cliche characters can really enhance the work if done well overall but anything from cringey bad writing/machine translation to plot holes to the story simply clashing with my mood/view of the sex can make me wish all of them didn't exist at all and people were still making flash games where a clothed animation on the title screen was the full extent of the plot.
 

Agent HK47

Active Member
Mar 3, 2018
649
1,950
For me it is pretty important. A couple of years ago, when I first found adult games, it wasn't all that important to me. However, as I have been exposed to increasingly better stories and interesting characters, it has become a very important aspect for me. Seeing a picture of a man and a woman having sex is not really enough to get me aroused, because I have no knowledge about them, what their relations are, how they came to be in this position, ect.

The questions: "Who?" "Where?" "Why" & "When" are very important things to have answered for me. If not, then I might as well watch some real porn, cause it has better graphics and fluid animations.
 

RogueKnightUK

Co-Writer: Retrieving The Past
Game Developer
Jul 10, 2018
913
2,402
That's actually a slightly tricky question. You see, if a game has a story, then it is absolutely essential that it have a truly good one, well thought through, with characters acting believably for who they are and what situations they are in.

BUT ... There are also games where the story is barely there and the entire thing is just fun. And some of those are awesome.

It all depends on whether the game creator is intending there to be a story that is taken seriously or not. I guess a few examples are in order. I really enjoy 'Harem Hotel', but if anyone is taking that story seriously I'd be amazed, (and probably a little concerned). It is a game of silly situations for pure fun, and as long as it is happy with that, it continues to delight fans who want some silly fun.
 

megaplayboy10k

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2018
1,522
2,027
That's actually a slightly tricky question. You see, if a game has a story, then it is absolutely essential that it have a truly good one, well thought through, with characters acting believably for who they are and what situations they are in.

BUT ... There are also games where the story is barely there and the entire thing is just fun. And some of those are awesome.

It all depends on whether the game creator is intending there to be a story that is taken seriously or not. I guess a few examples are in order. I really enjoy 'Harem Hotel', but if anyone is taking that story seriously I'd be amazed, (and probably a little concerned). It is a game of silly situations for pure fun, and as long as it is happy with that, it continues to delight fans who want some silly fun.
Right. Not every novel needs to be Moby Dick. There's still a modicum of skill required to make a game with a silly plot entertaining, though.
 
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RogueKnightUK

Co-Writer: Retrieving The Past
Game Developer
Jul 10, 2018
913
2,402
Right. Not every novel needs to be Moby Dick. There's still a modicum of skill required to make a game with a silly plot entertaining, though.
Yeah, but you didn't ask how important skill was only "story, dialog, and narrative" :D
 

J..D

Naughty Attic Gaming
Donor
Game Developer
Apr 19, 2019
733
4,983
I haven't played a H-Game in quite a while now.
But when I used to play them, it really depended on my mood of that day.

If I'm already spending the entire day writing something myself, the last thing I want to do at that moment is to play something with a engaging story and pay attention the entire time.
At that stage I just want to hang back, relax and play something "light" and "simple"

But in a normal mood, my preference was always a game with a good story that captivates you, characters that you feel a connection with and a narrative that sucks you in.
At that stage I just want to play a game with a story... 18+ or not, it really doesn't matter.
 
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SeventhVixen

Active Member
Game Developer
Jan 13, 2019
537
1,784
And old conversation, RogueKnightUK summarizes it perfectly;

Is not the same to make a game with porn (a software with some interactivity/gameplay witch purpose is only to arouse you in to the fappening)
And the objective of a game that wants to tell a a compelling story, express emotions, tell a tale, but is just happens that is considered "Adult/Porn" because has sexual activities (be it just as adult entertainment, as when games where more cheekier in the 90's) or just because the dev also likes some silly fuckings as a nice cut from the drama from time to time, like myself.
 

SeventhVixen

Active Member
Game Developer
Jan 13, 2019
537
1,784
If there's no story, why not just watch porn?
There are many types of "adult games" or "porn games" besides the story driven, Farm simulators, brothel simulators, point and click shennaningans like Bambook games (that I love), 2d plataforms with lewd scenes or just that the girls are very poorly dressed (erotism).... Some people like to "play a game" and in the same time get aroused.

Along the years I worked on some little SFW games and every time the women of my games ended being extremely suggestive, just in the frontier with No kids friendly. Because I like to make games, but I like "to make porn" too. So finally switched to NSFW. But I don't care if I make a story driven game, a 3d survival, or a 2d platform, I just want erotism on it.
 
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DeadPotato

Developer of Tail Saga : The Princess Apprentice
Game Developer
May 8, 2018
138
190
I don't feel like the quality of the plot and narrative is as important as the execution of it.
You can do overused cliché porn stories in your games, but you need to do it right. That means, the dialogue must be good, the characters must be enjoyable. Make us care about the characters themselves, less about the 'what is happening' and more about the 'who the what is happening to'. There's a subtle but important difference between the two.
 
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Crossett

Member
Sep 23, 2017
167
228
Not that much. I have a vivid imagination. If a game doesn't tell me everything, I usually make up my own story why things are happening. Harder to "imagine" good gameplay.

I've played rpg maker games entirely in moonrunes before while inventing a story in my head that includes fetishes I like, only to later get disappointed playing a translated version and finding out the story didnt go nearly as dark as I had hoped it was going for.
 

Niteowl

Member
Game Developer
Apr 6, 2018
298
378
I only play games with stories I like.
But what is a good story? It depends on our taste as well.
Still, yeah, if the story is not interesting to me I won't bother. If I just want to watch sex there are tons of better options in regular porn, JAV etc.
 

Niteowl

Member
Game Developer
Apr 6, 2018
298
378
That's actually a slightly tricky question. You see, if a game has a story, then it is absolutely essential that it have a truly good one, well thought through, with characters acting believably for who they are and what situations they are in.

BUT ... There are also games where the story is barely there and the entire thing is just fun. And some of those are awesome.

It all depends on whether the game creator is intending there to be a story that is taken seriously or not. I guess a few examples are in order. I really enjoy 'Harem Hotel', but if anyone is taking that story seriously I'd be amazed, (and probably a little concerned). It is a game of silly situations for pure fun, and as long as it is happy with that, it continues to delight fans who want some silly fun.
I don't think anybody here wants their story to be taken 'seriously'.
What does that even mean? Millions of people love Star Wars but I don't think anybody thinks the Force is real. Sure there are serious debates about the movies but again I doubt anybody thinks the story is real. People who took it seriously ,maybe by attacking actors who play the villains in real life, would be locked up.
I don't think any of the marvel movies as serious and yet they make a lot of money.

My point is of course most hentai games will have silly stories. That's pretty much by design and really on par with most movies. But there is still a big difference between fun well-crafted stories and poorly constructed cliches.

Looking at your example, I love Harem Hotel and I think the story is very good. Do I take it seriously? Well, of course not, it's fiction and it's silly fun, like most Hollywood movies, but I still think it's a good story in the sense that the characters are well constructed and can elicit some emotional response in the player. The overall world also feels unique because of its mix with fatasy.
But games with bland loserville mcs and cookie cutter floozies, mixed with trite dialogue? All set in some nondescript condo or gym that could be anywhere? Nothing interesting there. Pass.
 
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