How important is writing quality to you in the Adult games you play?

[AhoyLaddies]

I wanted to ask this question to get an idea of where my opinions differ or relate to the rest of the F95 community.

Personally, the writing is a very important thing for me in order for an adult game to be enjoyable. However, it does have it's own caveats.

- For one, I think its important for a developer to understand whether or not writing is even needed. There is nothing worse than a few slideshow images(especially a VN) crammed full of unnecessary dialogue or exposition. Its not so much that the writing itself is good or bad, but rather it was not needed in the first place.
To make matters worse, there is a tendency to shoe-horn plot relevant information within these overly long spiels that will more than likely be forgotten or be overlooked.

There is a time and place for that sort of information, and placing it smack dab in the middle of a long monologue is the best way for relevant information to be missed. This is especially true if you cannot capture the readers attention.

- Secondly, understanding the purpose of your game. For reasons that I cannot comprehend, there are many games that attempt to create a sense of drama, tension, sadness, etc. where there is no reason for it to exist. Or rather, an attempt to make the plot more complex than what is believable within the context of the game.

There are examples of where characters are created within a game, and some information about them is supplied throughout the course of your playthrough, however out of thin air, for whatever plot reasons the author/developer decided to come up with, a tragedy occurs. Suddenly, there is a massive disconnect between you the player, the MC or character you are assuming the role or perspective of, and the other character(typically h-scene relevant char.).​

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You the player, even in spite of thinking very hard, can find little reason to care about this h-relevant character. However, the MC and h-relevant character seem to have a sort of heart-to-heart moment that does not seem out of the blue to them in the slightest. They have, through means I am not aware of, been able to come to a defacto conclusion about one another, and have a dialogue using information the player is unaware of, to the extent it would make Professor X jealous.​

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Part of me believes that the author had the idea of the relationship between these two characters already figured out, and simply expected the player/reader to come to the same conclusion as they did. Another part of me believes this is a result of pure laziness, and another part of me believes somewhere in the development process scenes and dialogue were cut.​

So now, we have this big boiling pot of a monstrosity. Heart felt moments appearing seemingly out of thin air, plot relevant information falling on deaf ears, or simply writing that should have been condensed(like this whole essay I wrote).​

Still, that is one pet peeve of mine and I continue to run into it every time I try a new adult game. Dialogue between two characters, talking as if their connection is closer than what it seems to the player, or discussing something that makes no sense from the player's perspective, but definitely does to the characters.

Agh my head.

So, I'd say writing is important to me. But, if your primary focus is H, but you need a plot to back it up, go right ahead. Just...don't feel forced to make the story more than it is. The chances of any of us becoming the next Stephen King is close to zero.

 

[Meaning Less]

Original or relevant stories are quite hard to find and most of it falls into generic and dumbed down writing with repetitive scenarios that are just used as fodder for the pornographic content.

Honestly if any game is going for the plot I expect it to be really good even if you removed all the sex from the game, otherwise at least make it silly enough to be enjoyable.

The exception so far are some really well written japanese vns, some in fact that even got adapted for tv. But that's something I doubt we will see happening soon with any western adult game, especially considering most of them are just a buffed version of generic porn stories and have nothing left if you strip all the porn from it.

 

[Asia Argento]

I would rather 1 game like Ruin Me or Absolute Power Corruption where effort is put into the story and it doesnt look all too impressive but the story gives meaning to the porn than 5 games where effort is put into making things look pretty but the story is trash therefore the porn is meaningless like Spacecorps XXX for example.

 

[PeterEnis23]

It needs to match the rest of the game.

For example, I played a game with a heavy femdom plot, were after some event woman ruled and males were basically reduced to 2nd lvl citizens (unless/until you work your way up). The plot is so plumb already, I didnt mind the rather plumb dialog in the game either. It was matching the overall game and while not the greatest game itself, it served its purpose and was an enjoyable experience.

Honestly thinking about, well written deep characters and such wouldve made this game worse.

Im a bit torn. On the one hand I know exactly what you mean and there are a bunch of games I didnt finish because the writing/story/characters were off and I couldnt immerse into the world. And can totally relate.

On the other hand, these games are a both an expression of the creators mind and allow for ultimate fantasies. Woman dont like X? It makes no sense that s/he would do Y after Z? Well, in the creators mind, they do and thats perfectly fine.

As such "good" writing is at least to an extent subjective. Just as in real life, I often dont understand why someone would do something and I actually like that this also is reflected in the games I play.


There is a saying in the film-industry: "Show dont tell"
You could translate this to: Do you need a text telling you the girl is troubled/happy? Or would you prefer to see it in the picture?

The obvious answer is yes.

So, I conclude with what I said at the start:

Its complimentary.

A pure lewd text-adventure would be missing something.
A pure lewd picture-collection would be missing something.

If the writting is strong, I need less visuals.
If the visuals are strong, I need less writting.

But ultimatively Id prefer both to have high quality and complement each other.
I dont want to read what I see and I dont want to see what I read.

 

[Pretentious Goblin]

Other than for relatively non-verbal things like ryona-style games, the writing pretty much makes or breaks a game for me. A competent writer that understands the fetish they're working with can go a long way for me. Rarely, I'll also come across a writer that's not that great in/at English, but understands their game's "hook" and and does a good job of hammering it home (e.g. Fashion Business).

 

[Jofur]

I'm more into sandbox/adventure/open-world games, so it's not critical, but it does help a lot in making me stick around.
But in general as long as it's not filled with terrible grammar or spelling mistakes I'm gonna be fairly happy as long as there are other elements to pick up the slack. I've only come across two or three games where the writing has been so bad I had to stop playing.

I mean I read a lot of generic copy-paste harem manga so my standards aren't exactly high as long as I get cute and sexy girls in lewd situations.

 

[Rafster]

I'm more into sandbox/adventure/open-world games, so it's not critical, but it does help a lot in making me stick around.
But in general as long as it's not filled with terrible grammar or spelling mistakes I'm gonna be fairly happy as long as there are other elements to pick up the slack. I've only come across two or three games where the writing has been so bad I had to stop playing.

That's exactly my take, point by point. I've learned to not be so critical with other devs. As long as I can understand it, it's fine. Hell, my english is horrible, and here I am trying to make a game.

 

[woody554]

I think it's one of those 'nice to have' issues that people keep massively exaggerating both its quality and importance. we mostly gravitate towards our specific kinks, have already read all the obvious stories with them, and will desperately seek out any new stories with those kinks to feed our addiction.

if there's a story about big tits, and a guy who loooves big tits sees it, he's not gonna skip it because the writing wasn't good. he'll go in hoping it's well written, but if it has huge tits he's gonna suffer a lot for it. and drop the best writing in seconds if no big tits.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

I couldn't care less about sex or graphics as long as the story is great.
That is how much high quality story means to me personally.
Nevertheless a game is more than just story, otherwise it becomes an electronic book.

 

[all4stars]

I don't like a lot of text in an adult 'game', if fact I skip a lot of it. If it takes too long until a choise appears, I lose interest in the game, that's what I like about Sisterly Lust, cause from the moment you show up the game lets you decide (kiss or hug at the beggining). That's how most VNs should be IMO

 

[Jinsoyun]

For me games are mostly divided into two categories: large and small scale.

When i start large scale games i sit down with the intent to read their stories and get to know character. These games don't have to be complex or ground breaking, but their story and writing has to be good enough to not be a chore to slug through it, like some longer VNs and RPGs. These take hours or even several nights to read through, but if the writing is good enough i never really have the urge to just skip parts and never look back. Because when i start skipping too much i often drop the game.

So for larger scale games my main requirements for the writing are:
-decent quality
-good pacing

Smaller scale games are not necessarily short or too simple. For example a lot of "trainer" games are in this group for me and they can get very long and needlessly complicated, but when i play a small scale game i'm mostly focusing on "unlocking a gallery", rather than discovering a new world or intriguing stories. I like these games to be self aware and a bit more focused on the goods, so to speak. I really don't need the largest map RPGMaker5000 can create or the NewTolkienOfOurAge to write a thousand page long world building to a renpy game i can play through in 15 minutes after skipping the intro. Here the writing is needed to add some flavor and context to the scenes, because otherwise i could just look art galleries or cg rips too, there are a lot to be found here.

main requirements:
-add flavor
-don't be distracting

I could ramble on, but in short, to me it's important that the writing matches the style and scale of the game.

 

[AhoyLaddies]

I don't like a lot of text in an adult 'game', if fact I skip a lot of it. If it takes too long until a choise appears, I lose interest in the game, that's what I like about Sisterly Lust, cause from the moment you show up the game lets you decide (kiss or hug at the beggining). That's how most VNs should be IMO

Interestingly enough, the moment I find myself skipping dialogue or text in an H-game(not skimming, I mean straight up holding ctrl) is the moment I know its time to put that game back on the shelf because I've already lost interest in the game.
I don't mean to say writing is the be all end all, but if it's included it shouldn't be for the sake of having it there. If you can replace a character dialogue with an animated action, or describe an event visually rather than with words, I think that would be a great idea. Its the medium that makes video games so great. This is probably more of a glaring issue with VNs. Some games would be better off under a different approach.

 

[AhoyLaddies]

For me games are mostly divided into two categories: large and small scale.

When i start large scale games i sit down with the intent to read their stories and get to know character. These games don't have to be complex or ground breaking, but their story and writing has to be good enough to not be a chore to slug through it, like some longer VNs and RPGs. These take hours or even several nights to read through, but if the writing is good enough i never really have the urge to just skip parts and never look back. Because when i start skipping too much i often drop the game.

So for larger scale games my main requirements for the writing are:
-decent quality
-good pacing

Smaller scale games are not necessarily short or too simple. For example a lot of "trainer" games are in this group for me and they can get very long and needlessly complicated, but when i play a small scale game i'm mostly focusing on "unlocking a gallery", rather than discovering a new world or intriguing stories. I like these games to be self aware and a bit more focused on the goods, so to speak. I really don't need the largest map RPGMaker5000 can create or the NewTolkienOfOurAge to write a thousand page long world building to a renpy game i can play through in 15 minutes after skipping the intro. Here the writing is needed to add some flavor and context to the scenes, because otherwise i could just look art galleries or cg rips too, there are a lot to be found here.

main requirements:
-add flavor
-don't be distracting

I could ramble on, but in short, to me it's important that the writing matches the style and scale of the game.

I can agree with this take. I think its important to look at things within the context of the game. An ideal trainer, in my mind, has great player-game interaction with accompanying visuals. Writing can take a back seat here to those two, in the same way you might feel like playing Doom over Detroit: Become Human.

 

[desmosome]

For me. If it's vanilla, it better have exceptional writing and an actual plot. No amount of render quality will save it if the writing is shit. Great gameplay can sometimes save it though.

If it's a specific fetish I like, I might be a bit more lenient. I don't necessarily need a large scale core plot. The character interactions around some specific fetish might be enough. However, the writing still needs to be up to par. Fetish isn't gonna carry it by itself if it's some Engrish copy pasta rehash with zero inspiration.

 

[thatisthecase]

I don't like complicated plot at all, most of these stories are complicated but not good. I've seen so many of them that they have become bland already. It's especially bad when the game takes a long time between each update since I probably has forgotten half of the plot before coming back to the game.
I like writing that provides context to make the scenes hotter.
To be fair, I only play porn games for my fetishes.

 

[HMCat]

Everyone's ideas are different, and you can't satisfy everyone, but a good game must have its unique advantages, a good storyline, or an addictive way to play, but worst of all, there are none of these two advantages.

 

[Hildegardt]

I've got a related question of my own: Does good writing make a creepy story better or worse? For example an incestuous harem is pretty fucked up, but now imagine a believably written incestuous harem with relatable characters. You know, the kind of story that wouldn't end well, if it was a french indie movie. It's like good writing defeats the purpose in this case, because it's kind of a boner killer.

I've seen a lot of people claim that they care about the writing in an AVN, but more often than not it seems like a "perfect game" to them is just a game that gives them exactly what they want. From what I can tell, people here pretty much unanimously hate conflict and confrontational characters.
It's also the people that "really care about the story" that always seem to get personally offended, whenever someone else points out the shoddy writing of their favourite AVN.

 

[PeterEnis23]

I've got a related question of my own: Does good writing make a creepy story better or worse? For example an incestuous harem is pretty fucked up, but now imagine a believably written incestuous harem with relatable characters. You know, the kind of story that wouldn't end well, if it was a french indie movie. It's like good writing defeats the purpose in this case, because it's kind of a boner killer.

Some people "enjoy" Tragedy/Horror/Whatever. Think Serbian Movie as an example.
If its supposed to feel real, youd need good writing.

 

[Meaning Less]

Does good writing make a creepy story better or worse?

I believe that's op point. Sometimes less is more, a good writer knows when he should hold back also.

Overwriting can easily fall under poor writing, especially if they are trying to force you into something instead of just making you curious about it.
There is usually a right time for information dump and not all games should have them.

 

[Multy2k]

Well... the writings I enjoy the most is the ones from Type-Moon. Admittedly Ataraxia was the worst... but the others are good.
Story is pretty important to me to give me a sense of completion in a game or a movie...