How much gameplay do you like in NSFW games?

[Kodra_Dev]

Of course, we don't play porn game just for the gameplay. But I wonder, how much gameplay is perfect for you? In the scale from 1 to 5:

1. Just dialog options. No gameplay.
2. Trivial games. e.g. Black Jack, Bulls and Cows.
3. Well-known classic games. e.g. Match-3, Tetris.
4. Gameplay that is unique to the game and needs some skill/strategy. e.g. Gwent for Witcher.
5. Serious gameplay that people may play even without NSFW content. e.g. indie games on steam.

Let's assume they provide an "easy mode", so the gameplay will not be too hard that you can't see the NSFW part.

Please share your opinion!

 

[Ambir]

Why limit the options to 2? I feel like this will limit the usefulness of your poll, as some people will only vote with their first choices and will ignore types of games that they would otherwise be perfectly fine with.

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Of course, we don't play porn game just for the gameplay.

Actually, some of us kinda do.
If the gameplay, story, combat seem interesting enough, you can bet your ass i'll play.
On the other hand, i don't play porn just for porn. We have hentai/doujinshi sites for that.
Porn supposed to greatly enhance the fun that is already there, not act as a replacement because you suck at making games.

 

[nln0]

I need my games to have something to do in them like gameplay, a sandbox where I can do a different character story, or something else. It's hard for me to get into a lot of VN's just for the fact its mostly clicking and reading.

 

[zuulan]

I like adult content, but i still play for entertainment, so i expect gameplay, not just click to watch porn scenes. Visual novel is not a game, it just porn scenes with load of text.

I prefer 5, option where you can still without a NSFW, but still 4th option is acceptable. I think there is only few games that pass my preferance. On is certainly Masters of Raana. In game decisions should matter, but if im realy bored i might just "play" Visual novel with good story and few option.

 

[Guntag]

None of the above (not even number 1). I consider stat management, or management in general (Mystwood Manor for example) as gameplay and I like it. Minigames, not so much (I didn't really like Gwent in Witcher 3 nor the card game in FFVII). Think of it a little like Chess. Chess isn't about moving pieces on the board, it's about considering all the options and making decisions. I consider this interesting gameplay.

 

[Kodra_Dev]

None of the above (not even number 1). I consider stat management, or management in general (Mystwood Manor for example) as gameplay and I like it. Minigames, not so much (I didn't really like Gwent in Witcher 3 nor the card game in FFVII). Think of it a little like Chess. Chess isn't about moving pieces on the board, it's about considering all the options and making decisions. I consider this interesting gameplay.

Is Gwent really that different from Chess tho? Or you mean you rather have a whole game based on Gwent, instead of "Gwent as a minigame", like in Witcher 3?

 

[sliveart777]

In an ideal world every adult game would have top tier gameplay comparable to regular games just with sexual content on top. Unfortunately we don't live in that world so I'll settle for rpgm combat or other simple gameplay mechanics.

 

[Guntag]

Is Gwent really that different from Chess tho? Or you mean you rather have a whole game based on Gwent, instead of "Gwent as a minigame", like in Witcher 3?

What I meant is when playing Witcher 3, I wanted to play an rpg/adventure/action game and playing Gwent felt like disturbing what I was doing. Gwent is a different game inside an other game. I can also enjoy a card game (like Gwent), but I'm not a fan of having my game interrupted by an other type of game. I'm not sure I'd like a card game as an "adult game" though. I like to have some kind of story (doesn't have to be deep) and characters relationships/dialogues.

The Chess analogy was just there to mean that just making decisions and managing ressources can be considered gameplay.

 

[Glib_Gentleman]

Unless your porn game has some kind of outstanding story or unique visuals I can't get anywhere else, I'm going to need SOME gameplay. It can be as simple as some light inventory puzzles, some map exploration, etc. but I need SOMETHING.

Because, yeah, I'm playing a porn game. I made that decision consciously because I want some gameplay. If I'm in the mood for just porn, I'm on the internet. Pornhub, hentai sites, and image search is all right here. If I've gone to the trouble to download a porn game, the GAME part is definitely 50% of the equation I'm expecting.

Stat management, branching choices, etc. are all fine. I don't need something crazy, but I want something more than a linear visual novel.

 

[Jofur]

It doesn't take a huge amount for me to enjoy a game. But it has to have some interactivity and things to click on, it can't just be a straight up visual novel. For example I've been playing "What A Legend" recently and I just realized now that it has no real gameplay other than "click on the image with a black outline". But the illusion of choice no matter how small still helps a great deal to make the world feel more immersive.

I'm not picky but the more gameplay the better really. Modded games like Skyrim or The Sims 4 make for some amazing porn(some lackluster visuals and animations aside) since you get all the context a proper game gives you. If I want to satisfy a fantasy of being an adventurer seducing cute elves for example, there are few porn games that will give you the same level of immersion as Skyrim or Oblivion. Where you get to actually live the fantasy of an adventurer and all that it entails. Be it exploring tombs, haggling with merchants, killing goblins or indeed; banging elf maidens.

 

[Synx]

I wouldn't mind some gameplay if its good, even if its something simple, but I can't say I know any adult game with good gameplay elements. Different choices and sandbox elements are fine in most games (but I won't call those gameplay elements), but anything outside that is often there just to prolong a game without adding value. Especially stats (like strength, intelligence, etc.) and money in games that you earn by just repeating the same thing over and over are something I avoid (or hope theres a cheat mod for it).

But I don't expect gameplay from an adult game. If you got the skillls to make good gameplay elements, why would you limit yourself to a relative small target audience of adult games?

 

[Meaning Less]

Especially stats (like strength, intelligence, etc.) and money in games that you earn by just repeating the same thing over and over are something I avoid (or hope theres a cheat mod for it).

The way I see it stats and money are there entirely to adjust the pacing of a game.

You allow players to unlock scenes slowly but at their own leisure. You don't need to play the game completely linear A>B>C>D>E>F but instead you can use that money to unlock scenes in the order you want while still having constant and well paced progress.

Things that are way more expensive aren't there for you to grind nonstop until unlocking them... They are there because you will probably find a faster way to make money later in the game so you have to keep buying the cheap stuff until you reach that point in the game.

 

[Synx]

The way I see it stats and money are there entirely to adjust the pacing of a game.

You allow players to unlock scenes slowly but at their own leisure.

You don't need to play the game completely linear A>B>C>D>E>F but instead you can use that money to unlock scenes in the order you want while still having constant and well paced progress.

Things that are more expensive aren't there for you to grind nonstop until unlocking them... They are there because you will probably find a faster way to make money later in the game so you have to keep playing buying the cheap stuff until you reach that point in the game.

Sorry to say, but this sound like an argument from a dev on why these stats are in their game. Adjusting the pace of the game is just a nice way of saying 'artificallly increasing the game time with a valueless system'.

I don't mind if the stats and money come naturally while progressing the game (like if you get stuck in one story, you could get the required stats in a different one to progress), but in the vast majority of games it doesn't. You might get a point here and there, but the rest are all earned by doing one thing repeatitly; going to the gym over and over to increase your strength, or the library for your intelligence, etc. It's just pointless filler to make a game seem longer than it is.

 

[Meaning Less]

It's just pointless filler to make a game seem longer than it is.

It's not filler though, if you play any rpg with cheats you can buy the best armor in the game and finish the game on easy mode...

But the game was not made to be played that way... The point is to play the game normally with a balanced difficulty level until you reach that point where you actually need that armor and can make money for it easily.

 

[desmosome]

The bottom line is that gameplay is just too hard to develop for some random coomer dev who ends up on this site. Bad gameplay is worse than no gameplay. But first, we have to determine what gameplay is in the context of a porn game.

We could say making choices in a VN could be considered "gameplay" for a VN. I actually do think this is true to an extent (especially for complex code), but for the purposes of this discussion, let's say that gameplay is something beyond a standard VN.

We could say that the purpose of the gameplay is "fun." What is fun is different for everyone, but for the most part, there should at least be a purpose to the gameplay—something that it achieves within the context of the game and story. It's not really fun when you feel like you are doing a mindless task that doesn't achieve anything meaningful.

Some people feel that getting some pussy at the end of a mindless grind is rewarding and fun in and of itself. That's kind of a bad take, but whatever. We'll give those "repeat scene 10 times to get a slight variation" type of stuff a pass for now. What I can't give a pass to are the linear sandboxes that has only one place you can go to trigger the next event in a linear chain. Doubly so if all the locations are pretty much empty except the place you need to go at that moment. At minimum, the idea of "sandbox" gameplay in these VNs should be to offer some amount of freedom to the player. Who does he pursue? What order does he do things? Can you get suboptimal results if you didn't do things perfectly? Can you get different outcomes based on how you did things? If you don't even do this, what exactly are we walking around the house for?

Getting back to the "fun" part, I do think the best gameplay are things that are inherently enjoyable to do on its own. "Hey, I came here for porn, but the gameplay elements are actually enjoyable enough on its own." That should be the ultimate goal. Using pussy as an incentive to drive players to engage in the gameplay is fine, as long as the gameplay itself is interesting.

Of course, the best gameplay eroges are from big studios from Japan, but there are indie devs that do quite an admirable job. Void's Calling, Tales of Terrara, High-Rise Climb, Vae Victus (I think, I only played the first release), and a handful of others in Renpy. The Last Sovereign, Renryuu, Roundscape and I'm sure many others that I've not played yet in western RPGM list. Evening Starter, Pronant Symphony, Leviathan, Lulu Farea and many others that have legit gameplay from smaller Japanese circles.

I think conceptualizing and implementing a gameplay system that makes sense is probably more skill based than any other aspect of development. If it's done poorly, it can only detract from the experience. For the most part, I'd say that the hate for sandbox and general aversion to grind/gameplay is just the natural outcome from so many devs botching the execution.

 

[khumak]

From the poll options I get the feeling you mean minigames when you say gameplay, not just gameplay in general. Very few games have minigames that are enjoyable enough to want to play more than a few times. So IMO, no minigames unless they're good enough that people would pay to play that minigame by itself without the rest of the game attached.

If you're going to include minigames, at least include an option to skip it. Then people who genuinely like playing it can do so and the rest of us can move on to the next scene.

Love of Magic is a good example of a game that has a minigame for it's magic system but includes an auto play option that basically lets you skip it if you want. So if you like poker and want to actually play it that's fine. If you don't, or you just want to focus on the rest of the game you can skip it.

 

[sexypeanut]

I don't really consider completely passive VNs to be 'games'. A game needs objectives to be completed and challenges to be overcome; if all you have to do is click on labeled buttons that have no consequence until the end... that's just an interactive experience.

 

[HornyBeeStudios]

I prefer some gameplay elements, but I can't stand the sandbox games where you are repeating gameplay loops just to get 1 relationship point for a character per loop until you reach a threshold of points where you are allowed to view the next scene with that character and afterwards you can continue repeating the gameplay loop again.

 

[woody554]

what's more important than the depth of the mechanics is that they meaningfully integrate with the main idea of the game, which many deep mechanics fail at. whatever you add to the game should support the story or the main idea, not detract or distract from it. in a porn game deep mechanics tend to distract from the main idea, which makes players frustrated and bored when they're forced to suffer through irrelevant or distracting secondary mechanics. doesn't matter how good the mechanic is, if it's not somehow connected to getting pussy it can't hold the interest.

there are exceptions of course, like having resource game mechanics in a brothel game. there you can go deep because it fits with the idea of brothel as means of production. but if you make a brothel game with a flight simulator it's not gonna fit no matter how good your simulator. the mechanic must fit the idea, AND it needs to support it rather than distract.