No, but that doesn't mean that others shouldn't point that out. Something becomes "common sense" only when others stop question it.
I agree with the theory. But being alive since 50 years, and on internet since near to 20, I can also say that it's alas just a theory. What doesn't mean that nothing should be done, just that no visible result are to be expected.
I never said anything about "the balance". If the player saves the guy, he gets extra scenes, threesomes and foursomes with the girls he already have. Imagine that the time that the MC could spend with the twins ends being a trip to the beach with the other 4 girls.
What is still unbalanced from the point of view of the player, since it's scenes that, globally speaking, he can already expect to have.
Of course, perhaps that saving this guy is the only way to have "this scene", but the said scene would only be a variation of what is already possible. He'll not see the girls in sexy bikini ? Well, he already see them in sexy underwear. He can't play with the girls at the beach ? Well, he can already play with them in so many other places.
This while letting the guy die is the only way to have scenes with the two other girls.
I never said anything about sex or "rewards", and that was for a reason.
Reason that I understand, but your intent and how the players while perceived it aren't necessarily the same. Unless it's a pure narrative choice or a customization one, players will expect, consciously or no, a reward when he chose right. Especially with Ren'py, where too many players learned to advance following a trial/error pattern. "No reward ? Oops, I made a wrong turn here, I'll rollback". "Big reward ? Hmm, I'll rollback to see if I prefer this one, or the big reward that hide behind the other choice".
In an adult game, the said reward can be many things, from one more love point, to a new available girl, passing by the obvious sex scene. From your point of view as author, it's the logical progression of the game, but from the point of view of the player, it's the reward because he made right choice.
I want people to focus on the dilemma and vote, not on the rewards.
Then you messed your title. Look at the answers, what caught the eyes is "two more girls", not "let a guy die".
Even without talking about the rewards, more than half of the people voted that it depends on X things, even if my OP could have make you and others think that the player will have "less rewards" or "unbalanced reward".
Perhaps because we project ourselves in the effective situation, while others answered in a more theoretical way.
It's the 40th anniversary of death penalty abolition here, and one of the analyst came with a really good argument : When the abolition happened, around 80% of the citizens were against it. Yet, during the last 20 years before the said abolition, when a trial could have led to a death sentence, in less than 15% of the time it was the jury choice. Whatever how angry they were, whatever how many times they said "if someone do [this] he deserve to die", when they have to choice, they are more balanced ; just doing "this" isn't enough, it need more to take one's life.
There's a whole world between theory and practice, even when it come to games. And while the near to 30% who said that it depend how they feel about the guy, probably voted with in mind some, "I need to really dislike him", many would be less strict when put face to the situation ; the condition would then be more on the side of some thoughts like, "I need to like him enough to want him to live".
Can I say that literally every player and dev does that regardless of anything else?
You can, because it's not false, even if it's less generalized in "regular" games, than it is in adult games.
Because no matter what we are talking about, as long as the player thinks that maybe there is a more likeable outcome and the dev did bothered codding that outcome, a player will always load a previous file and try it again. There is nothing a dev can do to avoid that.
Do you really think that it apply on this scene ?
You are way more courageous and/or dedicated than me, if you never decided to quit playing/following an adult game because you just not felt ready to load an one hour (or more) old save. Really few games worth this, and there's enough of the other games to stop playing one without being deprived of our dose of perversion.
You seem to be a little too deep on the author's shoes to see the flaws of your scenario ; what isn't a criticism, it happen to all of us when we think that we had a great idea. You defend your idea, what is natural, but doing this you tend to forget a little part of the reality.
Personally, no. Fuck that. Life is full of surprises.
I'm sure that in a part of your memory, there's a "oh, yeah, it's this person... Well, he know what I just said". Note that I say this without any bad feelings. It's just that I know this too well, and therefore I'm perhaps less prone to too big surprises when I just want to entertain myself.
Most of the things we plan in life doesn't end as we wished or thought, such is life. I'm tired of those super hald holding games that warns you even the tiniest detail. Life wouldn't be fun if we could predict the outcome of every situation ahead of us.
See, it's what I said above regarding you being too deep on the author's shoes. You defend your idea (what is normal), but doing it you forgot that there's a whole world between giving all the small details, and giving some subtle hints.
In the last (in date) chapter of
Heavy Five, you can kill the cat (he'll come back, it will be a running gag). Will he live or die depend of one choice: do you want to switch place before turning on the reactor.
At first sight, it's a blind choice. At no time the problem of the cat is addressed in the discussion. But in the second chapter it was pointed that the absence of shield around the reactor was dangerous. Early in the scene, you clearly see the cat entering the room. And finally, right before you face the choice, you can see the cat under the reactor.
Therefore, at no time it was a blind choice. You had all the information you needed. The fact that switching place will save the cat was just a guess. But the other choice being, "turn the reactor on", it was your only chance to expect a better outcome. After, you can also have killed him because you weren't attentive, but you can't blame the author because you failed to process the information.
And the exact same happen in real life interactions. We obviously can't predict the outcome of a decision, but by processing the information we have, and being attentive, we can often reduce the risk of bad outcomes.
You want a salary raise and, smartly, waited the day after the lovely week-end your boss planed for this marriage anniversary. If he come with a big smile, go for it, he'll surely agree because he want to share all the happiness he feel. But if you see him with a long face, abort immediately ; you don't want to be the one paying for the disaster that his week-end was.
The girl you talk to, often look at her watch ? Stop to insist, you've no chances whatever how genuinely she's smiling. You're nice and it's pleasing to pass time in your company, but passing time is all she do.
You want to please your girlfriend by offering her some flowers ? Remember that time she said that her grandma used to have red roses in her garden, and how she loved the view through her window in the morning ? Buy her red roses, you'll make her twice more happy.
Since games don't have to be different from life, what I totally agree with, why should they never offer clues ?
Plus, we don't play to be frustrated, but to forget about real life frustration ; what especially apply for adult games. Therefore, even big decisions need some clues. After, all rely on us, and on our ability to see and understand those clues, or not. If we are frustrated, it will be because we failed, not because the author haven't tried to warn us.
It doesn't mean that you can't put shocking or negative scenes in your game, just that they shouldn't depend of a blind choice offered to the player.
Me: "Oh no! Now I have to load a previous save and spend an entire minute pressing control to skip all the dialogues I already read and read some new scenes I didn't get before! What a tragedy!"
You're forgetting about the choice you'll have to make again. And since you said that the choice will come way before its consequences, there will be many of them. Of course, if it's the choice you made, Ren'py will continue to skip, but still you've to rollback to the choice when you guessed wrong (because when you skip you can only guess since you haven't read the context). And if you made some trial/error, or already had to reload in between, it will be a long rollback.
You know that it's not exactly this easy, like I know that it's not always this difficult.
I mean, I get that on a sandbox game it could be more annoying because you have more clicks to do, but still, clicks...
But clicks for what interest ?
You are realistic enough to know that if the game isn't deeply interesting, there's more risks to frustrate a player enough for him to quit, than to amaze him and make him ready to redo everything.
