Yeah, that's one way to look at it. Or conversely: This game is unusual in being for large swathes a powerlessness fantasy (with sex scenes), which is certainly not common in the genre, outside of games centered explicitly around powerlessness as part of a kink (your femdom (and maledom) with MC as a sub, cuckoldry, NTR, race fetish games etc.).
The game doesn't occupy that same kink space but it has similarities in the MC so far being apparently powerless to stop or affect anything that happens (not that he ever bothers to try, but we've had that discussion before). That may be part of the reason it reads as femdom-adjacent to some players.
I can see this. I'm not attempting to rub the player's nose in it as much as it's just the premise/setup for the story. Pretty much every character aware of the magic macguffin saw it as something they could use but in the end (of Act 1) it turns out that everyone is getting fucked by it because it was more of a Pandora's box scenario.
Yes, the dev is aware of this but still pushing towards it. Hence i said the actual villain in this game is
DigiDec.
Probably one of the Meta ending, we will see DegiDec sitting in the Matrix Architect Table and looking at MC's reality as a part of one the many Simulated reality. Qai is aware of this but cant fight her code. SIMCeption.
*Note: Everything written above is bullshit. I'm just here to pokefun at the dev for making us endure the long AI philosophy monologue.
MC will beat the 'game', and just as he goes to claim the prize the screen will cut to Rick Astley.
Well this makes sense if you see AVNs more as games than novels, which I think most do. (With Kinetic Novels being more on the novel side obviously.) I'd argue (most?) games where the player takes his character through the story/scenario are inherently power fantasies. The player becomes the hero of the story defeating the villian/saving the world/solving the mystery/{instert whatever goal the game presents}/...
I've thought about how I would minimalisticly define a game and came up with the following:
1. A Scenario presented to the player(s)
2. A set of actions for the player(s) to choose from
3. A win condition
(The last one isn't completely necessary and some games don't actually have a set win condition and let the player decide for themselves when they "won" the game [Dwarf Fortress / Crusader Kings /Any Sports-Team-Manager])
Given that I think there is a certain expectation of players coming in and playing an AVN:
A game where the MC they play is the "Hero" and they are given some agency to try and reach the "good" ending. And some sex along the way. (Or at least feel like they have some agency)
With all that said I'd agree with you that your game is (currently?) more on the novel side which seems to clash with some players expectations.
This is a pretty good way to frame it. Part of the conversations with Qai, and some of the narration/vibes during Hanna and Candi's sim scenes, were kind of touching on the subject.
For the record, Qai is making very cynical arguments but being cynical doesn't make you correct.
I don't really want to make this conversation about other AVNs but I'm going to name drop a few (that I think are very well made and don't really have anything negative to say about) just give some reference points. And obviously there are exceptions.
Most of the bigger, more popular, AVNs don't really have anything resembling winning vs. losing. Something like Strangers on Paper gives you choices and there are consequences but (unless the game takes a turn that I'm not aware of) the MC isn't really going to lose, or win. Games like Race of Life or Being a DIK have some minigame type things and you can win/lose those but I don't think either game is steering towards a potential 'bad end' or gameover situation.
Which was sort of what some of the conversation about Candi's sim was addressing.
And for what it's worth, I don't plan on having any 'bad end' situations either. The decision points for the final outcome will (hopefully) be clear enough that you'll get the end result you want (or at least the closest option available).
