- Dec 28, 2019
- 720
- 3,515
When you first start writing/coding these VNs, sometimes these little details just aren't apparent at the time. I had no idea, for example, people would feel so differently about the word "pet". It wouldn't be that difficult to recode things so that people can name the MC (first AND last name). But changing the (pet) so that what you call them versus what they call you will surely make the Pantherian custom look weird. And it would also make things complicated where I'd have to either make everyone start a new game, or add extra coding so that you have to rename characters, save, then add a 'jump' to the latest release. Doing that brings other questions like, how long do I keep it there? It will just make things messy.The person you're replying to isn't asking anything about the MC's first or last names. They want to separate the term of endearment variable (variable name "pet
", default value: "pet") so that the term of endearment the MC uses for the girls is different from the term of endearment that the girls use for the MC. However, that would also require a rewrite of Pantherian culture, so it isn't really something that's going to happen.
Personally, I never liked that term itself (in my mind, the connotation of the term 'pet' is either demeaning or infantilizing in unpleasant ways, like an old person using it on an adult younger than them to pretend at affection while dismissing their opinions as immature compared to the older person), but had no problem with the concept, so the variable provided in the game is perfect. I changed it to "chosen" for my game.
Someone else suggested adding menu choices where you can name the characters there (instead of at the beginning of the game). I think I know how to do that, but haven't tried yet. I'll have to experiment to see. I don't like that people have to add mods in order to get the game they want, so I do want to address this somehow. But I also don't want to make things over complicated in the process.