Ren'Py Lust Academy [S4 v4.2.1d] [Bear in the Night]

[Ichiroku Tamai]

When upcoming update is uploaded here??

 

[Sony676]

if it was just about popularity, it would be easy to just flood the game with scenes with her... if the character is popular and she gets more scenes, people are more likely to stay and keep playing. making her scenes scarce is counter productive, marketing wise, it's the opposite. the fact that so many people ask you if there are scenes with her shows that they stopped playing because there are no scenes with her...
the polls are just out of curiosity, and to create interest, garner engagement... it's basic community management.

if a dev changes his plans because of a popularity poll, you can bet that the game will be a failure. there are tons of examples of that already.
the character is popular for a reason. if you change that reason, then she will indeed be wasted. not the other way around. it's not just because she is a trope or type.
it's easy to do small fan service stuff to keep the interest alive for a beloved character too. there is no reason to destroy their story, and bend over backwards.

I disagree. Tell me ONE game where the most popular chars received many scenes in the beginning or even in the middle of their development cycle? Those chars always receive a lot of teasing but I never experienced that they receive more scenes up to certain point. Take Badik and Midnight paradise for example. It took both games YEARS to offer a Sex scene with the most popular characters (Bella, Jill and Joyce). Yes there are people who wait for their subscription until a certain scene is happening but the majority stays because from update to update they hope to receive what they're waiting for. I've witnessed sooo many devs/games where they stretched a certain something just for the sake of stretching. They felt like they would lose something if they finally deliver what so many people wait for. At least I know more games where popular chars get more teasing than actual Sex scenes and most of the time it's not for the sake of storytelling. I think you attach way too much importance to the storytelling of an erotic game. The biggest selling point of all those games are Sex scenes, not the story. Many people do not even read/experience the story but only skip to scenes or use a gallery unlocker. Yes you can always find a way to make it sound like "ahhh makes sense they do not have Sex atm" but most of the time there is always a bigger picture behind it like "If we finally deliver spicy content with the most popular character people might lose interest so let's just continue to tease instead." I absolutely could be wrong in the case of Lust Academy and since it's one of the games where the MC has Sex with tons of characters it's not that "bad" anyways. But you said the majority of games would fail and that is where I disagree. Badik, Amnesia, Heart Problems, Midnight Paradise, Milfy City, LISC just to name a few popular ones where it took (or actually still takes) an eternity to deliver scenes with the most popular characters yet they kept/keep being freaking successful.

So I tend to disagree on your take.

 

[Sauras1]

it's not misleading. it's just fan service. allowing you to express your love for a character. doesn't have to mean anything more. it's just you that set yourself up for disappointment by putting more meaning into it

Victoria is your favorite, so you're biased in trying to find meaning to the poll result... but what about the fan that loves the character that ended up in last place ? should they get punished for liking a different character than you ? that's why it's just fair to ignore poll results.



Victoria is not the kind of character that breaks the rules. she's the opposite. she was tempted once and fell on MC's dick because their situation was highly emotional and MC almost died... from her POV, it's the second time he almost died next to her. she could lose him at any moment, so allowing herself to be tempted was just human and natural in that moment.

it's not stupid at all. it's fair like I said. the point of the poll is just to drive engagement from the community...
you wanting the results to mean anything is just wishful thinking.
a dev that uses popularity to write the story and its direction just shows that they have no vision for their game except milk their users. the story won't make any sense, and the character will be as generic as fuck with no personality or motivation. pretty much just a succession of lewd scenes without a plan

Nobody argues that she is all so correct. And in general, I like how it is presented in history. I won't speak for other people, but for me personally, she is the only reason why I still play this game. The way it is presented only further enhances the desire to see a good show with it, with 5-7 poses. If there had been a normal scene in the third season, and not that stub, I would have already dropped lust academy.
Regarding surveys, no one is asking developers to follow the lead of players. But it’s still worth taking notes and somehow implementing the survey results in the future.

 

[HiP1]

I disagree. Tell me ONE game where the most popular chars received many scenes in the beginning or even in the middle of their development cycle? Those chars always receive a lot of teasing but I never experienced that they receive more scenes up to certain point. Take Badik and Midnight paradise for example. It took both games YEARS to offer a Sex scene with the most popular characters (Bella, Jill and Joyce). Yes there are people who wait for their subscription until a certain scene is happening but the majority stays because from update to update they hope to receive what they're waiting for. I've witnessed sooo many devs/games where they stretched a certain something just for the sake of stretching. They felt like they would lose something if they finally deliver what so many people wait for. At least I know more games where popular chars get more teasing than actual Sex scenes and most of the time it's not for the sake of storytelling. I think you attach way too much importance to the storytelling of an erotic game. The biggest selling point of all those games are Sex scenes, not the story. Many people do not even read/experience the story but only skip to scenes or use a gallery unlocker. Yes you can always find a way to make it sound like "ahhh makes sense they do not have Sex atm" but most of the time there is always a bigger picture behind it like "If we finally deliver spicy content with the most popular character people might lose interest so let's just continue to tease instead." I absolutely could be wrong in the case of Lust Academy and since it's one of the games where the MC has Sex with tons of characters it's not that "bad" anyways. But you said the majority of games would fail and that is where I disagree. Badik, Amnesia, Heart Problems, Midnight Paradise, Milfy City, LISC just to name a few popular ones where it took (or actually still takes) an eternity to deliver scenes with the most popular characters yet they kept/keep being freaking successful.

So I tend to disagree on your take.

well, we disagree. it's ok it's what breeds interesting discussions, even if no one budges from their position.

unless we do a scientific research on it, we won't actually know the answer, and it's only perception and anecdotal personal experience. you picked outliers in your examples too.
most games don't do surveys anyway, so knowing the most popular character for each one is impossible. but citing one game is easy: My Bully is my lover. Gwen is best girl and was polled as most popular and she got the very first scene, and the game is still popular. Another is Companion of Darkness, Noel is the most popular, and she got the most scene early, and still now, and the game is at its peak popularity.
Slow burns for popular girls is definitely a thing, though. it happens in many games. and it keeps the player wanting for sure, if it's done well, and is coherent to the character's story and personality.

in Badik, Bella and Jill are not the most popular. i'd say it's quite equal, fans are spread among the girls rather evenly.
you seem to have a preference towards girls with bigger boobs, and milfs, which is totally ok, but it doesn't mean that they are automatically the most popular. though, those two "traits" are very popular indeed.
badik has scenes for all the main girls, and side girls now, and it's still popular and going stronger than ever. it is the exact counter example to your argument. each update gives scenes for all main girls at the very least, and many side girls too, if not all of them, depending on the update. that game uses both slow burns and quick scenes, and they make sense for each character.

Story and storytelling are important. yes, I, myself, put them at the top of my priority list for sure, but for the majority of AVN fans, they are still important. if not, then they would only need to go to free porn sites. People that only use gallery unlockers and never read a line of the story are rare, imo. I haven't seen one yet, but I believe they would not discuss the games anyway.
It's not just about the girls' model and physical appearance. their backstory, their dialogs, are also important to make them lovable and popular.
Also, if you say most people play the game for the sex scenes, then they should want even more sex scenes for the girls they prefer, wouldn't you say ? that also contradicts your own point.

 

[Sony676]

well, we disagree. it's ok it's what breeds interesting discussions, even if no one budges from their position.

unless we do a scientific research on it, we won't actually know the answer, and it's only perception and anecdotal personal experience. you picked outliers in your examples too.
most games don't do surveys anyway, so knowing the most popular character for each one is impossible. but citing one game is easy: My Bully is my lover. Gwen is best girl and was polled as most popular and she got the very first scene, and the game is still popular. Another is Companion of Darkness, Noel is the most popular, and she got the most scene early, and still now, and the game is at its peak popularity.
Slow burns for popular girls is definitely a thing, though. it happens in many games. and it keeps the player wanting for sure, if it's done well, and is coherent to the character's story and personality.

in Badik, Bella and Jill are not the most popular. i'd say it's quite equal, fans are spread among the girls rather evenly.
you seem to have a preference towards girls with bigger boobs, and milfs, which is totally ok, but it doesn't mean that they are automatically the most popular. though, those two "traits" are very popular indeed.
badik has scenes for all the main girls, and side girls now, and it's still popular and going stronger than ever. it is the exact counter example to your argument. each update gives scenes for all main girls at the very least, and many side girls too, if not all of them, depending on the update. that game uses both slow burns and quick scenes, and they make sense for each character.

Story and storytelling are important. yes, I, myself, put them at the top of my priority list for sure, but for the majority of AVN fans, they are still important. if not, then they would only need to go to free porn sites. People that only use gallery unlockers and never read a line of the story are rare, imo. I haven't seen one yet, but I believe they would not discuss the games anyway.
It's not just about the girls' model and physical appearance. their backstory, their dialogs, are also important to make them lovable and popular.
Also, if you say most people play the game for the sex scenes, then they should want even more sex scenes for the girls they prefer, wouldn't you say ? that also contradicts your own point.

I was not saying Badik didn't offer scenes with them but it took quite some time (even with other chars from the main cast). I just follow the reddit and there have been some popularity contests over time where Bella and Jill came out on top most of the time. But in their cases I'd even say the "slowburn" was fantastic because you really wanted to see their story progress to get closer to the MC. Especially Bellas first Sex scene in ep8 was sooo rewarding and they've build it up perfectly. It's not that I personally dislike slow storytelling if done well. Giving me a Sex scene with the (imo) hottest character in the first initial release makes it kinda uninspiring since I probably didn't get a chance to like her personality.

But in this forum I saw many people asking for a full save or unlocker after each and every update. I tend to do so sometimes if I really only enjoy a game for its esthetics. It's rarely the case but sometimes it happens. And even if I finished an update I also look for an unlocker when no integrated gallery is available. Still, even if I also say a well written story makes Sex scenes even better there are quite some people who like porn and video games and those novels are the perfect mixture. They're here for the scenes only. They definitely exist.

The games you talked about I don't know. I think I once started My bully is my lover but eventually didn't like it. But the games i personally follow tend to keep a scene with the "best girl" for a later update. And it's not only my personal preference but I read a lot in the threads, in the discord servers or on patreon. That's how you get a feeling which girl is the most popular one and I stand by what I said: Many devs notice what they have there and try to stretch it more and more until a scene is inevitable.

 

[HiP1]

I was not saying Badik didn't offer scenes with them but it took quite some time (even with other chars from the main cast). I just follow the reddit and there have been some popularity contests over time where Bella and Jill came out on top most of the time. But in their cases I'd even say the "slowburn" was fantastic because you really wanted to see their story progress to get closer to the MC. Especially Bellas first Sex scene in ep8 was sooo rewarding and they've build it up perfectly. It's not that I personally dislike slow storytelling if done well. Giving me a Sex scene with the (imo) hottest character in the first initial release makes it kinda uninspiring since I probably didn't get a chance to like her personality.

But in this forum I saw many people asking for a full save or unlocker after each and every update. I tend to do so sometimes if I really only enjoy a game for its esthetics. It's rarely the case but sometimes it happens. And even if I finished an update I also look for an unlocker when no integrated gallery is available. Still, even if I also say a well written story makes Sex scenes even better there are quite some people who like porn and video games and those novels are the perfect mixture. They're here for the scenes only. They definitely exist.

The games you talked about I don't know. I think I once started My bully is my lover but eventually didn't like it. But the games i personally follow tend to keep a scene with the "best girl" for a later update. And it's not only my personal preference but I read a lot in the threads, in the discord servers or on patreon. That's how you get a feeling which girl is the most popular one and I stand by what I said: Many devs notice what they have there and try to stretch it more and more until a scene is inevitable.

We are getting off topic quite a lot from the game itself. I fear our comments will get deleted/moderated soon but let me say that I enjoy the exchange now, in case it gets deleted later.

Yeah, I followed the badik reddit for a time too, but it's not very active, so I don't know if it's really representative.
Bella had content before ep8 though. if not full penetrating sex scenes, there was still sexual content. Jill is the only one that made us wait till ep8 with tons of teasing along the way, though she is the typical slow burn character trope as the innocent princess.

to bring it back to Lust Academy a bit (and mitigate the chance of deletion ), Victoria is very similar to Bella, I'd even say it's the same character except for the dark secret part of Bella. but her first scene was not satisfying at all and disappointed all her fans. but in this game, the scenes are very numerous, but not that great either. some can be long with more positions and acts, but longer doesn't mean better, it could just be tedious to go through. which is why I didn't expect anything from Victoria's first scene, while the anticipation for Bella peaked thanks to the quality of all the other scenes. and it's not just the animations and renders that were good, the scene was carried by the dialog and story during it. I don't know if you played Stray Incubus, but Annabelle is also a slow burn LI like Bella, and the over quality of the scenes in the game is rather good to very good, but the dev botched Annabelle's first scene by using an "instant loss" effect for it. it destroyed all the build up and anticipation for the character and her story. and I think the disappointment from that was stronger than for Victoria.

When I see people asking for saves, I understood it as them wanting to have a starting point for the newest update and not having to replay the whole game from the start because they lost or deleted their saves. But maybe you're right and they just want to check out the gallery. Though, like I said, it would just be easier to go to free porn sites instead. I'm sure they exist, and if they enjoy it, good for them, but I don't get it at all as I'm at the exact opposite and enjoy the story the most, even if there is no sex scene

I'm also pretty that some devs, like you said, do want to stretch the slow burn for as long and as excruciating as possible for popular characters, but I don't believe they are the majority.

if you already tried my bully is my lover, I'd recommend you give it another chance as the latest updates are particularly great. companion of darkness too, the story and lore are quite original and creative. maybe you don't like the honey select games because of the graphics style and you prefer photorealistic renders from Daz/Blender like Lust Academy ?