Ok it is your game and I am a big fan. But for me... I have a girlfriend, then I meet a girl at a cafe... we hit it off, I tell her about my girlfriend and she does not care, cafe girl does not want me to tell anyone about us.. we fuck. I have cheated on my girlfriend as soon as I made the choice to fuck the cafe girl. Now if I was a loyal guy to my girlfriend I would tell her about cafe girl. and for cafe girl when she said "I don't want to tell anyone about us", well then there can be no us, as that would be a secret from someone I am currently with..
I am not trying to bust your balls. It's your game. Just a fun little talk. Love your game, I enjoy most of the girls.
I get your reasoning, but your example with the cafe girl doesn't apply. Recapitulating (first choices only to make it easier):
* Norah shower scene (no relationship opened)
* Eileen proposes to be fwb (no relationship established)
* Erika kiss and she says she should think about it before taking a decision (no relationship established)
* Norah kiss at the cafe and she greenlights the MC to be with other women (basically enabling the harem) because she can't decide about starting a relationship (no relationship established)
* Eileen and the MC fuck in the forest. She proposes harem (no exclusive relationship established)
* Emma's handjob/fingering. The MC tells her about other girls (no exclusive relationship established)
* Norah's first sex. She has greenlighted the harem previously. (no exclusive relationship established)
* Samantha titjob. Here is the only event when the MC can be said to have started something without telling her about others. (No relationship established)
* Simone at the cafe is informed about others (no relationship established)
* Scarlett and Daphne handjobs (no relationship established)
* Alexia training fuck. The MC informs her about others (no exclusive relationship established)
* Erika's sauna scene. She accepts there are others
* Maddie blackmail/romance. In the (maledom) blackmail the MC doesn't owe anything to her. Neither in the femdom path. The romance path is only meeting to watch a movie.
* Megan at Westport. She is informed about the existence of others (no exclusive relationship established)
* Samantha's date. The only event when the MC hasn't been honest.
* Daphne and Scarlett are informed about others (no exclusive relationship established)
This is an incorrect analogy. The first car is a luxury item, purchased because of its status in the world, not because of its direct purpose. The second car is designed for mass consumption and is actually purchased because of its direct purpose, transportation.
I agree with you, but there are very few people like Lucas. Those who truly break the old standards end up setting new standards themselves. He who defeats the dragon becomes the dragon himself. Everyone else, as I said, is just doing creative work. Such people at best become popular in narrow circles, outside of which they are considered outsiders and weird creators.
I think it's a mistake to mix the creator's work with his audience. All the audience can do is, at best, offer new ideas for inspiration. But how you think is your own business. Anyway, it's a very long and stuffy topic, so I suggest we not go too deep.
As you say the analogy would be incorrect if I hadn't started the sentence with "As you say sales aren't a quality indicator." that you cleverly omitted in your quote.
Wrong. Those who truly break the old standards don't end up setting new standards themselves. They are so copied that what they have done becomes the standard. But they don't set it.
Wrong once again. If you measure success by sales, the audience is important. If I measure success by what people bring to me as a person, the audience is important. What the audience can do is support the dev in many more ways than economically.
Developing a game as an independent dev is sometimes a hard journey: Rude people, criticism, imposter syndrome, stress because you can't meet your auto-imposed deadlines, etc. Reading some comments, knowing you are getting to the people, laughing with the players, talking about things that don't have anything to do with the game... those are the things that in the low points make you say "A couple of updates more. These guys deserve it". For me, a guy who doesn't think about this as a way to become a millionaire, that's the real success. If I become a millionaire during the journey, obviously I'm not going to complain, I could spend more time doing this, but for me My Dorm is already a success because of the people I've met. 20 years from now I won't remember specific sentences from My Dorm, but I will remember guys from Portugal, Germany, Canada, Uruguay, Spain, USA, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Peru, and a lot of other countries (I know I forget some, sorry) who made this journey (much more) enjoyable.
