Amen! I'm sure you (and most everyone here) knows this, but what you are describing is called "opportunity cost" -- the condition where choosing one option eliminates all of the other competing options -- and real life is filled with opportunity cost choices (and occasionally with "
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", "
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", and "
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" decisions), so I prefer that my interactive entertainment have as few of those type of choices as possible.
A while back, I played an
AVN game that was very well written and with good graphics, that appeared to be working toward a 2-LI bigamous (bi-amorous?) conclusion, when it took a sudden dark turn and presented me with an unavoidable Sophie's Choice/
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decision, and everything spiraled downward from there. I finished the game since I was already so close to the end, but I found it to be a traumatic experience and vowed to avoid that type of game in the future.
Oh, shit! I totally forgot about that game in my list of played games! It was a feel good game until that choice. I kinda forgot about it because that choice, although it makes the game stand out, makes the game an un-replayable experience and a game I think most of the players can't remember fondly. The game is very well written, if it wasn't it wouldn't have made so much of an impression. But it's not enjoyable after that.
Yes, THAT game was gut wrenching. The same author is doing it again on his newer game. It makes you fall for all 6 of them (so far) but you can only choose one. And after the choice, they still hang around, rubbing your nose on the lost opportunities. It will BE a painful experience again, we can count on it.
IRL is chock full of those type of choices. Some are VERY traumatic and have long lasting consequences, lifelong lasting. That some authors find and explore the impact of these choices is unavoidable, but extremely uncomfortable. What boggles the mind is that so many people love to be tormented so. It adds a lot to my feeling like an alien.
Thanks for the reflection.
Peace
Gut wrenching? It's been what? 3 years since I played it? And when MarsUltor named it my guts still moved. And as I said, I can't remember it when I do a list of games I played. Does it make it a good game? A game that leaves long lasting impressions for sure, but a good game? I don't know. A game can be fun, can stir feelings inside the players, but that choice removed all the fun and left only bad feelings. If it was what the dev was looking for, my congratulations, but the only impression it left is a bad one. I can remember the models faces, but not their names.
You know, I almost drop BW when the first expulsion came about. Only after I went to the thread to say goodbye was when I learned that there was still a chance. Now I've dropped all the 3 exclusivists. They want a solo story? Too bad, go away...
<Rant>
I wish all games gave us that option. Tell them to F off, and they disappear. Or have the option to tell that you're not there for solo stories. I don't even care what their story could be, not interested in anyone that wants to bind me into a monogamist relationship, I already have enough of that IRL.
The bad part of this mindset is that when authors don't plan for Harems, the only way to do it is by being a fucking cheater with no possible chance of coming clean and be open and frontal about it. I hate to be put into the cheater role.
I get it, Harems are NOT for everyone. Both players and Devs have the right to not liking it. I HATE cheating way more than they hate Harems tho. Yet, it is common place to have multiple LI's and common place to go with them all. Why not block cheating if you don't want Harems? Allowing cheating is the BAD guy Harem. It feeds the fantasy of being a Don Juan, a Casanova, a Playaaaar. Or in my view a Dirt Bag with no self respect. Any Dev should learn this, if you have multiple LI's, besides the Cheating, you should give the Harem option, heck you can even use the same renders, just change the text.
By doing things this way, you may be pandering to all those proto cheaters but you are throwing away all the Harem players that want a self-respect way of playing.
</Rant>
Peace
I agree. I hate
my MC being forced to cheat on the ones
he loves. I don't like to choose. I hate to choose in AVNs. I have taken too many choices during my life and all of them combined have taken me to this moment. To writing this post at 0:28 AM. The best outcome of my choices? I will never know, but I can't complain.
First point: I recognize that merging solo paths with harem is difficult to do in a believable way and without pissing of some players least you introduce all the girls in chapter 1. Imagine My Dorm, f.ex., you get home and Martha is on vacation. You start a monogamous relationship with Norah (or whoever) and in chapter 5 Martha returns. The dev has cheated on you and you can be legitimately angry at him. Do you stick with Norah? Do you break her heart and leave her for Martha? Do you cheat on her and start something with Martha?
Second point: If I, as a dev, want to make a game with a monogamous route with Debbie. Why don't I do a game where Debbie is the only possible LI? The answer is obvious, to get to more possible players and patrons by giving them 10 games in one where they only can choose one girl in every playthrough. That's not fun as an indy dev. I make My Dorm thinking in what is fun to do and what can be fun to play. If I should take into consideration what would report me more income, My Dorm would have every possible kink, every possible type of girl (even Olga) as LI, and every comment will make it into the game. All of that with the hope to get one subscriber more, one euro more, and climb one spot in Patreon rankings. And My Dorm will become an amorphous blob. If I was a company that needs benefits at the end of the month... why not? With a passion project? Definitely not.
Third point: Linked with the other two, contradicting them, but from a player PoV (I'm a player AND a dev). Harem is not everyone's kink, I agree. Neither is footjob or anal. Most games give us the choice to have footjob or anal. The good ones don't force it upon us and give us choices. Why not give a harem choice then? Even if it's not the main path, if planned with time (and AVN development is loooong, so there is time), it can look correct if not great. I guess it's because it would look forced, or the dev is not into harems, or... a thousand reasons.
I know the work publishing an AVN requires, and the devs want to advance in their vision. Taking a lateral path (enabling harem or making Olga a LI, f.ex.) can delay that vision, so I,
as a dev, can understand the decision to not get too far from the initial vision. But I,
as a player, hate that decision and I start to think "If the dev changed a bit that scene..." or "If that dialogue/choice went this way instead of that way...".
And then the player becomes a dev, has a rough start, and makes changes in his vision along the way (Maddie and Megan, f.ex.) because his vision isn't perfect. But that dev knows there will be players who will think "If the dev changed a bit that scene..." or "If that dialogue/choice went this way instead of that way...". Making the perfect game for everyone is impossible. Making the perfect game for a small number of players is possible but implausible. At the end of the day, the only one for who the game can be perfect is the dev. And not even that.
But that is only a personal opinion.
