My take on current problems about adult games

[khumak]

My biggest pet peeve is games that are set up with arbitrary choices that gate off content such that you pretty much have to play with a walkthrough open to get anywhere. I do like choices to matter but I want enough context to be able to make an informed decision. Too many games are set up to be essentially the equivalent of the player standing in front of 2 identical doors. If they open the door on the left they get a game over bad ending. If they open the door on the right they get an FFM threesome.

Even worse are the games with a scoring system that is hidden from the player's view in addition to being set up to essentially require a perfect score to avoid a bad ending. So not only am I faced with arbitrary choices, I have to spend 2 hours playing through them to find out that I get a bad ending and then have zero clue why. For this type of game I can either spend hours fruitlessly making arbitrary choices and hoping I get closer to a "good ending", play with a walkthrough open, or dig through the code and cheat my way to victory.

If you're giving me a choice where I have no way of knowing what constitutes a good vs a bad decision then either make it repeatable so I can come back later and fix it or build enough wiggle room into the game's scoring/progression system so that I can make mistakes and still get what I want. I should not have to play with a walkthrough open and I should not have to be constantly saving and reloading.

Minigames are a big one as well. I can understand some devs might be into puzzles or whatever and that's fine. By all means show off your ability to make a cool minigame. But for the love of god, give me an option to skip it after I fail it the first few times. If I enjoy it I may keep playing it every time but it's nearly guaranteed that a substantial portion of your player base will NOT enjoy the minigame. This is especially true of something like a difficult, timed minigame that must be beaten DURING a sex scene. ARGH!!

 

[ChaosOpen]

- RenPy games where basic controls are disabled (like going back a few dialogue lines)

- Games with slow textspeed as default

Amen brother, I like to watch games on auto-play but so many games prevent that because it's impossible to set the timing right in the options. One game I was playing they could not have possibly done it worse. It went from crawl to instant appear and the auto wait time between when a sentence ended and when the next one appears was like 10 awkward seconds then the next level up was instant, and things only got slower from there. What could possibly be the need to allow me to set it to where it takes 2 minutes for a sentence to finish on top of a one minute pause between each sentence, how dumb do you think I am? Set the options up so that the user can tweak it to their natural reading speed.

 

[Jinnai]

There are certainly some issues with the current adult game dev scene. But I don't think that they are exclusive to this scene.

A lot of people picked up some kind of game making tool, like RPGM or Ren'py, and just went with it. Creating a game nowadays is easier than ever. Creating a good game is a completely different topic, of course.

So that creates a scenario where tons of people start making something they like, but never finish anything, because as it turns out, finishing a project like this can be quite draining. So for every gem you find, you first have to dig through a lot of 0.1 Alpha garbage.

And since this community appears to be only growing, I don't see this issue getting fixed anytime soon. Quite the opposite, actually. It's just something we have to adapt to.

 

[Hamfist]

My biggest pet peeve is games that are set up with arbitrary choices that gate off content such that you pretty much have to play with a walkthrough open to get anywhere. I do like choices to matter but I want enough context to be able to make an informed decision. Too many games are set up to be essentially the equivalent of the player standing in front of 2 identical doors. If they open the door on the left they get a game over bad ending. If they open the door on the right they get an FFM threesome.

Even worse are the games with a scoring system that is hidden from the player's view in addition to being set up to essentially require a perfect score to avoid a bad ending. So not only am I faced with arbitrary choices, I have to spend 2 hours playing through them to find out that I get a bad ending and then have zero clue why. For this type of game I can either spend hours fruitlessly making arbitrary choices and hoping I get closer to a "good ending", play with a walkthrough open, or dig through the code and cheat my way to victory.

If you're giving me a choice where I have no way of knowing what constitutes a good vs a bad decision then either make it repeatable so I can come back later and fix it or build enough wiggle room into the game's scoring/progression system so that I can make mistakes and still get what I want. I should not have to play with a walkthrough open and I should not have to be constantly saving and reloading.

Minigames are a big one as well. I can understand some devs might be into puzzles or whatever and that's fine. By all means show off your ability to make a cool minigame. But for the love of god, give me an option to skip it after I fail it the first few times. If I enjoy it I may keep playing it every time but it's nearly guaranteed that a substantial portion of your player base will NOT enjoy the minigame. This is especially true of something like a difficult, timed minigame that must be beaten DURING a sex scene. ARGH!!

This reply interests me. There is a lot about it I completely agree with (hidden scores) disabled roll back are all shitty. Lack of context for choices is a big one too in most cases. The game I'm building actually includes lots of the choices to be arbitrary and uninformed because bad luck is part of the game (which is very clearly explained in the intro) the game is about surviving the day from morning to bed time on a single day. The death scenes are the fun part of the game. Part of the end goal (gallery unlock) is to view every death scene and after every death scene the game tells you to roll back to the decision and try again, rather than dumping you to the menu to start from a save (when a game does this to me I delete it). If you play the game with a perfect choice answers every time (with the exception of certain limited character interaction choices) it's going to be somewhat boring. Since I am putting a lot of effort into making the majority of the death scenes fun and humorous I really hope people end up liking this unusual play style but overall I'm building the game for me (aka no external funding and just because I want to build it)

 

[khumak]

This reply interests me. There is a lot about it I completely agree with (hidden scores) disabled roll back are all shitty. Lack of context for choices is a big one too in most cases. The game I'm building actually includes lots of the choices to be arbitrary and uninformed because bad luck is part of the game (which is very clearly explained in the intro) the game is about surviving the day from morning to bed time on a single day. The death scenes are the fun part of the game. Part of the end goal (gallery unlock) is to view every death scene and after every death scene the game tells you to roll back to the decision and try again, rather than dumping you to the menu to start from a save (when a game does this to me I delete it). If you play the game with a perfect choice answers every time (with the exception of certain limited character interaction choices) it's going to be somewhat boring. Since I am putting a lot of effort into making the majority of the death scenes fun and humorous I really hope people end up liking this unusual play style but overall I'm building the game for me (aka no external funding and just because I want to build it)

Your game sounds like sort of a twisted version of Groundhog Day where I wouldn't mind the arbitrary choices because you're setting it up so that the bad choices are going to lead to worthwhile scenes as well. It sounds like the real goal for your game is to just see all of the scenes rather than a more typical good ending vs bad ending type of game.

 

[Hamfist]

Your game sounds like sort of a twisted version of Groundhog Day where I wouldn't mind the arbitrary choices because you're setting it up so that the bad choices are going to lead to worthwhile scenes as well. It sounds like the real goal for your game is to just see all of the scenes rather than a more typical good ending vs bad ending type of game.

yeah there will be better (less clothed scenes) for making some of the interaction choices right with the protagonists love interests, points gained or lost (once i figure the damned coding out for that part) will be visible. But over all the goal is to laugh a lot at the stupid ways this guy dies.

Brings to a point another peeve, when breaking the fourth wall in games is sloppily done. (I smash the thing right down and have the developer (myself obviously) and the narrator talk directly to the player, but it's clear from the beginning that's happening and part of the entire scenario not 30 minutes into game play a crack appears in the fourth wall as the developer slips in a line or two, because that breaks the continuity of how the game started out.

 

[おい！]

If i may ask what is your definition of milking a game?

 

[SeventhVixen]

Maybe the majority of games you (generally speaking of the common "bad things" about games said in this threat) speak about are just trying to replicate the same formula on the most supported (more money) nsfw games on patreon.

There are many games that are not like that. Some of them more visible, some of them not. As a positive guy, I will always say that people should focus on enjoying the games they like, talking about the good, supporting them if they can (showing that is a type of game they like and want more like that), instead of just focusing in the negativity saying that almost all games are bad because they have those features. It just bring more attention to the games you don't like, instead of the reverse.

So just go out there, find games with the qualities you like, talk good about them, support them, and there will be more games you like (Is how the market works, specially when there is not people around spending million of bucks a year to put advertisment about "games with no choices, grinding and silly minigames are the best"). Many devs just do wathever looks to be popular.

But I'm pretty sure there are people out there saying that all the mechanics of milfy city are bad, and nevertheless maybe they're supporting milfy city on patreon, or having a banner of milfy city. Because, you know, people xD

 

[polywog]

As an industry, video games generated $119.6 billion in revenue during 2018, according to SuperData.

You must be registered to see the links

 

[daddydiddlez]

If you look back at RPG games over the last 30 years, you'll find that mainstream developers have been wrestling with these questions for a very long time. They've been refining and innovating what "Choice" in games means. Those games are essentially the same as modern ADULT games. Text heavy story with 2D graphics and animations. Look at early Balder's Gate, Neverwinter Nights or Torment. Those had teams of writers working all the "Outcomes" of player choice. RPGs later evolved into 3D games like Mass Effect or KOTOR, experimenting with new implications of choice. As gaming has matured from those older, text tree style branching stories, they have evolved. And when you look at modern games like Witcher 3 you can see some pretty clear trends in RPG story telling.

The "Choices" in games have become less about branching stories, with good and bad endings or finding content hidden away down some unexplored dialogue trees. They are more about Developer expressing themselves to the player. And the player having an opportunity express themselves within the game world.

BRIEF DISCLAIMER: DONT RIP MY FACE OFF. I'm going to generalize.

Generally I think there are only THREE good reasons to use choice in a game.

1. Use choice to have a conversation with player. You are giving them feedback. Choices allow you the developer to express the world and characters that you've created.

A.) Reach out and grab her tits.
Result. Hey! I'm not that kind of girl.

B.) Put hand on shoulder, and comfort her.
Result. Thanks I really needed that.

Here, the Developer is talking to the player. Telling them about this particular character. Its cool, let the player test and experiment. Guide them through the world you've created. But don't make choice A.) destroy their game. Let them learn and move on knowing now who that character is and who you are as a game designer. Let them learn the rules of your game world while having fun. Never have a choice lead to Game Over. If peeking at girls will get the player sent to jail in this game, tell them that. Don't create a button that will GAME OVER unless you really want to piss them off. You are just eroding the trust between player and developer.

2.) Tailor the Experience.

Sally says, "Forget Alice, come with me to my room."
A.) FUCK YEA! (Goes to room with Sally.)
B.) I have plans with Alice, I'll see you later. (Goes to Alice)
C.) You two are always fighting. Can't we all get along? (Go for both twins)

This just lets players edit out the stuff they are not interested in.

3.) The true illusion of choice is letting your player "Express Themselves". They know they cannot do everything under the sun in your game, but let them feel like they are allowed to express who they are within your game.

Christine moans as you push you cock into her.

A.) Kiss her neck tenderly.
b.) Wrap your fingers around her throat.

This lets the player express themselves. Very useful because of how personal sexual preference is. Some like it SOFT, some like it ROUGH. Its a very different sexual flavor that does not lead to branching story paths or dead end routes. It lets them get deep into the role of the protagonist while allowing them to express themselves in your game.

Yes, yes, there are no rules, and the rules are all meant to be broken and all that. BUT one thing I can say unequivocally. Any game that REQUIRES a walkthrough for the player to navigate its content is a very POORLY DESIGNED game. It might be beautifully written and animated, but the design sucks. Any designer who thinks its OK to force a player to leave their game to scour through a text document is a shitty designer 99 times out of a hundred.

 

[ChaosOpen]

1. Use choice to have a conversation with player. You are giving them feedback. Choices allow you the developer to express the world and characters that you've created.

A.) Reach out and grab her tits.
Result. Hey! I'm not that kind of girl.

B.) Put hand on shoulder, and comfort her.
Result. Thanks I really needed that.

Here, the Developer is talking to the player. Telling them about this particular character. Its cool, let the player test and experiment. Guide them through the world you've created. But don't make choice A.) destroy their game. Let them learn and move on knowing now who that character is and who you are as a game designer. Let them learn the rules of your game world while having fun. Never have a choice lead to Game Over. If peeking at girls will get the player sent to jail in this game, tell them that. Don't create a button that will GAME OVER unless you really want to piss them off. You are just eroding the trust between player and developer.

The illusion of choice still remains prevalent in more games than not. I'm going to generalize but I think the most glaring example are games with NTR that is supposedly "optional" as if its simply one small part of a larger game. If you look at the route where you avoid NTR is is generally far shorter and only features a fraction of the CGs if any. They say it's optional, but if a developer says he wants to include NTR but it's obvious to everyone that if a developer wants to put NTR in the game at all its because he wants that to be the central pillar of the story, which is why you only get a fraction of the content when you avoid it. Which is why when I see "NTR" I don't even download it even if it is supposedly optional, because I've seen this scenario play out time and time again.

Christine moans as you push you cock into her.

A.) Kiss her neck tenderly.
b.) Wrap your fingers around her throat.

This lets the player express themselves. Very useful because of how personal sexual preference is. Some like it SOFT, some like it ROUGH. Its a very different sexual flavor that does not lead to branching story paths or dead end routes. It lets them get deep into the role of the protagonist while allowing them to express themselves in your game.

This isn't entirely uncommon, the problem is the dichotomy between "good" and "bad" endings the game throws at you after allowing you to play the game your way. It's the same problem as the paragon and renegade system from video games, don't give me a bunch of fun toys if you're just going to punish me for using them.

Yes, yes, there are no rules, and the rules are all meant to be broken and all that. BUT one thing I can say unequivocally. Any game that REQUIRES a walkthrough for the player to navigate its content is a very POORLY DESIGNED game. It might be beautifully written and animated, but the design sucks. Any designer who thinks its OK to force a player to leave their game to scour through a text document is a shitty designer 99 times out of a hundred.

I think a well designed choice system should have an effect almost immediately with the consequences of that choice being clear showing what you gained and lost by choosing that. In other words, if I select option A then I should be able to make a reasonable approximation of what I will happen when I select B. I mean, one could argue that it isn't true with reality as often our choices in life don't pay off until much later but this is a video game, sometimes reality has to take a back seat to fun, and designing a fun game requires clear game mechanics so the player doesn't have to spend 90% of the game wondering what the hell is going on with the inputs he is making.
Then the ending, rather than being a major plot point, should just be an epilogue. One day, I'd like to see a game with only a single ending but with a massive branching narrative which you explore to arrive at that ending. Kinda like how Fallout New Vegas worked, where the game is more about the journey than the destination. However, if I select a different choice then see the same scene, then what was the point of the choice?

 

[ShamanLab]

Text heavy story with 2D graphics and animations. Look at early Balder's Gate, Neverwinter Nights or Torment. Those had teams of writers working all the "Outcomes" of player choice. RPGs later evolved into 3D games like Mass Effect or KOTOR, experimenting with new implications of choice. As gaming has matured from those older, text tree style branching stories, they have evolved.

Men, what are you talking about?

When they shifted from games like 'Baldur's Gates' to KOTOR this was simplification and primitivisation of everything except graphic and maybe interface. The only experimenting field was interface and control for 3D RPG games. Developers only cares about dumbing down as much content as possible.

 

[daddydiddlez]

Men, what are you talking about?

Yeah, maybe I'm being unclear. AND I am certainly prejudiced in a certain direction. There are some games that are absolutely all about the player "Making Choices" as a fun game play mechanic. Most of them I almost consider "Digital Toys". Where you fire up the game and the choices is are really fun. You want to see what happens as you choose a path and you look forward to restarting your game for another replay. I find these games are rare. And they are the 99 out of 100 that I mentioned.

I can basically count on one hand the number of games that use "Choice" well. Undertale comes to mind. Sculptor is the only game I can think of on F95 that takes choice seriously and is really exploring how to use it as a game-play mechanic.

What I'm talking about are dead end story threads, forking story trees that close off content to the user, and "Obligate" the player to restart if they "Want to fuck Joanne". These are bad design choices. The aren't fun. Forcing you to players to use walkthroughs and the "Fast-forward" button so you can see one leg of a forking story, I absolutely consider poor design. And I think those designers are fooling themselves when they claim that they are designing fun "Choice" based games.

 

[daddydiddlez]

This isn't entirely uncommon, the problem is the dichotomy between "good" and "bad" endings the game throws at you after allowing you to play the game your way. It's the same problem as the paragon and renegade system from video games, don't give me a bunch of fun toys if you're just going to punish me for using them.

Hey man. As much as I'd like to dig into your post, I'm sure, no one wants to read my reply!

Let me just say, I agree with 90% of what you're saying. Though I would mince words around the finer points. These questions have been struggled with for decades. But I stand by my post. I think it is the rare game that can become a Planet Torment. Those games require thousands of man-hours to write and illustrate. And the question remains. How much fun are these "Choices"? And is the trade off worth it? Fewer "Choices" can free the creator to have more stories, more characters and a richer game world rather than writing and illustrating the "Fallout" of player "Choices".

PS: I put NTR on/off into "Tailoring" game play.

 

[woody554]

These are bad design choices. The aren't fun.

I hate being railroaded to 'fun', it totally removes any suspense or tension. everything can be done well or badly, but bad consequences exist for the sole reason of making the 'fun' actually fun.

I've never met another old gamer who didn't absolutely hate how easy and unchallenging modern games are. the industry might tell you in a seminar 'easy is what people like, the focus group said so', but that's not been true in any kind of narrative art ever. the difference between a layman and a creator is, that the layman fools himself that he wants everything instantly and to never feel frustration. the creator knows the audience doesn't know the first thing about what they like, and should never be allowed to affect dramatic choices.

it's all about the tease, building up, frustration. and just when you think you can't take it anymore, you get the reward. which creates maximal catharsis. you don't get any kind of catharsis when you're railroaded to 'fun'. or when you're explained things like to a child, as in "Warning, punching eric in his stupid face is locking you out of future content'. if that's not clear from the context, fix the context. don't break the 4th wall, and don't patronize.

doesn't mean everything must be dwarf fortress, but don't kill your dramatic tension by treating the audience like a stupid fucking child who has to get everything with zero dopamine invested. we don't secrete dopamine from getting the reward, we secrete it from the unnerving uncertainty of maybe not getting the reward.

bad stuff should happen in games. it makes everything better.

 

[DigitalFire]

As some people also included regular videogames, I need to state what I'm going to say is intended only for adult games in mind.

First of all: What happens when you make a "bad choice" and it's "game over"? Do you say "Ohh well, I failed" and close the game? Same thing if your "choice" blocks you from viewing content which is the reason you're playing the game in the first place. You load the game before that choice and make the "right choice" anyways, It really doesn't matter in the end and therefore it's solely an illusion of choice. I'm not saying "make games without story" or "just one line of a story should exist". I'm saying I don't want "choices" that "don't matter". I hate when developers "force you" to replay the game and claim it's good for the "replayability". That's just plain stupid. The majority of the people here wouldn't want to play the same adult game more than once from the start to the end in a single day no matter what. The solution to this imo is that making two seperate approaches, for example, corruption which you start a temporarily "unwilling" relations with characters through blackmail and such, but they start to enjoy it later or seduction where you seduce the characters without compelling them to do anything but trying to gain their affection and trust. If you wanted to increase the paths, you could twist them at some point, as time moves on, like "good path leads to evil" or "evil turns out partly good". 2 choices that affect the story. Not meaningless "pet her head" or "put your hand on her leg" stupidity. It'ld also greatly reduce the workload of creating plugins and managing the event scheme to support these meaningless choices.

 

[Hagatagar]

[...] or when you're explained things like to a child, as in "Warning, punching eric in his stupid face is locking you out of future content'. if that's not clear from the context, fix the context. don't break the 4th wall, and don't patronize.

There are always people who click away the text and then of course come across things they don't like, because they have not been explicitly pointed out.
And they are the first to complain in forums or comment sections, most likely still with their penis juice on their hands.

doesn't mean everything must be dwarf fortress

I don't support that statement at all!

 

[daddydiddlez]

I hate being railroaded to 'fun', it totally removes any suspense or tension. everything can be done well or badly, but bad consequences exist for the sole reason of making the 'fun' actually fun.

I agree with the sentiment here. But lets be clear. Suspense and tension are narrative ideas. They can (and should in my opinion) be accomplished through story telling. You are saying that "Failure States" (god I hate totalbisquite for popularizing this idea on the internet) is the only way to achieve this. I disagree. A good writer can snatch away the thing you want, in a novel or movie and can do the same thing in a game. There are clever narrative ways, that those things can be achieved in Story based games.

I've never met another old gamer who didn't absolutely hate how easy and unchallenging modern games are. the industry might tell you in a seminar 'easy is what people like, the focus group said so', but that's not been true in any kind of narrative art ever. the difference between a layman and a creator is, that the layman fools himself that he wants everything instantly and to never feel frustration. the creator knows the audience doesn't know the first thing about what they like, and should never be allowed to affect dramatic choices.

I am an old school gamer, but I don't really agree with you. Each thread you mention has merit, but I don't assemble the pieces in the same way that you do.

Focus tested, least common denominator games are generally crappy. EA games are unplayable. Bioware seems to be laying down in that grave. Ubi has been wallowing in the shallow end of this pool for a long time, but there is hope they are waking up to gamer's expectations. Fallout 4 had some wonderful stuff in it, but it began betraying its roots. 76 makes me wonder if there will ever be a great Bethesda RPG again in my lifetime.

But, Witcher 3 is a marvel, and is exactly what I want from an RPG. Story adventure and drama. They play lip service in certain quests to "Choice" but they've proven they don't really give a shit about player choice. They have stories to tell and a world to bring to life. Take it or leave it. And, honestly, I'm with CDPR on this. Tell me great stories. FUCK Choice.

If I want games with "Failure States" I can play Dark Souls or God of War. I have a vast library of Strategy Games that have wonderful game-play loops that require "Failure" as an essential part of their design. I just don't think it adds much to narrative storytelling.

it's all about the tease, building up, frustration. and just when you think you can't take it anymore, you get the reward. which creates maximal catharsis. you don't get any kind of catharsis when you're railroaded to 'fun'. or when you're explained things like to a child, as in "Warning, punching eric in his stupid face is locking you out of future content'. if that's not clear from the context, fix the context. don't break the 4th wall, and don't patronize.

I feel your passion about this, I'm just not on board. I really believe that great story tellers make you feel these things without dead ends, branching paths or "Failure". A platformer requires failure. A good story really doesn't. If you want to give player agency, Witcher points the way. Let the player interact with the charters however they like, and the world however they like but when it comes to story players are fundamentally unable to alter anything until the creator turns the plot and carries the player through its drama. Thats the way it should be IMHO.

PS: Remind me never to get into a debate with you about Fall 3 vs New Vegas!

 

[TheSaltySeaWeiner]

I hate being railroaded to 'fun', it totally removes any suspense or tension. everything can be done well or badly, but bad consequences exist for the sole reason of making the 'fun' actually fun.

I've never met another old gamer who didn't absolutely hate how easy and unchallenging modern games are. the industry might tell you in a seminar 'easy is what people like, the focus group said so', but that's not been true in any kind of narrative art ever. the difference between a layman and a creator is, that the layman fools himself that he wants everything instantly and to never feel frustration. the creator knows the audience doesn't know the first thing about what they like, and should never be allowed to affect dramatic choices.

it's all about the tease, building up, frustration. and just when you think you can't take it anymore, you get the reward. which creates maximal catharsis. you don't get any kind of catharsis when you're railroaded to 'fun'. or when you're explained things like to a child, as in "Warning, punching eric in his stupid face is locking you out of future content'. if that's not clear from the context, fix the context. don't break the 4th wall, and don't patronize.

doesn't mean everything must be dwarf fortress, but don't kill your dramatic tension by treating the audience like a stupid fucking child who has to get everything with zero dopamine invested. we don't secrete dopamine from getting the reward, we secrete it from the unnerving uncertainty of maybe not getting the reward.

bad stuff should happen in games. it makes everything better.

I know i'm way late on this and I have no idea how I ended up here, but for posterity, what you just described is an addiction loop. It's why fighting games have been circling the drain since the end of the 90's and it's why all mmo players are sweaty masochist with sometimes less than adequate interpersonal skills.

Maybe the problem isn't that games have gotten easier, maybe the problem is they don't make you feel special anymore. There are skill based games and there are non-skill based games, maybe you are not playing the right ones?

"the difference between a layman and a creator is, that the layman fools himself that he wants everything instantly and to never feel frustration. the creator knows the audience doesn't know the first thing about what they like, and should never be allowed to affect dramatic choices." - woody554 glorious year of our lord march eighth two thousand and twenty

You are absolutely right and that's why I play nothing but VNs featuring hardcore gay porn even tho i'm not gay and I get no satisfaction from playing them, only frustration WHICH I LIKE because instant satisfaction is stupid and not how people are wired at all. Seriously, if you gave me three wishes I wouldn't use them, scratch that i would use my first wish to wish for just TWO wishes instead of three, no, make that one wish but I have to jam a rabies infected honey badger up the ass of a very angry and very high on cocaine Mike Tyson while we are both naked and lathered in butter in order to get the wish becuase who doesn't like a challenge? When did the youth become a different species oldhead?

There's more to life than sex and games. The human brain needs and is bombarded by constant stimulation and if you keep exposing your mind to the same stimuli over and over you are going to get bored with it, only cure for that is to broaden your horizons. I guess what i'm trying to say for a third time is go touch some grass boomer.

 

[woody554]

I know i'm way late on this and I have no idea how I ended up here, but for posterity, what you just described is an addiction loop. It's why fighting games have been circling the drain since the end of the 90's and it's why all mmo players are sweaty masochist with sometimes less than adequate interpersonal skills.

Maybe the problem isn't that games have gotten easier, maybe the problem is they don't make you feel special anymore. There are skill based games and there are non-skill based games, maybe you are not playing the right ones?

"the difference between a layman and a creator is, that the layman fools himself that he wants everything instantly and to never feel frustration. the creator knows the audience doesn't know the first thing about what they like, and should never be allowed to affect dramatic choices." - woody554 glorious year of our lord march eighth two thousand and twenty

You are absolutely right and that's why I play nothing but VNs featuring hardcore gay porn even tho i'm not gay and I get no satisfaction from playing them, only frustration WHICH I LIKE because instant satisfaction is stupid and not how people are wired at all. Seriously, if you gave me three wishes I wouldn't use them, scratch that i would use my first wish to wish for just TWO wishes instead of three, no, make that one wish but I have to jam a rabies infected honey badger up the ass of a very angry and very high on cocaine Mike Tyson while we are both naked and lathered in butter in order to get the wish becuase who doesn't like a challenge? When did the youth become a different species oldhead?

There's more to life than sex and games. The human brain needs and is bombarded by constant stimulation and if you keep exposing your mind to the same stimuli over and over you are going to get bored with it, only cure for that is to broaden your horizons. I guess what i'm trying to say for a third time is go touch some grass boomer.

I hear you behind your sarcasm and I'm not trying to be a dick, but what you feel is exactly what I meant with laymen not understanding what they want. you THINK that's what you want, but every writer on every medium knows you'll be disappointed if it's given to you. that's simply not how stories work.