The "useless" features I don't mind at all. The "useless" content-blocking is what drives me insane.
Feature:
scrounging for/buying food components
making food
taking baths
brushing hair/teeth
exercising
sleeping
Content-Block:
energy
hunger
hygiene
time of day
(I am not claiming the above lists are comprehensive, but hopefully they do get my point across)
The features are all things that the player can actively do. They are interactive. And each is an area where content can be added/skilled up. They aren't necessarily all adult-themed content areas, but I am okay with that. It can still make for a more diverse game experience. The only real negative I have to say for such a broad scope of features and how massive the map is is that the developer has too small a team/produces too slowly to make use of so many areas in any meaningful timeline. Everything suffers because the work is spread too thin.
Where the game really suffers is all the blocking. So you want to go jogging. Navigate your way over to the forest (which takes some time because movement is not particularly fast) to the outdoor track and begin your run. NO! Sorry, you can't run in the clothes you are wearing. Okay, so walk all the way back home; change into exercise gear; walk all the way back to the forest; and now begin your run. NO! Sorry, you are too hungry. Hah, luckily I have some toast on me and can eat that right here (otherwise it would be another trip home to cook something and then eat it and come back again). Eat toast and start my run. NO! Sorry, you stink too much to do anything; go take a bath already. Ugh, fine. Walk back home and take a bath. Walk back to the forest and finally start that run. NO! Sorry, you don't have enough energy. FOR THE LOVE OF.... %$&@. Walk back home and nap for an hour. Look at your current energy and think, "I have no idea how much energy I need to run. I'm going to nap for a second hour just to be safe." Okay, energy, hunger, hygiene, all my stats seem high enough finally. Slog my way back to the forest one final time. Yes, this time I'm finally going to get to do it. Jog the park. NO! Sorry, it is too late. You can't run the park at night. I really really need something to break, maim, kill! You know what, all my stats are finally high enough; there is a wait command; I'm just going to skip over the night hours so I can finally jog one time. So, I use the wait until finally it is morning. Be calm. Think an inner mantra. Frustrating as it was, we made it. Okay, JOG! NO! Sorry, you don't have enough energy. Glance over at your stats, low energy, low hunger, reduced hygiene. You have got to be kidding me... Skipping time causes all my other stats to go down. I am right back where I started (well, at least I'm starting in the right clothes this time).
Nothing is gained by all this blocking. All it does is serve as pure frustration. It takes a lot of gameplay time and effort to navigate all over the maps to various events only to find that one random content-blocking tool has slipped just below some arbitrary cut-off point and you can't proceed. Nothing to do but save-scum or return all the way back home and consider this gameday a complete loss. Try again another time and hope that all the planets align.
I would prefer to see most of the content blocks disappear completely, but if the dev really feels the need for them, he should really convert them to positive and negative buffs instead of blocks. So you want to jog while stinky? No problem, but any running partner you have will leave first and you will run alone. You want to jog while drained of energy? Fine, but you'll only gain half the fitness benefit of normal (and maybe you lose out on the jiggling body parts because you aren't running fast enough). You are in the wrong clothes? Pop up a choice that says, "do you want to spend 20min to run home and change?" A yes starts you jogging but advances the game clock the extra time (without making the player run all the way home to do it).
You want to work with a low stat, maybe you don't earn as much money or it takes more clock time then normal. You are taking a class, maybe it will cost you extra money to pay the teacher to stay late and explain better because your state of mind left you drowsy and you didn't learn it all during class. Etc, whatever... Needing to do some activities a few extra times to accomplish the same goal is far better than continually being told, "you can not do that action." The whole point of a game is to be doing things. Not to keep being told why I can not currently do them. (And one last time I'll reiterate that it still wouldn't be that bad if it were easy to try the action or to solve the "can not do" reason. All the lag and time consuming running around is too much effort on the player's part to end with a, "sorry, try again later.")
In short, stop telling me no (Especially since I'm only told no after I put in all the effort. Don't let me put in the effort and then tell me you are keeping the reward). Give me different content or change my stats adjustments. Just stop telling me no.
