- May 8, 2018
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Ian & AlisonWell I got IanxCherry, dunno if there is anything more.
Ian & Cherry
Ian & Lena (kiss)
Lena & Robert (2xBJ)
Ian & AlisonWell I got IanxCherry, dunno if there is anything more.
I get your point, even though I disagree in some regards.That's not how i view it. You play a game to win, if it's a video game, chess, basketball or wathever. A PC/MC is your brick that you move around and maneuver to achive your goal/win. A VN is usually a text based game, where you control your "brick" in an effort to win or reach your desired conclusion. Any type of game that gives you the choices or control a character actions is clearly designed to be viewed from the MC's prespective. I feel what you is describing is a more like a kinetic novel, which is a pointless media in my opinion, since books or movies will do the job better. As I have a hard time dealing with "walls of text" on no player agency in games.
Same, I don't want to go the Lena/Ian route right away, I want to explore first then I'll go for the obvious choice... I just realised that I actually have that kind of behavior in almost any games with exploration, like in Skyrim for exemple where I spent so much time exploring and doing side quests before doing the main questThis is why personally, I'm not doing the Lena/Ian route. It's weird doing a romance path of 2 characters that you control. It is like I'm dating myself lol.
Although I understand what you mean, the actual reason why we play games is first to entertain ourselves then goes the secondary goal which would be winning to some peopleYou play a game to win
It's not that I view myself as the MC, it's the the fact that I'm controlling both Lena and Ian and doing their path doesn't feel like I've achieved anything or earned anything since I was the one controlling both of their actions throughout the game. I'd much rather have them go for other NPCs so I can uncover that NPCs story as the MC uncovers it.I think that's the crux.
Some people refuse to distinguish between themselves and the MC - which is completely fine (some VNs even encourage this view by letting you name the MC after yourself).
On the other hand this perception seems to be the main reason why certain genres like NTR get so much flak - it's mainly because some people take things (too) personally.
In my opinion Our Red String isn't supposed to be played from a first person view - we aren't those characters, we just control them (to a certain extent) and witness the unfolding story.
i would even say, i like it way more if i play a defined character. for example the games "mass effect" and "mass effect andromeda" lets you create a character with either gender, pesonalized face, a name that never gets used, choose a backstory and throughout the whole game has multiple options to even alter your story-flow. yet i think anyone can agree with me: ryder is a complete different person than shepard. how's that, if you were choosing the outcome? it's because shepard always gets shown as a hardass military veteran, while ryder gets shown as a laid-back scouts rookie, and that regardless if you played as renegade or paragon. that way the character feels alive and be a part of the story, which makes being able to choose how the story unfolds even better (so you still can say "my shepard did this" and have a personalized story of your own). i for one like it more if i can immerse myself with a strong self-explanatory character, as instead with a blank slate as interesting as a white cardboard cutout of a person. bad example is "knights of the old republic". it was a totally cool story but my never speaking MC was like a sore thumb, i couldn't take it seriously.I get your point, even though I disagree in some regards.
First off, taking NTR as an (extreme) example was probably not a good idea from my end - a less controversial example would have been a female protagonist.
A lot of people (men) who immerse themselves as actually being the MC seem to have issues with female protagonists.
I also witness this mentality in MMORPGs.
"I'm a guy, I would never play a female char - that's weird!"
Funnily enough people with such mindset don't have a problem playing an orc or an undead char, even though they aren't orcs or undead IRL (I surely hope they aren't ).
I don't really get it, because these are roleplaying games after all...
And that's exactly how adult games work for me - they are roleplaying games.
I can assume the role of a straight guy, a lesbian girl, a gay guy, heck... why not even a dog if it's a compelling story...
But back to what your wrote:
Of course there are moments of "yes, I did it" in adult games, but for the most part I'm playing them to experience a good story, not to 'win' them.
Also, kinetic novels are completely fine in my book.
An adult novel doesn't necessarily need choices in order to captivate me.
It's just another medium, an illustrated adult book if you want.
A prime example would be
https://f95zone.to/threads/one-last-salty-kiss-v1-2-1-fullmontis.29036/
It's a kinetic novel which ends with the MC losing his loved one (and no - it's not about NTR ).
Still, it's one of the best adult novels I've read so far...
...but as always: Different strokes for different folks (no pun intended ).
An even better example to go with ORS would be Witcher 3. You do get to decide what to say or do, but all these decisions are within Geralt's personality. Geralt is not a brick without personality, he is defined through and through. You can't change him yourself, just merely put on his shoes and think "What would I do in Geralt's place?". That's why I like ORS so much more than I did GGGB. Because you choose what these 2 characters realistically could say or do in those situations.i would even say, i like it way more if i play a defined character. for example the games "mass effect" and "mass effect andromeda" lets you create a character with either gender, pesonalized face, a name that never gets used, choose a backstory and throughout the whole game has multiple options to even alter your story-flow. yet i think anyone can agree with me: ryder is a complete different person than shepard. how's that, if you were choosing the outcome? it's because shepard always gets shown as a hardass military veteran, while ryder gets shown as a laid-back scouts rookie, and that regardless if you played as renegade or paragon. that way the character feels alive and be a part of the story, which makes being able to choose how the story unfolds even better (so you still can say "my shepard did this" and have a personalized story of your own). i for one like it more if i can immerse myself with a strong self-explanatory character, as instead with a blank slate as interesting as a white cardboard cutout of a person. bad example is "knights of the old republic". it was a totally cool story but my never speaking MC was like a sore thumb, i couldn't take it seriously.
that depends. do you want everyone who got a sprite? or everyone that had at least a bit of backstory (so tyrone's homies are not part of this for example)?How many characters were in total in GGGB?
And do you guys think ORS will have even more?
You can quickly get a rough idea by following thisHow many characters were in total in GGGB?
Oh niceYou can quickly get a rough idea by following thisYou must be registered to see the links.
By the way, this is theYou must be registered to see the linkscorresponding to ORS (maybe it would be useful to publish it in the OP of this thread).
I like that in Eva's games you don't get hit with a game over screen and that there's no "right" choices. Most games you pick a choice to see if it's the right one and if not you reload and choose again. With Eva's games you're able to pick a choice and stick with it. I'll disagree with seeing Eva's pov in GGGB though tbh. To me, part of what turned me on about that was not getting to see the ins and outs of Eva's character, but knowing it's happening behind the scenes and seeing little snippets of it. To me, having Ashley and thus the player seeing Eva being corrupted via seeing her giving a bj in a video sent to Tyrone is way hotter than getting the entire scene from Eva's pov. That's just my opinion though.Seems the dual protagonist is pretty controversial for some people. Some interesting things are being said about games and immersion, but I mostly share Casual Voyeur's opinion. In games normally you play to "win", but that's not the case, especially with role-paying games. I used to play tabletop role-playing games with friends and the point was not so much to "win" but to experience a fun adventure. I think this is closest to Eva Kiss's game-making philosophy, there are no "wrong" choices, even if you fail or do something bad the game doesn't punish you for it or you get a game over screen, rather you just experience the story in a new and organic path, this is what made GGGB so fucking cool.
In ORS you're asked to roleplay as Ian AND Lena, this creates some new and interesting scenarios where one choice you take as one of the MCs can affect the other and you can feel you're interacting with yourself, but I just see it as me as a player interacting with the game. It's a role-playing game and you're asked to immerse in the shoes of two separate characters that share a story, and I think it's a very cool and brave creative decision. I understand some people wanting to immerse in just a single character but this way we get to see both sides of the story, and in GGGB we could only see Ash's side of the story. Imagine having been able to play as Dave dating Jessica, or Eric in the jungle, or playing as Eva as she was corrupted by Jack and Tyrone's friend, etc
And maybe playing ORS with your girlfriend (if you have one lol) and taking turns to control Ian or Lena could be super cool
I haven't decided what I want to do with Lena yet but I'm leaning more towards Robert as well. For Ian I'm going with Cherry and possibly CindyI am gonna go the Lena + Richard route. I think he good cuckold material. Especially if Lena decides to have hate sex with Axel.
Ian is a much harder choice. Holly is more my style, but I think I will focus on Allison just to keep her away from Jeremy. He seems to have enough women already.
It would also be fun to watch Axel and Jeremy clash over Lena as well.
You're totally right about it being exciting watching Eva corrupted in the shadows, getting glimpses here and there. There's space for that in ORS like with Jeremy and Alison I think for example, but you can get that AND a second protagonist to play from a POV that kind of scenes too. I don't know in my opinion ORS has the best of both worlds and potential for a ton of cool scenarios, maybe even more than GGGBI like that in Eva's games you don't get hit with a game over screen and that there's no "right" choices. Most games you pick a choice to see if it's the right one and if not you reload and choose again. With Eva's games you're able to pick a choice and stick with it. I'll disagree with seeing Eva's pov in GGGB though tbh. To me, part of what turned me on about that was not getting to see the ins and outs of Eva's character, but knowing it's happening behind the scenes and seeing little snippets of it. To me, having Ashley and thus the player seeing Eva being corrupted via seeing her giving a bj in a video sent to Tyrone is way hotter than getting the entire scene from Eva's POV. That's just my opinion though.