Play...the...darn...game!

[thecardinal]

You're being sarcastic, but I'd say this is a fairly realistic description of the current state of adult game development from a high level.

The thread is about why people ask for saves or walkthroughs and I was just explaining some of the reasoning where those requests come from. It would be great if those reasons didn't reflect reality, I would be much happier if that were true.

It is, but speaking from personal experience, the devs put a lot into these games. Taking on developing a game is like getting another job, it's at least 20-40 hours per week. Many have to do their own art, writing, and coding; all of which is done in our free time.

Sometimes the 'drip-feed incremental content' is all the dev can create that month. Most games end up abandoned because the developer has unrealistic expectations like yours.

 

[clades]

It is, but speaking from personal experience, the devs put a lot into these games. Taking on developing a game is like getting another job, it's at least 20-40 hours per week. Many have to do their own art, writing, and coding; all of which is done in our free time.

Sometimes the 'drip-feed incremental content' is all the dev can create that month. Most games end up abandoned because the developer has unrealistic expectations like yours.

I'm not trying to blame developers for anything. Game development is hard, and time consuming, and potentially expensive. But that doesn't change the reasons I mentioned.

Adult games don't exist in a vacuum. They are competing for people's attention with every non-adult game out there, as well as all the other forms of entertainment people can choose to partake in. Saying "Play...the...darn...game" is a great sentiment, but it's also not really a realistic expectation in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Ignatz]

I disagree, for I feel you have "stacked the deck" on your reasoning.

There are actually many fine games that are in development that are actually quite professional and feature excellent game play. And even in these games, those impatient requests exist.

Are there plenty of games that fit your description? Absolutely. And then, those reasons you suggest are entirely valid.

But, for those quality games out there, they only fit your broad brush canvas in one aspect (they are "in development" so, by their very nature, they come out in stages).

I will accept some of your explanations on the behavior of some game players, but I feel you have been a little excessive in your negative characterizations and generalizations of the games being created. You may claim not to "blame" the developers, but the reflection of your post gives off that impression.

My feeling is that the bulk of the issue still resides with the players and their motivations for posting.

 

[clades]

I disagree, for I feel you have "stacked the deck" on your reasoning.

Would you consider my reasoning "stacking the deck" if we were talking about non-adult games?

 

[Agent HK47]

Regarding save requests, well, a lot of times the games on this site are something people have already played lots of times and they just want to skip ahead to play the content of the newest update. Or maybe they have already played the game several times and just want to see the last ending, which they are unable/unwilling to obtain legitimally for whatever reason.

As for walkthroughs, I take it as one of 2 things: 1) people don't want to miss any content and they don't fancy playing the game multiple times for getting all content. 2) People are just lazy.

 

[IvoryOwl]

There's various factors at play here but if I had to guess the biggest ones, it would probably be:

• Shitty games, alpha games and those that force you to restart with every new update.

I haven't really kept an ear on the ground regarding new Patreon releases these past months but last time I checked people were making those a dime a dozen and the quality and workflow left a lot to be desired. Only a few titles ever stood out from the sea of copy-pasta; the vast majority used the same assets, same engine, same models, story, mechanics, etc. If people are only interested in the fap material, why would they bother playing a crappy, incomplete game that is practically identical to last 20 titles they tried out?

I understand why some may not like it when others ask for saves but the truth of the matter is we don't know their reason to do so. I feel like those who don't play just for the sake of being lazy are a very small minority compared to the rest who have more legit reasons to ask for help. Heck, even if their reason is due to laziness I feel like they're partially entitled to that; most Patreon games (of the shittiest, alpha, copy-paste quality) are rarely worth the time.

 

[Thickgravy49]

People just want to get to the porn. They don't want to spend hours digging through an amateur (I mean that literally, not as an insult) game just to get to a handful of sex scenes.

But that still means that someone, somewhere has to play through the content to get to the 'porn'.
Why, for example, is my time any less valuable than anyone elses?
I, for one, won't put in the hard yards, just so I can post a save on here, in order that someone else gets the best content 'for free'.
We're all on here for free games, but I think it's a bit much when people want others to do their gameplaying for them.
That may well come across as not very nice, but it's the way I feel about it.

Another thought occurs.
If, as you say, people aren't bothered about storyline, character developement etc, & just want to see a bunch of sex scenes, maybe someone sholud let all the devs' know, so that they can refrain from producing 'worhless content' that nobody wants to see.

 

[Ignatz]

Would you consider my reasoning "stacking the deck" if we were talking about non-adult games?

I don't think the content plays into it as much as the form. Since the structural setup of these games is in a piece-by-piece release method, some of the problems you mention will be endemic to any "in development" game, not just adult content.
I don't like to make assumptions, so I can't speak for the non-adult content games, but it's not difficult for me to imagine similar behavioral responses in non-adult games because of the sequential update process.

 

[redknight00]

Regarding broken saves, it's simple: don't play a in development game and expect it to use the same saves forever.

Also, I think the main reason the OP is venting is not the necessity of saves and walkthroughs, but the constant spamming of people asking the same thing several times each page.

 

[Ignatz]

Almost. It was actually triggered by a request for a password and (wait for it) "all other passwords in the game".

Seriously. Every password in the game.

Rip the CG or refer back to OP for my suggestions of better use for the "player's" time and sexual curiosity.

 

[anne O'nymous]

The "This generation" argument is always so lazy

Which prove that it's not limited to "this generation".

We have plenty of users here who might not speak English as their first language. That can make getting through a game rather hard.

Having been part of them, I can't disagree. Between slang and sometime the (irrational) fear to ask google what "be ready, I'll destroy your dirty whore's cunt" can mean, it took time and many games before you start to understand what's really said.
Because yes, people can fear to ask google a translation for this king of sentence. Not because they fear to be tracked and marked as pervert, but because our brain is tricky. You're more chocked when you discover that it mean something crude, than when you know it from start.

Some people might not have the time to devote to sitting for several hours to figure out how to get X ending or Y scene. Some people might not have the computer literacy to navigate a game as easily.

And the two can mix together, with or without the language barrier.
Some game authors and (more than they thought) experienced players fail to see the need of a walkthrough because each choice is obvious or in fact change just the next four dialogs lines. In their mind it's a, "you can't fail" situation. But it's not always this obvious for someone who don't know much about computer, especially if they don't have enough time to start a "trial and error" approach, and discover that their choice don't matter or really are obvious. For them, it's a challenge and they don't want to fail at it.

This said, @Ignatz isn't wrong either. Many people seem to don't even care about the game and just ask for a walkthrough or a save ; once I even saw someone asking a walkthrough for a pure VN without a single choice...
For me it's because it's an adult game, but not because they only care about the sex content. It's because that they fail to take them seriously. For them it's just an adult game entertainment, so why bother playing it ?

 

[GuyFreely]

[Wall of text incoming!]

I'm rehashing a bit here, but so be it. There are valid requests (broken saves, etc.) and there are lazy requests. The valid requests are the dev's "fault" and the lazy requests are the player's fault. Some people just don't want to put in any amount of effort for anything. It is no surprise that these are the same people that can't be bothered to use a search on the game thread. You can't fix these people, sorry.

On the other side, many games are not well made. They have vague choices that don't make sense or really boring grinds, other bad mechanics that just make people not want to go through all the hassle. Game over choices and other things like that. If you have a nice enjoyable game that doesn't fuck around, people are more willing to play it as intended. If it took let's say four hours to finish a game and most of that time was spent grinding stats and generally was a slog, having to do it all over again to see some things you missed is a big ask. This gets into my whole "don't waste the player's time" argument I make over and over elsewhere.

If a game has multiple paths, the more different these paths are, the more people are willing to try them out. If two paths are 90% the same, but have a few different sexy scenes, it doesn't offer much incentive to try it out again. If the paths are only say 60% the same content, then people can feel engaged. Is this a lot of work? Most definitely. You're basically making more than one game at that point. Look at AAA games. Most of them have false choices and are very linear if you step back and look at them. It's a struggle between making a game too linear and adding a ton of extra work by having very different paths.

The alternative to making very different paths is to unlock everything after one play through. So you let the player go through and play the way they want, but at the end you unlock all scenes. So if the player doesn't want to play the entire thing over, but does what to see what they didn't get to, they can just see those scenes. Again, this is extra work for the dev. For an actual example, I played My Girlfriend's Amnesia and did the mostly "gentlemen route." I was curious about the other path and luckily there is a mod that unlocks every scene, so I was able to go back and see what those other options were without having to go through the whole thing again. This is my preferred way to experience a game. I'll play it once legit, but I'm generally not up for round two.

If you really want to stop a lot of these requests, you put this stuff on page one. Have a CG rip, cheats, and a walkthrough right on the same page as the game download. You can just give people what they want. The purists can play the game as intended, others can cheat, and others can just get the CG rip. I know as a creator you want people to experience the game as intended, but the reality is that not everyone is up for that.

 

[Deleted member 635942]

@GuyFreely love the [wall of text incoming] part... and your comments so true

 

[Chingonerio]

I'm kind of torn on my opinion of this, but that might be because I've actually written walkthroughs on the site for some of the games that lacked them: I think helping people who are stuck is ultimately a good thing.

Sometimes the answer to "is there a full save or guide" is "there shouldn't/can't be" for the games that save to the registry or contain too many randomly generated elements in them (i.e.- roguelikes). If the generation has rules or loads from pre-made assets and layouts, though, you can probably still write about those and that'd provide enough assistance.

I do feel like there's a lot of people who seem to embody the whole "you can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink" figure of speech when a full save or guide has already been posted somewhere in the thread, perhaps even a few posts above on the same page as their latest request.

The people that can't type with enough coherence or that accidentally post on the wrong thread are the ones that cause me the most concern though: If I can't understand them, how can I help them? It gets more stressful when they post more times in a row about what appears to be different subjects, because you have no clue if whatever their first issue was got resolved or if they're trying to explain better (or at least provide more details, though still incomprehensible to an English speaker).