Porn Game Tropes: The good, the bad, and the fugly

[Proto Persona]

I disagree. Do not underestimate your fellow members.
I mean, I kind of believed the same thing when I first made my game, but still went ahead with it.
And luckily, and to my own surprise, the number of people who cared for a proper story and character development was many. Also, the ones who end up being patrons.
And looking at my fellow devs who released at the same period as I did (sex-focused game)- I think I can consider it a major success story and personally am very happy.

I disagree with that too. You know, having had no sex scene or content in the first episode of Season 2 of RTP, we were expecting a few people to be impatient and say something, even while knowing that the majority of players (at least the vocal ones) were more interested in continuing the story. However, the reality was that we got not one single comment or criticism, and a lot of very positive feedback on the episode and it's character and plot development.

So, I'm with @HopesGaming in thinking you are rather misjudging people there.

To support that further, you might want to check out 'Scarlet Spire', which lets everyone know up front it is not a porn game and has zero sexual content, and while that almost certainly limits the attention it gets, it *is* still getting attention and play.

Well we are talking about the general trends in porn games and the expectations of their audience. So while something like Deluca Family should be included, so should Summertime Saga. Scarlet Spire, since it's not a porn game, shouldn't have any relevance on how important plot and story are to a porn game.

Either way, I am talking about majorities, not the outliers in smaller groups. A self selected group about a story driven game is obviously going to prioritize the story and characters. That doesn't mean the majority of the porn games audience feels the same. The fact that Summertime Saga pulls in the 17 thousand patrons a month that it does by virtue of being a "man see girl, man fuck girl" should say more about the interests of the porn games audience in general than a few hundred. That's not even accounting for the millions that don't use Patreon because the only part of these games they want to see are the porn scenes.

Wow, that is quite the projection. So, how do you manage to explain this belief in line with men who like to be dominated, and certainly don't consider themselves that way? Honestly, that seems a very outdated and archaic viewpoint of some kind of "Man hunt, Man provide" world view. Women are not property, or prizes anymore, at least in the majority of the world.

Outdated and archaic as it may be, it's still a very common mindset. I don't hold it, but I run up against it constantly here in the southern US. And while most men will tell you they don't see women as objects, they still subconsciously treat them as such. More than once with completely unrelated people I have had the discussion about how women that sleep around should be just as respected as men who do. The response I got each time was "Which is better, a key that can open any lock, or a lock that accepts any key?" We don't live in medieval times where men could treat women like actual property, but the baser instincts that make men want to own women haven't gone away.

The reason I don't consider men that want to be dominated in the discussion is because they are not part of the majority of men. They aren't even a sizable portion of it. They are an exception to the norm. Whatever desires they have have no connection to what the majority of men want. Not everything needs a #notallmen disclaimer.

 

[HopesGaming]

Well we are talking about the general trends in porn games and the expectations of their audience. So while something like Deluca Family should be included, so should Summertime Saga. Scarlet Spire, since it's not a porn game, shouldn't have any relevance on how important plot and story are to a porn game.

Either way, I am talking about majorities, not the outliers in smaller groups. A self selected group about a story driven game is obviously going to prioritize the story and characters. That doesn't mean the majority of the porn games audience feels the same. The fact that Summertime Saga pulls in the 17 thousand patrons a month that it does by virtue of being a "man see girl, man fuck girl" should say more about the interests of the porn games audience in general than a few hundred.

What you fail to calculate for are time and market changes. The market and hence the audience expectations constantly change.

Summertime saga started in 2016.
Back when there were not many games around. The so-called golden age of western porn of this kind.
It stood out with its art and then gained a following.
Same with DmD, Big Brother and a couple of other games.

Back then the winning tickets were fuckfeast and incest. Then games such as man of the house appeared. And even took the main model from DmD. It was a success.

Then more people started to copy paste the incest template and finally, the market got enough. Tons of games were made. Tons of incest, great quality, and pure porn game. Games that would have reached the top if they were made in the golden age.
But they didn't.
As before mentioned, the market change and hence the audience expectations change. It is not a static thing, it is dynamic. My game is still early 0.04v so can't be compared to games such as summertime saga or other golden era games, but it is still a good example to use. When I released it was among the only one that focused on the story (on a large scale) while majority either still followed the incest template or made original porn focused games.

So based on your view, my game should have gotten a bit exposure from the few story lovers and the other games (great quality ones) should have beaten my game in every sense as they were made for the porn lovers which is in the majority as you say. Yet that did not happen. How come? My quality is not on the same level as some of the other that released at my time period. Some really technical and talented devs on that department. My game didn't beat any of em in the porn department as my game had zero sex in it.

What you need to understand is that people are not pledging like they did back then and you can't compare new games to games from the golden era.
Either people have gotten fed up, scammed, or simply do not wish to pledge to any other game than the old ones they are already pledged to. It's harder to gain patrons.
So if you truly want to know how the current market is then you need to look at the current market and not the market from long before and compare it to the new one.

 

[Proto Persona]

What you fail to calculate for are time and market changes. The market and hence the audience expectations constantly change.

Summertime saga started in 2016.
Back when there were not many games around. The so-called golden age of western porn of this kind.
It stood out with its art and then gained a following.
Same with DmD, Big Brother and a couple of other games.

Back then the winning tickets were fuckfeast and incest. Then games such as man of the house appeared. And even took the main model from DmD. It was a success.

Then more people started to copy paste the incest template and finally, the market got enough. Tons of games were made. Tons of incest, great quality, and pure porn game. Games that would have reached the top if they were made in the golden age.
But they didn't.
As before mentioned, the market change and hence the audience expectations change. It is not a static thing, it is dynamic. My game is still early 0.04v so can't be compared to games such as summertime saga or other golden era games, but it is still a good example to use. When I released it was among the only one that focused on the story (on a large scale) while majority either still followed the incest template or made original porn focused games.

So based on your view, my game should have gotten a bit exposure from the few story lovers and the other games (great quality ones) should have beaten my game in every sense as they were made for the porn lovers which is in the majority as you say. Yet that did not happen. How come? My quality is not on the same level as some of the other that released at my time period. Some really technical and talented devs on that department. My game didn't beat any of em in the porn department as my game had zero sex in it.

What you need to understand is that people are not pledging like they did back then and you can't compare new games to games from the golden era.
Either people have gotten fed up, scammed, or simply do not wish to pledge to any other game than the old ones they are already pledged to. It's harder to gain patrons.
So if you truly want to know how the current market is then you need to look at the current market and not the market from long before and compare it to the new one.

All this talk of markets isn't really relevant. "The Market" is an abstract term invented by advertisers that see people as just a collection of motivations that can be manipulated. The people haven't changed. Sex sells, always has, always will.

I'm sure the novelty of the golden age of porn games has indeed worn off. Much like in the MMO space after World of Warcraft, people now have a higher expectation for depth and quality. That doesn't mean an MMO fan wants to start playing Call of Duty instead though. It means they still want an MMO, just a better one.

Story and character development are becoming more important in the porn games space because the meet and fuck aspect has already been done, a lot. That doesn't mean people want to play these games for just the story or plot. The Scarlet Spire example posted kinda proves that with how little people seem to care that it exists. Plus, I've been constraining myself to the western world of porn games. The Asian eroge games market dwarfs dwarfs everything in this genre, and they are absolutely about porn first.

Again, I'm not saying story and plot are worthless and a game can ignore them. People who truly don't care about that stuff have PornHub. They are needed more now that the novelty of porn games has worn off and people need something more than static pictures of tits to be interesting. Setting yourself up to offer something deeper is important. However doing that at the expense of the porn content is setting yourself up to be a niche product though, enjoyed by a devoted few. As the Depraved Awakening dev likes to say "Come for the porn, stay for the plot." You gotta have the porn first though.

 

[HopesGaming]

All this talk of markets isn't really relevant. "The Market" is an abstract term invented by advertisers that see people as just a collection of motivations that can be manipulated. The people haven't changed. Sex sells, always has, always will.

I'm sure the novelty of the golden age of porn games has indeed worn off. Much like in the MMO space after World of Warcraft, people now have a higher expectation for depth and quality. That doesn't mean an MMO fan wants to start playing Call of Duty instead though. It means they still want an MMO, just a better one.

Story and character development are becoming more important in the porn games space because the meet and fuck aspect has already been done, a lot. That doesn't mean people want to play these games for just the story or plot. The Scarlet Spire example posted kinda proves that with how little people seem to care that it exists. Plus, I've been constraining myself to the western world of porn games. The Asian eroge games market dwarfs dwarfs everything in this genre, and they are absolutely about porn first.

Again, I'm not saying story and plot are worthless and a game can ignore them. People who truly don't care about that stuff have PornHub. They are needed more now that the novelty of porn games has worn off and people need something more than static pictures of tits to be interesting. Setting yourself up to offer something deeper is important. However doing that at the expense of the porn content is setting yourself up to be a niche product though, enjoyed by a devoted few. As the Depraved Awakening dev likes to say "Come for the porn, stay for the plot." You gotta have the porn first though.

Of course, it's relevant. The market is not some gimmick invented by advertisers. But something any dev any genre should look into before designing their game.
People have expectations. And those expectations always change.
Example, when Milf City hit it skyrocketed due to its amazing animations. This lead to the market desiring for animations in other games and it went as far as people for a brief period completely rejected any new games that do not have animated sex scenes. This still happens at large but due to the pressure of this new desire, many new games have made animations which are badly done (for lack of better words). Then the market changed and the saying "rather have better still images than a bad animation".
Again, the market is in constant change.

Now porn will of course always have a focus. But that does not mean that adding anything other into a game will have a negative effect on the game. Even if it means less porn content.
You can't compare wow to call of duty. The core aspect is different. But porn games are porn. Even if they change stuff up with it.

Looking at the Japanese market as you yourself mentioned is actually an excellent place to look at.
In which it started, like many other porn genres, as pure porn. But slowly evolved due to the market.
This does not mean that porn games did not still get produced but there were many kinds of eroge games with some with less h content while others with high h content.
The Sagara Family, Bunny series and all these ones are h-scenes at every corner. The goal is sex. They did well and got popular.
Games such as Kana: Little Sister and Katawa Shoujo are games with a low amount of h-scenes and where the focus is more on the story also gained big popularity.
Otome Domain was the

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(check two posts down for additional sources) in Japan and had a low amount of h-scenes.

This does not mean that peoples desire for porn in porn games suddenly lowers. But that the market always evolve and more sub-genres will emerge Without becoming a niche game but do as well as the porn focused game.

In the western market I still believe that story focused games are *niche* I see my own game as a niche game. But I have been very surprised (and joyful) by the patrons, reviews and the overall amount of people being interested in this kind of games.

The market is changing and the love for story style games (on the expense of porn) is in the increase and not on standstill or failing.

 

[jamdan]

Its all about balance. If people want porn, they can go watch videos or look at picture galleries or something similar. If they want a story, they can read erotic novels or even some erotic films. A good and engaging story that leads up to good sex is what people enjoy the most IMO. Its immersive, erotic and gets the player to care about the charters.

 

[RogueKnightUK]

All this talk of markets isn't really relevant. "The Market" is an abstract term invented by advertisers that see people as just a collection of motivations that can be manipulated. The people haven't changed. Sex sells, always has, always will.

As a guy with decades of history working in marketing I can tell you that's a fairly common misconception. Marketing is one of those words everyone has heard and think they know what it means, but really don't. It often gets equated to advertising, but advertising is just a small subset of 'Promotion' and 'Promotion' is just one of the 4 Ps of the marketing mix. The others are Product, Place, and Price. Promotion is the one you use to 'fill in' for any lack in the others.

The simplest way to explain what marketing really is is to say it is the scientific approach to business. You see business was born when someone worked out how to make something, someone else liked that thing and wanted to buy it, and the guy made it their business. But Marketing is not just making what you want and then trying to find people willing to buy it. Marketing is taking it backwards, and FIRST finding what there is a ton of demand for and then building a business around profitably supplying that thing that will already sell.

So, yeah, marketing is absolutely relevant whenever we are discussing supply and demand with an emphasis on what people want. And marketing is the exact thing that talks about matching what people want to what a developer can most profitably supply in terms of his limited resources. You were already talking marketing, you just didn't know that's what it was.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

What the market wants is key, yes. I think h games, like porn, are a form of sexual fantasy given a manifestation. Some fantasies are short, simple and to the point. Others are extremely elaborate, with their own backstories and universes, and multiple scenarios and challenges. And, of course, these fantasies cater to the specific fetishes, kinks and interests of the fantasizers.
What's challenging from an artistic/game development standpoint is, how do you embody/create a fantasy that will be broadly appealing to a wide group, or alternatively strongly appealing to a niche group? There are loads of niche audiences(people of color, for example) who do not get targeted much because what they like might be a "turn off" to a broader audience. Certainly there are a dozen or so traits/themes/character types which meet the criteria to be broadly appealing based on the existing audience/patrons--incest, MILFs, teens, BDSM themes, corruption themes, big tits/ass, lots of white women, white male protagonists who are either teenagers, young adults or men in their 30-40s, a standard array of sex acts, an urban or suburban 1st world setting(usually looks like America), and more than a few instances of ethically questionable behavior.

 

[DarthSeduction]

Stockholm Syndrome

What benevolence looks like

So in lewd games slavery is still a thing. The intro will include a short explanation as to why the imposed slavery system is still a thing and that you should kinda-sorta feel bad about it. Your character may even comment on how awkward it feels to have a slave or how it might be morally upsetting, but it won't stop him from fucking the ever loving shit out of all of her orifices. Often times the slaves in your possession will start the game out as innocent naive virgins, despite the fact that the intro described slaves being used almost exclusively for light housework and fucking. During the slave's plot path, she will come to the conclusion that being MC's slave is a pretty good deal, and will suffer an emotional breakdown if offered freedom. When coming into contact with other slaves or free'd slaves, she will describe how MC is 'different' and attempt to convince them to offer themselves as his property. This path to unconditional love is paved with lavish gifts like Dildos, Bondage Gear, and constant pressure to perform increasingly uncomfortable sexual acts. The time-frame of a timid slave to devoted life-long lover only takes about a week to go from kind conversation to lending her out to strangers on the street.

oof

 

[RanliLabz]

I think the point systems are a byproduct of men writing for men. I think the majority of guys approach all women as a prize to win. The point systems in games are very similar to how men actually see their relationships. Maybe RNG can be used to vary things up more and surprise the player. In the end though I think most guys expect that if they put enough work in, it should be guaranteed to put out. Too many games already make the work needed ridiculously long to prolong playtime. I'm certain that RNG mechanics would only make those grinds even worse.

I agree with your point that many of these games have horrifically long grinds just to get a glimpse of side boob. I hope players rebel against this attempt to falsely pump-up playtime (and believe that this is happening already).

However, I very much disagree with your starting premise that the majority of men see women as a prize to be won. If that were true, then the majority of men would eschew relationships in favour of transactional sex (in which money serves as the 'point-system') or become PUA's en masse. They don't - the majority of men (in Western society, at least) actually seem to want to be in a long-term, committed relationship with an equal.

I think that your confusing tropes with worldview. Many men and women enjoy male power-fantasies, in which heroes like Bond or Christian Grey win sex with their feats and qualities. That doesn't mean that that's how they view reality, or even want to behave - it's just a fun-fantasy, and a simple way of writers (expressing) and their audience (practicing) a complicated interaction.

 

[Proto Persona]

I agree with your point that many of these games have horrifically long grinds just to get a glimpse of side boob. I hope players rebel against this attempt to falsely pump-up playtime (and believe that this is happening already).

However, I very much disagree with your starting premise that the majority of men see women as a prize to be won. If that were true, then the majority of men would eschew relationships in favour of transactional sex (in which money serves as the 'point-system') or become PUA's en masse. They don't - the majority of men (in Western society, at least) actually seem to want to be in a long-term, committed relationship with an equal.

I think that your confusing tropes with worldview. Many men and women enjoy male power-fantasies, in which heroes like Bond or Christian Grey win sex with their feats and qualities. That doesn't mean that that's how they view reality, or even want to behave - it's just a fun-fantasy, and a simple way of writers (expressing) and their audience (practicing) a complicated interaction.

Men regularly talk to each other about what a problem it is that you spend a bunch of money on women buying them gifts and dinner and it takes too long for them to put out. Most men don't become pick up artists, but that doesn't mean most men don't look up to that lifestyle and wish they could be one. Men everywhere have more respect for those men that manage to sleep around with a bunch of women.

These are topics that appear in the common discourse of every culture in Earth when men talk publicly about women. From a male perspective dating is transactional sex, just one acceptable by religion and cultures. Most men don't want true relationships, just easy access to getting regular amounts of sex. If these things weren't true then most men would reject such overly selfish masculine mindsets, not look up to them.

No these are not the desires of every man on Earth. Knowing men that don't act this way doesn't mean most men feel the same.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

There's a saying: "The plural of 'anecdote' is not 'data'."
Anyone making sweeping statements faces a correspondingly heavy burden of proof. People cite to unproven theories as proven natural law. Ditto for the tendency to universalize observed social behaviors.

 

[RanliLabz]

If that's the way my point came across then I didn't do a good job explaining it. I'm not trying to claim the patrons don't care about the story or characters. I'd imagine those people just come here and steal the game. What I am saying is the porn matters WAY more than the other elements of the game do. So much so that if you gave patrons the choice between more character development or more sex scenes, I think the sex would win. I don't think it would even be a contest. The time and resources most of these devs have are very limited. I think the best returns are spent in the areas that people want to see.


I think the point systems are a byproduct of men writing for men. I think the majority of guys approach all women as a prize to win. The point systems in games are very similar to how men actually see their relationships. Maybe RNG can be used to vary things up more and surprise the player. In the end though I think most guys expect that if they put enough work in, it should be guaranteed to put out. Too many games already make the work needed ridiculously long to prolong playtime. I'm certain that RNG mechanics would only make those grinds even worse.

Men regularly talk to each other about what a problem it is that you spend a bunch of money on women buying them gifts and dinner and it takes too long for them to put out. Most men don't become pick up artists, but that doesn't mean most men don't look up to that lifestyle and wish they could be one. Men everywhere have more respect for those men that manage to sleep around with a bunch of women.

These are topics that appear in the common discourse of every culture in Earth when men talk publicly about women. From a male perspective dating is transactional sex, just one acceptable by religion and cultures. Most men don't want true relationships, just easy access to getting regular amounts of sex. If these things weren't true then most men would reject such overly selfish masculine mindsets, not look up to them.

No these are not the desires of every man on Earth. Knowing men that don't act this way doesn't mean most men feel the same.

Equally, knowing men who either view women as conquests or measure their self-worth by their latest conquest doesn't mean that most men feel the same.

I can only talk about this from a Western perspective, since I'm not familiar enough with other civilization's male-female dynamics. I think that you're right to say that many men admire those who sleep with a lot of women - but that's more of an abstract 'grass-is-always-greener' stance than a genuine life-goal (and I'm not sure that PUA's tend to attract vast amounts of admiration). Most men also admire those in long-term relationships and families - for instance, it's a heavily promoted feature of most religions, a central tenet of the entire family of conservative philosophy, and an easy way to indicate a 'nice-guy' in literature.

As far as men seeing dating as transactional - I'm not sure what backs that up... Whatever one's stance on prostitution, paying for sex is rarely seen as an admirable quality, and those married to gold-diggers are mocked rather than feted.

Guys moaning about paying for dinner/gifts usually seem to be complaining about the asymmetry of billing in a supposedly equal world - with any complaints about 'not putting out' standing in for the insecurity that they're being taken for a ride. Personally, I go Dutch on a first date (it's a good test of character) and would advise others to do the same.

I'm trying to be charitable in the interpretation of: 'Most men don't want true relationships, just easy access to getting regular amounts of sex' - but I'm not sure how. I assume that you don't think most men are emotionless pussy-hounds devoid of love?

 

[RogueKnightUK]

Men regularly talk to each other about what a problem it is that you spend a bunch of money on women buying them gifts and dinner and it takes too long for them to put out.

I can honestly tell you I have not once heard such a discussion personally here since the 1980s, when I was at school.

 

[Proto Persona]

As far as men seeing dating as transactional - I'm not sure what backs that up... Whatever one's stance on prostitution, paying for sex is rarely seen as an admirable quality, and those married to gold-diggers are mocked rather than feted.

Guys moaning about paying for dinner/gifts usually seem to be complaining about the asymmetry of billing in a supposedly equal world - with any complaints about 'not putting out' standing in for the insecurity that they're being taken for a ride. Personally, I go Dutch on a first date (it's a good test of character) and would advise others to do the same.

I'm not calling women gold diggers. I don't think men equate dating with prostitution. It's just that most guys don't enter into dating looking for the one. Most of the time all they really want is to get laid. It's hard for a guy in that mindset to spend money on women and not ask themselves what they are getting in return.

I'm trying to be charitable in the interpretation of: 'Most men don't want true relationships, just easy access to getting regular amounts of sex' - but I'm not sure how. I assume that you don't think most men are emotionless pussy-hounds devoid of love?

Devoid of love is a bit strong, but if a man says he's not trying to get laid there's a really high chance he's lying.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

I'm not calling women gold diggers. I don't think men equate dating with prostitution. It's just that most guys don't enter into dating looking for the one. Most of the time all they really want is to get laid. It's hard for a guy in that mindset to spend money on women and not ask themselves what they are getting in return.


Devoid of love is a bit strong, but if a man says he's not trying to get laid there's a really high chance he's lying.

How old are you, generally? Men's expectations are going to vary a bit by age as well. The older you are, the more likely you are to be looking for something enduring rather than a brief release of tension.

 

[Proto Persona]

How old are you, generally? Men's expectations are going to vary a bit by age as well. The older you are, the more likely you are to be looking for something enduring rather than a brief release of tension.

I just turned 40. I'm not speaking of my own personal desires here though, at this point in my life I'm practically asexual. These are the observations I've had from talking to men during my life and realizing that humans as a group don't really change. We just change what is acceptable and legal. The drives and desires remain the same.

 

[RanliLabz]

I'm not calling women gold diggers. I don't think men equate dating with prostitution. It's just that most guys don't enter into dating looking for the one. Most of the time all they really want is to get laid. It's hard for a guy in that mindset to spend money on women and not ask themselves what they are getting in return.


Devoid of love is a bit strong, but if a man says he's not trying to get laid there's a really high chance he's lying.

True - but wanting to be in a relationship and wanting to get laid aren't mutually exclusive (unless you're going by 70's stand-up comedy routines ). Most people enter into most things with more than one goal in mind - for instance, a guy might go on a date in which his short-term goal is to get laid, his medium term goal is to have a date for the work-party and his long-term goal is to find a long-term relationship. But not of those goals are necessarily tied to the individual sitting across the table - as the date is the process of discovery in which both parties can work out which of their hopes and ambitions will be realised.

I think most men do date with the hope of finding a relationship (and not just for sex - for companionship, love, self-worth, kids - take your pick!). But most men (and women) don't approach each date with the unrealistic notion that this might be 'the one' - a surefire way to either make a serious life mistake or get repeatedly used. They take each date on its individual merits and try and balance a little pragmatism here and a little hope there.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

I just turned 40. I'm not speaking of my own personal desires here though, at this point in my life I'm practically asexual. These are the observations I've had from talking to men during my life and realizing that humans as a group don't really change. We just change what is acceptable and legal. The drives and desires remain the same.

Most men marry and settle down, have children, etc. And most of them don't cheat on their spouses, statistically speaking. Marriage tends to force you to interact with your partner on equal or near-equal terms, at least in the first world in the 21st Century.
Human development has always been a balancing act between aggression and empathy.

 

[desmosome]

What you fail to calculate for are time and market changes. The market and hence the audience expectations constantly change.

Summertime saga started in 2016.
Back when there were not many games around. The so-called golden age of western porn of this kind.
It stood out with its art and then gained a following.
Same with DmD, Big Brother and a couple of other games.

Back then the winning tickets were fuckfeast and incest. Then games such as man of the house appeared. And even took the main model from DmD. It was a success.

Then more people started to copy paste the incest template and finally, the market got enough. Tons of games were made. Tons of incest, great quality, and pure porn game. Games that would have reached the top if they were made in the golden age.
But they didn't.
As before mentioned, the market change and hence the audience expectations change. It is not a static thing, it is dynamic. My game is still early 0.04v so can't be compared to games such as summertime saga or other golden era games, but it is still a good example to use. When I released it was among the only one that focused on the story (on a large scale) while majority either still followed the incest template or made original porn focused games.

So based on your view, my game should have gotten a bit exposure from the few story lovers and the other games (great quality ones) should have beaten my game in every sense as they were made for the porn lovers which is in the majority as you say. Yet that did not happen. How come? My quality is not on the same level as some of the other that released at my time period. Some really technical and talented devs on that department. My game didn't beat any of em in the porn department as my game had zero sex in it.

What you need to understand is that people are not pledging like they did back then and you can't compare new games to games from the golden era.
Either people have gotten fed up, scammed, or simply do not wish to pledge to any other game than the old ones they are already pledged to. It's harder to gain patrons.
So if you truly want to know how the current market is then you need to look at the current market and not the market from long before and compare it to the new one.

I think its just a matter of quality. Its just so much harder to make a truly good story driven game. How many devs actually possess the skills to write a script with novel quality plot premise, prose, pacing, dialogue, characterization, forshadowing, etc? Add to that the visual element which can include camera angles, lighting, and what have you that might elevate the whole experience to something greater than a means to fap. And boy... it takes a lot for a game that is found while browsing for porn games to hit that mark and retain someone's interest.

Acting Lessons, Philly's games, DeLuca family, and maybe Heavy Five (too early to tell) are the stand out games in this regard and I am positive that these games would have done just as well during the "golden age" of western porn games.

 

[RogueKnightUK]

I don't think men equate dating with prostitution.

If they believe that at some set level of money spent they automatically can expect sex, then that's exactly what they are doing.

It's hard for a guy in that mindset to spend money on women and not ask themselves what they are getting in return.

For some that's more about ego. Let's face it, lots of those types are dating women out of their league in terms of looks or wit, so they use money to bolster up their appeal. What they are getting for their money is time with a woman who wouldn't have been with them otherwise - which is pretty clearly getting close to prostitution, or at least, paid escort territory. They just don't want to admit that their most attractive quality is their wallet, and it only attracts a certain type of girl willing to sacrifice the quality of her dates for the quantity of their cash.