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

[trash_can_not]

It even gets applied to real life which is why companies and political parties often get celebrities to endorse them even though any sensible person shouldn't be taking advice from these people who are only asked to speak about a cause because of how they look, not because they are well researched.

There's actually a name for such cognitive bias.

You must be registered to see the links

TV Tropes too has

You must be registered to see the links

about

You must be registered to see the links

.

 

[Midnite Guerrilla]

This is a normal trope.

Beautiful = good

Ugly = bad

It even gets applied to real life which is why companies and political parties often get celebrities to endorse them even though any sensible person shouldn't be taking advice from these people who are only asked to speak about a cause because of how they look, not because they are well researched.

In Ancient Greek one of the words for beautiful was "kalos"; one of the words for good was "kalos". That word meant physically beautiful, good, honorable, virtuous, and noble.

 

[khumak]

This is a normal trope.

Beautiful = good

Ugly = bad

It even gets applied to real life which is why companies and political parties often get celebrities to endorse them even though any sensible person shouldn't be taking advice from these people who are only asked to speak about a cause because of how they look, not because they are well researched.

I think it has more to do with the fact that most people don't want to see fat people or old people in sex scenes. Unless it's a game focusing on that sort of fetish. It's fine if there are fat people or old people in the game. It doesn't matter if they're good or bad as long as they're not naked...

 

[weaselman]

Wandering around simulator

it's a big world out there and there's massive amounts to do and so much time to do it in, just not here nor there, maybe at a different time?

this is a problem for games that try to simulate a world with hourly intervals, unless you're some kind of super genius writer/coder you're eventually going to have dead hours were there's nothing new or even anything to do except wait
this is worse in games without much handholding were there could potentially be something new unlocked but there's no way for the player to find out without checking every location at every hour

examples: the tyrant, inheritance, glassix and many others

 

[kotte]

Wandering around simulator

it's a big world out there and there's massive amounts to do and so much time to do it in, just not here nor there, maybe at a different time?

this is a problem for games that try to simulate a world with hourly intervals, unless you're some kind of super genius writer/coder you're eventually going to have dead hours were there's nothing new or even anything to do except wait
this is worse in games without much handholding were there could potentially be something new unlocked but there's no way for the player to find out without checking every location at every hour

examples: the tyrant, inheritance, glassix and many others

Haha, makes me think of a submarine hunt game that a friend of mine was working on.
He *really* wanted it to be realistic, but that unfortunately meant that it was possible that there was _no_ submarine to be found at all in your quadrant.
Needless to say, the beta testers didn't appreciate going back and forth across an ocean for an hour, just to find out that they were alone...

 

[megaplayboy10k]

According to the rules of adult games, with very rare exception:

Fat men are almost always evil, powerful, and perverted.

There are no "decent fat men".

Not only that... These much older repulsive lard asses tend to make the initially repulsed and reluctant attractive female characters orgasm like a waterfall.

Fat kids, by contrast, are typically loser virgins doomed to perving on girls out of their league without ever actually getting laid. If they do get some, it's basically treated as a joke and played up for comedic value.

 

[megaplayboy10k]

Wandering around simulator

it's a big world out there and there's massive amounts to do and so much time to do it in, just not here nor there, maybe at a different time?

this is a problem for games that try to simulate a world with hourly intervals, unless you're some kind of super genius writer/coder you're eventually going to have dead hours were there's nothing new or even anything to do except wait
this is worse in games without much handholding were there could potentially be something new unlocked but there's no way for the player to find out without checking every location at every hour

examples: the tyrant, inheritance, glassix and many others

Another element of this "realistic" approach is that you get renders of the MC doing chores, studying and so forth! Rubbing mom's feet? Fine. Leaning in together while tutoring your sister and her friend? Fine. Washing dishes by yourself? Nope.

 

[Xalenda]

Oh No, Not Again / Here We Go, Again...

Marge's response really nails home the exhaustion of it all.

The big bad has been vanquished; the boy gets the girl, the woman saves her marriage, the kingdom is prosperous once more. All is well...

For about five seconds. Because, as luck would have it, the final boss wasn't actually the one pulling all the strings or causing all the misfortunes. There was another, unseen or perhaps forgotten about midway through the story, and they're the reason that you're going to need to go through this whole thing again. Cue this response from the beleaguered protagonist(s).

While definitely much more aligned with Video Games, this trope also encompasses multiple videos within the same franchise, with the same gimmick or premise (eg. Girls Gone Wild, The Land Before Time, etc.), as well as critic and audience responses to having yet another video/game to slog through to hopefully, finally, see the ending and let it die with a semblance of grace.

 

[Proto Persona]

Oh No, Not Again / Here We Go, Again...
View attachment 463013
Marge's response really nails home the exhaustion of it all.

The big bad has been vanquished; the boy gets the girl, the woman saves her marriage, the kingdom is prosperous once more. All is well...

For about five seconds. Because, as luck would have it, the final boss wasn't actually the one pulling all the strings or causing all the misfortunes. There was another, unseen or perhaps forgotten about midway through the story, and they're the reason that you're going to need to go through this whole thing again. Cue this response from the beleaguered protagonist(s).

While definitely much more aligned with Video Games, this trope also encompasses multiple videos within the same franchise, with the same gimmick or premise (eg. Girls Gone Wild, The Land Before Time, etc.), as well as critic and audience responses to having yet another video/game to slog through to hopefully, finally, see the ending and let it die with a semblance of grace.

While I'm sure we could rip a lot of TV Tropes articles here verbatim, that's not really the purpose of this thread. This is for creating porn specific versions. Speaking of, this doesn't really apply to porn games all that much. Maybe to the genre at large sure, but individual porn games tend to not be serialized narratives, and usually have very clear beginnings and endings.

 

[Xalenda]

This... was created, not ripped. If there's an actual trope named this, with that exact .gif and header, then... cool~

But yeah, it's fine. I just thought it'd be fun to go create a trope that sort of applied to, you know, the entirety of a genre rather than one specific game... almost like how it's done on the actual TV Tropes page. ^_^

 

[Proto Persona]

This... was created, not ripped. If there's an actual trope named this, with that exact .gif and header, then... cool~

But yeah, it's fine. I just thought it'd be fun to go create a trope that sort of applied to, you know, the entirety of a genre rather than one specific game... almost like how it's done on the actual TV Tropes page. ^_^

The

You must be registered to see the links

in question does exist, but to be fair I didn't actually verify that it was a copy, so my bad. Gotta give you props, your entry was so well written that I didn't even question if it was a TVTropes entry or not.

Still TVTropes don't generally use a genre as examples, but instead an example inside a specific work. The trope itself may be rampant in said genre, but they generally don't allow an entire genre to be used as a source. In this case the idea that so many porn games follow a formula isn't really as example of what you posted, more

You must be registered to see the links

really. Though that's kind of how you get a genre of entertainment in the first place really.

 

[Xalenda]

Gotta give you props, your entry was so well written that I didn't even question if it was a TVTropes entry or not.

TV Tropes is where I go if I want something to read. Just hit that "random trope" button and let-'er-rip.

And yeah, I understand that they don't specifically site genres as a whole for an example. In my defense, however, many tropes will have "this applies to basically all of _______" in far too many articles, leading somebody such as myself to believe it was a perfectly allowed form of SuperTrope.

 

[Xalenda]

Ten Second Sex

Admit it, we've all done this at some point.

The story is incredible, and you're eagerly awaiting the next bit of progression, to see where it all leads to. The renders are beautiful and stunning, leaving you breathless as the scenes change perfectly, flawless and perfect, down to the tiniest detail. The characters are captivating, fully-formed and three-dimensional, leaving you aching when they fail, and triumphant when they succeed.

The protagonist and love interest meet... they kiss... the screen goes dark, you slide your hand into your pants, and-!
It's already over. Back to the regular game.

In games that are designed and created to revolve around sexual activities, some tend to skip what most people come to engage in. While it can be used effectively (a Skip option if you have already viewed the scene(s)), most people who fall victim to this and complain will have their voices fall upon deaf ears or be shouted down by those who say it's not the real point of the game.

Examples of games that exhibit this trope include:

Kissing Therapy
Shrink High/Gaiden
Overwhored
Lab Rats

 

[Proto Persona]

View attachment 463729

Yeah sis, jeez, do you wanna wake mom up?

 

[Deleted member 229118]

Ten Second Sex
View attachment 463686
Admit it, we've all done this at some point.

The story is incredible, and you're eagerly awaiting the next bit of progression, to see where it all leads to. The renders are beautiful and stunning, leaving you breathless as the scenes change perfectly, flawless and perfect, down to the tiniest detail. The characters are captivating, fully-formed and three-dimensional, leaving you aching when they fail, and triumphant when they succeed.

The protagonist and love interest meet... they kiss... the screen goes dark, you slide your hand into your pants, and-!
It's already over. Back to the regular game.

In games that are designed and created to revolve around sexual activities, some tend to skip what most people come to engage in. While it can be used effectively (a Skip option if you have already viewed the scene(s)), most people who fall victim to this and complain will have their voices fall upon deaf ears or be shouted down by those who say it's not the real point of the game.

Examples of games that exhibit this trope include:

Kissing Therapy
Shrink High/Gaiden
Overwhored
Lab Rats

I am 90% sure sex took way longer then 10 seconds in overwhored.
And it deffinitly took a long time in lab rats.
Care to explain why you use those two as example?

 

[Xalenda]

Depending on how fast / frequently you read or have progressed with a certain character, it can be a super-short scene that ends far too quickly.

 

[khumak]

Wandering around simulator

it's a big world out there and there's massive amounts to do and so much time to do it in, just not here nor there, maybe at a different time?

this is a problem for games that try to simulate a world with hourly intervals, unless you're some kind of super genius writer/coder you're eventually going to have dead hours were there's nothing new or even anything to do except wait
this is worse in games without much handholding were there could potentially be something new unlocked but there's no way for the player to find out without checking every location at every hour

examples: the tyrant, inheritance, glassix and many others

This is a huge issue for a lot of sandbox games. Those games really need to either have some sort of system in place where you can look at the map and tell what characters are at each location before you go there or just removes your option to choose an option where nothing is going to happen. There is nothing more annoying than a game where I have 25 different places I can choose and 23 of those result in time passing but nothing happening. If nobody is at the park in the morning, then grey it out so I will pick some other option...

And don't ever make me have to memorize detailed schedules for anyone. That is extremely frustrating. This is especially important if there is an important, time sensitive event that is missable and only available at a specific time and place. If something like that exists you should get a popup or something reminding you that you agreed to meet so and so at such and such time, do you want to go there or tell them to fuck off forever?

 

[megaplayboy10k]

Easy Mode
The Main Character just succeeds, always, and usually in a fairly short time frame. No woman is even an obstacle. Half of them just fall into the MC's lap. All he has to do is hang out with him and sex will happen. Even Mom and Sis will eventually fuck him if he just spends enough time with them.

Related:
Marty Stu MC

Everything about the main character is awesome and unique. Tall, well-built, handsome, skilled, brilliant, with special abilities, a great apartment, lots of money. Women can't help but fall head over heels in ahegao/love/lust for him. He's also impossibly nice, in spite of vast opportunities to just exploit his opportunities(which he gets anyway, darn the luck!)
There are numerous examples, but I'm sure others can name one or two that really stand out. On the one hand, a kind of wish fulfillment character. On the other hand, it can make them completely unrelatable or even alienating. "Hot guy with lots of money gets laid a lot? Wow, unimaginable!"

 

[weaselman]

Easy Mode
The Main Character just succeeds, always, and usually in a fairly short time frame. No woman is even an obstacle. Half of them just fall into the MC's lap. All he has to do is hang out with him and sex will happen. Even Mom and Sis will eventually fuck him if he just spends enough time with them.

Related:
Marty Stu MC

Everything about the main character is awesome and unique. Tall, well-built, handsome, skilled, brilliant, with special abilities, a great apartment, lots of money. Women can't help but fall head over heels in ahegao/love/lust for him. He's also impossibly nice, in spite of vast opportunities to just exploit his opportunities(which he gets anyway, darn the luck!)
There are numerous examples, but I'm sure others can name one or two that really stand out. On the one hand, a kind of wish fulfillment character. On the other hand, it can make them completely unrelatable or even alienating. "Hot guy with lots of money gets laid a lot? Wow, unimaginable!"

Loser Stu MC

this guy is a grade-A loser, what does he have outside of access to dozens of easily seducable women, a job which can net you thousands of dollars a month if you focus on it and yet doesn't require him to come in regularly, a monster cock and seemingly impressive rival(s) who have easily exploitable flaws and they suffer the worst curse of all: some women who are willing to have sex with him are not saying nice things to him

 

[hameleona]

Using a Halberd for Brain surgery

Games from all genres are great platforms to explore hard to talk topics like politics, sexuality, religion and real-life horrible stuff like slavery and rape. And you are such a great writer, that you just know you must delve there. But since your knowledge about how good of a writer you are is about as complete as a 0.00000.00.1 alpha release of a game, you decide to preach about it.

It happens when a writers ego and personal convictions overcome their ability. Suddenly their creation isn't just dropping anvils, it's dropping full-blown Iowa class battleships on the player, to tech them how to think without any regard to the story, mood and logic of the story and characters. The bad-ass, veteran, cynical, asshole MC going on a 10 page tangent about internet trolls and how harmful they are, or the pot-smoking, vegan, sexually liberated side chick suddenly trying to explain the value of the "traditional family". Suddenly the player is bombarded with badly written propaganda tangent. Because shouting at your player will change them... right?

Sub trope:

Halberds are for pussies - use a 16.5 inch naval cannon!

Since you are smart enough to at least try and keep your story from devolving but you just must educate people on a topic... you decide to break the 4th wall and directly talk to the player. Because this is what they need, right?


Some more thoughts on the subject:
This is by no means "thou should not write about topics X, Y, Z". We are writers, we should go to places that make people uncomfortable. The problem is when you break your creation to deliver a sermon. A preacher or a religious character scolding the MC about the values of the traditional family is all well and good, so is the middle-class girl going on tangents about how bad trolls are. If done with care you get great stories with great characters. You can make a point without throwing shit at people.