Ren'Py Power Vacuum [Ch. 12 Official] [What? Why? Games]

[SuddenReal]

Yes, and you can make literally anything the driving force behind the story. It's an unusual example that people who aren't that into storytelling might not get, but a villain doesn't need to be a character. Circumstances can be a villain. The milieu or the setting could be the villain.

Oh, now you're just talking out of your ass. Yes, you are correct, but in this particular case, it would change the story. As I said, everything is in reaction to Hunter's actions. Everything happens because of him. Take him out and there's nothing that will happen.
But sure, give me one example of something that Hunter did but altered in your way, without changing the other characters.

 

[MrJay]

Oh, now you're just talking out of your ass. Yes, you are correct, but in this particular case, it would change the story. As I said, everything is in reaction to Hunter's actions. Everything happens because of him. Take him out and there's nothing that will happen.
But sure, give me one example of something that Hunter did but altered in your way, without changing the other characters.

The villain could for example be some shadowy organization that only reveals themselves to the MC. We wouldn't even ever have to see a character from them but they're the one responsible for all the hormones and chemicals that changes appearances and behavior, pays for the house and everything but only given that the MC acts the way they want, with the threat of replacing him and maybe other threats if he acts out of line. Every single one of the plot-necessary actions that Hunter makes could be explained this way, and this is just the first example that sprang to mind in a few seconds.

 

[SuddenReal]

The villain could for example be some shadowy organization that only reveals themselves to the MC.

That has got to be the dumbest thing I ever heard. What would even be their motivation to do this? And having a hidden shadow organization just obfuscates the threat. At least with Hunter clearly in the picture, the threat is real.

To use the example of Big Brother, Eric was also supposed to be the NTR threat, but because he was so inactive, he became a non-issue. Hunter, on the other hand, is pro-active, so the threat is more real. In Big Brother, it was the MC who drove the story forward, but he was a little shit (his actions would make Hunter proud). Because Hunter is the villain who drives the story, the MC is the good guy.

and this is just the first example that sprang to mind in a few seconds.

Yeah, obviously. Keep thinking for some more examples, because this one is shit.

 

[MrJay]

That has got to be the dumbest thing I ever heard. What would even be their motivation to do this? And having a hidden shadow organization just obfuscates the threat. At least with Hunter clearly in the picture, the threat is real.

To use the example of Big Brother, Eric was also supposed to be the NTR threat, but because he was so inactive, he became a non-issue. Hunter, on the other hand, is pro-active, so the threat is more real. In Big Brother, it was the MC who drove the story forward, but he was a little shit (his actions would make Hunter proud). Because Hunter is the villain who drives the story, the MC is the good guy.

Yeah, obviously. Keep thinking for some more examples, because this one is shit.

That's just your opinion. IMO, Hunter is a weak storytelling piece because there's literally no reason to keep him around anymore. The MC has already, pretty early, shown the ability to make large amounts of money with minimal effort, so the "excuse" that Hunter is being kept around because he's paying for the house is particularly nonsensical. Not to mention the family could just move. His entire existence and tolerance by the rest of the family is based on flimsy grounds at best, I'm not going to insult you by pretending that you think it's convincing storytelling that Hunter could get some hair, put on the MCs clothes and there would be ANY situation where Brenna or Catherine could mistake him for the MC. No one thinks that's reasonable. It's silly in the extreme.

On the other hand, a shadowy organization is a MUCH more real threat because if they have the ability to get chemicals into you and your family's food without anyone noticing, how can you ever hope to escape them? Hunter should have been shot in the head and thrown in a ditch a few episodes ago for the story to remotely be believable, but how would you ever begin to do something like that against an organization you haven't even seen? So yeah, a shadowy organization would be a much more credible threat without overtly and physically drooling over the girls. And this would still leave the organization the villains and the MC as the good guy.

 

[FoolishFool0]

I think the issue here is the fundamentally opposed views people might have of this game.

Like... A Narrative Vs Power Fantasy scenario so to speak.

If we read Power Vacuum as a Power Fantasy, then of course people think Hunter is unnecessary to the porn. They want quick, easy sex scenes that do no challenge this fantasy (hence the overwhelming hatred for the new what if from some people here), and an unchallenged protagonist whose main issues can be easily solved by doing some repetitive tasks.

That's not how this story works. From a Narrative and a Metatextual Prospective, this is not one of those games. Hell, this is hardly even a game at this point, there is no actual gameplay, no actual control over the Main Character, no branching paths or needs to keep in check or relationship meters.

This is a very specific story with a very specific message I feel, one people are contesting without even thinking about it.

People are angry over Hunter, but isn't Hunter but a reflection of every house game protagonist ever? A natural conclusion of that arc? All that charm and youth you could have used to identify with him had he been the protagonist is long gone, and only the ugly truth remains, a withered husk committing crimes so be could sexually assault his family with impunity.

He is the perfect villain of this story. A Story that, ultimately, is but a commentary on the genre It's spoofing.

The genre is Voyeuristic, so there are cameras all over the house and then some, because you, the watcher, are living vicariously through Sterling your fantasy, much like Hunter was at first, much like Kevin is when he stole all those women's videos, much like Lucia projected herself into Sterling during her own "house" game.

You are not controlling a character, you're just along for the ride, and you've being told a story about his exploits. The fat has just been trimmed, no repetitive chores or bullshit to do, just sex, eased by chemicals and drugs caused by the villain, a villain that is necessary to get the story running, and to give it stakes.

I'm not Gona say that Power Vacuum is the Citizen Kane of House Games of course, but it sure as shit can be its Starship Troopers... Wait no shit that Space Corps XXX, OK scratch that this is the Roger Rabbit of house games then.

A comedy which, if taken at face value, it's just that, a comedy, but on a deeper reading contains far bigger themes and character arcs than you imagined, much like Roger Rabbit was in turn a movie about how a corrupt bureaucracy and the Automobile Industry destroyed the American Public Transit and Railway System and razed down minority ghettos to build giant highways for profit.

(No really that's what Roger Rabbit is about if you remove the cartoon filter, just check the villain's final monologue).

And much like Roger Rabbit, this game, this story too is but a critique of actual tropes and trends within the genre as a whole and not just that, a coming of age story about children trying not to be like their parents, about the Trauma that comports, about power dynamics and, of course, about the extremely Voyeuristic and Manufactured nature of the genre.

And also about fucking of course, this is still a porn game.

 

[Raner]

Whats the new scenes?

 

[yourmomma]

I will never stopped being amazed at how emotionally attached some people get with these games and their projected control freak issues and insecurities lol.


I hope the dev drops some forced NTR in the main game at this point, because people are going to bitch regardless. So might as well.

 

[OnlyWorthyDevsMakeMoney]

I hope the dev drops some forced NTR in the main game at this point, because people are going to bitch regardless. So might as well.

That would be the biggest mistake ever made, the dev made a point that the NTR will always be non-canonical and "outside" of the main game, that's why he started to make the what-ifs, because the majority of Patrons love NTR, but there are also tons of patrons (even if they are on lower tiers) that will leave immediately if NTR will become a non avoidable thing. So it would backfire in an horrible way.

 

[yourmomma]

That would be the biggest mistake ever made, the dev made a point that the NTR will always be non-canonical and "outside" of the main game, that's why he started to make the what-ifs, because the majority of Patrons love NTR, but there are also tons of patrons (even if they are on lower tiers) that will leave immediately if NTR will become a non avoidable thing. So it would backfire in an horrible way.

I'm just following the lead of everyone complaining about the game. Everything revolves around MY whims and desires. Duh. lol

 

[SuddenReal]

The MC has already, pretty early, shown the ability to make large amounts of money with minimal effort, so the "excuse" that Hunter is being kept around because he's paying for the house is particularly nonsensical. Not to mention the family could just move.

Yes, because if you have enough money to buy a new television, you have enough money to buy a house. No wonder you know so much about story telling, it's because you live in a fantasy world.

On the other hand, a shadowy organization is a MUCH more real threat because if they have the ability to get chemicals into you and your family's food without anyone noticing, how can you ever hope to escape them?

No, because it's a dumb premise. How are they doing this? Hunter succeeds because he LIVES in the house. A shadowy organization has no way to enter unseen, so all of their ploys are "just for the story" and thus a non-issue. There's different ways to advance the plot and "a wizard did it" is a bad way since that's just advancing the plot to advance the plot. Hunter also advances the plot, but that's a reaction to his actual present threat. We can guess and try to anticipate what he does, but an unknown organization with unknown motives, there's nothing we can do against that, so all agency is taken out of our hands. It's obvious you play with the NTR switch off since your suggestion offers no choice. With Hunter, the player is forced to make a choice and based on that choice we either have the good ending or the bad one. With a shadow organization, there's no choice, because what will happen if we make the wrong choice? A bunch of men will suddenly burst in the house and fuck everyone? That will obviously never happen, so there's no choice. And if there's no choice, there's no agency.

 

[MrJay]

Yes, because if you have enough money to buy a new television, you have enough money to buy a house. No wonder you know so much about story telling, it's because you live in a fantasy world.


No, because it's a dumb premise. How are they doing this? Hunter succeeds because he LIVES in the house. A shadowy organization has no way to enter unseen, so all of their ploys are "just for the story" and thus a non-issue. There's different ways to advance the plot and "a wizard did it" is a bad way since that's just advancing the plot to advance the plot. Hunter also advances the plot, but that's a reaction to his actual present threat. We can guess and try to anticipate what he does, but an unknown organization with unknown motives, there's nothing we can do against that, so all agency is taken out of our hands. It's obvious you play with the NTR switch off since your suggestion offers no choice. With Hunter, the player is forced to make a choice and based on that choice we either have the good ending or the bad one. With a shadow organization, there's no choice, because what will happen if we make the wrong choice? A bunch of men will suddenly burst in the house and fuck everyone? That will obviously never happen, so there's no choice. And if there's no choice, there's no agency.

No but if you have enough money to pay a housekeeper $8000 a month just to NOT do something, all from acting in a porn video every two weeks or so, then yeah, you could pretty easily work harder to get the money to pay for the house and everything.

Yeah, I'm playing with NTR off, and that's the entire basis of my argument. If you're playing with NTR on then why are you even arguing with me, when the entire time I've said that I don't want to change a single thing about the game as it is with NTR on? I don't give a single shit how the game is with NTR on, because I will never play it.

 

[OnlyWorthyDevsMakeMoney]

No but if you have enough money to pay a housekeeper $8000 a month just to NOT do something, all from acting in a porn video every two weeks or so, then yeah, you could pretty easily work harder to get the money to pay for the house and everything.

Yeah, I'm playing with NTR off, and that's the entire basis of my argument. If you're playing with NTR on then why are you even arguing with me, when the entire time I've said that I don't want to change a single thing about the game as it is with NTR on? I don't give a single shit how the game is with NTR on, because I will never play it.

The NTR on just demonstrates why Hunter and Drew are so important for the whole plot! If you remove Hunter/Drew from the game, it will become like any other harem incest game. The NTR bad endings (totally non-canon) are the main key to understand why Hunter and Drew are ESSENTIAL to the plot. You can argue forever, but the presence of Hunter and Drew in the game is fundamental to keep all the shit together! And if you read carefully the dialogues, you will notice that now Sterling is planning to give 180.000$ to her mother over 3 years in order to get rid of Hunter (just like you want) in a way that doesn't raise suspicion from Hunter (he thinks that he is the only one capable of giving them money, so he has power over them).
I don'ìt like NTR at all, but I recognize the value of it in this story. Anything else beside Hunter/Drew as "villain", is totally incoherent for the plot as it is.

 

[MrJay]

The NTR on just demonstrates why Hunter and Drew are so important for the whole plot! If you remove Hunter/Drew from the game, it will become like any other harem incest game. The NTR bad endings (totally non-canon) are the main key to understand why Hunter and Drew are ESSENTIAL to the plot. You can argue forever, but the presence of Hunter and Drew in the game is fundamental to keep all the shit together! And if you read carefully the dialogues, you will notice that now Sterling is planning to give 180.000$ to her mother over 3 years in order to get rid of Hunter (just like you want) in a way that doesn't raise suspicion from Hunter (he thinks that he is the only one capable of giving them money, so he has power over them).
I don'ìt like NTR at all, but I recognize the value of it in this story. Anything else beside Hunter/Drew as "villain", is totally incoherent for the plot as it is.

I play with NTR off and the plot is completely coherent, so I will have to disagree. And the idea that it being "like any other harem incest game", first off isn't actually a coherently bad thing because many of those games are great, and secondly, is just wrong because most of those games also manage to have their own entirely unique identities and appealing qualities. Power Vacuum would still be its totally unique thing even if Hunter wasn't present.

And I don't need to argue forever. Maybe they are essential for the plot as it appears in the 'NTR on' version, I simply neither know nor care, but they're just not essential in the 'NTR off' version. And again, I've never once argued for changing anything in the 'NTR on' version, so if that's the version you play and you like it, great, I'm not talking about anything that would affect you.

 

[ScareKing]

I play with NTR off and the plot is completely coherent, so I will have to disagree. And the idea that it being "like any other harem incest game", first off isn't actually a coherently bad thing because many of those games are great, and secondly, is just wrong because most of those games also manage to have their own entirely unique identities and appealing qualities. Power Vacuum would still be its totally unique thing even if Hunter wasn't present.

And I don't need to argue forever. Maybe they are essential for the plot as it appears in the 'NTR on' version, I simply neither know nor care, but they're just not essential in the 'NTR off' version. And again, I've never once argued for changing anything in the 'NTR on' version, so if that's the version you play and you like it, great, I'm not talking about anything that would affect you.

Lets pretende Hunter became a "shadow agency", why they would help Ophelia and family? Why Ophelia would accept some random peoples help? When they start filling weird, why they wouldt move away? Even the whole sex stuff wouldnt make any sense since MC fuck every one because hes trying to stop Hunter, and MC money comes from sex scenes with Breanna, if him just appears with a bunch of cash out of nowhere, Ophelia would ask how he got that, and they live together, Ophelia knows MC dont have a job, and if you play with NTR On, you just see the consequences of MC mistakes but if you are not blind by anger against Hunter, you can see hes essential to the plot with NTR Off.

 

[jws_tex]

No one is answer this guys question. He's asking why the what ifs exist.

To put it simply, the Dev wanted to do more for the $20 tier to separate it from the other tiers. Before that, it was just getting the beta build a few days earlier. He did this to give his supporters more. He didn't have too and yet people who don't even pay, attack him for it. He could have been like many of the other patreon's that just give you the game a little early or a few pictures a month. Hell, WWG gives up to 7 pictures every 10 days. I've seen some devs that give you 1 or 3 pictures a month as a "status update".

people have to remember that the $20 tier what ifs is a "thank you" thing he does for people.

Thanks for taking the time. Much appreciated.

 

[jws_tex]

As yourmomma said, the dev says the What If's are basically like a side project for him, and time spent on them would otherwise be put into non-game stuff.
From my perspective, making a game is a creative pursuit, and without a little distraction you can easily lose interest in the project or even burn out from being too single minded in a limited box. The What If's give the dev the opportunity to play around the world without the time investment needed for quality writing and cohesive story (which IMO is what separates Power Vacuum from most games in the genre). Plus it allows the dev to create and share new renders and animations, honing his own skills, giving us more to fap to, and improving the main game product.
I'm sure you'd agree that if WWG were to bust out more frequent main game updates with mundane writing and sloppy, generic animations it would be a net negative from the fappers perspective.

Thank you for your reply! I appreciate the explanation. Makes good sense.

 

[jws_tex]

The Dev has already explained he sets aside a certain amount of time each day for the main story line and works on the " What Ifs " on the side for a lot less time. The "What Ifs " are just a fun side project to keep excitement for the main game alive. That do not cut into the main game development or cannon.

I'm beginning to find the controversy surrounding the " What Ifs " as hilarious. It's really not that big of a deal. Quite frankly I enjoy them and even more so now knowing how many people get senselessly butthurt over them.

Lucky for you guys I have the day off and I'm getting wildly entertained by all of this. So I'm camping out here licking up all the delicious tears.

Haha. Good attitude to have around here apparently. Thank you for taking your time to answer. I agree with you here.

 

[MrJay]

Lets pretende Hunter became a "shadow agency", why they would help Ophelia and family? Why Ophelia would accept some random peoples help? When they start filling weird, why they wouldt move away? Even the whole sex stuff wouldnt make any sense since MC fuck every one because hes trying to stop Hunter, and MC money comes from sex scenes with Breanna, if him just appears with a bunch of cash out of nowhere, Ophelia would ask how he got that, and they live together, Ophelia knows MC dont have a job, and if you play with NTR On, you just see the consequences of MC mistakes but if you are not blind by anger against Hunter, you can see hes essential to the plot with NTR Off.

You do realize the answers to many of those questions aren't even answered by the game as-is? The family already could easily move away especially since a majority of them dislikes Hunter from the very beginning. And the question of how Brenna makes money is ALREADY and issue in the game that it just doesn't address and pretends the mom doesn't know anything. It wouldn't change either way.

As for the rest such an organization could easily fool Ophelia into thinking she's accepting help from someone she knows, or from the government or something. Easy. And the MC would do the exact same things he's doing to try and stop the org.

No, he simply isn't essential. He does nothing in "NTR off" mode that can't be explained just as well in a million other ways.

 

[OnlyWorthyDevsMakeMoney]

You do realize the answers to many of those questions aren't even answered by the game as-is? The family already could easily move away especially since a majority of them dislikes Hunter from the very beginning. And the question of how Brenna makes money is ALREADY and issue in the game that it just doesn't address and pretends the mom doesn't know anything. It wouldn't change either way.

As for the rest such an organization could easily fool Ophelia into thinking she's accepting help from someone she knows, or from the government or something. Easy. And the MC would do the exact same things he's doing to try and stop the org.

No, he simply isn't essential. He does nothing in "NTR off" mode that can't be explained just as well in a million other ways.

Either you are trolling, or you haven't read correctly all the dialogues in the game. Without Hunter, there is no Power Vacuum as it is. Period.

 

[Greengoblinhobgoblin]

As long there is futa updates in this game i will support you dev