Should the player be allowed to make choices for non-MC characters?

[Doorknob22]

In the first release of my game, the MC kidnaps an acolyte to extract information from her and I allowed the player to decide whether she gives the information right away or is subjected to some (mild) torture. There was a part of me, some purist storyteller, which objected allowing the player to make decisions for characters other than the MC but I added this option anyway to allow players who are not into sexual abuse to enjoy the game.

In the next update I have a somewhat similar dilemma: MC comes across a girl being gang banged by several goblins and I want to give the player the option to decide whether this is a gang rape or she has a goblin fetish and she's actually having the time of her life. Again, the purist storyteller in me cringes a bit.

What do you think, should player decisions be limited to MC only or can be extended to the story as whole?

 

[Meridian]

Nope.

 

[Cryswar]

It really just comes down to what you're comfortable with, and to a degree what your clientele want.

If you're making a completely NTR focused game, it'd be pretty dumb to have an option to turn off NTR. But in a more generally targeted game, I can say that I personally would absolutely appreciate the option to warp the torture/gangrape into interrogation/gangbang.

Each choice pretty much doubles the work you have to do, though, so it's a balancing act of whether or not it's worth having 2 versions of a scene.

 

[Laikhent]

Maybe you could do something like "I see a bunch of goblins with a girl and..."
(option pops up)
1- it appears that the goblins are raping the girl
2- it appears that the girl is having fun with the goblins
(you probably already thought about doing it this way but just in case)

I was going to vote for the "player control MC only" but after I read your scenario, it would really suck a lot if it didn't go the way I wanted.

 

[desmosome]

I don't care either way, but I say you should only make decisions for the MC if you want to be safe. There are surprisingly huge amount of self inserting muh immersion players that will be very offended by having non-MC choices. The people who don't mind it will be fine either way.

You can always frame the choices for it to be MC's decision. The acolyte for example can resist at first. Then MC can choose if he wants to rape her or threaten/persuade her.

The goblin situation probably shouldn't be a choice at all. Just default it to her being raped by goblins and you can save her like a good guy (or use her yourself after "saving" her), or just leave her there.

 

[Laikhent]

I would go with desmosome solution. If you want the goblin fetish girl scene to be possible to appear without the player deciding on the scene, one way to do it could be to show the scene based on the player previous choices. If the player have been making bastardy choices, show the rape scene, otherwise show the globin fetish scene.