I agree and disagree.
I think there are always comments that are not needed. I think it is always possible to give an opinion in an educated manner. But this is the internet. To expect this to happen is naive. And, above all, we are human and we make mistakes. We all do. I always try to measure myself, but there are times when I forget to do so and I get overheated. Heh. It's a shame, yes. If you want to do your bit to stop this from happening, just don't do it. I mean, I'm not talking about you directly. It's a figure of speech. It has to start with yourself. Expecting others to do it is impossible, unfortunately.
Now, I won't talk about "how a harem game should be". My opinion is pretty similar to the comments here, but I don't stop playing a game because it has optional sharing, optional swinging or optional NTR.
That's why I insist that the biggest problem is not these fetishes. Because they are not a problem. A fetish in a game is never a problem as long as it is well executed, in my opinion. Especially in a game that really has a story to tell. If the purpose of a game is exclusively sex and fetishes, add whatever you want and however you want. I'm sure no one will complain. The problem is that, so far, this is not optional/avoidable when the developer said it would be. As a player, I don't feel comfortable when the MC agrees to help James fuck his stepmom. Of course, nothing is happening yet and surely in the future we can avoid it. But why do we have to put up with this? If I don't want to share my love interests, I don't see the point that we don't have the option to tell James to fuck off in the first place. Instead, the player is forced to have our protagonist push his love interests onto other people.
Taking the main plot into account, the MC seems more focused on getting his love interests fucked by other people rather than focusing on his main task. I'm no longer talking about focusing on building his harem, I'm talking about finding out who killed his father. He needs James' help and instead of paying him back in some other way, what he comes up with is offering his help to get his stepmother fucked. Yes, I know this is porn logic, but, in a situation of that magnitude and with that importance, all you can think of is offering one of your love interests as payment?
You can have an opinion and believe that a certain thing in the game is wrong. This is subjective and up to your preferences.
But, I really think that forcing the player to "endure" the talks with James is a very big mistake. And I genuinely think it should be corrected, taking into account all of the above. (Possibility of harem and avoidable sharing).
I don't want to play the good guy and pretend that my criticisms are solely for the good of the developer and for their game/VN to succeed. But I'm definitely not doing it to fuck him over. I am convinced of my opinion (a common thing for anyone) and I argue it with relative politeness. (At least I try, I swear
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I think there's a huge difference between a post like this one and the dozens of aggressive and demanding posts I've seen in this thread.
You are giving your opinion in a reasonable way, many others here did not. In my opinion you can read your post as a dev and either say, "well, he sort of has a point." or "while I might not agree, I can understand his problems" and that is fine.
What is not fine is if a first time dev gets pages upon pages of people slaughtering him and his game and not because of failings like horrible renders or a horrible story, or undecipherable Engrish, no simply for telling a story in a way that people feel is not in accordance with how THEY interpret tags.
Again, it is in no way so that in a harem game, no one is allowed to have sex with a possible love interest except the MC, it is perfectly fine for the MC to get together with someone once her previous relationship stops, there are also many harem games, where the girls are also into each other, some of the really successful games have scenes like this, like Sisterly Lust for example or Philly's games.
You are either fine with that or not, but if you are not, that doesn't give you the right to shit on the dev and his game, like so many here do. Just fucking accept that there is something in the game you don't like and either stop playing it or not, despite it.
As for the insanely over-discussed shit with James and his step-mom.
I admit, I don't like it, but it is not my game, it is boomx's game, and he obviously wants to tell the story this way.
And we don't KNOW where this will go, we don't know whether the MC will actually help James fuck her or if he will sabotage it at one point or simply stop it before it happens.
Why are people giving this particular game and this dev so much grief over some conversations in the game, they don't enjoy?
Do you really not see, how incredibly entitled a lot of players are acting here? They want to actually tell the dev how to tell his story and as long as he doesn't obey them, they will continue to attack and attack and attack him.
Seriously, this is his first game, he is obviously not completely untalented, so this could become really good, but what do you think happens to him, when he gets battered like this for page after page after page of discussion here?
Sure, some might just leave the forums and do as they please, but it is just as likely that he will simply stop making a game, when faced with so much criticism.
Criticism I might again point out which is not based on quality, but on preferences of a relatively small group of players who through their actions and behaviour make it seem as if everyone playing the game is on their side.
So let me say it again, give the guy a break. Let him tell his story the way he likes it and if you really can't stomach it just stop playing. Do not keep on hammering your points into him until he breaks. (not directed at you personally, I use you unspecifically apart from my first section).
If he stops working on the game, he likely won't make another and his fierce critics here will be left with nothing but another abandoned game.