Skippable Scenes (for unpleasant content)

[WhitePhantom]

Hey, I was just wondering the consensus on making certain scenes have a skip option (think 'No Russian' MW2).

The reason I ask is I am developing a game which I'm adding a crime story alongside the porn side of things. The porn side is pretty relaxed, however the crime side of things has already seen two people shot. I left the story out of the second update, however for the third I am going to include a scene with it. It's quite a brutal scene, in which several people die (off-screen) and somebody is the victim of quite a nasty attack.

Should I put a trigger warning up and then let people just skip it? Whilst it's important for the story and it introduces a very key storyline (not porn-line) character, it's not something you're going to fap over. Or should I just tell people to man up and get the f outta here if they don't like it, as the game is already tagged as "violence" and I'll add "Dark" or "Horror" to the tags.

 

[Agent HK47]

Sometimes skip options can be good, like in MW2. However, if the scenes you describe are important for the storyline, then I would say leave them in, but have the correct tags and a maybe a warning at the start of the game.

 

[anne O'nymous]

The porn side is pretty relaxed, however the crime side of things has already seen two people shot. I left the story out of the second update, however for the third I am going to include a scene with it. It's quite a brutal scene, in which several people die (off-screen) and somebody is the victim of quite a nasty attack.

Regarding porn, I'm not really into the "skip" things, unless is extreme fetishes. But obviously here your problem is far more complex.
Firstly, one can like extreme fetishes and still don't like violence/blood. Secondly, the scene goes at the exact opposite of the game purpose ; if you've a boner looking at people being shoot, see a specialist. And thirdly, these scenes are important for the story.
Be cause of the third point, skipping them mean loosing part of the story, which shouldn't happen. But because of the two other points, you can't just let them like this. So, why not an option, not to skip them, but to blur them ? Something like, "I don't like violence", and if activated, these scene will have less pictures and they'll be blurred. The player will still have the full story (reading about violence is less a problem than seeing it) but without the scene he don't really want to see.

 

[baneini]

The story should be consistent in its theme and people should be fine with those themes if they're going to play trough it without any skip mechanism. If you have to add 1-2 extreme scenes deviating from what you'd expect from the rest of the game well that's bad design, like a clickbait feature, but if you have to add it for the plot then it could make sense to allow skipping it to broaden the audience.
However what audience is that if they can't handle something dramatic in an adult only game? MW2 was aimed at teens so skip option makes sense to please the angry parents.

 

[WhitePhantom]

That's a good idea, I might make a skip, blur, or watch option and then people can choose whatever they want.
It's completely void of sex, it just sets the theme a bit better.

I really like making scenes I guess, my game is going to end up more like NCIS (obviously nowhere near as good or I'd be petting paid for it) with porn than just a pure porno. Might be well-received, might flop, worth a try.

 

[Ataios]

I'd not go so far as putting a trigger warning in games, but skippable scenes are a good idea, so everybody can just have the content he enjoys, while ignoring scenes he is not interested in. It would help people reach the content they want and wouldn't harm other users, so I think it would be a rather beneficial feature.

Personally I'd likely make a LOT of use of this feature in many games, mostly to reach lesbian content more quickly while just skipping the cock sucking on the road.

Be aware however, that such a features wouldn't change the story of game. So e.g. it wouldn't help people sensitive to NTR, because what happens still happens, it's just not visible. It would also not prevent characters from getting raped, just players from seeing characters getting raped.

 

[Dparx]

you could do the Tarantino move like with pulp fiction.
show the weapons/shots and blood but no actual kills/bodies.
the burger/car scene for example.

 

[Ataios]

you could do the Tarantino move like with pulp fiction.
show the weapons/shots and blood but no actual kills/bodies.
the burger/car scene for example.

I don't think showing a censored version of a scene would make any difference, if the user doesn't want to see a scene at all. I think a skip function can only save time to get to the scenes you like more quickly, but it certainly can't remove a theme from a game.

 

[freedom.call]

I keep changing my mind every time I see this thread, it's not an easy decision for you. I think if I played the game I would prefer a blurring/censoring option before the game starts, not something when I'm in the middle of the game.