*deep breath*
Just gonna gloss over how Bioshag’s 1st scene is femdom and 2nd is consensual. (...)
Tarnheims claim wasn't that every single scene in their releases was dark, but that their releases were always generally dark in tone. And yes, if you have a release with 2 vanilla or consensual scenes and then a gangrape at the end, that is gonna be perceived dark in tone. Kinda like if you order a meal and it has some scallops and some garlic but it's also
on fucking fire the fire is gonna be a little more impactful and memorable than any of the ingredients. Or how if someone wishes you a good day, shakes your hand and then pulls out a baseball bat and breaks your face with it you're not gonna exactly remember that as "The day x shook my hand.".
People that are into more depraved scenes will not lose their minds because they saw a vanilla scene, but generally people that are not into that more depraved content will gtfo if there is even seconds of gangrape or beastiality. That means it was actually a pretty reasonable assumption when ronadan said that a lot of their fanbase were actually there for the depraved content and obviously expected more of it.
And I'm saying that as someone that generally does not need to see shit like beastiality or rape and is happy Subverse is "tame" in comparison. But me liking their new direction in terms of themes (with mantic scenes for those that absolutely want them) doesn't mean I have to be blind towards the expectation their previous work nurtured within their community and the disappointment of said community that there is a change in direction. It's okay to change direction and try new things, but it's also smarter to openly communicate this early on, avoiding at least some of the backlash. Some people would still complain, but that is unavoidable anyway.
Also I'm not sure I get your last point about people complaining about the game but checking out what's new every patch. As much as I like their change in direction, I would agree that Subverse is actually terrible as an actual game, with any of the "game elements" feeling more like tedious padding rather than something that enriches the experience any way, so I would probably prefer it if they just made Subverse an interactive movie instead of holding on to aspects that don't work. Played the first 2 updates, didn't play any of the next ones, but still check this out each update to see if maybe they realized very few people enjoy the primitive and repetitive ground combat and the clunky "bullet hell lite", at which point it would be worth checking out again because their cutscenes (just for general plot or for sex scenes) are actually pretty nice and hurt by the "gameplay" surrounding them.
Is the implication that you are only allowed to check out what was changed/added every update if you swallow your criticism and only ever praise a game?
