How many times tho do we get a game that has a decent story and they cuck the main plot because they fear funding will dry up if the finish the part of the game people actually care about and want to see the end. So they start working on side things for months on end racking in more money, not for a better story, but to drag out development for as long as possible.
It all comes down to the developers and their games. Hell, whole "Mass Effect 2" is a one long side quest.
I partially agree with you on adding more and more characters though. It's a pretty common practice with Harem/FemProtag types of games, where instead of diving deeper into relationships with already written characters, lads add another woman to that harem.
Or FemProtag, where there are simply too many potential LIs and storylines end up being neglected(looking at you, AWAM).
Also, the issue with some of these games is that they don't have the root from which all branches grow. "Momma cheats on her husband with every guy from the hood" is a shitty root, for example)
Balancing NSFW action with storytelling while not fucking up the narrative isn't an easy task. If you give action too early - it'll just be another generic porn fiction, if you go too slow - peeps will get mad cuz of blue balls. Finding a perfect balance is hard.
But going back to the topic of the discussion - yeah, unfortunately a lot of devs fuck up third act when instead of concluding arcs and answering questions they just add a new couple to them.
At times I wonder why (if we exclude milking), because over the years you get tired of your own characters and want to write something new.
Community votes are just more bloat and time sinks for development but hey thats the business model. Lets not kill the golden goose.
Community votes are great if the developer knows how to separate valuable points from bullshit. Feedback is important, mate.
If my game's based on vanilla tropes and some random dude will send 100$ my way asking smth like: "cAn yOu mAkE mAiN LI cHeAt oN MC wItH cHAd wItH gIaNt dOnG", I'll simply send him these 100$ back, because making a sweetheart that protagonist has been chasing for an entire game turn into a whore without any reasons is just stupid writing.
At the end of the day, all of us are different. Obviously, there are dudes who'll milk shit dry. But there always will be a dozen of people who simply love to tell stories(and I'm not talking about myself). It's up to customer - you, to get where's wine and where's vinnegar. Sites like F95 are good for that - you can check the game for free. If you like it and have funds for it - why not support the developer? If you see that the developer's been shady for last couple of months - you can simply play his game for free and that's it.
