The self insertion seems ways stronger and far more common on them than us for a reason. Maybe because they always had male MCs to play as whereas we had very few female MCs to enjoy. In my case I enjoy self inserting myself in the situation, imagining myself sharing the scene with the characters in most cases other than loosing my identity and even worse stealing hers from a character to feel a thrill. Feels totally weird for me.
I grew up playing RPGs, so putting myself in to the place of the MC is the only way I can play, and while I am more than capable of playing a straight woman (or gay man for that matter) in a normal game, and be flirty, or whatever the scene requires, but these are not just games to play to have fun. They are sex games, that are supposed to turn us on and get us off, and guys don't do that for me.
The more guys around in the game, the less sexy it is to me. Especially if they are involved in the sex scenes. The 'male best friend' is generally an over used trope too, always hate that in these games, like I want to spend the first 20 min of the game with some long introspection and/or conversations with some guy I don't care about.
It goes back to an old storytelling saying that most of us need to keep in mind when making our games, "Show, don't tell". You only have so much time to make a first impression to the player (or reader, or viewer, whatever), so it's best to jump right into the story, and save any background to be dispersed slowly as it progresses, once they are already invested in the characters. No one wants your life story right off the bat, let them get to know you first, a bit at a time.
Sunville did this well, there was a very short intro, but Lea gets right into her sexy hijinks, so it grabs your attention and keeps it as you learn more about her, and slowly meet her new friends. There wasn't 20 pages of preamble before you get to something interesting.
I mean, it doesn't always have to be sexy, but it does need to be interesting. You need something to grab the attention of the player, not bore them to death.
