This post is a mixed bag of valid points and piss poor takes. And I'm gonna be that dick who scrutinizes it needlessly:Words words words
I'd like at least a hypothetical example of what you're actually talking about here because the degree of "stupidity" and how important it is to the story matters in terms of how immersion breaking it is. Most factual inaccuracies fall under the "it's porn. Who gives a shit?" category.Stupidity:
Or, and this may shock you, they are producing porn. Are you accusing the guys writing scripts in "the porn industry" of being virgins as well?You have a lot of authors who are just that virgins. It's easy as hell to tell when their entire understanding is basically shit pushed by the porn industry.
This is a doozy of a bad take and actually what prompted me to respond:We have guys writing about harems who never once had a date with multiple women or never had multiple women dating him or in a relationship at the same time.
Characters being unrealistically stupid or meek or whatever have you in order to push the plot is a common device used in stories (not just the porn kind) for about as long as people have been telling stories. They are being portrayed as archetypes to exaggerate certain aspects of human behavior and to tell a story of these traits made manifest.Failing to acknowledge human behavior
I know this is an extension of your thoughts on artwork which I generally agree with. But when making a porn game, the porn comes first. If my primary goal was an interesting story or good gameplay mechanics, I'd play a regular ass video game. The story adds a lot to what makes a scene hot and interactivity makes the whole experience that much more immersive. At at the end of the day, I'm playing a porn game because I would like to masturbate. But I do agree that dumping all of your effort and time into high-quality CGI is not exactly the most efficient means to do it. It's worth noting that the people who spend the time and effort to produce great art are generally the type who legitimately enjoy doing it and that's a commendable thing as well.Logically if you think about it the fappers are the last group you should try to appease. These people are basically appeased by a slide show. So the story/game play isn't directed at them.
I really hate low personal and development female character. They just go wow cock and just start having sex with the MC. Give a little substance even if the MC has to force themselves on the character. Just a little substance don't mind how it is done. But when a character just fucks out of the blue............ sadWhat elements of the game, sexual action or characters do you not want to see in the new adult game you want to play. For me, it's a game that asks you to grind hard or just have sex without stepping up. It's also the mc with horse cock, the constant blow jobs, and the characters with too huge of proportions like gigantic tits and ass.
This post was too long to read but I agree with the general concept that is: most game creators don't have a clue about anything in life and that shows a lot in how stupid the interactions between characters are.Stupidity:
I don't mean the character being stupid I mean the author showing his stupidity in their writing because they have no understanding of how shit works. I'm sure if I start listing off authors or games I'll just get in trouble for it on here.
It isn't that hard to pick up a book and learn something or use the internet. There are forums on most topics were you can often find experts in a field who can answer a question. There is open course ware from colleges like MIT.
There is no fucking excuse for the level of ignorance I see displayed in games.
Mixed content:
Authors that try to please everyone or make more money at the expense of a decent story.
But they make it avoidable or able to be turned off. Yea, right.
You can always tell by the character dialog that there is this other side or missing aspect of the game.
I don't mean the prompts that lead you into that section of the game. I am talking about how the character acts.
Example: You have a male character or female character who has the alternate path. Sure you remove the alternate path. But they never change the dialog leading up to the path potential. The characters behavior and mannerism are left the same.
So there has never ever once been a game like this I couldn't tell the content was missing. What you end up with is a character like a bisexual male attempting to play straight or some crap. Or worse it feels like a gay author tried to write a book from the perspective of a strait MC. It just glaringly stands out.
There are enough parables and sayings out there that it is a fools errand to try and please everyone. You make yourself out to be that much more of a fool thinking you can.
Virgin authors:
The issues is in experienced authors both sexually and relationship wise.
You have a lot of authors who are just that virgins. It's easy as hell to tell when their entire understanding is basically shit pushed by the porn industry. So we have virgins writing about sex. We have guys writing about harems who never once had a date with multiple women or never had multiple women dating him or in a relationship at the same time.
Failing to acknowledge human behavior:
Authors often ignore human behavior or have little or no understanding of it.
If you ever look at blackmail used in games you can almost always find where the author ignores what the target of the blackmail could actually do and turn the tables. That's just one example. You can find the issue when it comes to all sorts of other stuff. You know all those scenes were you are thinking shit, "like no one would act that way", "Yea, right.", ...
I generally chalk this up to authors that have little or no social experience. You know the basement dwellers trying to right about a life they imagine and will never achieve because they will still be in mom and pops basement 20 years from now.
If most adult game developers followed the advice write about what you know most the games would come to a stop.
They do need to make a change and stop using porn as their guide to life and sex. They need to find better sources.
You might be thinking that well I can't just go ask someone shit like that I don't want people knowing my lack of experience.
Get the fuck over yourself. Suck it up. Everyone has to learn some how. If you can't do that go on a forum with a different identity. Do research under a different account.
Plot holes from hell:
For fuck sake think about what you are writing about and how it fits together and the implication of your writing choice.
Start with world building:
Where is it. What is society like. How do things fit together. What resources are they going to have and not. How will those issues affect the society. Is it even possible for this society to exist at all or for more than a very short time given the choices I made. If not remove the stuff that causes the conflict.
Character development. What type of personality are they what made them that way. If their is to be a change it has to be something strong that causes it. It can be a number of things over a long period or it could be one large incident or several large incidents. Otherwise people don't generally change. People change in two manors for the most part incremental or because something showed them in one large event what they were doing wasn't right.
Then family,friends and all the other stuff.
It needs to tie together.
Plot development. Story board. If you don't know what that is look it up. Remember those characters you created above. They should behave the way they would and not suddenly go against what you previously presented. Don't describe a character as being super smart if you aren't going to have them act that way in the story. Don't present them as being the best at something if the audience can easily discern what they come the hell up with is no better than what they can come up with to solve a problem.
1. Don't write above your own level of understanding.
2. Or write above the level of understanding of your source. If you don't fully understand the source refer to 1.
It's better to not write about something than write about it poorly.
Think of your primary story start and end. Then what underlying stories get you from the start to the end. Then maybe work on side stories. But always always finish the primary first. If a secondary or side story means making the primary story change then it doesn't belong in the story. Don't add it. Any secondary or side story should be able to be told without changing the primary story.
Assets are the least of my concern:
I good story / game can use shit assets and still be fun and entertaining. Authors for thousands of year wrote lots of great stories with out any CG or other content.
In truth if your story and game play are worth a shit a video game could get away with stick figures or even shapes instead of people. Granted that won't appease the fappers(people who just click through a game to get to sex seen to beat off).
Logically if you think about it the fappers are the last group you should try to appease. These people are basically appeased by a slide show. So the story/game play isn't directed at them. So fuck them. Just write a good story and game. Then add the artwork in.
In case you think I am wrong about the slide show. Take a linear visual novel. All it has is text over an image. Instead of separating them put the text on the image and then display the images in order. All you need is slide show software then.
How well they like your game pretty much comes down to two things how many clicks it takes them to get from content to content and the appearance of the content. So even if you appeal to some of them with one art style others might not like it.
This post is a mixed bag of valid points and piss poor takes. And I'm gonna be that dick who scrutinizes it needlessly:
Lack of understanding how common tech works. Saying stupid shit like radios are no longer used even though every cell phone in the world is a transceiver with a computer hooked to it. Lack of basic understanding of mechanics, physics, electrical, chemistry ... I'm not even talking advanced shit talking stuff you should have learned before getting to 8th grade. Half the fucking time I play a game I wonder did this fucker graduate pre-school.I'd like at least a hypothetical example of what you're actually talking about here because the degree of "stupidity" and how important it is to the story matters in terms of how immersion breaking it is. Most factual inaccuracies fall under the "it's porn. Who gives a shit?" category.
Porn industry puts shit in as a gag or to entice idiots who don't know better. Some times they are just targeting an audience maybe at times a group that are into out outrageous shit. That said spent enough time around a bunch of them 2 decades back.Or, and this may shock you, they are producing porn. Are you accusing the guys writing scripts in "the porn industry" of being virgins as well?
Not the same thing.This is a doozy of a bad take and actually what prompted me to respond:
There's tons of bestiality content on this site. What you're saying amounts to implying none of the producers of beast porn should be doing so unless they actually fucked a dog. I sincerely hope that behavior isn't as common as you seem to think it is.
It isn't consider a plot or literary device by any reputable group of writers or professionals. NONE.Characters being unrealistically stupid or meek or whatever have you in order to push the plot is a common device used in stories (not just the porn kind) for about as long as people have been telling stories. They are being portrayed as archetypes to exaggerate certain aspects of human behavior and to tell a story of these traits made manifest.
Furthermore, to extrapolate on an example you gave, exploring ways a character could "turn the tables" on a blackmailer just invites the very real "mixed content" problems which are far more immersion breaking than characters acting a little bit unrealistically.
I'm looking at a bigger picture than just those of us who currently play adult games.I know this is an extension of your thoughts on artwork which I generally agree with. But when making a porn game, the porn comes first. If my primary goal was an interesting story or good gameplay mechanics, I'd play a regular ass video game. The story adds a lot to what makes a scene hot and interactivity makes the whole experience that much more immersive. At at the end of the day, I'm playing a porn game because I would like to masturbate. But I do agree that dumping all of your effort and time into high-quality CGI is not exactly the most efficient means to do it. It's worth noting that the people who spend the time and effort to produce great art are generally the type who legitimately enjoy doing it and that's a commendable thing as well.
That's rather pedantic. I mean, if someone said something along the lines of "I don't listen to the radio," would your response be "Well actually..." and go on about how phone calls are a form of radio communication? You know what they meant. You're just violating Grice's razor at that point.Saying stupid shit like radios are no longer used even though every cell phone in the world is a transceiver with a computer hooked to it.
And of all the physically impossible hentai that's out there, do you think they simply aren't aware of the realistic consequences of a gigantic tentacle going in through the anus and out their mouth?Porn industry puts shit in as a gag or to entice idiots who don't know better. Some times they are just targeting an audience maybe at times a group that are into out outrageous shit.
Not really. It's just the nature of porn in general that characters are generally more open to whatever fantasy the author wants to portray. Having multiple partners at once who are all completely on board with the idea is extremely rare. The people who get involved in such a relationship are not common people and don't typically have common personality types. The circumstances that lead to it are not common events.Writing about a harem requires understanding the dynamics of a relationship of that type.
Caricature.It isn't consider a plot or literary device by any reputable group of writers or professionals. NONE.
The difference is that sex isn't the focus. Sure, sex will be a central theme in a romance or a drama or even many comedies. The line is crossed with intent.we know from viewer ratings they will watch similar nudity and sexual content if it is in a good movie or tv series with a decent plot.
thing is, any element found often in eroge games will have some people who like, as well as people who don't.What elements of the game, sexual action or characters do you not want to see in the new adult game you want to play. For me, it's a game that asks you to grind hard or just have sex without stepping up. It's also the mc with horse cock, the constant blow jobs, and the characters with too huge of proportions like gigantic tits and ass.
It was intended to be a simple example. My point was the people writing show little understanding of how things work. It's as if they never graduated high school or lack the basic understandings most adults have of how things work.That's rather pedantic. I mean, if someone said something along the lines of "I don't listen to the radio," would your response be "Well actually..." and go on about how phone calls are a form of radio communication? You know what they meant. You're just violating Grice's razor at that point.
Different types of stories. It depends on if the story is intended for realism, escapism or absurdism.And of all the physically impossible hentai that's out there, do you think they simply aren't aware of the realistic consequences of a gigantic tentacle going in through the anus and out their mouth?
It's fantasy. If an orgasm results in gallons of milk spraying from a woman's breasts, you should just accept that that's just a thing that happens in this fantasy world rather than assume the author is a moron who thinks that's actually a thing that happens irl.
Basic writing techniques are still used and can't be ignored without consequence. You still have a story, plot, characters and so on. The only difference when it comes to adult games is people make up shit excuses for bad work!Not really. It's just the nature of porn in general that characters are generally more open to whatever fantasy the author wants to portray. Having multiple partners at once who are all completely on board with the idea is extremely rare. The people who get involved in such a relationship are not common people and don't typically have common personality types. The circumstances that lead to it are not common events.
I'll level with you that most "harem-style" games are pretty damn lazy and treat every girl as if they live in a vacuum. That's a legitimate writing flaw. But to ask the writer to portray such a polyamorous lifestyle in a fully realistic manner just hampers creativity. The primary improvement that's needed for most of these games is to introduce a level of interaction and/or conflict between members of the harem to create a narrative beyond "guy wants to fuck as many girls as possible."
Is every porn game meant to be an absurdity? No. In fact most don't fall into that level. Most fall into escapism and realism and some place between them. Absurdity is rarely used in any literary or game work to the full extent of the product. It is mostly sprinkled in it.Caricature.
The device doesn't just extend to parody. Any time a character is intentionally portrayed as being overexaggerated in one way and oversimplified in others, that's a caricature. It's often used to explore deeper concepts through the personification of vices and virtues with deliberate disregard for the "humanity" of the character exhibiting them. It's quite literally a cornerstone of narrative driven, rather than character driven, writing.
The people in the story aren't very nuanced because it isn't even really about them. It's about the ideas they convey.
Appealing to the people who watch porn is the least of my interest. They are the lowest tear of the type of media.The difference is that sex isn't the focus. Sure, sex will be a central theme in a romance or a drama or even many comedies. The line is crossed with intent.
Porn has an inherent stigma attached to it. You aren't going to convince people who aren't already interested in porn to get into any particular porn medium. If you want porn games to appeal more to the gaming crowd, then the focus would need to shift away from the porn and focus on the romantic/dramatic/comedic elements around the sexual content within. Plenty of games already do this and are available in the mass market. That "problem" is already solved.
If you wish to appeal to the porn watching crowd, one must address why they aren't interested in games as their particular medium of consuming it. This may already be a lost cause because even those who regularly watch porn only do so for a few minutes per day. It's just not a significant time sink for them.
It's best to just accept that this is a niche market and will stay that way unless significant cultural shifts happen beyond the control of the developers themselves.
Is that a problem with porn games though ? ive never seen any medium as incestuous when it comes to reusing story elements except Anime/manga. Those are nothing but cliches5. Games Afraid of Cliches
Cliches work for a reason, as they say. Some devs don't seem to understand this, so they spend a ton of effort desperately trying to do something brand new, something no one has ever done, something completely original, but in doing so, they shoot themselves in the foot, because that means they are actively avoiding things that are proven to be fun and to work.
You shouldn't just copy other games, because then there's no feeling of freshness at all. But it's actually worse to go in the completely opposite direction and try to make yourself the Christopher Columbus of porn games and then lose yourself at sea.
I wouldn't go as far as call it a catastrophic problem, but I've seen it happen enough. The reason you are probably not seeing this is because most of the successful games are driven by cliches. But if you look at newly released games, or games that quickly died, they often try very hard to avoid proven formulas, like they are desperately chasing originality. That's not always the best move.Is that a problem with porn games though ? ive never seen any medium as incestuous when it comes to reusing story elements except Anime/manga. Those are nothing but cliches