I feel like at that point you might as well just go watch/read hentai or actual porn.
That's exactly what they'd be doing by looking at a game's gallery. If they like the content and it's not easily accessible to them any other way, then there's nothing wrong with downloading a game just to see its content - if they find it too difficult, unengaging or that it dilutes the content too much.
My bar for a "good" H-game is one that ties the adult content and gameplay together, so that playing it and consuming its adult content are one and the same. Lot of nuance in that, which I'm not going to go into now. The strength of H-games is their ability to create/deepen context and continuity for the adult content through their gameplay - and if they don't take advantage of that, I feel they might as well just be galleries instead of wasting my time, interrupting that adult content with gameplay (and/or story) I simply wouldn't feel engaged by otherwise. The bar isn't terribly high and Thornsin just about meets it for me.
At the same time, its gameplay format (ie being a roguelike) makes it difficult to reliably go straight for the H-scenes within the game that the player is interested in. So I'm not going to fault anyone for wanting to skip that and just view what they want to in a gallery.
Doesn't apply as Carmack was talking about not needing story, not not needing gameplay.
I'm aware, but the same principles can be applied. "Story in a game/porn film doesn't matter"; "Gameplay (and story) in a porn game doesn't matter".
His original quote has been proven inconsistent; there are many successful and beloved games where the gameplay is middling but the story, presentation or some other element is the highlight. But then, assuming the story's interactivity (and player-agency within it) is limited if not non-existent - The Last of Us as an example - why not then watch it as a movie on youtube instead of playing it?
You aren't wrong, but if a game doesn't have a gallery, that won't make those same players actually play the game. They'll just ignore the game and find one that does have a gallery.
Yeah, you simply can't force people to play a game they don't enjoy - especially if it's an active obstacle to accessing the content. I generally don't play side-scrolling, platforming action-games or JRPGs - I find them unengaging. The only exceptions are ones that have porn in them. If they have long, dragging stories and long gameplay segments with no H-content, then I quickly tire of them and decrypt their files or look up a gallery or a save file if there's one in-game. It's often hiding maybe 5 minutes of H-scene behind hours and hours of gameplay that I find unenjoyable. And the notion that I should have to play the "game" half of a porn game to access the "porn" half is ridiculous.
