You say you rejected David. But the only way to reject him, is to choose Michael instead. What you mean is, you thought you had rejected him, by not making positive choices associated with him. But as you've discovered that doesn't have any effect on whether you ultimately end up with him. The only way to avoid him, for better or worse, is to choose to have sex with Michael instead. So in reality you did choose David, because you decided not to choose Michael. We make choices, we may not like the outcomes, but ultimately where we end up is down to us and nobody else.
You keep saying you were given the choice to reject David, outside of you're decision to have sex with Michael, but you weren't. There's no place in the game, where it says make this choice and you won't end up with David. That was just your mistaken assumption. The only way not to end up with David, is to have sex with Michael. So please stop claiming that some other choice to achieve this exists, because it doesn't. The game requires that you have sex with one of those men. You may prefer that didn't happen, just like there are things I prefer happened differently, but as things stand there is no other option. But to play the game the way it is, or not play it at all.
Regardless, of whether you think the Lucas sex scene is necessary or not. Somehow, I don't think the Dev is going to go back and change it. In fact, I personally would be upset if he went back and wasted his time on something so trivial, instead of moving the game forward. Sometimes you just have to suck it up, and accept you can't have things the way you want. And I fundamentally disagree anyway, because Victoria would never have done, what you want her to do. You set the game up in a certain way, and that leads to certain outcomes, which some people may not like. Just because a game is a choice driven VN, doesn't mean that the player should automatically be allowed to do whatever he or she wants. The Dev has decided that Victoria has to go through that scene, and you as the player just have to accept it, whether you agree with it or not. I could just as easily say that I want Victoria's corruption to go faster, and I'm guessing from your previous comments you'd disagree with that. But if you can have what you want, why shouldn't I be able to have what I want? And the answer is very simple, you often can't, because the Dev has his own opinion about how he wants his game to develop. And in the final analysis, it's the only opinion that matters.
Just to make this clear, that's now how an actual choice works. Just because I decide to not eat a piece of cheese, does not mean I instead automatically end up with an apple in my mouth. I did not choose David, the game chose him for me and
that's what I have an issue with. Just needed to point that out since you seem to be confusing 'choice' with 'predetermined consequence'.
Yes, the game works the way it works. I don't like the way it works, I think it's bad game design, and I'm voicing that opinion here on a thread that is meant for discussing these things. You're of course free to disagree with me, but saying things like "that's just how the game works" doesn't add anything to the discussion.
"but ultimately where we end up is down to us and nobody else". Well that's exactly my problem, now isn't it.. Because it's not down to us, seeing as the game already decided for us. And I'm sorry but are you even paying attention? Because I never claimed that some other choice to reject David (his path, since I'm assuming that's what you're talking about) exists, that's literally what half of my lengthy complaint was about...
The game does indeed not specify that "if you make X choice, you won't end up with David", but we do in fact specifically get the option to reject him the first time he asks us out for coffee. I now know that choice to be completely meaningless, and it shouldn't even be in the game as it only serves to confuse and trick the player into thinking they can avoid David's path by rejecting him.
In most (if not all) AVNs, that kind of choice is a means for the game to recognize you're not interested in that character and then takes you off that character's path, or at least makes it less likely for you to end up on that path. So I don't think it was that much of a stretch for me to assume that to be the case here as well, especially when you take the relationship points into account...
I'm not going to repeat what I've already said about the Lucas scene as I've already said my piece on that. Obviously everything you're saying boils down to you disagreeing with me because you have a certain image in your head of what Victoria is like. You've made your point, I disagree with your point and you disagree with mine. There's no reason to keep discussing it because at this rate we'll just keep going back and forth for eternity.
The only way you and Balbaar get what you want, is if the Dev starts again from scratch, which I'm guessing nobody actually wants.
Not true, David's path is already avoidable by having sex with Michael. So all the dev would have to do is make it so that if you reject his initial invitation to have coffee with him, you get taken off that path regardless of whether or not you've had sex with Michael. No need to start from scratch in any way since there's already a version in which David's path is excluded.
The same thing goes for the scene with Lucas. I haven't seen any references to that scene after it happening (besides maybe a few lines of dialogue with Carly, not sure), so adding a choice to that scene wouldn't require any significant changes to be made to the rest of the game. So again, no need to start from scratch whatsoever.