Why do male main characters often seem underage?

[spambot]

Just to be clear, this is not a roundabout way of attacking this preference. It is purely to sate my curiosity.

I'm puzzled as to why the male main characters in games often look 12-14 years old (I think most of the games under the "popular games" section feature a protagonist like this). After all, most people of either gender reach their physical peak around their early to mid twenties. Why fantasize about being a kid? I have a few hypotheses (listed below) but all seem problematic.

1. There's large underage fan base.

+ This would easily explain the preference for young protagonists, as well as the prevalence of school/home as the setting in many of these games.
- Underage children mostly don't have access to credit cards. So even if they constitute a large fan base, they'd be a largely a fan base of pirates, providing little incentive for developers to cater to their tastes.

2. Helps facilitate the incest fetish. (Not my thing, so I might be getting some things wrong)

+ Gives a good excuse for the protagonist to be around his family.
+ Limits the age for the "mother" character since men tend to prefer women below a certain age.
- Unless the incest fetish is linked to pedophilia, wouldn't the "eww factor" cancel out any possible benefits? Because all of these characters are nominally 18 or older anyhow, wouldn't the incest plotlines still work with a older character model?

3. Kids are less sexually threatening.

+ From reading some of the threads, it seems some players get really attached to identifying with the main character (they're usually vocal about having other male "rivals" in games). I guess if you're trying to insert yourself into the story, the male protagonist, in so far as he's ultimately not the player, would be the ultimate obstacle of sorts. So better to have a less threatening rival...
- Seems like over-psychoanalysis on my part.

4. Take it at face value. Players simply prefer an underage protagonist.
+ Simplest answer.
- It strikes me as a fairly niche preference, so it wouldn't make sense for developers to cater to them at the expense of everyone else.

Please help me out here. I can't be the only one who's wondered about this.

 

[Chel]

Its mostly the second point.

 

[Humlebien]

It also takes you back to simpler times. Where hormones running rampant, and you discovered that titties are awesome. No taxes, moronic co-workers.

 

[Barioz]

You should ask even more questions:

Why are MCs often also brain damaged?
Why do the devs create so many embarassing situations resulting from this brain damage?
Why do the MCs have not just normal big cocks but gigantic waste pipes a horse or even an elephant would be proud of?
Why do nearly all women in those games enjoy such a maltreatment which would give far more pain than enjoyment?

 

[Benn Swagger]

Here's the start. (it's not the order to answer your post number)

1. Do you fantasize your girlfriend/wife who you already make sex with ? No right, you just ask her to sex with you. So a porn is about fantasy of things that you can't do normally. Whether it be your sexy secretary, teacher, stranger or family member ... depend on your "forbidden desire".

Now we discuss Incest and/or 'why younger MC'

2. You see, example for my life, I'm +30 years old now, I have the experience, the bravery, the skill and enough money to treat a lady or brave to ask any women I'm interest with. But looking back, in my childhood or teen era, this is like 'impossible' thing to me. So these game with teen's MC is like satisfying or answering my frailty of my younger self 'failure'. I felt like if the char is old enough like me ... that hardly any challenge since I can do it myself in real life.

3. About incest, it's related heavily to point number 1, the most "Forbidden Desire" of sexual fantasy. But it's actually has nothing to do with your real life mother, sister, father, son, nephew, etc. It's the thrill that able to fantasize of breaking the most "forbidden". Each people had their different appetite. For other, their forbidden desire is their sexy teacher, or total stranger, or BSDM, or nurse or whatever.

So you can't never understand completely why people like me and others are so in love with the combined fantasy about a young boy got into a sick journey to bang his family members because this wasn't your forbidden desire. But I believe you will understand the idea of forbidden desire as I believe you have one, and could be, maybe, I don't like nor understand of your forbidden desire. Hell, I don't understand nor like the people who love Dick Girls and Traps porn games.

But note, Boobs or feet or ass or certain body parts fetish isn't in this discussion. Body part fetish just something can't be understand, it's just happening to each person.

 

[Volta]

I've been thinking about this for a while as someone who's considering building my own Daz/Ren'py short Incest related VN.

The second point about it facilitating a semi believable incest fetish setting is a major consideration, in these games the moms are rarely beyond 40. Looking at this with my cynical hat on I can point out that it’s unlikely for a mom who had kids that young, presumably between the ages of 18 and 22 are unlikely to be in the sort of economic situation that they are in in these games, especially if the PC is not the oldest sibling and that say there are an older and younger sister as well this pushes back the moms age at first birth even more. Basically the more kids she has when she’s younger the poorer she is likely to be, not necessarily because lower income backgrounds have a higher likelihood of teenage pregnancy but because having the children that young will limit the earning potential of the mother, especially if the father is absent as he almost invariably is in incest games.


With the practicality and believability aspects put to one side for a moment I’d like to talk about the psychology of this for a moment. Incest or more specifically lusting after a parent (Oedipus and Electra complexes) don’t tend to extend beyond the teen years, generally people have got over that by the time they’ve finished college ect. and have played the field a bit, the fixation or focus moves on, some people never get over this and you get the whole mommy incest thing, however for the person involved it was most likely strongest in their teens and so perhaps that person would have a main character who is also around that age. This also explains the lack of a father in these games, the father (or mother in the girls case) is treated as competition and is likely to be portrayed as either the antagonist or be absent outright.


As to why you’d need or want underage characters in a sister focussed game I don’t really know, in fact the use of obviously mid-twenties siblings is one of the upsides of dreaming of Dana for me. This is however also counter by the glory days argument, “hold on to 16 as long as you can” when you’re young the world is brighter, everything is more vibrant and sex is imperative.


Basically from what I know incest fetish stems from:

1- Oedipus/Electra complex, unresolved and lacking the father/mother figure to empathise with.

2- Cabin fever, or being crammed together long enough and hormones doing the rest.

3- Taboo and forbidden, we want what we can’t/don’t have, one of the governing principals of the human psyche, Gatsby, Adam and the billy goat that thought the grass was greener ect.

4- Social awkwardness, family are “safer” as are younger people in general so why not combine the two?


So in short points 1,2 and 4 are most likely and prevalent in younger men, particularly teens so either the devs of these games are catering to this crowd of people who went through these or they themselves did.

As to the "brain damage" and i'd say either plot device or bad writing, the oversized cock is just an over pornification or idealised version, it's not that different to the hypersized barrage balloon tits that are regularly in these games.

 

[Barioz]

I think the reason why this question came up is the inflationary amount of this sort of MCs. It started with guys you would consider maybe 16 (think of Max in BB) but then quickly escalated to race among devs who can create the youngest looking MC. So we ended up with 14 or even 12 y/o looking MCs.

Meanwhile I sit here and ask myself: why are there rarely any devs who make games with a MC who looks like a young, decent adult (20 y/o or something). Nothing extraordinary. Just a young grown up man who maybe makes a bit work out here and there and don't approach women like a primate. So basically just an average dude who ppl can identify with and believe he is around 20 y/o.

That doesn't exclude things like shyness, but just because someone is shy it doesn't mean he can't articulate himself properly. Also, even when the MC is around 20 y/o and the mother would be something like 45 y/o it wouldn't be bad. Heck, several famous porn stars out there are older than that and have a huge fan base. So the whole incest thing would still be just fine. I don't see a problem.

Where I see a problem is the neverending queue of incest games with underaged MCs and the lack of games with actually grown up young adults.

 

[Benn Swagger]

Basically from what I know incest fetish stems from:

1- Oedipus/Electra complex, unresolved and lacking the father/mother figure to empathise with.

2- Cabin fever, or being crammed together long enough and hormones doing the rest.

4- Social awkwardness, family are “safer” as are younger people in general so why not combine the two?

These sound like feminist define men. Also you try to correlate between fantasy and reality, which you can't. A fantasy is a fantasy. People can like any random things without having related issue to their real life.

Do you think people who love bestiality want to do that in real life ? Or the one who love Dick Girl want to have face & body like a women, pair of boob and a dick ? No, fantasy is a fantasy. Your define is what the developer usually used on their games, it's so silly. x'D

 

[spambot]

So it sounds like the underaged mc is an extension of incest fetish. But is it a necessary component of this fetish? Benn Swagger suggests it is, but in my mind, underaged males are a seperate taboo than incest.

 

[spambot]

You should ask even more questions:

Why are MCs often also brain damaged?
Why do the devs create so many embarassing situations resulting from this brain damage?
Why do the MCs have not just normal big cocks but gigantic waste pipes a horse or even an elephant would be proud of?
Why do nearly all women in those games enjoy such a maltreatment which would give far more pain than enjoyment?

I didn't ask those because their answers seem pretty intuitive to me. In order: 1+2 are simply because it's porn; 3+4 are probably a combination of male chauvinism/sexism and power fantasy. I'm genuinely puzzled about the underage mc thing since it's it's something I've encountered only in these games.

 

[Benn Swagger]

So it sounds like the underaged mc is an extension of incest fetish. But is it a necessary component of this fetish? Benn Swagger suggests it is, but in my mind, underaged males are a seperate taboo than incest.

Does the writing suggest that (point 2) ? Sorry for my English then. No it's not. It is as you said, separated.

 

[spambot]

I've been thinking about this for a while as someone who's considering building my own Daz/Ren'py short Incest related VN.

The second point about it facilitating a semi believable incest fetish setting is a major consideration, in these games the moms are rarely beyond 40. Looking at this with my cynical hat on I can point out that it’s unlikely for a mom who had kids that young, presumably between the ages of 18 and 22 are unlikely to be in the sort of economic situation that they are in in these games, especially if the PC is not the oldest sibling and that say there are an older and younger sister as well this pushes back the moms age at first birth even more. Basically the more kids she has when she’s younger the poorer she is likely to be, not necessarily because lower income backgrounds have a higher likelihood of teenage pregnancy but because having the children that young will limit the earning potential of the mother, especially if the father is absent as he almost invariably is in incest games.


With the practicality and believability aspects put to one side for a moment I’d like to talk about the psychology of this for a moment. Incest or more specifically lusting after a parent (Oedipus and Electra complexes) don’t tend to extend beyond the teen years, generally people have got over that by the time they’ve finished college ect. and have played the field a bit, the fixation or focus moves on, some people never get over this and you get the whole mommy incest thing, however for the person involved it was most likely strongest in their teens and so perhaps that person would have a main character who is also around that age. This also explains the lack of a father in these games, the father (or mother in the girls case) is treated as competition and is likely to be portrayed as either the antagonist or be absent outright.


As to why you’d need or want underage characters in a sister focussed game I don’t really know, in fact the use of obviously mid-twenties siblings is one of the upsides of dreaming of Dana for me. This is however also counter by the glory days argument, “hold on to 16 as long as you can” when you’re young the world is brighter, everything is more vibrant and sex is imperative.


Basically from what I know incest fetish stems from:

1- Oedipus/Electra complex, unresolved and lacking the father/mother figure to empathise with.

2- Cabin fever, or being crammed together long enough and hormones doing the rest.

3- Taboo and forbidden, we want what we can’t/don’t have, one of the governing principals of the human psyche, Gatsby, Adam and the billy goat that thought the grass was greener ect.

4- Social awkwardness, family are “safer” as are younger people in general so why not combine the two?


So in short points 1,2 and 4 are most likely and prevalent in younger men, particularly teens so either the devs of these games are catering to this crowd of people who went through these or they themselves did.

As to the "brain damage" and i'd say either plot device or bad writing, the oversized cock is just an over pornification or idealised version, it's not that different to the hypersized barrage balloon tits that are regularly in these games.

Your answer seem to be that the underage mc is the result of developers catering to younger players likely in their teens. But this still leaves the question of why cater to them if they can't pay (I assume). Since you're planning to develop games yourself, are familar with the paying demographics of these games? Do young players in their teens constitute a large portion?

I'm beginning to think maybe I'm wrong to analyse this as a purely profit-driven choice. Perhaps the developers of these games themselves are younger, and therefore more familiar with a young man's mindset as well as being more in tune with the incest fetish as you suggest teens are? This way, the develpors are making the games partly to fulfill their own fetish while older players with the means to pay simply support them because they're the only ones making these games?

 

[spambot]

Does the writing suggest that (point 2) ? Sorry for my English then. No it's not. It is as you said, separated.

But if they're seperate, wouldn't the developers want older main characters even in incest games? I assume fans of underage male fetish would be even rarer than fans of incest fetish.

 

[Barioz]

Your answer seem to be that the underage mc is the result of developers catering to younger players likely in their teens. But this still leaves the question of why cater to them if they can't pay (I assume). Since you're planning to develop games yourself, are familar with the paying demographics of these games? Do young players in their teens constitute a large portion?

I'm beginning to think maybe I'm wrong to analyse this as a purely profit-driven choice. Perhaps the developers of these games themselves are younger, and therefore more familiar with a young man's mindset as well as being more in tune with the incest fetish as you suggest teens are? This way, the develpors are making the games partly to fulfill their own fetish while older players with the means to pay simply support them because they're the only ones making these games?

An even more interesting question would be why don't we see more games which try to do the opposite? You know, instead of hopping on the already fast pacing hype train creating/building an one one? That's what I would do.

A good example coming to my mind is 'My sweet neighbours'. The mother there is in her mid 40's and hot as hell. Also the writing is very good and it feels much, much, muuuuuuuuuuch more natural how everything progresses.

 

[Ignazzio]

In my opinion that's just a common stuff that's not restricted to adult games. Like 90% anime even tho they might aim for adult audience has school setting and young protag. For me that's the case for a few reasons:
- Young schoolboys seem to have freedom of choice what to do with their living
- Easily the most attractive group for men are teenage girls (underage to some degree) and young protagonist can interact with them in more natural way on equal terms.
- Adult themes like jobs, wifes etc. are much less enticing. To put it simple adulthood sucks.
- It's much harder to immerse into fully developed MC as it resticts our decisions to some extent

 

[Barioz]

- Easily the most attractive group for men are teenage girls (underage to some degree) and young protagonist can interact with them in more natural way on equal terms.

I would kindly disagree with that. Young women in their early 20's are probably more interesting for a lot of men. I can remember myself some female school mates who weren't that popular during their late teenage years but became incredibly beautiful as young adults.

(btw those women are the hidden gems so to say 'cause they usually didn't develop a bitchy character due to less attention in earlier years or in other words: beauty from the inside and outside )

 

[Ignazzio]

I would kindly disagree with that. Young women in their early 20's are probably more interesting for a lot of men. I can remember myself some female school mates who weren't that popular during their late teenage years but became incredibly beautiful as young adults.

(btw those women are the hidden gems so to say 'cause they usually didn't develop a bitchy character due to less attention in earlier years or in other words: beauty from the inside and outside )

They're attractive that's for sure. And different man has different taste. But overall I'm strongly convinced that teens are simply dominating when it comes to different tastes. And it's not only biology but also psychology that makes men lust after schoolgirls. According to common trends in Japan it's pretty safe to say that most dominating age group in adult games would be 14-17 y.o. if not for the laws. I'm indifferent on that matter as it doesn't necessarily fit my taste but it makes young protags desirable. That's not the only reason ofc but it's something worth considering in my opinion.
Overall, it seems that typical blandness of adult life is just not attractive for most people. Teenagers and their school life or fantasy settings are dominant. But even in fantasy setting it's usually late teens at best.

 

[Barioz]

They're attractive that's for sure. And different man has different taste. But overall I'm strongly convinced that teens are simply dominating when it comes to different tastes. And it's not only biology but also psychology that makes men lust after schoolgirls. According to common trends in Japan it's pretty safe to say that most dominating age group in adult games would be 14-17 y.o. if not for the laws. I'm indifferent on that matter as it doesn't necessarily fit my taste but it makes young protags desirable. That's not the only reason ofc but it's something worth considering in my opinion.
Overall, it seems that typical blandness of adult life is just not attractive for most people. Teenagers and their school life or fantasy settings are dominant. But even in fantasy setting it's usually late teens at best.

IMO it's just that most games revolve around this teenage topic. A lot of ppl may not even know different games because you barely recognize them among this flood of low age MC incest games.

Thinking of '

You must be registered to see the links

'. It's a shame this game and @Philly_Games didn't got more attention yet. In terms of quality this game is at least in the top 5 if not top 3 of all games around here. And it proves how exciting adult life can be. In fact adult life gives you far more room for interesting scenarios and stuff, but ppl need to get slapped with such scenarios over and over again till they finally will understand this.

 

[Ignazzio]

IMO it's just that most games revolve around this teenage topic. A lot of ppl may not even know different games because you barely recognize them among this flood of low age MC incest games.

Thinking of '

You must be registered to see the links

'. It's a shame this game and @Philly_Games didn't got more attention yet. In terms of quality this game is at least in the top 5 if not top 3 of all games around here. And it proves how exciting adult life can be. In fact adult life gives you far more room for interesting scenarios and stuff, but ppl need to get slapped with such scenarios over and over again till they finally will understand this.

I doubt it has anything with incest or any other fetish. Our market is really small and underdeveloped so I look at Japanese one as teen/school themes are even more dominant there. Incest isn't really as strong as here on eastern market and teens are still common. Moreover even in mainstream VN-games it's common as well as in manga and anime. I agree that adult MC can be great as well as more adult themes but to shine they have to have much higher quality and unique features than games with younger MCs. Incest might affect our games ofc, but I think it affects settings of our games more than our MCs (you can be a father but family harem - mother, younger innocent sister and older slutty one - has to exist).

 

[baneini]

Power dynamics
The game starts with Mom being the strongest, older sister being 2nd, mc 3rd and younger sister 4th
You then have a goal to become the strongest most dominant person in the house trough many patreon fueled steps where you slowly corrupt the 2 stronger females to become more submissive.

If the mc was an adult, an equal to the mother it would require the progression system to be completely different. You would have to change the family members personalities, you would lose out on many interesting character interactions and it just becomes a mess.