Why your favorite devs/content creators quit and take 'breaks'

[Meaning Less]

The other options, motivation and money, you are ignorning and have sought to align me with social stigma for my own reasons of quitting. Motivation and money are very easy to explain.

Because the other things you mentioned are even less relevant (motivation,money).

If you need monetary incentive to keep working on a hobby then you will never be able to compete with all the others that have enough passion to work even for free and will be building thousands of hours of experience trying to get good at it regardless of how much they are being paid.

Needing support is very different from deserving it.

Truth is, if you don't have enough passion for what you are doing then very little will keep you from quitting, and honestly it is probably for the best that they quit, maybe then they can find something else they are actually passionate about.

 

[moskyx]

Just to prove this point 100%:
Why are there discord groups of porn or forums here of people talking about their favorite game with each other, their favorite scenes, etc. They will talk to their ONLINE friends while being ANONYMOUS about porn, but not in REAL LIFE. Because there is a consequence of societal values in real life, where there is not while being anonymous online.

So when you say people don't have interest in talking about porn. This is not true, clearly their is interest, but in real life society does not usually allow people to talk about it. But online, you can see just how interested people are. I mean, take porn out of all the discord channels and the forums, and the conversations are exactly like people who have conversations about their favorite movies, games. There is no difference except one can be talked about publicly, and the other cannot.

No, look, that proves absolutely nothing. Firstly, as a rule of thumb, stating that something proves 100% a point is not very wise unless you're talking about science facts. And that's especially true when talking about people's behavior.

You are, again, projecting your own experience and values. People talk about their affinities and gather around them, no matter if it's online or in 'real life'. If I'm interested in porn, and I look for an online porn forum or discord channel or whatever, of course I'm going to discuss porn in more depth in there because all of us are there exactly for that. But it doesn't 100% prove I wouldn't be doing the same with my 'real life' friends. Actually, it's the opposite, I find it pretty normal in this day and age to talk about our tastes in porn. Every friend of mine around my age and younger, they are regular consumer or has at least some limited knowledge about it (many of the not much older ones too), so making random comments or even having a totally serious convo about porn is not that uncommon while having a beer. Many whatsapp groups of real life friends are used as another source of fapping material as people share there what they like, while also talking about other daily topics. Of course, this needs you to actually know your friends. I wouldn't talk about soccer with my friend who is not interested in sports, and I won't talk about porn with the one who was clearly uncomfortable that time the topic was first brought up.

Sure, sex (and porn) is indeed a private issue and that's why you wouldn't use it as a safe topic to break the ice with someone you don't know, but there's a point in every meaningful relationship where those topics are going to arise because it's just natural. Then it's all about reading the room and, as MeaningLess pointed out, being willing to share some private info about yourself. There's nothing wrong or socially induced in being secretive about your more private bits, but of course some (many?) people are going to treat it like just any other non-controversial topic.

That said, I don't think you need to keep justifying yourself. Social acceptance is a valid reason to quit, and I'm sure this was the case for some devs. It's probably not one of the most common reasons but it can for sure be a factor. When you engage in this back and forth about it, though, it seems you are indeed giving it too much importance, and I don't think that's the norm.

 

[moskyx]

I'm learning quite a lot seeing everyones perspective. This was just a theory of mine.
Like you say social acceptance is a valid reason, but you don't think that's the norm.

Yeah, it's my view on it, but I'm not the one who said 'people don't talk about porn in real life as they do online and that proves 100% my point'

 

[Meaning Less]

Ah, for me motivation = passion is interchangeable.

There is a big difference though, motivation is easily influenced by greed, pride, lust and other external variables that you have no control over.

Passion is immutable and uncontrollable, even if you lose everything else passion alone can keep you going.

In short, the issue is that many people start working towards something for the wrong reasons.

 

[Deleted member 1666680]

Very long ass excuse why devs don't finish a game and start another one, before they also leave that unfinished and start their third one

I am just saying I believe social stigma is one of the main reasons. You may disagree and offer your opinion, which you did by saying it's normal in this day and age to talk about porn

If you got 100.000 € out of your game and are famous on Patreon I'm pretty sure your "social appreciation" won't increase just because you abandon your game and disappoint the people who financed you. You're still the guy who made a tenth of a million with a porn game.

The truth is just that most people aren't made to survive in a creative industry. Doing a project up to 50% is easy, even 70% is easy if you're good at what you're doing. Finishing it is hard, and most people simply don't have the discipline to do it - that's all. It's easier to give in if you're lacking motivation and do something else.

That's why the normal game industry is mainly being dominated by professional companies and indie individuals who actually have the discipline. Porngames however are easy to fund since they leech money from people who are driven by their sex lust, and if you're just some pretty anonymous patreon guy it's easy to just leave.

 

[moskyx]

Sorry, I accidently submitted. This is what I meant to say:

You are right. I should not say 100%, that is much to confident, and is not allowed without any references to sources of proof. Thanks for correcting me.



I am just saying I believe social stigma is one of the main reasons. You may disagree and offer your opinion, which you did by saying it's normal in this day and age to talk about porn. Which, is just a difference in perspective. I believe globally, on average, it is not socially acceptable. Verse you believing that it is(if you meant this on a global case as well). There is no right or wrong, just subjective views.

Also for your point that my engagement seems like I place heavy importance, rather it can be seen the other way around. Most of the other points aren't being argued against, therefore I have less to engage in, in those categories. But for social stigma, there has been more controversy, which is why I have been more engaged. Hopefully this is fair to say.

OK, fair enough. I wasn't implying that what I consider normal is, indeed, globally normal. Of course it's not. I was just using my own personal experience to dismantle your taxative statement. I do firmly believe, though, that in this day and age and at least in most western European countries, the social acceptance of sex-related work in your inner circles shouldn't be a real worry for most devs. People will be either indifferent, curious or even supportive, but mostly respectful. Now, if you're not getting any real benefit from it, then of course some questions will be raised because people will think you were just wasting your time on something unproductive, but not so much different to what they'd say if you were too much focused on creating content for twitch or tiktok that no one will ever watch. Like, get a real job or something. But not because it's dirty or shameful

 

[Deleted member 5732714]

I don't know why you are writing longass paragraphs for absolutely nothing. It is quite apparent that the general reasons for developers abandoning their games are due to a lack of financial resources and/or a diminishing motivation.

However, if you wish to determine the specific circumstances behind a particular instance of abandonment, it would be necessary to conduct further research and investigation into the individual developer in question.

 

[anne O'nymous]

The rest of my family, co-workers in my last job years ago or even the buddies I hanged out in university? I never told them about my sex life, or even if I'm gay.

Why should you ?
While it's relatively natural to talk about sexuality, it's also totally natural to not talk about it. It's something personal, and like everything personal, it's you who decide if you want to talk about it or not, and with who.

We all have our secret garden.
When I was younger, I knew a guy who liked to paint. I learned it by chance because, while it's something totally innocent, he considered it as something really personal. Like most twentish guys, he was talking about sex without much problem. But painting was his thing, the one he wanted to keep for himself, and probably his really close circle.
Well, you it's your sexuality that is part of this secret garden, and as long as it's not by shame (because it would be sad) it's as fine and natural to not talk about it, that it is to talk about it.

And continue to answer angrily to those who ask why you don't have a girlfriend. What the fuck, it's your life, the way you live it is not their concern.

 

[moskyx]

I'm curious to get your opinion on this.

I agree that people aren't going to be a real worry for devs/creator. I don't think that in western society, if you go out and say I do x y z porn/masturbation whatever, that anything negative will happen to you. But I believe it's because of this:

People in general are going to try to maintain relationships with others. So for example, let's say I tell my friend I create porn games/art for a living.

Here are the influencing factors(at least the ones I can think of at the moment):
- How close of a friend/family are they to you
- How much do they disagree on the topic at hand

Let's use a scale of 1 to 10.
1 being someone who dislikes you, 5 stranger/neutral, 10 best friend
1 being someone who heavily disagrees on the topic, 5 neutral, 10 they fully support the opinion.

Examples:
Your friend is 8/10 close to you. They are a 4/10 on agreeing about your pornography career. They will either like you a bit less, or no change at all.

Your friend is a 8/10 close to you. They are a 1/10 on agreeing about your pornography career. It might be possible to imagine the relationship may cease to exist (Think of a person who is heavily against abortion. This person finds out their best friend heavily supports abortion. There are always to possible things that can happen, the person will give up their beliefs to stay friends, or give up their friend to support their belief. This is exaggerated but hopefully the point stands.)

A stranger 5/10, who is 1/10 on agreeing, will dislike you.
A stranger 5/10, who is 10/10, will like you.

Now I think, what happens is most people may say they support or don't care about what you do in porn/masturbation. But actually they may lower their opinion of you(the intensity varies based on relationship/belief) and keep their thoughts to themselves. My belief is that it's very possible people are just being nice, but their opinion of you in is lowered.

I don't say this is for all situations. Their are obviously great friends and great people who are open-minded and share no judgement. In fact, I guess I would call those people kind. I think kind people are a minority. Not to say that most people can't be kind, just that most people are not overall kind persons which would be open-minded and accepting.

Thought, maybe I'm wrong. Based on my perspective, I think most people are not that nice.

Sorry, I don't think I get you. But if someone is going to think worse of me, it's their problem, not mine. Why should I be concerned for someone not liking me as before just because I told them something personal about me? I don't need validation for my tastes and personal choices, that's just who I am. I'm starting to feel very sorry about your personal environment, it feels either it's too conservative and focused on virtue signalling, or you are just too afraid about others' opinion (or too dependant of it). We are not criminals for liking sex and porn.

I agree I'll probably avoid certain topics with people I know and love if I think those topics would lead to arguments or uncomfortable situations. But this won't neccesarily translate into a colder relationship with them: as you said, people tend to be polite and this includes finding common grounds and avoiding stupid confrontations. But if it does, then there are two options: either their position is really intransigent (they are total biggots) or maybe our relationship was not really strong and we didn't have that many common interests. In both cases, it just means that this relationship wasn't worth it and we all are better off keeping it at an acquaintance level. But there's nothing wrong with that. Knowing other people don't accept you may feel like a disappointment but in the end there's not really a big deal, there are enough nice people out there to worry about those who won't like you.

As I said, I still realize this could be a valid reason for some people to quit their hobby. A sad one, indeed. But in more than 8 years I've been around this scene of adult gaming, I only know about 2 cases where this was a decisive reason for quitting- and one of them ended up coming back from retirement. Even if there are more I never heard about, those cases are still overwhelmingly outnumbered by people who just found another hobby, created a family (meaning they were not able to keep investing the time the game needed anymore), realized this is not as a profitable venture as they thought or simply felt unable to carry on a project like these due to their lack of skills. Heck, I've even known more devs dying than quitting due to lack of social acceptance. It's Ok if you want to keep the sociological discussion rolling but I find it's a too unimportant reason to justify all this fuss.

 

[Sharzii シャルジイ]

I remember there was this guy in Chatterbox's team (late dev of 'Lexi'), i don't remember his username. Chatterbox had given all his game files and stuff to this guy to continue the development of Lexi further, since his health had started to deteriorate and he was under a lot of pain. This guy went ahead with the development of Lexi and then all of a sudden after a few months deleted all the files related to Lexi, and gave the reason that he had found Jesus and just ghosted. That was the most absurd reason i'd seen on this site. Poor Chatty had to do game development of Lexi all over again.