QUESTION: What issues do most adult games have that frustrate you?

[Merilirem]

Out of context lifeless art is my biggest pet peeve. I can handle lack of choices and limited structure to a certain degree if the games otherwise good. I cannot however handle a still soundless image being thrown at me while im playing an rpgmaker or otherwise different game in terms of art style. It takes me out of the moment and now im looking at porn i could see with a simple google search. That is not why i play these games.

What i love the most is when games have the acts depicted in line with whats going on. One of my favourite and eye opening examples was NTRPG - Netorareta Tiris, the Sex Objectified Childhood Friend an rpgmaker games with all the sex depicted as text and little sprites with sound you can see by just walking around the world. It just feels a lot better to stay within the context of the game whatever that is than to be taken out of it and shown images which have nothing to do with any style you understand.

Lack of sound is also sad since its not hard to make sound happen. Lack of animation is fine as long as you have the right imagery and sound though all 3 make a game a keeper and i follow the ones who made it. examples of games with enough context, sound, and animation include Treasure Hunter Mai, Violated Heroine and even games like the strip fighter/Final Fuck series. They may have their own issues but as long as you have the things ive said than your good. It truly does not matter which style you choose as long as you keep with that style or do other things as appropriate. Imagine playing a VN and every time sex happens it brings up an rpgmaker pixel art depiction instead of a picture of the characters like is used in every other context such as the standing picture. Games like Treasure Hunter Mai keep the standing picture look in everything you do so when picture sex happens you KNOW what to expect because your constantly playing with that in mind.

I remembered a second pet peeve as i wrote this. Kink shaming. I find this a lot when i see RAPE or something on the "darker" side. They give you the option to do it and then punish you, often before the act, for being a terrible person and following an option THE game gave you. I have almost all the fetishes. I like to enjoy things in fiction that would get someone killed in real life and are almost always considered wrong. LOLI's are just images, they are fictional but somehow im the bad guy if i click the sexy time button and now the game has to punish me for choosing it.

Punishing players for morality choices is a thing i see in games a lot but porn is the most blatant at it. I've literally had an entire 5 minute text wall to deal with because i dared to follow the wrong characters dialogue options. If you give me an option im probably going to follow it even if i don't like the fetish. I don't want my curiosity or desires judged in a game which gave the the choice in the first place. Just don't give the option and say it up front for anyone interested. These forums are pretty specific about such content and thats understandable and reasonable of them. Hopefully i haven't accidentally broken that rule by using the word Loli or something but i don't think that was the case.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

I agree with the second half of your post.

 

[Stemwinder]

To be fair... I think it happens because most players of adult games don't truly want something more.

I mean... the basic rules that most developers have to work with are:

-Don't use male characters or if you use them do it so that the player feels like the "alpha"

-Make all scenes optional, people would feel bad if they found a scene that isn't according to their fetishes

-Don't bother about making a game, people play it to fap, not to enjoy an adult game.

-Do what people expect you to do, nothing more, nothing less

These would be the rules that most developers follow, it makes it very hard to create complex characters and good storylines, because people want to be fully in control of the situation and always add to their ego, I would like to be able to feel failure or difficulties on games, the genre that I love the most are strategy games and I just love that feeling when I'm being attacked by an enemy many times stronger and being able to defeat it.

There are a lot of interesting situations that I would like to see in adult games but... it won't happen because what I want is exactly the opposite of what we are having, I want to feel part of the world of the adult game, not in control of it, what I value the most is that the world doesn't wait for me but it continues to advance.

Oh for sure, if you read topics in bottom of the barrel places like the various chans they'll be filled with griping if a game does an update that has anything other than more porn since those types don't actually want a game. And of course insecurity is on full display for sure. It's why that adult game that 4chan is making (though I should really put that in quotes, I think they've been at it for years and it's still in the same place) is so godawful bad.

I imagine most of those bad samey games are trying to scoop that audience up off the floor but a developer has to make a choice when it comes to who they're choosing to aim at, especially when money's involved. Those that get the most attention and money -are- the ones that go the extra mile to have a nice story, UI, some semblance of nice gameplay and so on.

 

[Stemwinder]

A prime example of this is Fractured Skies. All the content is optional, but M/M and futa are part of the main story for the PC and main chars. You can skip the actual scenes, but that doesn't change the fact that a bunch of dialogue still occurs before and after about it along with general pillow talk throughout the game, and that can't be hidden or removed. It's actually a really fun game with an interesting plot that doesn't fall into many tropes or stereotypes, but I really, really did not want to have to see some of it.

That really depends on the game. If they're story-driven and those are part of it then it's not trying to be a big sticky sandbox; it's a narrative and it takes you through those. With that kind of thing it probably should have a warning at the beginning that certain types of content are there and not avoidable but in general I don't think it's absolutely necessary for every game to make all of its content optional.

That kind of thing can even help broaden people's horizons.

 

[Leon_DK]

A lack of tags that reflect whether the story is first or third person. I personally prefer playing as male characters if it's in first person, and it's hard to tell when the character is female which it will be without downloading and opening it up.

 

[Linarahn]

I think a big issue is a game's setting. I haven't had a chance to play it yet but I've heard a lot of good things about Monster Girl Quest. While I'd prefer to choose my protagonist, apparently it's got a dedicated story and most people started for the smut and stayed for the plot, so that's an accomplishment. If done like that, just booting it to lose to your favorite monster on purpose, then just don't save to proceed with the story as you wanted seems like a very good compromise to satisfy either demographic.

And to be honest, more smut games that take their story and setting seriously (while either creating actual choice or cleverly crafted illusion of choice) on top of dealing appropriately with sex scenes and fetishes (and other people in this thread have detailed good points about that already) would also help greatly with making adult entertainment more readily available and commonplace. So what if I just picked up my smutty JRPG at a regular retailer? It's gonna be epic (and sticky) and you know it!

 

[thedoubleyew]

That really depends on the game. If they're story-driven and those are part of it then it's not trying to be a big sticky sandbox; it's a narrative and it takes you through those. With that kind of thing it probably should have a warning at the beginning that certain types of content are there and not avoidable but in general I don't think it's absolutely necessary for every game to make all of its content optional.

That kind of thing can even help broaden people's horizons.

Part of it is just not liking anything about certain kinks, and part of it is not being aware ahead of time it was unavoidable. I fully support making the main kinks in a story-based game unavoidable, but authors should be up front about it. There is a difference between turning off certain content opposed to only turning off that content's CGs and having it still be there.

 

[pepe]

1. Too little Femdom games, or male (Player) vs female (enemies)
2. Many games are good games, like zouri (KARIYUME) ([excessm] One x Shota ACT SMASH BOY) Both are awesome but THEY ARE TOO EASY! You cant lose if you dont want to..
3. Transform games, i love games when you start male, and little by little change to girl, Best one is game name company. But there is so many games where you change female right away when you start a game, or you stay male, but there is Sissy (GAY sex).. NO THANKS!

And of course japanese language is little bit problem most of games,, seems nice game but you cant understand anyhing ..

 

[savagesix]

Any porn game where the difficulty makes actual challenging games look easy by comparison. Especially jrpg style games. Listen dood, I didn't come here to play SMT, I didn't come here to play Etrian Odyssey, i came here to fap and you fucking know it.

I'm not asking for every porn game to be brainlessly easy, I just don't want getting a fucking 3 paragraph blowjob scene to require an hour's grinding and 4 fiendishly hard boss fights with a hundred party wipes to get to.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

Any porn game where the difficulty makes actual challenging games look easy by comparison. Especially jrpg style games. Listen dood, I didn't come here to play SMT, I didn't come here to play Etrian Odyssey, i came here to fap and you fucking know it.

I'm not asking for every porn game to be brainlessly easy, I just don't want getting a fucking 3 paragraph blowjob scene to require an hour's grinding and 4 fiendishly hard boss fights with a hundred party wipes to get to.

Now you mention it, yes, add that to my list, I don't understand why some games are so absurdly hard, kills my mood.

 

[karunama]

Now you mention it, yes, add that to my list, I don't understand why some games are so absurdly hard, kills my mood.

I'm going to second this. Most of the RPGmaker games I've tried are super grindy and stretch themselves out for 30 hours despite having (at best) 30 min worth of sexual content. The sad thing is that their gameplay is generally just mindless grinding of super repetitive combat, so it's not even like they were going for a good game that just happens to have some porn in it.

 

[DawnCry]

I'm going to second this. Most of the RPGmaker games I've tried are super grindy and stretch themselves out for 30 hours despite having (at best) 30 min worth of sexual content. The sad thing is that their gameplay is generally just mindless grinding of super repetitive combat, so it's not even like they were going for a good game that just happens to have some porn in it.

why is it that the first game that comes into my head by reading this is legend of queen opala?

 

[Leon_DK]

Now you mention it, yes, add that to my list, I don't understand why some games are so absurdly hard, kills my mood.

That's an issue that exists in game development in general, knowing how things are set up you usually get so good at your own game, that you simply can't see how difficult it really is. Possibly with optimized play, you'll do it easily.
Or they tested all the combat with dev. cheats, meaning they haven't given any thought to it.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

why is it that the first game that comes into my head by reading this is legend of queen opala?

Funny, because The Legend of Queen Opala was one of my first erotic games I played, and mostly I enjoyed it, but nowadays would not have the patience to play that kind of games anymore.

That's an issue that exists in game development in general, knowing how things are set up you usually get so good at your own game, that you simply can't see how difficult it really is. Possibly with optimized play, you'll do it easily.
Or they tested all the combat with dev. cheats, meaning they haven't given any thought to it.

I assume devs plays with god mode on...
I imagine to create a patreon tier to offer god mode on my game to extort people's money...

 

[Dragonice]

Lazy. I make porn game you give me money.

I hate it when sex games are made because people know sex sells, so they slap some content together and over hype their content. When you think oh hey this looks interesting you come to find out it was lazily made just to get your money.

Like come on. I played games like harem hero's and stop quickly after realizing there's no actual game play and all plot is pay gold to progress story and pay real money to get gold.

 

[Jash]

I could write essays, but then I'd never get it done, so in short and without elaboration:

1) "Choices" that lead to instant game overs.
2) "Choices" with only one choice, disrupting the flow of the story to force you to move the mouse to press a button instead of just clicking anywhere to proceed anyway.
3) Grind for the sake of grind masquerading as "gameplay". Particularly repeating a scene over and over to grind up relationship values.
4) Douchebag protagonists who feel they "own" any woman they set their sights on, justifying anything they do to drive away any other man who the woman might want to have a perfectly consensual relationship with.
5) The cliche of a woman being raped and her rape being used by her rapist to blackmail her into sexually submitting further.
6) "Rape on loss" games where you can't continue after losing, forcing you to deliberately lose and start over from the last checkpoint if you want to see the porn.

 

[Kesil]

5) The cliche of a woman being raped and her rape being used by her rapist to blackmail her into sexually

It seems that calling the police, just walking away, telling other people who are sound of mind for help or going into court will never be a thing in Pornland.

 

[DawnCry]

It seems that calling the police, just walking away, telling other people who are sound of mind for help or going into court will never be a thing in Pornland.

I suppose all the females that they use fear more having the images posted online rather than being raped forever. But well this is a thing that at the very least I can understand as "necessary" for that type of development.

 

[Kesil]

Well, there are games in which the Internet doesn't seem to exist either. But yeah, I get your point about pushing contrived situations to force development.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

Lazy. I make porn game you give me money.

I hate it when sex games are made because people know sex sells, so they slap some content together and over hype their content. When you think oh hey this looks interesting you come to find out it was lazily made just to get your money.

Like come on. I played games like harem hero's and stop quickly after realizing there's no actual game play and all plot is pay gold to progress story and pay real money to get gold.

That's why I quit playing rpgmaker games altogether, and if this continues even ren'py visual novels.

I could write essays, but then I'd never get it done, so in short and without elaboration:

1) "Choices" that lead to instant game overs.
2) "Choices" with only one choice, disrupting the flow of the story to force you to move the mouse to press a button instead of just clicking anywhere to proceed anyway.
3) Grind for the sake of grind masquerading as "gameplay". Particularly repeating a scene over and over to grind up relationship values.
4) Douchebag protagonists who feel they "own" any woman they set their sights on, justifying anything they do to drive away any other man who the woman might want to have a perfectly consensual relationship with.
5) The cliche of a woman being raped and her rape being used by her rapist to blackmail her into sexually submitting further.
6) "Rape on loss" games where you can't continue after losing, forcing you to deliberately lose and start over from the last checkpoint if you want to see the porn.

+1
P.D.: 4 and 5 is what annoys me the most.

 

[YSlayer]

I feel broadly there are 2 main categories for these games split my MC gender so I'll split my complaints as well.

Male MC/Harem Collector games
-------------------------------------------------
I don't play these much for one reason. The girls suck. A harem game hinges entirely on having interesting and good female characters that I would want to romance. I need to think "man, I wish I could meet her in real life". If I don't think that about any of your characters, why would I bother chasing after any of them in game? So many seem to be so flat and dull. This is the porn industry, your character being sexual is not special, they need something more. If I just want hot girls fucking a guy what does your game offer thats better than a high quality video? It's context and involvement. Give me those things or I'll fuck off to greener pastures.

Female MC/Try not to get fucked games
-----------------------------------------------------------
In these games sex is ostensibly bad for your main character. Either they don't like it, they don't know what it is, or its with people that gross them out. Agency is the most important aspect here. Give the player interesting choices. Again, I can see a girl get fucked in a video, I want something from games I won't get there. Some of the best choices get me hot all by themselves without describing any sex at all, just a situation that will possibly lead me into sex.

Overall
---------------
That leads me into I think the main problem. As a developer, aim for sexual tension, not sexual release. The main advantage a game has is the ability to build up more sexual tension than a video could. Use that. Tension builds up as the likelihood of an event increases but it can only increase so fast. Create situations where sex starts out unlikely but becomes more and more likely. Thats the trick. It's just like suspense. Draw it out. You aren't going to describe sex with such prose that it's going to make any difference no matter how hard you try, and your art is unlikely to ever be more visually stimulating than just going to porn hub. Fight with the weapons you have.

Choices help immerse the player in the character. If theres no choices, its someone elses story you are just watching. Thats fine and all, but then why make a game? Choice doesn't have to be tied to an actual dialogue choice. It can easily be the order you tackle events or whether or not you win a fight. Just make it feel like the game is reacting to what the player is doing so that the player feels like they are the character and not a guy or girl sitting in front of a computer pressing buttons/clicking the mouse.

I guess I'll also mention some out of game stuff like that its like super incredibly important to tell me who the hell I'm going to play as immediately when describing your game. Tell me about why and your plans for the future and your touching backstory or whatever after I know if the game is of any interest to me or not. Also put the download link somewhere highly visible and preferably near the top and keep a running changelog in case I haven't played in like 10 patches so I know what to look for.

A few more quick things. Sexual progression should be a thing. Don't start off with hardcore gangbang and then try to get me excited about a kiss. Go from least to most sexual throughout the course of the game as best you can. Obviously impossible with multiple character storylines but in that case make it progress within their storyline.

MORE DIALOGUE. I can't be the only one that just skims everything in TiTs sex scenes that isn't enclosed in quotes at this point. The sexual mechanics will get stale no matter what. Assuming we are dealing with humanoids theres really only a few ways to fuck and even those are just dressing up either thing goes in thing or thing rubs on thing. On the other hand theres a whole lot of things to say so that remains interesting even after the 50th time my character is getting drilled doggystyle.

Pregnancy optional. This one is more personal but theres quite a few games that I like minus the pregnancy parts and theres really no reason for me to need to engage with those systems. Sometimes its really crucial to game progress (i can think of fairy succubus abyss where its how you get more party members) but usually the game would be fully function even if its removed. All you gotta do is go into your pregnancy chance formula and add a multiplier that is either zero or one and let me set it to zero through either in game means (pills, magic, concentrating really hard, etc) or just let me switch a toggle in a menu.

More yuri. That ones just for me.

TL: DR: Characters are too boring and choices aren't interesting enough.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

I feel broadly there are 2 main categories for these games split my MC gender so I'll split my complaints as well.

Male MC/Harem Collector games
-------------------------------------------------
I don't play these much for one reason. The girls suck. A harem game hinges entirely on having interesting and good female characters that I would want to romance. I need to think "man, I wish I could meet her in real life". If I don't think that about any of your characters, why would I bother chasing after any of them in game? So many seem to be so flat and dull. This is the porn industry, your character being sexual is not special, they need something more. If I just want hot girls fucking a guy what does your game offer thats better than a high quality video? It's context and involvement. Give me those things or I'll fuck off to greener pastures.

Female MC/Try not to get fucked games
-----------------------------------------------------------
In these games sex is ostensibly bad for your main character. Either they don't like it, they don't know what it is, or its with people that gross them out. Agency is the most important aspect here. Give the player interesting choices. Again, I can see a girl get fucked in a video, I want something from games I won't get there. Some of the best choices get me hot all by themselves without describing any sex at all, just a situation that will possibly lead me into sex.

Overall
---------------
That leads me into I think the main problem. As a developer, aim for sexual tension, not sexual release. The main advantage a game has is the ability to build up more sexual tension than a video could. Use that. Tension builds up as the likelihood of an event increases but it can only increase so fast. Create situations where sex starts out unlikely but becomes more and more likely. Thats the trick. It's just like suspense. Draw it out. You aren't going to describe sex with such prose that it's going to make any difference no matter how hard you try, and your art is unlikely to ever be more visually stimulating than just going to porn hub. Fight with the weapons you have.

Choices help immerse the player in the character. If theres no choices, its someone elses story you are just watching. Thats fine and all, but then why make a game? Choice doesn't have to be tied to an actual dialogue choice. It can easily be the order you tackle events or whether or not you win a fight. Just make it feel like the game is reacting to what the player is doing so that the player feels like they are the character and not a guy or girl sitting in front of a computer pressing buttons/clicking the mouse.

I guess I'll also mention some out of game stuff like that its like super incredibly important to tell me who the hell I'm going to play as immediately when describing your game. Tell me about why and your plans for the future and your touching backstory or whatever after I know if the game is of any interest to me or not. Also put the download link somewhere highly visible and preferably near the top and keep a running changelog in case I haven't played in like 10 patches so I know what to look for.

A few more quick things. Sexual progression should be a thing. Don't start off with hardcore gangbang and then try to get me excited about a kiss. Go from least to most sexual throughout the course of the game as best you can. Obviously impossible with multiple character storylines but in that case make it progress within their storyline.

MORE DIALOGUE. I can't be the only one that just skims everything in TiTs sex scenes that isn't enclosed in quotes at this point. The sexual mechanics will get stale no matter what. Assuming we are dealing with humanoids theres really only a few ways to fuck and even those are just dressing up either thing goes in thing or thing rubs on thing. On the other hand theres a whole lot of things to say so that remains interesting even after the 50th time my character is getting drilled doggystyle.

Pregnancy optional. This one is more personal but theres quite a few games that I like minus the pregnancy parts and theres really no reason for me to need to engage with those systems. Sometimes its really crucial to game progress (i can think of fairy succubus abyss where its how you get more party members) but usually the game would be fully function even if its removed. All you gotta do is go into your pregnancy chance formula and add a multiplier that is either zero or one and let me set it to zero through either in game means (pills, magic, concentrating really hard, etc) or just let me switch a toggle in a menu.

More yuri. That ones just for me.

TL: DR: Characters are too boring and choices aren't interesting enough.

The best answer.

 

[Linarahn]

Isn't it also with most porn games that the player character is incredibly boring in and of themselves? I mean, I get it, they're meant to be self-inserts (at least to the extent that they're the player's avatar, to say nothing about actual customization for them) but as uncomfortable as I am playing male characters in general, I'd feel better about them if such a game provided me with an interesting backstory or at least a likable personality that made me root for the character and want to see them succeed on their own merits. I think that's pretty important, considering the vast majority of porn games is written from a male perspective for a largely male audience.

Let's play a little thought game on this: Assuming, for a moment, a regular mainstream game you like had explicit sexual content in it that you could pursue at more or less your own leisure with a character you like - let's say, Bayonetta or Dante from Devil May Cry for instance. Wouldn't you care more for them and their partners if you liked them as opposed to either being a blank slate? That's not to say blank slates are generally bad - they can work pretty well, but as with a lot of things in most adult games, execution is lacking.

 

[MotoKuchoma]

It seems that calling the police, just walking away, telling other people who are sound of mind for help or going into court will never be a thing in Pornland.

To be fair it happens in real life and the repeated rapes are presented in court as evidence they have a relationship. It's unfortunately very tough to actually get rapists convicted in real life, especially since actually proving that no consent was given is extremely hard. It's absolutely despicable and disgusting, but sadly, very close to real life rapes.

 

[TheDarkMaster]

To be fair it happens in real life and the repeated rapes are presented in court as evidence they have a relationship. It's unfortunately very tough to actually get rapists convicted in real life, especially since actually proving that no consent was given is extremely hard. It's absolutely despicable and disgusting, but sadly, very close to real life rapes.

There's also a not insignificant problem of false accusations which further muddies the waters. It both makes it harder to catch the actual rapists and ruins many people's lives due to social judgement tending to be guilty even if proven innocent.

 

[DawnCry]

To be fair it happens in real life and the repeated rapes are presented in court as evidence they have a relationship. It's unfortunately very tough to actually get rapists convicted in real life, especially since actually proving that no consent was given is extremely hard. It's absolutely despicable and disgusting, but sadly, very close to real life rapes.

And to be fair an innocent man accussed of rape will have to suffer througth a living hell, because even when you are innocent people won't believe it, rather they prefer to think that you are guilty but it is another mistake of the law system.

Just say the word and the public opinnion will believe it, you want to do more damage? then mysteriously "add" the address of that person.

The funny thing is... you can destroy a life with just one lie and if you say it to enough people.

 

[Nephilim_Anunnaki]

Isn't it also with most porn games that the player character is incredibly boring in and of themselves? I mean, I get it, they're meant to be self-inserts (at least to the extent that they're the player's avatar, to say nothing about actual customization for them) but as uncomfortable as I am playing male characters in general, I'd feel better about them if such a game provided me with an interesting backstory or at least a likable personality that made me root for the character and want to see them succeed on their own merits. I think that's pretty important, considering the vast majority of porn games is written from a male perspective for a largely male audience.

Let's play a little thought game on this: Assuming, for a moment, a regular mainstream game you like had explicit sexual content in it that you could pursue at more or less your own leisure with a character you like - let's say, Bayonetta or Dante from Devil May Cry for instance. Wouldn't you care more for them and their partners if you liked them as opposed to either being a blank slate? That's not to say blank slates are generally bad - they can work pretty well, but as with a lot of things in most adult games, execution is lacking.

Exactly

 

[Jash]

Oh here's another one:

7) Relationships that progress artificially slowly even though they're already clearly at the stage where they should be done. Like, the couple are very clearly obviously blatantly ready for a sexual relationship, but they do things one agonisingly slow step at a time. "Man, I'm dripping wet with lust for your cock... but I'll just give you a handjob for now because I'm not ready yet." This is a Patreon thing in particular, where they insist on building up to sex scene so slowly by going one step with each version (handjob, blowjob, titjob, assjob, fuck, anal, etc etc) despite the fact the characters basically wanted to have sex with each other from the first stage, just to pad out the development time.

 

[Sapphire]

Issues? Not enough good F/F games that aren't written to cater to straight men. Some F/F content in games is just so laughable, like the person/people who write it have no idea how women think or act. Its a shame.

 

[Linarahn]

Issues? Not enough good F/F games that aren't written to cater to straight men. Some F/F content in games is just so laughable, like the person/people who write it have no idea how women think or act. Its a shame.

*sarcasm on* Clearly women are pure, asexual creatures that don't consume porn so there's no need to cater to them, especially the gay ones. *sarcasm off*

Which is to say, I agree.