Wow wow wow hay are you asking me to figure out a woman and her thought process? That's something men have been trying to figure out for thousands of years.
QUESTION: What issues do most adult games have that frustrate you?
- Thread starter HunterHeath
- Start date
+1 to that, tired of games going by "phases", I don't want to call names here but: "Oh hey, I am begin to have feelings for you, and I am so horny, but today I will give you a handjob, tomorrow a blowjob, next time... etc".
Makes me wonder if really the creators are aromantic who sees relations this way or is just an excuse to perpetuate the game to keep geting paid ad nauseam.
I've got a few things here, but I think they've all been mentioned already Doesn't hurt to add my opinions though, I guess.
1. Having to loose to see the sex scenes. Why are you punishing me for wanting to see what is essentially the whole point of playing this game?!
2. The overabundance of rape/abuse. Yes, I get some people like it and I have no problem with that (in games - real life is whole different matter) but I generally prefer more consensual stuff. I have a hard time finding any decent games that don't use rape as one of the primary ways of getting sex scenes. I'll tolerate it to some extent, but when it's mostly all rape, I get tired of it really quickly. I don't care if it's lovey-dovey or "Hey, you! Want to screw?" "Sure!" This is the reason I kept backing Breeding Season right to the end, despite being unhappy with the development - everyone is enjoying the sex.
3. Surprise fetishes or pairings that I didn't know were coming and I couldn't avoid. I'm a straight guy. Give me M/F, F/F, Futa/F, M/Futa, etc. But M/M, or Futa/M (or strapons, etc), especially if it's supposed to be a self-insert character, turns me off really fast. I have no problem with it being there, but if it's the result of a choice I can make, don't surprise me with it. Same goes for hard bondage. If it's unavoidable, I think having a list of unavoidable pairings/fetishes separate from optional ones should be an important part of your description of the game.
4.
This is possibly the biggest one for me. I don't mind having the occasional game where the player character is essentially just me, that can be enjoyable from time to time. But I really do prefer having them be an actual character most of the time. That doesn't have to mean that you don't have some say in who they are - Mass Effect, SWTOR and Dragon Age (specifically 2 and Inquisition) are good examples of letting you determine their character to some extent without bland self-inserts. (Yes, those are all Bioware - I have my issues with them, but I do think that player-character design is one thing they got right.)
Unfortunately, most porn games I've tried that do give the player character a personality seem to be one of a very small number of rather boring and (to me at least) unappealing options. Male: Complete ass-hole out to screw everything with tits, preferably by being underhanded/abusive. Female: Whore with no personality outside of "I like sex". Or either gender: complete pushover with very little personality at all, who gets raped by everything in existence. I end up not playing most games very long because I just can't get into an "rpg" that doesn't have a reasonably interesting main character.
1. Having to loose to see the sex scenes. Why are you punishing me for wanting to see what is essentially the whole point of playing this game?!
2. The overabundance of rape/abuse. Yes, I get some people like it and I have no problem with that (in games - real life is whole different matter) but I generally prefer more consensual stuff. I have a hard time finding any decent games that don't use rape as one of the primary ways of getting sex scenes. I'll tolerate it to some extent, but when it's mostly all rape, I get tired of it really quickly. I don't care if it's lovey-dovey or "Hey, you! Want to screw?" "Sure!" This is the reason I kept backing Breeding Season right to the end, despite being unhappy with the development - everyone is enjoying the sex.
3. Surprise fetishes or pairings that I didn't know were coming and I couldn't avoid. I'm a straight guy. Give me M/F, F/F, Futa/F, M/Futa, etc. But M/M, or Futa/M (or strapons, etc), especially if it's supposed to be a self-insert character, turns me off really fast. I have no problem with it being there, but if it's the result of a choice I can make, don't surprise me with it. Same goes for hard bondage. If it's unavoidable, I think having a list of unavoidable pairings/fetishes separate from optional ones should be an important part of your description of the game.
4.
This is possibly the biggest one for me. I don't mind having the occasional game where the player character is essentially just me, that can be enjoyable from time to time. But I really do prefer having them be an actual character most of the time. That doesn't have to mean that you don't have some say in who they are - Mass Effect, SWTOR and Dragon Age (specifically 2 and Inquisition) are good examples of letting you determine their character to some extent without bland self-inserts. (Yes, those are all Bioware - I have my issues with them, but I do think that player-character design is one thing they got right.)
Unfortunately, most porn games I've tried that do give the player character a personality seem to be one of a very small number of rather boring and (to me at least) unappealing options. Male: Complete ass-hole out to screw everything with tits, preferably by being underhanded/abusive. Female: Whore with no personality outside of "I like sex". Or either gender: complete pushover with very little personality at all, who gets raped by everything in existence. I end up not playing most games very long because I just can't get into an "rpg" that doesn't have a reasonably interesting main character.
I've never gotten the gist behind the "if you want porn, you have to lose" reasoning... in a porn game. Then again, it may be because I'm all for consensual smut.
The only game I can think of where that would even remotely make sense would be, from what little I know, Monster Girl Quest - and even then, it'd make more sense if the PC was a woman (since falling prey to a monster girl turns you into one of them, apparently?) That aside, even in such a case you could make an argument that you could end up getting rewarded with playing the monster you want post-loss.
Then again, most porn games don't even seem to bother establishing rules for their settings. Village of Nightmare was fairly good about that though (weird and not to everyone's liking, yes, but it wasn't bad.)
Interestingly, after learning of MGQ I wondered whether there could be a spin-off in which you played as a female and were able to choose the monster girl you could fall prey to. From then on, you could play as one of them and entice any males you had previously met as well as new ones.
Oh and another one that's REALLY getting me down:
8) Almost every fucking game that uses that generic 3D modeling pack uses the same damn locations. You know the one (I mean Daz). I can handle all the characters looking alike, there's more variation there, and frankly most people in the real world look alike anyway- you won't look at a character and say "hey, isn't that [other character] from [other game]?" But they almost ALL use the same default LOCATIONS and those are much more distinctive. Every game uses that same white living room with attached kitchen, that same damn bedroom with the white brick wall behind the double bed and the door down the short flight of steps set into the right side of the floor, the same 2 damn bathrooms (the one with the glass-enclosed shower and the black-and-white tiles, and the one with the smaller shower cubicle set into the wall and the white tiles), the same damn loungeroom with the shelves full of random crap behind the couch, and every beach has that same damn thatched-roof cabana! It's IRRITATINGLY lazy.
8) Almost every fucking game that uses that generic 3D modeling pack uses the same damn locations. You know the one (I mean Daz). I can handle all the characters looking alike, there's more variation there, and frankly most people in the real world look alike anyway- you won't look at a character and say "hey, isn't that [other character] from [other game]?" But they almost ALL use the same default LOCATIONS and those are much more distinctive. Every game uses that same white living room with attached kitchen, that same damn bedroom with the white brick wall behind the double bed and the door down the short flight of steps set into the right side of the floor, the same 2 damn bathrooms (the one with the glass-enclosed shower and the black-and-white tiles, and the one with the smaller shower cubicle set into the wall and the white tiles), the same damn loungeroom with the shelves full of random crap behind the couch, and every beach has that same damn thatched-roof cabana! It's IRRITATINGLY lazy.
The advantage to Monster Girl Quest was that losing was as simple as picking "surrender" from the battle menu, and trying again was as simple as choosing to do so after the game over screen (with the hilarious "Evaluation" scenes where you get tips on how to win from increasingly-exasperated onlookers as an added bonus for losing). You didn't have to spend ages bumping into enemies waiting for them to knock all your HP off, then go back to the last checkpoint.
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I mean, I get the concept of game over rape. It's utilizing shame as sexual appeal which can be quite powerful. You fucked up so bad you had this to happen to you and lose, game over, you suck. Tying character and player punishment together. It's the sexual equivalent of the ""you died" screen in dark souls. The general difference is that "you died" is quick and the gameplay style despite being successful is niche.
I generally think its worth sacrificing a minor amount of that shame for being way more convenient and not breaking continuity (which breaks immersion) but I'm sure some people feel otherwise. The real reason its common is cause its easier to make. You don't have to worry about future paths if you just revert what happened cause game over. In a game with rape on loss that doesn't break continuity its likely going to break immersion when characters don't act sensibly based on what happened. You might say an innocent line despite having been railed by 50 monsters in the last hour. Every bit of story variation is a lot more work. Thats why its IMO very important to really limit your scale when making a game. I know as a viewer/consumer it sucks to see a lot of games either unfinished or really short but thats cause making a long game takes a shit load of work that most people won't have set up for correctly in the first place. I think we'd have more long finished games if people started smaller before moving onto big projects.
Speaking more on a development angle. What really annoys me unreasonably is stuff like CoC and TiTS. They spend so much time on what to me is unimportant. Adding TFs to the game multiplies their work by like 10 which slows content release by the same factor. Something with CoC style but a relatively set main character could release content so much faster so as someone not engaging with the TF aspect its a real shame no ones really made a similar game without it. Of course, I'm not making it either so I feel like I can't complain too much.
I'd also agree with the other poster that there is a lack of quality lesbian stuff. I have a lot lower standards than most people and I like my characters unusual but you still need a grounding in reality IMO. Some games are enjoyable for me but there just isn't enough. Even fully unrealistic characters can be enjoyable for me if they are interesting AND follow consistent wrong logic. Harem anime is like this. None of the girls act like actual humans but there is a consistent logic they follow, even if its really stupid logic. The ones that are really ineffective fail to stick to a consistent set of logic. At least thats my view on it. I guess in the end its about immersion. As long as I can get used to the differences from reality I'm fine, but if it keeps changing things up then its harder. I feel like mentally I give low budget porn games a lot of leeway without really thinking about it but you can still benefit from making it better.
Another thing that worries me every single time I see it is "the life sim game". Life has a lot of stuff in it, it's gonna take you several years to make a convincing life sim if you even have the talent for it. I understand its what you want to play so it becomes what you want to make but pace yourselves. The most successful life sim I can think of is newlife which has been going for years with an uncommonly consistent dev and you see that it's still very slow going. Come back to the idea after you have a game or two under your belt and get several other people on board ideally. I haven't actually seen as much of these lately so perhaps people are getting the idea.
I've really enjoyed this thread. Didn't realize how much I wanted to rant about this stuff. I feel like I could rant for days (especially if we move to games in general and not just porn games) but just this much was nice.
I generally think its worth sacrificing a minor amount of that shame for being way more convenient and not breaking continuity (which breaks immersion) but I'm sure some people feel otherwise. The real reason its common is cause its easier to make. You don't have to worry about future paths if you just revert what happened cause game over. In a game with rape on loss that doesn't break continuity its likely going to break immersion when characters don't act sensibly based on what happened. You might say an innocent line despite having been railed by 50 monsters in the last hour. Every bit of story variation is a lot more work. Thats why its IMO very important to really limit your scale when making a game. I know as a viewer/consumer it sucks to see a lot of games either unfinished or really short but thats cause making a long game takes a shit load of work that most people won't have set up for correctly in the first place. I think we'd have more long finished games if people started smaller before moving onto big projects.
Speaking more on a development angle. What really annoys me unreasonably is stuff like CoC and TiTS. They spend so much time on what to me is unimportant. Adding TFs to the game multiplies their work by like 10 which slows content release by the same factor. Something with CoC style but a relatively set main character could release content so much faster so as someone not engaging with the TF aspect its a real shame no ones really made a similar game without it. Of course, I'm not making it either so I feel like I can't complain too much.
I'd also agree with the other poster that there is a lack of quality lesbian stuff. I have a lot lower standards than most people and I like my characters unusual but you still need a grounding in reality IMO. Some games are enjoyable for me but there just isn't enough. Even fully unrealistic characters can be enjoyable for me if they are interesting AND follow consistent wrong logic. Harem anime is like this. None of the girls act like actual humans but there is a consistent logic they follow, even if its really stupid logic. The ones that are really ineffective fail to stick to a consistent set of logic. At least thats my view on it. I guess in the end its about immersion. As long as I can get used to the differences from reality I'm fine, but if it keeps changing things up then its harder. I feel like mentally I give low budget porn games a lot of leeway without really thinking about it but you can still benefit from making it better.
Another thing that worries me every single time I see it is "the life sim game". Life has a lot of stuff in it, it's gonna take you several years to make a convincing life sim if you even have the talent for it. I understand its what you want to play so it becomes what you want to make but pace yourselves. The most successful life sim I can think of is newlife which has been going for years with an uncommonly consistent dev and you see that it's still very slow going. Come back to the idea after you have a game or two under your belt and get several other people on board ideally. I haven't actually seen as much of these lately so perhaps people are getting the idea.
I've really enjoyed this thread. Didn't realize how much I wanted to rant about this stuff. I feel like I could rant for days (especially if we move to games in general and not just porn games) but just this much was nice.
See, I DON'T get the concept. Game with "rape on loss" usually have said rape as the majority of the sexual content in the game, if not the only sexual content. And yet it's supposed to be a PORN game. The sexual content is literally the only thing we're here for (especially as these games universally have inferior gameplay to a non-porn game). Making it a "punishment" when it's what we're here to see so that if we play the game "properly" we'll never see it at all makes no real sense.
Except for a small handful of western erotic games I've found my money much better spent supporting groups that translate Japanese erotic games or outright supporting Japanese devs that want to release in the West.
Not that Japanese ero games are perfect but good lord, how many WIP western games do you expect me to support when there are completed and translated j-ero-games that I can play right now?
...and don't get me started on:
Games with shit 3D renders (which is all of them...fuckin' fight me)
Western visual novels and all the pitfalls they wind up traversing
90% of RPG maker porn games are just terrible
ESL-level dialogue in Western games, get the fuck out of here
Ultra-grindy games where using things like Cheat Engine seem like a good idea
All gameplay no porn
All porn no gameplay
Not that Japanese ero games are perfect but good lord, how many WIP western games do you expect me to support when there are completed and translated j-ero-games that I can play right now?
...and don't get me started on:
Games with shit 3D renders (which is all of them...fuckin' fight me)
Western visual novels and all the pitfalls they wind up traversing
90% of RPG maker porn games are just terrible
ESL-level dialogue in Western games, get the fuck out of here
Ultra-grindy games where using things like Cheat Engine seem like a good idea
All gameplay no porn
All porn no gameplay
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At first I through to quote you guys/gals, but after seeing there is some aspects in common, made me reach to this conclusion, sorry if I said it before but is late for me and soon I have to wake up to go to work:
The damn 3d, because of that I prefear personal draw assets (but I am seriously pondering to get a free 3d program, just for science).
And of course, make me think those people don't do it for the games sake, they do because is a cheap way to make money thru patreon.
And I end to cheat to not have to grind.
*drops mic*
The damn 3d, because of that I prefear personal draw assets (but I am seriously pondering to get a free 3d program, just for science).
And of course, make me think those people don't do it for the games sake, they do because is a cheap way to make money thru patreon.
And I end to cheat to not have to grind.
*drops mic*
Sturgeon's law is very much on display when it comes to porn. That is, 90% of everything is crap. The easier it is to make something, the more often you'll see the crap actually get released and supported. That's likely a big part of why all those 3d games seem to be worse than the 2d ones. Several 3d rendering programs are extremely easy and effective to use, so it's that much easier to put out and have a certain level of quality with minimal effort. The base amount of effort needed for 2d art on the other hand is much higher, so there's a natural filter on the crap that most people will never see. Same reason most RPG maker games are crap, most of the crap games on other engines never get far enough to be released since it's really easy to make RPG maker games.
Mostly that sexual preferences are very nuanced and multifaceted so what will normally happen is you end up with characters that are things the author and/or commissioner are into but for you are a mix of turn ons and turn offs. It's kind of inherent to the medium but still kind of disappointing.
For me one of the things that frustrates me about most adult games is that they tend to go to big.
Now this is a fault I often see of amateur adult game makes who bite off much more then they can chew, get about two updates in and all but abandon their project.
But I often find that it affects more professional projects as well, leading them to feel a little watered down. What was eight romandable partners might have been better off with just three with more time dedicated to fleshing out unique interactions and routs with them. The content that had been stretched out over seven explorable towns might have been better off in just two, making them feel more like real places with lot to explore and discover rather then sparse set pieces.
I feel like a lot of adult game are like boxes of chocolate, they offer lot of little wonderful bites of contents. But when you find that one bite you where craving it over to quickly and they is no more like it to be found in the game.
Now this is a fault I often see of amateur adult game makes who bite off much more then they can chew, get about two updates in and all but abandon their project.
But I often find that it affects more professional projects as well, leading them to feel a little watered down. What was eight romandable partners might have been better off with just three with more time dedicated to fleshing out unique interactions and routs with them. The content that had been stretched out over seven explorable towns might have been better off in just two, making them feel more like real places with lot to explore and discover rather then sparse set pieces.
I feel like a lot of adult game are like boxes of chocolate, they offer lot of little wonderful bites of contents. But when you find that one bite you where craving it over to quickly and they is no more like it to be found in the game.
Seems like we're just bitching about what we don't like now so I'll add my two cents: Honestly, I would murder for more M/M content. Especially games that are exclusively M/M since the more inclusive a game tries to be the more watered down and formulaic the content gets. Add to that that a lot of M/M stuff is actually aimed at women and half of the stuff aimed at guys is exclusively furry (for some damn reason) and I feel like I'm in a constant content drought. I'd probably settle for clones of some of your bad games just for the extra content.
I thought that was the entire point...?
Well, we were discussing mechanics and then we started discussing contents 
Myself, I know my tastes are not what game makers are interested in, so I'm not going to kill anyone. Rather, I'd kill myself by trying to create something for myself, heh.
Myself, I know my tastes are not what game makers are interested in, so I'm not going to kill anyone. Rather, I'd kill myself by trying to create something for myself, heh.
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could make a list for the whole day but i'll resume 2 simple things that bother me the most
1- 3d games, i know its hard to make them, but when you're only reusing assets from other places it kinda shows no effort at all.
There may be only 1 or 2 3D games that i could say are good and original.
2- Hyper things, Stupidly Big body parts, giant tits, giant ass, giant genitals, because it reachs a point that you can't really feel anything due being such nonsense.
maybe laught at it? but its something that i try to avoid if its optional, if a game is 100% only that then i simply avoid it totally. Not talking bad of anyone who likes that style, but there;s a certain size limit for me
1- 3d games, i know its hard to make them, but when you're only reusing assets from other places it kinda shows no effort at all.
There may be only 1 or 2 3D games that i could say are good and original.
2- Hyper things, Stupidly Big body parts, giant tits, giant ass, giant genitals, because it reachs a point that you can't really feel anything due being such nonsense.
maybe laught at it? but its something that i try to avoid if its optional, if a game is 100% only that then i simply avoid it totally. Not talking bad of anyone who likes that style, but there;s a certain size limit for me
Well, we were discussing mechanics and then we started discussing contents
Right. In the beginning, it felt (at least to me) like a topic that was constructive for game devs to look at. As in 'these are common problems and mistakes, learn from them'. Feels less constructive and objective now, is what I meant.
The most constructive thing I can tell an aspiring western game dev is to fuck right off. If you need a thread like this to help then you're not ready for prime time.
To be fair, the gripes people list are common enough for devs to try and avoid for the sake of everyone involved. Some things are more subjective than others but at the end of the day, we're still answering the question this thread was built upon.
Even criticism of overused/lazy/annoying things in porn game design, like the last few posts were, are helping, even if the help amounts to "try to avoid these things and your product will stand out more, especially if writing and execution are good". That's how I see it, at least.
Even criticism of overused/lazy/annoying things in porn game design, like the last few posts were, are helping, even if the help amounts to "try to avoid these things and your product will stand out more, especially if writing and execution are good". That's how I see it, at least.
There is a point I'd like to address though: a story can be unoriginal, you can use tropes. It's all about the delivery. Also: being anti-trope is a trope too.
I think one real problem for a lot of games is pacing. Events just fucking happen with little rhyme or reason. The improper use of timing has literally killed the story for me in a bunch of games, not just porn. Pay attention to the build up, drop the bomb at the right time and make sure the impact is not just significant to the character but the player as well.
Impact is a tricky thing, you kind of have to put in some opportunities for the player to give a crap about the characters and this involves all these small things that lots of devs plain ignore.
I think one real problem for a lot of games is pacing. Events just fucking happen with little rhyme or reason. The improper use of timing has literally killed the story for me in a bunch of games, not just porn. Pay attention to the build up, drop the bomb at the right time and make sure the impact is not just significant to the character but the player as well.
Impact is a tricky thing, you kind of have to put in some opportunities for the player to give a crap about the characters and this involves all these small things that lots of devs plain ignore.
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Because a fair amount of people like to mix being punished and sexuality? I'm saying the mechanic is designed to appeal to them.
.....nnnnno. Getting a game over, or at least losing a life (or having to intentionally get/lose one) is not the same thing as being the sub in a S&M/B&D relationship.
It doesn't need to be the same to fulfill the same underlying desire. Besides, it's a safe way to experience fantasies more extreme than one would be willing to actually indulge in IRL. Lots of people have rape fantasies, and 'rape on loss' is a reasonable way to indulge those.
I wanted to add: games that use platforms that force players to start the game all over again every time there is an update (I'm looking at you, RAGs). Depending on the type of gameplay your game has, being forced to start over and over again can easily discourage one from looking at your game for a long time.
That's more of a problem with the iterative development system. Literally any game in a pre-feature complete state is going to have incompatible updates. There's just no way around that. Even adding in compatibility between versions with relatively minor changes is a big undertaking for a small development team. They have to spend an update or two of work on just implementing that system and maintaining it can slow development down further. So most developers naturally don't do it. Devs that aren't skilled programmers probably can't even implement that at all.
Oh god DAMN it am I sick of having to start over again with every new version of Summertime Saga!
Glad to see this still going. I have more stuff to whine constructively about.
So this is seen a lot in adult games but also a bit in other games. Its how loss is handled. When the game wants you to lose to get content they should not make losing difficult. When the game needs a loss for the plot to play they should just balance it to make you lose. Instead i find myself trying to lose battles to get content which breaks immersion in the story and such since i didn't lose, i had to give up for meta reasons. May as well be a CG slideshow or something at that point. Also the poison that kills you and gets you the scene just defeats the purpose of even having combat loss stuff.
When the game needs a loss for the plot to play they should just balance it to make you lose. Needing to Win a battle to be told you lost. Why did i need to fight that battle AND win if i was always going to lose outside to a cutscene? Just make the enemy strong enough to beat you no matter what at this point and have it trigger on your loss. If the gap is too big it just gets stupid. This is lazy railroading.
Don't make me the dragonborn, destroyer of worlds and expect me to bend over for the porn. At the very least if your worried about something like optional content or whatever put a difficulty setting in the game. Cakewalk for people who want to just walk around choosing when to lose with the suicide button and Yo Fucked for people who want the game to beat them on its own if it wants to fuck them over. Just don't use combat mechanics to decide things that go against the spirit of those same mechanics. At the same time though don't just make invincible enemies that one shot you. Thats just boring. Make it possible to win but harder than losing instead of me having to reload a game to try and lose by min maxing my stats as low as they go and blocking for 50 turns even though i didn't grind or buy new equips.
On this matter is the choices problem. Too many games have the choices for bad things clearly outlined and with multiple warnings stated by the game. Just use common sense if your game has those kinds of choices. In a Nice Time for Roo game for instance have the choice to let your girl go with Shay D Man just be that, a single choice that comes up and seems normal. Don't throw inner monologues of Shay D Man repeatedly telling you he's going to fuck your girl or John Cena text boxes popping up making sure your doing this because you want this outcome. It just ruins the immersive feel if there was any to begin with. Porn games often NEED that immersion to be interesting. Its what turns random CG's or 8 bit sprites into fap material.
Just give hints through the story that this guy is shady. HINTS, not giant neon lights or text boxes saying so. I want to be the MC in a lot of these games and yet i feel more like some evil god fucking with him which isn't what the games premise told me in the beginning.
Have the choices be logical. Letting your girlfriend sleep with another man is not logical unless your character is a I AM A BIG STINKY BRAIN and wants this. They usually are not. Your just too stupid to realize that letting them separate you in this instance would be bad. MC should have some common sense unless the plot dictates otherwise. Like when your a naive young girl raised by nuns or some shit who knows nothing of the world or sex.
Don't be afraid of letting your player make bad choices when the game itself is about making these choices. Your player can always just reload or f4 out if they accidentally fall into a scene they don't like or path they didn't want. If they can't then they signed up for whatever perma choice game you made and its their own damn fault. Just warn them before the game starts about whatever save functions you use.
This all can be applied to most games with similar mechanics so no need to think im only talking about Nice Time for Roo as a Male games just because i used that as an example.
Ill be back next time something pisses me off in a game.
So this is seen a lot in adult games but also a bit in other games. Its how loss is handled. When the game wants you to lose to get content they should not make losing difficult. When the game needs a loss for the plot to play they should just balance it to make you lose. Instead i find myself trying to lose battles to get content which breaks immersion in the story and such since i didn't lose, i had to give up for meta reasons. May as well be a CG slideshow or something at that point. Also the poison that kills you and gets you the scene just defeats the purpose of even having combat loss stuff.
When the game needs a loss for the plot to play they should just balance it to make you lose. Needing to Win a battle to be told you lost. Why did i need to fight that battle AND win if i was always going to lose outside to a cutscene? Just make the enemy strong enough to beat you no matter what at this point and have it trigger on your loss. If the gap is too big it just gets stupid. This is lazy railroading.
Don't make me the dragonborn, destroyer of worlds and expect me to bend over for the porn. At the very least if your worried about something like optional content or whatever put a difficulty setting in the game. Cakewalk for people who want to just walk around choosing when to lose with the suicide button and Yo Fucked for people who want the game to beat them on its own if it wants to fuck them over. Just don't use combat mechanics to decide things that go against the spirit of those same mechanics. At the same time though don't just make invincible enemies that one shot you. Thats just boring. Make it possible to win but harder than losing instead of me having to reload a game to try and lose by min maxing my stats as low as they go and blocking for 50 turns even though i didn't grind or buy new equips.
On this matter is the choices problem. Too many games have the choices for bad things clearly outlined and with multiple warnings stated by the game. Just use common sense if your game has those kinds of choices. In a Nice Time for Roo game for instance have the choice to let your girl go with Shay D Man just be that, a single choice that comes up and seems normal. Don't throw inner monologues of Shay D Man repeatedly telling you he's going to fuck your girl or John Cena text boxes popping up making sure your doing this because you want this outcome. It just ruins the immersive feel if there was any to begin with. Porn games often NEED that immersion to be interesting. Its what turns random CG's or 8 bit sprites into fap material.
Just give hints through the story that this guy is shady. HINTS, not giant neon lights or text boxes saying so. I want to be the MC in a lot of these games and yet i feel more like some evil god fucking with him which isn't what the games premise told me in the beginning.
Have the choices be logical. Letting your girlfriend sleep with another man is not logical unless your character is a I AM A BIG STINKY BRAIN and wants this. They usually are not. Your just too stupid to realize that letting them separate you in this instance would be bad. MC should have some common sense unless the plot dictates otherwise. Like when your a naive young girl raised by nuns or some shit who knows nothing of the world or sex.
Don't be afraid of letting your player make bad choices when the game itself is about making these choices. Your player can always just reload or f4 out if they accidentally fall into a scene they don't like or path they didn't want. If they can't then they signed up for whatever perma choice game you made and its their own damn fault. Just warn them before the game starts about whatever save functions you use.
This all can be applied to most games with similar mechanics so no need to think im only talking about Nice Time for Roo as a Male games just because i used that as an example.
Ill be back next time something pisses me off in a game.