Post by Rafster in Why all gay NSFW media needs to label its erotic content. comments - itch.io

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Rafster2 years ago (2 edits) (+1)

Regarding dom/sub content:

I don't agree about the whole premise of being dom is about you deciding how things go. Unexpected things happen, sometimes you think you're the top dog but then a bigger one comes. People can outsmart you, or even overpower you, having to suck up until the time is right to show off who's the boss. And that's what I tried to do on Max's scene (by the way, you can blur the heaviest content on that scene, but that was a feature that I included starting on 0.20 so you might have to bear with that on prior versions. I apologize for that). He won over you unfairly with the drug, and then you manage to come to grips with that and give him a proper beating later.

In the scene with Malcolm... remember you're infilitrating on his company. You're not in position to make demands to him. Even if he wanted to bottom, he would have used you like a human-sized dildo. It's not believable that get in his house like a gorilla and start shouting him to bottom for you. That's illogical.

Now, having said that, dom content is not my strong point, but I'm trying to improve it, and certainly I need to improve on that regard. Since it's a recurring theme in my game, you can expect more dom content in the future.

Now, back on the subject of the Top/Bottom positions:

I must admit that when I first read the article, that flew over my head, I didn't even consider it, I always focused on separating the heavier kinks from the vanilla ones, and I thought it was enough. Obviously it isn't.

It's hard to focus on both positions when it comes to the story encounters, especially on those where the MC have to satisfy an specific character and the scene is all bottom (or top, for example on Vince scene), in my game there aren't many scenes that have both positions available. When an unavoidable scene happens, and the MC needs to satisfy the NPC , it's not logical to refuse and then proceed with the scene as if nothing happened. It doesn't work that way.

But it's not the first time a player tells me about that, maybe I should take account on that when you're the one at top or bottom , I'm mostly a bottom and I tend to write a lot leaning to that side. On my next storylines (prison and Ursus) I'll do my best to balance them out. I've been working on that for months, but I still have ways to go.

But I'm not quite sure on how to solve this problem, games can't be perfectly 50/50, Chelay's game is focused on top, mine is on bottom (with some top content on it), and I've come to a point that I can't even list how many characters have X or Y preference because it would a long and spoilery list. I guess I can include a section of the FAQ in my game description about the positions... but I'm going to write it in general. I guess for VNs that doesn't have many characters a complete list would be ideal, but for larger games it isn't.

J-Raythalos2 years ago (3 edits)

I understand where you are coming from. Of course, in real life, even if you are dominant, things frequently don't work your way. But it's a game we are talking about here, it's supposed to be unrealistic, and it should bring the players what they like to see.

It's for sure very logical that, while you are facing bigger monsters like Max, Malcom, or the UFL guys in Garette's route, you don't have much of a saying other than being treated like a bi*ch. But in these cases, the completeness of the storyline is prioritized over players' personal preference, especially that of dom players. I only speak for myself here, but I hardly find any joy in being submissive, not mentioning being subjected to it.

This is not saying that your game is poorly designed, no. Your game is great, but it very much caters toward sub / bottom players. Having a dominant role in the game is kinda pointless... considering that neither of the two love interests allow the player to top / dominate them in any way. The only exceptions are Dalton's two endings, but those are not repeatable, not mentioning to achieve those endings, dom players have to go through a lot of content they don't really like and also cannot avoid. As for Garrette, if I recall corectly, he out right become the player's master upon reaching his endings, which I'm fairly sure is a hard no for any dom player.

This is precisely why I agree with what Chellay said and, as you have mentioned yourself, that many devs are not aware of the fact players do take these position thingys seriously, so it is better to let players know what they can expect, instead of having an angy guy like me ranting about it later. I'm glad to hear that you want to balance it more when writing about Ursus and the content afterwards tho.

I'd suggest you make something like a character profile in game that documents the characters the player have met and give the player an option / warning that saying these profiles can give potential spoilers about the character's content, so they can choose for themselves whether they want to see it or not. Also, like Chellay suggested, perhaps highlight in your game intro that, currently, the game is more bottom content-oriented, but more top content will be added later.