discussion How big of a harem is too big?

[Mr.Nobody]

Harems are pretty popular, but what is the right number of girls in a harem? Can it be too big? I think harems are too big when it feels like you have to choose between girls in the harem, or you only ever see a girl when you're having sex with her. I personally like WVM but I feel like it may be pushing that limit. How big is too big for you, and have you ever lost interest in a game because the harem got too big?

The only time a harem is too big is when the story stops being good and the characters stop being unique for the sake of more characters means better game

 

[mystimyr]

Five is the magic number for sexual harems. If non, then seven plus the protagonist. Anymore and you run the risk of people misidentifying your characters.

 

[User_131536]

King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines so about that much

 

[Mrjayded]

It's too big if I run out of names to give the girls in the game. I am not going to randomly choose "Diane" for a character because I don't know one. I like using names I know so I can associate the game...thats my take

 

[sandroares05]

With few characters the development becomes better.

 

[User_101961]

Once I need to number them instead of names that is probably too many. Of course I have a pretty good memory so that might be a while.

 

[dadcock24]

I mean, it really all comes down to preference. At some point for a lot of people it can become overwhelming or feel repetitive. But whatever floats your boat about 5 or so women feels the best for me, anything more than 10 really becomes to much to actually care about a single one of them, or I feel like it’s the same thing just with a “reskinned” version of another girl doing the same acts. Just my two cents, which isn’t worth much lol

 

[purequiche]

In my modded TTW New Vegas playthrough I probably have about 8 female followers, but it's a bit cumbersome and I need to send a few home. I also have Dogmeat, Boone and Raul 'cause they kick ass.

 

[hadam]

No such thing Seriously though, I don't think i can give a clear number. The creator has to find the sweet spot, where the number of characters doesn't make them boring and the story hard to follow, and at the same time, there is enough types of partners to satisfy (almost) every players' fantasies.

 

[BakaSenpai]

No limit. You should able to choose any living creatures that the creator created in the game.

 

[kodex]

More than 5 girls is a waste of brain effort. Games that have huge casts usually are deep as a puddle and just as interesting.

 

[Dely5064]

I'd say somewhere between 3 to 5 depending on how different they look , even if they look very different 5 is the magic number

 

[Trickster]

Under 10 is good, because if it’s more than that, the character development usually bad

 

[siegberd]

no limit is best I think but you probably have no strength left if you have too much so maximum 10

 

[dank04]

Once you get to the point where you run into them and can't remember them at all, it starts to get too much for me. But that also depends on how often the game is updated. If every LI has a new scene 3-6 months, then the girls are easier to keep track of

 

[DannyO24]

Well King Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines so I guess that's a fair size of a harem.

JK Probably 3-4 gals seems like a good size harem.

 

[Bananana73]

I feel like there's a sweet spot somewhere around 10, for, like, a main harem. It's better if it's low enough that like, personalities come through and you know the characters. So actual close-harem like 10 or something. But like fwb the more the merrier, lol, have a whole city, why not.

 

[LewisCarroll]

Unless you're playing in the Middle East, after three it just stretches my imagination beyond the breaking point. In my real experience, juggling more than 3 seems near impossible without breaking out into cat fights and backstabbing..... Come to think of it, I'd really like to see a game with more real dynamics in it to up the drama 10x lol.

 

[Vidilo]

I would say 7. One for each day of the week.

 

[rocketsheep]

• There is no real upper limit on harem size in porn games. In Polyturnon, I think the eventual harem size is 69, but due to the way it is structured it is not a problem. It could be far more with this concept. It's a relatively anonymous harem, but why not? And it could run in this format for a long time.
• The canonical harem ending of Solvalley School (the only completed AVN among my examples) has almost all love interests from this epic AVN sitcom joining the harem. I counted 37 actually doing so. At the beginning of the harem ending, there is a clear structure, but in the end it devolves into one big joke and orgy. I really see nothing wrong with that, either. But in this case it works only for a (long) ending and would probably not carry a sequel without some major adjustments.
• When a harem gets too bit, then that's not just because of the size of the harem but also because the narration doesn't manage it appropriately. An example for this is the otherwise fantastic Crimson High. The love interests are a huge and very diverse cast of memorably quirky monster girls. But all the names are purely Japanese and soon begin to blend into each other in the minds of Western readers not otherwise exposed to them. There are often longer intervals between the appearances of a girl, so when she returns it can be very hard to remember who she was, especially after taking a longer break from the VN while waiting for the next update. This would not be a big issue if the script were careful to always drop an unobtrusive hint each time a member of the cast returns after a short break. Unfortunately that's not the case and when someone's return is mentioned I often don't remember who that is, and even when she arrives her appearance doesn't always remind me of her backstory.

On the other hand, with increasing harem size there are obviously diminishing returns. A harem consisting of two wives who love each other can be just as romantic as a couple ending, but even with three wives romance is getting more difficult. Cosy Cafe does a very good job of extending this all the way to 4 (as of version 0.11) and is clearly going to pull this off with even more as the story continues. Based on the galllery, it appears that the currenttarget harem size is 11. But that game is exceptional and this level of skill and attention to relationship details is very rare among authors.

Finally there is

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which is an approximate limit often considered to lie somewhere between 100 and 300 for humans (a common estimate is 150). It's the maximum number of individuals one can have a stable relationship with at the same time. In a harem bigger than that, the MC had better consult his files before interacting with some of his more obscure wives. I guess for most guys that's no longer a good wish-fulfillment fantasy. An author could try to pretend that Dunbar's number does not exist or is larger for the MC, but I doubt that the readers would buy this given their own problems with tracking so many fictional individuals.