Reasons for dropping a game

[Zazas]

So. There you are. Playing the newest update in a game you really enjoy. Or maybe checking out one that you heard was great through word of mouth. You get ready for a journey into the world of the game. But then you get to something in it that just doesn't sit well with you. Maybe the characters aren't engaging enough for you. Maybe there's a myriad of spelling errors(even with a credited "proofreader"). I'm somewhat interested in the variety of reasons someone might drop a game they were invested or interested in, things that you just can't overlook and why those are. For example:

I was intrigued by the premise of Wild Cats by LopaPhi. VNRen'Py[HS]Wild Cats [v0.1.1] [LopaPhi]

But within a few minutes I see this specific graphic.

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And it takes ALL the interest I had in it because this looks like an AI slapped it together and it's how I remember the game. The "Alipha Wovles" game. I cannot take it seriously or just move beyond it. What if there's more? If I could remember the game with all the misspellings, I'd name it and list all of the words I saw personally. One example was "rooky".

 

[HandholdDegen]

Are you asking us why we have dropped games, or are you just making a statement that you are interested in why people have dropped games?
The only question mark in your post is about wondering if there is more AI art in the game you played. And the only statement you made on dropping games is that you are "somewhat interested" in other people's reasons.
2/5 star thread. Instructions unclear.

 

[RandomLycan]

Very infrequent updates kills a game for sure.

 

[Zazas]

Are you asking us why we have dropped games, or are you just making a statement that you are interested in why people have dropped games?
The only question mark in your post is about wondering if there is more AI art in the game you played. And the only statement you made on dropping games is that you are "somewhat interested" in other people's reasons.
2/5 star thread. Instructions unclear.

I'm not very good at putting my thoughts into words initially, rather I'm used to slinging them out and then refine them as people interrogate me on my ramblings. I apologize for my amateur post. I suppose if I had to choose, I'm interested in finding out which games people have dropped and why. I don't know if there's more "AI" art in the game, as I dropped it and didn't want to find out. As for the 2/5 stars, that's 2 more than I expected to make, so I call it a success.

Very infrequent updates kills a game for sure.

If there's no news of an update in 6-8 months, that's definitely a drop flag.

 

[e6mill]

They have to set the hook. Graphics, world-building, story, doesn't matter HOW, but they need to hook me within a short amount of time or I'll go play something that does. I will say that I have yet to be hooked on a game because of spelling, but on the other hand, I have walked away from more than a few because of atrocious Engrish. Or even good English but cringe levels of weeb-ness.

 

[HandholdDegen]

I don't think I've ever dropped a gave for finding AI art that I didn't expect to find in there, but I never even start playing games if I know there's AI in them.
I do find myself dropping games if they introduce new story elements before current stories have been resolved, especially when it completely sidelines what I've been doing up until now, or if the new story element is so bizarrely out of left-field that I can't but into the new narrative.

 

[Zazas]

If a game looks interesting off the premise or the preview images, I give it a 30 minute test drive. If it can't grab you in any way in that amount of time, it's not likely to grab you at all through its entirety.

 

[PrivateCaptain]

It's usually a combination of disappointments and distractions. Bad games tend to be bad in lots of little ways in addition to the big ones.

• No conflict, or trivial conflicts that are introduced and immediately resolved (Depths Revival, My New Family)
• Poor spelling, grammar, and non-native-speaker misuses of expressions (Desert Stalker)
• Poor graphics, generic graphics (all Honey Select games)
• Boring lewd scenes (Space Journey X)

 

[s3gfaul7]

I drop a game if the writing takes a turn into a direction I don't like and wasn't advertised as planned.

 

[CharlieV]

When Patreon's rules are suddenly implemented, completely changing important story dynamics

 

[MattShizzle]

When Patreon's rules are suddenly implemented, completely changing important story dynamics

THIS or they got scared off of loli by events August of last year. Also, adding things I dislike like fantasy, futa, ntr, etc. If it goes too long without sex (slow burn.)

 

[AlBetGam]

Probably the most frequent thing I drop a game for is writing that's so bad nothing else is worth it. And I mean that in terms of both technical grammar skill and story/character execution.

Example- Life in Santa County. Decent premise, good models, good production values, technically proficient English. But holy heck the MC is stupid as all get out. Constant stupid problems with what should be trivially simple resolutions that he instead agonizes over before jumping headfirst into the dumbest available solution that just causes him more problems. And half or more of it caused by him trying to bail his even more retarded friend out of hot water.

Plus too many games to count that I tried and gave up on when the English turned out to be just unreadably bad.

 

[Djehuty]

Really slow updates. I get it takes time, but after a certain point my brain simply forgets it. By the time it gets updated I can't be bothered to remember all the plot points or skim through the story again.

I don't know when the 1-2 updates per year became so widespread, but it's absolutely ridiculous.

 

[Loliholic]

I drop games when...

• female protagonists have unavoidable dicks incl. futa crap or even start with a hetero relationship (i only play pure lesbians)
• multiple updates dont progress the story and only add useless sex scenes, hud "improvements", etc.
• the dev loses focus and the sidestories become boring/annoying while the main story is onhold
• the story has big holes/logic bugs
• the text cant be read (lousy mtl, incompetent translations, annoying dialects, speech defects, etc. I'm not a native english speaker and i cant translate crippled words)
• devs decide to remake games i liked so far (its always a downgrade and takes months to years just to back at the point the downgrade started)
• i stumble over paywalled content (insta delete and ignore for the dev - except its just irrelevant content like clothes/costumes/holiday stuff)
• LI's changing too much, be it personality (from sweet/smart to brainless sexdoll - for example, every large scale change sucks, dunno why but it goes always in the worst direction), visual (revamps, style change, adding tattoos/piercings), cheating/ntr or otherwiese dying
• it has too much "realism", i dont waste my time with games forcing me to eat, drink, shower, sleep every fucking day just to prevent penalties (hell, dont even eat or sleep every day irl)
• there are too many useless guys (storyrelevant is okay, but stupid buddies, pointless sidequests, horny assholes, useless npcs, etc. are just annoying moodkillers)
• devs pumping up tits to delolify charas (thats the wrong direction!) or changing relationship to suck up patreon rules (serious devs avoid patreon and dont support their bullshit)
• the game wasnt worth the download (i dont give second chances, if the first try dont gets me hooked it failed)
• updates become too irregular (i give a fuck about lame excuses from lazy devs who earn money with their games - thats a work contract and demands work for the money. Skipping an update once in a while is acceptable because RL and tech problems really exist, but everything over 6 months delay is dead for me and i cant take devs without an eta seriously. Longer/regular RL problems are only an excuse for the few devs who make their games just for fun and dont want to get paid for it)

There may be more reasons, but these are the ones i didnt need to think about first ^^

 

[rrkun98]

Forcing me to make completely stupid choices, bad consequences for choices that at first glance seem good, I even understand, but if you're going to force me to make shitty choices then it's better not to give me any choice at all.

 

[SquirrelMonkey]

Overly long gaps in updates, or when a game doesn't know when to wrap up storywise.

 

[thratone]

I've most often dropped games from what I feel is bad writing or having an unlikeable MC

 

[Karamchad]

To kill the interest in a game, I have seen many different reasons that piled up is the kiss of death and soon abandonment for lack of patreons/paypigs.
First, massive changes in the gameplay. Saria Reclaimed is the biggest example of that. Game did an 180º on its mechanics, killed over half the followers and its ratings.
Lazy developers and their mediocre updates too. A good example is out of gaming, Song of Ice and Fire by RR Martin. The books are so overdue that people actually lost interest in the story. Timing is very important too.
Bad graphics, worsen graphics is a significant point considering the core elements of this genre of gaming. As good as Aurelia is, new updates are very inferior in quality compared to the pixel mastery it had initially.
When the reward is mediocre. As someone pointed out, games by y.v are very pretty, much the excessive grinding and the very boring scenes you unlock is very disappointing.

I'm convinced that many developers make mistakes because they themselves do not play hgames. Personal experience is very important. Practice and attention before burning yourself developing something mediocre should be a basic step.

 

[Alex1980]

1. At a certain point, it becomes obvious that the developer just doesn't know how further develop the story. This is most often the case if the developer did not have at least a schematic outline of the plot of his project from the beginning. As a consequence - “writer's block”. Examples - Amnesia, Ring of Lust. VNRen'PyDAZAmnesia [v0.100a] [Super Alex] Ren'PyDAZRing of Lust [v0.5.8a] [Votan]

2. lack of character development. Following the adventures of characters you're not interested in is a dubious pleasure (I gave up on Grandma's House for this reason). VNRen'PyDAZGrandma's House [Part 4 v0.65] [Moonbox]

3. Initially the project may have a rather interesting plot, but after a while everything degenerates into a stupid and meaningless fuckfest. Example - Reunion. VNRen'PyDAZReunion [v0.70] [Karabinek]

4. Speaking about my favorite “sandboxes”. I really like such games (they have gameplay, unlike kinetic novels), but either because of the developer's insufficient qualification or because of his carelessness, grind degenerates into meaningless grind for the sake of grind (all projects by SerialNumberComics). Rubbing a brick against a brick is boring, so I give up such games without regret. CompleteRen'PyDAZFoot of the Mountains 1 & 2 [v5.0 Finale] [SerialNumberComics]
Ren'PyDAZJen's Dilemma [Ch. 3 v2.0] [SerialNumberComics]

 

[mustafarxxx]

I don't mind grinding but some games not worth it.