discussion What AVN Tropes Annoy You?

[ACBandit]

What Game Tropes make you cringe? I have several, but I will list the biggest one... The first Lewds being Dream sequences. I haaaaaaate that. It's cheap and lame. It's the Dev's cop out so they can give you a Lewd scene without having real story consequences. I won't stop playing, but the Dev loses some of my faith in what they are doing.

 

[AlBetGam]

Dream sequences do annoy me.

Personally I get annoyed by tropes that show the dev really doesn't have any idea how to progress the plot in any organic or coherent way. E.G. the moronic best friend who contributes nothing to anyone but is constantly yanking the protagonist into the next plot arc by being stupid. The bathroom door that doesn't lock because MC's mom has to walk in on him naked, because the dev can't think of a way to make her attracted except to see a 6 meter penis and get hypnotized. Etc.

(Edit: I accidentally some words)

 

[Rion89]

Dream sequences do annoy me.

Personally I get annoyed by tropes that show the dev really doesn't have any idea how to progress the plot in any . E.G. the moronic best friend who contributes nothing to anyone but is constantly yanking the protagonist into the next plot arc by being stupid. The bathroom door that doesn't lock because MC's mom has to walk in on him naked, because the dev can't think of a way to make her attracted except to see a 6 meter penis and get hypnotized. Etc.

You really sum up the annoying trope that I was gonna comment in this thread

 

[ApocalypseSurvivor]

Giving me blueballs. I hate that shit.
Either give me or dont introduce it. Don't leave me hanging around.

 

[Tosser]

That 18 year old virgins are instantly enamored of an MC and want to get knocked up the first time they ever fuck.

Dumbest fantasy premise going, perpetuated by dudes that are probably omegas that think they're alphas.

 

[Redyscom]

I agree, the worst part is the main character who charms everyone with a single glance, seemingly melting their frontal lobes and leaving them in a state of chronic stupidity.
It's not the worst for that reason, but because it implies that the author couldn't care less about the characters' relationships with the main character and the development of those relationships, something that should be, in practically every case, a fundamental part of the game. They're called visual novels for a reason.
And I'm not talking about the sex scenes that come too soon, because in several cases they don't feel out of place and are justified within the story itself. I'm talking about them going from a simple greeting to being hopelessly in love, even to the point of dying for each other.

I also detest the cocky MC whose only personality is being horny; they are exasperating, especially in stories that seem to be moving seriously and the MC spouts some nonsense; it's like controlling the comic relief in a bad series.

 

[vozek]

When MC is a virgin his whole life, or has very little sex, but then in 1 week he gets more pussy then a porn star in his life.

 

[podllboq]

So in this sort of discussions commonly there are 2 general directions:
1) a dislike to getting blue balls due to a long narration of the events and feelings build-up etc
2) a dislike to things happening too quickly without a proper development of the relationships

These are, in many ways, mutually exclusive. I wonder whether there are ways to reconcile them.

 

[AlBetGam]

So in this sort of discussions commonly there are 2 general directions:
1) a dislike to getting blue balls due to a long narration of the events and feelings build-up etc
2) a dislike to things happening too quickly without a proper development of the relationships

These are, in many ways, mutually exclusive. I wonder whether there are ways to reconcile them.

I think this is just sort of inherent to how the indie AVN scene works- people come for the smut but they're also long-form games that may take years to complete, updating one month at a time (and that's a fast pace!). So for a lot of games there isn't necessarily an easy answer to "the MC just met these characters, each update covers one day of in-game time, on the one hand my players won't wait a year to see a sex scene, on the other hand how do I make a sex scene happen Day 2 without it seeming really rushed and unnatural".

I think some games get around it by a variety of girls- e.g. some college games will send the MC to a party where random sorority girls are happy to get laid without knowing their partner's name, while developing the main love interests at a slower pace.

Other games may start the MC off in a relationship of some kind, so e.g. he starts the game off having sex with his wife before spending a few updates building up to sex with other girls. But then some players are passionately opposed to games where the protagonist starts in a relationship.

Personally I think more games should drop the "one day at a time" pacing. It's a little unusual if a girl falls in bed and passionate love with a guy after a single day of knowing him; it would make more sense if it were clear that a couple weeks had passed, they'd been talking/texting/hanging out throughout that time, and only a couple noteworthy interactions between them had been shown onscreen. (As a side note this would also make it much more feasible to include pregnancies that actually progressed to birth without magical "gestation is 9 days" handwaves... which is something I and I think a lot of other people would really like)

 

[podllboq]

I think this is just sort of inherent to how the indie AVN scene works- people come for the smut but they're also long-form games that may take years to complete, updating one month at a time (and that's a fast pace!). So for a lot of games there isn't necessarily an easy answer to "the MC just met these characters, each update covers one day of in-game time, on the one hand my players won't wait a year to see a sex scene, on the other hand how do I make a sex scene happen Day 2 without it seeming really rushed and unnatural".

I think some games get around it by a variety of girls- e.g. some college games will send the MC to a party where random sorority girls are happy to get laid without knowing their partner's name, while developing the main love interests at a slower pace.

Other games may start the MC off in a relationship of some kind, so e.g. he starts the game off having sex with his wife before spending a few updates building up to sex with other girls. But then some players are passionately opposed to games where the protagonist starts in a relationship.

Personally I think more games should drop the "one day at a time" pacing. It's a little unusual if a girl falls in bed and passionate love with a guy after a single day of knowing him; it would make more sense if it were clear that a couple weeks had passed, they'd been talking/texting/hanging out throughout that time, and only a couple noteworthy interactions between them had been shown onscreen. (As a side note this would also make it much more feasible to include pregnancies that actually progressed to birth without magical "gestation is 9 days" handwaves... which is something I and I think a lot of other people would really like)

Oh, the development cycle is a whole different story. Which only complicates things further. The fact that (it seems so) most devs are first time devs only adds to it.

There are few games - like Light Of My Life, the only example I can remember off the cuff - that take around a year to release a new episode, but the episode is worth a few hours hours of reading. Though it is an all-around positive example of a long-cycle-of-release game that also appears quite successful financially, I am not sure that many devs or teams can actually replicate this path. Survivorship bias is a misleading phenomenon.

It boils down to good writing, I guess. Regardless of whether one makes a slow burn story or a fuckfest. Good writing makes people stay, even go against their usual gaming preferences. Good writing sometimes can even excuse mid visuals or a questionable style/genre approach. While bad writing ensures your game is as good as a slideshow of lewd images.

 

[AlexArmstrong]

When the game tells you the MC is a virgin (and he just turned 18) but he is sculpted like a greek god
Just give me an ugly-normal MC if you want a virgin, or if you want the MC to be a hot guy dont make it a virgin

(all of this is not a problem if the dev gives you a good story context of why a handsome guy is a virgin, but we know that isnt the case in most games)

 

[NovaJack]

While i understand why the following is the case (it makes things easy), its still aggravating that few devs cant think of something different.

The MC is always put in some idealistic or otherwise convenient monetary situation.
For example...
They are conveniently part of the minority of people who become/are a successful business owner.
They conveniently are left a fortune by "insert person here"
They have no 'wealth' but conveniently get 'given' housing and a job/income.
They are plucked form their life and have nothing but conveniently have a skill, known or new, that gives them a huge advantage when starting over.

It would be refreshing to see a MC that has a typical day job, that doesnt live in luxury, has to, at least for a portion of the game, struggle through every day life.

 

[AlBetGam]

When the game tells you the MC is a virgin (and he just turned 18) but he is sculpted like a greek god
Just give me an ugly-normal MC if you want a virgin, or if you want the MC to be a hot guy dont make it a virgin

(all of this is not a problem if the dev gives you a good story context of why a handsome guy is a virgin, but we know that isnt the case in most games)

Despite what movies and porn would have you believe most people aren't getting any as teenagers, even if they do look good.

 

[The Innsmouth Look]

the moronic best friend who contributes nothing to anyone but is constantly yanking the protagonist into the next plot arc by being stupid.

I hate character's like this. It's not just something from adult games either for me. My least favorite part of the Grand Theft Auto series is it seems every game has at least one character who is a complete dumbass that constantly needs you to save them from their own bad decisions.

 

[cosicosi89]

Sexy Landladies that don't demand rent and wear underwear as regular clothing !

 

[cinstumbro]

While i understand why the following is the case (it makes things easy), its still aggravating that few devs cant think of something different.

The MC is always put in some idealistic or otherwise convenient monetary situation.
For example...
They are conveniently part of the minority of people who become/are a successful business owner.
They conveniently are left a fortune by "insert person here"
They have no 'wealth' but conveniently get 'given' housing and a job/income.
They are plucked form their life and have nothing but conveniently have a skill, known or new, that gives them a huge advantage when starting over.

It would be refreshing to see a MC that has a typical day job, that doesnt live in luxury, has to, at least for a portion of the game, struggle through every day life.

Yeah I can understand why the unrealistic life situations would be immersion-breaking. It seems as though putting a person in a mundane life and trying to make an interesting porn game out of it would be difficult. The vaaaast majority of people that have normal lives would not have stories worth writing about in this genre of media lol. I am sure there is a niche story style that blends normal life and has tons of sex, but I would tend to believe that would get stale pretty quickly. Makes me wonder if there is ever really the perfect blend of escapism or if it is best that it varies game to game

 

[NovaJack]

Another one ..

MC's who make absolutely stupid decisions ..ones where you simply respond with "what ..the actual ..fk ?!" Decision so dumb, so idiotic, so unrealistic ..that it just ruins the game for at least that short while, while you sit there thinking 'the fk was the author smoking ?"

 

[AlBetGam]

Yeah I can understand why the unrealistic life situations would be immersion-breaking. It seems as though putting a person in a mundane life and trying to make an interesting porn game out of it would be difficult. The vaaaast majority of people that have normal lives would not have stories worth writing about in this genre of media lol. I am sure there is a niche story style that blends normal life and has tons of sex, but I would tend to believe that would get stale pretty quickly. Makes me wonder if there is ever really the perfect blend of escapism or if it is best that it varies game to game

I don't think there's any reason you couldn't tell a very interesting story about someone without giving them a deus ex machina wealth glitch. And really, plenty of games do exactly that- if anything, a character having normal money worries opens up story possibilities as they try to resolve/manage them.

 

[cinstumbro]

I don't think there's any reason you couldn't tell a very interesting story about someone without giving them a deus ex machina wealth glitch. And really, plenty of games do exactly that- if anything, a character having normal money worries opens up story possibilities as they try to resolve/manage them.

Yeah that does make sense. And I suppose wealth itself is only one aspect of writing a life; you could have someone with very realistic and relatable financial situation while allowing for the fantastic elsewhere. I imagine it really just comes down to whether a story has good writing or not, independent of the individual contributions

 

[ACBandit]

Another one ..

MC's who make absolutely stupid decisions ..ones where you simply respond with "what ..the actual ..fk ?!" Decision so dumb, so idiotic, so unrealistic ..that it just ruins the game for at least that short while, while you sit there thinking 'the fk was the author smoking ?"

Yes, I have dead stopped VNs after seeing where the idiot was going and yelling out, "Please...don't do that!" Others I just have to hold my nose and hope the dev steers it back on track...but they rarely do.