discussion What ruins a game?

[plainjane]

Fourth wall breaks, especially to point out a lack of quality or developer confidence as a "joke." Nothing says, "This is a fantastic game!" like a developer telling you through the mouths of his characters that his game is trash. If you ever feel compelled to do that, just hold the latest (or initial, in the case of games that start off with a fourth wall break of that kind) release back and polish it until you no longer feel compelled to nudge and wink at the audience about how crappy your game is.

There are games I've quit before I even got into the story itself because the fourth wall was broken in an annoying way at the beginning, usually to provide a "quirky" experience while naming your character and setting preferred content. I took that as a warning about what the rest of the game would be like, and decided it wasn't for me.

Another related peeve would be the developer deciding to waylay any plot or character progression to outright explain broad swathes of the characters' backgrounds, usually by having the main character monologue internally for an extended period at the beginning before a single real action is performed, or a word spoken. This can happen in chunks, around each time the MC first meets one of the principal characters from the player's perspective (bumps into mom, she gives a single line, and then there are fifteen paragraphs of MC's internal monologue about her past, their relationship and exposition of his desire for her instead of actually showing us any of these things through creative and heartfelt interactions in-story) or all at once (the MC just rants to himself in his head about every single aspect of his world, life and relations before a single thing happens).

I hate those sorts of openings. It's the equivalent of a novel's narration giving you a dry breakdown of global geopolitics before any characters appear on the page, or a movie having the characters tell each other things they already know so things can be hastily set up in the clumsiest way possible. It's info dumping taken to an extreme, and obtrusive at best when it appears.

you are right on with this. I get trying to create a back story or connection or whatever but unless the back story somehow comes into play later, then 90% of the time its not needed in these games. I'm not usually interested in the MC's failed lemonade stand as a kid and the story around the 448th time a dad mysteriously dies so the MC has to go live with his super hot mom and sisters. Just take me to it, I'll fill in my own back story.

 

[plainjane]

Balloon Tits

I second that. especially ones so awful its surprising the woman hasn't floated away

 

[caramba1234Qa!]

I second that. especially ones so awful its surprising the woman hasn't floated away

Agree, and other too large body parts. Sometimes it can serve a purpose for contrasting against other characters in the story in which case it is more acceptable.

 

[Karamchad]

many elements can significantly reduce a games quality, and that not only in games of this particular genre
ugly characters is a no brainer here. significant changes in the story considered jumping the shard. the globally detested ntr. focus on politics. absurd grinding values. lack of a proper save/load. lack of content overall or just focus in one repetitive aspect without any innovation. and above all censorship, the biggest game ruiner

 

[caramba1234Qa!]

A sandbox or branching game with no gallery or way to know if you have seen everything. Not necessarily a deal breaker but can be very frustrating.

 

[mettersan]

Having to enter relationships and names for every single character when you haven't even seen them. Just a pain in the ass.

 

[caramba1234Qa!]

Having to enter relationships and names for every single character when you haven't even seen them. Just a pain in the ass.

Agree, normally not too bad if there are default names/relationships, but if you have to enter text multiple times then it is bad.

 

[MattShizzle]

Any grinding at all ruins a game. When it's not even a game - like a KN or ones where there's only one "right" way to do everything.

 

[User_58844]

Corruption games that goes from 0-100 in five renders. The fun part of corruption games is the build up, not her being gangbanged by five men and a dog just because the dog winked at her.

 

[Farnuge]

Agree, normally not too bad if there are default names/relationships, but if you have to enter text multiple times then it is bad.

The purpose of this is to bypass Patreon censorship. If the author states they are family they'll get booted from Patreon, and thus not make the game. Your alternative is to just not have a game since the period to get approved anywhere else is years at this point. It is a necessary evil of dealing with Patreon.

 

[mettersan]

The purpose of this is to bypass Patreon censorship. If the author states they are family they'll get booted from Patreon, and thus not make the game. Your alternative is to just not have a game since the period to get approved anywhere else is years at this point. It is a necessary evil of dealing with Patreon.

just have an incest patch somewhere else. A lot of games do it. And that doesn't matter for naming pretty much every single character in the game.

 

[Farnuge]

just have an incest patch somewhere else. A lot of games do it. And that doesn't matter for naming pretty much every single character in the game.

A patch requires that your users are not lazy, somewhat technically inclined, and somewhat resourceful. A dialog box you cannot skip bypasses all of these problems at the low cost of inconvenience. I agree you don't need to name 'every' character. The devs could be a bit smarter and put something in place that if you make your Mom the Mom, and Sisters, Sisters, it fills in the rest secretly for you. But then again maybe Patreon goes through your code and checks. Who knows.

The point is, the simplest solution for the devs to not lose their money or customers is to (I guess) piss off a few lazy/proud people who can't be bothered to put in names/relationships. Most of those people (like us) probably pirated that game anyway.

 

[mettersan]

A patch requires that your users are not lazy, somewhat technically inclined, and somewhat resourceful. A dialog box you cannot skip bypasses all of these problems at the low cost of inconvenience. I agree you don't need to name 'every' character. The devs could be a bit smarter and put something in place that if you make your Mom the Mom, and Sisters, Sisters, it fills in the rest secretly for you. But then again maybe Patreon goes through your code and checks. Who knows.

The point is, the simplest solution for the devs to not lose their money or customers is to (I guess) piss off a few lazy/proud people who can't be bothered to put in names/relationships. Most of those people (like us) probably pirated that game anyway.

no, no, not "sister", "mom", "landlady" whatever. There are some devs that want you to name the relationship AND to name the characters: "Stacy", "John", whatever.

 

[Noci]

What ruins a game?

me.

 

[Loliholic]

just have an incest patch somewhere else. A lot of games do it. And that doesn't matter for naming pretty much every single character in the game.

I prefer to name core charas myself, i just dont like doing it on a black screen without seeing the charas.

 

[MattShizzle]

just have an incest patch somewhere else. A lot of games do it. And that doesn't matter for naming pretty much every single character in the game.

Except the Patreon Nazis actively look for that sort of thing.

 

[maximus]

no, no, not "sister", "mom", "landlady" whatever. There are some devs that want you to name the relationship AND to name the characters: "Stacy", "John", whatever.

what will annoy me is when they ask you that before the intro even starts and don't even give you a hint on what makes sense or context clues. "how am i suppose to know if this is my aunt, my cousin, or a random neighbor!"

if i have to restart cause the taboo relationship i put in makes no sense once the intro gets done thats a big red mark in my opinion. Deal breaker? no not usually.. but very annoying.

 

[uncbuck]

Furry, scat, RPGM, Bimbo tits and ass, sandbox, turn based combat, censored and grind all pretty much hit the "no way" bar for me . I will occasionally make exceptions if there is sharing, swinging or NTR. And a walkthrough integrated into the game helps as well.

 

[Condemned77]

When the main point of the story is given up on, i.e. a revenge story where the MC is too nice to take revenge or a long emotional story where they completely forget about all the angst and drama that has happened and declares everything forgiven in a single scene.

 

[MattShizzle]

Furry, scat, RPGM, Bimbo tits and ass, sandbox, turn based combat, censored and grind all pretty much hit the "no way" bar for me . I will occasionally make exceptions if there is sharing, swinging or NTR. And a walkthrough integrated into the game helps as well.

All the NTR stuff would be in the "no way" for me, as would "futa", "trap" or anything with a dick, at least for a male MC (futa either way. That shit's just weird.)