Do you prefer to play Harem games with or without male competition?

[Porthas]

A lot of my opinions are well received, but sometimes I can totally MISS THE MARK. This post I made was totally disliked:

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I'm thinking that overcoming some struggle, to get the girl, would make things more interesting? If the struggle shouldn't be male competition, then what trials and obstacles should the Harem lover have to go through, in order to get the girl?

Are you Harem lovers down for male competition, or can you do without it?

There's this game called Corruption; you go around mind controlling the women, but you're essentially eliminating your competition through mind control, so there is actually some kind of male competition, in some small degree. You've acquired a great power over competing males, and you get the women that way.

Do you want to be challenged in order to get a full blown Harem? If so, in what ways? If not, then you want a more relaxed setting?

I personally prefer male competition, but without seeing male faces. They're just there as meaningful obstacles that will make the reward sweeter.

I'm not sure why a struggle has to involve male competition.

A harem in and of itself is an extraordinary situation. I generally like stories where the MC helps the women through tough situations or saves their life. A lot of isekei anime has the MC like buying slave girls that are fodder for creeper dudes or corrupt cults/evil organizations. But that's not really male competition to me.

Male competition is more like MC is, say a gentle soul and his competition is more athletic so MC has to train and prove to the girls he's an alpha - yeah I'm not interested in that.

I'm not really into creepy shit like mind control, but probably an option for "helpful" mind control would be interesting. For example, hypnosis was experimented with to treat people addicted to smoking. So like - hypnosis to make a person less inclined to be an ass.

I think the main appeal of a harem for me is an MC who can help and provide for the people he cares about. Either financially, physically, magically, whatever. He doesn't have to be The Chosen One but being at least mostly chad goes a long way.

MC's who are afraid of girls, get flustered all the time like a 12 year old who think girls have cooties, or gets bullied - no bueno.

MC's who are clueless that a girl likes them or are totally unaware of a dangerous situation that they should plainly be aware of - no bueno.

Mary Sue MC's - no bueno. The girls and other characters should all bring something interesting to the story, not everything has to be solved by the MC.

By the way, it's not only male competition that I prefer to avoid - it's also female. I don't ever want to be a third wheel to a girl/girl relationship. It's odd porn logic that a female relationship "doesn't count" the same way a male one does. They're different, but not that different. The human ego likes to be #1 - so all participants in a relationship need to feel like they're important.

 

[Porthas]

From what I've seen on this forum, even simple mini-games are a struggle for harem lovers.

They seem to be a struggle for everybody. And more than half the time the devs are learning how to make a game, so the mini games are bugged or odd. This even happens in professionally developed games, so it's not surprising really.

 

[clowns234]

They seem to be a struggle for everybody. And more than half the time the devs are learning how to make a game, so the mini games are bugged or odd. This even happens in professionally developed games, so it's not surprising really.

I think it would be more fun creating a mini-game then actually playing them. I tend to by-pass them whenever I can.

 

[Porthas]

It's increasingly difficult to not take shots

It's very easy to take shots on the internet, where everyone is safely in their own home behind a screen. And everyone does it, to some degree. It's all very common and banal.

Probably the one's who employ self-discipline and self-restraint to get across points in a calm and polite fashion are a smidge rare. Though of course that doesn't mean they're always right.

when the harem Karens conjure up a shitstorm

Everyone conjures up shit storms on the internet. It's sadly not exclusive to "harem Karens", whatever that means. But internet shit-storms are hardly relevant, since these boards provide easy ways to filter out just about anything you don't wanna see. Even without the filters, one can simple *not read* posts they don't like.

every time there's a non-virgin female character.

See the point above. And really why care about it? People want what they want, typing at someone on the internet isn't going to change any minds. Just put them on ignore if what they're saying bothers you.

Escapism is all well and good, but how is the need to escape from real women not the cringiest thing ever?

Well this would make most porn cringy. And not just porn. Most of fantasy - except extremely well written fantasy - simplifies people and characters to a vast degree for various reasons. Most of the women and men in these games don't feel "real" regardless of the tags or genre or whatever.

Is the thought that women can be sexually active really so traumatic that it's a big deal every time it's represented in male power fantasies?

Again people are gonna want what they want. There's a ton of porn out there where "virgins" are losing their cherry. How's your crusade going, to stop that?

There's a ton of fetishes out there that simply baffle me, I will never understand them. At best I can ask questions about them. At worst, people can try to belittle the one's they don't like on the internet - which accomplishes nothing

I think in the end it's just up to the consumer to tell the devs what they want. Then the dev can make an informed decision and do what they want.

 

[Porthas]

I think it would more fun creating a mini-game then actually playing them. I tend to by-pass them whenever I can.

Yeah, even "fun" mini games get old fast. Like the mini games in Mass Effect, as just one of many examples.

 

[Porthas]

In before "mY wAiFuS mUsT bE InNoCeNT vIrGiNsss wHo OnLy Lo0ks at MeEeE!"

Seriously, though. Harems are pure male fantasy. They don't want to fight for a woman to drool over them, then just want them on their knees cock-gobbling as soon as possible.

Nah the whole "white knight" thing is a thing. Guys like stories where MC accomplishes things to show they care for the women around them. It's generally a part of the generic "hero's journey". Some guys like the stories where they battle other males and win, and some don't and wanna fight different battles. I see a lot of dating sims where the battle is to hit all the right romance flags.

This is why projects like WVM appeal to a certain subset of people

WVM is pretty much a "what it's like to be a celebrity" simulator in a lot of ways. That's... beyond harem, lol. Well, unless you count something like a monarch/ruler's harem. But then again a monarch/ruler was for much of history the "celebrities" of their time.

 

[MasterGamer1234567890]

Why does it have to be a competition? Why can't the MC share or rent his harem girls to other men?

 

[Yngling]

Why does it have to be a competition? Why can't the MC share or rent his harem girls to other men?

You realise you are playing with your life here, right?

 

[Simulacrum29]

You realise you are playing with your life here, right?

Why? We hold ourselves to a standard. That also means never engaging in a battle of wits with an unarmed man.

 

[YaYa_UnTIN2]

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