VN Ren'Py Eruption Imminent [v0.4.0] [MorriganRae]

[Zhulok]

I haven't seen anybody mention yet that the same "looking at her phone at the right moment" red herring wasn't only used for Delilah, but for the gym lady, too. My theory is that gym lady does creepy stuff at her gym and Natasha will come to Ashe's rescue and shut the gym down to show character growth and that beneath the predator vibes she's a good gal actually, who hates duplocists.

I was a bit surprised I didn't see more people bring up Siri cause it felt to me she was being propped up as one of the possible culprits of the blackmail. The fact we get a shot of her holding her phone and shooting a look at Ashe as she's heading to the locker room. Then almost immediately entering the locker room after Ashe sent the pictures acting kind of weird like she knows something. It felt like she was relishing in the fact that she was messing with Ashe and getting away with it. Could just be flirting but idk.
We know thanks to Rape Cop that Siri has Ashe's phone number but maybe Ashe doesn't know her number, also it did seem weird to me that she apparently told Rape Cop that Ashe was looking for her as if she misunderstood Ashe's obvious intent when asking about her. It just felt like Siri was being low-key antagonistic to Ashe in some ways.

With all that said I still think Delilah is the biggest suspect with Siri possibly being prime suspect number two. I don't think Rape Cop is going to come to Ashe's rescue though... at least not intentionally.

 

[Hungover00]

I was a bit surprised I didn't see more people bring up Siri cause it felt to me she was being propped up as one of the possible culprits of the blackmail. The fact we get a shot of her holding her phone and shooting a look at Ashe as she's heading to the locker room. Then almost immediately entering the locker room after Ashe sent the pictures acting kind of weird like she knows something. It felt like she was relishing in the fact that she was messing with Ashe and getting away with it. Could just be flirting but idk.
We know thanks to Rape Cop that Siri has Ashe's phone number but maybe Ashe doesn't know her number, also it did seem weird to me that she apparently told Rape Cop that Ashe was looking for her as if she misunderstood Ashe's obvious intent when asking about her. It just felt like Siri was being low-key antagonistic to Ashe in some ways.

With all that said I still think Delilah is the biggest suspect with Siri possibly being prime suspect number two. I don't think Rape Cop is going to come to Ashe's rescue though... at least not intentionally.

Siri does seem to have some circumstances in her favour. No really clear opportunity to find out Ashe is a duplo, but there could be creepier methods, like cameras in the showers or something. Motive is pretty nebulous too, but might just be opportunistic, find a shy duplo, blackmail said duplo.

It's less satisfying from a plot and character angle, because she's barely in the story and doesn't have a strong connection to Ashe, but it could work out as a reveal after a false accusation against Delilah (if she's a red herring).

 

[dolfe67]

Same goes for the use of 'Goddess': Why use the feminine form when there should never have been a male one?

Yeah I also ticked about the use of exclusive female forms for everyone even though there is not really genders.

But the neutral form is the male form, as we live in a patriarcal society and god is represented as a male. They/them for neutral is recent and is originally for plural. Just have to get used to it.

 

[robin312]

The interesting thing for me is that without males, and a lack for male pronouns, but futas without vags there rather should be neutral, female and futa pronouns, because those are the lines of delineation here.

For me they are all girls anyway
Futas, duplos, ordinary girls are all girls

 

[clrgm]

I wish there were more diversity in this game. I'm not saying it should turn into a Disney or Netflix show but at least make it a little more realistic. There's one asian(secondary character), very few nameless black girls, 0 latin and 99% of the rest of the cast is white.

 

[Ciaran8023]

I wish there were more diversity in this game. I'm not saying it should turn into a Disney or Netflix show but at least make it a little more realistic. There's one asian(secondary character), very few nameless black girls, 0 latin and 99% of the rest of the cast is white.

I mean, characters can always be introduced into the story.
Plus, Ashe doesn't exactly have a large group of friends, so it isn't too much of a surprise that they aren't especially diverse right now. I mean hell, basically the only friend that Ashe truly has had through the years is Fiona.

But good point nonetheless, would be nice to see some other characters being introduced that aren't tylenol white like myself.

 

[asdf1234asdf1234]

I love this game so much. The characters, the writing, the visuals.. all great! Thanks for making it dev

 

[TheLecher]

I wish there were more diversity in this game. I'm not saying it should turn into a Disney or Netflix show but at least make it a little more realistic. There's one asian(secondary character), very few nameless black girls, 0 latin and 99% of the rest of the cast is white.

Do you want realistic? If so, you've already got it. The demographics which have thus far been shown in the game are realistic.

I suspect that, when you ask for more diversity, you aren't too concerned with what is or isn't realistic.

 

[Kontralta]

The interesting thing for me is that without males, and a lack for male pronouns, but futas without vags there rather should be neutral, female and futa pronouns, because those are the lines of delineation here. Referring to a duplo as "it" might even be an insult in such a culture.
Same goes for the use of 'Goddess': Why use the feminine form when there should never have been a male one?

Idk, those are just a few small and rather insignificant thoughts I had when playing. In other games, I doubt I would even bother voicing those, but EI is written well enough that those things stand out, and I care enough to wonder about them.

---

That all aside, I actually just came here to say thank you to MorriganRae for the game, and the sizeable update.
The writing is remarkably strong, and in a world where so many lewd games don't even take the hurdle of 'understandable English', it stands out like a beacon. I may not be a super-fan of the whole "dominant asshole/demon", "voyeur" and "kind, submissive bitch" trichotomy, but I am thankful that I am going to get to tell the rapey cop to take a hike instead having to suffer her advances endlessly.

They don't have males, so the female form is the only one they can have. Futa without a vagina is also a “she”, why should it be different? And there must be a “goddess”, because they only have women.

 

[Kontralta]

But the neutral form is the male form, as we live in a patriarcal society and god is represented as a male. They/them for neutral is recent and is originally for plural. Just have to get used to it.

But they do not live in a patriarchal society, they only have women, so for them the neutral form, and the only one, is female form.

 

[clrgm]

Do you want realistic? If so, you've already got it. The demographics which have thus far been shown in the game are realistic.

I suspect that, when you ask for more diversity, you aren't too concerned with what is or isn't realistic.

Just because most of the characters shown are white doesn't mean it's demographic, it could mean the dev has their preference. It is impossible for a civilization to have an ethnicity that prevails so much over others, unless some messed up history has happened recently(you know what I'm talking about). So no, it's not realistic.

 

[Kontralta]

It is impossible for a civilization to have an ethnicity that prevails so much over others.

In all civilization this is impossible. But in a certain continent, country or city it is quite possible.

 

[Corvair]

They don't have males, so the female form is the only one they can have. Futa without a vagina is also a “she”, why should it be different? And there must be a “goddess”, because they only have women.

Our female pronoun does not really make sense if there is no contrasting form, not unlike a lone 'Yin' without its 'Yang'. It's a relic from how we do it in English, and in our reality - but for their world and society it makes not much sense because they apparently do not even know what a man is.

Maybe it's easier to wrap your head around with the term Goddess: The -ess suffix denotes the semantic feature of "female, as distinct from male". Actress, heiress, lioness, and so on. But a culture that has no male form (or really a concept of men) would not need to attach that particular semantic feature since it carries no meaning in that society - the distinction is not necessary, it lacks a reason to be there. It would make much more sense if they had their own word instead one that requires the presence of the male genus to make sense.

As said: I don't think it's a big issue - it's just a small incongruency in world building, and one that would take a bit of thought and effort to solve, because the thought structure of the audience, and the thought structure of the persons in the story (edit: and through that, their use of language), are somewhat different: Their main line of gender distinction is not male/female, but female/futa. If they address that distinction in their language use, it would make more sense along that line instead of ours.

 

[Kontralta]

Our female pronoun does not really make sense if there is no contrasting form, not unlike a lone 'Yin' without its 'Yang'. It's a relic from how we do it in English, and in our reality - but for their world and society it makes not much sense because they apparently do not even know what a man is.

Maybe it's easier to wrap your head around with the term Goddess: The -ess suffix denotes the semantic feature of "female, as distinct from male". Actress, heiress, lioness, and so on. But a culture that has no male form (or really a concept of men) would not need to attach that particular semantic feature since it carries no meaning in that society - the distinction is not necessary, it lacks a reason to be there. It would make much more sense if they had their own word instead one the requires the presence of the male genus to make sense.

As said: I don't think it's a big issue - it's just a small incongruency in world building, and one that would take a bit of thought and effort to solve, because the thought structure of the audience, and the thought structure of the persons in the story, are somewhat different: Their main line of gender distinction is not male/female, but female/futa. If they address that distinction in their language use, it would make more sense along that line instead of ours.

It is in our world that it has such meaning. But in their world it may have a different meaning. Futa is also called "woman" and "girl" there. Why complicate everything when you can make it simpler and clearer?

 

[Corvair]

Why complicate everything when you can make it simpler and clearer?

Well, it would make for really great world building (think how Tolkien invented whole languages plus etymology for his books)! I just love it when an author shows me they put a lot more thought into their work than I expect, especially in a genre where we generally do not expect such care and consideration.

That I even found it noticeable enough to think about mostly shows that MorriganRae's writing has impressed me enough to enjoy thinking along with it. In most other adult works, I would have not even have thought about the 'correct' pronoun structure in a society without men because they usually don't put a lot of effort into their writing anyway, so I kinda just 'read over' stuff that makes no sense - most of it being much more blatant and less excusable than this really minor example.

 

[Kontralta]

Well, it would make for really great world building (think how Tolkien invented whole languages plus etymology for his books)! I just love it when an author shows me they put a lot more thought into their work than I expect, especially in a genre where we generally do not expect such care and consideration.

That I even found it noticeable enough to think about mostly shows that MorriganRae's writing has impressed me enough to enjoy thinking along with it. In most other adult works, I would have not even have thought about the 'correct' pronoun structure in a society without men because they usually don't put a lot of effort into their writing anyway, so I kinda just 'read over' stuff that makes no sense - most of it being much more blatant and less excusable than this really minor example.

The world is built well enough for this story. Players have asked questions like, what is the difference between futa and duplo? Why is Ashe worried that she is a duplo, if there are many like her around? Futa must have both genitals, why are women with dick but no vagina called futa? There were many such questions. If the developer had made things even more complicated by coming up with many new terms, this would have raised even more unnecessary questions.

 

[dolfe67]

Their main line of gender distinction is not male/female, but female/futa. If they address that distinction in their language use, it would make more sense along that line instead of ours.

Yeah it's quite confusing and not very well thought-out that they wouldn't use different pronouns for female and futa in their world. Except that minor detail, it's well written though.

 

[Kontralta]

Yeah it's quite confusing and not very well thought-out that they wouldn't use different pronouns for female and futa in their world. Except that minor detail, it's well written though.

No, the different pronouns will be confusing. It is not need.

 

[gregers]

Well, it would make for really great world building (think how Tolkien invented whole languages plus etymology for his books)! I just love it when an author shows me they put a lot more thought into their work than I expect, especially in a genre where we generally do not expect such care and consideration.

That I even found it noticeable enough to think about mostly shows that MorriganRae's writing has impressed me enough to enjoy thinking along with it. In most other adult works, I would have not even have thought about the 'correct' pronoun structure in a society without men because they usually don't put a lot of effort into their writing anyway, so I kinda just 'read over' stuff that makes no sense - most of it being much more blatant and less excusable than this really minor example.

Not all languages use binary-gendered pronouns. It might help to imagine the gameworld as simply using a different language where pronouns don't convey gender (and where words like 'Goddess' aren't secondary formations derived from a masculine form). Female-with-a-vagina, female-with-a-penis, and female-with-both do not seem coded as highly distinct gender identities within the game world.

 

[Alley_Cat]

...
The interesting thing for me is that without males, and a lack for male pronouns, but futas without vags there rather should be neutral, female and futa pronouns, because those are the lines of delineation here. Referring to a duplo as "it" might even be an insult in such a culture.
Same goes for the use of 'Goddess': Why use the feminine form when there should never have been a male one?
...

Possibly for the same reason they use modern music in "A Knight's Tale". Sure, David Bowie or Queen isn't historically accurate for something set in Medieval times, but using historically accurate music wouldn't evoke the emotions that are intended for a particular scene.