Different VN/Games in this genre are popular for different reasons sometimes... In some cases, it's the fanatical few that keep pushing a VN/Game into the spotlight, that may or may not artificially push a given VN/Game into feeling more popular then it would have been based on it's own merits/deficits...
Big Brother was one of those VN/Games, that I went into not having any clue what it included... I didn't read up on it, or listen to the hype being laid on thick by the fanatical fan base... I gave it a chance to stand on its own... And at first it was alright... But as soon as the Eric character came into play, it was all downhill from there... The Eric character, that for whatever sick reason/s, has been coppied many times since then, in various forms, in other VN/Games, which I then in turn didn't like at all, once again... The use of Netorare (NTR) in VN/Games is typically a theme that is forced on to the reader/player, rather then being an easily avoidable option... And even when it is avoidable, most of the time it is NOT avoidable quickly... For me NTR, creates more bad feelings (like frustration, hate, jealousy, stress, etc) that I don't really want to feel in something that I should be enjoying and having fun reading/playing, instead... You have folks who love that crap, but the vast majority don't... So Big Brother became this iconic point of contention, that for me, was something to be avoided, as much as possible... And my emotions run high when it comes to the inclusion of unavoidable NTR, or NTR that is not easily and quickly avoidable in an obvious way... Hence my disdain for Big Brother...
Dating My Daughter Chapter 1, was one of my first goes at a popular and lengthy Erotic Visual Novels... It was the first time I saw the character model, used for the Daughter... And I had no clue at that moment, how fucking over used that model would become, once the incest gold rush began following this specific VN/Games popularity... Now, all that said, I enjoyed Chapter 1 for the most part, as I am a sucker for any good Romance story... Even if it did include the whole overused Incest theme... But, once Chapter 2 began production, that is when I had to call it off... Chapter 2 felt like it was going backwards... The daughter had already had sex with the protagonist, and the relationship was already becoming deeper and so forth, from all the content and buildup in Chapter 1... So when suddenly the daughter went from being the protagonists new lover, with way more confidence in herself then how she started in the beginning of chapter 1... To suddenly being all insecure about herself and her sexuality again in Chapter 2, I knew from that point forward that this was starting to look like a milk job... By reversing some of that progress made in Chapter 1, the story flow and character development was slowed down (and slightly reversed), in such a way as to feel like it was just a ploy to prolong development... So I stopped following it... So DMD Chapter 1 great, DMD Chapter 2 hated it... The VN had lost it's way and it's mojo...
My Girlfriends Amnesia seemed very popular, even if it used the dreaded RPGM engine... At first I was reluctant to even give it a try, based purely on the fact that I really don't like RPGM based VN/Games... But I wanted to at least give it a go, as I have a tendency to at least give some VN/Games the benefit of the doubt before trying and reviewing them... So I tried it, and of course I didn't like the game play mechanics that are so inherent in a majority of RPG Maker based VN/Games... Yet, I still tried to trudge along... As soon as I saw how over the top and stereo typed the evil twin sister was, I began to get an overall sense that I was probably not going to like how things were going to go for the male protagonist... It was going to be a slow and painful path to subduing or overcoming an over the top twin sister, who had her own evil plans for her sister, that were not always going to mesh with the protagonists plans... So add in the RPGM crap with a confrontational start to the story that would only exacerbate the story progression and game play, I just had to call it quits... An hour into the game and I was done...
Superpowered was one of few VN/Games where at first you like the premise of the story, and it was different from other grinders, during the time it began becoming more popular... How different? I soon found out... The repetitive grind alongside a social choice puzzle (figuring out the subjects a given character liked or disliked when talking to them), and the huge list of characters, made getting anywhere with a given character, a highly tedious prospect... The length of time it took to get to new or slightly altered content, was a bit ridiculous... Add in all the other grinding elements like certain times at certain locations, along with various stats and other stuff... This game was my first experience with a massively grindy game in this market... After several hours of getting negative numbers with some characters, and barely scratching the surface of anything new, I just had to call it quits and move on... And what was funny, is that Superpowered's social game system has been copied into other VN/Games, due to it's popularity at the time, making them just as bad... Another example where popularity and/or high donation numbers, kicked off a trend amongst some newer developers, trying to ride the coat tails of a more popular title... Some folks are into heavy grinders, but if it's too tedious of a grind, for me it isn't worth it...
There are others, but those were the big ones I thought of right away...
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