I've read: "rpgm games are shit. i don't need to run around in a fucking porn game."
I would like to know what most of you guys are mostly into. Do you read and want to experience the STORY. Or do you just click the text away and want to see tits and fucking and stroke the shit ottta you?
For me the reason I prefer games, comics, etc over other more popular mediums is the story. An emotional payoff makes the sex better. That said, RPGM games aren't usually that great on the story. Don't get me wrong, I've played a few which I enjoyed the sex in, but I wasn't engaged in them. Furthermore, I'm doing this as an escape from reality. The last thing I want to do in a game is simulate having to worry about going to work and saving money.
As a developer I'm avoiding work, for the most part, in my first story because my characters are still living at home. They'll need an income for immersion, so when the time comes they'll get a modelling job. Taking sexy pictures is anything but mundane, so it allows for income and a sexualised environment. In future projects, when I use adult characters, the work element won't be a grind. It'll be there as an environment in which the character interacts with the story, not as a senseless grind for resources.
I think the reason I prefer the VN format is that it allows for this more structured story that continues to evolve. I think the setup of most RPGM, wherin the character is jobless prior to the start and has to get a job that will serve their sexual adventures in the future is simply a drag on story. In reality getting a job is a stressful and time consuming experience. Maintaining that job becomes your entire world. As a result it seems like the games who use this mechanic use it so that there's some artificial tension in your character's otherwise leisurely existence. It makes for a less engaging story.
Coming back to what I mentioned about what work will be for my games, imagine even in an RPGM game, if your character started already having a job. Then imagine if the time spent at said job wasn't a minigame (thinking MotH here) or a thing to click through (Thinking My summer with Mom & Sis and I'm sure plenty of others that I've ignored for this mechanic alone.) But an environment that you have to interact with. Dreaming of Dana, and The Gift Reloaded use work in this way, you chat up your coworkers, you get some work done, you even trigger some public sex and dating options through work. Both of them use Ren'py, but that doesn't mean that you couldn't use their idea similarly in an RPGM.
Then we have the way RPGM tend to approach resources and stats. In almost every RPGM you begin the game as a scrub. You are now, and were nothing before this game. It's almost as if you suddenly spring into being with other people having memories of you. MSwM&S is a perfect example of this. You have no charisma, no intelligence, no strength to start. You somehow lucked into college without apparently doing anything your whole life. This blank slate concept bugs the hell out of me in all RPGs, not just porn.
A quality writer will give a character a base, something that they are good at. An example of this in mainstream games would be The Witcher. You are a Witcher. You know your monsters, potions, spells, and swordplay associated with your class. You have skills according to your class, like his enhanced senses. As a result, while you do start out at a lower level and progress through the game to gain greater strength and skill, you don't feel the grind, because it all happens naturally in the course of the character's story.
That doesn't mean that you can't have a character start as a blank slate. That's essentially the crux of the heroes journey. However, in the heroes journey a mentor character sets you on a defined path and teaches you the basic skills necessary, so that as the story naturally progresses you continue to evolve a specific set of skills. So lets apply this to your basic RPGM. Rather than having your kid have a shit father who wants to get rid of him, make that father his mentor. If he doesn't have a father, have him find a mentor elsewhere. Give your character a job at some place and his older coworker can give him pointers and challenges to increase his skills.
Don't make these about grinding on nonsense. If he sends you to the library to do some research make a unique topic that you have to research, have a small quest in which you have to talk to the mousey librarian about finding something. Make that the impetus for giving you a reason to go to the library. Have him slowly convince her to open up to him. Get rid of silly things like intelligence and strength and replace them with practical knowledge and tools. If your character doesn't begin the game athletic, then rather than making them go to the gym to gain a stat, have them outthink the situation. If a girl's car is stuck on the side of the road, don't force a strength check, have him use a tow line to get her to the gas station. Then, if she's an option, have him ask for her number then make them date, don't play games with she will only date you if your strength is high enough to move her car.
Lastly, make your supporting characters just as proactive as your protagonist. Too many games, not just RPGMs, force you to constantly convince people that you're worth their time. There should be give and take in every relationship, and spending 5 days grinding to afford a rose so that you can give her a gift that leads to her being willing to give you a handjob isn't an equal relationship. In real life there are few times in which you grind and grind in order to be able to afford to date someone. You date people who are in your league. If you're working minimum wage you're either dating someone who can take care of themselves, or you're dating someone who doesn't expect you to buy her shiny things.
While we are back on the subject of money. RPGM games and all games really have no sense of value. In most of america, unless you work for tips, any minimum wage worker working no less than full time is making no more than 15k annually. In other countries you might be able to get away with having a character who doesn't pay bills work 15 to 20 hours and make that much. But this is $288 a week. So, make the game world reflect that. If this is what your character is making then they need to live in a world where it's possible to buy normal items on so little. You can't make a character who's working for so little save up $1000 for lingerie, they would never even consider shopping somewhere where it would cost that much. Seriously. look at Victoria's secret. Plenty of sexy lingerie, most of which ranges from 30 to 70 bucks. A person that has no other expenses could reasonably buy their love interest lingerie.
So many games make this mistake of treating money like it's no object and having characters shop in fancy high fashion shops. Teddy bears costing 150 dollars from the local shop, 1000 dollar pieces of jewelry, 500 dollar range items like perfumes and sex toys and so on and so forth. If a character has less than 300 a week to work with, those stores are invisible to them. They're going right past them to a more reasonable place. You can buy a sexy wardrobe and makeup and perfume and gifts for the price of most of the things these games make you grind for.
Now, you might say, well yeah, but what if she really likes that bikini and so you decide to save up and buy it for her? This isn't the kind of thing that happens often in the real world, and when you're not already in a relationship a move like that will backfire soooo fast. No girl that isn't willing to give you more is going to accept such an expensive gift. They'll refuse. When you insist you will actually harm your chances with them because they become suspicious of your intentions, and have shown that you think their affection is for sale.
I know, this is a long and incoherent rant, but these mechanics bother the hell out of me. They aren't entertaining. They're stressful and infuriating. Like the millions of gambling simulators out there posing as mobile games on itunes and google play.
