Why is the Male protagonist in College genre so popular?

[PythonTython]

I was just browsing through VNs that I've played and also looking for new games and noticed there's a shit tonne of games where the male protagonist has just started college. A lot of the games have very similar aspects and In my opinion are just boring dupes of others. Is the genre/setting just a way to start a game with no imagination? Or do people just enjoy this genre more than others? Out of all games, I can only think of 3-4 I've really enjoyed and most of the others are just meh.

I do enjoy it when there's a twist put on it, like Lust Academy (Basically Harry Potter like, if you've not played it). Of course, Being a Dik is the gold standard in this genre which also may have had an impact on its popularity. Am I missing anything or do you guys have a similar opinion?

 

[Meaning Less]

There are 1524 games with the school setting tag, it has always been a somewhat popular setting.

 

[redknight00]

Mostly because of badik.

 

[Joshy92]

I think it might have been because people saw the success of Being a Dik
And hoped their game could be as popular.
That's just my opinion of course.

 

[Joshy92]

Mostly because of badik.

I just typed that at the same time as you lol

 

[chainedpanda]

I think there's several factors at play. Being a DIk absolutely plays a role, but I think its a pretty minor one all things considered. Clones are a reality, but its also true that the setting was popular even before Being a Dik became the biggest game.

One massive reason is likely pop culture, especially around the 2000s when most of us likely lived through. Movies like American Pie, Van Wilder and others were huge around that time. Even then, this style of comedy had existed back in the 80s with Porky's. So, this likely has a major impact as well.

There is also the fact that millions of young people grew up with the idea that college was filled with massive parties and sexy chicks. Since the vast majority of people never actually experience such things, its only natural that the fantasy persists.

What about the setting itself? Its actually pretty perfect. Name a place where the protagonist can be surrounded by a diverse cast of female characters both young and old? The obvious answer would be a school setting. College is the safer option since having a porn game based in high-school is a bit sketch in general (even if I prefer this setting).

There are likely even more reasons why, and I can think of at least one more but this reply is too long. Regardless, I simply think its natural for the setting to be as popular as it is. That simple really.

 

[Chalker]

1) School is relatable to just about anyone. I guess that's something.
2) School settings force interaction between people, making them easier to write
3) A lot of stories, adult or not, contain a school setting, so it's easy to get inspired to make your own.

 

[MarshmallowCasserole]

School settings have always been popular, both in porn and in traditional media. Plenty of anime and hentai are set in school, college or magical equivalent thereof, and I assure you they weren't influenced by some WEG. Plenty of western fiction has a school setting too. Kim Possible, Harry Potter, Totally Spies; the list goes on and on.

The reason is simple, school experience is pretty universal in the modern world. If you're writing about a young adult in any time period that is more developed than quasi-medieval times, them not attending a school of some sort would be actually weird.

The advantages of school settings in a game are fairly pronounced: relatable, give a plausible reason for interaction with any number of fuckable characters (classmates and teachers), some base structure of game loops (school day, semester), some potential chores for the player to take care of (studies).

 

[♍VoidTraveler]

Typical Monke is not very creative, so it copies what other Monke is doing.
Monke is typically very good at copying you see.

 

[nulnil]

I imagine because it's very easy to use as a setting. No need to do either worldbuilding or write a backstory.

 

[Hagatagar]

Actually, a certain (large?, small?) part of those actually rather want to take place in the high school years, but... for obvious reasons (*cough* Patreon *cough*) they are aged up.

 

[anne O'nymous]

1) School is relatable to just about anyone. I guess that's something.
2) School settings force interaction between people, making them easier to write
3) A lot of stories, adult or not, contain a school setting, so it's easy to get inspired to make your own.

4) It's an easy way to give a motivation to the MC ; he's virgin and want to finally have sex.
5) It permit to have innocent girls who know near to nothing about sex and will offer the usual low pace (handjob, blowjob, ...).

 

[HarveyD]

Guy goes to class and fucks is an easier story to write than... an actual story. And as negative as that sounds if it's you're first VN then it's not the worst place to start so I don't blame them.

 

[Metal Panic]

4) It's an easy way to give a motivation to the MC ; he's virgin and want to finally have sex.

......digitally!

Why is the Male protagonist in College genre so popular?

Could be many reasons. I wonder though, if there were more Female Protagonists in a school setting and not many Male Protagonist ones, would it still be the same?

 

[khumak]

In the context of an adult game, college age is the youngest age that you could "start from the beginning". Younger than that would be underage, thus pretty much everything not targetting a middle age storyline is going to target college age. High school is off limits unless you make the assumption that everyone involved is a moron who was held back several years so they could still be in high school while also being over 18.

 

[Machete]

We want to be young again?

 

[Artemissu]

Probably because college is the one setting that's the most ripe for sexual fantasies. I still recall my days back in college, that i'd occasionally overhear the guy or girl talking about their sexual life to their friends, about their relationship with their partner, etc. Some of them would even have children already.

And as the saying goes, "art imitates life" and everyone enjoys some relatability to their stories, and college stories are relatable to a lot of people.

 

[allanl9020142]

I was going to give my 2 cents but chainedpanda said literally everything.
Therefore, I second what he said.

 

[hakarlman]

I'm with the OP. I don't understand the allure.

1. Go to college (predictable)
2. Go to party (predictable)
3. Get laid (predictable)
4. Repeat (predictable)

I imagine a college porn game can have interesting twists and surprise, but getting past the initial mundaneness of the world in the beginning is too difficult for me... Although, I can imagine many find solace and comfort in that predictability for x reasons.

I tried that game Being A DIK, and the intro was so boring, I could feel my brain dying; at no fault of the dev, because he found his target audience (awesome), which is clearly not me or the OP.

 

[Winterfire]

I do not think it is because of "Being a Dik", I am a huge fan of the game to the point I'd consider it to be easily the best western game that i've tried (At least when it comes to 3DCG), but even so I consider its main storyline the weakest point. It shines pretty much everywhere else.

I think the school setting is due to the age range of the MCs, which is either relatable or brings nostalgia. In general, that age range is perfect and the most common for these games.
Sure, you could still have the MC working instead, but... Why not work AND go to college as well? That's more stuff, and more ways to meet heroines.
Even if the story hook is something completely different, you can still throw the school setting in as something extra, which can even be the only normal part of the story if you have supernatural elements or other things going on in the story.