- Sep 26, 2019
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Honestly, it's not the writing that visual novels seem to struggle with, it's the characters. People just can't seem to write interesting characters, and without a good MC I really could care less what story you're trying to tell.Innovation requires a creator that tries something different, a concept, if you let the players tell you what to do they will just want the creator to do a copy of similar games and nothing else.
It's true that just because it's something new and different it doesn't mean that it is good or enjoyable, but it is much better than doing just another copy paste without a soul.
Well, if it comes down to whether or not the NTR should be avoidable, you're not really doing anything different. I've yet to see NTR used as something aside from punishing the player or a soul-crushing eventuality. Why don't creators ever use reverse NTR(where the woman is the masochist looking to be cucked), could also be paired with BDSM for added spice? Or a netori where you cuck the fat bastard rather than playing as the ugly rapist?However something more interesting is, the player's opinnion vary a lot, for example let's say NTR, you will get the following opinnions:
-Yay, I want it unavoidable
-Okay, but I hope it isn't unavoidable
-Hope it is optional and I don't have to deal with it
-Where can I turn it off?
-Shit, why waste time adding something like that?! NTR fucks all games in which it appears.
What group would you support as a creator?, overall this is a choice that you have as a developer. It doesn't matter which choice you take in the end you can't satisfy everyone.
If your only choice is over whether to allow the players to see the same dude get cucked by the same guy then you're not really doing anything new, it's just "you guys want a standard vanilla game or standard NTR?"Use NTR in a way that doesn't make the player feel like shit or that he has done something wrong, but instead spices up a romance with an interesting fantasy a straight male can get behind.
For example, a harem with femdom and femsub in a reverse NTR, with the femdom using your dick as leverage to cuck another woman while you sit back and enjoy the ride. Something so simple has never actually been used despite it being a rather hot fantasy for S&M fans.

That is more to do with the environment of VN games as of present. Going back to your NTR example, there are A LOT of NTR games coming out as of recent and nobody can quite figure out why. Not sure how it is in Japan but in the west NTR isn't all that popular, probably the most decisive fetish since bestiality. So, why companies keep translating entire NTR series with the main game, all of its sequels, side stories, and fan disks while both vanilla and other fetishes are pretty much ignored is unknown to the VN buying public. So, when a new developer comes forward and says "okay, I want to create a "new" game with NTR elements" people can't really figure out why. Especially the "NTR elements" thing, the whole premise of standard NTR is that it's an eventuality you can't really escape, you aren't being punished for something you did, bad things happen to good people in the most soul crushing method. So, avoidable NTR tends to involve a hassle with no rewards(such as grinding for levels in an RPG as opposed to watching lewds).Then we get those people that say "all fetishes should be optional in a game", that is the worst opinnion ever, first of all there are circunstances at which scenes shouldn't be optional, for example being defeated by an enemy and having the character raped is one, plots that are developing and that you don't solve soon enough is another one, overall conflicts require action and the lack of it is a reason for something to happen.
I honestly think it's simply because an NTR story is easy to write, confirmed nice guy protagonist gets his wife stolen by an asshole with a bigger dick, it pretty much plays to the standard MC's personality: a dull piece of styrofoam tugged along by the whims of others. In NTR he is basically a fly on the wall, so you don't have to characterize him to make the story work. Only time I've seen an interesting twist on NTR is
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which is a yaoi and basically the plot is the netori who is tired of women getting pregnant and decides to try to steal both the love interest(bottom/trap) and the MC(top) to be his sex slaves. His love interest appears to fall first, and the MC's choice is to either get revenge and take his trap back or give up and become a bottom in a big gay orgy... It's a really weird plot... Either way, it's something different, the MC's choice isn't about being cast aside, it's about temptation, do you surrender and join or abandon your lover to save yourself? And during the plot another possibility is brought up: the trap seems to be scheming something and does not want you to have sex with the netori guy, but why?Lets be honest, when you advertise a fetish, you don't do it because it is necessary for a compelling narrative, nor are you going to attract people looking for that. You're making porn, and on your first couple games the writing is going to be about on par whether you're going for that or not because writing is an acquired skill, and if you try and do something you're not quite skilled enough to pull off, it is disastrous, seeA creator needs to take many choices, a lot, they can try to make a game really appealing to certain groups by focusing on certain fetishes (femdom, NTR, harem, maledom, sissification...), try to be more dynamic and get fetishes involved on the game (stats, circumstances and missions having an effect on the scenes you get) or just try to make everything optional.
So no, a game should be a form os self expression, a concept that a developer tries to offer to the players, however the players seeing that concept they are free to say "it's good" or "it's bad".
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for an example of that.
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