Post by Apis4 in Harem Hotel comments

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Perhaps one small critique... well actually it is a MASSIVE critique, in so much as it is going to talk about something core to the game.

I am really at my limit with the Slavery thing. I do not mind it as a game hook.... or part of the world that game is in, and key one at that... but we have NO options, NO choice... we cannot be avid, militant abolitionists, we cannot take ANY initiative to end it.. we are passengers, waiting for our harem honeys to take their own initiative.

Every time someone is punished, or enslaved... we have to just take it.

I would be DEAD by now irl, like as not... because I WOULD NOT, I COULD NOT just sit idly by and take it. Since there is no leader of abolitionists in this world... I would try to create one or become one until I was assassinated. Since no one else seems to intercede to protect Elves being abused, I WOULD.

Are you kidding me there is nothing I could do when Maria got done like that? Pfft. Even if I could not in the moment, I COULD have stalked that Dr, made a plan, and kidnapped her. I could have taken her somewhere very very dark and deep where no one would find us, and got to work showing her what it was like on the flip side, until death was her dream... one which would take a long time coming.

Now, by the point in the game I am up to.. there are SO MANY options. We could let Kali's fear come to reality, and have Android basically take over ALL AI combat platforms for the Abolitionist cause. We could indeed arm the Elves, and more, try to find more sources of Crystal, an invisible guerrilla army backed up fair magic which ALSO has at least guns and grenades could also change the tides and serve the cause. Additionally, we have a Saint candidate, who has been tasked with either stopping the Elvish Gods, OR 'Dealing' with the Elves....which she's been told means Genocide... but the OBVIOUS answer is ABOLITION, since there would then BE NO Elvish problem.

But we as the PLAYER have to see all this, and have NO OPTION to do anything about it.

If I have to go through one more scene where I am IMPOTENT, and CAN DO NOTHING, as something we all know abhorrent and do not need to subjected to over and over happens, or see one more OBVIOUS answer, or at least VERY REAL POSSIBLE solution, but CANNOT push anyone towards it, I am kind of going to have to give up on this one.

It feels like this is the whole aim of the game, almost, but also, we HAVE NO SWAY over how it plays out. Ending slavery has become a main core theme, but we are WHOLLY dependent ON OTHER CHARACTERS. In the mean time, we have watch what is essentially torture, physical and psychological abuse, sexual exploitation, and slew of other things, suspend our disbelief that the majority of people ARE NOT AGAINST IT, and be wholly helpless to do anything about it.

Even with the harem... I aint getting laid enough in this world to put up with that for too much longer.

I love this game... but just have to say it. If slavery is to END in this world, let WE the players be proactive and be the leads in it ending. If it is NOT, then let us try, and fail, so can stop playing.

It really breaks the mood, every time an Elf is physically or emotionally abused, or kidnapped and sold in to Slavery. I have my happy little Harem, and trying to grow the love with my beloveds... but there is this horrific crap happening every time I am just getting lost in my lovely little love dolls.... and then, I cannot, as the player DO anything about it. It is starting to make it almost impossible to continue playing TBH.

RuneyGames44 days ago (8 edits) (+5)

Hello Apis, I totally understand where you're coming from, more than you can imagine. That's actually a big part of why Harem Hotel exists at all. That frustration you've built? That was intentional. Now it's the perfect time to use that for the greater good, and that's exactly what will happen in the story.

I understand many player's mindset when they first play Harem Hotel is that they will use this as a porn game, this is why sex is unlocked quick. You won't have any emotional ties to these characters at first, and may even lean into the slavery aspect.

But then the characters grow on you, their struggles mean something, you start to develop an attachment and want to protect them. They aren't just objects to the player anymore, and that's exactly when you see the world treat them as things to use and abuse. There's nothing you can do about it though, which is reality for us in the real world. That's relatable and that builds frustration.

After enough abuse, that frustration turns into action, and that's where we are now in the story. You realize there is actually something you can do about it. You actually can change the world, just one step at a time. We just got here, and the catalyst for it was Lin's event in v0.19. But please understand that the PC couldn't do much there for... obvious reasons. This was the cast's time to prove that they can accomplish great things when they work as a team. (This will also lead to orgies)

Now that the setting has been fully established, and not only are the stakes understood but also the desire to take action is had, the story is in the perfect position to be taken to the next step.

I could just tell you how bad the world is through text, but it doesn't have the same effect unless you see it happening. Unless you feel it in the moment. That actually builds the desire to take action and make change, and that is EXACTLY what the story is about.

Devious_intent44 days ago(+1)

Damn you for making me feel things i will categorically deny. But well said.

Apis444 days ago (1 edit) (-2)

But that is the problem.

Cannot do anything?

WE CAN we HAVE BEEN able to since Android was Sky-Net incarnate.

Listen... let me tell you a story. A honest real life story. I was diagnosed in the 70s, as child, with 'Acute Hyperactivity' by paediatricians at a children's hospital my parents Dr referred me to, because of certain symptoms... (they now think I have an ASD, as an adult, and want me to test, but I wont, because if I don't test, I cannot have it :P ).... and got in all kinds of crap.

I was constantly at once, wining awards for what we call STEM subjects today, from my very very earliest schooling.... but ALSO... being constantly in trouble for swearing, arguing with teachers, being disruptive... they would not get away with these things today... but I was caned... with a feather duster, but still, I was locked in a utility closet until the end of class by a teacher, another teach THREW ME OUT A WINDOW...tbf it was open... one teacher even got cagey enough to work out she could not do those things, physically, being a pretty petite lady.. so would stop class, threaten me with isolation room lockdown or scab duty, unless I came before the class and apologized to her... then KISSED her, it was only a peck but still can you imagine that today?

What do you think that did for my social life at school? Do you think that made me a hero? Or perhaps more, a strange, mad genius outcast, constantly targeted by Bullies, who got little sympathy from the teachers (likely because half of them felt a degree of kinship to the bullies because they wanted to give me a hiding too... in fact, one teacher did)?

It was, shock of shocks, the latter. I know I know, you knew that, sure, but who does not love a dramatic reveal.

So I got in a lot of fights. But you know what? I WON THEM. I had to. A Boy Named Sue type of deal. And, in wining the majority, some people noticed something. I never became a bully myself. EVER. I never started it. I was always provoked.

One of the proudest moments of my life I still look back on now, almost 50 years later, was when two younger girls in 2nd grade, came running to ME out of all people, some little 3rd grade, out of breath, telling me they'd been looking for me all lunch break.. because another kid in their year was being bullied. Out of everyone they knew, and I did not know these girls well, all the staff too, they thought *I* was the person most likely able to do something about a 6 year old being bullied.

Sometimes I could not. This went on for years. Followed me to high school. But I fought when I could, took my lickings when I could not, when threatened with being burned with a lighter by the bully clique of the seniors, I learnt to just move first, hold my hand over the flame myself, until the smell made them blanch, my eyes locked on theirs... then THEY pulled my hand away as they tossed the now hot lighter, told me I needed see the nurse, and called me insane. When they cornered me on the second storey walk way, and surrounded me, threatening to throw me off, I laughed, and JUMPED myself. Soon.. I was too crazy to bully even in groups, and they all knew if it was just two or three of them, I would kick their heads in.

Finally one group of bullies, cornered me on the bus... and blocked my exit at my stop, because they lied to an even bigger, older, bully, who almost kicked out of school, done time in juvi, and was drug addict, about something they claimed I said, and he was waiting for a chance to stomp my head. In that scenario, I warned the bullies trying to stop me to move... and when the did not... I STABBED THEM. Dont worry, it only grazing limb wounds, but they sure as hell fell down in teary agony... they were only young teens after all.. but F'em

My point is THERE IS ALWAYS A CHOICE, and you CAN ALWAYS FIGHT. ALWAYS. I might have been killed. I might have been the one stabbed, or defenestrated for that matter... I could have gotten expelled, or even charged with crimes... but so effing what? YOU CAN ALWAYS ALWAYS fight.

You ever watch that show Breaking Bad? The Hiesenberg guy walks in to that crazy ice heads office with a bag of crystals that look like shards... but are not? They go BOOM? I am not sure if I can say what those are. But I know. In fact, he is lucky, the show made them seem a bit more stable than they are... they could have gone off on the ride over there, he just had them on the seat iirc. But I know that they are, and have a recipe on how to make them. They're great DIY initiator. I am not Military. I am not some SOE type Spook. I am not a Chemist. I am not a explosive Technician. I am a bum in the outback, who barely finished high school.

So how do I know? Because when I was in my late teens, I read (and still have copies of stored away somewhere), the Terrorist Handbook and the Anarchist Cookbook. Not because I am either of those things, but because maybe, one day, highly unlikely considering I live what the CIA regularly rates as THE most STABLE country on earth, but.. maybe.. I might need to do something. I might need to act. Something wrong might be happening, and The Man might be behind, and not fighting it. So maybe I will have to fight it, and help others fight it.

YOU CAN ALWAYS FIGHT IT.

I do not come to care about the girls. I come to resent them. Lin is trying, but she is stupid. Android just steals nudes these days apparently, Autumn is in a position of power, where she can play her cards close to her chest, infiltrate the most powerful halls, and bring them down with exposing their corruption, but is just too effing retarded to work that out, Kali could change the world with her connection to her father, she could make herself the heir again, and then have money and power, and thus influence beyond measure and Nia is just effing WEAK... she could have just KILLED Jia, or SHE could have killed the Actor guy. In fact with faeries... one's who are willing to kill, on side... there are a LOT of people who could be killed. The Twins father and sister. The Minister for Elves. The corrupted Elf Queen. The Organ Harvesting head of the church, and whole lot of Saints, they could all be killed by tiny magical, invisible assassins, when there is NO way anyone could ever suspect or accuse anyone in the Hotel, who could all just go to bowling alley all day, and pose for the cameras.

But no.

We aint doing this. None of it. When Jia wanted us to kill her husband, I wanted a SURE option. Did not get one. I am seeing them grow, sure, in to disappointments.

Now one could argue to be realistic, they're awakening and changing views would have to be slow, given that they have been conditioned since birth to think a certain way, at least in regards to Kali, and Autumn. Too bad. If they are going to be this blind, *I* would KICK THEM OUT. I do not want them then. Bye bye. Same with Ashley, though she at least seem to get it. If Android is too stupid to know she could shut down all the society, derail trains, crash planes, cause massive traffic accidents, disable hospitals and basically kill 90% of the Humans in a week, before they can even react, I want to turn her off. If Lin and Nia turn out not to have the balls to do what needs be done, kill who needs be killed, I want to sell them, F'em, bye bye. Why do I need them, I have Sia and Ann, for Elf love. It does not make me fall for them. It makes me HATE THEM.

Anyway, I will give this game a chance, see what it finally becomes, but TBH, the deeper I go in to this thing, the more I hate everyone, and hate the story, that is just me. But if you are someone who stabbed your bullies, this sh*t doesnt fly. Act, and die, or win. Enough of this being a bystander watching these stupid morons F up everything, is the position I am moving towards.

Anyway, aint my game. I will just quit for now, come back in a year and see if it is resolved by the time the game is done.

RuneyGames43 days ago (25 edits) (+1)

In the very next paragraph I said "(then) You realize there is actually something you can do about it."

Android is not similar to Sky-Net, though Archon is. Android's power is mainly condensed to the hotel and local wifi networks. Archon can see and monitor everything connected to the internet. Android can only browse websites.

Calling yourself a mad genius is a bit wild considering you didn't catch that.

But hey, I agree with you, fuck being a bystander. That is a problem. That is literally the point of the story.

Apis443 days ago(-3)

I never bothered reading the details. I play this for SEX. It is called Harem Hotel. But this deep in to the game, is it right to call it that, I feel like I need to call it 'Retarded Moron Girls Simulator'. I only picked up on Androids power through Kali's relationship being too low to do something... so forcing me to listen to her for once (yes, I speed run dialogue, until choices, roll back to see the question, make the choice). So my understanding of Androids power comes from her freak about it, and the scene where she steals all the college girls nudes and humiliates them all.

As for Mad Genius... if it helps, I was once suspended for almost a month at just 13, for making a flame thrower, by increasing the flow of science lab gasline and jimmying up a pressure nozzle (my father was what they called Gas Fitter back when that was still a thing)... and thus causing a backdraw (the flame sprouting out about 15 feet across the room moved backwards and disappeared)... triggering the emergency shut down of all gas and power to the school because the fail-safe on the industrial gas-tanks triggered the self-seal valves).

I should have gotten an award for my unapproved science project, tbh I reckon. Almost blowing up a school is not the same as blowing it up, right?

But if I can do that, am I meant to believe abolitionists, and Elf rebels, cannot begin asymetric warfare against these bastards in an era with War Droids??? I mean people underestimate just how deadly even a barrage of Molotov Cocktails can be.. and they are the easiest things in the world to make. You can, if your play your cars right, TAKE OUT TANKS with them FFS. We're not just reliant on petrol bombs though, we have Android, who can take over other bots and droids, all of them at once perhaps even, if Kali is to be believed.

Nah, these people are just effing retards at this point. The game is currently unplayable for me. It is painful to watch them be this useless, and it hurts to see characters you are kind of right about.. that I DID come to care about.... become disgraceful disappointments I come to hate.

RuneyGames43 days ago (1 edit) (+2)

Alright grandpa, time for bed.

Supersoplisist37 days ago(+1)

Dude, you're fucking retarded. The MC is a regular ass dude who runs a fucking hotel and has maybe a grand to his name at any given time. He doesn't have an army, he has a handful of tiny girls.

The Android you think he could use to take over, couldn't do shit because the military doesnt keep their weapons on publicly accessible networks. You could be the greatest hacker in the world and you're not getting on the internet and hacking into fucking missile launch programs, or any form of weapon controls.

Kali has a rich dad, but he's not going to try to overthrow the government of an entire nation. Otherwise she's just a mid-level coder.

Ashley, Felicity, Emma, Ellen, Hana, Maria. Useless in any sort of uprising.

Lucia could maybe use social media to get her followers on your side over time.

Autumn might be able to sway church rhetoric towards abolitionism over time, but even as a saint she's little more than a local church leader, and getting religious people to change their minds about anything is about as easy as convincing a frog to grow feathers.

Making Maria's story public might be able to garner sympathy, and get people thinking about what would happen if they had a half elf child, or fearing finding out they themselves could secretly be half elves.

Lin, Nia, and Sylvia are actually the most useful in terms of actually doing anything to get rid of slavery because they have the potential to sway public opinion, and Androids ability to access public networks and spread their message is the most valuable ability she has in that regard.

You don't stop slavery with assassinations and molotovs and shit. That just makes the public view you as terrorists and turns everyone more against you, and in the instance of this story, probably causes a lot of slavers to just murder their slaves or destroy their androids out of fear. You do it by swaying public opinion to your side, until your side has more power than those who want to keep things as they are. Then if things do progress to violence, people are actually on your side and ready to stand up with you.

The bullshit you're spouting would have the MC dead within a week after accomplishing exactly nothing.

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