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Why all gay NSFW media needs to label its erotic content. » Comments

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nackedsnake1 year ago (1 edit) (+2)(-1)

Just my two cent. I don't really care who can bottom who can top. I also accepting all fetishes (bar those morally wrong). What's important is how they are delivered.

And I Totally agree. Creators should list all the fetishes in their contents, and if possible made it so one can choose to avoid / skip certain kinks should they don't wish to see.

But Top / Bottom are not fetishes are they? Unless it's centred around one premise, like "Small on Top", or "Only I have skills", most games don't really stay on one side. Also "For every bottom there's a top". And for VNs, the story is more important than who top who bottom. Less so for role playing games, but those are normally got both covered.

Some players do want it specific, but that's not what creators should be adjust to - it's the other way around: Content creators create, consumers then go to find what's for them.

People ask stupid question without any research all the time, IMO these should just be ignored. Most of these answers are spoilers - remember different people have different "spoiler tolerance", these should be respected over those "Spoon Feeding".

ChellayTiger1 year ago(+3)

It would be straightforward for me just to say, "It doesn't matter who tops or bottoms as long as the story is good" and leave it at that. However, from my experience from just talking to gay men and seeing the fans of gay erotic media talk, people do value who's the top and who's the bottom a lot. I don't know if strict top or strict bottom people are the vocal minority or not, but most people have a specific preference when it comes to position. Even verse people want to see certain characters top or bottom because that's what would turn them on. Yes, a game may have top, verse, and bottom love interests, but they're still going to be disappointed when a specific love interest doesn't top or doesn't bottom because they wanted them to top or bottom. Also from my experience, most erotic gay games aren't perfectly 50/50 when it comes to content for bottoms and content for tops. Lustful Desires, for example, generally has more content for bottoms than for tops, although Hyao is trying to balance it out. Even games that do try to 50/50 split will inevitably lean more towards one position. Adastra does let you pick if you want to top or bottom but the love interest is so dominant that it's going to scare off players who prefer a more submissive love interest. There are games that do a good job of providing equal amounts of content for both tops and bottoms, like Extracurricular Activities, but there are enough games that lean more towards one position where it's important for erotic gay games to label what positions the characters are, at least as a hidden document. I do think creators shouldn't bend to their audience's will on what erotic content they should add to the game (although a little adjustment would be welcome), however, it would be good to understand the type of audience they would attract.

J-Raythalos1 year ago(+1)

Robin MorningWood also let you pick a position at the beginning, but it does not matter. The game also leans toward player sub since many of the love interests, even vers ones, are dominant. There is also a whole dungeon dedicated to player sub content.
I remember we chatted a while ago when you posted a discussion about top / bottom content, like this one, a few months earlier. There are currently more bara games catered toward bottom players than top players, which makes it even more important for the devs to indicate where their game is leaning, like OIHS did, so the players know what to expect

ChellayTiger1 year ago(+2)

I think most creators of gay erotic games that lean heavily towards the sub or bottom audience don't even realize that it's an issue that needs addressing. I don't want to assume things, but I wouldn't be surprised if they thought it didn't matter whether the MC can top or bottom. That's the purpose of this article, making it clear that it is an issue. That's the first step in solving a problem, making people aware it exists in the first place. But yes, there seems to be more bottom content than top content in gay games and I can't tell you why. I know a lot of gay artists who cater towards tops, so maybe it's just a case unique to writing?

nackedsnake1 year ago (1 edit) (+1)(-1)

I see where you are coming from. Still, I think it's those people who have problems (about who to top / who to bottom) need to learn to deal with it.

I'm not the developers so this is guess work: most ain't really clear if their game will heading toward one position, which makes it quite difficult to add such description.
It's not about 50/50. You make some disappointed, but others will be happy that certain characters are top / bottom.
If the dev can make a character to have both, it's great, but that's not easy and should not be considered "Mandatory".
If it's not a role-play game, you don't necessarily have to self-insert as MC.

But, I was talking about Finished games, or free games that you can make educated decisions. Just saw one victim in this discussion because the dev ain't upfront of their crowd-funding campaign. In these cases I do think we need more regulations of the liabilities of the development's transparency, like "what their WIP projects offer", "what you pay money for".