As far as labeling, I believe the standard "this is a m/m game with explicit scenes" is fine for most games. The only time a game should include a more detailed list if it goes beyond "normal" sexual encounters (water sports, bondage, humiliation, etc).
As far as my preferences, who tops or bottoms doesn't matter as long as the story is good. I prefer a game with great story and great smut. But a game that heavily focuses on sex, I think it matters a lot more who tops/bottoms.
One thing I want people to get from this is that you may not care who tops or bottoms, but many people do. Imagine if a person doesn't care if a story has a happy or sad ending and recommends Hamlet to their friend who doesn't like sad endings without warning them about the ending. That wouldn't be considerate of them and they wouldn't have an excuse beyond "I didn't think it was a big deal". Creators should be transparent about what their story is regardless of what content they think matters or not. As for more story-focused games, yes I agree with you that I care more about the story than the sexual content of a game. However, as I mentioned in the article, sex in an erotic game is a huge draw for people, even if it's literally 1% of the game, so knowing that the erotic content would appeal to you would make you more likely to play the game. Most NSFW games don't have the privilege of reviews from the press or word of mouth and it's not like you can tell a game has good writing from just screenshots and a general blurb. So those games have to rely on the promise of erotic content to draw people in. Even if a story's really good, anticipating the erotic content of a game only to find out it's not what you're into when you actually get to it is not a great feeling. The only time I'd say it's really not important is if the sexual content is not meant to turn on the player, but that's a really questionable decision to make from a marketing perspective. It's about informing the audience so they know what to expect. People who care most about the story don't have to worry about it, while people who care more about the sexual content will know if this is something they'll enjoy.
I get what you're saying because like you mentioned in the post, there are ppl in other games that asks "Will X top Y in the next update" or similar. I was just stating my perspective on the matter. It's interesting that people actually care about that, but I can understand why. When I watch other gay media (like porn), it's VERY important that certain guys fit their roles. Some guys I can only watch top, bottom, or verse. But that only matters because I'm just trying to bust a nut. I don't have that intention with video games, (except Robin Morningwood, that game broke me.) so that's why it doesn't matter as much for me. Good discussion, by the way.
I understand where you're coming from. It can be hard to do that when you're focused on actually playing the game and reading the story. I personally do enjoy that as I feel like it's more satisfying since I had anticipation before that and I know the characters. I'm glad you enjoyed this discussion in any case.
