I’m curious to know if anyone has written a game where viewing erotic content would be a choice at the beginning, or if readers would be interested in this option?
For example, in Cassandra of Troy there are a few characters that are romance-able. Right now I’ve written the usual “you know these two had sex but it’s never described” technique (like Choice of Romance). I’m debating adding a choice at the beginning, where you could screen out those who were under 18, and then offer something like “view erotic content” and “no thanks.” So those who choose the erotic content have the same gameplay as before, but the romance scenes are a bit more expanded. Not hardcore, mind you, but just more description than “curtain falls and they wake up in bed next to each other” type stuff.
I think that would be a logical next step for interactive romantic fiction. The issue is that age barrier though… It would be hard to program an age lock in CS. I think perhaps it would be something for the distributor to handle rather than the writer. Having that age-block might lower the immediate monetary return, but most authors aren’t exactly worried about that. There again it might increase sales, right?
I figure it’s like a website: they ask you up front if you are 18 and you answer yes or no. They have no way of knowing/verifying your age. Legally I guess they are covered because the page states that there is mature content beyond this point. I assume IF would be the same.
I mean, nobody cards you when you buy a romance novel, and some of those are pretty explicit.
True enough, plus I’ve seen zombie games on this site where people get their faces torn off or their families eaten and a whole host of even more gruesome details.
A couple of consenting adults getting to the business of enjoying themselves is hardly all that disturbing, surely?
Besides, its especially important for your story, TV wouldn’t be invented for thousands of years yet, there was nothing else to do when the sun went down…
I second doing this, definitely. Erotica is tip-toed around on this site like people are scared of it.
I just played your Cassandra of Troy WIP, and with your writing skill, I think it’s something you would do well. You should go for it.
I wouldn’t get rid of this idea.
Somebody somewhere might actually want it.
I agree. I highly doubt anyone would disagree with consenting adults gettin’ busy.
A suggestion: your story has a mature feel to it, so I would just give it the 17+ rating regardless of whether or not you choose to add the filtering option in the beginning. Especially since knowing most Greek based stories, it surely has plenty of death, sex and drama in its future.
I think what you’re seeing is a very real fear that erotic content will prevent authors from selling their games in the app store. If you go beyond “suggestive fade to black”, you will have to figure out another place to promote and sell your game. That’s a huge consideration.
In my current (temporarily shelved) WIP I have a choice of five different monsters to play. Four of them are basically teenagers, and if they start dating the focus won’t all be about sex. Then number five is a lust demon (a succubus/incubus) who is constantly seeking out sex (unless the MC wants to play them as a suffering teetotaler.)
At the moment I just have a note in the first post of my WIP thread that if you’d prefer to avoid sex entirely, don’t play as a 'cubus. (They’re the only character type that can’t be asexual.) I will probably have to take out or heavily rewrite parts of their story before submitting to the app store. But for non-app store versions, the plan is to more clearly state in-game how to find or avoid erotic content.
Not a bad idea, though if there are a lot of those scenes that one can encounter in a single play through, it may border on immersion-breaking if you have to approve each individually. Unless you can think of a way of wording it to show that the scene is going to escalate to something more graphic without breaking the narrative? I do think the start permission helps get it out of the way first so it doesn’t impede on the actually story too much. Just my two cents, though.
I think the biggest issue is whether or not the title will be approved on App stores. It’s something I worry about myself with working on an adult oriented story, but it doesn’t feature sex. Or at least I don’t plan to at the minute. Pretty much everything else is fair game though.
That said, The Wolf Among Us is on the app stores and that features some nudity, so it may not be as big a problem as I’m thinking. But I just know they can be fussy, as I remember Choice of the Rockstar having issues being approved? Whether that was because of content issues though, I have no idea. ( I think Choice of the Rockstar was quite tame, to boot? I never finished that though and didn’t get far.)
I think that’s actually a pretty good idea. And if the App store really is a sticking point, you could always just submit the censored version to them and use the full version with both options for other platforms.
Mature content sales, way more than what some people might think. The only real problem would be is figuring out what the age demographic is like on CoG, from what I’ve seen there are a few people on here who I’ve mistaken to be 18+ when they turn out to be maybe 17 and below, but thats just a few, like I said.
But hey, if you want to do that then go ahead, I figure if way more mature sites just need a button for you click/press just to get through then why can’t you? I’m pretty sure theres more to it though, theres always more to it lol.
doubt that. i mean, yeah, there might be more to it often, but most places don’t even ask for birth date, and i don’t think there’s much they could do without that information–block certain countries, or be blocked by certain countries, perhaps? but mostly, they’re hardly more sophisticated than a tag and a button, i’d say.
