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Culture War Roundup for the week of February 19, 2024

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Harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women. More emphasis on physical activity, less on emotions. Zero angst.

I broadly agree, but it's not that simple. Here's what top 30 games by "weighted rating" on f95 are (I've tried to be liberal with the definition of "harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women"):

  • Pale Carnations - drama, consequences and very attractive women
  • Eternum - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • Desert Stalker - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women (as far as I've played it)
  • My Pig Princess - not touching that, but it certainly doesn't have harems of very attractive women
  • Once in a Lifetime - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • Leap of Faith - drama, consequences and very attractive women
  • Being a DIK - drama, consequences and very attractive women
  • Projekt: Passion - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women (if you're into space opera aliens)
  • Katawa Shoujo - drama, consequences and disabled women
  • Star Periphery - not touching that, but it certainly doesn't have harems of very attractive women
  • Superhuman - not touching that, but it certainly doesn't have harems of very attractive women
  • Hero Party Must Fall - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • City of Broken Dreamers - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women (as far as I've played it)
  • Artemis - haven't played it yet, but likely drama, consequences and very attractive women
  • Rick and Morty: Another Way Home - not touching that, but looks like harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • Ripples - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • Race of Life - drama, consequences and very attractive women
  • What a Legend! - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • Eruption Imminent - not touching that, but it certainly doesn't have harems
  • Harem Hotel - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • Light of my Life - not touching that, but it certainly doesn't have harems of very attractive women
  • Monster Girl Club Bifrost - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women (I think)
  • A House in the Rift - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • Good Girl Gone Bad - drama, consequences and sex with very attractive women (and men of various attractiveness)
  • Summer Heat - drama, consequences and very attractive women
  • Aurelia - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • Game of Hearts - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women (kinda)
  • Mist - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women
  • Straight? - not touching that, but it's all gays
  • Stormside - harems, casual consequence-free sex with very attractive women

Out of 30 games, we discard 3: one for being made by a self-declared woman about a woman, one for being about futas and one for being gay. Three more are too fucking weird and I don't feel adequate to classify them. We're left with 24 games, out of which:

  • 16 (2/3) are what you called a typical male power fantasy
  • 8 (1/3) have multiple very attractive women that are willing to have very explicit sex with the male protagonist, but feature additional interpersonal drama that makes it impossible to treat them as Pokemans

The two genres are more evenly matched if we take only the top 10 games.

Interesting, I guess I could make excuses like 'games need some kind of conflict to be interesting'. I don't really know anything about lewd games though.

I guess I was trying to describe the platonic ideal of male sexual fantasy. On a three-axis chart of 'high quality vs low' 'male vs female' and 'vanilla vs weird', not much would be firmly clustered around the male end. The most popular and best products will have broader appeal - Katawa Shoujo for instance, it's not just about sex either. Even within the male area, there's a certain tendency to cover all bases and all tags - consider Project Harahel. Extremely male oriented but it puts in the weird stuff like vore too, as an option. It fits the male fantasy (as is obvious visually) but that's not all it has to offer. And it's not just about sex but power too.