@sev@witches.town

It's definitely clear that the protagonist was set up as a person of questionable morality. I mostly saw it as a roleplaying experience, but it's still hard to not feel like the decisions I made reflected *something* on my choices, at least?

Spending more nights with The Hacker is definitely a big part of why I feel the way I do about how the game treats consent -- I think you saw my post about mixed messages.

@sev@witches.town I'm okay with a VN about roleplaying an ethically malign person, but it feels like the game wants to have it both ways -- simultaneously exploring territory of manipulation and exploitation, while still wanting to (mostly, barring the end scenes) act like it's existing in everything-is-okay-here consent land.

@sev@witches.town Like, I'm actually fairly okay with (clearly labeled) porn of acts that in real life would fall pretty far outside of genuine consent. There's a lot of room for fantasy there. What makes me iffy is how it feels like the game ends up claiming that asking permission makes the underlying structural issues no longer relevant.

Maybe this is my backlash against hearing that the game treats consent mindfully.

@starkatt @sev

You don't get to say one of the main themes of your game is consent if the player doesn't have the *mechanical* option to withdraw their own, sorry not sorry, that's my opinion about that game and this hill, I WILL die on.

@sev @starkatt

I know mainstream, straight AAA video games treat sex as a reward you get for being nice and buttering up the person you want to bang (because of course they do) but my fscking standards are higher than the "alternative" Ladykiller provides.

Maybe I sound harsh, but I've thought a LOT about this game since I bought it in March, and its writing does honestly get worse the more and more I think about it.