I’ve never really played any porn games more hardcore than Baldur’s Gate 3 before, but you remember a couple weeks ago when GOG gave away those NSFW games, as a direct response to the whole thing?
Well I claimed the bundle just to boost their numbers (because censorship is bullshit), but recently I needed a low-difficulty gaming distraction, so I checked a few of them out, and… some of them are kind of good?
Like first off you have to be okay with visual novels (usually), but if you’re cool with that, some of them actually have some compelling characters, and occasionally even good gameplay in between all the fucking and whatnot.
Leap of Love is amusing, kind of adorable when it comes to the not-sex stuff, and charming. It is also a game where you (a former frog) can marry and simultaneously bed 3 princesses and their stepmother after deposing of the evil king. My brain is still trying to reconcile this.
Huniepop is one of the best match 3 puzzle games I’ve ever played, with a chill as hell soundtrack. Also a scantily-clad foul-mouthed love fairy wants you to fuck every woman in a 5 mile radius who can fog a mirror.
And Crom help me, when I finished… sigh… Fetish Locator Week 1, I actually cared enough about some of the characters to buy the next one.
The point is, some of these games have more depth and value than I’d been led to believe, and I wouldn’t have known that if the censorship thing hadn’t started that chain of events. So congrats censorship people, and honestly thanks, I guess? Completely the opposite of your intended effect. Task failed successfully.
I never paid attention to adult games until all this controversy happened. The Streisand effect must be doing its thing on people.
Not directly to your point but your overall experience just reminds me: we really lost something when the sexual liberation movement was largely erased. People so often dismiss it because we’re conditioned to dismiss taking sex seriously (outside of a very narrow and specific context) but there’s a lot we lose from that.
Tycho, of Penny Arcade, actually had some words on this subject around the time the PC version of Stellar Blade came out and people were up in arms about it. I’ll quote it here because I think it’s a good passage.
I used to say that I grew up Christian, but I think it’s probably more accurate to say Evangelical, especially now that more people might know what I’m talking about. Sex was VERY naughty and we needed to be constantly on the lookout for incursions of this secular, demonic, but also somehow worryingly inherent force…? Breaking that pernicious notion down and enabling people to express themselves was the project I thought I’d more or less seen completed. Now it’s come around some weird bend, with precisely the same energy as before, except now it’s being done for the correct reasons. It can’t possibly be this dumb. And yet!
It’s incredibly fucking boring to have the tail end of the revolution you saw win shame the tools that gave them victory, dust off a bunch of regressive shit, and then have the pluck to feel righteous about it.
It sort of mirrors my own experience (minus the evangelical upbringing). I definitely recall a period of general sex-positivity that has now come around some strange turn whereby the very same voices are admonishing people for daring to enjoy sexy things.
It’s very strange.
It’s because both sides were always divided on sex. The “beer, titties, and jesus” crowd and the anti porn feminists had been the lesser voices of their side for a while. But in the fallout of the sexual revolution, in the 70s and 80s second wave feminism developed a really anti sex stance, especially towards deviant types of sex. This was the feminist sex wars, and its the era of a lot of the more batshit bits. But it did begin with reasonable criticism. There was fighting back however, from lesbian feminist sadomasochism groups like Samois to owned porn cooperatives where radical ideas wete tried like having the entire crew be naked so the performers weren’t the only ones exposed.
People like to blame third wave feminism for the swing back, and I disagree. The third wave was the movement born of the critiques of the second wave, and the renewed push for sexual liberation in the 90s ans 00s was quintessentially third wave. And it got far, it did a lot, and it also left us with a lot to criticize. Whether it’s media criticism like Sarkeesian was harassed for daring to do, or it’s the unfortunately common stories of women being pressured into sex acts they don’t want with feminist language critiques had been mounting in the early 10s.
The theoretical fourth wave is often called twitter feminism, and i think it’s best to consider that the first real thing it did that impacted anything was the metoo movement. I believe metoo was a good thing. It’s next to the Arab spring as among the few things Twitter ever did that are good. But it and the late third wave criticisms gave room for the sex negative side to return to prominence. That’s where we are now, but I dont think it will last.
Because I think we need to remember that while there is an internal back and forth, there’s also the realpolitik of the fact that you can pull horny people if nobody else does. A chunk of gamergate is straight up that. Shining feminist media critiques through the worst possible lens to horny boys and men. Anyways the right has dropped their horny-prude coalition recently and is all in on prude, which is coinciding with chunks of the left getting tired of the dominant position of our prudes.
Anyways free the nipple, and what 20 consenting adults do behind closed doors is their right to do.
Since you seem knowledgeable, maybe I’ll bug you about something I’ve wondered about?
Did you notice a significant (huge by my measure) increase in attempts at polyamory for a period of time? As in, that trend seemed to have almost a start and an end, and a real big swell in the middle. And if so, any comments on how that fits into your timeline overview above? Some of your thoughts sound like they may point to this but I certainly don’t want to put words in your mouth.
Anecdotally, it seems to me like I watched a huge chunk of my (significantly) younger sister’s generation get themselves into plural relationships, then realize after a year or two of various attempts (often including some serious abuse) that actually they didn’t like that idea at all.
And don’t get me wrong, I absolutely encourage people to try what they are curious about, it’s a tragedy to spend a life never exploring what one might like. But that phenomena with polyamory / plural relationships in particular stuck out to me, largely because many of the people I saw try it had never previously indicated even remote interest in similar, some behaved fairly jealously toward their partners actually. It felt like a strange societal motivation, some kind of soft cultural pressure among peers, to go for it. And I personally never witnessed a positive outcome, either (which is not me saying that no one should live that way if they enjoy it, or that no one can find it genuinely fulfilling, healthy, and preferable). And for those with clear gender lines in the plural relationships, it was always polygynous - never polyandrous (please let me know if those terms are offensive). Felt like weaponized sexual liberation, frankly, by horny dudes, but that’s me making some possibly unfair leaps and introducing my own bias into the interpretation.
I guess more than anything else I was just struck by what felt like a wave in popularity, followed by an accompanying wave of “oh, nah fuck that actually, forever”. Was interesting to watch. Any thoughts?
(Disclaimer: this can be a thorny topic, anyone should feel free to correct anything I’ve misrepresented, misunderstood, or just been unkind about, I’m not a jerk on purpose usually).
Kinda, I’m actually polyamorous myself and most of my social circle still is. But I’ve heard of what you described. In my circles it’s been a lot more women lead and queer though. I think a lot of people jumped in without breaking their mental monogamy as well. Polyamory can be difficult, and for a lot of people especially those who jump in without thinking or who began their relationship monogamous it can be a spectacular shitshow, much like many relationships where incompatible desires are present or where people go in without knowing how to do it well.
I once had a relationship that I think a lot of my ex’s friends probably see as exactly like you described. We began monogamous, it was my first relationship and it was in the mid 10s, and within a year I realized monogamy wasn’t for me. So we opened up, then did full poly, got engaged, and she realized she couldn’t do poly. She pressured me into monogamy (I had been willing to call it quits) and I hated it. It was an ugly breakup that she likely blames on me pressuring her into polyamory. Funny enough a few months after the breakup when I wasn’t looking for anything serious I met someone else who’d recently had a breakup over wanting to stay poly, and we’re happily married with a clear mutual understanding that neither of us is open to closing the relationship.
Well thanks for the interesting perspective and I’m very glad to hear it wasn’t so one-sided everywhere, and that you’ve seen a lot more positives! Everything you said about causes of strife makes perfect sense to me and I would imagine those feature heavily for folks who try it out due to simple curiosity or pressure from a partner.
I would imagine, too, that sexual trends exhibit regionality and that they diffuse across regions over time and at uneven rates, much like any other cultural trend. Though of course a lot of cultural diffusion has gotten effectively instant thanks to tech - I remember “back in the day” you could travel from a (US) coast to the Midwest and find everyone basically 10-20 years behind cultural trends, from slang to hairstyles, to dress.
I wonder if relationships and dating and such, being a much slower process in general than changing styles of dress or speech, still have some of that interesting old-school slower diffusion, or more regional pockets anyway.
Anyway, enough baseless speculation from me - cheers and have a good one!
(Edit: I hope it didn’t sound like I’m calling your chosen romantic style itself a trend - I would never, when I call polyamory a “trend” I am referring exclusively to folks who did behave exactly as if it were any other fad that came and went, just with way heavier consequences)
Yeah I think a lot of people’s perceptions of polyamory come from it being different from what people are used to resulting in things like frequency biases (watch someone do something they don’t have the skills for and have 3 bad breakups at once rather than over 3 years, even though each lasted the same amount of time), differing points of failure (boundaries of monogamy are assumed natural even though there are disagreements and therefore monogamy is assumed unrelated to the failure, meanwhile if rather than cheating being the cause of failure its someone neglecting an existing partner for a new one, then polyamory gets blamed), polyamory giving people enough rope to hang themselves, and the tendency for it to be a mid relationship change in the basic expectations and rules of the relationship which is something always fraught. I also think people go in not realizing that most of the good ones are already polysaturated and it’s largely the train wrecks and partner hoarders that are constantly seriously looking.
And yeah I think it may be geographic but I think its less that and more subcultural. Being involved in queer and kinky irl scenes led to be being in communities with people who’d been nonmonogamous since well before it was cool and who’d already had expectations of high communication skills.
Like, I don’t think central ohio managed to just be way better at polyamory than most places, though I do think some local cultures still remain
Great perspectives, thank you! Very informative and much more plausible than what I was saying.
It has taken me nearly 30 years to undo that programming and it still affects me. The puriteens scare me.
Was it erased? We are more comfortable with porn than ever (which I wouldn’t say is okay, but definitely not prudish), and after the jews, the biggest boogie man out there is the gender lobby.
I say we’re in the next phase, and moderators (Visa, Mastercard) need to buckle up for what’s coming.
We are more comfortable with porn than ever
Are we (edit: 'hope that doesn’t sound antagonistic; I more meant it rhetorically)? No-Nut November has only recently dipped in the general consciousness and goon is currently trending as a pejorative. I think we’re comfortable with pushing the boundaries and with nodding and winking towards it but outright normalization has a fierce backlash.
But part of what the sex. lib. movement was about was both normalization and healthy interaction with sex, not just sexual content being prevalent. There’s plenty of unhealthy ideas and performances that the mainstream porn industry perpetuates, much of it relying on satisfying a normative and patriarchal outlook; feminist porn, for example, was/is a much more sex. lib. approach to porn (from giving women more active participation in the sex portrayed (rather than just the receptive of it) to also having the performers express their emotions more (even if minimally) and how the sex they were having made them feel).
These goals are much more in line with the emotional experience OP was describing, where it’s not just sexual content but a more healthy engagement with that sexual content as well, such as experiencing emotions and attachment. That’s part of why OP’s descriptions reminded me of it.
Mainstream porn, driven by capitalism (which isn’t to say all of us aren’t in some degree, even indie creators; sadly, that’s just the reality, right now), doesn’t care about these things.
And sex. lib. has a distinct history and activism, much of intertwined with gay liberation and…I think most people don’t know that or, like, the battles that were fought for information about safe sex, etc. I mean, it’s not unique (most people aren’t aware about disability history, for example, or events like the Capital Crawl) but it’s still deeply unfortunate.
I do appreciate the time and effort you put into the comment, but I am not arguing against what you are saying.
Since Kinsey &co and the summer of love, the movement didn’t evaporate, it perforated society and mutated. I don’t think I’d be going too far by stating, that the sexual revolution couldn’t have happened without the suffragettes. I see the queer movement as a spearhead in the same direction.
I only had qualm with you saying anything has been undone (sorry if I’m paraphrasing). Yeah, using ‘woke’ as a pejorative for anyone craving progress is a thing now, but that doesn’t mean most of us want nothing more than to love each other freely.
Mmm, I get what you mean. So often, I find myself in conversations (not ours but in general) that have certain presumptions that have been addressed by movements such as these that I feel like there’s this gap in knowledge that shouldn’t really exist but…
I think your point’s a fair argument, though; I’d certainly prefer that, at the very least.
I do understand. I find myself having to regularly check myself to look for miscommunication instead of malice (or stupidity for that matter).
The whole thing is whack, and anyone with two cents of mind and some compassion is just gaping at the horrors being casually thrown around and equally horrifying misdirections.
Thanks to the internet the only way to hide stuff is to drown it out, but we all have our trusted sources (who in turn distort reality in an infotaining world, but that’s where we’re at). This means we can more or less put the big picture together (or at least the players) and make fairly solid guesstimates.
I tell myself this is an all or nothing attempt by the ruling class to legitimize a strangle hold before any major resource wars break out and that people are really wisening up to their shenanigans. I feel ‘doomerism’ is an aspect where they can easily get me. Don’t let them win.
I wish there were more games that had NSFW stuff, but not as the main focus. BG3, Cyberpunk, The Witcher, etc all have nudity, but the sex scenes are short, cropped, and half assed because they are embarrassed.
There needs to be quicktime events, better cinematics, and werewolves (BG3, Elder Scrolls, Witcher) during erotic scenes. Bring back A/O games. Many of these shouldn’t be even remotely aimed at anyone below 18 anyways.
Hell, the last genuinely fun game with kink in it was Saints Row 3, and that was for comedic effect.
quicktime events
Damn I missed the cumshot quick time event. I’m not going to get an s rank for this chapter. Guess I gotta reload…
Imagine the debuff that blueballs would inflict because you missed the quicktime event
Imagine if the game knew you save scummed and gave you a blue balls debuff.
You could easily code the game to do that, and it would be hilarious.
Buttknight was a really good arcade scroller shooter. The unlockable scenes weren’t interractive, but actually unlocking them was a ton of fun. Short game too.
You will never see 18+ only games that comes close to Cyberpunk or BG3 in scope. Because most retailers won’t stock A/O games, and these publishers still get a significant portion of revenue from these retailers selling physical games. And these games are simply too expensive to make to ignore those retailers.
Your post made me want to check these out. I only ever played one with a friend for kicks. It was a fun, cheap activity, easy to make a drinking game out of.
It’s like how erotica can still be literature, but people dismiss it for the sexual focus. But I’ve read erotic stories that had me hooked, made interesting social commentary, had nuanced characters and were just a fantastic time.
people dismiss it for the sexual focus.
I stand by this: porn is a largely untapped medium for insanely stupid comedy.
I know we’ve all seen lemon stealing whores and whatnot, but like, we could have so much more than we do.
You’re not alone, James Gunn (yes, that James Gunn) thought the same.
Ha, I had no idea these existed. If anyone would, he seems like the type to, though.
It’s a sadly forgotten relic of the old internet.
One of the hardest times I’ve laughed my ass off was at a one of those semi surreal uncanny 3d porn games. Can’t remember what it was but it scared the shit out of my cat who was sleeping under my desk, have the scars to prove it.
Also if anyone wants to look at porn games F95zone"dot"to is a pirate forum which is good for keeping track of in dev ones or just if you don’t want to possibly waste money on a porn game you may not like. Also the dot is in quotes cause I am not sure how the mods would react to me posting what amounts to a porn link.
I’ve written porn comedy before. No I will not be linking it, but yeah I enjoyed it and the bad porn book club I was in over the pandemic enjoyed it too.
I think part of the problem is that oftentimes once something erotic has merit beyond the erotic it often loses its porn classification in the public eye. Venus in Furs is porn, the word masochism is a reference to Sacher-Masoch who wrote it the same as sadism is named after the Marquis de Sade, but it’s also classic literature.
I definitely do want to get back into writing porn comedy, but I haven’t been pissed off sufficiently stupid porn writing since that book club stopped.
Hit me up if you ever want to collab. I’m a shit writer with a sense of humor who would love to read what you have.
once something erotic has merit beyond the erotic it often loses its porn classification in the public eye.
This definitely poses a problem. Er… depending on what we think a problem is, I guess. But the stuff I’m thinking of, it would be very hard to do this to.
Maybe but like Story of O is on the verge (apologies as these are all going to be bdsm) by nature of it being old and remembered. The 120 Days of Sodom is likely mostly read by people not into it in a sexual way (mind you I think it’s mostly read by the edgy). 50 Shades of Grey is atrociously written and yet despite being a story existing to package soft core pornography that’s the dissenting opinion on it, not the mainstream consensus. Sunstone meanwhile is the inverse, soft core pornography to entice and enhance a story about bdsm. All of these except Sodom are edge cases where some people might be uncomfortable regardless of which box you put it in
Though I’ll acknowledge it does get harder for much more explicit stuff with less non-sex content.
And people are trying to shut it down. It’s a damn shame.
Oh well, we still have the absolute chaos that is ammateur, self-published erotica.
got any recommendations?
I wish.
I’m terrible at bookmarking, and most of it’s random stories on the internet. My favorite was about a girl, raised by wolves, who meets a werewolf, found on DeviantArt when I was a teenager when I didn’t know what erotica was. Must be gone because I haven’t been able to find it. But had a hell of an impact since I remember it, vividly.
Literotica has fantastic writers. I’m in a discord server with other amateur/professional writers, too. 9/10 are bad to meh, but that one in ten can rattle in my brain for days.
Some of these games have incredible writing. Personally, I’d recommend trying Eternum. It’s not finished yet but there’s already a ton of content and the writing is incredible. Another game by the same person called Once in a Lifetime is also really good but shorter.
Besides those two, I’d really recommend The Princess Trap. Also unfinished but still lots of content. This one is definitely a bit more niche and might not be for everyone but the drama and mystery in it is really incredible.
All of these games are pretty slow to get to the sex stuff to be honest (especially The Princess Trap). But every moment in-between makes it so worth your time.
I just finished what exists so far for The Princess Trap last night. I have to recommend holding off on it till it’s finished so you don’t end up in as much despair as me.
“Some hentai games are very good.” -Edward Snowden, referring to Lovers
Oh damn I thought this was some “Fuck bitches, smoke trees - Abraham Lincoln” shit, but it’s a real quote. Nice.
For vnovels, check out Katawa Shoujo. It has a great storyline and characters, and it’s free!
If you’re looking for a platformer I’d recommend Flipwitch - Forbidden Sex Hex
Man, you’re mean. You can’t recommend that without at least a warning of the box of tissues that you’ll need nearby. You’ll be responsible for water stains on desks everywhere.
Flipwitch is a fantastic little Metroidvania that I can’t talk to my “normal” gaming friends about.
If you’re open to a platformer, the only explicitly adult game I’ve tried is FlipWitch. The gimmick is that you can change your sex, with certain obstacles only able to be passed through by a specific sex. You also have clothing that can only be worn by each sex, and certain NPCs won’t interact unless you’re wearing certain items. It’s a solid metroidvania, and while it’s not going to blow you away, I still enjoyed my time with it.
The music is really good too!
Oh yeah, I saw that one earlier and threw it on my wishlist for later. It looks pretty good. I picked up Scarlet Maiden instead for now, which is also a pixel-based naughty game, but looks to be a roguelite and is supposed to have great gameplay too.
On the m/m side, the visual novel Coming Out on Top is a remarkably well-written, if saccharine, dating game about a college guy figuring things out. I don’t usually like VNs but this one was worth playing. It’s has a lot of gay sex in it, that is literally the entire point so, you know, be aware of that.
Nice. I don’t typically go for M/M unless femboys are involved, but it’s what my wife likes, and that’s one of the ones I linked her when she asked me to research a few games for her to try.
Femboys can be hot too, though often authors seem to mix up femboys with trans women and that ends up being frustrating when I try a CHOYA game marked as m/m and it doesn’t have any actual m/m in it.
Same here (edit. I have played modded Sims 4 wicked whims though before) and I have bought now many avn/adult games on gog and steam during sales. I just finished Fetish Locator week 2 and I don’t remember last time when I have laughed so much playing a video game. I would also recommend ”Love & Sex Second Base”, that game has tons of content and plenty of characters and some nice humor as well. And it’s from the same dev as ”Leap of Love”.
I believe the only reason adult games aren’t as popular in Western countries as they are in Japan (and I think elsewhere in Asia?) is because there’s a stereotype that they’re low quality, which came about because of the ESRB (not sure about other countries’ rating systems) basically making it so there was no money in it in a pre-digital download world.
there’s a stereotype that they’re low quality
Basically this. Why would I want to risk buying a trash perv game when theres stuff like Mass Effect or Baldur’s Gate?
I’ve been into nsfw games for a while, but I do genuinely enjoy a lot of them. Corruption of Champions 2 is a great game, with a lot of customization and great characters, though it is apparent that the game isn’t finished yet.
Tales of Androgyny has some of the highest quality scenes I’ve encountered in an nsfw game. It’s also pretty funny. More games should have a femboy protagonist, is all I’m saying.
He’s the main love interest, not the protag, but have you seen Haunted by Femboy? A little on the silly side, but I enjoyed the demo.
I did see that but haven’t gotten around to playing it
It’s not out just yet, but it sounded like they’re close based on the discussion board. Demo took me an hour or two to run through, worth the time if you like the subject matter. Quinn is adorbs.
Sounds promising, I’ll check it out!
Oh man, CoC is a name I haven’t heard in a loooong long time. I think I have a save file and the original flash version hanging around somewhere.
My recommendations:
- Aurelia is an adventure point and click where you move to a cozy fantasy town. Beautiful art and presentation and just good erotica all around with reasonable puzzle and rpg gameplay.
- Third Crisis is an ultimate gooner game. It really goes out there and if you’re into that sort of thing and it’s really well made.
- Kaiju Princess lets you hang out with a girl who’s secretly a kaiju monster
Most steam erotica games started out as poor quality visual novels or clone games with titties but the scene is really shaping up to something much more interesting!
I personally like Galaxy War’s “Let’s Get Married!” series, which is two puzzle games. The premise is to advance through dungeons by spending health, keys, and money. Enemies are not just obstacles, they drop money and the route you take through each level will determine what resources you have down the line. The meta game is to keep track of routes, and in future playthroughs, have a more precise plan that accounts for the future. It is very math-based, since there is no RNG. Each action is a tradeoff. It is the same gameplay as DROD RPG and Tower of the Sorcerer. The characters and molestation elements feel similar to Rance, though more good-natured.
The Dungeon of Lulu Farea is the first entry.
Another game of interest is Monster Girl Dreams. While I personally don’t care much for the battle fuck system, I very much like the variety of characters and the large amount of dialogue that can be had with them. The game is freeware, and well worth playing if you enjoy lovey-dovey sex with monster girls.
In a similar vein to Lulu Farea, I am interested in Star Knightess Aura. Some resources cannot be replenished during a playthrough, so you need to consider routing. The plot might be interesting, as it is about brainwashing the protagonist. You select what aspects of her personality are altered, changing her one thing at a time. For those who are into corruption, I think it holds promise.
I’ve only ever played one VN and it was wonderful: Katawa Shoujo 💛
Oh man! You’ve just giving me something that I think will really help stoke the fire in my relationship!
I’ve never really been into sexual roleplay and it’s one of the things my partner previously expressed an interest in. We regularly game together either doing co-op or single player since we feel it’s more engaging sometimes than zoning out on a movie., so the recommendations like “Leap of Love” sounds like the perfect gaming/drinking night that might kinda dip into the roleplaying aspect!
I really wish I claimed it when I saw it, just a few clicks and I’m kicking myself for it now. Are there any others you or anyone else would recommend that are more fantasy roleplay focused and might be good for two people?
I’m suddenly wondering if horny multiplayer games for couples is already a thing, or if it’s an untapped market.
That’s a difficult one. Due to their target audience, a lot of them are more focused on storytelling (usually limited gameplay and more reading along in a choose your own adventure style) for a single player. What you’re describing is a bit of an untapped market, but give F95zone.to a look and you might find something. It’s a site dedicated to collating freely available adult games (with ways to support the authors linked). It’s where a lot of the games OP talks about found their audience.
