Hi HolaMola! Welcome to the forum!
I really enjoyed your opinions and analysis, and especially the discussions that they generated.
HolaMola wrote:I'd also greatly look forward to the explosion of angry comments by men on these forums demanding why you would put a scene like that in your game and the inevitable response by you of "Where was all this outrage by these same people when it was a man trying to seduce a homosexual woman?"
Yep, that's probably how I'd respond to a situation like that.
There are some things on some story-lines that will probably make some guys squirm a bit, but really, it's about the characters and the story. There's no attempt on my part to shove every deviant desire into the game.
OldCuteBoy wrote:You need to look at every Path on it's own, and not to mix up the scenes
This is only half true. The worst way to play BEW is to play one path over and over until mastering it, and then moving to the next path, playing that over and over, then the next path, etc... The game is impossible to enjoy that way, especially in later days. It becomes simply a matter of trial and error, and what is fun about that?
The way BEW is designed to be played, is to play a path, and most likely fail, and then play a different path. You'll usually learn something new on a different path. This is especially important as we move through the rest of day two and into the rest of the week. This could be done while focusing on one girl, or all of them, or anything in between. For example. There are 5 paths through the Wednesday Office scene. What that means is that there are 5 unique states to leave that scene from. If you always play for 10 points on Emily, then you will be missing out on 4 major paths of the game. They may not be quite evident now, but...just wait. <evil laugh time>
By the time we get to the Bar, there are 13 distinct, major paths. Strip club...well only one girl there (so far) so 6 major paths...across 3 girls, although that will increase with Azumi being added. By the time we finish the Thursday office, there are 21 distinct, major paths active, (pre azumi-jasmine). Each path is part of an overall ecosystem. Every path puts the women into different situations, which lets us learn more about them. Knowing how Emily and Faith can get along without Brad when he goes to the strip club helps us learn things about Emily that can help us on Faith-Emily paths, for example. So even though we may be following a Natalie path by going to the strip club, we still learn something a about Emily too.
So...back to OCB's statement. It's half true because of something that D&D Geeks like me understand well, Player Knowledge vs. Character Knowledge. When playing a path, remembering character knowledge is important, (What does Brad actually know for this playthrough) but to make important decisions in the game, player knowledge is key (What do we know about the woman, what does she really like? What does she think she wants, versus what she doesn't know that she wants, versus what she doesn't know that she hates?" Multiple play-through's across multiple paths give us many of these answers, and make some of the harder decisions clear. Every decision the girls make in the game is backed up by their characterization, personal story, and history. If I can't justify their reaction, It never makes the game.