Anonymous asked:
Any thoughts on the relatively recent trend of western VNs made using Daz Studio? The market sort of evolved on Patreon when they became the first to allow smutty indie games to be created, and only the most polished examples of the form have made the leap to Steam. Common elements include nukige+plot writing, very large file size, episodic structure, new CG art sometimes every few lines, relatively complex game mechanics, and an overall pre-rendered 3D aesthetic that vaguely imitates realism.
That’s a fantastic question. Sadly my knowledge of the VN sphere is pretty out of date, so I can’t offer more than some random thoughts and wild speculation.
3d rendered porn has existed for decades, never really having much success with its mannequin like posing, but its existence has exploded onto Steam. Whenever I’m scrolling the top rated games in any genre on Steam, you’ll see those Daz Studio porn games listed. So they’re clearly popular with their market for which I think there’s a few possibilities.
- It appeals to those who don’t like anime aesthetics.
- It caters more to Western preferences in porn instead of Japanese (college vs highschool, enthusiastic vs passive, husky vs chew-toy voice, among many other differences).
- The gameplay provides a “I buy it for the articles” excuse.
- They provide more interactive/animated porn scenes than the static CGs typical of VNs.
I’d be fascinated to see a breakdown of the ownership of these Daz Studio games vs those who buy VNs. I suspect that prior to the the animated porn scenes there would have been very little overlap, but those scenes now offer something above what VNs deliver and may be driving most of their popularity.
I’m also curious to what extent this may overlap with VR porn, whether folk drawn to try VR for the porn then branch out into these kind of games on Steam.
Lastly, in terms of how this’ll impact the VN market. I don’t think it’ll make a significant difference, those reading VNs for the plot aren’t going to be interested in the cliche scenarios for these Daz studio porn games, and the visual style appeals to radically different tastes. As for their gameplay, if Doki Doki Literature Club’s enormous success didn’t encourage the inclusion of meta/gameplay elements in other VNs then I doubt these Daz studio games will either.
So in summary, I expect these Daz studio games to exist as a parallel fandom with VNs, rather than either cannibalise one another or merge, but we’ll see.
Thanks for the interesting question, have a lovely day!
