13 KiB
The Erogamer (6.8.1-6.8.8)
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Author: u/ArisKatsaris Sidebar Contender*
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URL: https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/the-erogamer-original.5465/page-217#post-2140742
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Score: 33
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Created: 2018-09-16T20:08:24
Post:
Comments:
u/ArisKatsaris [+21] Sidebar Contender (5 minutes later)
I think that having a thread for The Erogamer per sub-arc here is appropriate, even though having one per chapter would probably have been excessive.
I hope that's a fair compromise, compared to not having The Erogamer threads at all, since it's one of the works often recommended and discussed in other threads, and I think most subscribers of this subreddit generally seem to feel it does belong here.
You'll be needing a Questionable Questing account to read the story, since it's very NSFW. That's a minor annoyance, but I feel I can guarantee this quest is worth it.
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Currently, there's a 48-hour brainstorm among the readers, following which there'll be a vote on a sexual fantasy for the character Charles. You might want to offer your suggestions there before the time limit.
u/eroticas [+12] (an hour later)
I personally think if it's gonna be a recurrent post then it would be really much better if someone were to copy it to somewhere that doesn't require you to sign up for an entire thing, and post that version?
u/ArisKatsaris [+16] Sidebar Contender (an hour later)
Is making an account in QQ really that much trouble?
I think Groon has said that he doesn't want to maintain two separate copies of the story, as it'll be harder to keep them in sync, when he makes minor fixes to previous chapters from time to time. Moreover he *wants* people commenting, discussing and voting, so he does want people coming to QQ and interacting with the other readers there.
EDIT: Found the quotes in a conversation on his profile in response to the question "Would you be willing to have a mirror of The Erogamer hosted somewhere not behind a loginwall? That would lower the barrier to recommending the story to others substantially.":
I don't want to have to maintain it, and I don't want to have to worry about updating two different sites in synchrony when I go back through a dozen chapters and retcon available stat points because I miscounted and put in an extra 5 stat points, like I did yesterday.
Though aside from that I wouldn't mind, especially if it only mirrored Book 1. I do feel like I get most of the psychological benefit on my end from readers who are voters, and I don't want to have to track votes in two places, so people going to QQ to read the last chapters would be better from my perspective.
6.a would do pretty well on its own somewhere and is semi-SFW, I'm just not sure where to put it.
u/eroticas [+17] (an hour later)
Well fair enough if that's what the author wants, lets at least add a tag.
I mean, no, it's not that much trouble, it's just a design of high traffic public spaces thing. For every person like me who speaks up, there are 50 people who click on it, see a login, get confused, and wander away. For each person it is a trivial inconvenience, but when anywhere between 50-500 people might get trivially inconvenienced over something it becomes worth addressing. The inconvenience is less visible because its online but it is still there.
u/ArisKatsaris [+12] Sidebar Contender (an hour later)
True, relevant link: Beware Trivial Inconveniences
u/derefr [+3] (a day later)
Is making an account in QQ really that much trouble?
My problem with it is that things behind a login-wall can't be targeted by offline-reading extensions like Pocket or Instapaper. Or by scraping change-notifier bots like... I don't know if any exist any more, but there used to be Dapper. (Coincidentally, this also means that Tumblr blogs behind a login-wall don't have RSS feeds, which is the literal Worst Thing Ever.)
Also, even if I could use Instapaper, the fact that there are other forum posts on the same page wrecks the content-scraping algorithm the offline-reader extensions use. This problem I also have with Dungeon Keeper Ami, which has lead me to copy-pasting its updates into a pastebin in order to Instapaper them.
u/JackStargazer [+19] Primordial Apologist (4 hours later)
The author has had some seriously heavy psychological and existential drama in this, and it's actually quite relevant to this sub.
There is a character in the most recent arc who I am fairly certain is meant to be one of us. The author calls out to r/rational by name on several occasions.
I highly recommend this. Come for the porn, stay for the existential thriller.
u/xachariah [+4] (an hour later)
I've seen this recommended before, and so seeing it recommended here several times makes me inclined to try and read it.
However, I've got an aversion to reading about ugly people having sex and the main character starts out at a 1.5/10 on the attractiveness scale. Do you know how long it takes for her to level up into being attractive?
u/LaniusLover [+14] (an hour later)
She gets attractive pretty quickly. There's like, one sex scene you might not like toward the beginning, and even that scene has both participants at about 'average-looking'.
u/xachariah [+2] (2 hours later)
Thanks. I guess I'll give it another shot.
u/ArisKatsaris [+11] Sidebar Contender (2 hours later)
Since it was the stat she most wanted to fix, she puts all the first points she gets into BOD, so by the end of the second chapter (1.2) her description has improved to this:
At a BOD of 14, you're not quite average for a teenage girl in the springtime of her youth. A little prettier than average, maybe? You're no supermodel, of course, and pornography has trained boys to expect better from the objects of their lust. But you might turn a head or two, once you learn how to dress and how to flirt.
u/JackStargazer [+6] Primordial Apologist (4 hours later)
By the time anything happens I think she's in the 16-20 range.
u/BlackSnakeMoaning [+5] (11 hours later)
This story has left a rather bad taste in my mouth before (1.1–3.4.3). Can someone who’s read the more recent updates describe how much it has improved in the context of all the problems mentioned in my linked review?
u/DaystarEld [+22] Pokémon Professor (12 hours later)
I have an extremely different read of the story than you, to the point where your review just makes me feel like the story just isn't for you if that's what you've gotten out of it so far, so maybe this response won't be helpful, but...
Pretty much everything you listed seems overblown or misinterpreted, to me... like calling her perspective "obesity apologism," as if she's not, you know, just a teenager with a clear eating disorder, and the whole rape thing, which is acknowledged in-story as unhealthy and bad, even back then, even before recent chapters where it's brought up and explored much more in-depth.
I dunno, it just seems like you're taking the protagonist's perspectives as author-tracts on what's True and Right without actually treating her like a character that can just be wrong about things and have traumas and flaws that she's struggling with, which is pretty poor way to read fiction in general, I'd say. You're not totally wrong, there's definitely some whiplash with her mother's characterizations for example, but the majority of your criticisms are just obviously "missing the point." You're criticizing the story for having bad BDSM when the very nature of good/bad BDSM is something the characters argue about (I can't remember if it happens by 3.4.3, so maybe this is a justified criticism from your perspective) and "several pages on hair" is just you clearly missing or not appreciating the references and foreshadowing that whole thing is making, which came off as awesome to me.
Sooo... I mean, I think the story is amazing and just keeps getting better, and as I pointed out a number of these things are brought up at some point, so for what that's worth maybe try it again and see if your concerns are addressed? But also maybe it's just not for you, and that's okay too.
u/ArisKatsaris [+8] Sidebar Contender (12 hours later)
It's hard to know how to answer if people didn't *share* your complaints. e.g. when you say too many 'faux-important philosophical debates', how shall I know if debates in more recent arcs will be likewise seen as 'faux-important' or not, if I didn't see the early debates as 'faux-important' in the first place?
Not sure I agree with your review's rush to judgment on whether Cindy's mom has supposedly changed attitudes about sex mid-story. Her later characterization did surprise me, but even back in 1.3 she was okay with Cindy just straight-out telling her "I'm probably gonna lose my virginity soon". In my mind it it understandable she had probably not talked about sex to Cindy much, because given Cindy's body issues, that'd be like pouring salt into the wound, talking to her about good things that Cindy could not have. Cindy's mom was not very well-defined in the early chapters (and probably not well-defined in the author's mind either), but neither do I see her as that inconsistent with her later appearances.
!Not to mention that I'm not certain Cindy's Mom had actually existed before the Erogame started. It is always possible Cindy may have simply selected the hidden 'Mom' perk, changing reality and her memories to give her a good and supportive mother, as opposed to an abusive/neglectful one.!<
"intends to solve the obesity problem of others by forcefully changing their bodies without their consent" is again a mischaracterization, I feel. She doesn't *intend* or *plan* to do it without their consent, instead she's put on the spot, asking her to decide right then and there 'Would you do an unambiguously very good thing to people without their consent, if they can't trust you enough to give such consent' and she decides the answer is Yes, because she knows that she's thankful to the Erogame which similarly did something very good to her without *her* consent.
Some elements of your review I do agree with. E.g. the DOM/SUB stat is indeed basically useless IMO, and there are other aspects of the gameplay which are similarly unbalanced. This the author has also recognized, and if you see the Threadmarks/Extras, the author has proposed a slightly different set of rules for other people wanting to create Erogamer stories, given his experience after the fact about the gameplay aspects that were subpar.
Now that having been said, things that have changed and might affect your opinion:
!It's a very crucial plot point in recent arcs, that Cindy ends up regretting, repenting, confessing and apologizing to Charles for her deception.!<
!The obesity cure she does eventually end up creating is not designed to be done via coercion towards anyone, nor without their consent.!<
!The ERO stat *has* actually increased to over 30, the boundary for science fiction/fantasy stories.!<
However, if you hate that much the idea of e.g. sometimes multiple chapters going by without sex scenes, or of alternate POV characters whose chapters don't contain gamer mechanics, these things do continue.
u/Frommerman [+5] (11 hours later)
Characterizations have stabilized significantly. A reasonable explanation for early sudden character shifts does exist, but they haven't changed much since. At this point there's a ton of general existential horror about what is going on and why, from everyone, which I find very realistic. People do start leaning into game mechanics as a means of accomplishing goals, but I honestly find it very realistic that they didn't do this at the beginning, given that the game's mechanics seem to have nothing to do with how reality used to work. The most recent arc had every on-screen character deliberately using game mechanics and recognizing that was what was going on, more or less.
u/None [+2] (2 hours later)
[removed]
u/masterax2000 [+11] Chaos Legion (4 hours later)
It's kinda random, sometimes it's like a month, other times it's daily, and so on.
u/awesomeideas [+2] Dai stiho, cousin. (a day later)
Basically HPMOR schedule
u/Flashbunny [+1] (12 hours later)
Huh, I appear to have stopped getting alerts for this. Weird. I guess I'll try unwatching/rewatching?