whether love or dark theme Depend on the plot and one thing for sure not NTR... =_= unless its a reverse ntr where women is try to steal the protagonist lol or something like Biniku no Kaori ~Netori Netorare Yari Yarare~
Loved theme. I soooooo don't like rapes and lolis getting tortured to death in eroges. If I read a dark theme it has to be sorta like G senjo no maou, mysterious + suspence but with no psycotic badends. I also like when they incorporate acion-rpg in some eroges like sora o aogite kumo takaku(this game made me hate goblins like a lot).
Hmmm... Dark wins if, and only if, it is very well written.
For example, if there's a new Innocent Grey game, that gets played first over anything else, because I know that company makes very good dark mystery visual novels.
Otherwise, I tend to not like visual novels that are what I would call 'gratuitously' dark, and would instead go for a more pure-love themed game.
I like games that are bright and fun with cute girls.
Such incidents will occur even if a little dark, it will overcome with love and friendship.
I sometimes even games that deal with death, violence, class discrimination, such a dark theme.
Masu I lost my motivation force it from the beginning but dark atmosphere.
I think it is more reasonably contain gag and erotic, and readable dark theme.
I personally like a VN with balance between the both. But if I absolutely had to choose one, I'd probably pick the lovey-dovey less emo stuff.
So what I mean by balance is this: Too much moe cutesy stuff won't do because I'm too realistic to believe everything is sunshine and rainbows and dark, emo stories where too many of your fav. characters die, get screwed (in various ways) leave a empty unsatisfying feeling when you finish the game.
Something like G-Senjou no Maou would be an example of a VN with that kind of "balance" I prefer.
Genres such as Nakige, Nukige, and Netorare are a different story. Nakige I might like, but only if the story and characters make me care. Nukige is if you're in it for the pronz. As for NTR...no, never will I touch that mindf**k of a genre. I won't go into more detail right now....heh.
Overall, I like cute, upbeat games and fiction. I don't insist that every story has to feature a happy relationship, love triangle, or harem. In fact, I'm not opposed to challenging themes, unheroic characters, or variety in media. But I'm not interested in games and fiction that just string a bunch of sex scenes together.
I guess I'm on love themed side, since I really like fluffy romance ^^ Reading it is fun, so to writing and playing, hehe
But, dark Lilith games interest me too