I’m much more likely to spend money on a game when I know how most of the story will go down.
That way I don’t feel like I’m taking as much of a risk.
I don’t want to buy anything that doesn’t have a lot of replayability.
I find I tend to forget about games that release less. There’s a lot of competition, I really feel for the authors in that respect.
I am a simple guy so here is my simple opinion.I like wips bcz they give us the opportunity to help the author check their content for errors and provide some valuable feedback and do u know the SoR game it let us play the demo UpTo maybe half or more than half I think but when the game released I brought the game instantly bcz I was on suspense on what gonna happen next and I invested my time Playing the demo
Doesn’t this seem more like a “you” thing? Most w.i.ps are even if going all the way to the ending are missing SOME content.
Other things are that most w.i.ps dont allow character importing ((if from a series.)) Lots of us just wanna use the characters we put time into.
If you feel like playing them is ruining the actual release for you. The only advice i can think of, is the most obvious one.
Just dont play it? I see it as, as long as the author is happy with it i see no problem with it.
Which is why I asked if it was just me. I wasn’t implying that other people felt this way. I was curious about their thoughts. 
It could be that when reading the WIP versions of those games it was new and you had never read it before and when it releases you already have an idea and reading it could become tedious. That’s how I feel and why I try to avoid reading certain WIP’s. Now I will say WIP’s do spoil us as there is a great variety and many are updated frequently whereas official releases are far between each other.
Sticking to your original point I agree with as I kinda hate re reading word for word books unless I actively am going for something. Unless that book is really good like wayhaven and I’ll read the demo and the full release.
For me, WIPs do spoil me if only because they have a functioning save system. While I have purchased one or two books, I find the lack of a save system unfairly punishing for no good reason at all. I just don’t invest in published stories now. I can’t enjoy them. I know the whole point is to reread it but I absolutely hate that mindset. I want to discover everything at that moment by saving and exploring the immediate reaction then playing through the choice that I like. To be fair though, I’m not a big fan of rereading, replaying, or rewatching anything.
Doesn’t help the playing these stories on mobile is inherently faulty. I still haven’t figured out why choices are made before I even get to finish reading through them .-.
But also, I find WIPs cater to what I actually like more then published works and I don’t understand why published works seem to be more simple and lack more engaging ROs. Zombie Exodus is the rare exception but the lack of a save system just kills the game for me.
But if an WIP I like does get published, I’ll buy it if only to support the creator. And chances are I already know what options to pick so I may not actually hate rereading it.
Psst. There’s a way around that.
It’s a secret. 
There’s also this little treasure, which is an add-on for firefox. It allows you to go back a screen, lets you save like on dashingdon, shows you the code, informs you when stats have changed, and it just freaking awesome.
That doesn’t work on mobile though. You don’t, technically, even need a separate program on Steam, but of course it’s more convenient.
I am aware this, as I made the thread about editing save files and the video tutorial therein. 
It’s on my YouTube channel. Shameless plug
Then you gotta stop reading duh, you’re spoiling yourself my G. Constantly reading the Alpha/Beta story before the final story spoils a lot since the mystery is gone, you gotta let yourself forget.
I read the FH Retri Alpha Demo and 1 year later the game got released and I found myself amazed again, after replaying the game 5 times its not as amazing but since the writing is amazing its still good.
Also stat heavy games tend to be boring after 1-2 playthroughs as it feels like a game not a story
I have actually thought about this a lot! I’m curious if it’s preferable for authors of WIPs to withhold their final few chapters of their public demo and leave those for the beta testers only? Though, I’d assume if you have a WIP that’s not very popular, you’d suffer from getting less feedback here and perhaps this is a less viable option for you.
Personally, I love rewarding people who put in the extra effort with my work–things that reward extra playthroughs are always novel to me. Even if you played through my work in its alpha/beta, I’d still want to include a little something new in the final release for those who care to discover it. I don’t assume all authors think the same, but for me personally, I enjoy the idea of having new things for players to enjoy!
I’m also someone who plays through my favorite games over and over again (even if it pick all the same choices lol) but I don’t really enjoy reading the same novels over again. I will re-read my favorite poems, but that’s a much shorter timesink than a whole novel. I know many people (me included) are happy to just support authors with their releases, even if you might have liked the beta more or don’t plan on reading it again. But I also posses a horrid memory and forget everything, effectively making many experiences new for me again LMAO
@ClaimedMinotaur would you still feel spoiled even with the last few chapters withheld? For you, would you prefer an experience to be new every time? When you play a WIP are you already exploring all the pathways offered or keeping yourself limited to your “true playthrough” (ex. the options that you would pick naturally on a first run through)? And if you’re not the sort of person to replay an IF, what do you personally think would make one more replayable for you? I’m curious about your thoughts!
And to anyone else reading this thread, I’m also curious about what a WIP looks like in an ideal scenario! Do you want the whole thing? Are you happy just getting a piece of it? Would you actively seek out new content if the full game released or be happy enough playing through your old choices again?
also im sorry this post got a little long!
No, I think that saving the last few chapters for the final release would be enough to make me feel like I got my money’s worth. I basically compare it to the demos we get for published games. We play the first few chapters and if we like it, we buy it. I’ve begun to understand that Hosted Games doesn’t typically allow closed beta testing like Choice of Games does, but I feel like that would definitely help me feel like it’s a new experience if most of it actually is. I feel like I first began to pay attention to this when War of the Gods came out and got as much backlash as it did. I remember playing the WiP and thinking, “Wow, this demo is really good,” and then buying (it was free with ads) and playing it only to realize that I had already played the entire thing 100 times as a WiP.
I will experiment a bit more with WiPs because dashingdon’s save system allows me much more freedom, but I tend to play published games in the “best” way, often looking to keep everyone alive and achieve a good ending. If I manage to find a path that I like, I tend to play them in the same way on subsequent playthroughs. The only real experimenting is with different ROs.
I think I generally agree! Certainly for me personally, experiencing something for the first time is a special occasion. Especially with plot twists and mysteries, you’re only ever going to be surprised by those one time. While it is fun to go back and see the little clues scattered about before that you missed, it’s just not the same to know that–for example–your mustached friend is going to betray you. Again, I am always happy to support author’s works, and if I like something I’m going to play it again anyway, but the magic of a shocking reveal might only happen to me once (not that every story needs to have one, I think inevitably there are some mysteries and reveals in all stories that may or may not be spoiled by knowing them, but are at least not FELT the same way twice).
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@ClaimedMinotaur thank you for your thoughts! Very interesting to read
Oh, is this not common with HG? From my understanding of the HG rules it’s not against them to switch to a closed demo? But I guess even if its not rule breaking, it might not be common. I’m not on the forms enough to know! And I don’t know why most HG authors wouldn’t do this. Hopefully someone can chime in and give me more info? I would imagine that in the ideal scenario, authors would like to keep their big reveal endings for their final products.
This is really interesting as well! I guess this does depend on the game though, huh? Games that have “best” pathways certainly would make you want to do that for a final release and having the forgiving save system of dashingdon is certainly more freeing to experiment with “bad” choices. Even with the steam save options that you posted above, do you still find yourself more willing to experiment with WIPs instead?
Unless things have changed in the last couple of years, HG authors don’t have to post the full game publicly, they just need to have a beta (of the full game, not a demo) that goes beyond e.g. a handful of the author’s best friends. That’s typically done by posting a public invite to take part in the beta-- not by posting the full game.
I’m personally in favor of getting as much feedback as I can on the whole game – but that’s a choice, not a rule.
Some authors prefer an open beta. Some projects can’t get enough attention and closing the beta would make that worse.
Oh yes, definitely. The steam save option is a lifesaver, but it’s still a bit of a nuisance because you have to switch over to Notepad++ and copy/paste every time, whereas with the dashingdon one you can just select the save and hit load without ever changing tabs or doing anything like that. It makes keeping tons of saves more feasible. With the steam save options, the amount of time it takes to load up each save leads me to favor 1 or 2 save files rather than the 3+ that you get with dashingdon.
Public as getting lots of playtesters from the forum, not public as in posting the link on the forum for all to play.
But it says “public beta” which means that it is open to all. A closed or private beta would be selecting people from the forum to participate.
A public beta test does not have to be “open to all.”
The purpose at hand is to build a group of people who all suit the demographics of their target market, provide them access to the program, and measure their degree of happiness. “Running a public beta test” is the term for this method.
The feedback that will appear will be usability related and as an outcome, these individuals are likely to comment on the software’s intuitiveness, user interface, and general simplicity of use.
Public beta testers should not discover defects that compromise the software’s functionality. Problems of that nature should have previously been noticed, recorded, and solved before the public beta testers were given access.
Please refer to the highlighted bold text above.
