Now I’m imagining like, an IF where like the MC has a pre set background as a general role (doctor, scientist, technology, etc) but the actual stats are like, the specifics. Like say they’re the Technology Guy, their stats would be along the lines of Hardware, Software, Algorithms, Data Analysis, etc. Probably still a bit on the more general side, but you get the idea.
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Just want to note that broad range of skills in science is a norm and the only way to go if your resources are limited. My friend works as microelectronics engineer in a nuclear physics institution. She has expertise in nuclear physics and nuclear medicine since she needs to know what she’s doing. I’m a biotechnologist, but also a genetic engineer and a biochemist. Because we can’t afford to hire all of those people, so I’m doing jobs of several at once.
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One can only guess how different would the scenes be in each path. Hope someone does something like that some day.
Also that whatever the job title is doesn’t mean that’s all the person has actually studied. One could be a data analyst and still have minored in classical archaeology.
(I also would think that some roleplaying from the player’s part can be expected in a game where the player can choose what to do with the skills. If you don’t think your character should be able to do something with a skill, then just… don’t do that? Unless it happens automatically, that is. I personally find level-ups way harder to handle.)
As a software person… if you separate the algorithms from all of the above, don’t you just get a mathematician? Who is not a tech guy. (Also it is totally not unreasonable to have scratched them all in studies, no matter which one you specialize in, so you might be able to do those in a pinch even if not on a professional level.)
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I don’t really enjoy reading the buildup to a standard relationship. Like at all. I like the really early flirty stages, and I LOVE the during the relationship part, and dealing with post-relationship stuff is awesome, if a little sad, but the will-they-won’t-they gets me… eugh. I dunno. I think this might be a pretty common opinion actually, but I feel scared this is going to make someone ashamed for enjoying it or something 
. Just in general though, I’d like IF’s that have more focus on the during relationship part.
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I hate it too! Like you, I like the really early flirting (provided it doesn’t go on forever), and I love the during the relationship part, but the whole buildup thing? It’s so damned boring. And it almost always goes on too long. It’s like being stuck in an elevator between floors forever–and I have claustrophobia, so that’s not a good thing!
Unlike you, I don’t like the post-relationship stuff. I play these games to get a happy ending for my MC, not to leave them brokenhearted and dumped, lol.
But yeah, a lot of people love the buildup. I think we are in the minority with our dislike of the buildup!
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I’m pretty sure you’re not. Romantic buildup dragging on for too long is probably the single most common complaint people have about fictional relationships. Conversely, I found it’s easiest for people to agree that a relationship works when the couple in question spends more time actually being a couple than vaguely preparing to get together one episode.
However, when it comes to IFs… it kinda has to be this way. It’s not a regular story where every paragraph can be used to further whatever goal the writer wants to achieve; Many players genuinely need that long period of buildup to even decide who they want to romance and then start hitting the “romance flags” or whatever mechanic the game uses. Trust me, it is frustrating to be 140K words into my project without as much as a single kiss with any of the LIs, but it’s ultimately for the best.
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I like the will they won’t they when there’s a reason for them to not be jumping right into a relationship once it’s pretty obvious they’re both interested. For example, one of the ROs on my WIP is engaged to the MCs little sister via a political arranged marriage. So that’s a whole thing they have to deal with
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Wise decision. It’s like when games have both Guinevere and Arthur as ROs, it’s kinda hard to get over ‘Those two being together is kinda super important for a lot of stuff’.
I know I wasn’t asked but personally, ROxanyone who isn’t my character is basically okay as long as I’m not too attached to the RO.
If I really like a RO or even just had particularly good time on the run I romanced them on, I’m gonna be annoyed no matter what if they get with someone else in basically any circumstance. Kinda like when you’re particularly attached to a toy and get annoyed if anyone else touch it even if you’re currently not playing with it.
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Tbh, this I don’t have as much of an issue rationalizing because uh… they’re infamously not exactly faithful to eachother.
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Yeah but that’s the point, them being together and fucking up is what created the entier third half of the Arthurian Tale so if they never get together in the first place, lots of stuff change.
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Sisterfuckering and cuckolding indeed is a crucial part of Arthurian lore
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Technically, half-sisterfucking.
And yes, Cuckolding hold a strangely crucial role in MANY stories of that lore. Like Lancelot cheated on Gawain’s mom, Arthur’s mom ‘cheated’ with Uther, Tristan technically sorta cheated with Yseult (in their defense, there was magic bullshit involved even more so than with Arthur’s mom) etc.
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I start hating series here in the wip section. It takes years to write an IF and then knowing from the start that it’s going to be a series now makes me loose interest already. I am getting old, so why should I invest time and energy in a Work thats even If all goes Well might not be finished before I die? Yeah IT IS negative thinking, but a series with lets say 5 books, each taking 3 years before getting published and WE are 15 years in the waiting. Of course there are people who Stick to Things for 15 years, but I do Not know the author so why should I believe that? So I started Not Reading a series before it’s done. It’s a bit depressing but better than being stuck in unfinished businesses for years.
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There does become a certain point where its like, at the rate that the books are releasing and considering that with branching a game becomes exponentially larger each book that comes out, what are the chances I’ll be dead before the series finishes?
Or less dramatically, what are the chances I’ll still be interested in that genre/writing style by the time it finishes?
Its sort of the same reason that I never finish long webnovels. I’ll read the couple hundred chapters are out, but knowing that a new chapter comes out once or twice a month and there are hundreds of chapters left to go, I know I’ll never finish it because in the years it will take to come out, I’ll have lost interested in the story or genre by then.
I don’t enjoy reading the same tropes and types of books now that I did a couple years ago. Tastes change and the longer it takes for a series to finish, the more likely it is that I’ll lose interest by the time it does.
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This isn’t a dislike per se, just a personal reflection on wip.
After engaging with several wips and respective threads, I’ve been asking myself if I should play wip at all. Don’t get me wrong wips are a great way to discover new stories and get passionate about them and, hopefully, help the author improve their work, but it also takes away the excitement of a finished product. If I really like a wip I get super invested so it becomes a bit of a hyper fixation that can quickly turn into a rabbit hole of me consuming every type of content available (Tumblr posts, Patreon, etc.) and I don’t even know if the story will ever get published or, by the time the story is published, what’s left for me to discover are just a couple of chapters that wraps up the story, this without considering the waiting time until the book is published. Also oftentimes, following a wip for years sets your expectations really high and once those expectations aren’t met you feel disappointed and a little cheated on because of all the time you invested in the project.
The IFs I’ve enjoyed the most have been those that I discovered after at least b1 had been published and I knew little to nothing about the characters, world, etc. Once I know what I’m getting myself into, I don’t mind too much following a wip but still, it might steal a bit of the magic that discovering a new world without biases could give.
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@Kaelyn @dreamofeden
I feel this way too. Sometimes you just want to read a good story, finish the game and that’s it, not get a commitment to a neverending epic saga that will be finished who knows when. It’s not a problem when the story ending leaves the possibility of a sequel, but waiting for who knows how long to have answers is tiresome.
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@Kaelyn @dreamofeden @RenataC
Agree with you all on this. I’m older than all three of you, so me wondering if I’ll see the end of a series before I’m dead is a valid concern (I mean, it’s valid for all of us, but more likely for those who are older). I cringe when I see a WIP is going to be a series now, and don’t really want to get invested unless I’m absolutely certain the author isn’t just turning a duology/trilogy into a septology or pentology just to milk everyone for more money and that they don’t plan on dragging their feet in putting them out.
Really, if people want to write these lengthy series, they need to make each one self-contained, even if they build on each other. I’ve read romance series (okay, erotica series, lol) that do it this way. You can pick any one of them up and be fine, but if you read them all, it works great, too.
I’m just sick of waiting on “the next one” in series, hoping it’ll make it worth the wait.
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It’s funny to realise that I started reading Wayhaven about… eight or nine years ago, and now I’m twenty and the series are only on B3. It reminds me a bit of Infinity games, which had about the same situation - Lords released when I was nineteen, and before that I’ve read the two books when I was fourteen.
It’s honestly a bit unnerving if you look at it from outside perspective. I’ve waited about nine years, I was a teen and now I’m not, and the series still aren’t completed. I know this takes a lot of time, but still, yeesh.
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Funny thing is, I cringe every time I see “it is a series” used as an excuse for leaving a book’s plot unsolved. I wouldn’t go as far as saying everything should be self-contained - I see no harm in saying you might need to read books 1-4 to completely understand what’s going on in book 5 - but I do agree on that you shouldn’t be required to read book 5 to understand what’s happening in book 1. Books shoild be complete plots.
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