Now that you mention it, I have a small issue with “choices” that check the intention of the character. These choices don’t change the action or outcome but allow the player to imbue the action with meaning. The story “forces” you to do something but gives you a chance to define the “why.” My problem isn’t with this concept itself but with how frequently the story asks about my character’s motivation for every other choice. These are clearly meant to be filler choices to break the prose and shorten the distances between choices, so the player feels like they are interacting with the story. However, this trick gets old fast.
For example, I was recently playing Stars Arisen (not throwing shade, it’s an enjoyable read, but I had this minor gripe and it’s the freshest example in my mind), and there are constant choices to pick whose side I’m on and why, it didn’t change the story, I was still doing the same mission, it only changed the reasoning. I was like, “I think we already established that, and there hasn’t been any major development to change my mind, so can we move on from this?”
Same. Though it’s kinda funny (in a way) when the MC is constantly worried about their well-being or instantly happy whenever they’re near, and as the player I just wish I could stay away from them for the rest of the game lol
On the opposite side, there are the characters that seem to hate the MC solely because they exist. Like, I love a good rivalry, but I also need a good reason as to why the character hates the MC so much in the first place (or why they hate each other in the cases where the animosity isn’t one-sided)
I don’t personally mind the character not having a good reason, as long as the MC can be frustrated about the lack of one (or just go “okay whatever” and try to ignore them).
Definitely my favorite response when that’s the case. I think I mostly need one because while I like this dynamic, I wouldn’t be particularly interested in a route like this if all the hate (one-sided or otherwise) is because of something very small.
I dunno if anyone else feels the same but… romance games? Especially some Heart’s Choice? They often have this very peculiar way of always being too forward and accessible.
I pick a straight man, everyone’s all over the character. I pick gay woman, everyone’s all over the character. First, it gets kinda sad to not ‘fight’ for affection but merely ‘pick’ who of your always-agreeable suitors would get your hand.
Second, when all others characters are into your MC, picking one often forces me to be rude\dismissive of others to not pick their romance route accidentally, or they just can’t take a hint and it becomes a clown fiesta of me trying to romance one character and being forced into ‘friendly’ scenes with ALL OTHER POSSIBLE RO where I have to suffer them just to say ‘no, friends only’ or refuse their advances.
The idea is not bad, but so often execution gets very lacking.
Because many (most?) romance stories/games are written as wish-fulfillment material, so it makes sense to have your ROs fall head over heels for you. It’s that fantasy of being effortlessly desired pretty much just for existing - without having to work for it.
Personally, when I play these games, I don’t treat them very seriously. It’s just a fun wish-fulfillment ride. I usually try to romance everyone at once for as long as I can, just because I can
Eh, sure, but IMO if you do romance game do the romance game.
Write in a roll-in-a-hay character who’s not serious, write the drama queen who won’t romance you until you do grand gestures to win her over, write the heartbroken who’ll have to be slowly doted on and will not romance you if you have a side-hoe. There are so many different and interesting ways to write a romance and all the flavors of people types, yet they are so unexplored.
I like the ‘ice queen with a hidden soft side’ and you can’t believe how hard it is to find actual ice queens, for example.
It’s not like I disagree. But what you’re asking for goes beyond the realm of simple wish-fulfillment, which is the reason why a lot of people consume romantic media. It requires the player to actually work for the relationship, and possibly fail at securing one if they don’t understand what makes their RO tick. It’s not a bad idea by itself. It’s a great idea! But certain types of media - power fantasy, romance - are built on wish-fulfillment because that’s what a lot of people consuming them are looking for. So it’s no surprise that different takes are somewhat rare, but maybe more will appear overtime?
It’s not weird at all.
When I started writing my current WIP, I put ‘will not be focused on romance’ in bold letters right in the intro post. And I explained my reasoning in a later post, which I’ll just quote because I feel it explains this pretty well:
hidden to not clog the thread
It has to do with something I noticed when editing an early draft of this story, and thinking back on my previous writing.
Basically when writing a character as a “designated RO”, for me at least, it is easier to fall into writing them as a trope or stereotype. They need to look a certain way, behave a certain way, etc etc and in my case, this led to severely stilted writing with reactions that made sense for the character’s “type”, but not in the context of the situation they`re in (re: Ember smirking all the damn time in the early draft).
Therefore, I decided I won’t think of any character as a “RO”, but just a character. And I want to try writing relationships as something based on getting to know each other and surviving stuff together rather than flirting. So, yeah, there’ll be romance. But it wont be in-your-face, hence I wrote its not a focus.
tl;dr: If you label your game as ‘romance’, your readers might develop certain expectations; not labeling as such allows you greater freedom.
I feel like that logic can be extended to power fantasies as well. The stories I remember for making me feel truly powerful all featured some sort of counterbalance, some moments of failure or clear limitations that reminded me what power actually means, and what it’s like to go without it. But doing that leaves the author at risk of losing some of the less-than-patient readers and being left with reviews like
I’m 42 seconds in and there are still characters who don’t worship the ground I walk on. Also the stat checks are freaking impossible, there should be a way for me to win the wrestling competition despite being a pacifist bookworm with an hourglass figure. Worst game ever, 0/10.
And that’s how you end up with “power fantasy” being a borderline derogatory term, associated with the most immediately gratifying trash out there. It’s kinda unfair to the concept, since most games (IF or otherwise) contain some level of power fantasy. It’s just that the good ones tend to wait a minute or two before shoving the fantasy in your mouth like you’re a horse being fed sugar cubes.
Power fantasy shouldn’t mean the same as ‘you’ll never suffer or be forced to make an effort’, yeah. Though I struggle to think about any game like that that wasn’t filled with microtransactions, lmao.
Yeah, power fantasy or not, I’m strongly in the camp of never wanting to have to ‘work’ and jump through hoops to impress a fictional character. I just do not care enough. It’s also not really what ‘romance’ means to me personally. This gamification of character/player relationships is really hard to pull off and it’s interesting to see how new IF writers are finding their own ways to do that. I think the best I’ve seen it done is in RPGs with fun character companion quest lines though, but that’s because adventuring & experiencing a storyline alongside companions is also fun in itself.
I hate it when the devs/author decides to rename days and months. Especially if the new names are really similar to the original names like morndas vs monday, and/or they keep a 7 day week and a 12 month year anyway. It’s just so unnecessary.
Only once have I ever encountered a setting where I felt the decision to rename days and months actually added anything of worth to the setting, and that was Exalted.
I don’t mind it if it’s just for flavour, but I agree it’s generally unnecessary and if the author keeps referring to a fictional calendar all the time it can get annoying. I mean, to this day I have to sing the song in my head to remember the order of the months and you expect me to learn a whole ass fictional calendar? tut tut Not gonna happen.
I agree. It can be fun worldbuilding if it’s in an actual calendar view, or talked about in a lore section, or in some character’s speech, or otherwise somewhere where it’s obvious what it means (or that the character comes from another culture), but not if the reader has to actually remember it. (I liked the way it was used in one Sandman story. It told what was happening on every day of the week the story was about, mentioning the names of the weekdays. You could decipher them - fairly easily, I’d say - but you also didn’t really need to, because the main information from them was “okay, then next day this”, not what day it actually was.)
I have used it (not in an IF, because the idea of me coding, let alone successfully branching a story is HILARIOUS) to set up background information for a character. If used appropriately, a strange calendar can be a nice bit of background information to include to inform a character (and the audience) just how far from they know the character or group is; which can then become shorthand for how strange they find everything and how strange everyone around finds them. But you have to be careful and use it with a light hand. No one really wants to have “this place is unique, look they have their own calendar” throw in their face every few pages because the author is trying to make a point that the setting is the same but different. It’s a tool of utility, and should be used judiciously, and I’m not sure most hobbyist writers understand how to tell when it moves from appropriate use to overuse.
