Some authors openly say they look to not upset the audience by giving them an option to be a shitty person - it’s their prerogative but I hate to feel restricted in RPG games even if my characters are 100% softies - sometimes you’d like give a character a journey or moral ambiguity.
2 Likes
I hate it when authors dump a load of exposition at the beginning of a story. And i hate it when its done in large walls of text with very “foreign” words. Like, I love world building but for me its easier to be gradually pulled into a story than dumped there.
An example being:
Summary
Ritz is a city of enormous Wavers. Aboard the Sea Lion, they exist little for Andyre to struggle with, save the minor cuts well hidden underneath his Consier. His behaviour befits a Meander that stays solely loyal to the great Subatar Ktyelp while remaining one of the rare few Meanders that continually practice Wavering.
Still, you notice his lack of confidence for Habjuan. You understand it. You pity it.
Something like this lol
10 Likes
Pretty much all of the ‘Who Would You Fall For’ style of interactive fiction quizzes fall into this camp - the reader is virtually always female and the setup is nearly always the same:
The reader enters somewhere blatantly unsafe (probably without help from parents because parents are distracting in WWYFF), they get attacked by the bad guy because they’re secretly the chosen one, then get rescued by one of the five to six love interests who reveals that they’re probably supernatural, then the reader faints from the experience. The love interests then take the reader to their house rather than a hospital or anything more secure which is sure to be a large mansion they somehow live in all by themselves, they also have clothes which definitely fit the reader. The reader then confirms that all the love interests are supernatural and now they can’t leave and must stay to set up drama. There’s probably a moment too where each love interest explains their origins and personality - chances are there’s a jerk, a boy next door, a mysterious stoic one, a jokester and a romantic.
Pretty much of WWYFF fiction ticks all those boxes. 
20 Likes
I don’t know if it’s a remnant from the time I wrote movie reviews, but forced romances with absolutely minimal build-up grind my gears to a complete halt.
How did the main protagonist fall in love with their companion when they literally met a week ago and have no conversation outside “Look out!”, “Egad, an ambush!”, or “Grab the wheel!”. Of course, if they sit in a desolate desert for most of that time and have nothing but time to grow closer, coolio.
It’s also a personal pet peeve since I’m a sucker for slow-burn. If fast romances are written properly and have a solid build-up and explanation, sure, go for it!
Another that bothers me is when a RO is depicted to be rough, cold, and distant in the beginning but as soon as the MC shows interest, they tell you their entire life story and the personality changes entirely. Honey, you would’ve left the MC to fend for themselves only a moment ago, and now you’re having a spiel about not leaving them behind?
I haven’t stumbled upon many of these in CoG/HoG, but in mainstream games and movies, yes.
Also, endings that imply everything goes back to normal. Chopped a dude’s head off to protect yourself? Sure, that’s not gonna haunt you for the rest of your life, I’m sure.
But then again, I think we do need some tropes in the stories to give a sense of familiarity, and it’s up to writers to either surprise you by twisting the trope, or let it play out naturally. I’m not going to say that my stories come without anything pre-labeled, and possibly over-used (cough Four temperament ensemble cough).
All tropes can be good if written with care and love.
9 Likes
I don’t know if anyone wrote this yet considering there’s a lot to read in this thread but I absolutely hate interactive stories where the author would not stop asking you to reconfirm your choices during the character creation process all the while making small talk. (ahem Nocturnal Aurora ahem)
Personally, it breaks my immersion and starts grinding down my patience to dust. And it’s only the beginning of the story! Though I am aware that this is most likely done under the intention of creating flavor text and adding personality to the story, I think it would be better if the interaction between the reader and author is done outside of the storyline.
7 Likes
I can say nothing irks me off and actively takes me out of an otherwise decent story more than ill-placed flirting options. There’ll be this superflous conversation with a newly-introduced NPC, and one of the choices will always come down to: ‘#I find myself inexplicably attracted to them’, which will contribute nothing to the game/discussion at large other than setting a romance variable to +1. Or when in a very emotional scene involving an RO I can heartlessly go ‘#But you’re hot tho.’
To be clear, I like flirty options. I think there’s a place for those moments in IF, but I’d rather they not feel tacked in just to yell ‘hey, you can smooch this character!’
23 Likes
Can I say I’m not a fan of of tvtropes website 
I don’t really like tropes in general even though they can be a needed writing tool but often from what I’ve seen people will label something a trope when it’s really is not one.
I suppose if I was to dislike anything like this it would be the whole Hollywood or any other fictional medias that does it is when you have a boy and girl leads and they get together even though they have no chemistry or interest or even intent in the story to be together but are forced to hook up by writer because they are a boy and girl.
2 Likes
Something that’s been driving me up a wall more than anything else recently is the introduction, and subsequent attempts to raise interest in ROs.
Example:
“This is character A, they’re super hot prime sex material.”
Okay, so, why should I want to hook up with them?
“Dude, but they’re so hot, it’s like, twenty degrees warmer in the room when they’re around.”
Still not clear on what my motivation is?
“Do you see how tight their clothes are? Man, you can see every curve!”
I just watched them kick a puppy and laugh, seriously, why should I want to hook up with this person?
“There aren’t enough words in the human language to explain how sexy-”
STOP.
Looks are not everything. I will decide if someone is worth my time based on their personality first, and then, and only then, will I bother with their looks.
And in the topic of personality over looks, they could be a runway supermodel, if someone’s attitude is crap, I’m not going to give them the time of day. Period. I don’t care if they’re your favorite OC and you consider it the canon ending that they hook up with my character, I don’t care how cool you talk them up to be, if they act like assholes, I’m not interested. I sure don’t expect anybody to be head-over-heels when MY character acts like a wad, don’t know why the reverse is expected of me.
And then some stories act like you just told them their macaroni art was trash and start guilting you about not hooking up with the sexy prick that you don’t like.
Example two:
“Do you wanna go on a date with the sexy asshole?”
Nope.
“Oh, well, then I guess you just go home, take a cold shower and cry yourself to sleep over how much of a cowardly virgin you are. Pick the correct choice next time!”
Don’t patronize me. Don’t belittle me because I’m going down the plot thread that you don’t want me to. It’s not my fault your oh-so-sexy OC is an unapproachable twit, and I shouldn’t have to be punished for having standards enough to not drool over their shoes simply because they’re eye candy. I find nothing appealing about “enemies to lovers” or “borderline Stockholm Syndrome” romance plots, and I’m not going to apologize for that.
…Whoo, geez, sorry about that, that was much more scathing than I meant for it to be!
23 Likes
To a point, I understand this, because I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve had to restart an entire story due to one accidental fat-fingering of an option I didn’t mean to pick.
But I do agree that it gets to a point where it feels handhold-y. Look, author, I get you want me to be sure so that I don’t end up hating the story later, but I’ve had to go through six different confirmation prompts about my hair, alone!
2 Likes
It happen a lot in Chapters or Choice haha. I read it one story out of curiosity, some even ironically describe the male lead as ‘Alpha male’ with commanding ‘Alpha voice’ and force me to think that he hot or something. I am not okay since then :'D
4 Likes
For the most part, almost any trope can work, but some of them in practice are almost never done well.
My biggest pet peeve is probably the character, usually in low fantasy, who is institutionalized even though she knows she’s not crazy, she really did encounter the supernatural. Every psychotic I’ve ever met knew they weren’t crazy. And in a closely related note, can we stop with the implication that mental illness is the absolute worst thing that can happen to a person? “You also thought the car behind us was trying to run us off the road? Thank goodness! I was starting to think maybe I had a treatable brain disorder, but it’s just someone trying to murder me. I feel so much better now!”
A very close second is the seduction bet that turns into true love, or more basically, the idea that anyone can be seduced under the right circumstances. I’m especially tired of the female character who has never been kissed or been on a date or really even had a crush, and then she meets the designated love interest and melts into a puddle of lust.
Also, the relationship (friendship or romance) between an uptight super-organized introvert and a laid-back sloppy extrovert, where we get to see how the introvert comes out of their shell (don’t get me started on how much I hate that phrase) and learns to live a little and embrace the mess and spontaneity of life. Oh, and the extrovert gets better about showing up to work on time.
7 Likes
Enemies to lovers is absolute trash. If I’m going to the the trouble of being someone’s ACTUAL ENEMY (as opposed to, say, rivals), it’s because those people are BAD PEOPLE. I do not want to deal with bad people in any way other than telling them to bugger off and die, let alone date them.
My personal contribution to this thread, unless someone already said it, is The Prophecy! You are The Chosen One, because you were born under the constellation of the One-Horned Cow during The Eclipse when The Comet could be seen in the sky, and therefore you are the only one that can defeat Evil McBadGuy. If the protagonist is going to succeed, I want them to succeed because they’re actually competent, not because they were born when The Stars Are Right. In fact, The Stars Are Right should only be used in one circumstance, and that’s to mark the cosmic alignment when the Abomination From Beyond Time and Space can be summoned into the mortal realm.
10 Likes
I think there’s one writer who’s managed to make prophecies and destinies interesting in my memory, and that’s Mercedes Lackey. And that’s because destiny in her stories isn’t an abstract force of some kind, we actually see how destiny works and the various divine and non-divine actors who are pushing the various prophecies.
Prophecy as a statement of intent by active players is something I like.
5 Likes
I don’t agree on " enemies of lovers" is necessary bad if the story is well told with rich background and personality.
Many people had confused that the term " enemy " is surely for someone Evil , why? Because he/she is my opposition so he/she is my evil enemy. But we forgeting the fact that, for our opponents, we could be view as the Evil part. Sometimes we stand in direct opposition of others due to geographical, political or family grudge where each party has a different stands, it doesn’t meant the enemy is evil in nature. In many cases, friends or allies may become enemy one day.
Take example of Sword of Rhivenia, Princess Astryn or as i understand, Queen Lena may be an " enemy" at first look , but it is ambiguous who is the evil or bad kingdom here, the protagonist 's father killed Kings of rival factions due to political reason, so i don’t think it makes the antagonist 's kingdom as evil or bad people… so it is possible to become lovers of enemies , whether out of political love or true love.
What i like most in Sword of Rhivenia is that the option of chosing a reason for loving an enemy princess … " to prove that the Rhivenians are not Evil " , yes… for our enemy , we are considered Evil, so what better way to show your enemies that we are not Evil via " Love "?
4 Likes
I really love her 500 Kingdoms books where there is a background magic force of destiny that tries to enforce Tradition. Most of the books are about actively fighting it.
1 Like
Enemies-to-lovers works best as a slow burn - when there’s a lot of growth and change involved. The “I hate you but I can’t keep my hands off you” dynamic that happens too often instead is not a plausible setup for anything remotely resembling a healthy relationship.
7 Likes
This i could agree upon, as it seems less logical in term of sensible love relationship.
For a developed “hatred” due to history of previous generation, a feuding country or business rivals. There could always be mutual respect when each person learn to understand they are just 2 faces within one coin.
There are always intriguing love story line to be explore when one party start a redemption route in mending old scars
2 Likes
It’s definitely easier when the two are enemies because of a collective hatred (e.g. countries at war) than because of specific interpersonal enmity. The former, while still requiring a slow burn, can both contribute to and proceed from the recognition of the humanity of the hated Other. The latter requires an amazingly well-done redemption arc, but a very capable writer can make it happen.
7 Likes
I had just remembered there was one CoG title " Heroes Of Myths " , that totally dazed me with its unorthodox approach of the trope " prophecy and destiny " , not only its presentation was unique, its story telling was mesmerising with different choices result in different outcomes of the so called prophecy and destiny.
It started with the main protagonist being offer a chance to join a " fake prophecy " , staged by 2 mages, whom one is a half demon. One of them wrote a well scripted poetic prophecy and led to a prologue conclusion where the protagonist was the hero of the said prophecy to end a demon incursion . Now this was all a well planned lies for each character to gain what they wanted, the half demon got her reason too. Along the story, MC got choices of how he/she treat this prophecy, whether guilt or fully accepted it may bring different outcome later on
In the end, there will be a real Demon Incursion, and there would be choice where MC play towards the supposely fake prophecy, and turn into the actual hero from that prophecy, although it may not be easy towards this route, or MC could reveal the lies of such prophecy to the disappointment of people, but will find alternative way to unite everyone to stop the incursion.
There were multiple different ending to treat everyone’s taste, but for me… the best would be continue with the fake prophecy but gain power to twist it into an actual one to become a saviour, that was really cool and it totally a master piece for prophecy and destiny storyline.
Hence, it again shows there is no such thing as a bad theme, it all depends on the presentation of the said story
6 Likes
A business rival isn’t your enemy, they’re your RIVAL, it’s right there in the name.
1 Like