I voted on the first poll of this, but not the second. The reason being, I’m more of a longer with wide branches kind of reader. I like multiple branches, but if it only gives me something that takes me less than an hour to finish, I don’t feel as rewarded, whereas on the other hand, if I play through something that takes me five hours to finish, but there are so few branches it is nearly just a fully linear story, then I will typically just keep it at a single play through since nothing really will change based on other choices. I like having long stories with many branches that significantly change how things end up. It makes me willing to spend a full day playing through as many branches as possible, and feeling just as rewarded at the end of each one.
Now, with a single story, long with a lot of branches is doable, but I do know that should someone be making a multiple story project, having the same length with the large amount of branching will be a nightmare come the third story in said project… but I’d love them forever for it.
I’d replay a game 2-3 times in general but if I really like the premise and there’s a lot of stuff to explore then I’d play it to my heart’s desire. Although there are very very few games that I’ve played more than 4 times (namely Tin Star, Zombie Exodus series, Wayhaven Chronicles, Lost Heir series, and Fallen Hero: Rebirth).
I often play a game 3-4 times depending on its choices first I’ll play it safe with most obvious choices then go for exploring the ones that I want and then go hog-wild and try to be as despicable or destructive as I can be.
Well then you might be on the shallowest end of the pool as only ZE and LH series and Tin Star (thanks @Eric_Knight) come to mind which perfectly fit that criteria
Also @Jacic Highway Wars wasn’t small or very linear but the fact that its bit fast and MC only has a ‘real’ interaction with the navigator and gunner off which gunner always dies midway through was a problem (for me at least) and by the end I’m frankly exhausted as there wasn’t much to earn from playing it more since I had already explored the better part of magaz and its surrounding in my first playthrough and got my desired ending.
I tend to play games 2 or 3 times, and almost always pick the same options each times, just tweaking them the second or third time to get the results I want, so I definitely prefer longer with less branching of the two options.
Like many others here, my answer is the same. It all depends on how much I adore the game.
I like achievements. For games with stories I love I won’t be satisfied until I have 100% it. Then I played it again to have a ‘canon’ route. For anything less I’ll just leave it be and take a look through its code when I have the time.
It’s the same reason is why I prefer branching paths too. Achievements gives me the incentive to make choices I’ll never consider otherwise.
I saw someone say they still play Tin Star and I must agree. It really depends on how the story is written. I’ve read the entire rangers apprentice series over 15 times (I lost count) and even though I know what happens I still enjoy it. Granted that’s a novel, but fiction is fiction. That’s actually a theme I’m bringing into my new and improved game. I’m trying to make every scene different as possible. It’s a lot of work, but I think it will be worth it in the long run.
I must admit I play through games an excessive amount of times. Sometimes I don’t even choose different choices, I just play it to play it. I think as long as you have a good story, you’ll have a reader base. Sometimes you just gotta wait for the to finish is for the 4738399373 time xD.
Anyway I would also say it all depends how well the story is written and how much replay abilities there are. If I really like a CoG/HG then I’m willing to replay it as many times as it takes to get the MC exactly the way I have them in my mind. If I create several characters for a game then that just means more replays.
For the second question I don’t think I can vote one way or another bc both can be done in a good way. Heroes Rise is a good example for the first option and Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven is a good example for the second option. I really like both of those games and replayed both several times.
It really depends. There are few games where I played through only once, or just went through a second time to see what the ending is as an evil character or something. Occasionally I’ll play through to see what another RO is like, but that’s only in cases where the relationship is really fleshed out on the first play through.
The games that I tend to replay more often are the ones where I get to customize more. I think I played the first ZE 5 or 6 times. I think I played ZE:SH more than 20 times, event though some of those were breezing through with another profession or something. I played the first Lost Heir more than 10 times. All the Heroes Rise games I played at least 3 or 4 times.
I don’t usually replay at all. Maybe once of there’s some critical choice that makes plot split in the middle of a game and I’m interested in the both outcomes. Reading same lines over and over again quickly becomes tedious. I guess for me interactive fiction works more like real books than games. Read a story, finish it and feel content afterwards.
I prefer more cosmetic branching like being able to choose your profession and having a few additional lines here and there.
??? Flavor text (at least as the term is used internally) would create branches, and hence shorter playthroughs. Text that every player sees is not “flavor text.”
I don’t have a ton of free time, so the longer a game is, the less likely I will replay it. But ideally I would go through a couple times to get different experiences.
Perhaps I’m using the term incorrectly then? I always seen it used on the forums to denote a few words or a sentence or two that has little affect on the story apart from making it more interactive or immersive. For example using variables to denote hair or eye colour that just makes the game more immersive without it changing the way NPC’s react otherwise or something like this:
*fake_choice
#Walk via the river.
You have a nice walk by the river and feed the ducks.
#Walk along the street.
You walk down the street since you don't want your shoes to get muddy.
Finally you reach your destination.
(That’s what I meant by that if I’ve used the incorrect term anyway to be clearer.)
You’re right in what it is, but if a story has a lot of it the words per playthrough would be lower, not higher. Because each option would have different flavor text, and you would fail to see all the unchosen ones.
Well you have to have some choices in there, otherwise it’s not a choice game. Unless you use only fake choices with no text contained in them, there’ll be at least some hidden text
I guess what I was driving at was a more linear game like the one above, compared to a game where if you go to the park, you get a few pages of story, and meet an new character that affects things down the track, and if you go down the street, you find a ring your boss lost and need to decide what to do about it. This example with branch more, have more unseen text (and a lower playthrough count per 100,000 words) and have a greater effect on the storyline by comparison to one that is very linear.
Don’t know what you’d call one over the other, but that’s what I meant, and why I was saying more words per play through (for a 100,000 word book) for “flavour choice”. Much like the difference between the many of the Episode stories vs something like maybe gambling with eternity (from memory) for things on the outer ends of that scale. I’m not saying either is wrong, just different and it depends on your reading style as to which you prefer
Well… i actually purchased “Tin Star” last December , i only join the HG/CoG community last year … at the beginning i was reading mainly free games , after i was attracted by HG/CoG, i started researching and look for these games , no matter how old they are Tin Star, Slammed ! , UnNatural and Hero Rise were some of the older titles i purchased few months ago…
And i had read Tin Star for more than 5 times if i am not mistaken …i read these stories multiple time because i am occasionally too deep into my character , and i just want to re-live the moment of interacting with various characters within the story
When it comes to Choice of Games (as opposed to other types of games), I‘m consistent. I do what @Jay_Tarrant does, and end up with 2-3 full playthroughs. It‘s about self-expression for me, so I usually quickly discover what I want my canon playthrough to be, and then explore other branches only if I find in them an expression of another part of me.
… it is one million words long, and it do have many branches that significantly change how things end up 
