That’s not true. Considering it is the authors works I think taking ownership of the way its marketed if inaccurate is the responsible thing to do. Also considering that these official forums are filled with the very same critique it is not an isolated view and is indeed a miss-fire. You can blame the marketing and say well its not the authors fault but I do think that’s just shifting blame.
Considering the author hasn’t posted on this forum since before the game was published, you don’t know how she feels about the marketing, or what discussions are being had behind the scenes. And considering that, whatever involvement the author may have in marketing decisions, the final decision rests with the company, I don’t see why she should take responsibility for something she didn’t do. That isn’t “shifting blame,” it’s wanting to blame to fall on whoever was actually responsible and has the ability to do something about it.
I see a lot of people complaining about the lack of romance that was promised in the blurb, which I’ve already said was entirely fair. But you’re the only one I see determined to pin the blame on the author.
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There can be many reasons why an author wouldn’t comment on blunders of their publisher. Since you are not the author, your stance on this matter comes largely from position of ignorance, which makes that part about “one of the dumbest takes” rather ironic.
Stance and opinion are synonyms. Are you just being argumentative for the sake of it even when it doesn’t add anything to the discussion?
And like the other poster pointed out, those forum posts don’t try to blame the author. That’s only your doing. This is also a fact.
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There’s no stance there’s an opinion on what I would do as an author which I’m entitled to do.
At the end of the day the facts still remain. The marketing says XYZ exists in the fiction which is not true.
Many forum posts have been created raising the point of miss marketing and readers not getting the content advertised despite it being a good book.
The facts are indisuptable.
Literally no one is disputing this.
And if you really have no ill will toward the author, I would think you would be putting your energy into asking the people who have the power to change the blurb to do so, rather than repeatedly accuse her of lying because she hasn’t made a big public fuss about a blurb she didn’t write or distribute.
And sure, you’re entitled to an opinion on what you would do if you were the author in this situation. And I’m entitled to an opinion on global economic policy, but since I know as little about economics as you seem to know about the publishing industry, I recognize that my opinion is worth precisely diddly squat. I’m done here.
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Not trying to pour oil into the fire, but I wonder how does this happen. Because the info has to come from somewhere, it’s not the first time this happens (far from it, unfortunately). so there’s ought to be some miscommunication going on somewhere between initial pitch, beta and release.
It is absolutely wrong to put all the blame on the author, hands down, but I think in this case everyone messed up to some degree?
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I imagine the person doing description may be at least in part working from a template and/or summary, rather than craft fully custom overview of the game. If there’s one thing people excel at, it’s cutting corners.
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Hello Everyone. This is Charli, the author of Cheerleader’s Choice.
AletheiaKnights and Mary Duffy are right that the store page is based on older design docs. And that authors don’t write the store pages.
This game was in development for a few years, and the real New York had numerous political scandals which were more absurd than my satire (Check the WIP threads from 2023). So, the game’s sense of humor took a more irreverent tone, and the romance no longer fit.
I did leave some of the dialog and code so that players could express their sexuality, and I’d hoped to import some of the choices into a sequel.
The game came out right before Christmas, and the CoG staff has been planning out the year ahead, so they’ve all been quite busy for the last two months. I’ve been respectfully waiting for them to change the store pages when it’s convenient to revisit 2025 projects.
And I’ve begun work on the potential sequel which has all of the cut romantic subplots, plus more (Yes, the epilogue from the first game is a real hint at where I intend to take the next game).
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That’s great to hear (about the sequel)! Thanks for letting us know what’s going on!
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