Poll regarding purchasing of Hearts' Choice games

I know within the first chapter whether I’ll want to play a full game, so I buy at that point in the same way I would look at the start of a book in a shop before buying. I don’t play with ads, I find them too annoying, but even if the ads weren’t there I’d want to support the author.

I firstly appreciate Hearts Choice because it includes titles with specific queer MC orientations. CoG by design is more broad, and for all the commentary about HGs being more varied, I haven’t seen many published HGs doing it. I think there’s one sapphic HG, Moonrise, and I don’t recall any M/M exclusive ones off the top of my head. I would love to see more exclusively gay HGs! But for whatever reason, if you want something exclusively gay, it’s mostly HC.

I also enjoy that in Hearts Choice you know you’ll have a Happy Ever After or Happy For Now by the end, whatever trials you face along the way. That’s unique to HC and is something that makes them an escapist wish fulfilment for me. Like eating a delicious dessert! I know I can focus on the characters in Heart of Battle and I don’t need to juggle stats to get some sort of positive ending. Often I’m in the mood for that; often I’m in the mood for the various settings and stories in the HC lineup.

The other thing … how to put it delicately … with HC I know there are going to be some optional sexy scenes, of varying spice level yes, but if that’s what I’m in the mood for, I know that the game isn’t going to be solely holding hands and sharing glances over a table. On a less physical level, I know that in HC I’m going to experience a romance that develops over the course of the game and I won’t be left hanging at the end with a romance interest who doesn’t seem interested in me (even if it’s the start of a series!), romanced characters won’t be forgotten about, and I won’t have to choose between saving the world or getting a moment with a love interest - none of which are a guarantee with HG or even CoG (which I say with all love to the HG and CoG romances I’ve enjoyed, and with the knowledge that the romances in my CoGs don’t meet HC’s style guide).

I find it a little surprising to see folks suggesting that a label publishing games which they think are less popular is pointless, when the Underrated Games polls have been so hotly contested and discussed. It’s not even true that HC games are universally less commercially popular than other labels. Even if they were… whether popularity is measured by sales or by forum commentary, less popular games very much have value.

tl;dr: some HCs are more niche in target audience and protagonist. But there’s room across the ChoiceScript labels for different approaches and I think that’s neat.

24 Likes