Ah I see, thank you~
It’s time to play the game again then 
Loved the update!! The main character wearing the wildly different hats of a rockstar, actress, and now potentially the final girl in a thriller/slasher yet being so endearing, believable and charming while she does it is a true feat. She’s a natural on the page and I’m always impressed with how much life and color you’ve given to every single character. Our best girl is starlight. And even Ritchie got a tear or two from me. I love that sap. Shiloh gives me cute aggression. Leon is… Leon, and that’s amazing. Penn is a gem. Dorinda is sunshine. I would move mountains for K, I feel so protective over them. Vince is a force of nature. The Buscemi family is an endearing and very human mess. The list goes on, truthfully.
Every character (well, every character in best girl’s crew…) is a delight and I’m seriously not going to be having a good time once our people start dying. I’ll be inconsolable.
The storytelling and subtle nuances to the character writing are as detailed and immersive as always. I grew up in some of the places you’ve written about and it’s impressive how well researched it all is. And as a woman of color, I can say that I am absolutely picking up what you’re putting down with your marginalized characters and the role mc both subconsciously and consciously plays as an ally, advocate and ”voice” at times, it’s subtle but effective. Part of what endeared her to me is her ability to hear what’s not said, make space for others, and speak up — even if she’s the only woman in the room.
It was also lovely to see so much of the main cast this update, especially at the end with everyone making an appearance. Scapegoated was made for the screens honestly. It’s so perfect for it!! One of my favorite WIPs, it’s so unique, there’s nothing else like it in the interactive fiction space.
Okay long rant over. I had a blast being rocketed back to the past and I adore this cast so much. Thank you for sharing <3
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Did you update it again sometime in the last 8 hours? Was about halfway through chapter 2 and it keeps refreshing when I try to load from chapter 2. Also, god damn, these chapters are LONG.
For that “A Siren Calls” puzzle you can make a temp input, turn it to all cap or all lowercase. So that no matter the capitalization of the user input, it still passes. I got super annoyed cause I saw it immediately and had to type it out multiple times for wrong capitalisation. Only a couple lines of extra code there.
It just happened again when I reloaded when the copper speaks to ya at the club with Jac…
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So excited to see this update! I love how detailed everything feels with the lingo and the little things like the songs on the radio. Also, thank you for putting in jealousy moments because I love playing messy runs to see if those pop up. It feels so fleshed out and I eagerly await more, even as a chicken who can’t handle most horror things.
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First of all: You’re crazy. Not even to character customization yet and this is written so beautifully. I feel compelled to notify you of typos or small things I notice throughout this read-through.
(Nitpick, wouldn’t a colon, “won two: Best New Artist . . . ” make more sense than “including”?)
Should be, “There have been glimpses . . . ”
Should be, “has made”Unintentional(?) pronoun shift here, goes from second person to first person plural, “ask us”
Double “nerves” here feels like a redundancy
“Anyway” instead of “anywhere”
“your” instead of “you” [Such an absolutely cool moment, btw]
“rendition of that” instead of, “rendition that”
No apostrophe needed for “gets”
Repeated final line
Missing the closing quotation for “Excuse me”
Should be “weren’t”
Should be “helps you”
Should be “Not at all what”
Should be “as if this alone”
“Her” used for a male!Kai
Should be “The most important thing”
I am very impressed by your technical knowledge so far, between script writing and film knowledge this seems very well researched. One hiccup here, “Camera rolling” has to precede the slate call. Otherwise, there’s no visual recording of the slate, which is what syncs the audio and film. (Otherwise brilliant job with set-specifics)
Does Jac intentionally say masochist here (referencing one who’d enjoy experiencing pain) rather than sadist (one who’d enjoy inflicting pain) on purpose? Is it intentional misspeak?
Should be, “Brown leather”(?)
Favorite Moments:
- All the singing bits.
- Neil Young (and what I get to do with Neil Young)
- Vince even though he drives me fucking insane
- Penn bc he is oh sooo sweet
- The talk with Vince during the bandage!!! “I’m the why” is written so well.
- Disgusting as it is, the golf cart ambush
- Acting out the scene!!!
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i will be attempting (*and failing, evidently) to not yap too extensively since i replayed on my phone and immediately needed to say that YOURE NUTS!!! SICK IN THE HEAD!!!
the update is so good. i loved all the changes i noticed to the earlier stuff. i continue to wish penn was real because i want him. i will still kill and die for kaya. i love vince, i love vince’s family. i love leon and shiloh. like, everybody is so awesome and i adore them all.
i’m very interested to see how nielsen will interact with the mc…i am compelled by his seriousness and out-of-touchness (he’s just like me for real. i don’t know anything happening in pop culture that everybody else on earth ? does.). i fear that “detective somewhere on the spectrum of mental unwellness who really cares about the case and doing his job well” is a type of guy that works for me more often than not, so i will probably be making a character for him.
and that leads me to say that this is a rare case for me where Everyone is so compelling that even if i personally am not immediately drawn to them (vince is straight up just my friend, for instance…) i still think i wanna do a bunch of playthroughs and see everyone’s romance. normally i pick one guy and stick with them every time i play a game, but this time i will overcome my dark urge to only flirt with penn because everyone rocks.
and now as for why you are a sickopath… i live in fear for my darling angel. my dominique is perfect and nothing bad has ever or will ever happen to her, and if it does, no it didn’t.
cliff is an obvious psychological horror, but agnes really did not help matters at all !!! when it said that mc could have performed better on that first day of shooting, i am blaming agnes for like. threatening to ruin her life? but i do appreciate penn (entirely and 100% of the time he is my darling. please can i have him pleaseeee) being so lovely and also so obviously great at his job. and fio and yvonne seem like darlings as well so far, so at least actually filming is not evil and horrible.
additionally, andy may be fired into the sun at any moment of your choosing tyvm. i think a tumblr anon may have speculated about it at one point and that bit with the girlfriend (horrible!!! amazing.) outright says that he was beyond a super fan… he was already into the whole serial murder thing, hears about the so-called hiatus and blames mc like everyone else, and then comes on down to LA knowing that’s where she lives because he wants to punish her?? continuing to kidnap and kill girls and using the pictures to scare the mc (for now) while showing that he could get her too by going into the house?? the cops speculated that it might be a copycat in LA but i think same guy, just with access to a higher population of vulnerable girls that society at large wouldn’t care about and a personal vendetta against the mc?
in any case, jail for 1000 years for you because it’s freakin scary man… i love the pov switches. i love the tonal shifts we get from them. i’ll be invested in reminding penn how stunningly gorgeous and intelligent and perfect my sweetie pie is and then BAM. i thought i could forget about The Killer but i was wrong. and as always, the cuts to future media related to the events of the story is peak. it’s all just pure cinema and i would like to time travel or something to a fully completed version of this story so i can do nothing else for a week straight but clockwork orange myself with it to be so honest!!!
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My mind is on fire–THANK YOU! I was really scared about dropping Chapter 2, so I’m really glad my vision is coming through. This is only the tip of the iceberg!
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Hey! I just posted about this on Tumblr actually with a myriad of apologies. So, to add to those, I AM ABUNDANTLY SORRY! I feel bad every time I upload revised versions to correct typos of all things–which is the bulk of what I have been receiving more so than bugs (which I only received two of), and I feel really bad about it. I’m a neat freak and a perfectionist, so when I see messes of any kind, I just want to start cleaning it all up. But again, I am sorry! I will not be touching it for another week or so.
I left in a notice about the ‘A Siren Calls’ input because it was intentional! I wanted there to be a franticness to resolving the answer–unlike with the input in Chapter 1 with Cliff and recalling Penn’s film title, where I did what you suggested there.
But again, sorry! And I’m sorry for how long the chapters have been, I can never predict what they will become but oh boy…
Hey Allie! I’m glad the update has been exciting and fun! I’ve been keeping this in for six months, so it was freeing to let go. Thank you for reading <3
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THANK YOU THANK YOU! I will bookmark these typos so I don’t lose them and I will make the adjustments soon–I feel really bad with the influx of save slot brutalities, so I won’t axe any more. But this is appreciated beyond belief* and I love you. Happy reading!
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The Ampersand Killer will get his comeuppance, rest assured! I’m so glad you’re loving Scapegoated so much, it makes my heart so full. I’m glad all the dimensions of each character are coming across and all their differences are shining through–I’m so grateful. Thank you, thank you!
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Can I just say, this is my favourite WIP. I’ve already ranted in your Tumblr inbox, but I just feel the need to rant more and don’t wanna flood your inbox.
- The beginning of the chapter, with the Manson girls finding that poor girl, then meeting the Beach Boy; him then going to a party where he meets Cass, who meets Ritchie, who then meets MC. It’s just… cinema. I could picture this scene in a movie so easily.
- You are teaching me so much history, and this is arguably my favourite thing about your IF. Even when I’ve heard of events vaguely in a vacuum, it’s hard to conceptualise how close together they happened. I think you really captured the spirit of the 70s and that is amazing. I love when world-building is done well, but I’ve never read historical world-building. Chapeau!
- Discussions about real life politics, race. No other IF (that I’ve read) does this and I really enjoy reading these, they make the characters feel like intelligent (or not), real people.
- The whole serial killer aspect is ramping up. I can’t wait for MC to meet Lesley.
- How you write flirting is amazing. Often in IFs it’s a variation of bold vs shy, but that’s not how flirting usually happens irl and I think you nailed it, I’m taking notes/inspiration on writing flirting like this bc wow! It’s another of my favourite things, MC is so smooth btw.
That’s all I can think of! Congrats on the update! Try not to stress too much about people reporting typos, that’s what demos are for!
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Seemed promising at first but being shoehorned as MC into spewing hippie commie nonsense every few pages with no choice in the matter is a major turn off.
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um are we reading the same IF? because i feel like there is a balance between what you call “hippie nonsense” and neutrality in our choices.
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Well, no. It’s implied that the band you were part of caters heavily to the sentiments of 70s youth protesters. Which is fine, that could actually have been an interesting plot point / source of tension if your politics differed from Leon et al. But you have no choice in the matter eg. during the prologue interview you are only given the option to sTiCk iT tO tHe MaN in a shorter and structured way or the “hippie” way. And in every subsequent interaction, the choice is either to literally say nothing or go on another preachy monologue. It’s obvious the author approaches this time period from a very specific viewpoint she thinks is the “correct” one, but that’s not how a CYOA should be.
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Well in the free market of ideas you’re not required to engage. The author is allowed to approach the story from the viewpoint the story and characters require. Hopefully with all of the different number of IFs out there you will find one that you enjoy.
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Greetings and the grooviest of salutations, dude! Each to their own. As opposed to “hippie commie nonsense”, what would you prefer? 
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Thank you! I’m so glad you feel immersed in the time and are grasping a real historical understanding of what it was like. It’s been such fun researching and exploring, so I hope I don’t cease to please! Also, it’s so interesting reading a perspective on how I write romance because I always overthink it, so that’s a major relief, phew.
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