It flagged a single “advanced issue” for me - I’d have to jump on a premium plan to see what it was and its suggested fix.
Actually there is a site I regularly use for editing and it isn’t that bad. It’s a freelance website with people who charge per hour rather than per word. And even when they charge per word it isn’t too much. Granted it is freelance so you won’t get an English mater degree person editing it, but it is still better than doing it yourself. It is called Upwork, so if anyone needs such things just go in there and post a job for editing.
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Interesting - I’d guess that’s probably the repetition.
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Try feeding an actual CoG text file into either of those and let me know how it works out for you. 
It’s hard to parse spellcheck results when every couple of lines you’ve got a burst of code.
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Text and code are separate 
It doesn’t take much to throw a sentence/paragraph you’re not sure of into a tool like that before editing the fix into your code.
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What are you talking about? That’s the funniest thing I’ve read in all day.
I would totally read an entire game written like that.
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This is a very good point that I hope some people start to take to heart, especially if they feel a HG isn’t up to their personal standards. A person will find within a few pages of a game whether they want to continue or not.
As for professional editors…I can honestly say that professional editors won’t catch everything either. I have plenty of evidence, whether it is a published book or a game by a large studio (some even AAA) where various grammatical/sentence structure/etc. got through editing. There have been times when an editor even made things worse.
I also know this puts CoG in a tough spot about Hosted Games. They want to keep the barrier of entry as low as possible. Unfortunately, this can have its own consequences. Whether they like it or not, since they are the publisher of Hosted Games, the quality of which will have an affect on their own brand.
Look at how Valve’s reputation took a massive hit after they opened up Greenlight and let of a flood of games in. Before that, it was a sign of prestige to be on Steam, but now many consider it a joke. I’m not even counting the number of posts on every CoG which appears there, and people post with “Why is this censored on Steam?”
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When I first started as an HG author, I agreed with the statement that these games should be error-free and be edited for grammar and spelling. And I still agree to a far less extent. Part of the beauty of these games is the lack of barriers to be published. The requirements (to my knowledge) are that they must pass Randomtest and Quicktest and be posted for beta.For Steam, there are additional requirements, but games that make it to Steam have track records or their authors do.
Requiring anything past that sets up a system for exclusion. First-time authors generally cannot afford editors nor do their WIPs get tested enough by the public due to competition. So, if HG required more stringent requirements, either they have to reject people outright or provide services, which pushes them into the realm of being a vanity press.
I would rather see more games published (with the risk that some have grammatical errors) than less games. I totally understand the desire to see well-polished games for download (and believe me, I cringe when I see bad reviews due to grammar or spelling), but it’s not the mission of HG to impose guidelines that would reduce their potential offerings.
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^ This. It isn’t as if people are being mislead by the authors. They get to play a demo and understand if they want the game or if they have some big problem with it.
Talking about getting a professional editor to correct your CoG is just preposterous. People are paying 4 bucks for novels that in the big majority of cases are bigger than the “regular” book out there. For christ sake, apparently the normal size of a fiction novel is 90.000 words. And they are much more expensive. In Portugal we pay an average of 25 euros for a book, some times much more than that. Can we really complain and demand the same level of perfection from a book 2, 3 or 4 times bigger, and that also happens to cost 1/4 or 1/5 of a regular novel? People need to be realistic.
If I buy an AAA game for 60/70 euros I can have certain expectations and demands that I couldn’t possibly have with a 20 euros independent or small studio game. We can’t demand the same quality for prices that are completely different.
I am really happy with the fantastic quality that I get from the regular HG interactive novel for 3/4 bucks. I can’t possibly expect the writing quality of a regular book.
Some authors only make a return in the house of some hundred dollars with their games. How can they pay thousands of dollars for a professional editor?
CoG should maintain the HG as it is. It is a fantastic label that allows a great company to promote what it wants to represent: inclusion. They give great conditions to first-time writers and provide them with a very fair deal for sharing the revenues.
As @JimD said:
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In a perfect world, authors would “self police,” meaning they wouldn’t submit something in the first place that wasn’t good quality writing.
But the people most likely to submit works with significant issues are probably unlikely to recognize those issues in the first place. Hence, the problem.
No one is arguing for people to hire $2500 editors. That’s economically ridiculous.
The argument, I believe, is that folks should make sure their products are appropriately polished for the commercial marketplace. No one expects perfection. There’s no such thing anyway.
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Can’t we all just get along?
Sure these are important and prevalent issues BUT there is a limit to what anyone can do and as it stands Hosted Games should remain as it is. Any further modification of standards in untenable, anything more costs money and time from either the staff or the writer and neither is an optimal choice.
As per quality of the stories that is the responsibility of the writers as it should be. And seeking to improve is something we do on the regular while Hosted Games provides a stage in which we can be rewarded for the long months of work. That said the quality of your work will dictate how great or meager the return but either way I imagine just getting published is a reward that seems impossible for most writers in that regard I am great full Hosted Games exists and I’m happy with it as it stands.
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I can live with that argument. But the original proposal was for the increasing of limits put by CoG to HG authors. And, as you said it yourself, I don’t believe for a minute that people who had the strength of will to write a game would not go to the trouble of perfecting it to the best of their abilities. And that is something that HG needs to live with. What we can do as community is giving our best input in the larger number possible of WIP and beta tests. The “democratization” of the writing and publishing process that the HG represents poses its risks, but it is a much better option than the alternative.
My favorite games are almost every single one from the HG label. I became a true fan of CoG through HG. The first game I played was Choice of Romance, an official entry of CoG, but what really grabbed my attention and regularity as a buyer were the HG’s offers at the time. So many good writers and good stories that wouldn’t exist otherwise.
And I will rest my case, or otherwise I will start recycling arguments already made. The permanence of the HG label, with its existing criteria, is my best case scenario. I freaking love it and my sympathy for CoG comes 75% from HG’s offer and the symbolism of its existence. Anyhow, it is an interesting discussion, and dialogue is always useful, but I believe that @Snoe summed up the common sense answer pretty nicely.
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Hey, Upwork! Off-topic, but my dad works there. I’ve always wanted to do apply there, but I don’t have the time right now. Didn’t know that they also offer editing posts, so yeah, I think I know what job I’ll apply for.
Anyway, back to topic. Here’s my two cents.
If you still have your earlier stories, read them and compare them with your current works. If you think that there is a change between them (an improvement, I hope), then it means that you have gained more experience and grown into a better writer by writing as often as you can and accepting constructive criticism. Practice makes perfect, after all (or at least, something close to perfection).
I think the problem here lies with experience. Sure HG is for amateur writers, but maybe not that amateur in a sense that it’s their first ever writing project that they refuse to let anyone read, and they believe that they’d make it big with it on the first try (sure that happens, but only if you’re lucky and/or that good).
HG is a great platform for amateur writers to be noticed, but if you’re literally a rookie writer with little to no prior writing experience, I don’t think that HG is the ideal place for your debut. Not unless you really are that good, but like I said, not everyone’s like that.
In gaming terms: don’t start a quest when you’re severely underleveled.
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Then where you debut? In The New York times? Is not place for text games new authors out there. NOWHERE. Is easy to say Oh, Do it yourself. Did you look how much it cost publish a game app by yourself? Lot of money.
So we have to limit further the access of games to the point Shakespeare itself if reborn wouldn’t be admitted.saying “Shakespeare? Not sorry You don’t have any copyright in your pocket”
invest your money to gain 10% of what you invest back, if you are lucky. Then, you will be acussed by someone Of being greedy after several years of work,ing hard on your story.
If you don’t like i,t just don’t buy it. Not need of Hard standard or professional developed games .Then is totally ask for remove Hosted all together to have high quality grammar. Best grammar but forget about games like Infinity sea saga. or ZE saga or Guenevere in a future.
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Even Upwork copyeditors who charge by the hour will ultimately deliver work at a rate of pennies per word. Maybe you can find someone willing to edit for only $0.01 per word, a third of the going rate, but I’d be very suspicious of the quality of their work at that rate, and for a 100,000-word game, that still works out to $1,000 (for a low-quality edit). As @Lycoris points out, the going rate is actually closer to $3,000-$4,000 for a game of that length.
We can require authors to pass automated tests and run a beta on our forums, but requiring authors to pay thousands of dollars out of pocket for copyediting is just too much.
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Not sure if there are other places for text authors because it’s pretty much a niche genre, but there’s this site called http://chooseyourstory.com for CYOA type of games. It’s online and anyone with an account can make games. Lots of cool stories out there, but also lots of stories with questionable content. Plus, all of the content is free, so you don’t feel that all robbed when you read a bad story. Just wasted time, and not time, storage space and money.
And what I meant by a debut, I meant a debut to the writing world, not just necessarily to the text games genre. If they have no clue on how to write a short story, let alone a CS game, then they’re better off learning how to write a short story first before making a game.
The bad Hosted Games that I read looked like they came from inexperienced writers. The plots seemed interesting and had the makings of a good game, if given to the hands of better and experienced authors. At their writing level, the products just falls…flat.
No, not at all. Don’t dissolve Hosted Games, please.
Hosted Games is a brand. The casual reader/player of CYOA type games look at the publisher, not the author (at least I did, in the past). If they’re unsatisfied with one Hosted Game, some people might think that all titles under Hosted Games are just as bad as that one. Kinda like, “one bad apple spoils the bunch”. We know better so we don’t think like that, but others don’t. It might hurt the performance of other good titles out there.
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Well I don’t buy anything based in the publisher. Oh this book is published by the same editor Than Game of Thrones. And I don’t like it because there is not action … I bough How to cover your taxes.
Then we end with people who gives @JimD zeros and believe that him wrote all the other Hosted games all together.
I mean there are demos there are info. And if you don’t want to read the TEXT OF A TEXT BASED GAME well you can’t complain. O I bought this thinking this is a FIFA
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Anything done "might hurt the performance of other titles.
The top seller in today’s book market is the only answer:
This book, all all 266 pages are blank. Perhaps this is what we all should do now.
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Hosted Games are important. They’re extremely important.
When I first played Choice of Games I wasn’t aware of the difference between Hosted Games and Choice of Games. The difference in quality almost put me off of playing everything. I remember loving the first Choice games then being so disappointed in the Hosted ones. At least until I joined the forum and was encouraged to play the better ones.
I love that Hosted Games exist. I love that the entry level is so low, because it encourages people. It means that anyone can be a writer, anyone can make a game. Even if you’re still at school, Even if you’re poor. Even if English isn’t your first language.
If the first game isn’t great, then chances are the second one will be better as the authors learn the needed skills to craft good interactive stories.
I thought that Choice of Games have started insisting on games being over a word count and on the games being tested on the forums.
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I think the floor is now at 150,000 words - the idea was to stop the 60,000 word stories from getting slammed for being short.
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