Here’s the thing I think people may not consider too much: Most of our readers are casual. They’ve never been on the forum, and they don’t really think about how ChoiceScript games are designed. In fact there is a good chance they’ve never even heard the term ChoiceScript. All they know is these two companies (or, in many’s perception, this one company), puts out these games, and the ones with bigger numbers are longer (and therefore usually better), and that’s that. Distinguishing replay value, degrees of separation in branching, number of endings versus details in endings, all of that is beyond the casual player.
Let me give you an example: Foraker is one of our lowest rated games in the past year. The biggest complaint? It’s length, compared to Broadsides. The confusing part? Most people complained that Foraker was too short, it’s categorically longer in every respect compared to Broadsides. Most people don’t actually know how long a game is, and more of how long it feels is more gut than brain.
For many casual users, having one word count is confusing. Having two word counts would not help that.