Scary evil supernatural contract killer for hire… Aw, we no-romance people just can’t stop winning. It’ll probably even get proper pacing and progression because it’ll probably be single book-only.
It’s nice to get hopeful about something in these series once in a while.
Hey, guys, a genuine question from an aroace person. Does one really gets electrocuted/jumps out of their skin at the slightest physical contact with their loved one? Does one hangs on every word of their crush that much? Gets this lost in another’s eyes every single time? It feels like annoying overreactions, but I’ve never been in love, so I don’t really know…
Eh, not nearly as much. If your feelings are not requited, it may result in stronger emotions, but they never were Wayhaven-tier. Granted, my emotions are pretty dulled by depression, so I’m not an expert or a universal source.
Nah. That level of infatuation’s so unrealistic, and that purple prose doesn’t help whatsoever.
It gets really stupid when there’s a WHOLE PARAGRAPH to describe the MC’s reaction to a simple goddamn kiss.
She thinks that by doing this… she’s making the romance romance even more cause “Oh, they’re so in love with each other”… but it’s just weird, especially when you look at those stale ass characters that still have the same flaws cause I guess pacing things properly’s not. important anymore.
Infatuation and the need to be closer to another person all the time, alongside the inability to pay attention to anything else when your loved one’s in the same room as you just reads to me as OBSSESSION.
I mean… do vampires exist? It’s fiction. It’s not meant to be literal, realistic or an accurate depiction of anything. The same way that an author might write that someone ‘hissed’ or ‘snarled’. Do people hiss or snarl? Of course not.
It’s poetics. Metaphorical speech. Figurative language. Etc. Very basic and common across quite literally all literature. 
I mean, these vampires are strange too. Past the first book they can really be any supernatural or not supernatural at all with more or less the same result.
That… is probably the most accurate take on the Wayhaven MC I’ve ever seen on this forum and even I avoid any Wayhaven threads as much as I can.
Because what do you mean I have high levels of sarcasm, saved the vamps’ ass multiple times, survived literal torture and grew up with no parents to be THIS STUPD? Nuh-uh, they don’t even respect me, what do u mean I have to run after A, be infatuaded by N, work to understand M and laugh at every stupid joke F makes?
Excuse me, A wouldn’t be coming near me until they growed a fucking backone, I would call N out, I would tell F to take things more seriously and I sure as hell wouldn’t be this patient with M.
So you called me a fucktoy in public? You want me to figure out how u see me instead of telling me like the grown ass vamp you are? Ok…the four of you wanna play stupid games, so you’re gonna win stupid prizes.
It’s entirely a subjective thing and every author’s style is different. No two are exactly alike. Simply may not be to your taste but creators have no obligation to cater to your specific preference. It’s just one of those things! I’ve read works that just didn’t hit for me or let me play in the way I thought I’d get to, and I simply shelved it. Not everything is going to be for you and that’s okay.
There’s also always the option to create your own story or write fan fiction!
And there’s always the option to give criticism to something I’m consuming/paying!
And no, I don’t need her to cater to my specific preference.
But the execution of the material needs to be well done… and it’s not, it’s poorly paced and stale and every relationship is toxic.
Plus she HAS the obligation to stop forcing MC to be what she wants them to be… cause if you give the player the choice to shape their personality, you have to do the branching and make sure the players feel like their choices matter.
I mean, not really, no? The author has no obligation to do anything. They could stop writing any future books tomorrow and it would be well within their rights to do it. You may have a vision of what you would want from the books in order to feel like you got your moneys worth but you aren’t entitled to anything but the product you paid for. That’s why reviews exist totally fine if you didn’t like it obviously but the author isn’t obligated to change anything.
I mean, not really. If we were to have the option to determine every thought, feeling and action of the MC then interactive fiction simply wouldn’t exist because no writer can humanly account for what each player would go for in every scene. Your best bet for maximum freedom are perhaps tabletop rpgs where nothing is written down and therefore a story can come to life even with relatively few canonical elements. But when it comes to IFs we’re always playing at best a version of an already existing character. The MC can never be wholly ours to customize, the writer must necesseraly lock down some things, and it’s up to us, the players, to determine whether we like those unchangeble parts of the MCs enough to stick around. Same for ROs. I, for one, don’t romance the ones that lead to the MC acting in ways I don’t care for.
But then… I understand.
But she shouldn’t stray away SO FAR from some of MC’s traits just cause she planned everything beforehand.
Just branch A LITTLE… it doesn’t need to be so complex and detailled.
The personality traits should’ve been a little more basic then.
At the end of the day, any author has to sit down and write the story that they ultimately want to. You may not like it, and you clearly don’t, but again… reading/playing is entirely your own choice.
Yeah, but you would probably leave a review and… simply not eat at the restaurant next time, no? You wouldn’t go back again and again and keep ordering the same thing for years, expecting it to somehow be different, and then continue to leave the same review over and over. Which I think is what happens in this thread and is likely why there was a reminder on cyclical conversations
I mean, if a restaurant serves you a burnt to charcoal stake you have a right to complain. Sure, the cook doesn’t owe you 5 star cuisine, but if he sells his craft for real world money, he has to provide a bare minimum serviceable food. If your interactive fiction doesn’t feel interactive… I don’t know, write a book or something.
The author either doesn’t check the forum and the reviews or checks and doesn’t care for even the most constructive criticisms anyway, so as long as it stays on the writing and doesn’t get personal, I don’t see any harm in disgruntled readers sharing their feelings and finding a community this way.
I might be wrong on this but I’m pretty sure Sera has like two people that she knows personally irl that “beta-tests” her writing which is an good indication that she never will take anyone’s constructive criticisms but those two that helps her run the social media stuff.
And yes, I used air quotes because it’s not exactly a good way to have your stuff beta-tested. You can’t depend on people that you trust, you have to take a risk like many writers for HG and CoG does which is to release it into the wild for the pack to look over and get those necessary constructive criticisms and honest feedback they need to improve in certain areas.
Honestly, at this point we all need to just take a backseat and see what the author has planned. Since she has made it clear that she is not open to criticism, giving it here is redundant and will only make things worse for her, and in turn, us. I understand many are frustrated but venting here doesn’t solve anything and it’ll only get worse. Frankly we can voice our opinions for some things but regarding the characters, their personality and the story, there’s no way she will change it (which is totally fair, an author need not cater to everything). Some things like the pacing, the different treatment of Patreon users vs regular ones should be spoken about, since those have nothing to do with the story/ her vision etc.
I don’t care that much about the smaller details compared to the other issues like how much we need to wait and if we don’t pay up we don’t get shit. Regular users have got barely anything in a year and that’s mainly because of the Christmas special, which was HUGE. we would’ve been at like chapter 3-4 by now. I understand 120k is ton to earn but come on…
Editing to write this because of this annoying slow mode: Do we have an unofficial discord? where we can openly discuss things?
(Slow mode screwed me up)
I understand what you mean, BUT:
At the end of the day… it is still false advertising cause she FORCES the same personality down everybody’s throats but sells the game as a “shape your own MC game.” And giving a sarcastic or charming sentence/mention of the trait made by someone else per chapter to still act like a UwU for the rest of the story doesn’t count.
She could do like some games and make some choices bother the characters cause MC’s pesonality stats for that emotion aren’t high enough… Honor Bound (AMAZING) for example… almost every choice tests the personality traits… and the cast reacts accordingly… it’s not the biggest branching but it is enough to make you feel like the MC you shaped acts according to the traits you gave to them.
Personally, I sit here to see how deep the rabbit hole goes. Like, can it be worse? Can it be better? Will villain route disappoint me bitterly or be fun enough? I’m a Dragon Age fan for a reason - wasted potential eggs me on and makes me want to know what’ll come next.
Do you think our villain will be as fun as Hawkins were? Can’t top the perfection, but who knows, maybe it will be close? Murphy was somewhat fun to read about, even if some part of it was caused by hamminess.
What I’m afraid of is another Jian Zhu. Started very fun, ended the fun in the depths of Tibet snow, should have stayed there the second his tragic backstory came to light and ate up most of his content for the sake of MC convincing him that he is a real human bean and the real hero, and that he totally should love himself and take care of himself.
Maybe no-romance’s basedness will affect our romance too? Like, you can’t turn into a slushie a (wo)man who didn’t angst a tic about Sanja’s death and stabbed a man with a fork. Granted, that was one book ago. But maybe!
How do you think their route will play out? In b4 and going forward?
I had this discussion with someone else and she agrees M will never actually want an “official” relationship (both due to what Mishka has said in the past and how the “romance” is going). And no “I love you”, unless maybe it’s at the end of b5 after all the misery. Do you agree with that?
I’m personally torn on this. Assuming it doesn’t get “solved” in five seconds after some “angst”, and that whatever happened to the MC is an ongoing issue, I think whatever was done to the MC will be harmful to the vampires, resulting in them having to keep their distance from the MC. Whether it did something to their blood or gave them a temporary “charge”, I’m not sure.
I like Verda, mostly. I’m just sick of the focus on him and Tina. More time is spent with them than the LI, it seems, and it’s never interrupted, unlike the time with the LI. If we were actually in a solid relationship with M, at this point (an agreed-upon relationship, not a “MC just knows!” thing), I’d be fine with more focus on Verda and others. But, right now, it’s just a slap in the face since I’m not actually getting a romance in my romance game.
Yes.
Funny, I wish the MC did have amnesia, and that it lasts for a while. It’d be interesting to see M and A deal with a MC who has no clue who they are, and see whether M actually tries with the MC or just blows them off and goes about their business until they remember again. Of course, because I’d like to see it, it won’t happen, lol. That is a given.
I’m betting on it being a side effect. Mishka never allows the MC to have any actual power, and has already said the MC will remain human for the entirety of the series.
In order… No. No. And definitely freaking not. This is not normal behavior.
It is. It’s ridiculously overdone to add drama.
That said, if it were a symptom of the supposed soulmate (possibly a soul bond) thing–and if both the MC and LI were having the reaction–I’d find it not only acceptable, but interesting. But it’s completely one-sided and turns the MC into an UwU dipshit, so I hate it.
This is literally the biggest problem with the series. Everything else stems from this–if we were given the choices to show some self-respect and not be so desperate for crumbs, and allowed to have a MC who actually reflects the MC we were allowed to build (stoic, intimidating, pessimistic, etc.), then fine. But the MC is a happy, UwU chucklefuck doormat, no matter what personality stats they have.
It can be much worse. It could be much better. And the villain route may actually be fun, since she’s forced to actually write a full romance in one game instead of dragging shit on for seven books. In fact, I am willing to be it may prove a satisfying route, because she can’t drag it out.
No. She is not capable of writing something like that, in my opinion. Keep in mind, your MC will still be an UwU anime girl, no matter who they romance.