Vampire Life: A High School Vampire Story

Hosted Games Works In Progress
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Ok, I’ve added the ability to input your own name and customize your body type and position on the team.

I gave a lot of thought to whether I should have the option to be female or homosexual, as well as who your girlfriend is, and I decided that in this game, for the sake of the story, such variability would lessen the dramatic impact. My sense is that a cyoa game is a balance between a story and an rpg, and I do have some interesting ideas for more rpg-like games which would allow very detailed customizations. For a game that’s more story, though, customizations might have to be sacrificed for the sake of the story. Sorry about that.

Oh, this leads me to a question: how important is it to Choice Of Games that a game they publish have gender and sexual orientation options? If I HAVE to make the story accommodate those things, I will, but sadly.

Looks like another person commented about how the MC’s parents said nothing about the blood. I’ll definitely make it more explicit that he hid the bloody jersey.

Yesterday, I wrote most of a scene where the MC meets the mysterious woman who ran away from him initially. I spent the whole day writing it because of all the options I made, and I’m still not happy with it. It’s far from done, but if you want to take a look, it’s here:

http://herbaloutfitters.com/choiceof/web/vamp2/

This meeting will occur a bit later in the story, and before that, the MC will be adjusting to his new, strange condition and struggling to figure out just what happened. I plan to write this before going back and editing chapter one, and thus, if I don’t incorporate your suggestions, it’s not that I’m not listening–I am, but before I edit chapter one, I want to wait a bit and look at it again with fresh eyes.

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My theory with gender and orientation is do what the heck you feel comfortable with. If you can make it work with multiples, great. If you feel comfortable with a specific gender or orientation, fine. Don’t let people pressure you in doing what will feel alien to your own game. Granted this one doesn’t especially interest me as I dislike vampire stuff, but I wish you luck with your work nevertheless.

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Definitely do what you feel comfortable with. CoG doesn’t have any gender-choice requirement for Hosted Games.

For their own label games, they won’t take anything that requires you to play a set sex/orientation. So official CoG authors can evade the choice (like The Fleet, which uses no pronouns for the main character) or include it (as most do).

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Line 211- bad label estelle_car

Hope it help like it though

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@Flurrywinde11

While I’m a believer in doing what you feel comfortable with, I found your suggestion that playing a female would lessen the story’s impact curious. May I ask why you think that?

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@Flurrywinde11
A suggestion for the “football game at night” problem: why not change it that instead of being weaker specifically in the day to weaker whenever there is an extremely bright light in the immediate area.

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I can sort of see your point about dramatic impact- if you have your character’s life and loved ones planned out already, you know what they have to lose.

That being said, you can’t have dramatic impact if people aren’t invested in your character. And while it’s not impossible for me to become invested in a male character (I’ve rolled male characters in RPGs before, and I loved Alpha Protocol), the fact that so many other choices are predetermined for you was kind of a deal killer. It was just a series of “Wait, I have to be a guy?” and “Um, so I guess I’m supposed to be a football player” and “I would never date a girl named Robyn.” There was hardly any room left to enjoy the story.

I’d suggest either adding at least a little more choice (what sport you played, what kind of girl you dated, etc.) or some grey area that people can fill in as they please. Otherwise, you’re going to get a lot of people leaving during the intro. Just sayin’.

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What’s in a name?

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I’ll fix that estelle_car error. Thanks.

Now, about how being female would lessen the story’s impact: well, the idea is that a big strong guy who plays a physical sport and used to pick on the weaker kids. Now, after he becomes weak himself, he can’t play football anymore, loses his girlfriend because of it, gets alienated from his teammate friends, and starts to get picked on by the people he used to pick on. Complete, tragic role reversal. To convert that to a female, well, sure, there are probably some female bullies in high school who physically beat up other kids, but I’d want to make that a whole different story with themes unique to such a girl. Usually, female bullies use psychological tactics as opposed to physical, and that would make for a different story. It probably could be kludged together to still work (after all, vampires become mentally challenged during the day too in this universe, or the girl could play a physical sport also), but do I really want to write a kludge? Some males define themselves by their physical strength, and yeah, some women may as well, but they’re more a niche than the general rule. I could write a story about such a woman, but it’d have a totally different plot.

For example, though I loved Choice of Romance, when I first played it, I chose to be a boy, and as I read the story, things just didn’t seem right. The masculine/feminine dynamics were reversed, and I enjoyed it a lot better when I went back and played as a girl.

Do people really prefer to play as a character closer to their real life self, even if the story suffers, rather than put themselves into the shoes of a character fit to the story?

The way I’d do it is have two Choice of Romances, cuz a male character in that setting could have a quite different but still very interesting life. Likewise, a female high school vampire could have a quite different but still interesting story.

Now, as for the football game at night problem, I gave some thought to Headhunter’s suggestion. It was tempting, but in the end, it doesn’t seem quite right. A person chased by a vampire would just have to go to a well-lit store or something to escape. Also, a vampire could retain his strength by covering himself with sunglasses and thick clothing. The day-weakness seems better if it’s something not subject to so much control, know what I mean?

There’s something mysterious about circadian rhythms. I once had a hamster, and we kept him in a dark apartment far from the only window. Logically, with the lights on at night and off during the day, it seemed his circadian rhythm should’ve been reversed, but nope, like clockwork, he was waking up every evening. Then, from my horticultural studies, I learned that the angle and color of light are a factor. Plants and animals pick up on these subtle cues and subconsciously adjust their biorhythm on a very deep level, so I think this is what vampires will go by as well. It’s about energy, the themes of life and death. Blood is life. Night is when life quiets. Vampires are dead and need living blood but are active at night… it makes sense on a visceral level.

Only problem, I gotta have football games earlier in the day. LOL.

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To your question for you your characters fit in you way you see a story… THIS ARE GAMES not a closed story. Its like in Skyrim developers says" sorry this is a game in a nordic country you have to be racist man white blonde and with blue eyes. Also no magic, no arrows or swords… only axes. also you want give a name your character?.. How do you? your name is Harpl gross or Hung Asfg. You will marry a girl called Wry no no gays nordic are real men… also you cant choose another.

Your game choices are more constrained that a iron corset … Its well writen but for a non interactive book not a CHOICE of games

Also all about girls not being bullies lol in Spain sadistic of physics violence in high school are top for women. Politics are trying to do a protocol specific the trendy is pick a girl hit her and try to nude her uploading videos about it in you tube

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@Flurrywinde11 Hmmm, I don’t see why it’d be much of a problem. 1. There is a GREAT deal of difference between floodlights and well-lit stores, floodlights are SO bright that the beams actually emit large amounts of heat, whereas with store lights you can only feel the heat coming from them if you put a hand less than a centimeter away. 2. Why not let the vampire lessen the effect of the daylight by putting on shades and heavy clothing? I’m not saying to remove the impediment completely but the heavy clothing and shades could be brought up as another story element, in fact, why not make normal sun deadly so that the MC has to wear extremely heavy clothing and shades?

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sorry double posting also sorry if i was harsh its only a graphical way to explain the lack of real options in your demo. If you play slammed you could see how a sport game could be done without oblige player one only restricted vision

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It’s not about playing a character close to your real self. It’s about choices, options and inclusivity. I will play female characters, I’ll play male characters.

By limiting the game to only allowing the protagonist to be a heterosexual male you’re ensuring that some people won’t play your game. That might not matter since it doesn’t seem to have hurt Sabres of Infinity.

For me though it goes against the core principles of Choice of Games. I love how inclusive the games here are. I love that they do tackle issues of gender and sexual orientation.

You have a story that you want to tell though. You believe it requires a male character.

I’ll also ask “why heterosexual?”

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@Flurrywinde11

Thanks for replying, it’s clear you’ve thought of it and have a reason going on your story. So good luck with this :slight_smile:

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@MaraJade It seems @Flurrywinde11 just wants to give the character more of a defined backstory than with other games. That should not restrict the freedom to redesign the character, when things go turvy.

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@Drazen Defined ???your name sex affinities personality girl friend her name how play body physics…He even decide the security namelol. Its a game about football vampires! its no way of be realistic. Its the most restricted setting i see in all my live even in Japanese interactives novels let you choose between what character romance. It’s his choice, but i doubt some fan of COG be happy with a game with all preset and your job limited select between almost same options.

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@MaraJade … So, once again, you play as a character, not as a blank slate. You can still decide how that character evolves.

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evolved to what??? lol i have to be a hetero football with a gf i can’t send away and i have to stick the author believe is correct and cool. Is hIS character not mine i couldn’t feel attached to a shoehorned character totally guided. no room to emotion or anything i don’t care that looser character Im only tempted play to kill him but even that is not funny when i couldn’t enter in the story.

edit: sorry if i was too harsh. Its the preset could be ok if i could choose a alternative, if i could choose between john player and Milton player too but from other place like a private school only for boys. And Lucas a shy gay. lEach origin has a back story but i could choose how character story could live . I even don’t asking for a girl but the game could attract triple audience. Make three character different background not all the same changing little some attribute

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@Marajade

It seems clear that this isn’t the sort of game for you.

One of the rules of the forum is:

  1. The other major crime that you can commit on this forum is harassment. When you disagree with a decision that someone has made in their game, feel free to express that disagreement. However, if they continue with their design choices, it is not your prerogative to browbeat them into changing their minds.

You’ve expressed your disagreement. I don’t think the author is likely to change his stance on including a female option, especially since he’s already detailed his reasons for not wishing to do so. So can I suggest letting the matter drop?

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Im not insulting or harassing him but ok point taken. I forgot here punish Cthe different opinions…
Could someone give the English definition of harassment? in Spanish means using violence or blackmail to move some one to do whatever you desires. I only was pointed flaws to help him not insulting him.