What Writing Trend do you want to see in 2020?

Another Trend I’d like to see. Threats instead of villains. Where you really feel if you and the antagonist sat down and talked you could actually come to a peaceful mutually beneficial relationship. But you don’t have that option because your side refuses to negotiate/ You can’t actually communicate with the other side/ etc ( not that they just want to kill you on sight. That makes them a villain in most cases
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Good unique stories

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Another writing trend I want self destructive endings. Like if the Wayhavens last book said “Warning if you don’t romance someone you will die to the final boss or end up a crazy cat lady but this is the final book so you won’t miss out on future content” I’d willingly not romance anyone because it’s my choice. If I am playing a character whose been shit on and knocked arpund by the world dying to achieve my goals or destroying a universe that i need to exist because i live in it. Are options I want. If I fall in love with someone who actually wants to kill me ( and isn’t possessed by a ghost) then they can do it. The point of choices is that if your game allows characters to choose they should be able to choose poorly and not just “if your stats were higher you totally would have succeeded.”

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I’ve got a good one of these (I think) planned for Rebels Game IV. That may end up being more of a 2030 writing trend, though…

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With Choice of Rebels I’m probably going to go insane after all the horrors my MC has witnessed and embrace the destruction of the world.

And another thing on the subject of Trends i want to start.

King: Well i killed your parents, enslaved you, and if Choice of Games would have allowed it in the terms of service i would have had you raped so thank them you weren’t but its like 90 years later so we’re besties right?
MC: Chops his head off and urinates down the neck hole

I get Stockholm syndrome is a thing but if its OUR character we should decide if we’re effected. If you imprison my MC she’s gonna kill you or show the world a god king can bleed.

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like some people said
more stories that allow us to be evil, broken, morally gray, let us turn out to be evil, turn against our friends, be manipulate by the bad person, let what we’ve been through affects us, like, we’re destined to save the world from big bad person, but in our way to do it, we see the villain perspective, be it by manipulation or dunno the government isn’t so good to certain groups of people, aren’t so pure and good, or whatever and we have the possibility the choice to turn against the good guys, join the Villain, or become evil and a Villain ourselves (or in contrapoint we’ve been manipulate this whole time! we aren’t working for the good guys after all, it’s actually the bad guys, and we beem fighting the real good guys, and have to deal with all horrible things we did thinking it was righteous, for the good cause etc) something with stakes u know (also let us romance the villain u can redeem or not them doesn’t matter just let us romance them)

rant about enby gender choices thats really long

also in the question of gender and ros, its just, it tires me to no end that, we have enby options for the MC, yay, everyone treat us normally nothing wrong, yay, in the sexuality question we can choose to be attract to people regardless of gender also having while having other option saying we like man and woman, yay,
and then we’re the only enby person in the whole wild world, like, like, we have the option saying we’re attracted to people outside the binary, everyone treats us fine, WHY THE HELL AREN’T THERE ANY OTHER ENBY PERSON IN THIS UNIVERSE, I mean come on!!! yeah we don’t have to have a whole enbyphobia transphobia thing, or how hard it’s being enby, is fine, more than fine, to have enby characters without those plots, but come on, u saying we’re the only ones in the entire world, that our enby ass would be surrounded by exclusive cis people, like don’t put the option saying we are attracted to more than men and women if isn’t going to have a enby ro option, if u gonna have a enby option to the MC don’t make like we’re the only one, don’t put one in the main gang or whatever if u aren’t comfortable sure u could write a enby character right without end up with a stereotype or end up just being like a cis person, is fine, but at least sprinkle NPCs mentions of people that are enby, like, that one rule of the west that is helping us sending resources uses enby pronouns, the merchant, a npc that just there to deliver some one line that it will make things click in the MC head about what’s going on or whatever, just like people sprinkle gay characters and couple like that in stories is also fine more than fine please do, to do with enby characters. seriously this tires me to no end,

like enby people are just that people u know, we’ve different personalities, and likes and dislikes, just put in some little things in them so it doesn’t feels hollow, like Fallen Hero, one character changes gender according with the MCs, and like, if we cis men, they’re a cis men, if we a trans woman they’re trans woman, and it’s just the sorority between them understanding one another where they’re coming from, or like, if ur bi character can go “dreamy sighgirls” and their lesbian/straight guy friend be like “yeaah~” then so can ur trans binary/enby character have a moment with their trans binary/enby friend like “cis people am i right?” and friend “i will drink to that” or something, have them feel real feel like a character and not only a hollow vessel that’s just like a cis person with they/them pronouns, again doesn’t havd to be a transphobic society or anything like that but that makes the choice matter, is acknowledged and don’t make it exclusive to the MC

AND ALSO if ur game doesn’t have sex scene transphobic topics or anything relating to the sexual organ, then please PLEASE don’t go having a obligatory choice to say if MC has a lasagna or a pickle!!! STOP IT please!!! it doesn’t add anything in the story and just make us uncomfortable and less likely to play/buy ur game!!!

just u know somethings i wish and hope to see changed/added or just more about

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I don’t mean to derail this topic so perhaps this discussion should be taken elsewhere, but I’m very interested in how you think trans/non-binary characters should be portrayed differently? As in, in what ways should they behave that a cis person wouldn’t, or vice versa?

Speaking for myself, I’m a cis woman and I fear it would be somewhat disingenuous for me to write a “ugh, cis people are just the worst, aren’t they?” sort of scene. Besides, many ChoiceScript games are set in worlds where not only there’s perfect equality, but there’s always been, so in those cases there would be little point to such remarks (unless I’m misunderstanding what you meant?)

Edit: nevermind, as per @Eiwynn’s suggestion I created a new topic.

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@Myrtle – Open a new topic, and link back to this one.

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There’s a good number of threads about it so I’d definitely recommend taking a look at them too - lots of food for thought there.

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It’s kind of late here but just some things I was thinking of so I will try not to ramble on too much.

I’d like to see more development on other types of relationships like best friends/friends and enemies/rivals. What I mean is like how most of the time in games you get extra scenes or dialogue depending on if you are romancing a character or not. I imagine something akin to that where you can kind of initiate these types of relationships in a similar way so maybe you can have different characters in the cast set as different things per playthrough which would make each playthrough be a bit more unique. Just some kind of way to be able to build relationships differently and get specific scenes/dialogue for that particular NPCs and MC based on the type.

Other than that I would say for trends is more player agency. Having some things preset like certain events that happen/have happened in the MC’s backstory is ok for me but let the player decide how their particular MC feels about those events or how they are coping with maybe tramatic events that have happened. I think my biggest issue with predetermined MCs is that there is usually no room for them to feel or have done something differently with a different result and usually have points in the story where it contradicts earlier choices where it seemed like you had agency. Which ends up where playing through the game another time and trying to play a different type of MC feels too similar/barely makes any difference.

This is all been a jumbled mess but I hope some of that made sense. I’m gonna try to pass out now.

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I would love to see some more school settings!

I’ve always loved slice of slice stories, and more set within schools where I have to take tests to get good grades, try and fit in with the popular crowd, and mundane stuff like that without an overarching plot line about how I’m this schools last hope against some big bad or something like that.

I just wanna go to school and do school things.

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As long as it’s not a supernatural school for once, sure. :rofl:

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Corpse Party but as a Choice of Games

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I’d like to see battle-royale themed game with romance and heavy focus on characters, something like Mirai Nikki or Fate/stay night.

And it would be interesting if some RO could betray us, siding with the main antagonist (who could be their true love) or just backstab us for their own personal gain.
Not all of them, though. I dont want to get depressed, and i think some people would rage anyway if their prefered RO would be said traitor.

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ROs being able to fall in love with other ROs or supporting cast or us being able to influence them would be nice, it makes supporting characters more realistic and interesting.

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A Corpse Party or Danganronpa esque game would be so much fun

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Can you elaborate on what you mean influence. I’m asking because the MC is already given the power to influence RO’s and supporting characters so, I’m not sure how your usage of influence is different from the norm.

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I dont want to speak for @derekmetaltron, but what I think they mean is influence them to say get into (or discourage them from it too im guessing) relationships with other npcs if they are interested. Most games dont really have npcs that are interested in romancing other members of the casts so far so im guessing they want more of that.

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I don’t know how I’d feel about being able to talk them out of a relationship that seems like having a bit too much power for the player to have in my opinion… Unless the NPC’s are granted the same power in that situation it doesn’t seem fair to me that the MC could just put their nose in the NPC’s love life and be the reason they don’t pursue the person they love.

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I think it depends. Just to compare it to real life I guess, some people really value the opinion of close friends and that does influence their decisions, this includes their perception of people. I guess the only way I would be ok with it is if you had to actually be above a certain friendship level with a character to really influence that and also not every character should be able to be influenced.

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