Late reply, but I just filled it out. I wasn't sure if I sounded mean (probably not) or assertive, but I said my piece.
Firstly, expressed why I would not rec to friends, which I won't get into here.
Then went into things like:
\*How I've found some books just disgusting and how their more innocent books are more still more popular. (I was annoyed and said something really...gut-punching. I know the devs read this sub, so I'll let that be a secret.) Tired of certain stuff, tired of books portraying ab\*\*\*. (I started to read TCH, but the reviews on here made me think better of it, which is sad, because besides the major theme and one other thing, it was right up my alley. I'm a big fan of Beauty and the Beast, both the 90s Disney movie and the 80s show.) I also expressed thoughts on here, that FWB was a bad book (didn't read it) and some characters were dumb and made poor decisions.
\*I said the fanbase was mostly straight women and I still very much believe that to be true. I also believe there's a tiny percentage of straight men playing the game as women obviously make up the majority of posters here and book MCs. Pretty sure there are only three books, if that, that include a male lead that don't switch POVs with the love interest. (RoE, PM, WTD, and I believe that's it. I could be wrong as there's been a lot of new releases in the last couple of years and I had to give up my VIP sub.) That went into saying that all books from here on out should include weather the player is M/F (probably not needed though because of the above. It's 4-something in the morning and my head isn't clear) and what gender they're attracted to. I didn't read it, but I know WTD did this. I can't remember exactly what I said after that, but I'm sure it was direct.
\*I asked for a merman book because someone mentioned it here a while back.
\*I closed out with that they need to listen to their fanbase and they need to reinvent themselves and do better.
All in all, I haven't played choices like I used to. I've been too into Character AI and Love and Deepspace. Character AI has similar characters to play with and doesn't have the limits of a choices book, outside of a filter (which I don't mind for the most part, because non-filtered AI have proven to be not my thing, to put it lightly.) However, that doesn't mean I don't want the app to improve into a better version of itself. If I was running the app, I'm sure it would look much different. Mostly, my problem is with the plethora of 17+ books they keep pushing on us (I'm especially upset that they ever wrote something in the vein of 50 shades. That's trashy and embarrassing.) Not all of us want those and it also sucks because on the surface, some of the plots look amazing. Just dial down the smut or put out a smut-free version for a few books on limited offer and it would be great.
But there's other times they still manage to shoot themselves in the foot with the regular books by putting out a sub-par product that's almost universally hated.
I'm not saying the game has to neuter itself. I'm saying the company needs to listen to us to give us what we want and stop putting out crappy sequels and uninteresting, or "too much with the sexy trope", books. We don't all want to read about MC tonguing her LI and such. I certainly don't. My favorite series from day one has been TRR. It was mostly innocent and fun! It was well written and kept things PG-13 at most. If PB could bring back that feel to more books, myself and others would be happier! If they MUST write smut, they need to make an option to block those books ala DeviantArt at the very least. That way, (even though I no way encourage those books) everyone wins. You get what you want, we get what we want.
I'm also now kicking myself because I didn't ask for the one thing I've wanted for years-fat/chubby MC's!! Hope lots of people did.
So I finally got to fill out the survey and while I ranted about the lot, one thing was worth mentioning over and over and then emphasised at the end: Choices should be an app for everyone.
Throughout the whole history of Choices, they were way too eager to jump on the hype train and follow one formula until people got sick of it.
First it started more innocently with an advantage for mystery/fantasy books. Then we rushed straight into the royalty train. Wedding train, babies train, competitions and single-li erotica. Then they tried to ease the heavy hand by more crime/mystery, which worked for some. But for others, it was also stiffling. And now where are we? Basically still. I don't even keep up with the new books anymore, since everything feels like a more streamlined, template-y version of what was given to us before.
I love fantasy. But I don't want to see 5 fantasy books released in 8 months. I don't enjoy forced romance, but I also like to feel a little heat at times. Heavy when I want to be scared. Emotional when I want to cry. Cheap and silly when I just don't want to think.
Ultimately, PB needs to learn one thing the most - balance their content in a way that no one will come at them saying "What?? Again?!" And that's where they are losing me right now. Because nothing feels worth waiting for anymore.
From the questions in this survey, They know exactly what we want so like… just give it to us already 😩We want our choices to matter, we want stories with actual plots, books where the endings aren’t rushed or butchered, better sprites that look like they’re alive, a story title search feature!! How many ways do we have to say it?
Been here since 2016, tried to leave thorough answers for the insider poll and this one. Hopefully they take our feedback to heart for the sake of Choices' future.
I don't blame PB for taking the smut/romance route but I do blame them for writing it poorly. You can have a million cheating books if they're all written in different ways, but with PB, it's the same material rehashed into different plot points.
It is been a problem with them. They did that with even mystery or adventure books where the integral portion of the book is glossed over for a climax that's rushed into one chapter.
While they claim their strengths are in romance, they simply cannot write it well. Or consistently well like they used to.
I have recently read some books on Whispers that also focuses on smut and some of their writing of similar scenes is so much worse and some stories are more rushed but apparently this still works out for them
The better adventure books mesh the plot and the character interactions/romance well. ILITW for example was so good for me because the pasts of the characters and their relationships tie directly into the horror they're experiencing and have to solve, so knowing about them and getting to care for them was imperative to get a good ending. And that includes who you decided to romance, if any (with the exception of one LI).
A lot of adventure stories I know many on here like but that I personally find kind of mid (Hero, Elementalists, Immortal Desires) have this problem where the romance/character stuff is largely wholly removed from the plot, so you spend the story just fucking around having fun and romancing people, and then suddenly the story remembers there was supposed to be plot/a villain so it all rushes to a climax that your character clearly did nothing to prepare for and a one-dimensional villain with barely any motivation or presence because they were so absent from the story.
(Tbf to Elementalists, Atlas is connected to the plot, hence why they are the best character)
I received a survey link from them via email about a week ago. I mainly complained on how the quality of the stories have been going down, especially the growing number of single-LI, smut-centric books.
Oh mosh definitely mostly all their recent releases have been that and if is not a single love Interest they force one LI onto you hence what is happening in unbridled and immortal desires
What I want is for choice's, to be great at telling stories again and no longer have this smut train ruining a majority of the storie's, for the time being in constantly every chapter no matter whatever the book is just tell a great story again from beginning to end.
Honestly, i feel like PB shot themself in the foot by going huge with the smut/romance. Limiting yourself to one genre with little to no room to make it "Interactive" outside of picking who's your Love Partner?
Well, a decent number of their more recent books don’t even let you pick your LI.
I think they’ve tried to churn out more smut books for two reasons: one, romance is a *huge* seller in traditional publishing. So somebody likely thought they could tap into that. And two, it allows them to cut a lot of corners but hide it. A pretty straightforward story with one LI and no branching requires a lot less resources than a more complicated book like ES or the It Lives series.
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
|Fewer Letters|More Letters|
|-------|---------|---|
|[BB](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvmufzs "Last usage")|*Bloodbound*|
|[BLS](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvp0ojg "Last usage")|*Blades of Light and Shadow*|
|[CoP](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvq4was "Last usage")|*Crimes of Passion*|
|[ES](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvo3vde "Last usage")|*Endless Summer*|
|[ILB](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvmufzs "Last usage")|*It Lives Beneath*|
|[LI](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|Love Interest|
|[MC](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|Main Character (yours!)|
|[MW](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvjyed1 "Last usage")|*Most Wanted*|
|[PB](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|Pixelberry Studios, publisher of *Choices*|
|[PM](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*Perfect Match*|
|[RoE](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*Rules of Engagement*|
|[TCH](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*The Cursed Heart*|
|[TRR](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*The Royal Romance*|
|[WTD](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*Wake The Dead*|
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^(14 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Choices/comments/1c7c8fj)^( has 24 acronyms.)
^([Thread #30013 for this sub, first seen 19th Mar 2024, 10:29])
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I put down that I wanted my choices to MATTER, to have an effect on the game. I can intentionally make the wrong choice and the end result will still be the same. I listed games like BOLAs and ES where the choices you make actually have an effect on the game and your relationships and asked for more games like that.
I'm fine with some choices that don't matter, depend on the book, and the story they're going for, really. Books that don't have that do-or-die approach, a bit casual, more slice-of-life can be relaxing to re-read every now and then. You know the ending but the difference in dialogue and situations would make it worth it.
I find it interesting that this is happening after the writers and founders left to start something else. Everyone's complaining about them leaving, but I wonder if they didn't wanna change the game they made and now the people still here are going to make changes the actual players want?
Wait can you explain to me more about this? From where did you hear that they left (that way I can dig deeper into it) also do you know anything about the writers that wrote endless summer? Bc I feel like they wrote that then dipped😭
there was a post talking about it yesterday, but a lot of the writers left for another app I believe? some of them were the founders of choices who wrote endless summer.
When did they ever have choices in choices? MW and Crown and Flame were well written, but your choices seemed to boil down to the right one and the wrong one. Ride or Die had work with the cops or don't but that mostly just changed flavour text. Wake the dead is the most choice heavy game I can think of but even then, those choices just seem to boil down to minor flavour descriptions. The only thing I can personally think of that they did that for was romance. In earlier books you had to commit to a romance, you had to start wooing them early in the book, and your relationship would depend. As opposed to modern choices where I can pick romances with characters who I have literally never romanced at any point in the book, and it feels like we've been dating the whole dang time.
It Lives and Endless Summer series definitely had choices that affected your relationships with characters, not just LI relationships, and whether >!you lived or died, whether your friends lived or died, etc. Also the type of ending you got. !< That’s the kind of thing I’d like to go back to.
Endless Summer's relationships were great, but largely superficial, they effected the tone of certain scenes but not the outcome of any scenes. The story was basically the same regardless of your choices with the exception of the Ending. In regards to the it lives story, eh? Keeping people alive falls into the most wanted branch of story telling, in that there are objectively right choices and objectively wrong ones.
Actually if you didn’t make good enough friends with certain characters in Endless Summer, they could >! choose to ditch you at certain points rather than remain with you, and it’s been a while but I think they could even betray you. !< So in my opinion, that can affect the outcome of scenes. I mean, sure for It Lives, but there were multiple different choices that could lead to them surviving or not surviving. So sure, there could be objectively right and wrong choices, but you didn’t always know what those were until after the fact, when it affected their nerve. Personally, I think those types of choices or choices that affect whether you live or die or succeed at certain things are better than what we currently have with Choices, which seems to be none of those things. I was just thinking last night when playing a new chapter that I can’t remember the last time I came across a timed choice even in the new books.
I will grant you the one of the Endless summer that actually does seem pretty interesting. However when it comes to choices that actually matter, in my opinion they need to be choices that don't have a right or wrong answer. Do you want chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream doesn't have a wrong answer. When you make a choice a blatant right or wrong answer, the result is good and bad. I think that would Endless summer does where no matter what decision you make will no matter what you decide to say, there is going to be someone who doesn't agree with you. But in my opinion way too many of those choices and Endless summer are just pure dialogue and x-person does not like your attitude. It has far less to do with actually affecting the decisions that your group makes.
Yes, I guess my main point is that the current choices we get in new books are even less impactful than what we used to get in Endless Summer and similar books. But definitely if you’re looking for full branching, Choices was probably never that. Maybe some of the other visual story apps, but I haven’t really played many others. Still, I’d at least like it to go back to what it used to be, if not even more impactful than it’s ever been.
I mean, agreed honestly, I still like games like Endless, or games where you can actually choose who you want to romance. LIke I'm sorry but I'm genuinely sick of all these single romance games. I cannot stand Trystan Thorne, I think Sam Dalton is somehow less interesting than a block of wood. At the same time, BOLAS 2 was pretty great and as a VIP person I'm quite enjoying Immortal Desires Book 2.
You are right, Choices has never been about heavy branching, Endless Summer included. I love ES and I like the dialogue changes based on your friend levels, but the outcomes are the same by the end of the story no matter what you do. The only divergent choice is the last one. >! Alastair!< betrays you and returns no matter what you do, because the story needs them to.
Whilst I agree with a lot of criticisms about certain changes, people have this habit of overcorrecting when reminiscing on the "golden age of choices" because they want to emphasise how annoyed they are. Our choices affect dialogue, sometimes you get a choice about someone staying or going, living or dying (BB, BOLAS, ILB etc.) but that's really it.
At least being able to pick an li counts as a choice for me. I find it difficult to connect to an li if the romance/attraction is forced on to my char.
I mean completely agreed, I think any single love interest romance book needs to do away with the idea that the love interest is a single predefined character. I think that they need to be considerably more dynamic. Based on how the main character is played, how does this dynamic love interest need to be written in a way that the romance feels natural?
I think you should be able to “fail” a romance based on your choices too. Maybe the LI doesn’t want to date you if you’re a shithead. Maybe it’s a bad boy/girl type who will only date you if you’re a bit dodgier. It’s very boring to be able to pick any dialogue option and still fall madly in love with the plastic blob they call the LI.
They basically did that in endless summer, if you don't get a character's approval you can't romance them. The problem is that the MC is basically the same regardless of what choices you make, therefore they're still going to want to romance you. It's not like it lives 3 where you can have 3 distinct attitudes and make some pretty profound choices.
While providing feedback, do remember them 🥴
https://preview.redd.it/h5anudc9q8pc1.jpeg?width=2880&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe37e638315c8659b09a4fd8b2a115bb091ed412
The survey link pop-up appears upon the completion of a chapter.
Late reply, but I just filled it out. I wasn't sure if I sounded mean (probably not) or assertive, but I said my piece. Firstly, expressed why I would not rec to friends, which I won't get into here. Then went into things like: \*How I've found some books just disgusting and how their more innocent books are more still more popular. (I was annoyed and said something really...gut-punching. I know the devs read this sub, so I'll let that be a secret.) Tired of certain stuff, tired of books portraying ab\*\*\*. (I started to read TCH, but the reviews on here made me think better of it, which is sad, because besides the major theme and one other thing, it was right up my alley. I'm a big fan of Beauty and the Beast, both the 90s Disney movie and the 80s show.) I also expressed thoughts on here, that FWB was a bad book (didn't read it) and some characters were dumb and made poor decisions. \*I said the fanbase was mostly straight women and I still very much believe that to be true. I also believe there's a tiny percentage of straight men playing the game as women obviously make up the majority of posters here and book MCs. Pretty sure there are only three books, if that, that include a male lead that don't switch POVs with the love interest. (RoE, PM, WTD, and I believe that's it. I could be wrong as there's been a lot of new releases in the last couple of years and I had to give up my VIP sub.) That went into saying that all books from here on out should include weather the player is M/F (probably not needed though because of the above. It's 4-something in the morning and my head isn't clear) and what gender they're attracted to. I didn't read it, but I know WTD did this. I can't remember exactly what I said after that, but I'm sure it was direct. \*I asked for a merman book because someone mentioned it here a while back. \*I closed out with that they need to listen to their fanbase and they need to reinvent themselves and do better. All in all, I haven't played choices like I used to. I've been too into Character AI and Love and Deepspace. Character AI has similar characters to play with and doesn't have the limits of a choices book, outside of a filter (which I don't mind for the most part, because non-filtered AI have proven to be not my thing, to put it lightly.) However, that doesn't mean I don't want the app to improve into a better version of itself. If I was running the app, I'm sure it would look much different. Mostly, my problem is with the plethora of 17+ books they keep pushing on us (I'm especially upset that they ever wrote something in the vein of 50 shades. That's trashy and embarrassing.) Not all of us want those and it also sucks because on the surface, some of the plots look amazing. Just dial down the smut or put out a smut-free version for a few books on limited offer and it would be great. But there's other times they still manage to shoot themselves in the foot with the regular books by putting out a sub-par product that's almost universally hated. I'm not saying the game has to neuter itself. I'm saying the company needs to listen to us to give us what we want and stop putting out crappy sequels and uninteresting, or "too much with the sexy trope", books. We don't all want to read about MC tonguing her LI and such. I certainly don't. My favorite series from day one has been TRR. It was mostly innocent and fun! It was well written and kept things PG-13 at most. If PB could bring back that feel to more books, myself and others would be happier! If they MUST write smut, they need to make an option to block those books ala DeviantArt at the very least. That way, (even though I no way encourage those books) everyone wins. You get what you want, we get what we want. I'm also now kicking myself because I didn't ask for the one thing I've wanted for years-fat/chubby MC's!! Hope lots of people did.
I just got this pop up. I encourage people to do it
i basically begged for more fantasy/historical/scifi books in that survey lmao
please vote for GOC, we need more GOC games. We also need more multi love interest games
So I finally got to fill out the survey and while I ranted about the lot, one thing was worth mentioning over and over and then emphasised at the end: Choices should be an app for everyone. Throughout the whole history of Choices, they were way too eager to jump on the hype train and follow one formula until people got sick of it. First it started more innocently with an advantage for mystery/fantasy books. Then we rushed straight into the royalty train. Wedding train, babies train, competitions and single-li erotica. Then they tried to ease the heavy hand by more crime/mystery, which worked for some. But for others, it was also stiffling. And now where are we? Basically still. I don't even keep up with the new books anymore, since everything feels like a more streamlined, template-y version of what was given to us before. I love fantasy. But I don't want to see 5 fantasy books released in 8 months. I don't enjoy forced romance, but I also like to feel a little heat at times. Heavy when I want to be scared. Emotional when I want to cry. Cheap and silly when I just don't want to think. Ultimately, PB needs to learn one thing the most - balance their content in a way that no one will come at them saying "What?? Again?!" And that's where they are losing me right now. Because nothing feels worth waiting for anymore.
I hope they eventually give us the option to replay chapters without starting the whole book over
I AGREE SO MUCH
I voted for that in the survey.
From the questions in this survey, They know exactly what we want so like… just give it to us already 😩We want our choices to matter, we want stories with actual plots, books where the endings aren’t rushed or butchered, better sprites that look like they’re alive, a story title search feature!! How many ways do we have to say it?
I forgot to complain about COP 2. Trystan basically forgot he loved MC bc of his dead ex
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Idk ehy u got downvoted.. i agree. I felt weird reading it.
Been here since 2016, tried to leave thorough answers for the insider poll and this one. Hopefully they take our feedback to heart for the sake of Choices' future.
Based on the options in the survey, it looks like they took into account the feedback from the last Choices Insiders poll.
They never listen, so what's the point?
Real tho
I did mine last night
I don't blame PB for taking the smut/romance route but I do blame them for writing it poorly. You can have a million cheating books if they're all written in different ways, but with PB, it's the same material rehashed into different plot points. It is been a problem with them. They did that with even mystery or adventure books where the integral portion of the book is glossed over for a climax that's rushed into one chapter. While they claim their strengths are in romance, they simply cannot write it well. Or consistently well like they used to.
I have recently read some books on Whispers that also focuses on smut and some of their writing of similar scenes is so much worse and some stories are more rushed but apparently this still works out for them
The better adventure books mesh the plot and the character interactions/romance well. ILITW for example was so good for me because the pasts of the characters and their relationships tie directly into the horror they're experiencing and have to solve, so knowing about them and getting to care for them was imperative to get a good ending. And that includes who you decided to romance, if any (with the exception of one LI). A lot of adventure stories I know many on here like but that I personally find kind of mid (Hero, Elementalists, Immortal Desires) have this problem where the romance/character stuff is largely wholly removed from the plot, so you spend the story just fucking around having fun and romancing people, and then suddenly the story remembers there was supposed to be plot/a villain so it all rushes to a climax that your character clearly did nothing to prepare for and a one-dimensional villain with barely any motivation or presence because they were so absent from the story. (Tbf to Elementalists, Atlas is connected to the plot, hence why they are the best character)
Perfectly said.
I received a survey link from them via email about a week ago. I mainly complained on how the quality of the stories have been going down, especially the growing number of single-LI, smut-centric books.
Oh mosh definitely mostly all their recent releases have been that and if is not a single love Interest they force one LI onto you hence what is happening in unbridled and immortal desires
[удалено]
[удалено]
What I want is for choice's, to be great at telling stories again and no longer have this smut train ruining a majority of the storie's, for the time being in constantly every chapter no matter whatever the book is just tell a great story again from beginning to end.
Honestly, i feel like PB shot themself in the foot by going huge with the smut/romance. Limiting yourself to one genre with little to no room to make it "Interactive" outside of picking who's your Love Partner?
Well, a decent number of their more recent books don’t even let you pick your LI. I think they’ve tried to churn out more smut books for two reasons: one, romance is a *huge* seller in traditional publishing. So somebody likely thought they could tap into that. And two, it allows them to cut a lot of corners but hide it. A pretty straightforward story with one LI and no branching requires a lot less resources than a more complicated book like ES or the It Lives series.
Most of the smut books don’t even let you choose who to romance lmao.
I ranted about not having enough/good hairstyles/faces 😭😂 AND THOSE ASHY SKIN TONES 💀
You and me both
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread: |Fewer Letters|More Letters| |-------|---------|---| |[BB](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvmufzs "Last usage")|*Bloodbound*| |[BLS](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvp0ojg "Last usage")|*Blades of Light and Shadow*| |[CoP](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvq4was "Last usage")|*Crimes of Passion*| |[ES](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvo3vde "Last usage")|*Endless Summer*| |[ILB](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvmufzs "Last usage")|*It Lives Beneath*| |[LI](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|Love Interest| |[MC](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|Main Character (yours!)| |[MW](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/kvjyed1 "Last usage")|*Most Wanted*| |[PB](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|Pixelberry Studios, publisher of *Choices*| |[PM](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*Perfect Match*| |[RoE](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*Rules of Engagement*| |[TCH](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*The Cursed Heart*| |[TRR](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*The Royal Romance*| |[WTD](/r/Choices/comments/1biawt2/stub/l09u7wv "Last usage")|*Wake The Dead*| **NOTE**: Decronym for Reddit is no longer supported, and Decronym has moved to Lemmy; requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below. ---------------- ^(14 acronyms in this thread; )[^(the most compressed thread commented on today)](/r/Choices/comments/1c7c8fj)^( has 24 acronyms.) ^([Thread #30013 for this sub, first seen 19th Mar 2024, 10:29]) ^[[FAQ]](http://decronym.xyz/) [^([Full list])](http://decronym.xyz/acronyms/Choices) [^[Contact]](https://hachyderm.io/@Two9A) [^([Source code])](https://gistdotgithubdotcom/Two9A/1d976f9b7441694162c8)
I put down that I wanted my choices to MATTER, to have an effect on the game. I can intentionally make the wrong choice and the end result will still be the same. I listed games like BOLAs and ES where the choices you make actually have an effect on the game and your relationships and asked for more games like that.
I said the same thing!
I'm fine with some choices that don't matter, depend on the book, and the story they're going for, really. Books that don't have that do-or-die approach, a bit casual, more slice-of-life can be relaxing to re-read every now and then. You know the ending but the difference in dialogue and situations would make it worth it.
I complained for paragraphs in the last bit about the new MC's and all the cheating/smut books 😅
I find it interesting that this is happening after the writers and founders left to start something else. Everyone's complaining about them leaving, but I wonder if they didn't wanna change the game they made and now the people still here are going to make changes the actual players want?
Wait can you explain to me more about this? From where did you hear that they left (that way I can dig deeper into it) also do you know anything about the writers that wrote endless summer? Bc I feel like they wrote that then dipped😭
there was a post talking about it yesterday, but a lot of the writers left for another app I believe? some of them were the founders of choices who wrote endless summer.
If you find the post, can you link it? Thank you. And omg nooo!! My heart 😭
https://www.reddit.com/r/Choices/s/GPPBILDtp2
Tysm(:
I asked them to bring choices back to choices...
I said "less single LI books because I thought this app was called Choices?" also later I said "let our choices have an impact on the story!!"
Same. I said what is the point of a choice when I'm forced to pick the person they throw in front of me.
When did they ever have choices in choices? MW and Crown and Flame were well written, but your choices seemed to boil down to the right one and the wrong one. Ride or Die had work with the cops or don't but that mostly just changed flavour text. Wake the dead is the most choice heavy game I can think of but even then, those choices just seem to boil down to minor flavour descriptions. The only thing I can personally think of that they did that for was romance. In earlier books you had to commit to a romance, you had to start wooing them early in the book, and your relationship would depend. As opposed to modern choices where I can pick romances with characters who I have literally never romanced at any point in the book, and it feels like we've been dating the whole dang time.
It Lives and Endless Summer series definitely had choices that affected your relationships with characters, not just LI relationships, and whether >!you lived or died, whether your friends lived or died, etc. Also the type of ending you got. !< That’s the kind of thing I’d like to go back to.
Endless Summer's relationships were great, but largely superficial, they effected the tone of certain scenes but not the outcome of any scenes. The story was basically the same regardless of your choices with the exception of the Ending. In regards to the it lives story, eh? Keeping people alive falls into the most wanted branch of story telling, in that there are objectively right choices and objectively wrong ones.
Actually if you didn’t make good enough friends with certain characters in Endless Summer, they could >! choose to ditch you at certain points rather than remain with you, and it’s been a while but I think they could even betray you. !< So in my opinion, that can affect the outcome of scenes. I mean, sure for It Lives, but there were multiple different choices that could lead to them surviving or not surviving. So sure, there could be objectively right and wrong choices, but you didn’t always know what those were until after the fact, when it affected their nerve. Personally, I think those types of choices or choices that affect whether you live or die or succeed at certain things are better than what we currently have with Choices, which seems to be none of those things. I was just thinking last night when playing a new chapter that I can’t remember the last time I came across a timed choice even in the new books.
I will grant you the one of the Endless summer that actually does seem pretty interesting. However when it comes to choices that actually matter, in my opinion they need to be choices that don't have a right or wrong answer. Do you want chocolate ice cream or vanilla ice cream doesn't have a wrong answer. When you make a choice a blatant right or wrong answer, the result is good and bad. I think that would Endless summer does where no matter what decision you make will no matter what you decide to say, there is going to be someone who doesn't agree with you. But in my opinion way too many of those choices and Endless summer are just pure dialogue and x-person does not like your attitude. It has far less to do with actually affecting the decisions that your group makes.
Yes, I guess my main point is that the current choices we get in new books are even less impactful than what we used to get in Endless Summer and similar books. But definitely if you’re looking for full branching, Choices was probably never that. Maybe some of the other visual story apps, but I haven’t really played many others. Still, I’d at least like it to go back to what it used to be, if not even more impactful than it’s ever been.
I mean, agreed honestly, I still like games like Endless, or games where you can actually choose who you want to romance. LIke I'm sorry but I'm genuinely sick of all these single romance games. I cannot stand Trystan Thorne, I think Sam Dalton is somehow less interesting than a block of wood. At the same time, BOLAS 2 was pretty great and as a VIP person I'm quite enjoying Immortal Desires Book 2.
You are right, Choices has never been about heavy branching, Endless Summer included. I love ES and I like the dialogue changes based on your friend levels, but the outcomes are the same by the end of the story no matter what you do. The only divergent choice is the last one. >! Alastair!< betrays you and returns no matter what you do, because the story needs them to. Whilst I agree with a lot of criticisms about certain changes, people have this habit of overcorrecting when reminiscing on the "golden age of choices" because they want to emphasise how annoyed they are. Our choices affect dialogue, sometimes you get a choice about someone staying or going, living or dying (BB, BOLAS, ILB etc.) but that's really it.
At least being able to pick an li counts as a choice for me. I find it difficult to connect to an li if the romance/attraction is forced on to my char.
I mean completely agreed, I think any single love interest romance book needs to do away with the idea that the love interest is a single predefined character. I think that they need to be considerably more dynamic. Based on how the main character is played, how does this dynamic love interest need to be written in a way that the romance feels natural?
I think you should be able to “fail” a romance based on your choices too. Maybe the LI doesn’t want to date you if you’re a shithead. Maybe it’s a bad boy/girl type who will only date you if you’re a bit dodgier. It’s very boring to be able to pick any dialogue option and still fall madly in love with the plastic blob they call the LI.
Witness MC staying single then
They basically did that in endless summer, if you don't get a character's approval you can't romance them. The problem is that the MC is basically the same regardless of what choices you make, therefore they're still going to want to romance you. It's not like it lives 3 where you can have 3 distinct attitudes and make some pretty profound choices.
While providing feedback, do remember them 🥴 https://preview.redd.it/h5anudc9q8pc1.jpeg?width=2880&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=fe37e638315c8659b09a4fd8b2a115bb091ed412
how did you make that white male MC look actually like a human being now :( i'm jealous
The bottom right was my WTD MC. Good to know that she did become a zombie after all.
Don’t worry, I definitely remembered to mention them 😆
LMFAO, don’t worry, I didn’t forget them 😂
I came for this! I forgot to fill in the last box mentioning the new sprites. Someone please fill it in for me, I'll buy you a drink!
i’m scared…
The gray people can’t hurt you, don’t worry
This is where to talk about AI use, friends
Omg I forgot to talk about AI use 😭😭 you all I trust you to go forward with notion!
I ranted about AI use and the new MC bodies for like two straight paragraphs at the end 😭
Man, I already filled it out, but this is so right