Do authors need tumblr? and other questions

[hTubman]

Once upon a time... a long, long time ago in a decade far, far away a COG or HG game would be published.
Readers would buy it, the wider IF community would too. Strangers might stumble on it in passing, read it and join the community.

You've heard it argued that "the community was small before Tumblr", "we need tumblr to market these games since CoG doesn't".... and I really don't think that's the case... Take a look at the top sellers for Feb 2018 (6 months after Wayhaven's WIP began) and 2023

Top selling by 2018 Top selling by 2023 Zombie Exodus Samurai of Hyuga Tin Star Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven patreon after 2018 Community College Hero (Book 1): Trial by Fire The Lost Heir: The Fall of Daria Life of a Wizard Samurai of Hyuga: Book Two Fatehaven Life of a Mobster Zombie Exodus: Safe Haven patreon after 2018 Zombie Exodus Wayhaven Chronicles: Book One Wayhaven Chronicles: Book Two Samurai of Hyuga The Lost Heir: The Fall of Daria War for the West patreon only after published Samurai of Hyuga: Book Two Fallen Hero: Rebirth Tin Star Community College Hero (Book 1): Trial by Fire Fallen Hero: Retribution The Aether: Life of a God Hero or Villain: Genesis Golden Rose: Book One

KEY * Fell off list * No Patreon or Tumblr * No Patreon, Tumblr, Made before 2018 6 of the top 10 games were made before Tumblr promotion. 7 in the top 15

So out of FIFTEEN games, a third used Tumblr or a patreon before publishing. In actuality most of these are series- combining these means that only THREE of the top selling authors did (EDIT: FOUR, I forgot ZE:SH still gets DLC, patreon was added around 2018 but after the initial ranking)

Spoiler: But what if these games are up there purely because as new fans have come in, they've gone back and bought the older ones?

Luckily, we can track the first two million dollars paid out to CoG authors.
(To note, while Dan & Adam began CoG in 2009, Choice of Dragons didn't release till 2010. Also, the first few games were made by a bunch of their friends... it really didn't kick off till about 2012

The first million was reached in December 2018 ... 6 years after things kicked off, or 8 years since the true start
The second was reached in January 2023 ... 5 years after the first

Profits at around the same rate shows that the crowd outside of Tumblr is just as large. If you really needed a Tumblr to advertise, then these 2018 list games published before the Tumblr craze, wouldn't still be on the list.

Spoiler: So then why do we?

Wayhaven's author Seraphinite was in the VN and Tumblr indie scene before coming over to choicescript, scenes where charging patreons was already accepted. Though that isn't as relevant as her having a pre-established fanbase.

Fսcking market expansion. A secondary audience was brought in rather than the first growing. From tumblr fandoms such as VNs, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Episodes and Choices mobile apps. All having their own customs and assumptions for these kinds of games, how they should be advertised, how fans should interact.

Now to note:

There was a graph a few years ago covering the trends of the community (if you can find it, please send it over!) but to summarise...

3 games pre-2016 had tumblrs, 40 something games between 2016 to 2017-preWayhavenWIP, around 450 tumblrs since wayhaven.
Fewer than 5 games pre-2016 tried to make a patreon and were always deleted by mods. post-wayhaven there are around 200 patreons linked on the CoG forum, probably many more not linked there

So there was already a growing tumblr culture pre-Wayhaven. Personally, I think because of Samurai of Hyuga, Communitiy College Hero.... maybe even Fatehaven and Zombie Exodus for being sort of... tumblr/fandom adjacent?

Some of the WIPS of the time were very tumblr coded, like Children of the Gods (Percy Jackson AU)

Importantly, this new audience is very willing to support authors on patreon, and enjoy fandom culture as a whole.

This new audience insulates themselves from joining the wider IF community and mostly keep to tumblr. Since they don't frequent the forums or elsewhere, you have to go to tumblr to reach them.

But you don't need to, I've already shown how most of the top games never had any tumblr marketing. The earlier IF audience will likely still buy your game.

Why do we promote Tumblrs? it isn't to market the games, it's to market the patreons.

 

[f8butterfly]

Wayhaven's author Seraphinite was in the VN and Tumblr indie scene before coming over to choicescript, scenes where charging patreons was already accepted.

I actually don't think this is true. Many fans of VNs actually dislike patreon exclusive content and it was never as common as it is now and not nearly as common as IF authors.

Fսcking market expansion. A secondary audience was brought in rather than the first growing. From tumblr fandoms such as VNs, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Episodes and Choices mobile apps. All having their own customs and assumptions for these kinds of games, how they should be advertised, how fans should interact.

People on tumblr loves stories and a lot of them already played visual novels. It makes sense why after discovering IFs they'd be interested in them. I found IFs by chance through an app store, recommended under a mobile VN in 2012-2013. Tumblr is also one of the last well known places to discuss things in earnest while feeling somewhat safe online. I think thats why blogs are started on there (why not make dreamwidth accounts?). People promote on tumblr because they know they can start an audience and have earnest discussions with readers and other authors. The patreon issue however...I really dislike that. I don't have an issue with the tumblr IF fandoms preferences for the most part but I do dislike their encouragement of these author's behaviors.

I don't dislike authors for earning money while making WIPs because that is completely understandable but what i don't like and am actually confused by is how they and their fans have normalized paying for content you will never own. Some of these patreons have disgustingly expensive tiers and can you blame them??! These mindless people actually pay for them and for years. The most appalling part is that there will be patreons with only 20 members at most a month, with low cost tiers and they will have some of the best written work I've seen meanwhile we have bottom of the barrel writing from authors who have expensive tiers who make 1k a month. So...standards have fallen if patreons are not only normalized but the quality people subscribed to the most is of...that caliber. Which, to be fair as you already said a lot of these people were reading episode and choices which is egregiously capitalistic and normally had low to average writing. Those apps probably inspired the patreons, actually.

 

[hTubman]

I actually don't think this is true. Many fans of VNs actually dislike patreon exclusive content and it was never as common as it is now and not early as common as IF authors.

I remember there being quite a few, are you sure? either way I'm glad I didn't make that the basis of my post.

 

[f8butterfly]

I remember there being quite a few, are you sure? either way I'm glad I didn't make that the basis of my post.

No, not every VN dev has a patreon (especially the egregious patreons, though maybe LarkyLabs's would count as that). My point was that its not as common as IF authors, not that it doesn't happen.

 

[Grace5963]

I have stumbled across IF in passing in the app store, but most of what I see is on Tumblr, so out of curiosity, where else would they advertise? Especially the fandom-adjacent ones or indie WIPs?
I generally only approve of patreon for early access support but not gatekeeping content entirely because imo if you want people to pay for it, sell it on itch or whatever and let people own it, however other than the patreon bullshit, I still don't know where IFs would advertise and cultivate a relationship with their readers because the forums I've seen really don't have that vibe but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

 

[LtheStoryteller]

Alright, let's add what I've come to know, or have gathered, throughout my time as one of those authors on there.

So out of FIFTEEN games, a third used Tumblr or a patreon before publishing. In actuality most of these are series- combining these means that only THREE of the top selling authors did (EDIT: FOUR, I forgot ZE:SH still gets DLC, patreon was added around 2018 but after the initial ranking)

Some of these also had Tumblrs, like Fallen Hero, but they ditched those. Also, Hero or Villain may have had a Tumblr? I don't recall, but what I do know, is that the guy has a yt account, so there's marketing from that as well.
But also, a good thing to point out, is that these games don't necessarily have to have Tumblrs. Mainly because of the fact that they are on CoG or HG, and they do have an audience of their own, meaning that there are people who check those things out on Steam or wherever, and if your game is there, they'll come upon it.
Still, none of this is a reason why so many people have Tumblr nowadays.

Profits at around the same rate shows that the crowd outside of Tumblr is just as large. If you really needed a Tumblr to advertise, then these 2018 list games published before the Tumblr craze, wouldn't still be on the list.

This new audience insulates themselves from joining the wider IF community and mostly keep to tumblr. Since they don't frequent the forums or elsewhere, you have to go to tumblr to reach them.

But you don't need to, I've already shown how most of the top games never had any tumblr marketing. The earlier IF audience will likely still buy your game.

Why do we promote Tumblrs? it isn't to market the games, it's to market the patreons.

You are somewhat correct, but only to a degree.
While it is true that I don't know what happened in 2018, or whenever it was that Wayhaven came about, what I, again, do know is that making a Tumblr for your IF/WIP has become just a part of the whole process.
I'm not saying that one should do it. What I'm saying is that the idea took off, and now anyone who wants to dabble in the whole thing ends up seeing everyone doing it, and thinks that that's how it's supposed to be done.
They see people on there, who are already established in the game, and they mimic that, simply because they are new to the scene, and haven't been around long enough, or haven't played for long enough, to know that that is not the only way to do it. You need to understand, the majority of people writing ifs and wips is mostly very early adolescents, or folks reaching some mid twenties to late twenties. Mid twenties is the least common I'd say, though I may be wrong.
It's usually that those people were still in middle school, or have just started going to high school when that thing with Tumblrs took off. And once it did, once they have come to play the games and have wanted to contribute, years later, they saw everyone doing it and have just done it like that.
I can't lie, this is how it was for me. I saw that everyone was saying that for any type of information regarding the progress and whatnot, I had to go to their Tumblrs, because that was the easiest way to follow along, and so I did. And after I did, I saw that everyone had one, which led to me creating my own.
Though this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Tumblr is also one of the last well known places to discuss things in earnest while feeling somewhat safe online. I think thats why blogs are started on there (why not make dreamwidth accounts?). People promote on tumblr because they know they can start an audience and have earnest discussions with readers and other authors. The patreon issue however...I really dislike that. I don't have an issue with the tumblr IF fandoms preferences for the most part but I do dislike their encouragement of these author's behaviors.

I don't dislike authors for earning money while making WIPs because that is completely understandable but what i don't like and am actually confused by is how they and their fans have normalized paying for content you will never own. Some of these patreons have disgustingly expensive tiers and can you blame them??! These mindless people actually pay for them and for years. The most appalling part is that there will be patreons with only 20 members at most a month, with low cost tiers and they will have some of the best written work I've seen meanwhile we have bottom of the barrel writing from authors who have expensive tiers who make 1k a month. So...standards have fallen if patreons are not only normalized but the quality people subscribed to the most is of...that caliber. Which, to be fair as you already said a lot of these people were reading episode and choices which is egregiously capitalistic and normally had low to average writing. Those apps probably inspired the patreons, actually.

This would be the core of it.
Though I must highly disagree with the statement of Tumblr being a safe space of any kind. No one can discuss **** on there, because Tumblr became the ****ing sanctuary, or as I like to call it a cesspool, for the extreme woke people. Meaning, you need to walk on eggshells and be very careful what you say, otherwise you'll have a giant hive of them on your ***. I would know, because I said a word retard and those retards have lost their ****ing minds. Was truly a curious little experience.
So yeah, safe to say that you can't really expect any type of a civil discussion there, nor a safe one. The only thing you can expect to see are SJWs who will say yes to everything their "idols" put out and say and do. Which is just a very elaborate way of saying that they are parasocial, but that is a rant for some other place, and some other day.

The Patreon thing actually comes from this. Because no one in their right mind can sit here and tell me that what I'm about to show through math is not ripping people off for nothing.
So, let's say that an average work would have around couple thousand words, let's say 300 to 400k, by the end. That would be a whole story, which if they wanted to publish it, depending on the work too, but generally, it would be anywhere between 10-14 dollars, give or take.
But with Patreon? Let's say that a story has 10 chapters, and that each chapter is being early released a month in advance. A tier is, let's be very generous, and say that a cost for the Patreon early release is 5 bucks. You'd have to continuously pay for ten months (which is never the case, because those scam artists are writing 20k words for 3+ months, and are only giving you some lame *** POVs that they can make in 20 minutes, but ROs am I right?), but let's say for the sake of the example that you pay continuously for 10 months. Not to have the game mind you, but to have access to the early releases.
That is 50 bucks, for a game that would cost like 10 when fully published. Which is also never the case, because the tiers go waaaay up, and are way more expensive, and for what?
That's where we come to the part, of how are they even explaining this?
Well, it's really simple.
Those same people who milk you, will say that you don't have to pay for the patreon, since that game will be free otherwise! When it is fully done, the whole game will be free,, hell, even the updates will be free at some point, which is all really good and great, but when will that happen? **** if anyone knows.
The inconsistency of it is the problem. But also the fact that they give you a demo, where you can play the game, see if you like it or not. But what differentiates them from regular games, is that they won't stop and that, and have a final release date, but will update continuously, and you will see that, and you just have to sit and wait, while the content is there?
The whole thing gets even better when they just ditch the free public stuff, and just focus on bullshit from Patreon, but that is an exception in this conversation, so I won't go too much into it.

All this to say, I don't discourage people from making money. Sure, if you want to donate, donate, if you want to charge a fee, charge it, but make it make sense. Also, as you said, the problem is that there are those big names who hoard all the audience, and have easily pull thousands of dollars off of patreon just because they have fans, who won't give a **** about people who actually deserve the money, and can actually produce good content. Naturally, those people will get discouraged, which is a topic of its own, but they will get discouraged and eventually just give up on the whole thing, just because the IF/WIP scene became this giant popularity contest, where you have to parade as a ****ing retard in order to gain followers, and money by proxy. Which is ridiculous to me, since the whole point should have been about the games, not the people behind the games.

I have stumbled across IF in passing in the app store, but most of what I see is on Tumblr, so out of curiosity, where else would they advertise? Especially the fandom-adjacent ones or indie WIPs?
I generally only approve of patreon for early access support but not gatekeeping content entirely because imo if you want people to pay for it, sell it on itch or whatever and let people own it, however other than the patreon bullshit, I still don't know where IFs would advertise and cultivate a relationship with their readers because the forums I've seen really don't have that vibe but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

Since I'm making a biblically long post already, I might as well answer this one too.
They can market it on the place where they post the game.
Itch has people coming there on a daily. So those CoG demos. So does Steam. So does that one other place that I forgot the name of.
The thing is that they want the attention, the recognition, the "fame" of it. Usually without doing anything in return, but that is neither here nor there.
And besides, as a game developer, why would you need to constantly talk with your audience? To do what, get feedback? First, you can get that through comments or google forms, but even that is not it, because those writers pride themselves in how that's their work, and they won't change, so yeah. we can scratch that one off the list.
Maybe to seem more human to the fans? To do something for them? I mean, all of the guesses are only semi valid, since game developers aren't rockstars. Nor are they famous figures, or anything else that may be like that.
Imagine if Rockstar was always on Twitter chatting with their fanbase. Red Dead wouldn't see the light of day.
Or any other big game developers.
It's one thing to get feedback, and a whole other thing for you to try and make "friends" like that, which "usually ends up happening". I've put it in the quotation marks, because many of those people only tolerate eachother, but pretend that they are bestest of friends, in the whole wide world And don't even get me started on the Discord servers, because when those open, usually you can kiss those games goodbye. Writers are too busy talking and doing anything else, other than what got them those "fans and friends" in the first place.
Though again, that's a topic for some other discussion.

But yeah, to conclude, there are multiple ways to promote ones work, it's just that making a Tumblr has become some unwritten rule.
Is it necessary? **** no. Will people keep on doing it? Most likely.
And the whole Patreon thing? Those wannabe writers aren't writers, and they only want the easy money and "fame", and that is that. As much as they'll try to deny this, this is true, and it will stay true. I won't name names, but this is a fact.

 

[hTubman]

I have stumbled across IF in passing in the app store, but most of what I see is on Tumblr, so out of curiosity, where else would they advertise? Especially the fandom-adjacent ones or indie WIPs?

My first spoiler shows how profits are kinda the same even after tumblr advertising becoming a thing.

So advertising WIPS/WIP engagement doesn't really affect publishing sales, only the amount of interactions the unfinished game gets. This funnels more people towards a patreon if the author has one

I generally only approve of patreon for early access support but not gatekeeping content entirely because imo if you want people to pay for it, sell it on itch or whatever and let people own it, however other than the patreon bullshit, I still don't know where IFs would advertise and cultivate a relationship with their readers because the forums I've seen really don't have that vibe but maybe I'm looking in the wrong places.

Before you would find WIPS on the forums (which used to be a centralised place for choicescript games) to engage with the community, through dashingdon, word of mouth, fan content (again on the forums).
Published games were found on the app store in the wild, talked about in the larger IF ecosystem such as CYS, forums for the visually impaired, interpreter lang game and CYOA fans came to buy frequently, and books were promoted on newsletters, gaming journals, blogs... And CoG readers will buy the game

Alright, let's add what I've come to know, or have gathered, throughout my time as one of those authors on there.

cheers, I'll read this when I'm back from work

 

[f8butterfly]

Though I must highly disagree with the statement of Tumblr being a safe space of any kind. No one can discuss **** on there

I mostly meant its a safe space to talk about topics in length without being made fun of as being passionate about anything on the internet is seen as cringe. I've already mentioned this many times but a lot of people on tumblr are putting on an act. I'm not saying they aren't liberal but they're probably not as liberal as they'd like to be. Its mostly moral grandstanding and posturing. So performative.

On a somewhat related note to this overall topic. What do you think of what I am about to say as you're an author and your opinion might be interesting? Most of this special content, POVs, should be included in the actual game if they were important enough to write? That's what I've always thought (except for AUs or anything not canon ofc). And if not then they should be gathered for sale all together as a collection when the game is finished.

 

[Mondy]

just because the IF/WIP scene became this giant popularity contest, where you have to parade as a ****ing retard in order to gain followers, and money by proxy. Which is ridiculous to me, since the whole point should have been about the games, not the people behind the game

your cmt made me think.
it's completely human to seek community and interaction on the basis of what's it that you're creating. I find a Tumblr account easier in the way it facilitates that access and interaction than COG forums, since it's completely a headache having to log on there daily for scrambles of updates. moreover, I personally think that comparing IFs— that are genuinely shorter in breadth nd scope nd which are only managed by only one individual—to larger companies like rockstar to be a funny exaggerated comparison.
I'm aware that these authors tend to fixate after a while on the revenue they receive from patereon ROs side stories, and other majorly uneeded povs. it's infuriating indeed, it bogs down their development, progress, and the entire reason behind the making process of this IF to begin with. no one will deny that honestly, we see it daily in the amount of IFs that have been stuck at ch1-3 for years now.
also this point of urs that talked abt how some readers tend to neglect the game itself nd pour their attention on the author themselves as if they're some sort of celebrity is mind boogling. a writer of an IF is the last thing I gaf abt, maybe cause I'm a sensible individual who has no bone for *celebrity* worship in my body. but yeah it's odd, to make a friend out of the person that's selling you their game or even laughing in ur face with some poor *** Paywall locked content that you're better off without. I don't see it as bad to be to some degree familiar with whose content you're consuming, but this overly buddy buddy closeness that I see ppl on Tumblr do is off putting. upholding some random on the internet to some sort of moralistic pedestal will never end good, it just breeds superficiality in treatment, nd constant egg shell walking

 

[LtheStoryteller]

I mostly meant its a safe space to talk about topics in length without being made fun of as being passionate about anything on the internet is seen as cringe. I've already mentioned this many times but a lot of people on tumblr are putting on an act. I'm not saying they aren't liberal but they're probably not as liberal as they'd like to be. Its mostly moral grandstanding and posturing. So performative.

On a somewhat related note to this overall topic. What do you think of what I am about to say as you're an author and your opinion might be interesting? Most of this special content, POVs, should be included in the actual game if they were important enough to write? That's what I've always thought (except for AUs or anything not canon ofc). And if not then they should be gathered for sale all together as a collection when the game is finished.

Then you haven't see the poly drama
But aside from that, to answer your question, while it is true that they should be put, the thing is that they're really not. And I mean important.
The only reason why they are written, is because writers need something to justify your paying 8+ dollars for a patreon tier. It is literally something that can be done in like an hour of ones time, so it's a very easy thing to do, and it is the "extra content" that you get from paying for the tier.
When in reality, if it was anything that was supposed to be of any importance to the game, if you ask me, I'd say that it would be put into the game, and not as something special outside of it.
So yeah, while every single author out there, aside from a few exceptions, will disagree with me on this, it is only because they don't want you to know the truth, not because I'm bullshitting anyone with this.

 

[f8butterfly]

Then you haven't see the poly drama

I've seen the poly drama. It was ridiculous and I summarized it before for people who didn't see it. I don't think they would've made fun of her as much if she hadn't sent in hundreds of asks and then sent in more when she got angry at an authors response. I didn't like how some authors responded to this situation but to be fair to them, the person who started this was very annoying. My ending stance is that less authors should include poly in their games as they suck at writing it and it takes up too much development time and people who dislike poly should ignore the poly routes if it makes them as upset as the anon who started that situation.

 

[Mondy]

I've seen the poly drama. It was ridiculous and I summarized it before for people who didn't see it. I don't think they would've made fun of her as much if she hadn't sent in hundreds of asks and then sent in more when she got angry at an authors response. I didn't how like some authors responded to this situation but to be fair to them, the person who started this was very annoying. My ending stance is that less authors should include poly in their games as they suck at writing it and it takes up too much development time and people who dislike poly should ignore the poly routes if it makes them as upset as the anon who started that situation.

lmaooo, the poly drama. I didn't delve deeper into it because it infuriates me beyond measures when IF writers gotta make a problem out of every godamn slightly unconventional question they get in their inbox. I'm aware some of these questions are downright done with bullying intent, nd it can discourage and even affect the writer *cue to that one band IF whose writer had to delete their page i miss their IF*
but to make a ruckus of it, and gather up all your little author buddies to gang up on it too is just childish.
i hate poly routes nd romance myself so it was fun seeing that anon opinion lol.

 

[LtheStoryteller]

your cmt made me think.
it's completely human to seek community and interaction on the basis of what's it that you're creating. I find a Tumblr account easier in the way it facilitates that access and interaction than COG forums, since it's completely a headache having to log on there daily for scrambles of updates. moreover, I personally think that comparing IFs— that are genuinely shorter in breadth nd scope nd which are only managed by only one individual—to larger companies like rockstar to be a funny exaggerated comparison.
I'm aware that these authors tend to fixate after a while on the revenue they receive from patereon ROs side stories, and other majorly uneeded povs. it's infuriating indeed, it bogs down their development, progress, and the entire reason behind the making process of this IF to begin with. no one will deny that honestly, we see it daily in the amount of IFs that have been stuck at ch1-3 for years now.
also this point of urs that talked abt how some readers tend to neglect the game itself nd pour their attention on the author themselves as if they're some sort of celebrity is mind boogling. a writer of an IF is the last thing I gaf abt, maybe cause I'm a sensible individual who has no bone for *celebrity* worship in my body. but yeah it's odd, to make a friend out of the person that's selling you their game or even laughing in ur face with some poor *** Paywall locked content that you're better off without. I don't see it as bad to be to some degree familiar with whose content you're consuming, but this overly buddy buddy closeness that I see ppl on Tumblr do is off putting. upholding some random on the internet to some sort of moralistic pedestal will never end good, it just breeds superficiality in treatment, nd constant egg shell walking

I understand that it's nice to seek a community, and I said it myself, I think that engagement really give you a wind to your sails, for when you don't feel like sticking with something that can take years of time to be done, but the problem is that it's becoming only about that.
I'm not saying that you can't have, or shouldn't have, interactions with your fans. You can, but these people have never heard of the word moderation, and it shows. Because the moment that they start getting those interactions, they focus mostly on ****ing around, than actually working, and that's what's dumb about it.
And true, I was exaggerating with my comparison, but what I've seen first hand, is all that I've said here. If you were to go to a if writer's discord server, which, by the by, you absolutely can since you don't have to be a writer to be there, just letting you know, you would see this. You'd see writers being online 24/7, and yet, where are the games? Where is any type of progress update? Where is anything, that you are saying that you're using Tumblr for?
No, you'd just see those "friends" being "friends", and that's about it. Oh, and you'd also see me being regarded as a spawn of satan, on top of everything else. Though I think that that specific place has calmed down on commenting about me, at least in chat form. Not sure about vcs.
Also, just to clarify, there are exceptions to this. So Zo, if this info gets into the server, know that I'm cool with you, and applaud you for sticking with it. Along with a few others, but they already know this from me.

And to add to the celebrity part, yes, it's because you're normal. But you need to understand that the Tumblr crowd is very mixed when it comes to that.
You can actually see some normal comments, on post from CC or someone, where you'll get a genuine comment saying something along the lines of "When are we going to get an update?" or someone will get an ask like that, and the rabid dogs will immediately latch onto their ***, and be "HOw aBoUt YoU tRy To wRitE tHis, HuH??? SeE hOW lONg iT TakeS You!" and this is just me being nice. They'll say some **** like how you shouldn't dare rush their "greatness", when all you wanted to know was when will there be some progress, and not just some patreon smut bs or something else.
Again, writers will disagree with this, because this is me exposing their bullshit. I was always telling the truth, and was always the man of the people. So I say it how it is.

Everything else, you're spot on.

I've seen the poly drama. It was ridiculous and I summarized it before for people who didn't see it. I don't think they would've made fun of her as much if she hadn't sent in hundreds of asks and then sent in more when she got angry at an authors response. I didn't how like some authors responded to this situation but to be fair to them, the person who started this was very annoying. My ending stance is that less authors should include poly in their games as they suck at writing it and it takes up too much development time and people who dislike poly should ignore the poly routes if it makes them as upset as the anon who started that situation.

Not sure if you came across my comment on it back then, even though I used it to clown on CCs response, and her crowd going **** YEAH About how "people are dying, so being pissy about poly is dumb". ****ing hell...
But what I wanted to say, was that I think that one, that was just a genuine question, from someone who didn't like poly romances, and so was asking so she'd know what to play and what not to play, and two, even if I'm wrong, I don't see why it was ever such a big deal. I mean, Dream made it a waaaaay bigger deal than it had any right to be, like I've gotten asks that were way worse, at the very beginning, how people won't read my content because of x y z, and I was like alright, I mean you do you, not every story is for everyone. But these people took it as a personal offence, so much so that some even said that they'll put poly routes in, just to spite her. Which is ****ing insane, but that's people behind the stories. Their true self, and not the one that is like "yay, I'll be whatever you want me to be, because I lack any personality and would sell my *** for pennies, yay"

 

[LtheStoryteller]

lmaooo, the poly drama. I didn't delve deeper into it because it infuriates me beyond measures when IF writers gotta make a problem out of every godamn slightly unconventional question they get in their inbox. I'm aware some of these questions are downright done with bullying intent, nd it can discourage and even affect the writer *cue to that one band IF whose writer had to delete their page i miss their IF*
but to make a ruckus of it, and gather up all your little author buddies to gang up on it too is just childish.
i hate poly routes nd romance myself so it was fun seeing that anon opinion lol.

As I said above, it was blown out way out of proportion.
And yeah, I recall that one too, the one that was said that it was "a first if whose author was more popular than their work", assuming we are talking about the same person.
I'm sad what happened to her, at least I think it was a her? I don't recall, but yeah, that was trolling, but even that wasn't that bad. Even I must admit that the responses from that author had me confused most of the time, but I'd never go out of my way to make fun of them if it bothered them, and it obviously did. I'm not an *******, despite what many would say, I'm just honest

 

[Grace5963]

No one can discuss **** on there, because Tumblr became the ****ing sanctuary, or as I like to call it a cesspool, for the extreme woke people. Meaning, you need to walk on eggshells and be very careful what you say, otherwise you'll have a giant hive of them on your ***. I would know, because I said a word retard and those retards have lost their ****ing minds. Was truly a curious little experience.

I'm very curious, in what universe do you need to use ableist slurs? I mean this seriously, because that's not people being woke, that's people pointing out you're being ableist and that's not something to be proud of. Now, I admit, tumblr can be extremely woke and they take it too far, but suggesting you don't use slurs isn't that far out of pocket, that's basic human decency. We can criticise authors for money-grabbing or attention-seeking, that's fine and I mostly agree with you on the money-grabbing, but some authors aren't money grabbing and are just on tumblr for the interactive purposes. I'm more likely to send them an ask than faff around with a google form, even when they have that option, and also polls about options, changes, what is the harm in that? And I've seen many authors change course due to feedback, so it seems like either you were in a very limited corner or you don't want to admit that there is more of a purpose to things like tumblr than just advertising, because as I said, these authors want a relationship. Not necessarily buddy-buddy, but more like genuine dialogues happening about choices, which I've seen happen often, and I've rarely seen that happen in the comments of itch.io games. Not never, but not often.

 

[Mondy]

As I said above, it was blown out way out of proportion.
And yeah, I recall that one too, the one that was said that it was "a first if whose author was more popular than their work", assuming we are talking about the same person.
I'm sad what happened to her, at least I think it was a her? I don't recall, but yeah, that was trolling, but even that wasn't that bad. Even I must admit that the responses from that author had me confused most of the time, but I'd never go out of my way to make fun of them if it bothered them, and it obviously did. I'm not an *******, despite what many would say, I'm just honest

everytime I see you mention the backlash u still receive from other authors nd how u hold some dirt on them, I can't help but be overly curious about it. I wasn't around for that since I tend to not involve myself too much into drama. I like IFs nd that's it, idc abt the bagage that comes with it unless it's bleeding into the IF itself. as for the author, no we're not talking abt the same one. this is abt this one new person who set up their own IF, they were in a sense very direct nd blunt in their way of answering questions and interacting with the followers they got. I found it refreshing how they're open and being themselves instead of the overly exaggerated pleasantries. nd they themselves have posted multiple times abt how that's their own way of interacting with others so no one should take an offense to their speech. nonetheless, because the average liberal Tumblr user is a breeding ground for heightened sensitivity and entitlement, they bullied that poor person to the point they had to delete their blog nd never consider again writing an IF

 

[Grace5963]

lmaooo, the poly drama. I didn't delve deeper into it because it infuriates me beyond measures when IF writers gotta make a problem out of every godamn slightly unconventional question they get in their inbox. I'm aware some of these questions are downright done with bullying intent, nd it can discourage and even affect the writer *cue to that one band IF whose writer had to delete their page i miss their IF*
but to make a ruckus of it, and gather up all your little author buddies to gang up on it too is just childish.
i hate poly routes nd romance myself so it was fun seeing that anon opinion lol.

I haven't played the game that the poly drama was mainly about from what I saw, but for me it's like 'poly routes can exist, but should either be intentional and obvious from the beginning or not to the detriment of individual routes' like I played a game about a year ago and I seemed to get trapped in a poly route because I didn't even know it existed and I was just flirting with anyone because I'm a slut, but when I replayed to get off the route, half the development for the ROs on their own was missing and it was a huge let down because their character development on the poly route was delicious, but that doesn't mean I want to play a poly route even if I am a slut.

 

[f8butterfly]

everytime I see you mention the backlash u still receive from other authors nd how u hold some dirt on them, I can't help but be overly curious about it. I wasn't around for that since I tend to not involve myself too much into drama. I like IFs nd that's it, idc abt the bagage that comes with it unless it's bleeding into the IF itself. as for the author, no we're not talking abt the same one. this is abt this one new person who set up their own IF, they were in a sense very direct nd blunt in their way of answering questions and interacting with the followers they got. I found it refreshing how they're open and being themselves instead of the overly exaggerated pleasantries. nd they themselves have posted multiple times abt how that's their own way of interacting with others so no one should take an offense to their speech. nonetheless, because the average liberal Tumblr user is a breeding ground for heightened sensitivity and entitlement, they bullied that poor person to the point they had to delete their blog nd never consider again writing an IF

I have no idea who you're talking about then. Is it the IF that was started and deleted only a few months ago? The blog was only up for a bit and I remember people disliked it because on the surface it seemed like a story where everyone would be obsessed with the band's singer (which, tbf is very realistic).

 

[f8butterfly]

I haven't played the game that the poly drama was mainly about from what I saw, but for me it's like 'poly routes can exist, but should either be intentional and obvious from the beginning or not to the detriment of individual routes' like I played a game about a year ago and I seemed to get trapped in a poly route because I didn't even know it existed and I was just flirting with anyone because I'm a slut, but when I replayed to get off the route, half the development for the ROs on their own was missing and it was a huge let down because their character development on the poly route was delicious, but that doesn't mean I want to play a poly route even if I am a slut.

I've had something somewhat similar happen in a few VNs where they should've just let you play as their OC because it felt like MC was intruding. But yeah devs need to seriously limit the amount of ROs or poly routes in their games. There's so many routes to write with that and a lot of these authors are pushing themselves too hard and it shows in their writing.

 

[Mondy]

I have no idea who you're talking about then. Is it the IF that was started and deleted only a few months ago? The blog was only up for a bit and I remember people disliked it because on the surface it seemed like a story where everyone would be obsessed with the band's singer (which, tbf is very realistic).

i inserted that one because i wanted to illustrate how it's undeniable some anonymous questions can lead to distasteful outcomes, but yeah the game was a band IF but I only know of how the author got bullied off the platform because of the way they tended to answer questions nd it displeased some ppl. their way of answering wasn't offensive to me. but i just pointed out that Tumblr environment can be infused with an inflated sense of self importance. so Tumblr can sometimes create a rather toxic relationship between the supplier and the consumer which carries many unnamed expectations that u don't subscribe to.