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Stories that left you disappointed for a reason
- Thread starter Sant
- Start date
I was paying one creator +$15 for early access content for a few months and I stg every month the updates were maybe two or three pages worth, even less for the other project that was maybe like five lines of dialogue at most every update. No free extra side content either. I even checked out one of the projects recently, and even after months, all the content that had been added could be read in less than five minutes and the plot hasn't progressed at all.
Of course I understand that these authors have their own lives and I appreciate the effort they put into their work. The output wasn't the problem for me. It was the price. I'm not wasting over 15 bucks for a five minute read when other authors are offering full chapters and side content every month on their patreons/kofis for less.
At least that author was actually putting out something though. Others just disappear with no warning while still taking their supporter's money and repeatedly make false promises.
Mhmmm that's something I notice a lot. Some of these authors be gone for months at a time and only come back with a side story with 2k words. While in those months gone they still were taking patreon payments. Payments that were suppose to be for chapter updates, side content, commissions, etc.
But you can't speak up about it because that's mean.
About that, where is my stone cold, intimidating, war-crime loving, general with a not-so-hidden psychopathic streak for violence?
I mean, sure he/she is forgotten, but in the beginning I thought of the protagonist as a looming and deadly figure with a mysterious military background and millions of atrociously dissected little skeletons in his/her closet.
All for the good of the kingdom, of course.
Because it's the most affordable way to make a character that is not overtly overpowered. And that is one of the very few ways to spin a digestible narrative of meaningful length and character development.
Say, if you start with a character that is a 'lean, mean, fighting machine (tm)', what is there left to do? Other than for an author to keep coming up with ever increasing challenges that your MC will easily deal with? That would get boring very fast because it renders your choices weightless
And "I can fix him" trope will only carry you so far. Because the challenges for your perfect MC can be spawned easily - while there's only so much traumas one RO can carry, before you need others and that will turn your game into a psychiatric ward.
But there are too many games where MC has trauma. This is boring already. Recently, several new WIP appeared and guess how they all start:
MC is imprisoned..
They are tortured..
Great pain..
Blah, blah, blah...
What is wrong with being overpowered? It's fun sometimes, but tis does not mean that MC must be mary sue without problems (I didn't mean the previous comment).
But the authors are afraid of it and constantly create an excessively tragic MCs that seem to be hated by the whole world.
There used to be a time, when the books featuring detectives all had the same thing: no matter what case, no matter what obstacle - the MC will always overcome and not sweat a brow. For some time you are intrigued by what else an author can throw at you, but that novelty wears thin quite soon. Although it did last to a book #15 in some series, heh.
IF scene is very reminiscent of fanfiction in that regard: as soon as a book is somewhat popular there will be a dozen copies written almost immediately to tag along on the wave.
Similarly how Kindle self-publishing has opened the flood gates for anyone wiling to try their quill in writing seeking to become another 50 shades of gray sensation.
Keyword being 'sometimes'. Have you ever watched isekai anime, where MC is so OP everything else in the new world is trivial in comparison to him?
It's thrilling the first time, gets okayish the second, and absolutely forgetful by the third.
If you've seen one - you've seen them all. Even if it ended up in rather lucrative niche with a dozen of titles churned out every season.
Because despite new faces and names, you still get a BAMF!MC, a pocket sidekick for comedic relief, a token villain, and a bunch of love interests that adhere to the very same template being reused over and over again, while MC saves the world from ending by eradicated whichever reskin demon lord is fancied this season.
Are they?
To make a successful book, you need your readers to care.
And why would you care about a bunch of letters put together?
1) MC is an ideal you would strive for but unlikely to achieve (unless radioactive spiders giving superpowers become a thing) - and that's how we got stuck with superheroes lining the coffers of Disney executives for decades to come. Because having someone comeback with a cunning response at the right moment is so much better than a growing pile of "coulda/shoulda/woulda" thoughts in the shower two days after it happened. It's nice to believe in a world where the good guys win.
2) MC is just like you, someone who could've been you easily, dealing with similar if not the same problems.
And suddenly you begin to relate to such MC much more than to a wayward alien sporting a hollywood smile and a wall of muscles that have their own muscles (despite how pleasing watching Henry Cavil shirtless may be).
You relate to the shared pain and that is an emotion so much more stronger than a cocktail of hero worship sprinkled with lust.
For some authors writing broken characters becomes a form of therapy just as much as for readers. It's bonding over a trauma, and gods know there are many broken people in the world we live in.
That said, I've seen some IFs that directly feature an MC that can ascend to godhood or have demiurge powers at the very beginning. It's a nice scene to explore, when handled with care. Otherwise, it's gonna be a Westworld type situation, where you are that wrinkled old man in black, torturing the inhabitants to elicit something that has dried out long ago, because everything you see around you is just a bunch of letters on a screen that you rush to click through.
https://honeybunny-of.itch.io/teacherslp
this game because 1. genderlocked 2. short 3. cliche 4. devs are not communicative. at all
they suddenly turned it into a paid game saying that they “deserve” the money after years of it being free. AND it was a game jam! first of all, you don’t deserve anything. that’s not how you ask for suppor… oh, and, they didn’t even change anything in the game when they made it paid. no expansion, no bonus scenes, no additional routes/endings, its still the same old, really short, genderlocked, game. and it’s so boring (no offense)
don’t pay for the game lol, you’ll be waisting your money.
this game because 1. genderlocked 2. short 3. cliche 4. devs are not communicative. at all
they suddenly turned it into a paid game saying that they “deserve” the money after years of it being free. AND it was a game jam! first of all, you don’t deserve anything. that’s not how you ask for suppor… oh, and, they didn’t even change anything in the game when they made it paid. no expansion, no bonus scenes, no additional routes/endings, its still the same old, really short, genderlocked, game. and it’s so boring (no offense)
don’t pay for the game lol, you’ll be waisting your money.
That's why war for the west is the goat of the medievals ifs
>muh crusader kings IF
>it even has incest lmfao
Yeah it's good.
Here's another one I dont get the hype for:
One Knight Stand
Why is everyone so in love with it? I found it 6/10 meh but everyone in the thread is fellating it like they owe it money.
Actually that happens a lot on CoG threads and it irritates me. Like that whole thing about Mage Reborn
Also: A Mage Reborn pt.2
Lots of terrorist sympathy and hand waving child trafficking maniacs in that story but I point out that the MC instantly cooperating with the people (as far as he knew) that were responsible for every bad thing in his life is really weird and I get ganged up on and then freaking banned!
and also the main lady literally enslaved the MC but she's framed as the sympathetic oppressed minority so there's that too.
Wait, what?? With who? I thought the only RO was that princess from the neighbouring kingdom
Your spy master is your half sister and you can boink her, but I don't know how. If anyone knows please tell me, asking for a friend
Uhm, excuse my butting in but, about the lean, mean, fighting machine™, have you ever heard of a tiny little short story, that couldn't even finish a season exactly because of those problems with power that are mentioned, because the characters were so powerful that the author couldn't think of anything to do with them, called Dragonball?
Tell your friend, don't do any other romances, tell her that she must look at the MC while addressing him, and generally talk to her about everything and request many things. Also do remember that she's a part of the Triple Chalice.
She's a difficult option, that's for sure.
I mean, she was my MC's first and constant love interest— I mean, my friend's MC.......
No the ROs are the duke's daughter, and then the three viking girls. But if you don't end up with anyone your spymaster who is also your half sister will bear you a child
I couldn't get past that god awful painting style to even begin watching the trailer.
Back on topic: Keeper series.
Press 'click' to romance, little depth in RO interactions, and a pace like the author is trying to cram doughnuts with a gulp of bitter coffee running late for school.
Lot's of american trivia with little explanation for the non-american readers.
Funny story, you can kill and betray almost all of them, that's the only reason for me to like the series
Not a fan of “I, the Forgotten one”
You make me put up with the world’s most obnoxious set of side characters and then make me be heterosexual for some boring dude?
Unforgivable lol
But in seriousness I didn't like most of the cast they treat the Mc like complete garbage and the MC just has to deal with it and then go on a self hate inner monologue later in there room
The queen treats you like ****
Your brothers are annoying and also treat you like ****
The only family member who doesn’t is your sister but she it feels like you become her parent almost immediately after meeting her
Like I get it the MC’s entire family and life sucks please stop reminding me every 3 seconds
Game you want me to help these people making me dislike most of the characters right out the gate is not how you do it lol
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Holy **** did someone ordered a long-neck beer? Look at the size of their necks
I was talking in the sense that stories with powerful protagonists can have multiple episodes, videogames, or comic series without getting tedious.
Also, which trailer? Of Super™? GT™? Z™? The original™? The movies™?
We have discussed the Keeper Series previously, but I'll give them the benefit of being a Percy Jacksonesque story in a modern magical academy with supernatural creatures.