No. Never. I would rather have a terrible and unsatisfying romance than none at all. And I hate that for me. It's very toxic behaviour.
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Stories that left you disappointed for a reason
- Thread starter Sant
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Personally I don't think I would read one without romance, or at least the plot will have to do some really heavy lifting. I'm more forgiving to bad stories/plots if I like the RO.
Plus, I feel like even if badly, as long as they're a bit different, ROs increase the replayability of a game.
Plus, I feel like even if badly, as long as they're a bit different, ROs increase the replayability of a game.
It depends on how well the other parts of the IF are. If it's a true IF then I won't mind if there is no romance. For example, i won't mind no romance in games like ZESH which has more emphasis on player choice and narrative in its own way. But I would love to have romance in stories which gives more importance to personal story, character growth, bonds between characters and how that bleeds into the main narrative. This isn't to say that games like ZESH don't have the latter, but rather that it isn't as much articulated as in a game like ITFO for example. Although ITFO is good enough without romance, it certainly complements the MC very well. It adds to their growth.
Golden Rose on the other hand would take a massive hit without the romance due to its slow pace and uneventful story in the first game. But the way romance is written in that game makes me give high points to that. I will play it without romance just for the roleplaying aspect, but It is not at the level it is when it has romance.
So the gist of it is, it depends on the IF, writing style, genre and how much of it is actually an Interactive Fiction.
Because all most players want is a romance simulator/VN in the form of a text-based IF format. The offer in the market is meeting the demand..
Honestly it all depends on the story tbh, if it’s interesting I’ll play it. I was originally going to say idk than I realized I’ve been playing Poma for years with 0 romance because I wanted to romance a dragon and haven’t gotten anything so yeah I could. I don’t play these games for romance anyways tbh that’s why I’m not big on most popular IFs.
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Not the person you asked but yeah, one of my biggest sadness is that If you remove romance from most interactive fiction the whole thing falls apart, few still stand strong without it, from my experience mostly wod ifs, poma, infinity trilogy, a mage reborn and aura clash.
Not that i dislike romance (quite the opposite when well done) but its clearly the default for every genre, i dont even remember the last time i seen a If with zero romance, but It is what It is.
Most IFs are rubbish witihout romance, but if there's one without it, why not? It's probably because my intro to interactive fiction were CYOA books like Lone Wolf and Goosebumps, and earlier CoG titles like SLAMMED! and The Great Tournament, but those barely had any romance, and even if they did it wasn't the main focus. I think it's just that most games now are catering to the dating sim market, which isn't bad, but not everything has to be a dating sim.
Depends on what the story is about. I play POMA with a FeMC, pretty much the same thing. I also quite liked playing Life as a ruler: Nexus Island where the romance is completely optional.
Tbh the great tournament got me crazy into the knight x princess trope back then
older games had more naturally written romances i guess? Because they definetly do have romance options but it's just not the thing you're supposed to focus on. The ROs are not around in every step of the story and YOU actually have to show interest and approach them at every chance you got if you want something more, rather than people you're absolutely forbidden to date falling head over heels for you from 2 flirting dialogue choices. Or at least that's how i remember it.
Great tournament princess supremacy. I'm afraid noone will live up to her in the whole hg verse (that first game bias really hits hard huh..)
It always irritates me how some IF authors just pop up out of nowhere, drop a chapter or two, sometimes not even past the prologue, and suddenly boom, there's a Patreon and Ko-fi link. Like??? The story hasn’t even started yet, and people are already subscribing! You haven’t seen anything of the actual plot, so how are you paying for something that barely exists?
If I started listing all the IFs where this happens, we’d be here forever, but I think the crown has to go to The Abyssal. Patreon with “bonus content” … but
surprise, we’ve never seen any of that content, because the story is still stuck in the prologue since the dinosaur era. And yet there’s still new RO content being posted 
Anyway, no comment.
Personally I think authors should only launch Patreon/Ko-fi once the IF already has a solid amount of content, like 5 or 6 chapters maybe? Or at least more than just 2 or 3. At that point, sure, I’d consider a Patreon reasonable.
Also, question: when an IF author opens a Patreon, what kind of exclusive content actually makes you want to subscribe (besides early access, obviously)? Side stories? POVs? I know a lot of people thought Rotting-Ink’s Patreon benefits were ridiculous, I did too, and I was honestly surprised people bought into it.
I think the 13leagues Patreon is actually a good example. There’s a decent amount of content, and even though the progress is still kinda slow, it’s way more consistent than most others.
If I started listing all the IFs where this happens, we’d be here forever, but I think the crown has to go to The Abyssal. Patreon with “bonus content” … but
surprise, we’ve never seen any of that content, because the story is still stuck in the prologue since the dinosaur era. And yet there’s still new RO content being posted Anyway, no comment.Personally I think authors should only launch Patreon/Ko-fi once the IF already has a solid amount of content, like 5 or 6 chapters maybe? Or at least more than just 2 or 3. At that point, sure, I’d consider a Patreon reasonable.
Also, question: when an IF author opens a Patreon, what kind of exclusive content actually makes you want to subscribe (besides early access, obviously)? Side stories? POVs? I know a lot of people thought Rotting-Ink’s Patreon benefits were ridiculous, I did too, and I was honestly surprised people bought into it.
I think the 13leagues Patreon is actually a good example. There’s a decent amount of content, and even though the progress is still kinda slow, it’s way more consistent than most others.
Can't say for anyone else atleast me before I completely stopped supporting anyone on patreon due to feeling scammed, I subscribed for the latest wip and some side character content.It always irritates me how some IF authors just pop up out of nowhere, drop a chapter or two, sometimes not even past the prologue, and suddenly boom, there's a Patreon and Ko-fi link. Like??? The story hasn’t even started yet, and people are already subscribing! You haven’t seen anything of the actual plot, so how are you paying for something that barely exists?
If I started listing all the IFs where this happens, we’d be here forever, but I think the crown has to go to The Abyssal. Patreon with “bonus content” … but
Personally I think authors should only launch Patreon/Ko-fi once the IF already has a solid amount of content, like 5 or 6 chapters maybe? Or at least more than just 2 or 3. At that point, sure, I’d consider a Patreon reasonable.
Also, question: when an IF author opens a Patreon, what kind of exclusive content actually makes you want to subscribe (besides early access, obviously)? Side stories? POVs? I know a lot of people thought Rotting-Ink’s Patreon benefits were ridiculous, I did too, and I was honestly surprised people bought into it.
I think the 13leagues Patreon is actually a good example. There’s a decent amount of content, and even though the progress is still kinda slow, it’s way more consistent than most others.
Not really a big fan of pov and lore dumps, genuinely believe that stuff should come after the story is complete, same reason I quit subscribing too many author only releasing side content without any actual progress in main story.