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Stories that left you disappointed for a reason

God said:
Hope these authors are paying you guy’s the way you’re ignoring faults and glazing like this.
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Nope. And I'm not a patron, so I'm not paying the author, either. I play an update if there's content that interests me, and skip it if there's none. And I barely even comment on IFs nowadays, let alone "glaze" them.
Do you know how many times I've seen a WiP update with content of zero interest to me? It's a goddamn WiP. Patreon doesn't give you what you want? Unsubscribe.
But thank you for getting mad at me for not being mad, I guess.
I'll shut up now, cause by gods did I not expect this kind of reaction to a simple opinion.
 
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seneya said:
Nope. And I'm not a patron, so I'm not paying the author, either. I play an update if there's content that interests me, and skip it if there's none. And I barely even comment on IFs nowadays, let alone "glaze" them.
Do you know how many times I've seen a WiP update with content of zero interest to me? It's a goddamn WiP. Patreon doesn't give you what you want? Unsubscribe.
But thank you for getting mad at me for not being mad, I guess.
I'll shut up now, cause by gods did I not expect this kind of reaction to a simple opinion.
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No you’re being disingenuous ignoring the whole discussion. I said Poma romance sucks and you said it’s not a romance game yes it’s not, then you said others get more content proving my original point the others in this case is Mei 100x and Ai. You used Xiwen and Ruo as an example they get nothing even a female Wu Heir who’s been complaining about Mei getting more attention than the others. If it’s not a romance game how come Niki always finds a way for Mei content? I’m not really mad just said you ignored the faults to glaze which you did by bringing up Xiwen and Ruo which they have nothing in comparison to Mei you can combine their content and they don’t compare.
 
God said:
No you’re being disingenuous ignoring the whole discussion. I said Poma romance sucks and you said it’s not a romance game yes it’s not, then you said others get more content proving my original point the others in this case is Mei 100x and Ai. You used Xiwen and Ruo as an example they get nothing even a female Wu Heir who’s been complaining about Mei getting more attention than the others. If it’s not a romance game how come Niki always finds a way for Mei content? I’m not really mad just said you ignored the faults to glaze which you did by bringing up Xiwen and Ruo which they have nothing in comparison to Mei you can combine their content and they don’t compare.
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At this point make Mei and ai Canon romance, I don't know much about female mcs romances but where did tigress and caihong content go? Bro tigress straight up vanished.
 
God said:
I’m not really mad just said you ignored the faults to glaze which you did by bringing up Xiwen and Ruo which they have nothing in comparison to Mei you can combine their content and they don’t compare.
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I think I've been pretty consistent in saying that for me personally unbalanced RO content in these particular games is not a big deal, and yes, I play female characters in both (am a woman). I know that Mei is getting more content than others and it simply doesn't bother me. I understand it's an actual unpopular opinion for once.
Also, sorry if I was a bit rude in that last post.
 
Honestly i think that romance ruins a game far more often that not

Like in cyberpolice where the author was for what i can remember almost forced at gun-point to make ROs and include romance in a story that really didnt need it

It may be personal bias i know but still i cant give less that a flying **** about love and romance as a whole in IF
 
God said:
Female Wu Heir couldn’t play the update at all
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Oh but we could, MWAHAHAHA—sue me for changing a few lines of code

But seriously, I was a long-time subscriber, and Nikki used to pick RO updates based on polls (and guess who always won? Ding ding ding—you’re absolutely right).

But he has to be fair and actually distribute the content between male and female ROs, at least for the people supporting the damn thing.

And when the same side wins every time? Congrats, you’ve just locked out half your player base while still collecting their cash.

God said:
She’s supposed to get a 75k update or something soon so Tigress got that going for her
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Finallyyyy honestly one of the most interesting one
 
Nikanor said:
BTW do any of you my fellas knows any IF that doesnt include romance at all?
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Don't know if this is the right thread to ask but f**k it lol. Finding games that doesn't have romance at all is hard. Have you played soulbond: a ghost story? I think the characters there are still interesting even if you don't pursue romance relationship with them. Especially Charlotte. I love Charlotte so much. Story-wise? Not much happening for now so I can't really say. We get to find a terrorist and hunt a unicorn. But the flashback to our past is really interesting. That part is what got me hooked into playing. This one updates really slow tho. It went on hiatus for like 2 years I think? And the author only recently updates it again. It does update more frequently tho. The author even said that they'll have an update on November (hopefully) so that's something you can look forward to.
For now this is the only game I can think of. Maybe I'll tell you more through dm if I remember lol
 
Nikanor said:
Honestly i think that romance ruins a game far more often that not

It may be personal bias i know but still i cant give less that a flying **** about love and romance as a whole in IF
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I agree that if an author doesn't want to include romance, they shouldn't, but I don't agree that romance ruins games.

Most of the time it is so minimal that it can be easily skipped.

A bad game is bad regardless of whether or not it includes romantic interactions.

Romantic relationships are also part of human interactions, like a family relationship, a friend's relationship, an enemy's relationship, etc. And they help form possible plot points, scenes, situations, and much more.

↓ Spoiler Dragon age Origins (I don't know how to put it as a Spoiler).

I love romancing Alistar as an elf in DA, hardening him, making him a king, not being able to be with him, and sacrificing my character in the final fight. It's like legend/myth of the heroine who sacrifices her life not only for people, but also for her loved one.

Obviously, at the end of the day, everyone has their own opinion. 🐢
 
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MalloryV said:
I agree that if an author doesn't want to include romance, they shouldn't, but I don't agree that romance ruins games.

Most of the time it is so minimal that it can be easily skipped.

A bad game is bad regardless of whether or not it includes romantic interactions.

Romantic relationships are also part of human interactions, like a family relationship, a friend's relationship, an enemy's relationship, etc. And they help form possible plot points, scenes, situations, and much more.

↓ Spoiler Dragon age Origins (I don't know how to put it as a Spoiler).

I love romancing Alistar as an elf in DA, hardening him, making him a king, not being able to be with him, and sacrificing my character in the final fight. It's like legend/myth of the heroine who sacrifices her life not only for people, but also for her loved one.

Obviously, at the end of the day, everyone has their own opinion. 🐢
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There's nothing wrong with romance in games, but I just hate that people (COG forum and HG subreddit) keep saying if there's no romance they won't play a game. Obviously the authors are going to see that and even if they weren't going to add romance, they might still put romance in the game just to appease the fans. Or they might get discouraged and feel that no one will read their stuff since it doesn't have romance.

One time I tried searching for no romance IFs on interact-if's Tumblr and on Reddit. Barely anything had zero romance. Funny enough, my favourite games do have romance in them but they actually add to the story e.g the Relics series. Plus playing without the romance doesn't take anything away from the story. At the end, all I care about is the story. If I wanted to romance fictional men I'd play a dating sim.
One of my favourite Twine games, Eikas, is not what you would call a romance game, even thoigh there is romance in it. It's less about the ROs and more about the PC and how they're settling into their new life in the village. I don't think it has ever made the list of recommendations anywhere. Meanwhile a demo with only a prologue will do well because it has a list of ROs on its description page (and there's a Tumblr to answer inane asks about what the RO's shoe size is). It might be riddled with grammatical errors and plotholes as large as a giant's footprint, but all that can be forgiven because...ROs!

I dunno, it just seems really silly to me to not play a game because there's no romance. Why not play it for the story? If you want romance there are plenty of dating sims, and romance is not even a niche genre, so why do people act like finding romance is so scarce that it's a dealbreaker for them?
Excuse the rant, sometimes the topic of romance in IFs really grinds my gears.
 
MalloryV said:
↓ Spoiler Dragon age Origins (I don't know how to put it as a Spoiler).
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DA is a good example tho because while romance is there, it doesn't take over the game and it still works within the confines of the story (so an elf PC can't become queen with Alistair, if someone doesn't do the thing with Morrigan someone has to die, etc.). I think that when people say that "romance ruins story", they mean cases where: a) romance takes over everything else/derails the plot and/or b) romance causes characters to undergo sudden 180 degrees changes in character and motivation.
Because let's face it...
MalloryV said:
Romantic relationships are also part of human interactions, like a family relationship, a friend's relationship, an enemy's relationship, etc.
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...most readers don't care about fictional friends or family nearly as much as about ROs, hence romance growing to overshadow everything else. Writing a story about X topic? No one cares! ROs!
MalloryV said:
And they help form possible plot points, scenes, situations, and much more.
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They can also be constrainig.
- need to make ROs attractive
- need to make them sympathetic (not too many faults, no severe faults, glossing over faults...)
- might need to force interaction just for the sake of progressing relationship
- required to stay close to MC (difficulty with plots that require them to go away for a while), cannot exit the story even if it makes sense plot-wise
- Strangled With The Red String if, in the middle of the story, you realize there's no genuine interest/chemistry, but also cannot demote RO to non-RO
- general tendency to fall back on tropes and stereotypes cause it's what readers know and expect

That's just me playing Devil's advocate, mind you. Romance is great when it's done right, but a lot of authors don't take a story-based approach to it.
I liked Solas' romance in Inquisition specifically because I thought it was a good story, but man were the forums post-release in disarray
 
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seneya said:
...most readers don't care about fictional friends or family nearly as much as about ROs, hence romance growing to overshadow everything else. Writing a story about X topic? No one cares! ROs!

They can also be constrainig.
- need to make ROs attractive
- need to make them sympathetic (not too many faults, no severe faults, glossing over faults...)
- might need to force interaction just for the sake of progressing relationship
- required to stay close to MC (difficulty with plots that require them to go away for a while), cannot exit the story even if it makes sense plot-wise
- Strangled With The Red String if, in the middle of the story, you realize there's no genuine interest/chemistry, but also cannot demote RO to non-RO
- general tendency to fall back on tropes and stereotypes cause it's what readers know and expect
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Much of those points are the fault of the author who lacks confidence in they decisions and security in they writing.

- What I find attractive, someone else might not.

- That's not the problem with an RO, most authors will always have characters that they make perfect, without flaws, or even when they have them they don't care and just ignore them. As the villain of Crown of Ashes and Flames. He is not an RO but he is the author's favorite.

- You'll always have to force interaction, but that's with everything: From opening a door, to talking to NPCs to advance the plot, etc.... If not, you don't move forward with the plot, and in the case of RO, with the romance.

- Again, that's a problem that the authors don't have the confidence to do it.

- Unfortunately, that's true and the authors should allow you to walk away from a Ro whenever you want (although I think there should be consequences).

- I agree with that too, authors tend to pigeonhole themselves into clichés/stereotypes, but it's not just ROs, it happens with everything.

xeroxo said:
There's nothing wrong with romance in games, but I just hate that people (COG forum and HG subreddit) keep saying if there's no romance they won't play a game. Obviously the authors are going to see that and even if they weren't going to add romance, they might still put romance in the game just to appease the fans. Or they might get discouraged and feel that no one will read their stuff since it doesn't have romance.

One time I tried searching for no romance IFs on interact-if's Tumblr and on Reddit. Barely anything had zero romance. Funny enough, my favourite games do have romance in them but they actually add to the story e.g the Relics series. Plus playing without the romance doesn't take anything away from the story. At the end, all I care about is the story. If I wanted to romance fictional men I'd play a dating sim.
One of my favourite Twine games, Eikas, is not what you would call a romance game, even thoigh there is romance in it. It's less about the ROs and more about the PC and how they're settling into their new life in the village. I don't think it has ever made the list of recommendations anywhere. Meanwhile a demo with only a prologue will do well because it has a list of ROs on its description page (and there's a Tumblr to answer inane asks about what the RO's shoe size is). It might be riddled with grammatical errors and plotholes as large as a giant's footprint, but all that can be forgiven because...ROs!

I dunno, it just seems really silly to me to not play a game because there's no romance. Why not play it for the story? If you want romance there are plenty of dating sims, and romance is not even a niche genre, so why do people act like finding romance is so scarce that it's a dealbreaker for them?
Excuse the rant, sometimes the topic of romance in IFs really grinds my gears.
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I understand the annoyance, although I also understand why many people don't want to play without romance.

IFs often allow for stories, situations, and customization that many Dating Sims lack.

For example, I don't play games without customization (even if minimal) of the character, and even less if I can't choose the gender. I also don't play IFs that are gender-locked, regardless of whether they are Female or Male, as a matter of principle (although I always choose to play as a girl).

But I understand that it's annoying that people always ask about romances, even if the story has more interesting things. 🥀
 
I went to check if there was anything new in COG and found out that Aura Clash's creator was banned, RIP. I have no idea what he was banned for exactly, but I'll just separate the work from the author like I do with HP, because Aura Clash is by far my favorite WIP.
 
Vanya said:
I think it was something to do with racist, mysoginistic and homophobic comments in his discord server.
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Saw the screenshots just now. While he wasn't the one making those comments, the owner of a public space should set some boundaries and limits on trashtalking and jokes like that. As the saying goes: "if there's a Nazi at the table and ten other people sitting there talking to him, then you have a table with eleven Nazis." In this case, just replace 'Nazi' with 'POS'.
 
Speaking of IF writers being shitty people, the wild hunt and project vampire threads got locked. Honestly, the whole thing would've blown over if the author hadn't engaged, but he did with the worst possible defenses, too. The Aura clash situation has gotten a ton of white American purity polices on their high horses, attacking anything they deem even slightly out of the way in the name of being 'inclusive'. Which is probably going to do much more damage than 4channers ever would.
 
yourstalkeroutside said:
The Aura clash situation has gotten a ton of white American purity polices on their high horses, attacking anything they deem even slightly out of the way in the name of being 'inclusive'.
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Which is ironic, considering the current debacle around NSFW works, with itch.io deindexing a lot of those pending review.

Also brb, gotta go to the forums to treat myself to some drama.
 
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