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Magnificent//Omniversal Love

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@Nevill though I did not post results I did have I broke the tie randomly before you changed your vote. Since I did not say that earlier, I'll take your vote into consideration...


ShadowAngelBeta said:
It can go from controlling every action of every minute basically all the way to only controlling a few actions a year. ...
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Can you provide examples of such thing?

As for this quest, I'm irritated with the possibilities of the lack of control. There are choices to make but unlikely to be many especially at the beginning of the story. Unlike most quests, the players aren't the characters but they can influence directions the story may take. In the VN the prologue wasn't supposed to really have choices and I don't feel like rewriting just because something goes a place I can't anticipate. I rather not QM dishonestly either, It's a pain in the ass.

I fucked up.

I wanted interaction with the readers but It might have been better do this as a fic and show the results of all choices and routes.

Right now, I ain't feelin it.
 
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Moonfeather said:
Can you provide examples of such thing?
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It is likely an exaggeration, because both would be a bit extreme. I can think of hypothetical scenarios where such a style would be fitting, though.

As for actual quests... There are adventure-like games on these forums that by their very nature tend to be centered on actions executed in quick succession - pick item, examine item, combine item, use item - requiring a number of interactions that would seem excessive in any other genre. Similarly, civ-like games deal with years and centuries, and it is only logical to have the life of a civilization measured in these terms.

Both examples have the span of a 'turn/vote' defined by their genre. But you are probably interested in a narrative-driven character-centered stories that read more like a book after the choices have been made. Those usually don't go for excessive or lax control, and instead place their choices at narrative forks that have potential to change the course of the story, or at the very least significantly alter the next scene. Ideally, that is - because you see a lot of quests where choices appear to be rather meaningless or cosmetic, and serve only a superficial role of a breaking point between the updates.

Now, envisioning the proper branching points, loading the choices with consequences both long-term and short-term, and timing them so that they spring up at just the right moment where they feel most impactful is how you get a good choice design. But there is no single 'right' way to go about this.

And of course, you get outliers. For example, we had (have, I suppose - its reboot is still active) a faux-quest which was actually a fanfic in disguise... the players didn't choose anything, but each update ended with a choice because the author loved the quest feel. It created an illusion of having multiple ways the story might have played out, and the readers played along with faux-votes envisioning how things could have been. It was pretty different from how it would read if it were just a fic, and I understand the author completely.

So I think your VN-styled quest could actually be something fresh and original. It's not like it's a competition where you'll be disqualified for not following conventions. :)

Also, we have a topic for quest discussion which you might find of interest. If you want to talk choice design, we could go there. You'll probably get comments from actual writers, too.
 
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