Awesome CYOA romance game-books

Morgan Hawke, an erotic romance author, has tried her hand at cyoa blended with art. Think Hyperstudio, only cool again. The engine is called Ren'py and there's lots of romance to explore, especially manga style, on their site.

Hawke calls her work "visual novels" and the visuals are really lovely indeed. All 3, a fairy tale, a vampire, and a yaoi, are rated X and not for minors. I really wish there were an index or a way to bookmark/save a choice because it gets really tedious replaying to discover other endings. Other than that multi-use quibble, they're well done. Their charm is in their cleverness, not the depth of the story. Check them out!

GW2 Dreaming Quizfest

For awhile I’ve been thinking about making a GW2 character quiz. I’m disappointed I couldn’t find a quiz that did both piping and allowed for a large result pool or a split result pool (basically welding 2 quizzes into 1). Vision aside, I liked gotoquiz because it was free (tradeoff—ugly) and it allowed a ranked output showing how close you were to the other choices, which I consider as valuable as the top “answer.” Please share and repost!

 

My race quiz
My profession quiz
My order quiz

 

My silly chick version of the profession quiz

 

 

So after I finished mine I went out looking for others. I found a few that sucked, a few that rocked, and a few good tries. Here’s my survey of quizzes, in true librarian form.

 

http://quizilla.teennick.com/quizzes/18872259/which-guild-wars-2-race-are-you-v12

good! Quizilla shows % of other takers who scored as you did, which is interesting. 3 stars

 

http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/quiz/TalesBZ/what-guild-wars-2-character-to-are-you/

(races) shows ranges of other choices. Cute! 3 stars *Quizfarm has gone defunct.

 

http://quizilla.teennick.com/quizzes/6918512/which-guild-wars-2-race-are-you

Cute! 3 stars

 

http://helloquizzy.okcupid.com/tests/what-guild-wars-2-profession-are-you-1
Obvious. Gives percentages, but not in order, nor does it have enough definition between outcomes, consistently landing ties. 2 stars.

http://quizfarm.com/quizzes/gw2/IDarko/what-guild-wars-2-profession-are-you/
Long, some repetition, obvious, but accurate. 2 stars. *Quizfarm has gone defunct.

 

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_guild_wars_2_race_are_you

spelling issues, some heavy-handed q’s, but okay. 2 stars

 

http://quizilla.teennick.com/quizzes/5647281/guild-wars-quiz-what-race-are-you

some spelling stuff, some obvious stuff, but okay. 2 stars

 

http://quizwhiz.zwigglers.com/myphkowf/What_Guild_Wars_2_race_are_you/

facebook required-grrr. Some spelling issues, some heavy-handed Q’s. 1 star.

 

http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/f1Lr8Ew/What-Guild-Wars-2-class-are-you

only 7 classes, heavy handed, long, repeated questions, doesn’t show range of other choices, only top choice. 1 star

 

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_guild_wars_2_profession_are_you

only 5 of the classes, incomplete, don’t rec. 0 stars

 

http://www.gotoquiz.com/guild_wars_2_test_quiz1

only 7 of the classes, heavy-handed y/n questions, don’t rec. 0 stars

 

http://www.gotoquiz.com/what_gw2_race_fits_you

terrible English, don’t rec. 0 stars

http://bettergaming103.blogspot.com/

7 totally obvious choices for each unfun question. Heavy-handed. No fun output. 0 stars

http://quizilla.teennick.com/polls/7217659/which-race-in-guild-wars-2-will-you-be

not even a real quiz, just a popularity chart. 0 stars

  

Choose Your Own Story + GW2

My poison of choice is Guild Wars. I freely acknowledge no writing will get done this Jan-Feb, because that is when GW2 is FINALLY due. (I'll believe it when I see it though.)

As I was cruising demo videos, drooling over the new awesomeness, I got this video and at the 4 min mark, I almost saw sparkles of joy. Here the geek wonder in charge of GW2 basically explains how it is a massive choose your own adventure. There are consequences for behavior, for battle outcomes, AND for the story you build at character creation.

Cue my disco ball and butterfly fireworks. It's like Dragon Age, only for everyone all together. And people are sneering about that. (buh-bye snot-heads! have a good time with your ugly wow world!) The main topic of conversation in our house now is what race and class to choose. My guy is leaning toward Asuran ranger, but I think the thief, with the random steal and shapeshifting, is calling to me. And of course, I do love my Norn world. Although it is a little odd to have a Norn be a thief. It's against what a Norn is, imo. Ah well, it will fit as well as a miniature archer. Can you imagine a longbow on Stitch? Me neither.

The replay-ability (there's a gaming word for this that escapes me at the moment) of such a world, where you can play a good human warrior or a nasty char necro in the same world, and have totally different outcomes, along with different presentations based on winning a battle... it's like cyoa GEEK OUT beauty.

Gods Bless Engineers Part Deuce

So this guy, who never takes credit for his work that I can see, has this elegant website analyzing CYOA. I was spending more time on it and I discovered the header is a tiny menu. He has movies of readers finding all the endings of a CYOA that's, like, a work of geek art. But you have to click the tiny PLAY in the upper left. He also has a playable Zork!

I have existed for years hearing detailed adventures of Zork from my guy. It's the mother of all RPG's and he helps me understand it by saying it's a text-based Myst. Every single object in the world is listed. You can pick it up, break it, all these odd commands. I was never interested in Zork, but Myst had a lovely romance subtext and I was enthralled with that game for months. I'd forgotten all about it!

Get Your (Romantic) Game On

There's some pretty nifty games available right now for people who are into this genre. One I have direct experience with is the slickest interactive choice-based video game to come along, Dragon Age. It's a good third person RPG old skool style for PC. It is the philosophical progeny of Baldur's Gate, which wanted to be a choice-based RPG, but only followed the "fake out choice" style where you were punished for every negative option. Lame (and also buggy). But anyway, Dragon Age is nifty because it takes character into account. There are storylines that contain both sex (HI-larious), romance, and both.

If video games are your thing, there's another one, indie-developed and romance author written. The marvelous Marjorie Liu developed one of her series into a choice-driven game, Tiger Eye. I haven't played it. I'd love to hear from anyone who has.

I didn't know about Harlequin's foray into it was blogged at Dear Author.

There's this app, also playable online, which starts with a quad choice and then lets you personalize your character. Ooooo, neat twist! Plot Bunny! When I played it, I found the deluge of choices numbing and the consequences of my choices too minor/opaque. It offers the option to write one for them to sell.

I think as a researcher into this genre, I'm going to need to play Tiger Eye! If I do, I'll share my experiences. Or maybe I'll find a guest blogger to do it!