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So after the recent ban on anything Warrior Cats related, it's got me thinking... What is the only thing on CYS more annoying than Warrior Cats?

And I'm obviously not talking about games that are part of a longer series or anything (or else I'd have to wave goodbye to POF.) I'm talking about the straight up, so short it's hard to even call it a demo type of demo.

I'm talking about the games that go. "You are a man called Bob. You hear the phone ring. Do you pick it up? You pick it up. The person on the phone says... End of part one! If you want to know what the person on the phone said then rate the game highly, leave a really nice review and I might consider making a part 2... One day." ... Those games. >.<

Technically, they are 'banned', by virtue of pretty much automatically being admin-unpublished shortly after being posted. If they rate high enough (say a 3 or more) they can be kept around.

At any rate, enjoy your free points!  ;)

Are they? I knew some games got admin deleted but I thought that was only games with a rating of 1 or less, regardless of whether they were demos or not.

Coming from a relatively new member...

I think they should be. They give a bad name to the other new members here that are trying to write decent storygames. Its insulting to me as a writer. (My opinion) And some of the so called demos weren't even published by newbies. Smh. Hell, I have started two storygames since joining and both are longer. One is 16 pages and on hold at the moment. The other is over 20 pages. Either one could easily beat some of the demos by grammar and detail alone. Even though I'm no where near ready to publish lol. Just saying. Sorry, had to vent a little Brair. I agree with your post entirely.

I hate demos to but there a necessary evil as it encourages people to write. Without demos most people would look at a top featured game and be like i can't make something like this. With demo people are like Wtf did this guy write i can do way better.

 

Lol right. Interesting point. Didn't think about that. I don't mine will become a "top storygame" but  it will look way good next to all those terrible demos. XD 

It keep people healthy to think there better than everyone else

There is so much wrong with this statement, both grammatically and philosophically that I'm almost impressed. It'd be hilarious if it wasn't also rather sad.

Agreed.

Aw man, I was just gonna write that story. Now you spoiled it!

You can still write it! That way we get to experience the completely random death that occurs if Bob chooses not to answer the phone. 

I shall call it... Bob... and his Phone.

It will be a masterpiece!

I don't know. Yeah, they can often be quite bad, and terribly short, but I can also understand the need for beginning writers to get some validation about their writing skills. Though of course the writing workshop is a better place to do so. Personally, I'm not really bothered by them, as long as there's at least some effort put into them.

Man, I'm definitely rating 8 cuz I want to know what the man on the phone says.

He says "Hello Bob, if you look out of the window right now you will see something amazing." Do you want to look out of the window? You choose to look out of the window. You look out of the window and you see... End of part 2! ^_^

Okay. I rate 8 again. Part 3 need to come out, like, right now. I can't wait!

Oh God, this could go on for awhile.

You look out of the window and you see... Zombies! Oh noes! Zombies have taken over the world and now they're going to eat you! You can either go to your girlfriend's house to see if she's alive or dead of you can hide in the house where the zombies won't get you. What do you want to do? You choose to stay in the house... You spontaneously combust. The end! Do you want to try again? You try again. This time you go to your girlfriend's house. You get there and find out your girlfriend is... End of part 3! ^_^

Oh no! What has become of my girlfriend! I NEED to KNOW! Please part 4, now!

I'm bored of this now.

Your girlfriend is alive. Do you want to have amazing, explicit, awesome, kinky sexy time? You choose no. She dumps you. The end. ^_^

Wow! What an amazing series of story games! I'm definitely going to rate all 8, and then I'll definitely read the next new series! New series, come out now!

No >.<

Yes.

If you don't choose to look at the window, you're hit by a heart attack and the game ends. This game is going to kick ass.

I'm kind of against banning any more genres. I'm running out of shit to make fun of!

I'm still against the whole banning WC games thing. I read a pretty decent WC game the other day that was probably worth about a 5 or a 6 as far as ratings go, but it got deleted along with the rest of them, which I think kind of sucks since the writer actually put effort into it.

That said, demos aren't a genre, they're just a handful of messy pages that somebody threw together in half an hour and hit publish because they couldn't be bothered to finish it. 

THEY ARE EXPRESSING THEMSELVES AND ITS BEAUTIFUL DAMMIT

A little strange seeing a whole genre banned, but it had to be done. We were getting flooded, and if the WC fankids could understand things like 'only post WC stories that aren't terrible', we never would have had the problem in the first place.

I'd be all for only completed stories getting posted, but then again, it's a free point you get with only a few clicks, and you get to slap down that link to the article and berate them a little, so that's always fun. The general attitude of the community is so against demos right now, one would have to be really, really good and presented right to not get rated badly enough to not be deleted anyhow.

I give out 1s and 2s to almost everyone now.

Id say yes simply because most authors dont even realize publishing a demo = your game wont be considered "new" when republished. Kiel ran into this issue with his first game. Really hard to come back from that, especiallu since your ratings are reset.

Yeah, good point. You could publish a demo and everybody rate it poorly, then edit the game and make it really good, but since people have already read it and it doesn't appear with the new games, people would be unlikely to read it again.

People just have no patience.

Ah, shit, yeah. I acidentally published my new game instead of Mazkil I while back, and had to transfer a lot of pages to a new game so it'd be new. That's frustrating, though understandable.

Yes, please. They're no good for anything except a free point.

I guess demos should be banned because they're going to get trashed for being unfinished anyway and if they ever do get republished as a full story no one's going to notice or care because they still have such a negative impression from being forced to read a Demo in the first place - also the sort of author? who lacks the motivation to finish a story in the first place is probably not going to improve dramatically with time. Having said this I am not sure how Demos could be banned as it's impossible to distinguish them from short stories of first-time authors, possibly any story description with the word Demo in it should get immediately unpublished :P Most of the demos I've read have never turned into full stories anyway.,

who lacks the motivation to write a full story is probably never going to finish their demo.

I started a story a year ago and finished... 1 page then got bored and deleted it months later...

They might as well be banned. For the people saying that it boosts the author's confidence and stuff, that's not going to happen when it gets bad reviews and is then ignored when it eventually does get completely finished.

Very true. ^_^

I belive they only meant that demos boost other new author's confidence that they can create better story games than the demos available. I don't think they meant anything about boosting the author's confidence in making demos, but rather in creating new story games better than those demos. Some people may be intimidated in reading the "featured" story games and be afraid to attempt writing their own. Seeing the demos could give new author's the boost they need to begin writing their own game. While I personally wish demos would be banned, I  can understand that point of view.

 I know my own storygame (when I finish) will be much better than the demos currently being published by some of the other "newbies." I know that because it won't be a demo but a finished story game. Hopefully whatever reviews I get, regardless of the quality of my writing, will reflect upon the effort put into it and the length of the game. (I'm thinking its going to be between 100-500 pages, but as its still in progress I don't know yet.)

I don't agree that reading another person's 'poor' writing should boost another person's confidence. Rather they should strive to create their best regardless of any outside factors, and build confidence in knowing that it's something they put 110% into. The thing about confidence is not thinking that you're better than everyone else, just that you have nothing to prove. But everyone has their own opinion.

My point was that creating a demo is in no way going to help a writer's confidence, as it will only get bad reviews and then be completely ignored when it finally does manage to be published (if it even is published after the bad reviews). Creating demos to boost confidence is not the right way to go about things - that kind of stuff could be better implemented in the Writing Workshop.

I'm sorry. I misunderstood your first post. I do agree that creating a demo is not a good way to boost a writer's confidence. And  I didn't say I agreed about reading "poor" writing to boost your own confidence. I just meant I understood about being intimated, when first writing a game, upon seeing the featured story games on the site.

Also, I wanted to add that I personally am not not trying to prove I'm better than anyone else. I'm not wanting to prove anything. I just want to show the community my writing style and get feedback so that I can keep improving my writing skills.

No offense taken. I misunderstand people all the time.

But really, some people make it just too easy to misunderstand them. For example, just the other day someone said that I was neither cute nor funny! Imagine that! I'm sure they were just having a bad day and expressed themselves in a strange manner without really thinking it through. They probably meant that I was both cute and funny and full of wit.

I hope you're right. Otherwise that phrase is quite rude. I would have been offended myself, but I tend to defensive in general. I've been put down alot by many people throughout my life. I'm learning to get past it and not let it bother me as much but it has left its scars. Sorry maybe thats too much info.... ah well. (Shrugs.)

I was only joking. I feel like self-deprecating jokes and bad puns are my forte... And I'm pretty confident in myself to be both funny and cute - although some days I do fall flat XD

Oh okay. Smh. I always take people seriously, and jokes are often lost on me. (I'm blonde. Lol.)

Fun fact: those jokes were actually supposed to be about bottle blondes only, due to Hollywood culture. 

Well, I'd comment on the topic, but I'm pretty sure a good number of members already know what my stance is on this issue ... xD 

(To anyone unaware, I wrote an entire article about why demos shouldn't be a thing. :p)

Well, Briar, technically "Price of Freedom: Innocence Lost" is a demo. It's only given a free pass because it was part of a contest and you had to meet a deadline. A 'demo' shouldn't be released under any other circumstance, and as others have said, it makes the author look bad to the rest of the community because most projects will go unfinished.

To answer your question, yes, they should be banned. It's extremely annoying when I see someone release unfinished work. Even if you're planning to make a series, you should make sure each individual story can stand on its own. That way you won't have people jump down your throat when you don't finish the whole story.

No. POF is NOT a demo. It's part 1 of a trilogy so it's a third of the way through already. Calling it a demo would be like calling Fellowship of the Ring a demo. Separate parts of a series should most definitely be released under other circumstances or else we wouldn't have the Homo Perfectus series or Fairview Highschool or anything else with a sequel. 

How is Price of Freedom not a self contained story? It has a beginning, rising action, a climax and resolution. That would be the complete arc of a story...