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How many endings are there usually?

I've been here for a few days,  and I think it's around 4 to 5.

The last one I've read had 20. ( spy stories )

I am planning the number of endings for mine, and I have to say, I have so much respect for you guys. This stuff is hard.

There is no usually, really, since it's just a big mash of different authors with different styles writing different types of stories. Generally speaking, it should be at least a few endings, but it really just depends. If there are a lot of endings, I would prefer that they have distinct paths leading to unique endings and not just a few small differences. It would be boring to have 21 endings, but each one just has a different flavor of ice cream.

I agree, this is pretty hard. Writing a CYOA is so different from a linear story, but it's also really awesome to explore different paths as a writer.  I also really enjoy having an obscure story that leaves people wondering what the true ending is. 

How many times would you play a storygame to find the different endings?

A lot of the diehards make a point to find every ending. 

Like me.  That's why I prefer there to be a substantial difference. 

Ah, but say there's a million of them, at what point do you 'finish' it.

Nobody has made any actually good game with more than a few dozen significant endings (ie no "you die gg" or "you win/lose with this hand of poker") without autogenerating endings with a script. Even then a programmer can't make every ending distinct without them all not making sense and thus devaluing the game to trash-tier. Even programming infinite endings is just a combination of a few key aspects and once a diehard finds out the key things which make up all the endings, they'd stop even if all the possible generated endings are in some small way unique.

If there really are that many, probably after about three, unless you can convince me that there is enough value to go further than that. I'm hard pressed to believe the branching is quality in that case. If it was really high tier, I still probably wouldn't make it to more than twenty, though, since I just don't have that kind of time to put up. 

Players who take writing reviews seriously will almost always attempt to play through every path. Since these are hard, like you said, the fact you have to write several thousand words leading to each ending tends to limit the number to a reasonable amount

How much more casual readers see before quitting depends on how good and engaging the writing and story is.

The longest game on the site is Dead Man Walking at about a million words. Maybe @BerkaZerka remembers how many endings there are.

Of course then there's an issue of semantics, many players don't consider 'you died, game over' to be a real ending.

One...Million...Words????!

How... Did any of you guys happen to pay attention to how long it took BerkaZerka?

Thanks

That one took over a year (with an average of 20 hours a week put into it).

There should be a lot of planning involved.

Hmm so basically a half-time job for a year... don't know your rate, but in terms of money that would be the equivalent of a pretty nice new car. (I hope we have backups)