I feel like this place advances another 10 years for every year I'm away from it.

What on earth did I miss this time?

Five points to make, the first two I believe have already been covered:

1. Pretty clear sign that the people complaining still have the stigma of video games being an inferior medium of storytelling.

2. There are games that have the potential for far worse things - where you potentially play the abuser, no less. Those that are complaining may have complained about those, or about games in general being capable of that. In that case, good on them - they are at least persistent in their morals. If not, then... Well.. It shows a lack of truly caring on their part, and simply wanting to seem "in the right" to those around them, without actually having to put in the effort.

3. David Cage and the rest of Quantic Dream knew this would happen. Well, perhaps David Cage didn't see it, since he's a bit... off-his-rocker, to say the least. But no doubt there were some people at Quantic Dream saw who this scene of abuse being in the trailer to be shown to millions of people, and said "yes. This will get people talking." And talk people did. And sales are more likely to go up rather than down as a result of this, although it is fairly far away from the actual release date.

4: You have to admit it is a bit insensitive to put this situation in the light of "check out our intricate map of decisions! Wowzas!" Not enough to pull the game from shelves or anything ridiculous like that, but... In a trailer? A bit distasteful, although they probably already knew it would stir controversy. That's likely why they did it.

5. Calling them "mega loser pussy jerks" wouldn't really help to convince them, if they were reading what you have to say. Just be careful about that moving forward, if you have any intent of changing people's minds. We already more-or-less agree with you on this forum, but preaching to the choir doesn't really change things. Then again, you're probably just intending to vent, which is understandable.

On an unrelated note: Nice Fallen London avatar! I haven't been on that site in a year. Has anything changed, or is it still roughly the same?

I've been playing through my head a scenario where you end up shooting the sheriff in an attempt to swap him and the prisoner out as party members.

I'm pretty excited at this prospect.

The gunshot would be loud, prompting the widow to check it out. If you manage to make her not suspect anything, and call her back, she probably will, and you'll be on your way with the prisoner instead, but with some interesting consequences if you return to that town.

Of course, most scenarios would result in the widow checking the situation. Fight or flight at this point, with flight being the only way to get out of it, what with the bodyguard being present.

And thus, one potential route to the Outlaw path is born.

Perhaps the most efficient path of flight would be the bodyguard's prized horse, once the widow has already gone inside, as then both of the most likely people to gun you down would no longer want to - one of them because you're riding an animal they cannot bring themselves to harm, and the other because they can't see you fleeing until it's too late.

Oh snap! It's an update!

My latest brainstorming session came up with these ideas:

- Items will be usable in the story

- There will be multiple points where the player can choose to put on or take off a holster to hold their revolver in.

----- Having the holster on will add the revolver as an item to your inventory, and you can whip it out at many points in there story. You can point it at people, and shoot it at them too... Even though it will likely cause a game over for many points of the story (but perhaps I can make an "outlaw" path specifically for the situations where you manage to get away with it).

----- Having the holster off will increase your mobility.and make people more likely to trust that you aren't going to hurt anyone... But you won't have the revolver on you.

- I will build one Main plot-line first, and then branch off from it with the time remaining.

- The main plot-line will revolve around traveling to an abandoned(?) hideout of a gang of outlaws. One of the outlaws came to town, scared for his life after a large, casualty-ridden battle with local Indians. After he is promptly jailed, the protagonist and a group of newfound acquaintances are asked to accompany the local sheriff to the hideout, with the promise that they can keep whatever they can carry back.

- I don't have names for the characters yet. The names won't be hard to come up with at all, given the types of names in the Wild West are pretty natural to me. However, I'll go ahead and leave the descriptions of the main characters of the main plot-line here, to see if any of you can think of any clever names that you'd want to be used.

----- The Protagonist - I'm probably going to avoid giving them a name. Just a 2nd-person-perspective "you". They were probably a cattle rancher with a want for adventure. So they head to a saloon, and the rest is history...

----- The Sheriff - Lost his left arm. Always has his pistol holstered. Slow and lumbering, but quick and accurate on the draw. Has a looser sense of social morals than his (late) predecessors, but will crack down hard on anything he finds unlawful.

----- The Widow - A jaded widow with a penchant for gunslinging and a distrust for authority. A reasonable trait, given that a group of officers had her entire family hanged on false charges - a fate she only barely escaped herself. She has a vendetta against those officers, though she doesn't expect to find them. And she sort of doesn't want to, since she's still getting used to the concept of committing violence.

----- The City Slicker - A nervous banker/white-collar criminal who came to the West to set up a property business, and to get away from his ever-present, borderline-yandere wife. He is increasingly regretting his decision, and wants to go back home. But he can't. Not without having some sort of future set up for himself. Incapable of violence, outside of a mental breakdown.

----- The Bodyguard - A filthy, horny, grizzled, enormous beast of a man. By far the most athletic of the group, and by far the least charismatic. He has a soft side for animals, but is otherwise kind of a huge asshole. Hired by the City Slicker to act as his bodyguard for a hefty pay. Loves money, women, rotgut alcohol, and well-bred horses.

----- The Bandit - Put in jail by The Sheriff when he came running back towards town after the Indians raided their outlaw camp. Extremely amenable - not at all a leader, and will follow whoever will give him the most stability in life.

While coming up with ideas for this game, I've found that listening to this song helps put me in the correct atmosphere.

For some prep, I looked up some common cowboy/wild-west phrases, curses, jargon, and all that.

What's funny is that I already use half of them in regular conversation. I am from Texas though, so perhaps those words stuck around.

A quick Google Translate:

"You are living because your mother was getting fucked in the act, some of the body was in a round, and your mother could be able to cut off your belly, and there was no coat hanger in the house as there are you are very poor."

Well then.

Disregard this. I'm being dumb.

My prompt:

"15) From train robberies to cattle rustling and Indian wars, tell a story from the Wild West."

I have a tenuous grasp of the Wild West, but I feel like I can put together a compelling story in the lawless lands regardless.

I'm assuming it doesn't have to be a literal real-life tale that actually happened in the Wild West, but I am assuming that train robberies, cattle rustling, and Indian wars would all have to play a part somewhere.

I do have a question, since I'm new to these contests - is item-based interaction allowed?