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Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

1st of all, Hi I am new!

Before I write my story, the biggest problem in this game is probably making the main character (you) a boy or girl? Probably I'll make it a boy since I believe most people in the internet are boys LOL. Another reason why this is important is cause I am going to make my story 100% as realistic as possible to how human-teens are emotionally, violently and sexually. (close your eyes kids!)

Are the majority of people in this forums dudes or ladies?

Or do you have another tip for me?

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

Welcome to the site.

Tip #1 when writing stories: Make sure you write a complete story, no matter how much you want to share it with the world and release a demo. It doesn't have to be long, just complete.

Tip #2 when writing at CYS: Read the Help & Info section. Pay close attention to 10 ways to make better games, Captain Kiel's Rules Of Writing, and Creating Storygames: Not A Walk In The Park.

Tip #3: For the Boy vs Girl issue, as I see it, there are 3 options:

1. Write gender neutral. Find a way to not specifically make things for one gender or the other. This is the easiest solution.

2. Start writing "IF" statements in code. You can ask the reader if they are a boy or a girl at the start and then on every page where you need to refer to a "he" or "his," you can include "IF" statements in the code. This can be done, but will take some time, and you have to be very careful to catch every instance.

3. Write completely different paths. In other words, if the reader selects "boy," then they are going to get a completely different story (all different pages) than if they select "girl." This is likely the longest option, as it would require you to write a lot more and keep track of many different things. And you can be sure that when a reader reads you story, they will follow one path and likely play again to follow the other path anyway.

Have fun reading and writing here!

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

Thank you very much for your tips everyone. BTW ENDMASTER I've been a long-time fan of yours! lol.

Ah IF statements, that'll be handy if I can use them, yes I am a programmer too. What language are you using? PHP?

Or do you have your own standard of writing code? Like what will the variables for names/nicknames? Or do you have a list I can refer to when writing code for this site?

Damn it'll be quite a challenge for me to make a girl story since I'm a college guy myself who love women LOL. Maybe I can make a bisexual character I guess.

 

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago
CYS has its own writing code. There are a bunch of articles about the editor in the Help & Info section of the site. You can ask around if you need help with a specific issue. My best recommendation would be to read them, and play around with the editor some. If you turn off the Rich Text Editor in your profile, you can use other computer code like HTML.

I'm just getting the hang of the editor myself, but there are a good number of helpful people around who can shed some insight if you get stuck trying to do something.

And I feel like its the worldview of the protagonist that matters more than sexuality in most stories, honestly. I mean in a romance it would matter but don't pigeonhole yourself into writing characters that only lust after women.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

I found to do the coding and have variables. I need to make it an "advanced story". And the tip says I shouldn't make it an advanced story for my first story.

So I HAVE TO make it an advanced story in order for me to use code, global-variables, if-statements?

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

You do. But don't let that warning scare you out of using the advanced editor. As for variables, you might like to know that they are integer-only; aside from some system variables like $PAGETEXT, there are no strings and any fractional value is floored.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

Seriously? How am I gonna take a name input then?

"Miss ....... (input name here)"

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

For player-entered names, it unfortunately comes down to storing each letter as a variable and using a bunch of on-page IF statements to display them. Preset names are a great deal simpler. There's an article for this, actually.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

Holys...

Really need to make things alot more convinent for users... I am abit lost...

Writing %%NAME%=%1%Bob%%%%NAME%=%2%Marlow%%%%NAME%=%3%Jill%%%%NAME%=%4%Cassandra%%

Just comes out at plain text and not options... Am I suppose to write a <?php CODE HERE ?> or something?

I can't find a "newbie's guide to coding" article in the help section.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

So long as you have a variable named "NAME" and its value is within the range 1-4, that bit of text should be converted into one of those names. The % signs signify what's known as "on-page coding", which allows variable values and IF statements to be inserted directly in the page without having to use a page script.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

Eh. There are too many stories where the boy is the main character. It would be good to see someone put a girl as the main character.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago
Most people have no problem reading as a female protagonist. Don't ever limit yourself based on what you think people want. That's a sure fire way to write garbage. You have to write the story you want.

EDIT: Unless you plan to write about bronies or WCs, in which case, go away, or we will unleash the capybara on you.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

Most of the members on this site are female, so you should write a female protagonist.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago
Speaking of which, when are you going to go back and write in a female version of Eternal like the one critic so reasonably demanded? ;)

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

I know someone mentioned in recent comments that they wanted a female path for Necromancer (His sister) but I don't remember seeing that request for Eternal.

If I was going to do a female path for Necromancer, it would be Catalina though rather than Necro's sister.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago
Someone brought up the whiny Eternal chick a year or so ago in the forums. They didn't want a different path really, just the pronouns and love interests changed in the current story as an initial boy/girl choice. I believe they suggested it was sexist or something. Maybe the comment was deleted since then.

It was pretty funny because even Seth was getting sarcastic about how yes, it would take no effort at all to re-write all those pronouns and sex scenes in a several hundred thousand word story. I think that's why I remember it actually.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

I looked through the comments on the story, and there have been three requests for a the guy to be female, or to have a choice between genders.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago
Yeah, I'm being lazy, so I looked too. But I definitely remember someone being really pissy about it because I'm positive it made its way into the forums a while back.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

Still not finding them. Not that I don't believe it, but was it specifically Eternal? Because I've gotten that complaint and similar ones on other stories as well.

Well in any case, I wasn't going back and changing any of my stories anyway.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago
I tried looking for the old thread but couldn't find it. Unless I'm completely mis-remembering the entire thing, I'm certain it was Eternal. Maybe @Sethaniel remembers what I'm talking about. If not, maybe Christopher Nolan and DiCarprio pulled some inception style crap on me.

That would be ridiculous if you did.

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

There are about three active female users on the site, one of which I consider myself to be. Anyway, I pretty much agree with what's been said here. People won't mind reading a story from the point of a male/female as long as the story is of high quality. You could always have a gender choice at the beginning, not a complete name input just an option which changes pronouns and stuff. If you do put in the option to choose gender, it would be a good idea to be able to choose the character's sexuality too (as I assume you're going to include some sort of sexual/romantic content), just to add a sort of personal touch. 

Going to write a story. Boy or Girl?

9 years ago

I'd say write it from the perspective of your own sex, it allows for a smoother narrative.