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Done and done!

http://chooseyourstory.com/story/the-price-of-freedom~3a-innocence-lost

Edited the title of the old game, so that I could call the new game "Innocence Lost", since I'm pretty sure I've worked out a way t transfer stats from one game to another.

Also, I updated the patreon page, so that everybody gets cool shinies! People like shinies, right? ^_^

And thanks again @mizal for showing me how to add that stats page, so that I didn't need to have the bloody "Check Stats" link at the bottom of every single page. You're a life saver. 

Congrats Briar! Just so you know, various other people have been happy for you as well while still being too lazy to post.

Thanks miz! And thanks to all the lazy people too! 

I'm happy for you. :)

Missed the thread.  Sorry.  
Congratulations on completing the transfer!  Price of Freedom brought me to this site, and I'll be definitely giving the new one a go in the very near future.  Thank you for sharing it with us.

 

D'awhh! You make me blush ^_^

... Huh... So that was interesting. I just posted a thread over on CoG to let the guys over there know that the new game was finished... Thread got deleted literally as soon as I posted it. Apparently the staff over at CoG still feel the need to filter everything I post to make sure I never say anything bad about their great leaders... Well, it's nice to have a hobby, I guess. 

It seems you have immense power that must be contained lest it taint everyone in the gated community

Lol, they probably think somehow your story is going drag people away from their site and come over here.

Seriously, their insecurity of the popularity of their own brand is hilarious if they believe one thread about a single non-CoG story is going to suddenly hurt CoG's bottom line.

Then again it's you, so maybe it would and they're right to fear your writing skill.

Still a bunch of plagiarism supporting faggots in any case.

Well, I published it in a section of the site called "Other Interactive Fiction" ... So somehow I get the feeling it's just me. 

Well its more because you're "connected" to this hive of villainy upstanding free writing site. It wouldn't be the first time they've deleted references to this place.

In any case it's still really insecure on their part anytime they do it, especially since this site isn't even a business "rival" which might be a little more understandable if it was, but again I hardly expect any other sort of behavior from a bunch of overly sensitive fascists.

What goes around comes around. Something tells me CoG will regret some of their actions in about two or three years.

I approve of their actions, people have short memories and might forget how petty and bitch-like the people running COG are otherwise.

It's pretty weird though because I thought the official story was that you all amicably parted ways after you and Jason agreed future sequels would be too dark to fit their site.

It's almost like...you lied to make him sound better than he was out of some misguided desire to remain professional even when the guy running the actual business wouldn't?

Update. Turns out it was Jason himself who deleted the post. I asked him what was wrong with the post and if there was anything I could do so that the next thread didn't get deleted... His response was:

"Based upon the content of the game as you described it, no, there’s no way for you to rewrite it that it doesn’t get deleted."

... Which is quite ironic considering that the exact same game was less than a month away from publication at the time it got taken down, and when it was taken down, that was due to copyright issues... So, apparently, the game's good enough to be published under the Hosted Games label... But not okay to talk about in the forums... Not really sure why he thinks this is a good idea, but okay. 

Edit: Oh, look! It's old me! ^_^

LOL

What an overly sensitve butthurt bitch.

Seriously, there's a thread of Suicidal Sammy's Mass Murder Motherfucker or whatever still up there and the whole controversy about that was it having child abuse and "rape" in it.

Sammy threw a fucking bitch fit, rage quit the site, came back after taking his meds and everything is fine again with him.

Meanwhile you were probably way too civil and professional about everything and Jason's being a faggot with you.

Yeah, Jason's still sore about you daring to defy him in front of everyone and being friendly to the people here. Lol.

Yeah, I'm not aware of any game related thread of WIP on CoG ever being deleted because of the content. Hell, your thread for Eternal has been up there for years with no issue... Meanwhile, my thread gets deleted in seconds because... Well... Because I posted it, I guess. 

Awh, NEW new update! I responded with:

"The game is exactly the same as it was when it was in the publishing queue for the Hosted Games label, and I never had any issues with it then, besides the copyright problem you stated. Presumably, there’s nothing in the game that was considered unsuitable for the Hosted Games label. If the issue is that the warning is too off putting, I can adjust the warning to state that the sexual abuse is only implied, not experienced."

His reply:

"Part of the problem here is that I’m not going to go and verify that what you’re telling me is true. And, considering your two-faced conduct throughout this process, you have absolutely 0 credibility with me right now. Moreover, your description of it sounds grossly offensive to me. Even if the content is not grossly offensive, you’re advertising it in order to appeal to those who would be interested in grossly offensive material, which is distasteful.

So, no, there isn’t a way for you to advertise this on our forums."

... So, ironically, his excuse for deleting my thread is that I had the audacity to put up a trigger warning. 

This just gets even better, where the hell is Mizal, she REALLY needs to read this. This is fucking gold.

Two faced? I guess Janus Hill would know all about being two faced better than anyone. LOL

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if Jason is reading this, considering how petty he is.  

So, Jason.  I laughed until I cried before laughing some more, and I want to thank you for that.  

That's what I was just saying to Gower on the Discord, I didn't understand how the thread could be removed for 'content' when it was the exact same story someone at COG had read and approved and been ready to publish before they decided they didn't like you anymore and would rather support a plagiarist.

Anyhow, I think by now it should've been pretty obvious you couldn't expect even a shred of professionalism or even basic politeness from someone like Jason. This is just a repeat of his and Mary Duffy's behavior from months ago, as if anyone needed a reminder. These are people who literally decided their company should support a plagiarist just to get in one more little jab at you. (Still got those screenshots btw.)

This is just what petty internet power does to some people and in particular you know the fact that he can't abuse you AND take the money from your hard work is getting to him.

The fact is he tipped his hand too early and he realizes it. And of course it's a good thing for you he did or else you'd have gone through with letting them put your game up and from them on had to put up with his shit with your only option to get free of such a toxic business environment being to buy back the rights to your own game from them and probably get screwed over just like the Delight Games guy.

Anyway, you've won, we won, all people who just want to read a good game for free with no fuss have won, Jason and COG with it's shitty business practices that are bringing them in less in sales every year are the only ones who have lost. Nothing to get wound up at here, just kick back and bask in the good feelings from finally being clear of that mess entirely and having written a damn good game that anyone should be proud of.

(Although if you have the time, do please try getting some more of these hilariously bitchy comments and blatant lies from him though, it'll be funny to compare screenshots from the last time later.)

Yeah... Honestly, I was so fed up of all the CoG drama that I was just planning on letting it go and not doing anything about it, but... Yeah, this is just a bit too much. I mean basically... He's more than happy to have threads for far more "offensive" games on the site and doesn't see a problem with it whatsoever. My thread gets deleted LITERALLY within seconds of me posting it, and he uses "offensive content" as the excuse because the game has a trigger warning... Despite the fact that the HG staff had absolutely no problem with it, and were less than a month away from publishing it on the site... Then when I clarify that the warning about "scenes of sexual abuse" was only implied and wasn't that disturbing, he responds with "I'm not going to verify that what you're telling me is true." Which basically translates as, "You say that your game doesn't contain any graphic scenes of rape... But I don't believe you, and instead of actually reading your game to see if it's true, I'm just going to assume you're lying."

... So... Yeah, why he thought this was a good idea, I don't know. It doesn't really have any effect on me, but it sure as hell doesn't look good for him. 

This needs a bit of a break down:

"Part of the problem here is that I’m not going to go and verify that what you’re telling me is true."

This pretty much says it all as far as him not having a leg to stand on. Confirming facts and shit is sort of the main way you support your position and prove the other person is wrong. Avoiding such things basically means you're full of shit and just piling it higher and deeper.

"And, considering your two-faced conduct throughout this process, you have absolutely 0 credibility with me right now."

While I already made the snipe about Jason being twofaced, but I'm just seriously baffled to what he's even talking about Briar being twofaced. She's been upfront with him about everything. He's the one that's spinning shit and outright lying to support his non-existent position.

"Moreover, your description of it sounds grossly offensive to me. Even if the content is not grossly offensive, you’re advertising it in order to appeal to those who would be interested in grossly offensive material, which is distasteful."

Okay, I really need to know what the hell Briar even wrote as her description, because I can't even imagine it being the description for Love SICK. Hell, I can't even imagine it being worse than Suicidal Sammy's Mass Mother thing. And given that it was fine before when they were going to publish, like Briar already said, seems odd that he would suddenly be against it now.

"So, no, there isn’t a way for you to advertise this on our forums."

"No! You can't be in our clubhouse, only trannies and faggots allowed!"

Well in any case, good job Briar. I know I don't really do too much of the positive warm and fuzzies as support, I show my support by calling your enemies a bunch of fucktards instead. But know that the support is there!

Oh and the Eternal thread is still up over there, (Until someone goes and takes it down after reading this, go ahead I won't be offended!) because I didn’t mention the child abuse, slavery, ultra violence and the graphic sexual encounter between a 16 year old and someone in their 500s!

Trigger warnings are for suckers!

"the content of this story we've already read and were less than a month away from publishing until you disagreed* with me in an unrelated thread and I decided I didn't like you anymore sounds grossly offensive to me, Mr. Empathy and Feelings."

*runs off to make a self congratulatory thread about his amazing levels of goodness and empathy*

*Sorry wait, not 'disagreed', I believe the term was 'microaggressively opined.'

Which, as we all know, is a kind of violence.

I know, I'm a very violent person for having all my naughty opinions. 

What I wrote in the description was:

Warning: Before you guys read on, I want to let you all know that this game may not be suitable for younger players. It contains extreme violence, strong language and distressing themes, including; Slavery, Child Abuse, Physical and Emotional Abuse, Sexual Abuse, Racism and Sexism. Please do not play if any of these subjects might distress you.

... Like you said, other games and WIPs have WAY worse than that... But then, pretty sure that content didn't have anything at all to do with the thread being deleted. 

But how do these horrible things belong in a wholesome, heartwarming tale of a ten year old Greek being enslaved by Romans and forced to kill for amusement? You're just sick, Briar.

I know, I'm a very bad person. 

Probably the biggest problem is that second page: you only gave people the choice of "boy" or "girl." Pretty sure that's about the worst thing you can do according to CoG...

OMG, I love this guy so much! Sorry, but I just has to share! ^_^
 

Thank you for sharing it with us!

Hell yeah! Always good to know progress is being made on the ever-ongoing quest to stick it to The Man!... Or The Xi. Who knows how many people are pettily conspiring against a good story about gladiators to protect their feelings.

That's awesome, congratulations Briar! The old version was already very good, but the newer one is even more so. Definitely should replace the old one in featured games. I'll hopefully stop being lazy and write a review sometime soon. Until then, just know that you did an amazing job.

Already replaced it, keep up!

Thanks, miz! ^_^

Hurrah!

I hope that in the sequel there will be a character named Jasonius getting torn apart by crocodiles in the arena.

Lol I just realized this story is now technically eligible for the Best of 2019 contest.

All y'all are fucked.

e: would read the story up confirm y'all's fucked status but then I realized this game about children being trained as gladiators contained CHILD SLAVERY and CHILD ABUSE which I find very offensive, like all decent people I will not stand for these things being implied to be 'bad' even in fiction.

Awhh! What's the Best of 2019 contest? 

Ah, okay... But the original game was entered into the Spring Thing contest, so... Doesn't that make it ineligible? 

Oh no, I'm so fucked...
But, does this mean a writing contest just took a ton of CYS members' virginities since it fucked everyone like IBV?

Yes, Wibbons.  You may die in peace now.  Goodbye.  

Congratulations, Briar. I haven't read any incarnations of this except the original. Looking forward to reading this tonight!

Thank you! Super happy it's published now. Can't wait to see what people think of it... Hopefully it's not too similar to the original that people find it pointless.

Hey...I remember this game! But this is...New game? ('o')~!

I'm very excited! I can't wait to read it. Good job, Briar!

I did? I was unaware of the kerfluffle. 

Wait... How did I not know about this website before? The fact that it has the exact same layout as CoG is slightly creepy, but other than that... What is this shiny new place? Is it good? 

Besides the forum software, it also has the exact same rules as COG! Because for some insane reason they brought Dan in to tell them how to behave.

Anyway I use the IFDB for the actual games, there's generally not much of interest on the forum itself except right after the IF comp.

So long as it's Dan and not Jason, I'm happy ^_^

Oh yeah! I totally forgot about that! 

Okay I'll do that tonight. Thank you for letting me know. I also apologize if my other review was not spoiler free. I tried to be as detailed as possible without giving away anything that might be considered a spoiler. But that was more difficult than I thought.

Oh, no one cares about spoilers here, you always read the comment section at your own peril. The IF community is just terrified of them though, that's one of their biggest unwritten rules going way way back.

Oh my bad. My really only experience with reviewing games is over on Choice of Games, where they'll flag your posts for anything that could be considered a spoiler by anyone. But thank you very much for clearing that up. I'll be sure to leave more detailed reviews in the future. I hope you have a wonderful day.

Edit: Okay, I left a review over there. I hope it helps out. Thank you for bringing the site to my attention.

D'awh! Thank you! 

Mayana has spread the FREEDOM to her people.

https://forum.audiogames.net/topic/28312/the-price-of-freedom-innocence-lost/

I'm always surprised we don't see more of the audiogames people around. Although I guess 90% of everyone on the site just reads stories anyway so there are probably lurkers about.

Wow! Thanks @Mayana !

... And, ooh! Another shiny website I've never heard of before! This looks like it could be cool... Though I can't figure out for the life of me how it works. Made a new account to reply to the thread, and it just says, "Sorry, you don't have permission to reply to this post." ... How I get permission, I have no idea. 

No problem! You should thank End, he gave me the idea. Before you can post, you first have to get approved by the admins. It's a bit dumb imo, but it was implimented because, for such a tiny website, we had quite a lot of spam. Just go here, say hi and post a bit about yourself to show you're not a bot. People usually get unrestricted within 24 hours after posting.

Yey! Thanks May ^_^

Bloody hell, shit just continues to get shittier. An admin just tried to unrestrict you, but couldn't even access your profile. I was able to find it using the user list, but it's weird. The post count shows as 0, even though you posted once. You also have 3 Karma somehow, even though I assume you should've only been able to get one, from me.
Damn it all! I manage to trick one sighted person into joining the blindy lair, and then they somehow manage to break the site just by existing and being able to see! Could you stab your eyes out or something? That might fix it. This's awkward, I don't recall that ever happening before.

Well, the first time I tried it, it asked for a guest name... So maybe I signed in as a guest user by accident? I don't even know how that happened, but meh. :p

Just FYI, dark encountered a bug in post 13. I have no ide about how this shit works, so I'll let you figure out what it could be. Maybe it's just CYS timing out or something? I know that's a huge problem for me when I play Delve, at some random link it just stops working completely and nothing can fix it. But your game's not nearly as huge as that one, so hell if I know.

What's the bug? 

Fine, I'll post it here, since clicking links must be hard. :P If you don't feel like reading the whole thing, the issue is that after the link "Seems Master Has Big Plans For Us" the game stops somehow, and he can't access the end games link.
"I finished the arena fight and had the conversation with Titus where he reveals he used to be the gladiator known as the bull. The last link I followed was labeled "seems that master has big plans for us"
Then however the game just stopped, no more links, no way to progress no end screen.
Are there really only ten chapters to this one? If so the ending is quite abrupt, since even if this is the first part of a planned series, I would've expected to be a little "the end" message."
I asked him to elaborate more on how exactly the game stopped and to post the stats page. He didn't bother to elaborate on the first one yet, and said he doesn't have the stats because he didn't save the game. So this'll be a pain to duplicate.

Huh... Well, that's strange. Thanks for letting me know, I'll try to figure out what's wrong with it. ^_^

Fixed it! ^_^

Is it weird to anyone else to see Ford and Coins credited as Chanbot and SpartacustheGreat? Has anyone ever actually called them that?

Lol, yeah, good point... Well, I just went with the usernames because Ford never actually got back to me about what name he wanted to be credited by, and Coins wanted to be credited as "Jason Hill" ... I did not. 

So, I'm planning on retiring the old game as soon as the new one gets ranked... Curious though... How many ratings does a game need to be ranked? ^_^

100. Shouldn't take too long.

Yey! ^_^

Oh, good, now I can rate your game.

1/8! The description sounds grossly offensive! 

Now that I think of it, I'm surprised that the phantom Jason Hill hasn't popped in to give a review yet. 

Btw, here's a couple lines of what passes as gripping emotion in the rip off story Jason and Mary preferred over Briar's:



But alas, you are bound in chains. Dreams shattered, treated like a nobody. Just a slave. Oh how cruel a hand to be dealt with. Fate does work in the strangest of ways.



Incredible, it's like I'm right there in the character's head, feeling what they feel! The historical accuracy is just blowing me away as well needless to say, and I love the way the author sticks to his artistic integrity by refusing to learn punctuation or fully understand tense.

(That'll be $3.99,

love, CoG)

The author also spent hours on historical research to determine that 'slim' was a defining trait for all girls in the ancient world, and that they have sharply defined noses planted between two sculpted cheekbones. The cheeks on their FACE, mind you. And the cheekbones, there are always two of them. And now you know.

Just another day walking home from school with your friends in ancient Egypt... I was going to tear into what there is available of this a little more because to be honest, it's...less than amazing, a lot of the historical elements are hilariously wrong (as this scene continues you realize you're actually carrying a sword...) and just the feel of what ought to be the most polished part of the story--the part that convinces people to pay money for it--is so generic with some really questionable word choice.

But aside from the whole potential plagiarism thing with a couple of scenes, which, okay is KIND of a big deal in a writing community, the story itself is the sort that in other circumstances I'd love to dig into and give detailed feedback on. The writing is unpolished and bland in many places but there's enough real effort there that I wouldn't feel like it was a waste of my time to try and help an author improve.

That's if it was posted on CYS, of course. But the fact is it's considered 'finished', it was published as is by COG and on Google Play, they're asking actual money for it and didn't even care enough about the quality to provide the guy with an editor. CoG's business practices are not the fault of any author, even though I will fault him more than a little for failure to do research into the time period he's writing about.

Also rereading the Plagiarism FTW thread, I thought the guy handled it reasonably well when called out on the weirdly similar scenes he had. A lot better than Jason or Mary Duffy did for damn sure, and it's not his fault they later decided to use him as a tool. Also, y'know, if I'm going to write a review it should probably be for Briar's game...but it's always so much harder to come up with essays about things that are actually just really good.

Yeah, none of the crap that happened over at CoG is the author's fault. He edited all of the scenes that I complained about, and I haven't come across any other scenes that are particularly similar to POF, so he's cool with me. I don't really think that the game has anything to do with it. Jason just saw an excuse not to publish my game and pounced on it. 

... You know... The way that the ratings are looking right now, POF might actually end up being the highest rated game on the site!

@Endmaster

Probably, but it has to still gather more ratings to rise in actual rank because of the mysterious ranking system.

Unfortunately, I get the feeling that everyone is automatically rating the game an 8 out of sympathy after the whole CoG fiasco... ... ... Meh, I'll take it! 

Okay so update for those sad individuals who still rely on the forums and pigeon carriers for their news: MeltingPenguins and Gryll whatever have been made to back down by the actions of a few of the good COG authors (yes they do exist) and chill and reasonable behavior from the one good COG mod.

Everyone has been extremely civil and polite in pointing out things like 'y'know maybe just message the person who would know instead of spreading rumors'. I expected drama or defensiveness but they both actually apologized and a rare moment of calmness and good feelings has descended.

Briar/Avery explained that CYS didn't prevent her from doing anything and it 'was actually more like the opposite' without dragging out the messy details, good on her, still the nicest person we know. Now that things have calmed down I'm sure a savvy and professional people person like Jason wouldn't possibly come in and stir up a hornet's nest again so I think the thread is over!

In other news, long time favorite COG poster Poison Mara doesn't like us anymore, which is a shame as she was one of the few who ever had the balls to post here (even if it was just over a misunderstanding) and that exchange at the time ended as a great diplomatic victory.

Oh well, I still like her anyway.

Well, actually the main reason I didn't go into details is because it was gone midnight. Explaining everything would've taken ages and I needed to get up early in the morning, so I was just like... Screw it, sleep's more important. I'll go check out this mess tomorrow. 

... And now I can't say anything, because its locked.

Jason has decided to respond to the thread. And here I had this whole response to Mara written out. Oh well, probably better to not bring attention to myself anyway. 

You guys still supporting COG are REALLY gonna need to sit down sometimes and ask yourself why you give your money to this man. He makes baby Jesus cry with every twisted little lie that comes tumbling out of the big ol herpes sore that is his mouth.

His actions have truly cost him a customer in me. It is unfortunate because there are authors I enjoy and stories that interest me on that site still. But I can always support the authors directly through things like Patreon. 

What a little bitch.  XD

 

 

What was that again, Jason buddy? you were saying?

Seeing as how Moxie just brought to attention that Avery had permission, how long do you think it will be before the thread is deleted?

Did Cricket go to all of them? XD 

It was on the main discord that it was deleted after they stuck their fingers in their ears and ululated.  

The other two servers I posted at did not give me that sort of negative response or at least not yet.  

There were some other, what appeared to be, story-specific discords I did not bother with as things were hectic, but I may later depending on how things turn out.  

Its honestly a weird legal thing. Alex needs to say the site owns the content, so we can remove things as needed, but we still respect people's intellectual property and dont actually consider the content to be ours.

He has clarified this before when others brought it up.

Thanks for clearing that up, New JJJ.

Old JJJ mentioned too that it was a necessary ass covering thing so that we were able to ban people who might have work on the site without them being able to kick up a fuss about being locked away from it or demand it be taken down etc.

Alex himself has admitted it's awkwardly worded and probably needs a rewrite. But people also need to understand this place isn't a business, it's a hobbyist site created by one guy almost twenty years ago.

...not that any of that really matters when it's already been pointed out in even the COG thread that they made no attempt to contact Alex before claiming in public that the copyright was the problem keeping them from publishing the game.

"Misrepresenting the facts?" ... I didn't even fucking say anything! 

Facts are pesky little things.

And there we have it, the Overgod's words from his own divine keyboard.

Not sure if this helps Briar out since Jason's response was still pretty non-committal. Also Briar might just be done with CoG altogether after all this mess and I can't say as I'd blame her.

In any case, for all the "bad rep" we have in this niche IF community, never let it be said that CYSers will not fucking fight for one of our beloved site members if need be.

(If you're not a beloved site member of course then fuck you)

Actually, the funniest part of this entire thing is that the whole kerfluffle was caused by... FANG!

LMAO! I like Fang. He has provided me with many lulz. ^_^

I'm just picturing the heavens opening up and angels singing as the glorious Alex descends 

Greetings;

 

Thank you very much for your hard work. Yours is one of the stories I came back here for every few weeks periodically looking for new storygames to come out. I'm incredibly excited to play this new one. I wish you the best.

D'awh! Thank you! ^_^