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Breezy has a great article for new members 

 

Raven47 has a new article posted regarding writing styles.

 

DerpBacon and SkyTenshi have submitted articles.

Derp's is about creating a forum game, now that freeform isn't an option.  Sky's is about dystopian fiction.

 

Demos & Why People Need to Stop Publishing Them by @Kiel_Farren is up on help & info.

http://chooseyourstory.com/help/articles/article.aspx?ArticleId=4046

Note to all potential authors:  When you submit an article, please also send a PM to Seth or BZ.  The system doesn't alert us to newly-submitted articles. 

I like this article ^_^

THANK YOU

Very well done.

But I have a bad feeling that most of the people who post demos and broken games are not the sort of people who will go and peruse the help and info section. Still, a nice article though.

Yes! This is so needed! Though I do feel that if they're too lazy to not make shitty games with broken links, they're too lazy incapable of reading these articles. Maybe, and this is only maybe, we just kill them all slowly make this mandatory reading.

That'd be interesting, if you had to read certain articles when you made an account. But like those licensing agreements, most people would still just scroll to the bottom and click the button.

Yeah, you're completely right. Hey, we wiped out the WC Crowd, I think we can wipe out the Lazy Crowd.

Well said!

Thank you, Seth. 

As for the thought that "if people are too lazy to finish a story, they're too lazy / apathetic to read this"--I believe that's true for some folks, but there are other reasons people do this. Like I said, sometimes new members just get really eager to post something, or are looking for feedback (everyone feels unsure when they're new) and don't realize we have standards or that  publishing an incomplete work is a problem.

I'm addressing this article to those people, the ones that actually want to get it right. I also make a point of greeting all new members with the obligatory "read through help & info before you get started" advice, which some of them really do take to heart. I intend to point people specifically to this article in the future. 

True for a lot of them. It's not always pure laziness (just mostly) Some people just get excited about their projects and want feedback, and until your article was written there was nothing explicitly saying it's frowned upon.  I know the first thing I posted here was a demo of about 50 pages, even though I made sure there were no loose ends.

This article made me realize that if I don't publish my game now, i'll probably never get the chance to when it's finished cause I probably would have given up on it by then. I know this was the opposite of what the article was trying to say, but it just kinda got me thinking about it. So... yeah.

>_> As long as it feels complete, man. The point is, don't publish broken games. If it's done, even though it's shorter than you planned, it doesn't apply.

Demos & Why People Need to Stop Publishing Them by @Kiel_Farren is up on help & info.

http://chooseyourstory.com/help/articles/article.aspx?ArticleId=4046

Note to all potential authors:  When you submit an article, please also send a PM to Seth or BZ.  The system doesn't alert us to newly-submitted articles. 

Raven's Guide to Writing Styles

Disclaimer: Seth edited this article for grammar.  Anything you like, praise Raven.  Anything you don't, blame Seth.  XD

Thank you, kindly. You're great :P

xD Yay, a shout-out. One that makes it rather clear what side of this debate I tend to land on, haha. Still, I appreciate that simplicity is beautiful in its own way and that the truly important thing isn't how many words you use, but how you use them.

tbh the one that really bugs me is when ppl are practially hemingway until it comes to The Thing They're Really Into.

The castle is just "a castle,"  the king is just "the king," until it's time to discuss the outfits the characters are wearing & suddenly the author's throwing in exactly what fabric the clothes are made of, and what sort of stitching is on the collar, and how many pockets it has.

Or the guard is "a guard" but we know exactly what make and model his guns are and what modifications they have and which ammo they're using. 

I've seen that. xD A lot. I know exactly what you mean.

Won't do that anymore. It's bad.

Instead, I'll try to make those details of equipment, characters, and skills to be hints at a limited amount. For example:

"Those men clad in shiny armors are the king's personal guards. They wield various weapons, from longswords to halberds. Some wield shields on their off-hand, and some don't. The stylish design of their armors and weapons show that they are high-ranking knights of the kingdom. Highly experienced, battle-scarred, highly skilled with various arsenal, and fully equipped with custom-made gears. These are the kingdom's finest warriors. A single of them can defeat ten lower-ranking knights."

The paragraph hints the player to not fuck with the knights.

TenOuttaTen

Dang, I wish I could make one of these...

Sorry, breezy.  I totally forgot to mention your new article.  until now.

Breezy put together a terrific article for new members.

There's a lot of articles in help & info, and it can be a bit overwhelming for new members to try & read them all.  Breezy aggregated the most pertinent ones & put "all the things we'd really like new people to know" together in one place.

Ohh, neat. Nice, little collection of key articles. Good idea, Breezy.