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Opinion Poll:  As a reader, do you prefer a lengthy story or something broken into smaller pieces?

Would you rather read something that comes out with a new chapter once a week, or wait for the author to be done with the entire thing before you ever start?

There might be nothing that bothers me more than an author who ends a length 6 or less storygame with 'to be continued'. I see it as a very lazy move and it clogs the site up.

I don't mind a series so long as it's good... But it's better in most cases to just have one big story.

Personally, I hate shorter stories and rate them lower for it. Then I take off at least another point for "to be continued"... :P

Full-story would be preferred.

I don't think I'd trust any author to be able to put out a decent chapter each week haha.

Eh, I like books/stories that are in series to be able to be stand-alone, or at least have a definite end (with some answers unanswered I guess, to lead in the sequel).

Either way, it has to be long enough and 'to be continued' is annoying as well, so as I noted above- it needs an ending. Otherwise, one long-ass story all the way.

As for one chapter a week... Nah, unless each chapter is super suspenseful. Webcomics certainly benefit from that, somewhat (IMO).

I've once written a series of stories. I made them all one book because none of them were incredibly good.

Then I trashed the book because the whole thing was bad anyway.

Definitely better to have one long story than a bunch of short ones. Of course, if it's a bunch of long stories where every chapter is long enough to be considered a decent story game by itself, that's fine. Homo Perfectus is a good example of a series that works, because while they're all different parts of the same story, they work as individual stories too.

Well, if you'll indulge me, I'll give what I'm doing as an example: I've written a full, stand alone story (A Game of Life and Death) which does not really need a sequel. Sure, some parts are ambiguous enough for speculation, but it is complete.

I am also writing a "companion story" (Devil's Chess) which is in the same universe and about the same characters, so it's part of a series, but though I will encourage players to play GOLAD first, Devil's Chess will be a complete piece, also able to stand on its own. It will have a full plot, its own pathways, its own time-line, view-point, and its own conclusions--while still being thoroughly connected to the other game.

However, GOLAD is over 1000 pages long. Devil's Chess will probably be decently sized, too. So, really, I'm not shortening one big story, I am -adding- a separate, whole dimension.

If each "chapter" as you put it were its own game, it might work. If it's just fragments of a story, it sounds like a bad idea.

One big whole story, unless the chapter is like 200-300  pages.