This Is Not A Storygame

Hmm interesting. This is, of course, not a story game. In face, when I was picking a rating I was half convinced it was a choice you set up to look like the rating page—that would be interesting. I’m not sure if you can exactly recreate it, but it would be funny to leave commentary on even the rating someone chooses for you by having a false rating page…

Anyway some tips and thoughts on the story are here. A lot of spoilers, although there isn’t much mystery here:

I actually like this premise. It’s a really cool meta idea with the false end game links. We are so used to that actually ending the game that seeing it continue afterwards really was interesting just as a concept. I think there is more that can be done with this, perhaps in an actual story game.

Not to be too obvious… but there was no branching and it was very linear. You could make one choice and see one different page (A or B). This was the whole point and this read like a rant about hating choose your own adventure stories… which is an interesting opinion for this website for obvious reasons.

The writing was solid enough. Some repetitiveness, but no glaring issues that make it hard to read. I’d say the grammar was pretty good in that respect. It’s been awhile but I didn’t notice any mistakes. I also don’t recall the grammar really changing the experience in a positive way: it was simply fine.

Actually, I thought some of the little stories were interesting enough. Almost like you could have made a game where you chose what story to continue reading or could skip to the next story if uninterested… of course, none of the stories were there to be continued… just to be a part of this rant.

Now to respond to your opinions, I think the choices matter. Even if you are traveling a preset path, you still get to choose more than you do in a linear story! It makes things fun and interesting and provides more content because you can explore alternate paths. A normal book doesn’t even give the illusion of choice, so a choose your own adventure can feel empowering. I also like to imagine different scenarios anyway and this gives multiple built in! I don’t care that a river is preset because I’m not trying to dig a trench and make my own canal… I’m trying to relax and canoe on a preexisting river. This is what reading a choose your own adventure story is to me.

As a writer it really helps improve you because the world building has to be solid to write several paths that are logical and follow the same plot and timeline while making sense. That’s why I like writing them. You really have to know characters well to think about how they will react to two different choices that could be made… rather than a linear story where you only have to solve one of those decisions. The other choices simply fade into the on-site and you can write the one path that comes naturally to you as an author. When you have to write two choices usually (for me anyway) one path is easy and the other requires a lot of thought. For me, this is interesting and really improved my world building, character building, and writing in general.

We know that we can’t make ANY choice in one of these games… but that’s what the real world is for. We also can’t fly, travel through space, speak with elves or dwarfs pr do any of that. What we can do is enjoy the path we are on and let the author take us down one leg of the river… if we like it we can go back and try another. If not, we can find a different river. Either way, this is about having fun and providing feedback. You should try it! Honestly you seem to be a good writer who hates choose your adventure stories… not sure why but maybe something here will change your mind

-Read a story

-Close the browser in rage because someone disagreed with me

This was unique and I appreciate the effort to get people thinking about these things, but, you're right, it is definitely not a storygame lol. Given that and the length, I think a 4/8 is really about the limit even though I enjoyed reading this whatever it is.

All the claims about choice were made in such a way as to make people want to refute them, so, I'll bite:

Whether we're limiting this just to writing, or some greater implied philosophical question, whether there's a "real" choice or not may be besides the point, as long as the individuals experiencing it all still have felt like a part of something special that matters to them.


And of course the cynicism present in the narrative voice here is just not a factor with a creator putting a true labor of love on display. That's more of an excited, "hey guys, check out this cool thing I just made!" kind of feeling, for something you've handcrafted for someone to else to explore in hopes that they'll love it the way you love it and find something meaningful in the experience you spread out for them. You as the author are a home cook serving a meal to your guests, or a parent building a playhouse for your child.

I'd also point out that everyone DOESN'T experience the things you've written exactly the same. The words are the seeds of the images that spring up in their mind, and everyone gets something different out of the experience and puts some different emphasis on one part or another. Ask anyone to give their thoughts on a book, movie, anything--and unless they've already gone and internalized analysis from somewhere else, they'll all have something different to say about what the experience was, and how.

The author cannot control a reader's feelings or reactions, they're trying as hard as they can to communicate how they themselves feel--distilling complex thoughts to words or images is a pretty intimate and personal act, there's just nothing else like it for transporting an image that's in your mind to someone else's. And there's nothing certain about the results there, it's not a science; that's why the products of these attempts are usually categorized as *arts*.

A “storygame” reflecting on the nature of choice itself has its place, but authors of course want to have readers reflecting on those sorts of questions along with an “actual storygame.” I was bound to click the end link, but I also thought of another way to break the meta-narrative.

I clicked “Quit” and it got me out of the game without relying on the “End Game and Leave Comments.” It made me reflect on a sort of parallel between what I had done and someone committing suicide. The idea of suicide is to make a choice in the face of hopeless linearity by recklessly ending your “experience” in the story, or lack thereof. If you decide to end the experience before it ends properly, you’ll miss out on some wonderful moments you might otherwise enjoy. You may not see life rich with bounty in the moment, but be patient and it will arrive in God’s perfect timing. The pain you face in the moment will not compare to the joy you’ll have later.

One could say that playing this game made me think of suicide. Well…

funny

An entertaining diversionary exercise with a poem and everything!

GREAT STORY! LOVE IT! AWESOME!!!!

This was most certainly different, though I'm not sure what to make of it; though it seems as if that was the point. It was quite interesting that there was a choice after all. Although the author seemed to use this to illustrate his point of a lack of choices. I enjoyed it and found it interesting.

Usually whenever I review storygames I try to look at them objectively, but This Is Not A Storygame so This Is Not A Review.

This is not a review so I won’t be commenting on the solid quality of prose and lack of general SPAG errors.

Because this is not a review I don’t have to worry about spoiling things, but that’s not a problem because there is not much to spoil as the game is essentially a collection of loosely connected pages that are meant to make the reader question the idea of choice in interactive fiction games. If this was a review I’d mention how the questions and analogies used to present those questions are interesting to read, but it’s not a review so I won’t do that.

What I will however do, is make my own choice in responding to the author with my own two cents in the matter, and those two cents are that as someone who likes philosophy I had plenty of fun pondering the dilemmas presented by his work, and that alone made it worth reading through the 2000 or so words I’ve been presented with.

Have those words shattered my view on choice and the illusion of it in stories? Not particularly, but I find it quite important to occasionally have those views challenged or at least questioned as a way to ensure they don’t become stale and eventually rot away like all unmaintained things tend to do.

Can I invariably recommend This Is Not A Storygame to anyone? Most likely I shouldn’t do that since those kinds of experimental projects tend to be very hit or miss depending on way too many factors. Multiple of which aren’t even relevant to, or required by most typical storygames, which is why I'm really glad that This Is Not A Review and I don’t have to pick a side.

I do have a final score in my mind, but I don’t have to share it because this is not a review.

Interesting reflection on the nature of choice. Though I feel I had a choice. I chose to read to the end.

This was really good and made me think. I'm glad I read it. But one question: Where does option A lead to? I'm gonna go find out!!!