Player Comments on Harry Potter: Sorting Hat Quiz

Okay, so a surprising number of people seem to have missed the point of this storygame, and those that did get the point don't seem to like it very much, overall. However, I quite like this - or, at least, the concept. Meta stuff like this is my favourite kind of storytelling, when done correctly. I absolutely love codes, so the morse bit was fun (I used to know morse code, but it's been ages so I had to translate it with a website).

The "join in" bit, plus the weird questions, were fun too. They gave you some insight into the events surrounding this missing girl, and get you wondering what could have happened. I was honestly intrigued at this point. The "look behind you" bit was quite cliche though, but I was willing to look past it (no pun intended?).

And then the game just ended. Like that. Pick a house, and then you're done. Again, I understand the intention behind this, that the narrator (who is also the dead girl? I think?) didn't care about the quiz and just wanted to suck out my soul or something, but it's a bit sudden and a bit anticlimactic. I think it would've been awesome if you explored the glitchy and creepy stuff more beyond this point.

Also, the long build-up is a bit tiring. I get that you wanted to disguise this storygame as an inconspicuous quiz, but as you can see, it's left a lot of people confused and unsatisfied. Honestly, I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same way, especially since the creepy stuff came absolutely from out of left field.

Overall, I think this was a very cool idea and had some interesting and intriguing aspects, but it was cut short too quickly and wasn't executed as well as it could have been. Don't let this discourage you though; for a first storygame this is pretty unique, novel, and enjoyable. I look forward to reading your future stuff!

This game will almost certainly be unpublished, so I'll try to get this review in quick.

What you're clearly trying to do here is write a surreal horror game disguised as a Harry Potter house quiz. This is a decent idea, disguising the game as a stereotypically awful Harry Potter house quiz, complete with the classically cliche kind/brave/clever/etc. opening question, distracts the reader from what's going on, and makes the surreal elements, when they appear, less obvious.

Unfortunately, I don't think you pulled it off. The start of the quiz is lackluster enough that by the time the reader gets to the surreal parts they do not have faith in the game's author, and it's much easier to believe these aspects are simply coding issues and bugs.

Recommendations:
1) Reconsider your choice to disguise this as a Harry Potter house quiz. Harry Potter house quizzes on this site are famously bad and low-effort games, and it will prejudice readers against your game. That said, due to this, I came in expecting a lackluster simplistic game and was pleasantly surprised with what I found, so it may work in your favor.

2) Put some more effort into the surreal elements. You'll want to make them more obvious as the game goes on, eventually becoming unignorable. Right now, it's possible to get through the quiz without picking up on it.

3) Make the quiz give an actual result. The lazy "choose your house" end does the game no favors. Either code in an actual quiz system and give the player a result, or end the game with a complete devolution into the game's surreal elements.

4) Read Kelly Unicornstrider and Friends by Gower, featured in the puzzle/games section. It's a brilliantly done game similar to what you're trying to do, and you may benefit from seeing how another author has approached this concept.

This is a game that doesn't precisely know what genre it wants to be, not in a cool hybrid or experimental way, but it honestly doesn't know.

I can see that the goal here was to write a quiz that bends genre to become spooky in a few moments, and to forge a sort of creepy connection between writer and quiztaker with the "looking behind you" bit and the moments of code. Similarly, the way the quiz sort of "forgets" that the goal is to be a sorting hat and the reader has to take the initiative to pick their house--that is all potentially cool and creepy, and of course anyone who attempts to write a quiz that secretly contains elements of horror has a touch of genius in them. That's for sure.

However--this is the thing--the writing here is not sharp enough to sustain that, and there's no attempt to forge any writerly relationship with the reader, or create any kind of metastory. So what happens is that the quiz just looks ineptly done rather than a mis-shapen quiz for story purposes. And I know the *whole* was that it was a crappy quiz for interesting subversive reasons, but if I can't tell the difference between a crappy quiz and a subversive crappy quiz, then what you've got at the end of the day is a crappy quiz, if you see what I mean.

But look, this is not good, but I'm impressed that you managed to think outside the usual quiz structure and grope towards a creative busting out of the usual storygame format. Do that more. You've got something writerly to offer, so don't get discouraged. Write something with more real choices and work on your writing style. Remember that the first million words are just for practice.

spooky. i got hufflepuff

I got hufflepuff, not what I expected but it was different questions then normal ones you find online, so it felt new and nice to play.

It was also fairly easy and simple to follow along, and a bit odd when the I want to say error section popped up. I wasn't at all expecting that. Overall it was nice and enjoyable.

.... .- .--. .--. -.-- / -.. . .- - .... --..-- / .... .- .--. .--. -.-- / -.-. .-. -.-- --..-- / .... .- .--. .--. -.-- / .-.. .. . .-.-.-

This was pretty fun and confusing! At one point, I nearly thought that I was being hacked, and at another, I was really scared to look behind me. I LOVE THIS!!!

Interesting subversion of expectation and clever use of html and embeds to do things that are very uncommon in the storygames I have played here. I agree with Gower's assessment of the issues with this story, and would be very interested in exploring it more if it were reworked somewhat.

I noticed a problem with the religion question. It says ‘Mormon’ but we actually prefer the term, ‘Member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint’. :)

Not what I expected that's for sure

Boring,the "spooky horror" didn't work at all.

I liked this game. While it's not a Choose Your Own Adventure as such, it was interesting, and I enjoyed the mind games it tried to play with the player.

...it ok

I have been trying to answer in a hufflepuff manner the whole time =)

Tasty

I actually really enjoyed the game, but that's because I was aware of what it was. Like others have said, if I didn't know what it was trying to do, I would have thought it was just a broken quiz.
Also the creepy sounds didn't autoplay for me so that also kinda ruined the feeling.
Overall I'd love it if it was polished up. I'm a sucker for the "changes genres midway through" trope.

I feel like there's now a 14 year old girl hunting me down to kill me via my chosen execution method, which was "other".

amazing game but werid

Uh, I'm playing a simulation where i see what Harry Potter house i'm in, not feeling like i'm about to get jumped by a 14 year-old girl from Wisconsin.

But in all honesty this was great, I'd recommend someone this.

I made it a 1 because I thought it was gonna be Harry Potter but then it took a dark turn. At the time of my writing this I am still spooked by it. It's really good. Try it!

I enjoyed it. I liked the use of multimedia and creativity. You should probably have told people to play this game with audio on though (it's easy to play without sound and miss the fun), and made the horror elements more sustained, i.e., the rest of the questions could have been horror instead of them continuing to be interspersed between decoy questions. Looking forward to seeing further works from you!

Edit: I totally missed the point.

I’m so used to spam from games like this I ignored the Morse code bit. Yes.

Alright, I get it now. For that horror piece I suggested, maybe expand on this. Less subtly. Yes, I’m an idiot. Thanks for that.

Maybe I’ll be a little more open minded in the future.

Well.
In theory, this game is… usual. Honestly, I’ve played more sorting hat quizzes than I feel comfortable admitting. This is not like those.

It starts off normal, but you obviously didn’t want to create just another “which one of these words describes you” test, which is admirable in a way. The digressions and little jokes are appreciated at times, but I believe that you took it too far. Some of the questions were completely unrelated, and I challenge you to… not do that. Not for six solid pages.

Stay on task. If you wish to be creative and make the reader laugh, smile, feel slightly creeped out, any of that, consider creating a story game! Not a quiz.

Also, the reader chooses their house in the end.

No.

Overall, you show some potential as an author. I almost want to see you write a horror story.

I actually really enjoyed this. I guess it's not for some people but I was pleasantly surprised.

Any hufflepuffs tryin 2 fuck?

602-242-7398

I don't care about the quiz itself so much as the Sorting Hat itself. I mean, what's the point of segregating the student body if it only serves to stereotype its constituents? If Gryffindors are more outspoken than Ravenclaws, wouldn't it stand that their achievements are noticed more often because of that outspokenness? Likewise, if a well-rounded student gets sorted into Ravenclaw, are they doomed to a life of academia and nothing else? And why are Slytherins, which are proven to be filled with higher-risk students, aggregated together to let the worst of their tendencies fester? And what the HELL is a Hufflepuff? Are the noble lifestyles of healthcare workers, foresters, and farmers to be relegated to some feckless, nondescript creature of little import in this day in age?

Sometimes, I wonder if it's because of Rowling's writings that god-awful series like Divergent and the Hunger Games are made -- emphasizing conformism in an unbelievable, unmanageable context that fails to fit in any child's suspension of disbelief.

I know that it's supposed to be a children's novel series, much in the same way C.S. Lewis's Narnia series is or even Le Guin's Earthsea series is. But those series are written to touch upon the importance of certain qualities, or to dissuade segregation and stereotypical thoughts and understand different cultures as part of their wholes. And they are written from the ground up to suit that purpose. The fact that Harry Potter as a series did not care to explore those systemic, fundamental issues beyond the scope of good/evil is reflective of the author's unwillingness to explore those themes to the true potential that they could be explored; that's a true disservice to young readers.

Nicely made quiz if this was your first attempt at embedding audio into written media, but certainly not a story with choice. I would love to see you implement something similar in any future stories you write! 2/8.

There's a fucking noise in the middle fuck off

This was a good quick read. I really liked the horror-adjacent nature, because it slightly reminds me of a creepypasta or a couple of other games on this site.

But since this is not an actual functioning quiz anf you can just choose which house you get to be in at the end, I cannot give this one anything higher than a 6/8.

I am looking forward to seeing what you will output next.

You just let the player choose a house at the end? Doesn’t that defeat the whole purpose of a quiz?

Also, why do I have to choose ‘join in’ on question 14? And why is there a random page of HTML followed by one of Morse code in the middle of the quiz?

1/8.

Wow, I must say that I was wrong about this going into it and even leaving it initially. I say that this is the sort of the quiz that maybe can't be overlooked by a Harry Potter fan. You really find yourself asking questions at the end of it. But at the end, you really do find out which house fits you more, I think.

I think this is a concept that might have some wheels on it. The use of sound and such is something that I can't say I have experienced on this site. I might be wrong, but it's quite rare. I'm unsure how you pulled it off, but I find myself rating this higher now.

Not the biggest fan of Harry Potter, but I think one doesn't have to be a fan to enjoy this quiz. However if one is a fan that might get a huge boost in their enjoyment of this quiz.

well...

I think I know what you tried to do there. It was amusing. I was completely expecting a harry potter quiz. I'm kinda glad that's not what this was.

The writing was good. I don't know how you added sound to that one page, but that was great. You got a laugh out of me, though I suspect I was supposed to be creeped out.

8/10 I saw that some don't believe this will be on here long. I did enjoy it and think the idea can be improved upon.

*cracks knuckles*, I see that this is your Harry Potter sorting quiz that you have mentioned in the forum, how interesting. Well, let's get to the critique. This time I have bothered to split it in parts! :)

WHY?
Yeah, why? There are hundreds of quizzes, there's even one official quiz in the Pottermore website that do this sorting hat stuff. Honestly, you can write what you want, but why the hell would you choose such a downthrodden path where many smelly feet have walked upon? Although there are many quizzes in the archives, this site is first and foremost a storygame site, but oh well.

TECHHNICAL ISSUES
Lots of bad link placement, I recall the links in question 13 are not doing the thing they are supposed to do. Was this on purpose or something. Well, if it was, I cannot really see a greater narrative purpose in it besides bad quiz design.

NONSENSICAL QUESTIONS
Why does it matter if someone is Muslim, Christian or Atheist when they go through the sorting hat? It seems so out of place. Well, perhaps it will fit right into J.K.Rowlings mindset with her naming her non existent Jewish character Anthony Goldstein like any writer of the 19th century would do. There are many other weird questions like this sprinkled throughout the quiz, but I think this is the worst example.

BORING QUESTIONS
As much as I would think that such a quiz would lack any more inspiration, the quiz had the nerve to make me answer the most dull and redundant questions I've come across in quizmaking. Being someone who had read all the books when I was little, I rolled my eyes whenever I had to pick ONE personality trait that fits me the best and my "hogwarts pet". Everything feels just a little uninspired.

CONCLUSION
I hate to say this, but please, just make a Harry Potter fanfic instead, or better yet, write an original story picking the elements of J.K.Rowling's flaming pile of nostalgia garbage and making something brand new!

Well, looking back at all your predecessors, I will predict that this story will be probably be unpublished. Roll with it if it happens and try writing something with more thought put into it next time. Please don't yell at anyone in the forum, okay? Well, good luck!

This game was alright, taking me back to when I used to play quizzes like this nonstop until I got the house I want.
There are a few bugs, however, that I would like to point out.
In question 14, the question about kids torturing a dog, I found that the only choice I could actually pick was "Join in." If I tried to select anything else, it would refresh to the same screen and make the choice unclickable.
There's also a page (Which was most likely supposed to be question 18), where it is just entirely just code. Not to mention the page with just Morse code on it.
Overall, I don't think there's much to say about the overall game. It's just a quiz. The only thing is that it seems that no matter what, you'll just get the house you wanted anyway. Which sort of defeats the whole purpose of the quiz.

I'm in Slytherin!

I thought this quiz was entertaining, even if it wasn’t really a quiz. This is new to me, this hasn’t really been done before. Be sure to expect a LOT of criticism about how “it isn’t a quiz” and “I hate this, this is horrible”.

Grammar:
Very good, no mistakes that I found. This is very rare for me, but I've only been on here for less than two months, so what can I say?

Plot:
It’s a quiz, not sure why I included this. But still, have some thick skin for the scathing criticism that will be tossed your way.

All in all, this is entertaining. You are breaking new ground, being a pioneer of CYS. I don’t know, if you extend it it may even catch the eyes of the admins! A good 6/8.