Juno Beach

I really hate to be a party-pooper, especially since Will is very excited about a new historical game. Unfortunately I strongly believe this story is AI generated, or at least mostly written with AI. Before you continue reading this review, please do not take this as definitive evidence against the author, as I am only going based off prior experience in being subjected to AI-generated creative writing.

That is unfortunate, since I haven't read too many phenomenal WWII stories on CYS. The branching was really solid, and I would've thought this would be a fun story to tell with the way it was organized. This would've been a nice addition in theory, but the red flags I caught throughout are too glaring for me to ignore.

Last year I wrote a CYS article about the Three Tenets of AI Writing, so I'll try to apply that article here to justify my take.

1. NONDESCRIPT DESCRIPTIONS. You can see this as early as the first paragraph. "Dozens of men crowd shoulder-to-shoulder beside you — young Canadians from the 3rd Infantry Division, all clutching rifles, gear, and thoughts they’ll never admit aloud." The prose sounds interesting at first, but as you advance through the story, you start to realize that some of these lines just don't contribute much to your understanding of what's going on. What thoughts will they never admit aloud? What interactions between these young Canadian soldiers can suggest that? We *know* that war is brutal and terrifying, but I want to *feel* it too. AI does not have an answer for this, among many other questions asked.

2. STERILE STYLE. Aside from maybe one or two inconsistencies in spelling (metre vs. meter, defense vs. defence), there are absolutely zero SPAG errors to be found. Obviously this alone is not a sure-fire indicator of AI usage (you could just be a very thorough proofreader), but I'm writing this with the notion in mind that there is some AI usage involved already, and this is just a cherry on top. Aside from SPAG, the pacing is perfectly stagnant throughout the story. Again, this is not a smoking barrel on its own, but AI has a tendency to trim out all fat in order to produce these "perfect" paragraphs. Our protagonist is simply going through the motions.

3. CIRCULAR WRITING. Per my article, "because it's [the AI agent] so focused on the prompt, the rest of the work will seem decidedly off, resorting to logical confusions, phrases of speech that don't make sense, and an unclear sense of direction." There were a considerable amount of these logical errors in one specific branch of the story (the longest one), where the sergeant began taking orders from the protagonist, a lower-ranked soldier. Maybe this was just a poor direction chosen by the author themself, but I wouldn't be surprised if (in the case of AI usage) the agent just completely forewent the concept of military chain of command in lieu of a more interesting scene and having more impactful choices, especially since the story revolves around the action of a military operation rather than the protagonist's emotional reactions to it and his existing relationships with his comrades.

This is the greater piece of evidence though - I "cheated" a bit in my AI analysis. I had ChatGPT try to replicate this story, at the very least its own interpretation of the first page and the starting choices. What it spat out unfortunately confirmed my suspicions that AI played a major role in writing this story (as in, doing 99% of the work). Not only did it generate a first page with an eerily similar start and tone/prose, one of the lines matched up with a line in Juno Beach nearly precisely:

The officer shouts over the noise:
“Two minutes!”

Compared with the first page excerpt:
Your officer shouts over the noise:
“Remember your training! When that ramp drops, move!”

The three choices that ChatGPT gave me to work with were: charge straight off the ramp before the machine gunners adjust their fire, jump off the ship and drop into the water, or turn toward the wounded soldier in the water and try to pull him to safety. Though the exact order of the choices are different in this story, these three early-on decisions are present in both iterations.

So yeah, all in all, I don't really think this is a legitimate story. I would feel bad for the author if that is not the case and I'm just spewing completely unfounded bullshit right now, but I don't really care because the author wrote this in 4 days and hasn't been active at all on CYS since (another red flag).

I do *hope* that this is just someone who really, really happens to write exactly like AI models do and this was just an unfortunate mixup. I don't think that's the case though.

Sorry Will.

Anyways shameless plug for my article if you wanted to learn my thought process: https://chooseyourstory.com/help/articles/article.aspx?ArticleId=4387

Good, History 😊 Having been to Juno Beach (and the other Normandy beaches) and seen the Canadian cemetery at Beny-sur-Mer I was interested in seeing how this one played out (using cys to make educational materials is also a really good idea when done correctly). The short, sharp sentences are good and the battlefield scene on the beach is very realistic. The story accurately reminds us that survival was more a matter of luck than it was making good decisions.

I think focusing solely on the action rather than any other complicating plot points (like other characters) was a good call and keeps the story fast-paced and interesting. The showdown with the young German soldier is an interesting moment and the writer guides us through what they consider the correct choices rather than what might actually be the most logical choice (if I were a soldier I would imagine shooting every possible threat would make my survival more likely than trying negotiation with armed enemy soldiers as a tactic – also, I’m fairly sure most of the Allied soldiers landing in D-Day were not very interested in taking prisoners after enduring the slaughter of their comrades on the beaches).

I like your summary of the historical results and feel this is a good way to write war stories. There is so much room for expansion of this of course: you could offer the reader the options to experience the landings on the other beaches, from the relatively easy landing on Utah to the bloodbath of Omaha, and also extend the story to include the whole Normandy campaign or other theatres of World War II (though this would be more complicated and require more characters).

Overall, I think this was just the right length for what it covered, well written without errors and described with great detail and accuracy. You could dive slightly more into the sensations and feelings (the cold seawater floods your body and makes you gasp, you grip your rifle so tightly your knuckles hurt, etc) but overall, I think this was very well-written and a great educational resource. I’ll give this 5/8 just because of its limited length and scope but would definitely encourage the author to write more, perhaps even dealing with other historical conflicts such as the Battle of the Somme in World War 1 (which also involved Canadian soldiers).

Unpublishing this for now because it does appear to utilize AI. Hadn't really looked at it before Mousecore brought it to our attention but even the description does kind of have that cadence. The author is always free to argue otherwise if they ever bother to log in again.

It shouldn't be so funny to me that the game didn't explain at all what a "hedgehog" means here before I'm just throwing myself down beside one that I see nearby. Asking it what it's doing here while I try to hide behind it, maybe I'll feed it some mealworms or crickets to make it bigger, who knows.

Decently written, but it in places felt like one of those Bitesize edutainment games where it drops random facts that interrupt whatever it is you're doing in the game, rather than a story aimed to educate in an entertaining manner. Some choices stick out as odd. The sergeant of the unit relying upon a random soldier to make decisions doesn't really make sense, as another user has already pointed out. Another one is the option to run out of the crater to get ammo off the dead German soldier. What would be the point of running for ammo/magazines that you can't use?

My favourite line is probably 'You should've zagged.' Lol.

I do feel that I learned something from this game, so it accomplishes that at least. The action was engaging and it portrays the grim reality of D-Day well. 5/8.

i'll admit that i hate history media most of the time. i've just never found it interesting. but this was great, i found it easy to follow and very immersive. great read.

Great game

A pretty good story. Juno is probably the beach I know the least about during the Normandy landings.
I liked the diverse amount of options you could choose from. The author did their best to try and make the reader feel like they were actually there. I kept dying the first few times, but eventually I managed to finish. As a history nerd, I would recommended this to all other history nerds.

I love story do more like this

The writing was decent. Some decisions didn’t have much in the way of clues as to what the correct choice would be, though, making those outcomes feel a bit random. I was also doubtful that the sergeant would have let a regular soldier like me make those tactical decisions.