Player Comments on This Is Not A Storygame

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*.

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!!!

Stories are about discovery - discovering an author's fictitious characters and recognising reflections of people you have known, or raising eyebrows at characters who don't act as you expected. Also a reader can discover a new country, a real or imagined one, even if a million people have read it before. It's new for me, and it changes me.
The author has given something of themselves to the reader.
A storygame isn't that much different from a linear novel. A well-written branched storygame says, '...and this is another idea I had... and this is a third way it could have turned out... and now I will punish you for choosing badly... and reward you for choosing well!'

An interesting meta approach to the concept of storygames and even choice. It is fairly well written with no major SPAG issues. It is certainly one of the more unique "storygames" I've read. It does go on longer than I would have expected, and perhaps the concept is better suited to a shorter presentation to emphasize this more.

Wellllllll, it's good ( I guess )

7/8- makes you think about the concepts of life, and the perspective of what is actually in our control (or not)

Actually hilarious.

fairly intresting.It honestly kept me entertained 6/8

It's not much but it's mildly entertaining in the meta way.

Not A Storygame I have Never played.

I love the exploration of free will in this meta sense. It may not be for everyone, but I certainly enjoy it.
Maybe I didn't enjoy it.
That thought in it of itself is entertainment for me.

This is a comment on your storygame.

But it may not be. Not really.

As authors, we have the absolute authority to determine what goes on in our worlds. We have all the power and we can write whatever we want.

But is that really true?

After all, only good stories are remembered. Therefore, everyone endeavors to write good stories. Though you control your own world, you took the time to make even this "storygame" enjoyable to read.

You care about what we think, and that in turn causes you to write your stories well. In other words, from the moment you put your fingers on your keyboard, you were already in our grasp.

It's not a fault really. I'm the same. Even as I type this comment, I wonder what you would think about it. It terrifies me that people would read it and think I was being overly pretentious. So terrified of this outcome was I, that I added this paragraph into my comment.

Against my own will.

Who knows? Perhaps when our universe collapses, the God who created us will hurriedly show his friends the piece that he created. Perhaps they will praise him for a job well done. Perhaps they will rebuke him for his errors. Perhaps all our joys and sorrows, our hopes and dreams, were always handcrafted for their entertainment. Perhaps, our "control" was always an illusion.

...

I don't really like self-aware characters in stories.

I'm curious about what made you write this. As a writer you'd hardly be jabbing at people for reading your game, so is it meant to vent your own frustration at feeling your choices are restricted when reading others?

Is it pondering existence and free will by comparing it to interactive fiction? I hope so, that's a little more exciting.

This was an interesting thought exercise, the negative tone combined with it not really GOING anywhere was a little annoying although I realize that was intentional.

And the point of it all seemed to be refusing to lead to a point so that the reader has to supply one.

There are much worse ways to use your time than either writing or reading this, I'm still just wondering what made you decide to do this. If you ever really had a choice at all.

This was an entertaining and informative meta-textual commentary on the philosophy behind storygames. I wish it were longer.