Player Comments on WWI Pliot

Nah, I won't be nice with my ratings, but I'll go nice with the review instead.

The main problem these WW1/ww2 storygames have is not even the lack of research (I'm not an expert, but the info seems allright), it's the way how it's delivered, very dryly, like a history textbook or some rambles from a Paradox gamer.

You really need to treat it as any regular kind of story. Give the pilot stakes, character motivations, loved ones, the whole package. The reason why fighter pilots in this era are interesting is that it was the one of the few branches in the army that still retained a sense of pre great war heroism amongst their ranks, which was juxtaposed with the high mortality rate. Think of the zeitgeist of this era. It would make a great character arc to have the main character struggle with these two things.

Plus, you could have leaned in on the fact that you played as a GERMAN soldier. No mentions of burning nationalism and such? I also find it very funny that the ending was so triumphant about your survival considering what happens afterwards with Germany losing and lots of veterans being listless and hopeless. I wished that you delved a little more into the aftermath.

Tldr: it's not only about the dogfights, it's about the people inside the airplanes. You got down your research, now you just have to humanize this conflict.

I would have given this a three for at least having a solid plot and choices, but both your personality and your description pissed me off and therefore you get a one.

I had mainly clicked this to tsk at the author for "Pliot", because not getting as far as proofreading your title has to be done kind of minor achievement. But this is a decent little historical/educational game and first effort.

It really could've been fleshed out more as being a WWI Pliot surely was a thrilling and often frightening experience, and the writing here is pretty sparse on details. Maybe a section about training would've been interesting too, you could've introduced other historical pilots that way, and I'm sure it would give the main character a bit more personality to focus on how it felt to be trained for the first use of flying machines in warfare, and the dangers they knew they would face.

I'm also not sure what the point was of having the player click on Germany like they're making a choice, but then having that be the only option.