Recommending Story-first games

[Pixillin']

If anyone ever hears of a Sherlock Holmes trope game being planned (Not necessarily Holmes but a Holmes/Watson type setup in any era - I have a character who should really come to life, someone best suited to an AVN, but I'm not a Dev and don't have time for another hobby/side project for the forseeable. She's not an MC, or a Li (she'd consider wife a demotion), and not even a side girl, really.

 

[Pgsurprise]

If anyone ever hears of a Sherlock Holmes trope game being planned (Not necessarily Holmes but a Holmes/Watson type setup in any era - I have a character who should really come to life, someone best suited to an AVN, but I'm not a Dev and don't have time for another hobby/side project for the forseeable. She's not an MC, or a Li (she'd consider wife a demotion), and not even a side girl, really.

Mariarity?

 

[Pixillin']

Mariarity?

Lol .. no

 

[Vasin]

I played Sort of Justice and I have some notes.

Getting the positives out of the way - I greatly enjoyed the story overall, it clearly has an intent behind it and being a kinetic novel I have high hopes that the author can stick to his direction without getting bogged down in a mire of branch creep. I also loved one thing I rarely see in avns - more subtle faction expressions that made characters that much more believable to me.

Onto more neutral things - Visual direction, while having an occasional stroke of genius is mostly just fine, and the soundtrack is... there. It's not bad or getting in the way, but it's nothing to write home about.

Now onto things that somewhat bothered me.

Starting with the pettiest one - the protagonist's model - I'm not sure whether it's the haircut, the model, or the way clothing sits on it, but it looks like a bunch of toddler dolls stacked on top of each other wearing a jacket. Every time there was a frame with him I had to suppress laughter. Why couldn't Pedro be the MC? Oh, right, he's dead. #JusticeForPedro

The plot set up doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, does it? You're a random intern drone that gets set up with this elaborate scheme that for some reason hinges on the perpetrator *personally* begging you to be the scapegoat and you accepting, the whole investigation lasting a grand total of 5 minutes and the most incredible at all - you being sent to a fucking gladiatorial arena for *financial fraud*. I was kind of over it and just went "yeah sure, whatever mate, let's get on with the actual story". I feel like it could have been expanded into an actual episode and not read like a caricature but the author just wanted to get it the fuck out of the way to jump into the meat and potatoes.

And now for the most controversial thing - there are too many women. Now, now, put down the pitchforks, I understand why Sam and Malena have to be women, it's the kind of game that it is, all that jazz. But they didn't read as women to me. I would be much more on board with the type of story where both of them are gender swapped. It would make the parental dynamic between the gun runner and that young chick whose name I'm blanking on feel more impactful for me. And don't get me started on that fight scene with Sam and Pedro (#JusticeForPedro). I guess it's just my girlboss fatigue seeping into all forms of fiction.

It does seem to go more in the direction of later instalments of John Wick and with this talk of harem I'm somewhat sceptical of where it might end up but so far it's well worth keeping on your radar.

 

[boobsrcool]

I played Sort of Justice and I have some notes.

Getting the positives out of the way - I greatly enjoyed the story overall, it clearly has an intent behind it and being a kinetic novel I have high hopes that the author can stick to his direction without getting bogged down in a mire of branch creep. I also loved one thing I rarely see in avns - more subtle faction expressions that made characters that much more believable to me.

Onto more neutral things - Visual direction, while having an occasional stroke of genius is mostly just fine, and the soundtrack is... there. It's not bad or getting in the way, but it's nothing to write home about.

Now onto things that somewhat bothered me.

Starting with the pettiest one - the protagonist's model - I'm not sure whether it's the haircut, the model, or the way clothing sits on it, but it looks like a bunch of toddler dolls stacked on top of each other wearing a jacket. Every time there was a frame with him I had to suppress laughter. Why couldn't Pedro be the MC? Oh, right, he's dead. #JusticeForPedro

The plot set up doesn't really make a whole lot of sense, does it? You're a random intern drone that gets set up with this elaborate scheme that for some reason hinges on the perpetrator *personally* begging you to be the scapegoat and you accepting, the whole investigation lasting a grand total of 5 minutes and the most incredible at all - you being sent to a fucking gladiatorial arena for *financial fraud*. I was kind of over it and just went "yeah sure, whatever mate, let's get on with the actual story". I feel like it could have been expanded into an actual episode and not read like a caricature but the author just wanted to get it the fuck out of the way to jump into the meat and potatoes.

And now for the most controversial thing - there are too many women. Now, now, put down the pitchforks, I understand why Sam and Malena have to be women, it's the kind of game that it is, all that jazz. But they didn't read as women to me. I would be much more on board with the type of story where both of them are gender swapped. It would make the parental dynamic between the gun runner and that young chick whose name I'm blanking on feel more impactful for me. And don't get me started on that fight scene with Sam and Pedro (#JusticeForPedro). I guess it's just my girlboss fatigue seeping into all forms of fiction.

It does seem to go more in the direction of later instalments of John Wick and with this talk of harem I'm somewhat sceptical of where it might end up but so far it's well worth keeping on your radar.

About where I'd put it. I'd say it's a total mess that I'll keep playing as long as they keep making it

 

[Pixillin']

One thing about Story First games is that they, and their devs, are safe-ish for now because AI still sucks at storytelling. It's getting good at porn, and it's getting noticeably better faster than most games are updating. You can choose the girl, anime or photorealistic, and the scenario, and her voice, and play any scenario - and by changing a few lines of dialogue, you can dramatically change how the story unfolds. Almost infinite "paths" on the fly. Granted it's mostly still images, video is there but it can get expensive, but again - it's way ahead of where it was last year. What AI can not do, is tell a compelling story for very long. It's bad at predicting people's reactions, and it can't maintain continuity for very long. I suspect that it will put porn devs (and eventually a lot of porn actors) out of businesses, but good storytellers appear to be safe, for now.

 

[Tlaero]

Early on, everyone assumed that movies would put theater (plays) out of business. It didn't happen, and there are still plays today, from big Broadway productions to small "Shakespeare in the Park" style endeavors. But movies make a ton more money than plays, and many more people get their entertainment from movies than plays.

I'm guessing something similar will happen with AI and storytelling. I suspect the dominant form of storytelling in the future will be "AI, tell me a story about a bad ass but broken woman." But I also suspect that there will be a subset people who sometimes want stories written by real people.

Maybe when that happens, this thread will be our "Broadway."

Tlaero

 

[Lynava]

Early on, everyone assumed that movies would put theater (plays) out of business. It didn't happen, and there are still plays today, from big Broadway productions to small "Shakespeare in the Park" style endeavors. But movies make a ton more money than plays, and many more people get their entertainment from movies than plays.

I'm guessing something similar will happen with AI and storytelling. I suspect the dominant form of storytelling in the future will be "AI, tell me a story about a bad ass but broken woman." But I also suspect that there will be a subset people who sometimes want stories written by real people.

Maybe when that happens, this thread will be our "Broadway."

Tlaero

I'm more likely to think it'll be a tandem? For example, the writer might have a beginning and end to a chapter, and a thread connecting them, but no middle ground, and then AI would be used.
I don't think fully written stories by AI would take off.

 

[kotte]

Maybe when that happens, this thread will be our "Broadway."

Sitting around the campfire, telling stories about Tara and Keeley and Elsa and more.
About heroes and heroines that surprised us and and of storylines that only made sense to us.
Saying "We were there"...

 

[Pgsurprise]

Early on, everyone assumed that movies would put theater (plays) out of business. It didn't happen, and there are still plays today, from big Broadway productions to small "Shakespeare in the Park" style endeavors. But movies make a ton more money than plays, and many more people get their entertainment from movies than plays.

I'm guessing something similar will happen with AI and storytelling. I suspect the dominant form of storytelling in the future will be "AI, tell me a story about a bad ass but broken woman." But I also suspect that there will be a subset people who sometimes want stories written by real people.

Maybe when that happens, this thread will be our "Broadway."

Tlaero

I am not sure I think it'll be like that. I don't think I have what it would take to prompt an AI to generate an interesting story. I can see people with a talent for writing being able to use AI to write one. Like give details of characters, plot outlines, and then fine tune the story when it's done. Like there is a rapper who lost his voice that is using AI to continue to produce music in his own voice.

I hope they will fix the copyright issues so you can't prompt it with "write a story in the style of {insert favorite author}" before it gets good enough to really pull that off.

 

[Lynava]

I hope they will fix the copyright issues so you can't prompt it with "write a story in the style of {insert favorite author}" before it gets good enough to really pull that off.

The number of avn according to "LOTR" after this will grow

 

[Rhinoisliquidjuice448]

a Play adaptation of Life with keeley

 

[jufot]

Hmm, a play adaptation of Chasing Beth would work very well, actually!

• Small main cast - Joel/Serena, Beth/Emily, and Anton/Tatiana would be enough.
• Simple set - You only really need a single room. It would cover Serena and Beth's flats, plus TT's hotel room.
• Self-contained story - The game has pretty universal and appealing themes, and they don't depend on the Elsaverse. So you could cut everything about the other universe, Morland, and Chloe/Paul without diminishing the message.

What say you, Tlaero? Broadway isn't quite The West End, but I'm sure you could find a talented playwright or two

 

[Pixillin']

Early on, everyone assumed that movies would put theater (plays) out of business. It didn't happen, and there are still plays today, from big Broadway productions to small "Shakespeare in the Park" style endeavors. But movies make a ton more money than plays, and many more people get their entertainment from movies than plays.

I'm guessing something similar will happen with AI and storytelling. I suspect the dominant form of storytelling in the future will be "AI, tell me a story about a bad ass but broken woman." But I also suspect that there will be a subset people who sometimes want stories written by real people.

Maybe when that happens, this thread will be our "Broadway."

Tlaero

Who knows how it will play out. While what you say is true, there were also people who said "who wants talking in movies?" The real hurdle AI has to overcome is continuity. Right now, in an AI story, dead characters suddenly come back to life and jump into conversations, who the killer is changes during the trial etc - If it can ever sort that out, it's going to be hard to compete with because it will be able to create infinite stories tailored specifically to your tastes. Your favorite characters can get sequel after sequel almost instantaneously and anything you don't like will vanish from the story and be replaced by something you do and once you're happy with the story, you can ask for a movie version of the text. Right now it's also not great at understanding people - human reactions and emotions but I think that, as long as the characters act the way people want them to, that people will be ok with that. It's going to be a bumpy ride for creatives.

I hope they will fix the copyright issues so you can't prompt it with "write a story in the style of {insert favorite author}" before it gets good enough to really pull that off.

They'll never be able to fix that, that's not how copyright works. They can bar you from using specific characters, but artists have always mimicked each other and any wildly successful movie / tv show etc has always inspired copycats. You can copyright stories, and characters, and (fictional) settings but you can't copyright style.

 

[Tlaero]

Hmm, a play adaptation of Chasing Beth would work very well, actually!

...

What say you, Tlaero? Broadway isn't quite The West End, but I'm sure you could find a talented playwright or two

It's fun to think about. I'd love to see the choreography for the Tainted Arrow fight scene. But there's no way to pursue this without "outing" myself.

Tlaero

 

[Tlaero]

If it can ever sort that out, it's going to be hard to compete with because it will be able to create infinite stories tailored specifically to your tastes. Your favorite characters can get sequel after sequel almost instantaneously and anything you don't like will vanish from the story and be replaced by something you do

Yeah. It seems like, if pure AI storytelling ever works at all, it will be like that.

I think there's also an interesting societal effect to a future like that. We used to have a small number of sources of truth. But as information got "democratized" truth got fractured. There's both good and bad there, but we definitely lost something in the process.

We've been doing the same thing with entertainment. There used to be 3 TV channels, and you watched the latest episode of <insert popular show here> at the same time as everyone else. Then you'd talk about it with your coworkers the next day.

Similarly, there weren't too many publishers, so there were a relatively small number of novels released, and reading the next big release by <insult big name author here> became a shared national event.

Now there are so many avenues to get your story out that the number of them has ballooned up to the point that you can't really assume that anyone has read the same story as you have. At least you can make suggestions and have people follow them, though.

I'm not trying to paint this as a bad thing. I've personally benefited greatly from it. But again we as a society have definitely lost something in the process.

AI will take it farther. It telling you personal stories geared precisely to your tastes will mean that no one will ever experience the entertainment that you do. We'll likely become even more fractured as a society than we already are.

And that's not even touching what big tech will do with the information you give them by telling their AIs what you like.

Tlaero

 

[Pixillin']

Yeah. It seems like, if pure AI storytelling ever works at all, it will be like that.

I think there's also an interesting societal effect to a future like that. We used to have a small number of sources of truth. But as information got "democratized" truth got fractured. There's both good and bad there, but we definitely lost something in the process.

We've been doing the same thing with entertainment. There used to be 3 TV channels, and you watched the latest episode of <insert popular show here> at the same time as everyone else. Then you'd talk about it with your coworkers the next day.

Similarly, there weren't too many publishers, so there were a relatively small number of novels released, and reading the next big release by <insult big name author here> became a shared national event.

Now there are so many avenues to get your story out that the number of them has ballooned up to the point that you can't really assume that anyone has read the same story as you have. At least you can make suggestions and have people follow them, though.

I'm not trying to paint this as a bad thing. I've personally benefited greatly from it. But again we as a society have definitely lost something in the process.

AI will take it farther. It telling you personal stories geared precisely to your tastes will mean that no one will ever experience the entertainment that you do. We'll likely become even more fractured as a society than we already are.

And that's not even touching what big tech will do with the information you give them by telling their AIs what you like.

Tlaero

Yeah, the fracturing of media has led to a situation where we still have tribalism, but tribes aren’t defined by geography - which has led to all kinds of social and political problems. If personalized storytelling ever happens (not to mention personalized music, news etc) then we’re looking at deep isolation. Unfortunately, none of this means we can stop it, even modifying it or slightly changing course means rowing upstream against powerful interests.

 

[Johnny Dough]

Has "Nothing Is Forever" been really abandoned or just another case of bad tagging around here?

 

[Dessolos]

Has "Nothing Is Forever" been really abandoned or just another case of bad tagging around here?

been dead for at least a year 1/2

 

[Pixillin']

What about Pricilla: Chasing Shadows? The thread is pretty dead, it hasn’t updated since August, 2024 and the dev has gone from regular updates to radio silence. Last I heard he was almost done with an update, but that was several months ago.