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I can't figure out why the traffic to this site is so low. Is it the site's design? Is it a lack of advertisement? Are the stories uncomfortable to read? Or are people simply uninterested in writing, least of all CYOA?
I suppose there are numerous reasons why it could happen. I'm not sure which holds the most blame. While I could easily say people aren't quite as interested in writing, I don't believe it's true. I do believe there are loads of people into writing--so what's that leave? Now we must pinpoint among those writers which are interested in CYOA. I've not heard any news of any developments in any popular CYOA stories. Much of what's popular nowadays are novels, plain front-to-back novels. I frequent my school's library often, and never recall seeing any form of CYOA novel anywhere. They're almost like novelties.
Naturally, a website geared toward CYOA will provide a much more enjoyable experience than having to thumb through pages to figure out what choice you made, as you spend less time doing that and more time reading. So where's the crowd for it? I'm not sure. Maybe it's harder for people to take a CYOA story seriously; movies generally play from front to back, though a CYOA movie wouldn't be impossible, either. It just might not be preferable; the first CYOA movie would probably be great for the novelty, but after that, the novelty dies. Depending on how many choices you're allowed to make, you might not be in for more than a half hour's worth of movie--but you can always start over and figure it out another way. I see it working out great for murder-mysteries, where you have to watch it every which way to figure it out. So does this also apply to CYOA? Can a CYOA story not be taken seriously? I don't believe this is true, a CYOA story can be damn well interesting, and very thought-intensive; a writer has to think in a linear format, and that can be hard enough, but a CYOA writer has to think in a third dimension, in which stories do not only move forward, but in many different directions. Perhaps here lies the reason why CYOA stories must be kept simple, as to avoid the problem of rooms without end, and stories which are never resolved. Perhaps there will someday be a mastermind who develops the ultimate CYOA novel, complex and completely trump all other stories, in either format.
But though it will be a technical achievement, we're still left with the crowd, and taking a quick glance at the top novels of today, we can see the crowd has little interest in anything thought-provoking at all. The crowd wants their fancies tickled and the easiest ways possible. There appears to be no demand for CYOA in this genre, though I see no reason why it wouldn't improve such experiences. Are people simply more interested in a line of story, as stories have been for as long as we've been telling them? Is CYOA akin to present tense? Where if you're not used to it, it's harder to become involved in the story. After all, a story is still being told, but it's brought in a different way than what we're used to; if your grandpappy wants to tell you a story about his youth, he's not likely to ask you what happened.
At the same time, there is one prevalent medium which employs the CYOA style of storytelling: the video game. Many video games offer several ways to change their stories--some revolve around making decisions all together, or at least different endings--which isn't surprising, as CYOA is a step between writing and programming. This isn't regarded as strange in the least; in fact, it's often very engaging, for the gamer has much more involvement in what happens to the guy or gal he's stuck with following for the entire ride. For bigger games with huge stories, you won't see such an increased effect, as the choices you make along the way often change little what happens in the end; you're still on a monorail. But there is one game which comes to mind that removes the rail entirely by offering no immediate story elements whatsoever: you can find it here. In Yume Nikki, you're set off in a room, where you dream and explore your dreams. There's very little story and the only goal is to explore and find certain effects which beget more effects. However, Yume Nikki in the CYOA writing form would be almost the exact same process; you give a room (a certain scene in Yume Nikki) and then allow the reader to choose which way he would like to go. Some rooms would loop back to where you were before, and the only thing missing would be the ability to pick up the effects. It is completely, 100% open ended, and its entire merit comes from just how unusual it is.
We can find such examples in most popular games today, especially in RPGs. If such brands of stories appeal to gamers, would they not also be interested in pure CYOA stories? It seems the literary crowd only picks up CYOA out of luck and curiosity; plus, it appears the most popular of these books are entirely geared toward children. Though there are plenty of examples of adult CYOA stories, the format is treated gimmicky, and something children would rather want to read, as their perceived attention spans are shorter, so the game helps them stay interested. I can only wonder, then, if one writer has the ability to release a CYOA story so impressively done, it will spur an avalanche of more, thereby increasing interest of the genre and thus, interest in this website. But there seems to be nothing new in the genre that will overtake the top novels of today, and we're back at square one.
So, to present the question of before, why is this site so lonely out there in a world where literature isn't dying out? I believe it's due to appealing to a niche crowd; there are lots of readers out there, but I'd wager most anyone who reads CYOA will read many more regular novels. Likewise, a writer who enjoys CYOA will likely partake in a lot more normal writing as well. Back when this site was still black and white and named appropriately, I was fascinated by the idea of CYOA (I loved the odd stories on Addventure, which, upon googling, led me to this very site) I was just a kid back then, so all my writing was awful (as you can see my contribution as Mechaman here.) Likewise, I was always big on video games and RPGs, so the demographic fits. At the same time, most of my writing back then was in the form of roleplaying (specifically, I started off at Neopets, and then moved onto just finding people to write with as I got older.) For anyone who doesn't know, roleplaying is where one person writes out a block of text (typically one paragraph or more), and then another person accompanies that block of text with another block of text, switching back and forth to move the story along. So in other words, it's like co-op writing, which can be a little bit like CYOA but where both parties are writers and probably don't intend for any other readers to see their work. As of today, I managed to write out a novel and I'm working on my second, so I have to say, this site's what got me into story telling. I remember dreaming about how I could make a story on here work and how many options I had available at my disposal and how the sky was the limit and all of that. I never did manage to complete anything, but at least it got me started, and around people who were actually good at writing. Problem is, someone somewhere had the displeasure of reading what I put out, and I feel that detracted from the site's overall experience.
I suppose there are numerous reasons why it could happen. I'm not sure which holds the most blame. While I could easily say people aren't quite as interested in writing, I don't believe it's true. I do believe there are loads of people into writing--so what's that leave? Now we must pinpoint among those writers which are interested in CYOA. I've not heard any news of any developments in any popular CYOA stories. Much of what's popular nowadays are novels, plain front-to-back novels. I frequent my school's library often, and never recall seeing any form of CYOA novel anywhere. They're almost like novelties.
Naturally, a website geared toward CYOA will provide a much more enjoyable experience than having to thumb through pages to figure out what choice you made, as you spend less time doing that and more time reading. So where's the crowd for it? I'm not sure. Maybe it's harder for people to take a CYOA story seriously; movies generally play from front to back, though a CYOA movie wouldn't be impossible, either. It just might not be preferable; the first CYOA movie would probably be great for the novelty, but after that, the novelty dies. Depending on how many choices you're allowed to make, you might not be in for more than a half hour's worth of movie--but you can always start over and figure it out another way. I see it working out great for murder-mysteries, where you have to watch it every which way to figure it out. So does this also apply to CYOA? Can a CYOA story not be taken seriously? I don't believe this is true, a CYOA story can be damn well interesting, and very thought-intensive; a writer has to think in a linear format, and that can be hard enough, but a CYOA writer has to think in a third dimension, in which stories do not only move forward, but in many different directions. Perhaps here lies the reason why CYOA stories must be kept simple, as to avoid the problem of rooms without end, and stories which are never resolved. Perhaps there will someday be a mastermind who develops the ultimate CYOA novel, complex and completely trump all other stories, in either format.
But though it will be a technical achievement, we're still left with the crowd, and taking a quick glance at the top novels of today, we can see the crowd has little interest in anything thought-provoking at all. The crowd wants their fancies tickled and the easiest ways possible. There appears to be no demand for CYOA in this genre, though I see no reason why it wouldn't improve such experiences. Are people simply more interested in a line of story, as stories have been for as long as we've been telling them? Is CYOA akin to present tense? Where if you're not used to it, it's harder to become involved in the story. After all, a story is still being told, but it's brought in a different way than what we're used to; if your grandpappy wants to tell you a story about his youth, he's not likely to ask you what happened.
At the same time, there is one prevalent medium which employs the CYOA style of storytelling: the video game. Many video games offer several ways to change their stories--some revolve around making decisions all together, or at least different endings--which isn't surprising, as CYOA is a step between writing and programming. This isn't regarded as strange in the least; in fact, it's often very engaging, for the gamer has much more involvement in what happens to the guy or gal he's stuck with following for the entire ride. For bigger games with huge stories, you won't see such an increased effect, as the choices you make along the way often change little what happens in the end; you're still on a monorail. But there is one game which comes to mind that removes the rail entirely by offering no immediate story elements whatsoever: you can find it here. In Yume Nikki, you're set off in a room, where you dream and explore your dreams. There's very little story and the only goal is to explore and find certain effects which beget more effects. However, Yume Nikki in the CYOA writing form would be almost the exact same process; you give a room (a certain scene in Yume Nikki) and then allow the reader to choose which way he would like to go. Some rooms would loop back to where you were before, and the only thing missing would be the ability to pick up the effects. It is completely, 100% open ended, and its entire merit comes from just how unusual it is.
We can find such examples in most popular games today, especially in RPGs. If such brands of stories appeal to gamers, would they not also be interested in pure CYOA stories? It seems the literary crowd only picks up CYOA out of luck and curiosity; plus, it appears the most popular of these books are entirely geared toward children. Though there are plenty of examples of adult CYOA stories, the format is treated gimmicky, and something children would rather want to read, as their perceived attention spans are shorter, so the game helps them stay interested. I can only wonder, then, if one writer has the ability to release a CYOA story so impressively done, it will spur an avalanche of more, thereby increasing interest of the genre and thus, interest in this website. But there seems to be nothing new in the genre that will overtake the top novels of today, and we're back at square one.
So, to present the question of before, why is this site so lonely out there in a world where literature isn't dying out? I believe it's due to appealing to a niche crowd; there are lots of readers out there, but I'd wager most anyone who reads CYOA will read many more regular novels. Likewise, a writer who enjoys CYOA will likely partake in a lot more normal writing as well. Back when this site was still black and white and named appropriately, I was fascinated by the idea of CYOA (I loved the odd stories on Addventure, which, upon googling, led me to this very site) I was just a kid back then, so all my writing was awful (as you can see my contribution as Mechaman here.) Likewise, I was always big on video games and RPGs, so the demographic fits. At the same time, most of my writing back then was in the form of roleplaying (specifically, I started off at Neopets, and then moved onto just finding people to write with as I got older.) For anyone who doesn't know, roleplaying is where one person writes out a block of text (typically one paragraph or more), and then another person accompanies that block of text with another block of text, switching back and forth to move the story along. So in other words, it's like co-op writing, which can be a little bit like CYOA but where both parties are writers and probably don't intend for any other readers to see their work. As of today, I managed to write out a novel and I'm working on my second, so I have to say, this site's what got me into story telling. I remember dreaming about how I could make a story on here work and how many options I had available at my disposal and how the sky was the limit and all of that. I never did manage to complete anything, but at least it got me started, and around people who were actually good at writing. Problem is, someone somewhere had the displeasure of reading what I put out, and I feel that detracted from the site's overall experience.
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