Reviews by Ogre
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So I see
"Links to this page and its ratings have been restricted, due to violations of our Code of Conduct."
at the top of this page (only barely because in dark mode it's nearly hidden). I've read through the game, I've read through the comments by the author, I've read through the reviews. I'm not seeing anything that is a violation of the Code of Conduct. Is there somewhere a person can go to see what's going on and why some games are violations? It would be useful to understand what caused this violation so that others do not commit the same violation. As it is, it simply isn't clear, at least to me.
Great Stuff, February 22, 2021Wow. Great stuff here. And I’m not a ballad fan. I love the setup and the layout on the title page (this one where we are now), and I appreciate the credit for the drawing in the background, too. In the story the color and the font are excellent and work very well with the story and the setting. I love the pressure on the first page to do the bidding of the poor townsfolk!
I like the choices and how the affect the rest of the story. Some might say they’re false choices, but the way they direct the action of the story is really, really good. And with a story of this type, I can’t imagine the work that would be involved with making that number of unique paths, anyway.
This is a really great short story. The prose is just excellent and it is not at the expense of the story. This could even be a story without the prose, even if it were a short story. If I should ever feel the need to write a ballad, I will certainly return here for inspiration. In fact, anyone who wants to see a good story in ballad form should read this story!
Good start, February 13, 2021Looks like a good intro and description of the story. I am always at least slightly put off when I read that the author “ran out of time.” I understand that may have been the case for a contest entry, but the author can always take the story down after the contest is over and finish it. I have seen many authors take that route. Either that, or simply live with what’s published, make it a complete story, and leave that line out.
I like the first page and the start of the story. I like the italics showing me that this is the past and setup for the story. I really like that I have a number of options on the first page as well. From a quick glance there, it looks like these options really have huge effects on the story, which is really great! Of course, because of those varied options, there appear to be a number of ways to end the story really quickly. I do appreciate the options and that they don’t lead back to one another with no effect, but some of the endings really do appear almost too soon.
I like the writing and the story. There are lots of good ideas in here, and I really like all the branching. Some of the pages are longer and have good dialogue and descriptions in them. I find it interesting that almost all of the endings allow me to restart, except the Peaceful ending. Nicely done, I do encourage you to write more, whether it is with this story or another!
From the Author
This one really was a lot of fun to write, too. There are aspects of James Bond bits, but also some of The Man With One Red Shoe and some Johnny English as well. There really are a large number of different paths and the paths can diverge quite a bit. If you like replay-ability, this one might be a good one for you because one option can really lock out a large portion of the story.
Dark and darker, January 24, 2021For me, this was a tough read. And no, not just because of the content. The layout was horribly distracting for me. Each page had 1-3 sentences on it. I guess that was for effect, but if I’m going to read a story, I’d like to read it, not spend more time clicking “next.” But also, the font changed on pages. I think this was for speech, but it wasn’t clear, was really distracting, and really would have been so much clearer if there were simple quotation marks. The fact that all the short lines were centered on the page added a little more difficulty for me as well.
While there were options in the story, there were not a lot, and few seemed to have much of an effect on the story. I see that this story won a lot of awards, but maybe this just isn’t my scene, baby. Indeed, it was dark and just kept getting darker. And maybe if I had analyzed a lot more later into the story, I would have seen choices that made a difference, but it honestly wasn’t all that pleasant for me. Maybe for others who really like horror with kids, this is something for you. But if you don’t, you probably want to skip this one.
Fun at First, then Falls short, January 24, 2021I think that's an excellent title. There is some really neat writing here. I really like some of the story lines that build up. But after playing for some time you reach a point where I felt like, "Wait, that's all? It's just more of the same." And it is. Again, great writing! I love the environment, the setting, the building of the setting, and everything else related to the story. But the story itself just sort of IS. Not a great deal happens. And I get that's the way the story and site are setup, but it still leaves me wanting more. Of course, that might be the idea behind the way this is setup and written, in which case it really hits the mark! So head on over and read some, I don't think you'll be disappointed. But you might not make it all the way to the end (is there an end?)
Yes, this is a quiz. But as soon as you add in covid, you're asking for political positions. I'm not trying to take a position here in this review, but you have to take one as it relates to covid, whether you want to or not.
Depending on your political views on the virus, this might be a nice story, or it might be propaganda. I'm not sure there's any middle ground. That said, if you go into it without many expectations, it is quite well written and has a nice story to go with the quiz. It is really just a quiz, but one of the best written quizzes I've seen on the site. It has a little story around the questions, which makes it interesting and fun. If you want a little jaunt and escape, head on over and have a read.
Something, January 22, 2021Well, that was something. What, I'm not quite sure. It felt like there was an idea for a story, but it never happened. There was a universe and world setup that never really got used. There were people, but they were only there for sex. So I guess if you want to read some sex story, this might be for you. But if you want to read a story with characters and a beginning, middle, and end; this might not be the one for you.
You're Sick, January 18, 2021That's the entire plot and story here. Really, there's not much more than that. There's a few choices throughout the story, but none seem to really affect the storyline -- no matter what options you choose, you're still sick and you're going to see the doctor. Then, quite suddenly, the story ends. This really could be a lot more, but there's just not really any progression in the story -- it doesn't go anywhere at all.
A Start?, January 18, 2021I'm not sure what the point of this story was. It almost feels like it was a test of an application, but little more. Most pages had just 1-3 sentences and no choices for the reader. If you stay with it, it gets repetitive. Sure, it's about a clean detective, but I'm not sure it works with you repeatedly making a "choice" to take a shower every day.
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