User blog:General Khor/2023 In Review

Hello and welcome to another semi-annual review blog by General Khor. Yeah, this is my first New Year blog, as I was busy yesterday, but still, I remember mentioning that my year end review blogs will be out on 2nd January at the latest, so yeah, I'm still on schedule. Anyway, this review may probably be depressing, but what I'm about to write is all the truth. Now, without further ado, let's get into it.

State of Choices, 2023 2nd Half
So as you probably know, last year wasn't the best of years, in fact some, probably most, of you would say it's worse than 2019. Why? Well, besides most books being genderlocked, there's also the single LI wave which spans the entire year, with only Guinevere and Kindred having multiple LIs (although I heard that Untameable 2 has multiple LIs as well), not to mention the mature wave, with only Getaway Girls, First Comes Love and Kindred not rated 17+ for sexual content, aka the primary reason for the rating. Sigh, I really don't understand American/western women, aka PB's target demographic. Seriously, I keep asking the same question: why are those women sooooo... horny?

Talking about single LI books, you know how I once said that without the freedom of LI choice, it's all but inevitable that we'll end up marrying or at least getting together with the only LI (provided the LI doesn't die, that is)? Not only that, but more often than not, the LI isn't the best written character, as in almost every single LI book, there are supporting characters who are more appealing, stand out more in terms of personality, or otherwise better written than the LI. Take Shipwrecked for example, the villains are better written, as their personalities are apparent. Then there's Ms Match, which features Maggie, a kind, smart, trustworthy ally, who's decidedly better than Monroe, who keeps bickering with us, and when you have allies that stand out more than the LI, you will definitely ask: "Why, why, WHY does this book have to have only one LI?! Why can't those cooler allies be LIs instead?"

There's more: recently, PB started releasing books that are exclusively for VIPlayers, that is, they will never be released for plebians like most of us, including me. Do you know how unfair this is, PB?! Currently, the one on most free players' wishlists is Bloodbound: Origins, which is about the LIs early vampire lives told from their perspectives. I mean, who wouldn't want a story about that? Do you know how many fans want to know the backstories of their favourite LIs? Then again, I don't really care about the other two. I would read The Dalton Affair if it covers the entire TNA trilogy, too bad it only covers Book 1. Then there's the Blades TTRPG Companion. For those who don't know, TTRPG stands for tabletop RPG, which is played with pen and paper, but why would I be interested in TTRPGs when you have web RPGs? In fact, Blades inspired me to come up with an epic RPG idea of my own, which I'll make a blog about soon, in light of Blades 2 wrapping up at the end of last year.

Speaking of Blades 2 ending, I initially thought this is gonna be the end of Blades of Light & Shadow (in fact the season finale really feels like a series finale), but it turns out there's gonna be another book coming, which can only mean one thing: this risky investment paid off, big time. So yeah, looks like I'll have to wait for a year, or two, or three, before I write my review blog for this series. In other news, the second half of 2023 saw Getaway Girls, First Comes Love, The Duchess Affair and Kindred wrap up as solo books in July, September and November for the latter two respectively. New releases include The Billionaire's Baby, Dirty Little Secrets, Alpha and Ship of Dreams in September, October, November and December respectively (the former two are confirmed to be standalones as well, and are now 80% and 60% complete respectively). Also, The Cursed Heart, Season 2 also premiered in December, and notably, with the VIP premiere moved to November from sometime this year, this means the "all VIP era", when all books, new and sequels, will go through a VIP phase, began 2 months earlier.

The best news of all is, guess which series was also initially set to end at two seasons but got another one? That's right, it's Crimes of Passion. Why? Because for the first two seasons, we're mostly doing our job for our partner and LI: first it's about the murder of his/her friend, then it's about his/her fiancee. But then, there's the subplot of the murder of the MC's cop father, and I've been hoping we can get revenge for him since Book 1, so now that we know a 3rd season is coming, my greatest wish may very well be granted. I mean, after two seasons doing our job for the LI, it's high time we got to solve our own case.

Getaway Girls
Rating: Meh

This book was meant to represent the American black community, especially black women, who are at the bottom of the American caste system (due to having to deal with sexism as well as racism). Overall, this is an ok story, with a decent plot and characters. We get to play as two sisters, their cousin and their best friend as they go on an adventure in the Bahamas, and if you think it's that simple, well think again. We have to compete with a bully in the local party animal competition and deal with the cousin's selfish boss, and the personalities of these two really stand out. The only problem is that there's only one LI for each playable character, similar to The Princess Swap (another multi-POV single LI book).

Kindred
Rating: EXCITING!

The only other book with multiple LIs last year, this book revolves around witches and magic. People wanted a witch story since the premiere of TCH, which turned out to be about fae instead, and it wouldn't be a year until that wish is granted. So the story follows a trio of witch sisters discovering their powers. Besides witches, this story also features angels and demons, and the LIs happen to be one of each: our guardian angel and a demon posing as our lawyer. It is revealed that the demon LI defected after falling for us, and he tells us about the demon king, who seeks to cause eternal suffering for mankind. For a long time, our family has kept him imprisoned, but the demons have been working to free him, and one of the obstacles standing in their way was our mother, whom they killed. In the end, we easily destroy the demon king, and it turns out the demons were once humans who sold their hearts to the demon king, who records their true names in a book. Destroying said book gives the remaining demons, including the demon LI, their hearts and humanity back. To think the demon king is said to be all powerful, the fact that he's easily defeated is kind of a letdown, really.

My Two First Loves
Rating: Meh

The reason I was able to finish the longest book in Choices is due to an event providing me with the incentive to do so. So what do you think the "two first loves" are? Obviously, most people will think they're the two boys shown on the book cover, since this is a love triangle story. At least that's what the writers want us to think. But then, it turns out there's also a female LI, and to think the writers teased that the story would explore sexual orientation, yet they force the two boys on us, like we're supposed to be straight. I really feel sorry for LGBT fans because of this, even though I'm straight myself. Also, it isn't until the very end that they reveal what the "two first loves" are: our chosen LI and photography. So yeah, if it's really about someone and something, then why have the love triangle plot in the first place? In fact, the writers misleading fans like this is one of the reasons for the rating to drop.

Actually, I have an even better idea: they should have thought of having a GoC MC and two GoC LIs way back in 2019, when they first featured two GoC LIs in Platinum. Remember how I complained about Platinum and Rising Tides being genderlocked despite having GoC LIs? Well, it isn't until Slow Burn that they came up with the GoC MC and two GoC LI combination. Had they done so way back in 2019, MTFL could have featured a GoC MC and two GoC LIs, which would have made it way easier to explore sexual orientation, as you can play around with the relationships instead of having a "girl meets boy, girl pursues boy, girl marries boy" story (minus the last part, that is).

Untameable
Rating: Meh

Another ok story. Think Big Sky Country with only one LI and more sexual content. The only problem is how they handled the relationship between our brother and our LI. So, the reason our brother doesn’t want us to have a relationship with our LI, who happens to be his friend, is simply, as TV Tropes puts it, "my sister is off limits", but it would have been better if he's in love with the LI as well. Yes, this is the kind of story where a love triangle can work, as it adds more drama to the story, and the relationship between the brother and LI can be explored more. Sure, the brother and LI would have to be written differently, but my idea is still better than what we have now.

Conclusion
It's hard to tell how this year will go, but still, I hope the devs cut down on rolling out single LI stories this year, since as I've mentioned before, without this most important of choices, the spirit of the app is fading. If they still continue on this path, then I fear the days of Choices will be numbered. We can only hope the devs realise this mistake before it's too late.

So what do you think of Choices in 2023? Let me know in the comments. That's all for today, until then, this is General Khor. The end, and thank you for reading.