User blog:JESSIEJJD13/Problems with Choices

I think it's safe to say PB has hit a rut. They reached a real golden point around last summer/fall, with Endless Summer going strong, It Lives coming out, Hero, etc. However, as of late I feel PB has really stopped putting as much effort into their work.

All of the latest releases (excluding VOS) have basically been romance books that seem to be shameless money grabs for people who will buy diamonds for the romance scenes. There is a plethora of genres, books, plotlines, etc they could be writing but instead all of their new books continue to be basic romance books (they already have enough). And their romance books are nothing new, innovative, or game changing. D&D sounds like a carbon copy of TRR, AMW is just a reality show put into a Choices book (so original).

This aside, PB's sequels are also coming out at a really slow rate now. I know they're busy and have a lot to do, but some wait times have gotten absurd at this point as they can keep on pushing out new books while some books remain on hiatus for an unknown amount of time - It Lives will be on hiatus like ten months, TRR was several months, Endless Summer was several months (with several hiatuses), PM almost half a year, HSS almost half a year or more, unknown for The Senior. Random hiatuses in the middle of books, etc. And then when they come back, the books are a bit underwhelming.

And then there is poor Hero Book 2 and Most Wanted Book 2, which I feel we will NEVER see ( :-. Both ending on big cliffhangers, and will more than likely be on hold for years at a time (if they ever come back). PB has stopped even mentioning them. I get it, they didn't perform as well as the others. They could've "canceled" them, or given them a quick six chapter wrap-up. And when PB keeps churning out new book after new book, it's a bit absurd to assume they can't find the time to close these books. They write what they want to.

One last thing is, I get a bit annoyed how they don't allow you to chose your gender in so many books. I get that female is their target audience, however, it's not that hard to make gender customizable. A lot of the books could be so different from a male POV, and making everything only for girls is upsetting for the male players. Also, even books where you can play as a guy, you can tell the lines/characters are written to be played by girls.

It's just sad to see this happening, when they could be doing so much and going to great places.

Sorry for the rant, I still really like PB/Choices and their books (most of them), I still support them, etc. However, sometimes constructive criticism is a good thing. What are everyone's thoughts?