User blog:JESSIEJJD13/The New PB (OPINION)

I've been feeling like PB has been going in the bad direction for a while now, and this is where I'll discuss why.

Aside from the major decrease in quality (which I'll get to later), the gender customization option has been a SERIOUS issue that is inexcusable.

Let's look at recent and upcoming releases.

ACOR - female only (understandable)

RODABBR - female only (no good reason) (only girls date?)

Open Heart - customizable


 * upcoming releases are 98% going to go this way, if they weren't, PB would've confirmed it right away like they do when you can play as a guy.

PTR - female only (no good reason) (only girls date?)

NB - female only (no good reason) (they didn't learn with BB, which also was no good reason for being female only)

WT - female only (no good reason) (only girls are reporters?)

This has been a serious and really horrible thing they have been doing lately. I can understand ACOR, D&D, books like that, I really can. Those stories can and should be told. But the major problem comes from books that are gender-locked for literally no good reason. BBR, PTR, NB, WT, have no good reason for being female only. It's not like only girls date people, report, etc. Especially the romance books, since everyone has romance in their life - guys and girls, so to make books only about girls is really annoying to PB's male audience and to girls who like to play as guys. And then there's NB, where it gets worse (just like BB), what's their excuse for that? There isn't one. And everytime they release something they see the most liked/top replies are asking about and for gender options, they see there is a demand for it, yet they still continue to make gender locked books and refuse to change. Over half their catalogue, guys can't play as someone who looks like and is them. It's weird and just annoying considering PB's been around going on 3 1/2 years.

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Quality

I've discussed this in some other blog posts, but this is a major issue I feel is not being talked about a lot by the community. I know not everyone feels this way, but don't you miss books like Endless Summer, Hero, Most Wanted, Crown & The Flame, etc? Epic stories, 3D characters, thought-out plotlines, deep and meaningful dialouge and interactions, etc. We haven't had a truly epic book in a while. Sure. TE isn't bad, OH is "enjoyable", but do you race to play these stories? Do you eagerly await them? Do they have strong plotlines (aka not simple)? Probably not, compared to old PB.

And you can tell overall quality is suffering when majority of their releases in the last few months have been sole romance cash grabs - RODABBR, PTR, D&D (rehash), etc. They just throw out these books they think will get money and don't spend lots of time on making good, epic, and thought out sagas.

Look at poor Hero and MW.

And look at how they ended the It Lives series. --- It was their last truly epic series and what happens? They end it. Why? Too much effort, not a romance book, etc. They write what they want to write, and now, that's not epic saga stories. It Lives took too much work and effort (just like Hero and MW)

We need new and fresh books. Genres they've never done (good thought-out mysteries, murder-mystery like Scream, soap-type, etc). Why don't we? Too much work.

Most stories now from PB have the most boring/lame group of characters as in, they are cliches and we've seen them 10000 times before and in pretty much every other PB book. And their plotlines are so simple! I liked TE, but think about it, the overall plotline wasn't that thought-out and planned. It probably took about 30 minutes of planning.

The characters are also a real problem, like the MC is always so ridiculous. They are always a goody-goody, they never get/stay upset or mad at anything for more than a couple lines, they are something thrown out of Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Why do we never get main characters (or, really, any main group characters; not the villain) that have say... a dark side, or have anger issues, or are quiet, or dark, or anything other than happy and a Disney Character?

Could we ever play as a villain? Could we ever play as a character that has real-life issues and moods, like the real world? Nah.

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These are a few of my concerns of what is becoming of PB as of late. These are solely my opinion, please do not take offense to them. To each their own. .

I hope PB will get it together and really become this epic game, but I really just do not see it, and that saddens me.

With 4 / 5 new releases (likely) being gender locked, 2 of them being romance cash grabs, etc, I don't think things are getting better, but worse.

I think the key to saving this game is to cut back the number of books releasing each week. Bring it down to 4 or so chapters a week, but REALLY good chapters. Not short (another thing - most PB chapters are VERY SHORT; again-- not much effort), thought-out chapters, so they can make books with deep and developed characters and plotlines. Also, maybe try to do more in a book. Like TV shows, they have multiple plots going on at once. In recent releases, there is only one plot that they slowly or don't develop each week, and it's boring. (which roots back to the main plotline not being too thought out)

I hope they can save the game, but it doesn't look like it to me.

If you read through my opinion post, bravo! Again, please don't be offended by this, I'm just voicing what I've been feeling lately. I still enjoy some books at times, but I think they can be better.

As a writer, and writers know this, the only way to help your work and make it amazing, is to listen to constructive criticism, to see what works and what doesn't. It helps make YOU better!

And to cap it off, my reason for doing this,

JESSIEJJD13 (talk) 04:04, March 6, 2019 (UTC)