Where do we go from here?

The longer you wait to fix the early game content the harder it's going to be. Better just start fixing it now so you can be certain of its relevance later in the story.

Hatha

Not sure if you're still checking this chain of comments, but I've now finished a path where the MC rejects Kurt and avoids the TF and Lisa conversation completely. It's up to date through 0.5.0, though it won't be out until next month. If you can be patient for a little longer you'll be able to play again without any of that unpleasantness.

I've written the cosplay route and caught it up to the current part of the story. I've also written Week 7's Monday. So there will be new story advancement and new side-content both in this update, instead of just one or the other. And this morning I started working on a path to turn Kurt down before the fashion show. So it appears everyone will get their wishes for the update after 0.5.0 :)

I lied. There will be new content for Week 7 in the update. Not a ton, but that Monday is done. :)

I'm glad you like the game! It's difficult to cater every taste out there. My end goal is to have a variety of paths that appeal to a broad stroke of folks :)

First off, thanks for a great game!! This is definitely one of my favorites. I'm sure I haven't uncovered all the content yet so I look forward to the updates a lot. I want say, without being offensive to others (I hope), that I like the forced content and would welcome more. Other games like Secretary, The Company and Down and Out with Paris and Marion have similar forced content and I love it. I say bring it on. I occasionally run into other elements of games I don't care for, like furry stuff. But I just avoid it. I don't ask the developer to change their game. I encourage to continue with your vision of this game and we can all go to #$%%. If we like it, great. If not, I feel confident someone else will. Anyhow, nice job! Keep it up.

Yep, that's me over there aswell, i try to keep consistent usernames across sites and services to make moving conversations over to more apropriate places less confusing for others.

If your name is the same on TFGS then you have been encouraging me and sharing positive feedback since The eWardrobe first came out. A lot of your early posts buoyed my spirits. The fact that you pledged financial support, on top of expressing verbal support, is something I am grateful for. Thank you :)

I'll be here, waiting patiently ;) Thanks again for taking so much time to engage and trying to accommodate just a random face in the crowd, i really deeply appreciate it.

I really appreciate your outlook. Maybe I'll try to do the impossible and catch the cosplay path up, write a tangent where you can turn down Kurt, AND write Week 7's Monday. I don't know how successful I'll be, but I think perspective will be the difference between "success" and "failure." As long as more content is being written, I don't think anything can be considered a failure. It won't be in 0.5.0, but I hope this time next month I'll be able to excitedly tell you to keep your eyes out for 0.5.1

First of all, i apreciate the virtual hug. I don't think any gesture meant to comfort others can be seen as patronizing if they come off as genunie and heartfelt, which is how i view our interaction here. As i said before, as someone who has problems dealing with (perceived) pressure and depression themselves, i wouldn't want you to feel obligated to fix this right away, as i think our feelings on inflicting mental anguish on others are quite similar, and i'd feel like by you trying to 'fix my problem' as soon as possible, i would be causing essentially the same to you. I wouldn't expect you to try and make more time to work on this, or put other stuff on the backburner that was already planned, and that you (and other players) were looking forward to. As long as it's added to the regular 'to-do' list and worked on in time i think we're all good. I'll simply sit out some versions until it makes its way in there naturally. If i can deal with the wait for Martin to finally finish The Winds of Winter while he is off releasing prequels, short stories and reference books in the meantime, i can wait for versions of your work i feel comfortable progressing in further while you enrich Danni's World in other ways. I don't see my pledge here as something that entitles me to regular returns, or even preferential treatment, but as affirmation that your creative works have merit and as thanks for sharing them with us. I'd rather have a happy author delivering us the most complete version of this story they can in their own time than a stressed author fixing personal hang-ups RIGHT NOW maybe feeling obliged to address everyones personal hang-ups once they start doing it for some and ultimately abandoning the project because it all became too much.

A lot of what you said resonates with me. I want to extend a virtual hug, so long as you don't find it patronizing. This is a sucky situation. My gut instinct is to go work on a Kurt refusal path right now so you don't have to deal with this again. But it would require a bit of legwork in the form of writing a bunch of new scenes spanning several in-game weeks to have it be consistent, and that alone could take up half the work I usually put into a monthly update. But the alternative is to not address this and I really dislike that, too. I don't want to contribute to anyone's anxiety. Ever. It's too much to think I could ever alleviate it for someone else, but I think not adding more is a reasonable goal. This predicament and what you describes speaks to me. I'll try to come up with something.

I honestly can't tell you my reaction to the aftermath, because i wasn't able to get there. I'm not the most mentally stable of people, and in situations of (perceived) pressure i often buckle, withdraw and just avoid situations altogether (often to my detriment). If that's a symptom or a cause of depression downswings i am not quite sure, but high stress situations IRL can literally make me avoid leaving bed for a couple of days and the house for a couple of weeks. Playing a game is obviously not the same, but simply stopping to play (further) to avoid having to deal with tough decisions is unfortunately a reality for me here. I can see how this all makes sense storywise, i just can't bring myself to go along with it when it's ACTUALLY forced upon you instead of a misguided belief in it being a neccesary evil, or openly willing decision by Danni. I just have some real issues about gender/sex ACTUALLY being imposed on you. A quick calculation tells me i only amount to 0.17% of the paying audience, and surely a far smaller part of the entire playerbase. That i can't expect the game to solely cater to me is more than understandable, and i wouldn't want you to feel pressured to please everyone instead of writing what you enjoy, but lets just say i wouldn't mind the implementation of a kurt shutdown option sooner rather than later if it was on the docket anyway. Quite a while back in the TFGS Thread people were discussing Jake and and wanting to shut him down because they perceived him as rapey, while i found him charming, but i was annoyed with kurt from the start and wanted to shut him down... seeing how things develop on his path i guess i understand those people better now and would want an option to shut him down now more than ever.

First off, I'm really sorry to hear the interaction with Kurt's mother bothered you that much. It was never my intention to trigger anyone, and I hope you accept my apology. If the conversation itself is what bothers you (and not the aftermath of it) then I recommend playing the store path and avoiding the Sails. No forced M2F there! If you like the restaurant path but want to avoid the TF I can message you how to do so (but you still have to sit through the conversation). Continuing the Cosplay path doesn't affect the store/restaurant storylines in the way you're thinking. Similarly to how kickball/live-reading shenanigans introduced more characters and more sticky situations for Danny, but whether you do them or not has no bearing on the plot points that come from interacting with the Sails / Kurt in the restaurant. I have been contemplating writing a way to shut Kurt down for good prior to the fashion show so that the MC can avoid the whole thing (like how you can stop going to the Sails and Lyle, and avoid that whole route on the store path). However, I can't definitively say that a Rewrite Update would address this. I am excited to work on the Cosplay stuff, and I think the writing will be easier and better because of that. There is enough content here that I can't edit/rewrite/fix/continue everything, ya know? I apologize if I didn't tell you what you wanted to hear, but I hope there was a kernel of comfort somewhere.

Thanks Brick!

ilav23

I voted for Rewrites & Cosplay Danny. "The Talk" you have with Kurts Mother after your Wardrobe Malfunction hit me pretty hard, being basically forced into that kind of decision by a person who has no romantic connection to you (either one way or mutual) felt really wrong and uncomfortable to me. Making that kind of decision for someone or being coerced by someone you have feelings for, in what ever weird and twisted way, is something i could relate to and was looking forward to, but this just happened way too fast and early for me. I don't know how Danni would deal with this, but it gave me personally such an anxiety attack that i havn't been able to play more than a hand full of screens further as i just didn't feel safe in the games world anymore. I voted for the Cosplay / Gaming / Rewrite option in hopes it might change things up going that particular route, and through that giving me the courage to press on past that point of the story.

That makes sense. Unfortunately there's no way to do both :/

I think any choice would be fine tbh. 0.5 is a good time to fix things, and if it's something you think can be done in one release, it's good as well.

Zela

Tough one. I would really really love a week 7.. but some tidy up might well be needed. Can't decide so I won't vote.

Moog

I kind of want to see the consequences of what happens in 0.5.0, but after that I'd be quite happy to see you go back and add more content to some of the unfinished subplots!

If you're at a "decision gate" at the moment as to whether to keep plunging forward or pause to tidy up "older" stuff...I'd say do the tidy-up. Otherwise you're just going to have more tidy-up stuff to do later.

Sync

I understand that by adding the VG part it would not greatly affect your advancement of the game. But I think it would require another replay from the beginning to add the VG. I am just getting tired of having to replay games after updates. It is not just you. I have to have very little replay for your game. But I support many people. I don't like to do all the clicking to get back to were I was for maybe 10 minutes of new material. In some cases it may take me over an hour or more as I do scan to see if the dialogue has changed.

OhioOkie

The Cosplay stuff sounds amazing... really hope that wins out.

bos

I guess I didn't do a great job explaining it in the post. The video game path is not a separate route. I would be continuing the storyline that went through the weekend of Week 4, where Danni participated in a video game tournament (if he didn't do kickball/live-reading stuff). It would simply be continuing what is already there, and adding those things to Weeks 5 and 6 to catch up. I appreciate you worrying about the complexity, but I assure you it won't impact the ability to make Week 7 happen.

Seems to me the video game path would be good for another game. One hook into the game could be the person has a sister and possibly her gf need another girl to enter this VG or VR tournament that are girls only. From there the eCloset could get style in girl mode, they need to send in a real photo of themselves, they win locally and get a trip for a 2 week tournament with enter views and it continues. Could Even have one of the girls or possibly a manager wants the guy to actually transform. Or even an enemy. I think if you add another path the writing for week 7 will get more complex as there could be interactions associated with the other paths.

OhioOkie

Totally a valid point. The video game storyline wouldn't be a whole third path; think of it as one more activity, like the live-reading or kickball. Something that occurs 1-2 times per week, rather than a whole separate route.

I love this game. So I'm really keen for more of the store to unfold. The more storylines you put in the longer it is gonna take you to move through it. I love the sound of the gamer storyline, but I'm more excited for the continuation if the current storylines. Come back when you have complete the current storylines. Just my two cents.