Can't you say it here?

Is it possible to spork Choose Your Own Adventure fics? by Laburnum on 2010-07-06 01:24:00 UTC Reply

I ask because writing.com is riddled with them, and most of them are astoundingly bad in every one of their possible storylines. Would the agents have to go back and spork each story thread individually?

*leans on Laburnum* by Techno-Dann on 2010-07-07 02:54:00 UTC Reply

We need to have a bit of a chat about TVTropes - I'm usually online at techno.dann on Gmail/Gchat, or I can dust off my AIM, if that's more convenient for you.

Can't you say it here? by Laburnum on 2010-07-07 07:00:00 UTC Reply

If you want me to take down all the bits I've posted about my agents, I will. I'm sorry, I got carried away. Won't happen again.

I could, yeah. by Techno-Dann on 2010-07-07 07:09:00 UTC Reply

It's nothing terribly huge, really - especially after reviewing TVTropes's page on Notability, which did a good job of shooting down one of my arguments, what I have to say really boils down to this: I think that if we list every trope that might apply to the PPC on the main PPC page, we'll very quickly loose the feel of the organization into the forest of tropes. A week ago, the page was 14,000 words long - bigger than Firefly's 11,000 and huge compared to the Star Trek TOS's 5000. I suppose it goes without saying that we've had our fair share of newbies from TVTropes who were really excited about the PPC without really grasping the feel of the thing, so I would really appreciate it if we could try to keep the main page at least slightly sparse.

I'm in a very similar boat to most of the people here, I suspect - I've never seen a trope I didn't like (or didn't want to subvert), and the PPC, being metafiction, is a very nice platform for lampshade hanging. I'm just trying to prevent a flood of misinformed newbies.

Expand this post →

Okay, thank you. Sorry, and I'll stop. by Laburnum on 2010-07-07 07:27:00 UTC Reply

I just found myself thinking "Okay, they've cleared out the ones which only apply to a few characters, that's good ... wait, this one could apply to a lot of them ... and so could this one ..." It's an addiction, I swear :) I'll cut a few out if you want me to.

Hmm... by Silikat on 2010-07-06 07:59:00 UTC Reply

So long as all of the awful characters down the various plot strands have been charged and killed, I don't suppose it matters where you go exactly, and what you leave out. After all, doesn't the continuum fix itself (sort of) once you've got rid of the thing that is warping it?

Most of the threads seem to taper off quickly ... by Laburnum on 2010-07-06 10:28:00 UTC Reply

... because the authors get bored, so with at least some of them there wouldn't be much to spork for each individual storyline. It's just keeping track of them and finding a good stopping point for each one that could be a problem.

You could argue... by Silikat on 2010-07-06 16:56:00 UTC Reply

...that that is the same in fanfiction, though, only there's less of 'em.

I'm sure there are some creative ways to do so. by doctorlit on 2010-07-06 07:36:00 UTC Reply

One idea is that the agents have to pick which path the fic goes down, but then have a disagreement about where to go next, so they get separated in the story, have to collect charges separately, then unite again for the usual charging and assassinating. It would be something different, anyway.
I'm sure it's possible... by Neshomeh on 2010-07-06 03:12:00 UTC Reply

Beats me how, though. O.o Um... maybe just pick a few of the worst scenarios and follow those until you have enough charges?

~Neshomeh
Oh dear by Firebird766 on 2010-07-06 01:40:00 UTC Reply

If we're talking about Sues (which would be either "you" or a sidekick), I can see an agent pair manipulating things so that the Sue gets the most painful ending. Or maybe they go through all of the threads, with repetitions and too-similar branches being glossed over except for the exasperation of the agents.

It would be whatever option is the funniest, really.
Oh dear lord. by Eclectus on 2010-07-06 01:28:00 UTC Reply

That sounds like insanity. Maybe they could use a variation of the thing that lets you kill sequel-Sues all at once.