What does CYOA mean?

Edit: Choose your own ability?

 

Adventure. There are a lot of them. Worm is the only one I've seen that's so ridiculously unbalanced.

 

Lavanya Six has written a short snip about Assault and Battery's wedding day. Its short, but quite good.

 

In terms of CYOA fic population?

 

Isn't that the one where they randomly decide to Taylor is not actually a parahuman even though she has superpowers and she solves all the world's problems by chapter 5 (only slightly exaggerating)? I seem to recall giving up on it when she broke out some gadget that made everyone immune to the simurgh. Oh and when Jarvis was infinitely superior to dragon because fandom wank or something...

 

No, a lot of different CYOA's. Some viking shit, rangers, ASOIAF, scary movie monsters, etcetera etcetera.

 

If you over-exaggerate everything until the end of time... yes, that's the one. I'm wondering if you actually read the story, since almost every example you gave was inaccurate and full of hyperbole.


She didn't solve the world's problems, (even with slight exaggeration), she introduced some Stark-Tech to Earth Bet, something that given Comic Book Tony Stark's brain isn't unbelievable in the slightest.

Simurgh immunity... Uh, no. It doesn't make them immune. It's just a shield which the Simurgh wound up beating anyway. So that means it failed. And it was about 70+ units, not "everyone".

Jarvis superior because of fandom wank. Again no.

Are you just making up random shit? If you don't like the story, that's fine. Maybe it's just not your cup of tea, but at least stop with all the overblown bullshit that you're throwing.

 

I only read the first few chapters of Memories of Iron, and what I read was shit. I managed to slug my way through the fic until the obligatory 'Angsty conversation with Dad' that happens in ninety percent of Worm fics in which Taylor cries, Danny calls her 'kiddo' at least 613,789 times and they finally hug and repair their relationship, and everyone breathes a sigh of relief because thank fuck, its finally over. The conversation in this fic was bad even by the normal 'Angsty conversation with dad' standards and made me quit the story.

Also, I must ask, is there any chance of A survivor is born updating soon? I am still rooting for Sophia to make her way into Taylor's pants. I need Sophia/Taylor dammit.

 

I thought something was a little odd with that and went to check. In a 120k words, Danny calls Taylor "kiddo" a grand total of 3 times. That's a far cry from 613,789 or what most people would equate to "a lot". Maybe you have this confused with some other story?

But at least you gave a valid reason for giving up on it: you don't like angsty scenes. That's a DLP red flag and it's usually with good reason.


Regarding ASiB: there is no Taylor/Sophia romance. In fact there's no romance at all. I'm pretty sure I wrote her specifically not desiring any type of romance because she felt she was too messed up to inflict herself on anyone else.

 

The 'kiddo' thing was a general complaint, not something particular to this story. Was it really used so many times in Worm canon? It seems to pop up every time Danny and Taylor converse in fanfiction.

As for the Sophia thing, wasn't your story the one in which Sophia tries to seduce Taylor at every turn? Unless I am not remembering correctly? I hardly want romance, I just think Sophia is creepily awesome and can't help but root for her.

 

From the search option, these were all I found.

Canon Kiddos:

Tattletale - 2
Flechette - 1
Trickster - 1
Danny - 2
Unsure (Shell 4.11) - 1

Total- 7

 

The fandom has overused "kiddo" until it grates. I wholeheartedly agree. In canon he calls her Taylor more than Kiddo... that is until she pretty much makes him a non-entity by leaving and going criminal.

ASiB has one scene where Sophia shows up, dressed up, on a mission from Piggot. Taylor thinks she's being flirted with, but that's as far as it goes.

There's a lot of cues that people (characters) are misinterpreting that led them to think Sophia has the hots for Taylor, when in reality she's just a fangirl and wants to use her to get out from under the thumb of the PRT.

SB being SB immediately latched on and declared a Taylor/Sophia ship, running it into the ground.

 

Exactly. It's not the OPness that fucks the fics. It's the fact that SIs are essentially treated as solo quests or someone walking through a video game world.It's not just a character with foreknowledge in the world,it's mostly-me(you etc)

You just have to want to watch someone play out a quest with no set rules or problems and a sort of disconnect from the narrative and world. If not you're not getting much.

I thought Lost Demiurge, who did Dire Worm,would prove me wrong by writing a good one but he seems to be going down the same route with better writing. At this point I'm convinced that it's inherent in the subgenre.

Funnily enough, Ack might actually have one of the best SIs in the fandom,from what I read.

It's 100% better than "bullshit" or "broken" which the fandom seems to either have invented wholesale or blown up out of all proportion. Broken is less prominent now I think, which is kind of good since it sounds like something a nerd who plays board games and writes fanfiction would say .

 

Weaver Nine updated.

Not much happened in the update. The story is still my favorite Worm fanfic, but now that the shock of the Leviathan fight is over and we all have had our chance to catch our breath, I find myself wishing that the story would speed up a bit. I would love a scene involving the Society too - they seem to have mostly disappeared following the Leviathan battle.

 

One of the biggest problems with the SI stories is that they account for very few changes to the plot, if any. They're just there to look omniscient so everyone looks stupid in comparison, and awed at the SI's awesomeness.

Ack has pretty much done it better than others. He takes this into account and changes happen all over the place, because of the problems he creates, until eventually canon info is a lost cause.

Then again he screws it all up by going down the "silly" route with being the ultimate friend to far too many people and solving virtually every conceivable problem in the Wormverse. There's only a handful I can think of at the moment that he hasn't solved, and they're probably next on the list.

If there's the slightest chance that there is good in anyone, then they are "saved" by him. That pretty much killed it for me. That, and fist-bumping... never-ending fist-bumping.


As for "broken": that's another "kiddo" thing. It was mentioned a few times in canon and then beaten to death by SB. I think it was mentioned in context first by Regent, or Uber and Leet... who were all gamers. It's been a while since I read canon, so there's a good chance I'm misremembering.

 

Talking of Uber and Leet as they where briefly mentioned, what's up with all the positive portrayals of them all over the place? I'm getting tired of it. Any stories where they are actually villainous? If so, please post a link. Thank you.

Edit,: When it comes to the CYOA fics, the only one I have somewhat enjoyed is Tyrant of the bay, for some reason the main character seems more real then the ones in the other CYOA fics, still not the best fic out there, it is still a fanfiction where the Main character is overpowered as fuck. here is a link for those interested: http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/tyrant-of-the-bay-worm-cyoa.14472/

 

Exile has villainous Uber and Leet, at least as villainous as they were in canon, which really wasn't all that much. It's a Mass Effect crossover where they work for Taylor, so it's a Villain with a Heart of Gold type.

It's currently one of my favorites. The beginning was slow and kinda boring until I got past all the background on Shepard (sp?) with ME rehash tellings, but once that was done it's pretty good.

Maharal is the other favorite. (no Uber and Leet) since it's a time travel fic staring Golem. So far it's not a fix-it fic.

 

Maharal is definitely one of the better fics in the fandom. Probably my favourite right now.

All the CYOA fics are just trash. The only worth they have is to fill a browser with content as contrast to the red cross in the top right-hand corner.

 

Goblin Queen updated... after a long silence...

http://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/16492390/ - SB Archive
http://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/posts/2801619/ - SV Archive
http://forum.questionablequesting.com/posts/223601/ - QQ Archive
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/9683187/126/Goblin-Queen - FFnet Archive