What kind of gamebooks do you currently prefer

[CharlesX]

Do you prefer the more thrilling FF or does it make you want to tear your hair out? Is CYOA just for kids or underrated? Or will the often-strong neutrals win this one? You can only vote once for one answer. Voting closes 4:30 P.M. August 27th. This is my 1st attempt at a poll, so apologies for any technical errors\naivete.

[a moderator]

The poll's a bit binary. There are a few different types of gamebook with no randomised outcomes - apart from the likes of CYOA and EQ, you also have some with stats and/or inventory management (principally Virtual Reality and its variants), and there are also series in which puzzle-solving is the key to making the right decisions (such as Be An Interplanetary Spy and Maths Quest). And sometimes, while there's no rolling of dice (or similar), a gamebook can still have a quasi-random aspect in that success or failure depends on purely arbitrary choices (Stephen Thraves' Secret Agent A.C.E. is a particular offender in this regard, with six separate instances of 'guess which of these four place names is the correct code word', and even one wrong guess guarantees failure). 

There are also some gamebooks that have random elements but are closer in style to CYOA, such as Wizards, Warriors & You or Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who (both of which occasionally get a bit loopy with their randomisers: 'What day of the week were you born on?' 'Which of these anagrams can you solve fastest?').

I used to massively prefer randomisation. Nowadays I'm more concerned about the quality of the plot, characterisation, and writing.

[CharlesX]

Aug 23, 2021 16:12:20 GMT a moderator said:

The poll's a bit binary. There are a few different types of gamebook with no randomised outcomes - apart from the likes of CYOA and EQ, you also have some with stats and/or inventory management (principally Virtual Reality and its variants), and there are also series in which puzzle-solving is the key to making the right decisions (such as Be An Interplanetary Spy and Maths Quest). And sometimes, while there's no rolling of dice (or similar), a gamebook can still have a quasi-random aspect in that success or failure depends on purely arbitrary choices (Stephen Thraves' Secret Agent A.C.E. is a particular offender in this regard, with six separate instances of 'guess which of these four place names is the correct code word', and even one wrong guess guarantees failure). 

There are also some gamebooks that have random elements but are closer in style to CYOA, such as Wizards, Warriors & You or Make Your Own Adventure with Doctor Who (both of which occasionally get a bit loopy with their randomisers: 'What day of the week were you born on?' 'Which of these anagrams can you solve fastest?').

I used to massively prefer randomisation. Nowadays I'm more concerned about the quality of the plot, characterisation, and writing.

I was hugely into Usborne Puzzle Adventures growing up, which some people define as gamebooks, even though they don't have the option to turn to different references based on your decisions. I like puzzles - very much - but once you solve a puzzle, the element about it is over with, which is my argument for the exclusion, together with inventory systems. My intent is to ask a pretty straight question, and so I choose to do that knowing I could instead have included puzzles, inventory systems, coin flips, one-off die-rolling and other things. Wizards, Warriors & You has a bunch of coin flips that are necessary, even in the correct route, so although the audience is clearly younger kids, they are definitely a little bit luck-based. Doctor Who had a string of gamebooks; Make Your Own Adventure With Doctor Who was one of the poorer gamebook series which asked the reader out-there, personal questions as you say, the puzzle and dice elements weren't always weak but the writing, gameplay and characterisation were very poor along with continuity, short length and technical errors.

[a moderator]

Aug 23, 2021 16:44:12 GMT CharlesX said:

I like puzzles - very much - but once you solve a puzzle, the element about it is over with, which is my argument for the exclusion

It could be argued that certain FF books with overly narrow 'true paths' are essentially the same thing. When practically every choice has only one option that won't ultimately get you killed, working out what to do and what not to do isn't all that different to working out the correct answer to each successive puzzle - except that there's likely to be more trial and error, and less actual working things out. There's more reasoning involved in 'What comes next in this sequence?' than in 'Will you open the door or walk past it?' but if there's only one non-fail option in each instance, both boil down to 'remember the correct option for future attempts'.

There is also the random element, of course, but that just makes things worse: not only do you have nothing to do but work out the 'right' answer at each decision, but you also need to roll the correct numbers in between certain 'choices'.

[CharlesX]

With a mere 7 votes this poll is too small and insignificant to tell us much one way or others (and I voted myself, so really, we're split 50 50). The one takeaway is people like series other than FF, which this site is designed for. I guess if I'd done a similar poll on a CYOA site more people would have said they supported their series.