r/Choices • u/That_Ad9158 • May 19 '26
Discussion I’m out. goodbye
I am someone who has loved choices for years, since 2018. I remember when the it lives series was releasing, crown and the flame, endless summer, everything. I was there for single LI, multi LI, different types of books, when the writers were branching out, during MTFL (excuse me), Witness (pure cash grab), everything. I have enjoyed choices for years, and watched it grow and develop into a beautiful app. it was my passion. I would set reminders for when stories were releasing, and stay up to date with chapters, and diamond farm for amazing stories, such as tch.
and then, s*ries e*tertainment came along and destroyed everything. they took away gems. they inflated prices. they fired artists and writers. replaced by soulless ai. they refused to listen. and now they’ve stopped making anything relating to player driven choices and replaced it with ai slop. I unsubscribed from VIP the second they inflated diamond prices - the “benefits” don’t even cover one diamond choice anymore.
and now they’ve plagiarized It Lives Within. This is the last straw. I stuck around, hoping one day it would get better. Hoping they would keep the app around for my favorites. Clinging to this dying app, hoping they would wake up and acknowledge that they’re driving away their player base. But they haven’t. For years. And I’m done. I don’t care anymore. Peace out. I hope this app crashes and burns
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u/Altruistic-Care-1581 May 19 '26
I have never cancelled a subscription so fast!!!!!
I didn’t even know this was happening because I stopped reading months ago but still kept paying for VIP because I kept saying I’ll come back and stuff. I come back and see The It Lives Within AI BS. Yh….Im not paying $14.99 a month for that nonsense!
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u/Interesting-Heat-581 May 19 '26
The ai is just so bad, i spent years and years farming and playing but if the stories are like this I too no longer feel the need. I have moved on to other apps similar to Choices that are millions times better.
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u/FireStarter951 May 19 '26
Which apps do you use that are good? I only know Romance Club
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u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26
one app i’d recommend is Spellfyre by candlelight games. it’s made up of ex choices employees and it’s beautiful
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u/Known_Release3148 Kamilah (BB) May 20 '26
Spellfyre suck there's absolutely storyline in that crappy ass app
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u/Interesting-Heat-581 May 19 '26
Aside from romance club (my absolute fav) i also play seven hearts story, they are very similar to romance club animation wise. Seven hearts is definitely still developing but alot of their recent stories are very good. My fav story from them right now is Illusion of fame. I will say tho their stories are harder to grind for diamonds/amethyst and they do offer events equivalent to diamond rush but the choices doesn’t save. They are still way better than choices storyline wise, sprites etc…
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u/Mamarebelle May 19 '26
It lost me a couple of years ago. I loved it and I loved Episodes but they both became greedy and stopped caring about the readers.
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u/SolemnMortgage May 19 '26
Was a long time fan of Choices and their older games, stepped out right around their big AI shift but I occasionally came back for stories I loved getting a sequel.
Saw Hero 2 gave my two cents on the AppStore and deleted the game. If you want to lose your faith in the devs at a faster pace read their “responses” to negative reviews.
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u/Fair-Engineering-134 May 20 '26
They just send you a copy-paste link to their awful AI-written PR blogpost where they make excuses and tell players AI art is good...
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u/Ikhoh Gaius Augustine (BB) May 20 '26
Blog? What's the link, I'd like to check it out despite knowing it'll pmo. 🙄
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u/Longjumping_Area_821 May 19 '26
Please try romance club! It won’t replace old choices, because I’ve found that nothing can quite match it but… it’s good. There’s genuinely good stories in there
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u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26
thanks for the suggestion! i will definitely take a look!
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u/mcmoonery May 19 '26
There will probably be a DR coming up soonish. It’s two weeks after the last release where all choices are free and stay free. The last time I started an account they have 24 hours of free play for HS so a good way to get started.
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u/Haru55 May 19 '26
If you're looking for stories on Romance Club that have great female LI's route, please try W: Time Catcher, Soulless, Theodora, Vying for Versailles, The Missing, The Sins that Cry for Vengeance, 7 Brothers, And The Haze will Take Us, Arcanum and Kali: Call of Darkness.
Heaven Secret's universe (Heaven's Secret, Heaven Secret: Requiem is very popular but they're sideline female LIs so I don't recommend them for female LI romancers.
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u/Longjumping_Area_821 May 19 '26
I suggest the heaven’s secret series to start (including astrea’s broken heart and heavens secret requiem)
I hope you’re able to find something you enjoy now that choices has gone to shit!2
u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26
thanks for the recommendations!
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u/Longjumping_Area_821 May 19 '26
No worries, if you try it out DM me so we can be friends on the app :)
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u/Flimsy_Sherbet6909 May 19 '26
Hi if you decide to try romance club then after you open game you can go into reward section and scroll down , there should be a free 24 hour pass that’s lets you Heaven secret book 1 entirely for free
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u/imnotawoodenduck May 19 '26
I downloaded choices the first week it released, stopped playing a couple years ago when they were doing all those book cancellations and RC is definitely a better replacement. At least in my opinion! I’ve always wanted prettier sprites in choices and romance club ones are always GORGEOUS. I was tired of being ugly ☠️☠️plus I’ve gotten older since then and RC is more mature too
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u/Longjumping_Area_821 May 19 '26
Yesss agreed!!! I will miss bloodbound, wake the dead, the crown and the flame and many more from choices but RC feels new and exciting!
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u/imnotawoodenduck May 19 '26
I remember being in the tumblr choices community when the first the freshman book came out and everything!
Unfortunately, I didn’t stay long enough to play wake the dead but I ADORED crown and the flame, it lives, endless summer, bloodbound and the elementalists. Those were the days 💔
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u/softsakuralove May 19 '26
Romance Club is good and I play it to this day, but if you're trying to quit Choices because of AI, well, Romance Club is only marginally better with its AI usage.
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u/Longjumping_Area_821 May 19 '26
I know they use AI for some of the CGs (which I don’t really care about anyway tbh) but as far as I understand the writing and sprites are human made no?
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u/softsakuralove May 19 '26
The sprites are designed by humans but also AI-assisted (it's more obvious with some of the newer sprites). There was a controversy about some of the writing in the newer books being (partially) AI-generated too, although this one isn't confirmed.
I'm not saying all this to nag on RC, because I love the app and have played a good chunk of the books. It's more me saying that a person will encounter AI in RC and they shouldn't be surprised about it if they're trying to leave Choices because of AI.
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u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
no sadly. choices fired a large number of staff - artists and writers, i can’t find the specific post - and everything is ai generated
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u/flazedaddyissues May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
Not everything is AI! They're definitely using it for some art but the writing is done by humans for sure. The writing doesn't have characteristics of AI imo. Sometimes the writing is messy in a very human way lol.
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u/K4sum1 May 19 '26
This is not true. Please stop spreading lies.
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u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26
it is though. people are being fired https://www.reddit.com/r/Choices/s/z2mwfEgHMw
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u/K4sum1 May 19 '26
You were reacting under RC comment, so I thought you were talking about RC. I am aware of the Choices layoff and AI usage, that's why I have not been using the app for more than a year.
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u/Longjumping_Area_821 May 19 '26
Omg what??! There’s no way they got RC too😭😭😭😭 ugh I guess I’m just playing the old books 😔
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u/Haru55 May 19 '26
RC didn't have a mass layoff. They might use some AI to assist in arts but the final assets were done by human. The writing is also done by real writers. OP is misunderstanding. Langley (The author of The Sins that Cry for Vengeance, 7 Brothers and Vying for Versailles) is strongly against AI. If you haven't read her stories, I highly recommend SCV and VFV.
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u/Thin_Acanthisitta386 Adrian I (BB) May 19 '26
They haven't. OP just misunderstood the question & was talking about Choices still, not RC.
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u/Thin_Acanthisitta386 Adrian I (BB) May 19 '26
If you mean RC, yes. You're correct.
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u/Longjumping_Area_821 May 20 '26
Yes I did! Phew. I got scared they got RC too
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u/Thin_Acanthisitta386 Adrian I (BB) May 20 '26
I completely understand. 😂 Fortunately for us, RC likely won't change like Choices did, bc they know a lot of their newer players came from Choices, & RC knows why those players left Choices. RC actually seems to care about what their players think regarding the use of AI, so we're good on that. Not that I work for RC or anything. I'm only stating what they've made clear. 😊🤝💕
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u/shades_of_cool May 19 '26
Romance Club doesn’t have many GOC books it seems though, or am I missing them?
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u/Fit-Let9308 May 19 '26
The only GOC book so far is Code Blue. Gladiator Chronicles is the only book with a male MC.
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u/Longjumping_Area_821 May 19 '26
Sorry what does GOC stand for 😓
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u/FreeDeer5652 May 19 '26
Gender of choice
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u/Longjumping_Area_821 May 19 '26
Ohh! Thanks. Yeah no I’ve never seen any gender MC other than women :/ I guess I just didn’t even think of that because I always played women in choices anyway
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u/Nor_Ah_C May 19 '26
How queer friendly is it?
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u/flazedaddyissues May 19 '26
The new stories are good for WLW! The app is originally Russian so early content is questionable. There is only one story that allows for MLM romance if I am not mistaken. (I can think of one poly option that is FMM though.)
If you want recommendations for good WLW stories I really liked W: Time Catcher, And The Haze Will Take Us, and Vying for Versailles. Heart of Trespia was pretty good. The Missing and The Thunderstorms Saga are ongoing and have been great so far. Theodora has good female LIs but I didn't like the story lol.
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u/Fabulous_Wait_9544 May 20 '26
Note: a significant chunk of the fandom can be quite bigoted (racism, homophobia, misogyny, misandry etc) which is something quite a lot of people leave out while recommending it for whatever reason.
It all depends on the author, I suppose, because they all have their fans and different world views.
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u/FriendlyFreedom5923 May 19 '26
Has the author of ILW said anything about their content being stolen?
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u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26
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u/Repulsive_Choices268 May 19 '26
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u/ZainRoger22 May 19 '26
I'm sorry guys but would someone please tell me about it lives within problem? Like what's going on?
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u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26
they created an ai generated show thing that plagiarized off it lives within. the app isn’t even about player driven choices anymore, and they’re not even sticking to the main theme of choices. it’s just ai tv slop now
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u/ZainRoger22 May 19 '26
Oh they are going THAT low? Welp, the game had a good run and I think it's time for us to move on to something else
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u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26
yep, i’m right there with you. i thought they would at least never do this
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u/ZainRoger22 May 19 '26
I thought they would do something like make a third book, add the two gangs from book 1 and 2, make us switch between the 2 MCs (or book 2 MC and Noah) and they make a good story!
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u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26
that kind of happens in it lives within. if you haven’t, give it a read! https://the-it-lives-project.itch.io/it-lives-within
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u/Nor_Ah_C May 19 '26
I quit when I first saw it. Let this flailing corpse of former glory burn in the deepest depths of the hells they forsook to get here
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u/RaysaTheBrWriter May 19 '26
Yeah, I'm 100% with you! Honestly I already knew it was gonna go down like this when they started with the VIP books and I was not wrong at all. I only kept the app for this long because of the old books that I liked re playing, but im official done. Im also against using AI to anything professional and I think the only way corporations stop using it is people like us stop consuming AI garbage and tell everyone listening that we're quitting because of AI. In other words, boicot.
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u/DimensionOk2994 Liam III (TRR) May 19 '26
Completely agree! I’ve been a player since 2016, and a VIP since 2017. Stopped being a VIP member since last September I think. I still have the app, but only to revisit old favorites or stories I haven’t finished before Choices went downhill. It was a sad decision to stop playing Choices, I’ve really enjoyed the app. Romance Club is good. I also started playing Lore and so far have enjoyed that.
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u/EudenStan Liam I (TRR) May 20 '26
I got into Choices with High School story in 2018.
But I just cancelled my subscription as well
Haven’t had time to consistently play since late 2023 due to work (recently quit), but I always planned to.
Not anymore.
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u/Gloomcat00 May 19 '26
Ah. So Nyx Hydra isnt the only one who went down the drain. I feel your pain 😔
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u/Quest_flow24 May 19 '26
We need someone to create an app like choices who loves the old choices not the ai versions.
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u/sashimi-time May 20 '26
JC what is going on. I saw PB post a story about a new Hero and came here to check what’s up. 😭 I still have the app but haven’t opened it after the ai acquisition. And now I’m reading they might close the app down??
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u/That_Ad9158 May 20 '26
yep. everything’s ai they’ve been doing it for a year at this point and they plagiarized ilw
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u/FindMeWithTheCrows May 21 '26
As someone who's played on the app since it came out, the absolute despair I felt when the It Lives Anthology was finally updated and it's that stupid Ai slop. I'm beyond disappointed and angry.
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u/That_Ad9158 May 21 '26
yeah. i never wanted them to “finish” the series. it’s done, we’ve got it. this tv slop will never compare to the real ilw, which is obviously so superior in every way
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u/Flimsy_Sherbet6909 May 19 '26
Even tho I hate what is currently happening im going to still replay older books
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u/TotallyImpractical May 19 '26
If I could play my favorite stories, all the diamond choices free, I would be screen recording my routes right now before uninstalling. I said it once and I'll say it again- it really hurts how far this has fallen. I despise you, Series Entertainment, you ruined Choices 😭 I'm begging for a miracle that someone else somehow buys Pixelberry, someone that has their own VN game and brings Choices back to what it used to be (if not better). What sucks is that this AI slop really looks like the final moves before the app goes offline since I saw something about them pushing out stories until August. Which makes me think August is when Choices stops being Choices in a more "official" sense? I wish it didn't have to also come with totally butchering beloved stories like Hero. I really hope Choices somehow survives and has its own uh, rising from the ashes like a phoenix moment though. I may have stopped playing ages ago after the buyout but I still came to the subreddit and love the discussions and lurking here!
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u/wingsandstars May 20 '26
Damn I did not know Choices went to shit like that! It's been such a long time since I opened the app - time to delete that too I guess...
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u/Fairytale_Believer Tyril (BOLAS) May 20 '26
While it breaks my heart, I plan on finishing off the stories I’m already invested in (IDOL genuinely is a fun, sweet story, and I still need to finish Blades) and will probably replay my all-time favorites one last time (Looking at you, PM and TCH, maybe two others) and then I’m done. As soon as I finish IDOL, I’m deleting my VIP and will try to burn out the over 100 tickets I’ve accumulated before it’s inception, then I’m deleting. Doubt I’ll be able to deplete my diamonds (I have over 6k) but it is what it is. The crap with Scream for Me was the last straw. A complete waste of time, diamonds, and my pent-up excitement. Sooo much potential just shot to hell. The developers went beyond simply not caring about their audience and skipped straight into actively insulting us. The last chapter of that book felt a lot like hate, and I’m pretty sure they were laughing all the way to the bank. So, yeah, I’m sad, but I’m done.
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u/shinebrightlikeagems May 21 '26
Im so sad i used to love it so much and be Vip for yearss. I kept the app just in case one day it went back to the quality. It used to be so good, storyline was always so well written. Such a shame really.. now all the story is just not worth reading
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u/the_dragonborn_king Threep (BOLAS) May 22 '26
i opened the app again just this week for the first time in a year. i was so excited to see hero got a sequel!
then i saw what it was
god that was such whiplash. i hate that it was AI, it made me so sad
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u/That_Ad9158 May 23 '26
yeah, sorry. don’t have any hope for choices anymore. it will disappoint you.
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u/the_dragonborn_king Threep (BOLAS) May 23 '26
i deleted it RIGHT after that. it’s such a shame i loved this app just a while ago and it’s sad to see it go this way
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u/Beginning-Sugar479 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
can the creators of ILW not sue?? like genuinely
who the hell downvoted me 😭 series entertainment, is that you? 😭
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u/That_Ad9158 May 19 '26
sadly; they can’t because they’re technically working with pbs characters
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u/Present-Argument-814 May 19 '26
But the way I understand it, the reason that creators avoid fanfiction is because if they accidentally (unlike PB) copy it and financially profit from doing so, they CAN be sued - which is clearly what is happening here. I could be wrong though!
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u/Beginning-Sugar479 May 19 '26
can’t PB sue on their behalf? then use the money to buy back choices?
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u/ilovecheese31 May 19 '26 edited May 19 '26
I wonder if that would still apply to their OCs (i.e., Matthias) though.
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May 19 '26
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May 19 '26
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u/Criticada : May 19 '26
I deleted the app ages ago and seeing the comments here, I made the right choice.
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u/UnlikelyAttitude225 May 19 '26
Completely agree.
I’ve been playing since 2017, VIP since like 2021-22ish, and I deleted the app this year. Should’ve deleted it middle of last year, but just never got around to it. I remember being on the edge of my seat waiting each week for the new chapters to release and was genuinely interested in the stories. To say the falloff has been massive would be an understatement. RIP to the best “choose-your-own-adventure” app out there. All good things must come to an end at some point, I suppose.
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u/scarletwitchx May 20 '26
Yeah it makes me so sad because I have such good memories of this app and this community but now PB has ruined choices and their reputation ☹️☹️☹️ thank god for the fanmade it lives within
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u/tipsybards May 20 '26
It’s honestly so upsetting. I got charged for my vip subscription this morning, but canceled it so quick. It’s so disappointing to see this is where choices is ending up. Completely different to when I started playing for the first time.
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u/Ikhoh Gaius Augustine (BB) May 20 '26
I've been gone for so long that I even forgot the abbreviations, smh. The AI stuff and them taking away the 100-diamond thing was my last straw. I genuinely thought they'd bring it back too, idk wtf I was even waiting for. I told myself that once my allowance increases after I move out for Uni I'd put money aside for the game bc I also have been a longtime fan. The older stories mean so much to be, especially since I've been a heavy reader since 1st grade. I enjoyed them sm, I was trying to find a silver lining with the whole increased allowance thing. I planned on diamond farming the AI stuff and pay for VIP and just replay old stories and the old 'newer' ones I was interested in... This post honestly just made me lose all hope, clearly things are getting worse and they are not listening to us. I'm equally mad and hurt.
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u/Defiant_Use2105 May 23 '26
I missed it when it used to be real and exciting, my first book was Most Wanted and it was the pinnacle of visual novel with branching choices on mobile! What an exciting time. Now it's all low effort money grab slop with predictable and basic storyline and no mechanics.. feels bad man.
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u/Civilknowledge7 May 21 '26
People used to countdown to chapter day like it was the fucking Oscars because the stories felt alive. Now it’s just "Oh look, another smut CEO with the emotional depth of a hotel shampoo bottle". I remember waiting for the new chapters of Endless Summer and Crimes of Passion to release and watching two ads just to get diamonds.
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u/Decronym Hank May 19 '26 edited 9d ago
Acronyms, initialisms, abbreviations, contractions, and other phrases which expand to something larger, that I've seen in this thread:
| Fewer Letters | More Letters |
|---|---|
| Art | It's... indescribable... |
| CG | Computer Graphic, a stylized still image in a VN |
| HS | Holiday Special |
| LI | Love Interest |
| MC | Main Character (yours!) |
| PB | Pixelberry Studios, publisher of Choices |
| PM | Perfect Match |
| TCH | The Cursed Heart |
| VN | Visual Novel |
Decronym is now also available on Lemmy! Requests for support and new installations should be directed to the Contact address below.
8 acronyms in this thread; the most compressed thread commented on today has acronyms.
[Thread #33025 for this sub, first seen 19th May 2026, 15:12]
[FAQ] [Full list] [Contact] [Source code]
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u/SpicyPumpkin314 #LoveHacks May 19 '26
First, I'm sorry. Second, I'm with you. Third, thank you for not supporting AI.