R34 Economy CYOA?

[Coily boi]

What, actually, is it? I keep seeing stories get posted with this in the title, or the tags. Stories with a whole ton of 'selected options' like scenarios, and modifiers.

And with how prolific these have become, I had assumed there was some super-interesting and inspiring CYOA somewhere that all these people were using.

But I can't find anything. Perhaps just incompetent google-ing, but the best I can find is several large images with a bunch of pictures of random women from anime and video games listed under various amounts of money.

I barely even understood what I was looking at, so hopeful for a well-made, interesting CYOA that could inspire many great story ideas that I was.

But there it was. Some trashy images that an eight year old could have cobbled together on photoshop in under three hours. Both because of the obvious lack of complexity, but also because you wouldn't need to understand the first thing about sex to stick anime pictures under prices.

I really hope there's more to it, and seek enlightenment on the subject.

People of QQ, help me out here?

 

[Coily boi]

Also, 'I pick speedwagon!' - the fuck is that?

 

[wichajster]

https://forum.questionablequesting.com/threads/r34-economy-cyoa-thread.11289/

CYOA that could inspire many great story ideas that I was.

Click to shrink...

I am unaware about any great completed story inspired by it (some are promising, but just starting and likely to be abandoned as usual). Can you link this treasures?

 

[Coily boi]

Nah, dude, I meant I was hoping there would be something to inspire great stories there.

Given that there's so damn many people doing it popping up.

I haven't found a single really good one yet.

 

[wichajster]

https://forum.questionablequesting....unquam-titillandus-dracosi-r34-economy.11794/ is promising.

No extreme ridiculous lolstomping OP protagonist - though still OP, decent writing, protagonist is less evil than Hitler. But it is an early WIP likely to be abandoned.

 

[Bob Knob]

It seems to be instead of powers, a system to recruit followers with a perverted leaning. Basically choosing companions only. Although if you choose right you can still gain powers. RWBY for example.

 

[d.fish]

Slavery with extra steps. First time with a power fantasy fad?

 

[SwiftRosenthal]

The original R34 Economy CYOAs were trash, but Ina_Meishou, JeckJack, klassekatze, Chastity, CrunchySharpie, and ArrowWay managed to make something decent out of them anyway.

The real shift was with the Catalog. Numbers-wise, it has a much greater selection of characters than all of the previous CYOAs combined, and introduced actual lore for why the stuff exists and who runs it, but more important are the (initial) swift pace of updates and rebalances and (relative to the original CYOAs) new features that are specifically meant for the long-form serial multicross self-inserts that QQ loves. Pick your starting world, with a budget that changes according to the world's perceived difficulty), select your perks and party (with most of the OP coming from the party), and go.

The better Catalog fics IMO are:
Alter (OP in a setting where that isn't enough, with mostly intra-harem politics so far)
Be a Dragon (MC is not aware of the CYOA, mostly character-focused)
Madness It Is... (limited build with One True Waifu, character-focused with enough chapters for significant narrative momentum)
Conquest of Paradise
The Contractor (most lore-compliant, with the best reason why someone would willingly participate in the premise)
Goddess's Blessings on this Not So Wonderful New World (has Konosuba characters. Of course it won't take itself seriously)
Multiversal Mayhem (most consistent updating pace made it the guinea pig for a lot of balance issues and fixes)
Lambent (author knows a lot about a lot of settings and characters... and also pointedly ignores CYOA updates)
Doki Doki Interplanetary Economy Club (effectively just a DDLC/State of Decay cross, wouldn't be recognizable as Catalog-related if not for the A/N)

Also notable are Draupadi, the first and currently only reverse harem fic, and An Original Economy, which throws out the whole already-existing-characters from already-existing-settings thing in favor of the exact opposite: all original, all the time.

 

[Coily boi]

I would like to provide a correction to the topic presented by this thread. I can absolutely see where the interest in this CYOA comes from...

Provided you're talking about the waifu catalog CYOA version, and not the earlier 10-year-old 2-hour-photoshop.

It's basically jumpchain but with a sexual emphasis the original never had, combined with being able to port characters to new settings and have them 'love' your super special OC as a huge part of the premise.

Also the super-technology.

Also the provisions for OP-SI.

 

[HelixProphet]

I just hope it dies down. Like the good ones could be counted on a hand while the others are halfheartedly attempts to fulfill their fantasies. Then again the good ones also do that.

Then there is also the mind control aspect. God I hate that concept. Why write a story if the character interaction is only all girls follow MC's order to the letter without conflict. It doesn't help it removes the personal spark that makes those characters enjoyable to read because they become blank slates in love with the MC.

 

[silentshot]

I just hope it dies down. Like the good ones could be counted on a hand while the others are halfheartedly attempts to fulfill their fantasies. Then again the good ones also do that.

Then there is also the mind control aspect. God I hate that concept. Why write a story if the character interaction is only all girls follow MC's order to the letter without conflict. It doesn't help it removes the personal spark that makes those characters enjoyable to read because they become blank slates in love with the MC.

Click to shrink...

Well. I do love me some mind control. I wouldn't be able to be happy without it existing in some form or fashion in my fantasies. Also, it's far more unrealistic to see top-tier level characters interact with a (sorry not sorry) frankly run of the mill normal base guy/gal from our Earth and see them get married to those characters because of Author fiat.

I mean don't get me wrong. By lieu of Occam's Razor, most (weeb) people on Earth would ditch their dates and go straight for a relationship with one of their idealised characters whom they intensely like, whom they are attracted to and hold affection for. And by that logic of passing over the mundane people of our Earth to attempt to get an idealised anime(or other fiction-turned real) Waifu or Husbando as your companion, one can say that the same should be true for those characters too.

Unless those anime characters have INCREDIBLY LOW STANDARDS (like really low standards) which most weeb folks are bound to be categorised into, (it's a rare exception to have a successful human blessed with genetics and luck and prosperity and other great qualities to make an all round individual just as amazingly "perfect" like those anime characters), there's no realistic way to make a fic where these characters who have taste for the better sorts of people, will make do with the base, mundane folks from our Earth.

I just don't see a random (not so stereotypical) weeb become idolized by Hinata Hyuuga as her love interest when she had Ninja Jesus Naruto Uzumaki as the standard she loves as her ideal mate and didn't even have eyes for anything other than him, for example.

I'm being too brutal on our Earth folk I suppose. Just see this as my opinion on this matter derived from looking at mine own hilariously sad odds of ever winning a spot in any way in the loving eyes of ANY Waifus I know about. People don't want something that's below their standards and I haven't made much progress in getting to an acceptable standard here on Earth so how the heck would I get a Waifu like say, SAMUS ARAN as my love companion who has got to have pretty amazing standards on whom she wants to spend her life with!

It's not even common sense. It's a truth of life and society, when it comes to how humans try to find mates. Fictional characters are also subject to this mode of thought. They just don't go for lower standards unless it's a really ridiculous emergency, or they are out of their minds or they like low standards by default or something.

I don't know about other people but for me it looks horribly unrealistic to see random Earth people charm the pants off characters that possess higher standards in potential mates. Don't even think about trying to charm characters like Boa Hancock or Kerrigan who are the types to kill any randos that look at them just because they have incredibly low tolerance for even slightly annoying people.

I may think it's incredibly hamfisted and outright impossible for randos to get high standard folks but not all stories have to be written with realistic scenarios in mind. To each his own though.