#choices th:m

[cadybear420]

If the HSS characters were a heist crew in TH:M

Feel free to add any thoughts or suggestions, my brain farted out on ideas for the last two of these

The Mastermind/Leader (Role of TH:M MC): Maria or Michael.

I know. The obvious answer is to put the MC here, they're the glue that holds the group together and all. But since the HSS MC is a very flexbile character, I've decided to leave their position a little more ambiguous. They're in whatever role you feel suits your MC the best :)

So besides MC, I've decided to put both Maria and Michael here. I can't pick one or the other. With Maria's experience in organizing missions such as the Ollie the Tiger investigation and the Principal Isa investigation, and Michael's experience

The Genius (Role of Rye): Maria, or maybe Aiden?

I mean, come on. This one speaks for itself.

The Demolitionist (Role of Eris Huang): Koh, Skye, or Michael.

Koh has the pyromania energy, but Michael and Skye would have the technical skill.

The Hacker (Role of Samira/"Blackbird" or Anton Edison): Michael

Do I even need to elaborate?

The Muscle (Role of Lena Ortiz or Uppercut Jones): Anyone on the football team– Caleb, Julian, Frank; or Koh.

This goes without saying as well. I imagine the football team has some good experience in this category.

I also add Koh in here because she did show to have good skills for defense in the quarterback tryouts.

The Thief (Role of Sybil or Niles Eddison): Emma.

This motherfucker learned how to pick locks from Nancy Drew books. And she seemingly knows how to break into safes too (granted she does have a little more trouble with it).

The Grifter (Role of Peter Graves or Miranda Moreau): Any of the actors from theatre– HSS:CA MC, Rory; maybe HSS:CA MC's twin, Emma, Caleb, or Michael too; maybe Aiden?

The actors thing speaks for itself really.

I also picked Aiden because it would be an excuse for him to get dolled up in a slinky dress and makeup.

The Getaway Driver (Role of Fabien Ahmad or Tillie Marshall): Uhhhhh... Julian? Maria?

IDFK honestly. It was Julian's car that they went in for the Hearst Heist... IDFK.

[lover-also-fighter-also]

Holy trinity of punchable faces of Choices.

Left to right:

Ansel Crane: The heist: Monaco

Guy Ledford: Mother of the year

Barthelemy Beaumont: The Royal Heir

[masked-alien-lesbian]

Why are all the bad guys hot?? 😭

[choices-binglebonkus]

[canonqueercharacters]

The canon queer character of the day is:

Sonia Alves from The Heist: Monaco, who is bisexual.

[yourqueenb]

Gab

Since we’re on the topic of MC’s flirting, can we just quickly talk about how bad some of the dialogue was? 😬 Not exactly a narrative issue, but still prominent enough that it needs to be commented on because it only got worse as the story progressed. And honestly it wasn’t just the corny pickup lines. It was also the excessive interjections and puns during fight scenes. But I don’t want to waste too much time on this because it isn’t exactly unique to this book. Choices has its fair share of cringeworthy lines in other books. I think it was just intensified in this one because of all the other blunders they made.

Gear

Something that was more of a problem for this particular story was the gadgets. The cool devices and weapons agents get to use have always been a notable part of the spy genre. But imo the ones in this book were lame af and also kind of few and far between. We got an electric glove, the Identi-print, infrared goggles, and an electrostick (which was somehow still supposed to be enticing even though we already had the glove). Like these people work at what’s most likely a multi-million, maybe even billion, dollar agency. Why is the woman they were originally tasked to use as an informational asset basically reinventing the wheel and making clunky items that GAIA has probably had stored in their basement for 10+ years?

And despite what it may sound like, this is more of a dig at the writers than Vivian because I don’t actually mind that she was making things for MC and the LI. But where is the imagination??? Idk I just find it hard to believe that they couldn’t come up with anything better than a fingerprint scanner, something you can buy online, and two objects that do the same thing for diamond choices 😒 If anything, the scanner and goggles should’ve been free. And they could’ve chosen one of either the glove or electrostick to include as one of a few other premium gadgets offered throughout the book.

The one positive was that all of the items truly were extras (as premium options should be). But even with that, none of them were used enough to make them worth it. I got the electric glove, which I believe was used the most and was probably also the most novel of the options. But honestly, I could’ve gone without it. So I’m glad I didn’t waste diamonds on any of the other ones.

Garb

Last but certainly not least though was the fashion. Y’all know I have to at least mention it. I was sorely disappointed in pretty much every outfit except for the auction dress. And I really shouldn’t be surprised because PB is known for making ugly outfits atp. But this was their chance to redeem themselves just a little bit. Yet as per usual, the did not understand the assignment.

A spy should literally and figuratively be dressed to kill always. Sleek, sexy, and sophisticated. Those are some of the other qualities I think of when I hear the word. But the wardrobe we got was the exact opposite of those things. An ill-fitting casino dress, a boring suit, diaper pants. A MESS. Not to mention the fact that they did actually create another decent outfit, but it was completely the wrong time for MC to be wearing it! Like why would I pay to give her pneumonia and frostbite because she’s wearing a bra top in the middle of a Russian snowstorm 🤦���‍♀️ And this is coming from someone who normally doesn’t mind slightly unrealistic outfits in these kinds of books/movies because those types of things are usually close to my style. But they had to know that was ridiculous 😒 And I’m afraid I’ll never understand why the closet is something Choices constantly struggles with.

[choicesficwriterscreations]

CFWC F/AotW - Mar 31 - Apr 6, 2024

✒️ = Fanfic | 📱= Text Fics/Edits | 🎨 = Fanart Ⓜ️ = Mature Content 18+ | 🔥 = Explicit/NSFW 18+ 🏳️‍🌈 = LGBTQIA

BLADES OF LIGHT & SHADOW

Darling, Dearest, Dead ✒️ | Tyril Starfury x F!human!MC - @thosehallowedhalls

It's Your Lucky Day, Traitor 🎨🏳️‍🌈| Aerin Valleros - @oh-so-youre-a-nerd

Safe 🎨| Mal Volari x F!human!MC by @wisejazz (C: @storyofmychoices)

Tyril Starfury Fanart 🎨 by @megas-choices

Unreleased and Incomplete ✒️| Tyril Starfury x F!MC - @a-cloud-for-dreams

BLOODBOUND

Be An Amazing Mother 2 ✒️| Adrian Raines x F!MC - @stanathanxoox

The Bigfoot Roadtrip ✒️| Gaius Augustine, Lily Spencer - @thosehallowedhalls

Lily Spencer Fanart 🎨by @artbyalz

CRIMES OF PASSION

Booped! ✒️🏳️‍🌈| m!Trystan Thorne x F!MC - @jerzwriter

Sitting at a Park Bench ✒️| Trystan Thorne x F!MC - @inlocusmads

A Special Gift ✒️| m!Trystan Thorne x F!MC - @thosehallowedhalls for @moominofthevalley

Trial by Dinner ✒️| Sebastyan Thorne x F!MC - @thosehallowedhalls

The Shirt 🎨by @oh-so-youre-a-nerd (C: @thosehallowedhalls

THE CROWN & THE FLAME

TCATF F!OC Fanart 🎨by @lupinobi

Zenobia Nevrakis Fanart 🎨 by @lupinobi

Prince Baltair Nevrakis Fanart 🎨by @lupinobi

THE FRESHMAN SERIES

The Freshman Series MC 🎨by @/mxcameronrose (C: @choiceswithmika)

THE HEIST MONACO

TH:M MC Fanart 🎨by @oh-so-youre-a-nerd

HIGH SCHOOL STORY

The Voice of an Angel ✒️🏳️‍🌈 | Aiden Zhou x F!MC - @cadybear420

HOLLYWOOD U

Hollywood U Art 🎨| Multiple Characters - @hsslilly-blog

IMMORTAL DESIRES

Immortal Desires Fanart 🎨🏳️‍🌈 | Cas Harlow x MC x Gabe Adalhard by @urdilfred

Immortal Desires MC Fanart 🎨by @aria-ashryver

My Girl and Her Guys 🎨| Cas Harlow x MC x Gabe Adalhard by @sizzleissues C: @senatorraines

Snow in Crimson, Starlight in Gold (Series) ✒️🏳️‍🌈Ⓜ️| m!cas harlow x m!gabe adalhard x nb!mc - @aria-ashryver Chapters 39 - Sometimes, we just want a little moment to rest, recover, and enjoy the company of our loved ones 🔥Ⓜ️ and Chapter 40 - ...before reality comes crashing back down 🔥Ⓜ️

IT LIVES

The Egg: An Easter Special ✒️| Stacy Green x M!MC - @korgbelmont

ILW Angst Fic ✒️| ILW MC - @abelflints

MULTIPLE STORIES / CROSSOVERS

Crimes of Passion / The Royal Romance / Rules of Engagement

Three Princes Walk Into a Bar ✒️| Trystan Thorne, Liam Rys, Leo Rys - @thosehallowedhalls

NIGHTBOUND

One Special Day ✒️| Nik Ryder x F!MC - @ladylamrian

OPEN HEART

Complete Open Heart F/AotW List Week of March 31st

[gutsfics]

I headcanon my OH mc, TH:M mc and DS mc as brothers, and they loved watching pirate shows together in their childhood

ICONIC

pirating shows is an excelent pasttime fr !!!!!

also i love making choices characters (mcs, ocs, or canon) know/be related to characters from other books 💞 it makes my hc world feel more fleshed out and fun

[cadybear420]

I mean this isn't anything new. And as I've also said before, I just can't take this argument all that seriously because... do they think their profits will be harmed if they focus on diverse genres, have multiple non-customizable LIs, GOC stories, different romance dynamic, etc? Sure some of those things might take more time and resources to make, but it's like they act like doing those things will be detrimental to the company or something. If anything it should attract a wider variety of players, it could make people be more likely to recommend the game.

When you're a company with presumably a lot of money, surely you can afford to take more risks? But PB doesn't. Back then we could regularly get books like TCATF, OG HSS, ILS, ES, TH:M, ACOR, etc. but nowadays they play it safe and only rarely ever do we get something like MAH or WTD. Nowadays they're safe to the point of laziness, and let me be clear, it goes beyond just "every book being a steamy 17+" story. It goes into straight up lack of originality of their own content. TBB is literally just a rehash of TNA but MC is a surrogate instead of a nanny. Alpha cover is nearly identical to Wolf Bride cover. And don't even get me started on The Dalton Affair.

It'd be one thing if these were few and far between- I mean even early Choices wasn't immune to having a bland or mid-tier story every now and then. But like I said, those were rare occurrences. Whereas nowadays, it's the norm.

And the reason we're so hard on PB about this is because know they're capable of doing better. We've seen it. It's not like they've always made nothing but smutty single-LI genderlocked books from the start. They're perfectly capable of books with GOC options, multiple LI routes, flexible MCs, choices that actually affect the story, etc. No, not every book has to have that level of production, but books with that level of production shouldn't be a rarity.

Take some risks every now and then... if the silent majority gets all pissy because their MC saves the LI for once or whatever, then that's their problem honestly.

Hey everyone! Today, I had the amazing opportunity to chat with a former Choices writer. I found him on Linkedln, added him as a connection, and he was kind enough to agree to a video interview with me! And I thought that some of the things he said would be of interest to many people in the fandom.

The big thing I wanted to share is basically what everyone has been saying forever, but it was cool to hear it confirmed by someone who worked there.

He said that most of the writers (when he was there anyway) were huge nerds who loved adventure, fantasy, sci fi, and those kinds of things. That's what they all wanted to work on, but unfortunately the amount of revenue they brought in was minuscule compared to the romance genres. He specifically mentioned the Tumblr fandom, and how it really isn't representative of what brings in the most money 😅In fact, he said that if something is really popular on Tumblr, you can almost guarantee that the opposite is what's bringing in money lol. So when people ask "why is PB doing X books when Y books are way more popular?" well, the silent majority really is a thing.

He also said that the Pixelberry writing workflow was really amazing and gave the writers a ton of freedom to go wild, and he really enjoyed working there. So props to PB for having a good environment for their writers, apparently!

Anyway, that's what I wanted to share. Hope you find it as interesting as I did!

[the-unconquered-queen]

*The key to both of these features is that the necessary amount of points for success is in no way paywalled and you can get the best of every outcome provided you make good choices

[cadybear420]

Cadybear's Reviews Brief Thoughts- The Heist: Monaco

Welcome to the sixteenth official Cadybear's Reviews Brief Thoughts post! Today I'll be talking about The Heist: Monaco, which I have ranked on the "Diamond Tier" at 10 stars out of a possible 10. My last playthrough of this book was back in May 2021. I had started another playthrough in July 2023, but it's been put on hiatus.

This is another one of those books where there’s not much to say that hasn’t already been said. 

This book has so many refreshing elements to it. A MC that gets to be experienced and a leader for a change? A variety of choices that actually significantly influence the story and experience? Um, fuck yes???

Probably my favorite feature is how you can choose different people for each crew role, and how it changes the dialogue and interactions in certain scenes. Like, that must have been a pain in the ass to code, all the different dialogue exchanges for each crew combination. But it just goes to show what happens when you actually put effort into your books. 

And it’s all wrapped up in a story that’s straightforward and not exactly “emotionally deep/complex” or whatever, but it’s still great for being exciting, engaging, and overall very solid. Along with the choice in our crew, we also have to build up a Heist score to get good endings for our MC and Eris and Rye, and relationship scores to get good endings for the new crew members.  

The only thing I didn’t like was that most of the female MC outfits were… kind of ass. Maybe I’m just biased because I’m very GNC about my clothing tastes as a woman, but very few of them screamed “cunning, clever, criminal mastermind leader” to me like most of the m!MC ones did. They’re not really bad, they just don’t have the same vibes as the m!MC outfits. 

Especially stuff like the f!MC’s racer outfit having a crop top (while m!MC’s is more basic)... like, can we stop this? At least half the time they give a f!MC outfit a “cool” or “badass” jacket outfit, they always have to pair it with a crop top, while the m!MC version does not get the same treatment. Either both get a crop top or neither get a crop top. They do this in many books (especially later ones), but the racer outfit is probably one of the more egregious examples. 

Speaking of racing, though… (yes, hint hint for what my next review will be)

[masked-alien-lesbian]

Can I just say that MOTY and VOS mcs are very underrated? I love these mcs so much. MOTY mc is a queen and I love how sassy we can choose our VOS mc to be.

[cadybear420]

Choices is still precious to me for its older stories like OG HSS, ILS, TH:M, ES, and so many more. I hate what has become of PB nowadays but for all the shit I may give them, I'd much rather they improve.

If Choices actually does get shut down I will be pretty upset. Not saying they have top-quality stories nowadays but sometimes I need something more down-to-earth than RC's stories

[yourqueenb]

you’re not wrong at all but i guess im just used to mcs having absolutely no backstory, feelings, or definitive character traits. the plot just happens to mcs, mcs don’t make the plot happen. even though expectations are higher for blades its still choices with all the limits and misses opportunities of any other book. i cant really think of an mc that feels like their own character before the book and plot starts, besides maybe cop mc in the first book and th:m mc

Just wanna start off by saying I’m so sorry that I never actually responded to this! I could’ve sworn I had already posted, but found this fully typed up sitting in my drafts just now 😵‍💫 But yeah anyway…

See I don’t normally have a problem with “blank-slate MCs” though. I actually prefer them because I can use my imagination to create a backstory and (ideally) give them the traits I want through my choices. My main problem is that the few choices we are allowed to make usually just don’t matter beyond like a slight variation in dialogue as a result. And even bigger than that, there isn’t much diversity in the options we’re given to begin with.

I think if those problems didn’t exist, Blades MC was allowed to react to whatever happens on a deeper level, and our so-called friends showed more concern through their actions, then the story would be a bit better for me. However, I will say that I also think that’s the bare minimum, especially considering the fact that the writers already gave MC a partial backstory but decided it wasn’t important to have that affect present MC and the story for whatever reason.

Doing that worked in a series like TRR/TRH because, in the grand scheme of things, that MC’s backstory didn’t really matter and the plot was a little more cut and dried. But with Blades, the stakes are incredibly high and everyone is basically questioning the meaning of life and existence itself, what morality means in a world where things are a lot more gray than previously thought, and the roles they play in that world. So although I usually don’t mind it, I don’t think keeping Blades MC’s background from affecting anything significant really works.

Not sure where I’m going with all this though because none of it really counters your point. You’re right that it’s still Choices after all, so our expectations should be a bit lower even for a book like Blades. But it still sucks because I feel like PB really didn’t have to push too much further to make it an outstanding story. They were the ones who gave themselves all this material and then just didn’t follow through :/

[choices-binglebonkus]

The Heist: Monaco isn’t my favorite series (it’s one of them, though) but it is objectively one of the absolute best. I’ve said it time and time again. And with the quality of PB’s stories nowadays, The Heist: Monaco continues to age like the finest of wines.

We are presented with exceptionally attractive love interests. Also, a 3:2 female to male love interest ratio, and none of them are gender customizable!

Sonia fucking Alves. She deserves her own mention because quite frankly? Sonia is the best damn female love interest in the app because not only is she badass and beautiful with a heart of gold, she’s got one of the best romance routes in the app. The tension, the cat-and-mouse chase, the wavering loyalty as she realizes the MC and their crew aren’t actually bad people, while Ansel and Carlisle are, and the slowest, sweetest burn.

The MC actually knows what they’re doing. Nearly every MC in the app is the bumbling, quirky, chaotic dumbass trope and I have had enough. This MC, like Kenna Rys (love you, queen!), is smart, a brilliant strategist, a kindhearted individual, extremely courageous, AND a person who leads because…wait for it…they’re actually CAPABLE of leading the crew.

And, get this, the MC actually starts off at the top, loses everything, and has to fight tooth and nail to reclaim their glory. This is so refreshing because most of the MCs on the app start off at the bottom and work their way to the top by the end. RCD. TRR. D&D. Platinum. Queen B. TRM. Wishful Thinking. StD (still dead over the acronym 💀). Ms. Match. HC. AME. HSS. LoA. LH. OPH. Need I go on?

Don’t forget the crew themselves! There was honestly not a single member of the crew I didn’t like (I will admit though, I didn’t care too much for Tillie and Fabien) and let me tell you the diamond crew members are absolutely worth it. They all have their own personalities, quirks, dreams, and motives for joining the heist. I love that we can customize our crew any way we wish and that each crew member gets at least one chapter dedicated to us working closely with them. PB really hit the nail on the head with the crew.

The points and trust system, hello! Helloooo! I love how the points system determines the ending the MC, Eris, and Rye will get, and how the trust we build with our crew members determines their own unique endings as well. It’s also important to mention that it is very much possible to get good endings for EVERYONE without spending a single diamond.

The diamond choices were actually enjoyable?! Like, I’m pretty sure I bought almost every diamond choice available to me, and I had zero regrets whatsoever. It especially pays off and is incredibly satisfying when you actually reach the heist chapter, and while we’re on the subject…

The heist itself was just. Wow. I loved every second. The buildup throughout the whole story was perfect, and that made the actual heist soooooo much sweeter.

So yeah. The Heist: Monaco happened. We’re never getting a series like that again.