User blog:Zizzle the Shizzlenator/Thoughts on Side Stories

Hello, fellow MGQuesters. Orpheus the Traveller here with some thoughts, opinions, and shameless advertisement that absolutely no one asked for.

First, I've finished another Side Story. Titled "Stairway to Heaven", this story follows Luka making a finaljourney to meet with his Goddess and recieve his reward for slaying the Monster Lord...even though Luka has no memory of doing so. Along the way he faces terrifying threats tsundere Valkyries, ditzy Cupids, tentacled gates, and his own idiocy. Through it all, he's haunted by his lost memories of Alice as he tries to peice together the memories of what actually happened on his original journey. Hope y'all enjoy.

Second, I had a couple thoughts I wanted to share about Side Stories. Quite frankly, the Side Story community is pretty much dead at this point, save for a few people like me who didn't get the memo and are still writing. I'm a bit puzzled as to why more people aren't writing Side Stories to be honest. It isn't that there's no demand for them. The fact Side Stories page still gets 1,000 views per week, and that YouTubers who post MGQ Side Stories get decent amounts of views seems to indicate that there's still strong demand for more MGQ material, even though the original trilogy is several years old now.

Maybe rather than lack of demand, it's that people feel too intimidated to try writing a Side Story for themselves. If that's the case, I want to assure anyone who's tentative about writing a Side Story that it honestly isn't that hard. I'm a guy that has 0 programming skills, and it took me exactly 1 week to learn the process and create my first Side Story (said Side Story is Ghost Story, now a part of The Traveller's Tales collection). Between the Making a Side Story page on this wiki, and the "Letz Scenario" tutorial Side Story written by OldSlashFriend, all the resources needed to make a basic Side Story are freely available to anyone who looks. Granted, some things (such as variables, battles, and other such complicated stuff) will take a bit more work, but creating a short, simple Side Story is something that just about anyone could learn to do, and can serve as a solid step towards making more comlicated things. I think there's a LOT of potential still unexplored with Side Stories, both on the story/writing side and on the technical/game engine side, and with Paradox 2's recent release renewing a lot of people's enthusiasm for the series, now's as good a time as any to get writing and share your ideas!

So, that's my thoughts on Side Stories today. The tl;dr version: Side Stories are awesome, go write some. Also go play my Side Stories.

Peace.