The Oliver Conundrum: Conclusion

Hello everyone, and welcome to the final post of The Oliver Conundrum Saga!

Considering the results of the latest poll, I started writing a plan of what Oliver's comeback would look like. The basic idea, if you had removed him from the story, was that Ashley would bump into him in a bar, start talking about what happened, and then texted Laura and you. She would grill her about letting him talk to you the way he did, and engage a talk about boundaries, respect, and such.

After that, she'd say that, when talking with Oliver, he told her he realized how awful he behaved, and actually researched the topic of healthy Dominant relationship. Ashley would then tell you giving him a second chance could be nice, and that would open the way to accept him back.

That was the base plan, and I started working it out based on that. Despite the fact that it wasn't the idea I had favoured, I thought it would make a nice story about making mistakes, growing from them, and forgiving them.

Quickly, though, I started to realize it would actually open more issues. Both gameplay-wise (between your tendencies and the number of past choices relating to Oliver, the amount of different paths I'd have to write for the same end result would be HUGE), and also story wise. There were a lot of issues relating to characters behaviour, including trust, that would have given the story kind of a bad aftertaste.

To be completely honest, I should probably have done that work before starting the polls. As you may have realized by now, those had been made quite hastily. I expected whatever decision you would choose to be the best, but I simply didn't stop to consider the kind of "behind the scenes" elements you cannot be aware of.

As you probably guessed, the conclusion to that is quite easy: I will have to ignore the latest poll, and rework Oliver from the ground up. The two chapters introducing him, most notably, will be improved. Oliver won't be an asshole convinced that sharing your girlfriend MUST mean you're a submissive cuck that deserves to be demeaned, with Laura telling you "it's okay babe, he's actually kinda nice, even though he's an asshole toward you".

Stay reassured, though, that if you enjoyed that part, it will stay. But the default behaviour of Oliver will take your Tendency into account and, most importantly, properly react to your choices and preferences, without putting them under the rug.

The goal is to make Oliver into a proper Dom bull, aware of what your relationship is, and of what Laura and you may enjoy. Or, in other words, a character that will not make the Discord burn every time his name is mentioned.

I will do my best to make the transition as smooth as possible, with the goal that the story doesn't seem jarring if you removed him from your life in the past. There will be a few "meta" notes to put you up to speed in the new content.

As always, my goal is to make the best story I can, but also to develop the game in the best way I can. I'm sorry for the way these polls were handled. I let the "Oliver situation" get to me, and reacted a bit too fast, with not enough consideration for the best way to handle it. Rest assured that, in the future, I'll try to do these kind of things in a better way.

TLDR: latest poll is canceled, I'll rework Oliver, I'll do better, XOXO, Le Stag

Also, to help you forgive me, here's a picture of Tara judging me for my mistakes. I hope this offering appeases you.