Broken Base / Choices: Stories You Play

• The option to play as both male and female main characters. Should it always be available for every book, or is it okay for some books to require you to play as a female? This also sparks a debate on which kinds of books are better: those with gender options or not. Some players prefer stories without gender options because they think the protagonists and their relationships with other characters, experiences based on gender, and intimate scenes with love interests are more developed, it allows the love interests to have canon sexual preferences rather than being "playersexual", the stories with gender options neutralize the narrative, and there are already so many video games with only male protagonists and told from male perspectives that it's only fair to have games with female protagonists and told from female perspectives for a change. Other players prefer stories with gender options because the ability to pick one's gender expands the story's target demographic, there's the perception that these stories tend to have better plots, characters, and settings, many genderlocked stories could be easily adapted to work with a male lead, and the genderlocked stories have a tendency to be too Anvilicious on women facing discrimination that they ruin their purposes as escapism outlets in the process. There are also players who don't mind having gender-locked protagonists if it wasn't for the fact that these characters are always female, and there are no stories with mandatory male protagonists (aside from the ones which rotate viewpoints among multiple characters such as Most Wanted and The Crown & the Flame).
• While players generally accept that it's reasonable for some content to require diamonds to access, it's widely debated where exactly the line should be drawn. Those who choose to spend diamonds on the game want the diamond choices to count for something since they want to get their money's worth, while those who do not like spending diamonds feel it's unfair to get a lesser experience.
• There are two main groups of readers: the romance genre fans, and the non-romance fans, who constantly debate one another over which should be the focus of the app. Romance fans complain that the mystery and action books focus too little on character relationships. Non-romance fans complain that the excessive focus on romance in some books comes across as Strangled by the Red String distractions from the actual plot and character development, and that the non-romance stories ironically have better romance than the romance stories. Not helping matters is that stories with more focus on romance are more likely to make more money and spawn sequels because the app targets romance fans more than those of other genres. Romance fans take it as a sign that Pixelberry is being pragmatic in knowing its target audience. Non-romance fans take it as a sign of the declining quality of stories over time and Pixelberry's mismanagement of their time, resources, and effort.
• Groups have debates on which mechanic is better for the books: playing as a single main character, or switching the point of view between multiple characters (as in Rules of Engagement, #LoveHacks, The Crown & the Flame, Most Wanted, and Across the Void). A third camp doesn't mind playing from multiple viewpoints if the characters they play are interesting/entertaining and the multiple viewpoints add to the narrative, but decry the books that don't meet these criteria (most notably Rules Of Engagement for its Vanilla Protagonist player character and Across the Void where the two playable sibling characters are major Base Breaking Characters).
• Choices removing “Book 1” from all books unless they have already released sequels (or are sequels themselves) has sparked a heated debate. Some see it as a valid way for the creators to keep their options open and avoid the risk of promising a second book that never happens (e.g.Most Wanted), while pointing out that just because a book doesn't have "Book 1" in the title doesn't mean there won't be a Book 2 (e.g. Perfect Match and Red Carpet Diaries). Others argue that it shows low confidence in the new stories and can potentially keep players from committing to a new series.
• The redemption of certain villains or merely mean characters sometimes sparks debates on where the line should be drawn. Should it be used on many (but not all) of them as a means of giving Character Development and depth? Or is it overdone in some ways that it doesn't work on certain evil or mean-spirited characters? To complicate matters, there are players who are more forgiving of white and/or male characters over others regardless of how well their arcs are done, raising concerns of racism and misogyny among the fandom. This also extends to love interests who started out rude or antagonistic towards protagonists (e.g. Becca), with supporters seeing it as an example that love interests aren't supposed to be unambiguously good people since the beginning, and detractors refusing to date such characters for the same reason.
• The issue of certain popular characters becoming love interests when seemingly not initially intended to be so is a point of contention. While many players applaud this because of the Ship Tease between these characters and the protagonists (e.g. Becca Davenport), others decry it as a form of Pandering to the Base that ruins said characters (e.g. Thomas Hunt) and encourages players to feel entitled to pressure Pixelberry to cater to their whims, even if doing so may ruin the story and characters.
• The customization of the player character has sparked some debate. Some players want body diversity for the player characters because they find it unrealistic that all the female models are skinny and the male ones are muscular. Other players justify the idealistic body shapes of the protagonists as the app's means of providing escapism to players who may feel insecure of their own appearances. The limited age range of player characters is also widely criticized, with almost all of them falling between high school age and young adult; a few are more ambiguous, but there are none who are clearly middle-aged or elderly.
• Pixelberry writer Andrew Shvarts posted a series of tweets on the company struggling with limited time and resources, his experience with various titles, and the tough decisions gaming companies make when investing their resources. In response, some players agree with him and felt that each segment of the fandom should realize they don't make up the entire fandom. Others, however, disagreed and stated that he's missing the point of Pixelberry's problems, which they noted isn't limited time and resources, but wasting them on unnecessary things for the sake of making more money off of their target demographic at the expense of other kinds of players.
• The option to choose the gender and race of certain love interests. Some players like it because it provides them with more love interest options that match their preferences. Other players dislike it because the lack of dialogue variations renders the love interests underdeveloped and therefore superficial representation. It doesn't help that in some stories with gender-customizable love interests (e.g. Platinum), the protagonist is genderlocked, resulting in accusations that Pixelberry is mismanaging their time, resources, and effort that could've gone to providing gender options for the protagonists. Players become more opposed to this feature when Word of God said that love interests that would've been white males are now customizable, which many see as confirmation that said love interests are the favored ones and an excuse for the writers to not provide nuance for their love interests' race and gender.
• Having only one Love Interest in some stories. Many dislike not having options, and feel that there should be an alternate love interest for those who don't find the Love Interest appealing (or, in some cases, simply not choosing the love interest at all). It doesn't help that all of them are customizable and have very little to no dialogue variations so far, rendering them underdeveloped in many cases. Others feel that focusing on a single romance route will allow the writers to develop it better and more fully, and will allow the stories to avoid the common flaw of promoting one specific love interest while sidelining others.
• Pixelberry's decision to uncancel Immortal Desires and give it a second book after previously declaring it to be a standalone has split the fanbase. One group is delighted at the book getting a sequel and even have hopes for other cancelled series getting more books after this decision. Another group is less enthusiastic, due to them considering the book not bad, per se, but not great enough to warrant Pixelberry doing something they've never done before with any other series (including more deserving ones like It Lives, Nightbound, and The Elementalists).
• The early access release date of The Cursed Heart, Book 2 being moved up to November 2023 means that the "full VIP era" (in which every book will be released on early access first, even sequels) will begin earlier than Pixelberry had promised. Some are disappointed that Pixelberry went back on their word about not starting it until 2024, while others point out that it's actually a good thing because the Release Date Change means that the book will be released for everyone by the end of 2023 (as opposed to having to wait until around February 2024 for the early access release and even longer for the general release).