Many storylines in CHYOA don't "end" so much as peter out as you reach a final chapter and the author or authors haven't bothered to continue them. Do you prefer to read storylines that have defined endings...or do you not particularly care?
I imagine this will be another case of the forum misrepresenting the site as a whole. The poll will probably end in 'yes', but I think that most users, who are more casual readers, are not likely to reach the end of any reasonably long storyline anyway, and in fact would rather they never did. It is the same reason that most people don't want their favourite show to end, no matter how many seasons ago it should have ended.
Yeah. I notice with LLNO that writing an ending tends to lead to likes along the storyline leading up to the ending chapter, but I'm not sure how much having a "complete" storyline actually is a bonus for most readers.
I'd say no. I don't come here to read masterpieces (hope no one gets offended by that) so I don't really have any expectations. That said, I look for an intelligent premise, demand a nice set up, and look forward for a possibly hot (story)body. Endings are not even on my list. It may feels frustrating if the body isn't really there or if there's enough meat on the bones, but even in those cases it may just be enough to light the spark of creativity. Here on Chyoa I see endings just as something to prevent stories from dragging on for too long when the spark has long gone already.
What's a real end anyway? Does it have to be "And they lived happily ever after?". Can't you just take the princess to bed after you helped defend the city against the invaders and end it there? I'm happy with an ending, not necessarily the ending, but it's better than no ending.
Despite the choose your own adventure nature of the site, I'm there to write and read stories with beginning, development, and an ending. That's why I spend so much time on world building and developing character personalities. Stories that start with a concept and split into several threads tend to tire me out quickly, but nothing against those who like them, I think there's a place in the site for everyone to write and read the kind of stories they enjoy.
And then Dusk commented and i remembered i loooove endings. By it's nature, the site forces you to have endings before you start more plots if you want to have any structure to the story whatsoever. Besides the fact that it lowers the chances of taking the story too far from what originally attracted people to it, it's also giving direction to other writers and even to yourself. I recently tried writing a path in an existing story and asked what the plan was, what was supposed to happen and got back some generic stuff but without an endpoint. I knew what i wanted from the start and i knew what the ending will be, before i even decided on how i was going to get there. I told him and got the ok. As soon as i stopped walking the characters around doing nothing and concentrated on reaching the end, the story started to flow easily. But it turns out i'm way off on what the author had in mind, so much so that it might as well be a different story. Maybe having more "endings" would have helped At the Cabin. When i found this site again in one of my notes, that was the main story i remembered. He is a great writer but i was expecting people get at the cabin, stuff happens and it ends with you driving home with the person you aimed for next to you. It gave off that vibe at the start. But then stuff keeps happening, outside characters keep interfering, the world gets expanded beyond the cabin and i'm like "This isn't what i sign up for". It would be easier to change a decision and end with the girl that you like if it's like " This are the characters, this is the place, this are some events that will happen, and this is the end. You might leave alone, in an ambulance with a stab wound with the girl holding your hand or in a car with all the girls. But this is the point where every path will converge." You lower the chances at having a different story in the same story. And then, you created a wonderful universe. You can just start a new story, with "Once you get home...". You pick "the ending" to continue, and you already have the world building, the characters and all that and just build a new arena for them and a new challenge. Does it make sense?
I'm not sure I get everything you tried to convey in your post, but I got the general idea. I've grown tired of At the Cabin for the reason I mentioned in my post, it became one of those concept stories with not much of a world building and spanning several threads of it where everything looks mostly the same. As a writer, I needed more, so I started building up the world of those characters, adding other stuff that made sense, develop the lore, etc, and that soon told me that At the Cabin wasn't the right story for it. After a few other attempts, I managed to turn that idea of a concept story into a "real" story, in my opinion, and I'm pretty much satisfied with Copper Rocks nowadays. Sure, At the Cabin sometimes becomes a distracting factor for readers that don't like change, but there's not much I can do in that case. At the Cabin still exists because I don't want to be murdered in my sleep by nostalgic readers, but Copper Rocks is my story now.
