Hi, I thought I'd check by and ask this age-old question that has been on my tongue for quite some time:

Has anyone here on Vizzed ever played a CYOA (Choose Your Own Adventure) game before? And if so, which one is your favorite?

I'll go first:
I have played a couple of interactive fiction novels (mostly in digital format) from Choice of Games and Hosted Games for years, and that got me to thinking: "Hmmm... maybe I might consider making one of those games someday..."

A myriad collection of stories (i.e.: Marine Raider, Choice of the Dragon, Choice of Robots), an intriguing set of story branches, and a free online account for users who purchase a digital copy of the games from there (or on mobile app stores and Steam store). Who could ask for more?

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf series, conveniently available right here because he made a small fortune on prints and reprints in the 80s but accepted a request to make them all digital and free to the public. https://www.projectaon.org/en/Main/Books

Of course, these are a far different breed of animal from Choice Of, which has a lot of fluff to make it seem like your decisions are massively important but if you play through it a few times you realize you're making brief side trips between nodes that you're fated to encounter whether you're a mindlessly loyal hawk or a free spirit and pacifist. Neither of those have much in common with Fighting Fantasy, which truly delighted in giving you a purely arbitrary choice at or near the start but it would take hours and hours of mapping to discover you were trapped in a web of doom.

Emperor Quintana : I love CYOA! I used to read them all the time as a kid. I'm not sure I have a favorite, though. I'm not great with titles, but there was an AI video game one that was pretty interesting. I have one of the board games that came out not too long ago (The House of Danger). My husband played it with me, and I don't think he was a huge fan (I think the convoluted plot and randomness got to him-I had to reassure him that's how they all are). I have yet to see anything in digital format, but that would be cool. The board game took quite a few hours to complete, although you can play in stages if you want. I hesitated to buy it because of replay value, but I think if you're patient and don't need to read every ending right away (which I may not be), replay value is just fine. Also, being able to play alone or as a group is nice. I'm not sure if that's what you were looking for in the discussion; I just love these things, so I thought I'd chime in.

I literally have one in the background on my Ipad right now. It's Samurai of Hyuga Book 4.
I've also written a CYOA on Gamefaqs that I never completed, and plan to use the choice engine to try a proper attempt.