klembot
commented
2 years ago I don't think the time is right to consider a change to the default, and I also think that presenting users with a choice immediately won't be helpful.
I get that you prefer SugarCube to Harlowe and many others do, but it seems to me informally that both formats have a reasonably robust community right now (I'm going by stuff like membership in Discord channels, discussion on the subreddit and intfiction.org). If Harlowe was no longer supported by its developer or there were very few people using it, then I think it would be reasonable to reconsider the default.
I don't think presenting people with a choice out of the gate is a good idea because a) people will probably have no idea what a format is when they first begin using Twine b) even if they do, they likely won't have enough information to make a good decision for themselves. This topic is best handled, in my opinion, by documentation resources like the Cookbook and not the app itself.
I'll keep this issue open for further feedback but I'll warn folks that I'm not interested in hosting a shootout as to which format is best here—I genuinely don't believe there is a best format, it really depends on what people's goals and experience are—and I'll close the issue if that happens. (I don't think that's what your initial comment is, but I could see it easily going there.)
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Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
Harlowe has been the default story format for the Twine editor for a long time, but now it seems like it's the default purely through momentum.
The problem is, Harlowe has gotten less and less usable over time, has convoluted syntax, and poor documentation. On the other hand, SugarCube is way more flexible, is less confusing to new users, and has much better documentation. See for example the differences and issues discussed in Chapel's "SugarCube vs Harlowe in 2022" thread.
I've talked to people who looked at Twine/Harlowe, and that first impression caused them to not use Twine or almost not use Twine. See for example the comments in this thread. I've also talked to numerous people who started out using Harlowe because it was the default, and later regretted it due to it being so limiting.
The simple fact is, nowadays SugarCube is the far better choice for the default story format in Twine, and having Harlowe as the default story format is actually hurting Twine.
Describe the solution you'd like.
For the good of Twine, please change the default story format in the Twine editor to SugarCube.
Describe alternatives you've considered.
Alternately, in the introductory setup, have the user select the default story format and have a brief description of each included story format, along with a "recommended" note for SugarCube.
Additional context on this suggestion.
No response
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