Hi! I want to start this message by saying that I really enjoyed the first bit of the story, and I think it's really well written so far! This is meant as a genuine bit of feedback, not an attack, and I'm not saying this negatively. I remember you saying at one point that the mc and Jason were originally written as growing up in the USA, and you decided later to add other options, but there were still many things that stood out to me as being USA centric? For example, referring to elementary school, highschool and community college, using miles instead of kilometres, and the assumption that the mc attends a school system that ends in the middle of the calendar year and has their long break there, and that the break falls in summer (as opposed to southern hemisphere countries experiencing winter at that time). Other countries share some of these things as well, but all of them together are very American, and they stood out to me when I played my mc as being Australian. Of course it would be unreasonable to demand that you take into account the specifics of every potential country that you included, but it might be worth considering if some things could be changed to more neutral language if the player chooses a country other than America, such as saying the final year of school, or more generally referring to the break as school holidays. Just a suggestion!
Hi, fairylight! No worries, you make some very good points, and I appreciate the feedback!
A lot of these probably also links back to English being my second language, and therefore, I am automatically reverting to terms I am more familiar with, which happen to be those perpetuated by the dominant English-speaking culture.
You, however, do make a very good point that I should make a more active effort to take such differences into account. As I am redrafting the Prologue in preparation for Chapter 1, I will make adjustments
Another Anon actually mentioned Australia. Australia in particular was included as an option because it actually has an interesting placement in Greek history as the second most common place that Greeks migrated into. The northern hemisphere shift/the different summer timing does add complications to things. Like winter break lasts a month, so it does not make sense that the MC can vacation in Greece for three. It's one of those cases where freedom in customization is given priority, and I kinda need to ask for some dispension of disbelief for that regard.
Otherwise, you are very right, and I will incorporate those suggestions! I will see what I can do and what feels smoothest. Thank you for reaching out with them!