I’m finding I have a bit of an issue with the way Episode has been choosing to “tease” their creations. And I’m going to try my best to explain my point of view without attacking Episode as a whole, because that is not at all my intention, and therefore this may be a bit of a lengthy post, so just bear with me here.
Click this dropdown for my explanation:
I went on @episode’s instagram just now and watched their story on Eric the Art Development Manager, and the vibe I got from it (not at all claiming that this is definitely what it was about, just the vibe I got) is that this was sort of their way of addressing the wait for content that was released this week (new bubble style, facial features, etc.) They wanted to explain that the process takes much longer than we probably assume that it does and assure us that they are working hard to get this content out to us on a schedule, and I wholeheartedly believe that these things are true. Here’s where my problem lies…they teased some new artwork, said “coming your way!!”, and that’s what we were left with…
On a lot of other platforms I think this may be a perfectly fine system, but because Episode has been known to announce a new creation that will be “coming out soon” and sort of just string us along in this limbo without any updates, this instagram story left me with a bit of a sour taste in my mouth. Please correct me if I’m wrong, because I don’t know for sure, but I’ve never once heard any sort of specifics in regards to when we as a community can expect the content that they tease to us. Of course we get the pretty regular Thursday updates which are fabulous, but for the content they tease to us we never really know when it’s coming until we’ve spent weeks on the forums refreshing every Thursday and searching for some sort of update on the content’s progress.
For me, personally, it can be a bit frustrating to go on Instagram and watch @episode’s story and see all of these different things that the team has been working on and then have to wait for them. And not only wait for them, but wait for them without any sort of general idea of when the wait will be over. I can really only speak for myself here, but as an author this can be very difficult to deal with because you come up with this idea in your head and make all these plans for the new content, and then months go by and you still can’t make any moves on those plans because you’re still waiting for it to be released and you don’t know or have any inclination that it will be released in a timely manner.
And so of course I’m not just going to sit here and make complaints without offering any solutions. Here’s what I think could possibly alleviate my concerns. What I would prefer is if Episode didn’t tease things until they are much closer to the release date OR, at least, if they are looking to reassure the community that their ideas and opinions are being heard and feel the need to prove it, that we get an estimated release date that could of course be subject to change.
I understand it’s hard to promise content like this on a schedule, and I’m certainly not trying to come across as ungrateful in any way. I completely respect the Episode team and I’m fully aware that what these people do is hard work, I just think maybe there’s a better way to go about it. For example, companies like Apple don’t tell you when the next phone is coming out until just a few months before the product is ready to be launched. When TV shows announce a new season, you know exactly when you’ll be able to watch it. And of course you see commercials for it to tease you and make you excited to watch it, but the wait isn’t so unbearable because you know when you can expect it to be over. Does that make sense?
I don’t know, maybe I’m just talking out of my back side here, but this is just how I feel about the situation right now. And that’s why I wanted to post it as a discussion thread because I’d like to know if there’s anyone who agrees with me or if I just have no clue what I’m talking about and just need to learn better patience? I want to know how other people feel about it.
Let me know down below guys :’)
if you take the time to actually read this, thank you in advance 