I’d like to point out that this is the reason people are upset. Instant Princess was set in a fictional African country and celebrated various African cultures, along with others. There was also a suitor from Korea, one from Nicaragua, one from the Ivory Coast, one from Switzerland, and a biracial female love interest from another African country (somebody correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember if Aminata’s country was ever mentioned). People aren’t saying that it’s an exact copy when they say it’s a rip off. People are upset because instead of them promoting a story about a young adult finding out she’s a princess and having to date a suitor for political purposes that celebrated various countries and cultures, they chose to make their own whitewashed version about a young adult finding out she’s a princess and having to date a suitor for political purposes AFTER acquiring the intellectual property to Instant Princess (which is perfectly legal although perhaps morally bankrupt). This means the original author can’t take Instant Princess to another platform. She won’t get compensation from any profits from Positively Princess, and because she can’t take Instant Princess anywhere else since it now belongs to Episode, she cannot do anything with Instant Princess outside of the Episode platform, meaning Instant Princess will never get the true accolades, promotion or credit it deserves. And not only does the original author lose out, but the community also loses out on a richly diverse featured story that celebrates various cultures and countries. This story also would have shown the community that Episode was serious about their promise to improve diversity on the app. Instead, they chose to give us a stripped down version of Instant Princess with a slightly different plotline, with just one person of color as a suitor, and that suitor sometimes speaks in very strange, cartoonish stereotypical language (both stereotypically black and stereotypically lesbian). They slapped the name Okoye on her and really thought that was supposed to do something.
I won’t speak of whether or not it’s intentional because intent is hard to prove. However, given the timing in which everything happened, the way all of this happened, and Episode’s past record with diversity, this whole incident leaves a sour taste in my mouth. They missed the mark here, and they did one of the community’s writers wrong-whether they meant to do wrong or not. Again, I can’t speak to intent. I personally absolutely adore some of the Episode staff that I’ve interacted with (believe it or not), and I know from experience that some of them are not malicious in intent and in fact can be caring and considerate. If anything, this could have merely been an unintended consequence of recklessness from focusing solely on profits (which is never good for a business. Yes, profits have to be a high priority but you also need to be aware that your consumers are people and not just dollar signs, and treat them accordingly). But as I’ve said before, this isn’t a good look and the damage is still done.
I truly hope whoever was behind this can understand why people are upset and why this doesn’t make them look good.