Gem Choices Overkill?

I have to play 10 other stories so i can select the choice i want that costs 20 gems when i only have 10

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I can understand the ‘hate’ behind Support the author choice, but many authors do that because they don’t want their readers to suffer from any in-story gem choices as not everyone can afford those. However, support the author is completely optional and it’s called suport for the very reason to motivate the author for continuous updating and to appreciate their efforts in providing quality content. Where they directly don’t fetch you a reward, it is very much motivating for authors.

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I am not aware of any announcements regarding limits? I’ve seen authors adding upto 50 gem choices (yes you read that right) per chapter. So I don’t think so there’s any sort of limits.

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SERIOUSLY?!
I think that’s against Episode’s guidelines, try reporting.

I think so too. Because I did see a guideline which was a step by step tutorial of suggestions for allocation of number of gems on what sort of choice, but the author I saw added 22 gems for just support the author :grimacing:
And rest were smaller choice options but total amounted 50.

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50 gem choices or a cost overall of 50 gems?

Because from what I know, you can’t add many gem choices to an episode. And I’ve rarely seen more than one or two myself.

Having quickly checked, there was this mentioned in the gem announcement post…

And from this comment, it shouldn’t allow them to publish over the limit per branch.

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Adding Gem choices in community stories has been brought upon authors by the Episode itself. And I agree it can get annoying at times!! If Episode needs money then there are 45-50% of people who buy Gems with their own money(including myself lol). Some also buy the VIP package. Due to COVID 90% of people have their pockets tight. I used to use my own pocket money to buy Gems so I can support my favourite authors. But I gave my remaining balance to my parents so we can have our meals. I will start earning soon and I am ready to buy Gems with my own money LMAO. But if they increase the number of Gems and Passes we buy then I think more people will start buying them and Episode don’t have to make these stupid Gems choices changes. I spent $22.25 to get Gems lol. And I am ready to buy more. Just increase the freaking number of Gems and Passes.

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WHAT THE HELL!? 22 gems just to support an author! That just being greedy :rage:

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No not 50 gems but choices worth 50 gems. I doubt if even originals have 50

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I agree, for support 22 is a lot of gems. I think the maximum they should keep for supporting shouldn’t exceed 12

Yes I agree. The prices should be 5, 8 and 12 and no higher.

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Haha, thought it was a surprisingly high amount to squeeze in :rofl:

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Yeah… like sometimes all the good choices are gem

Well you have to give the author the benefit of the doubt here. Without gem choices in their story it’s likely that they will not rank (especially small authors) and for some, Episode is a source of income. I think that the “support the author” gem choices are actually the most considerate gem choices of them all because it’s not affecting the story nor is it affecting your reading experience. Would you rather have a gem choice that is dependent on a major part of the story? I wouldn’t think so. So maybe we should cut the community authors some more slack, it’s already hard for them to code, promote, and publish their story and with the addition of gem choices contributing to ranks, it’s awfully hard for them right now.

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With all due respect, I’m not saying that authors shouldn’t use gems in their story. I mean, sure, they depend your rank on the shelf, but that doesn’t mean I should approve of it. The only time that I would go hard on authors is if they have a million gem choices within one episode. I just don’t like this new rule and gems should’ve remained in featured stories. This opinion goes out to Episode as a company. I guess the only way I approve of gems is for increasing the amount of points in as story— that’s it.

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Agreed. I personally don’t mind them because it is not hard to skip past them. I have only spent gems on them once for my friends story. I know why people don’t like them but this is episodes fault and potentially their downfall if they making gems a bigger part of the app but they are currently fine because they are the best at what they do. It becomes an author problem when they add absurd choices that are worse than the featured stories ones and for big prices.

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Dis you see that gem choice which costs 20 in community story or a featured story? Just wondering

I found a great one I cc my character fine then the author starts the story changes the MC hair then goes to turn back to your other hairstyle 5 gems. Like wtf :flushed: a lot are getting over the top there need to be clear guidelines with gems being used as some are getting really over the top.

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You should report that! That’s unfair, and they are clearly going overboard :angry: I think they’re violating the guidelines. Did that happen in the same episode? If so, I’m pretty sure that’s against the rules

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Didn’t know about that but was the same episode I’m pretty sure as I was playing there was flashbacks ok at the start then all of the sudden the MC has completely different hair.

Annoyed me more why both with CC at all or offer a free change I stopped reading but I’ll talk to episode about it.