Great stagnation

Maybe its my long time being here…but does anyone feel episode as a whole is SUPER stangnat lately. The forums are dead for the most part. Since the new 1 month update it made things a thousand times worse tbh. You wait longer to get literally nothing and not even wishlist items anymore for all the waiting. The feature stories are so shallow and once youve forced yourself to read one…you read em all. Even the app itself looks…generic. It may be because I liked the blue theme but…the newest edition feels somehow even more lifeless despite being the most colorful. Even their claim that you can get new outfits is sucha…half truth. The pop up shops come every once a blue moon to the point they are just as forgotten as the “updates” done.

Idk…maybe its all my stories(im reading) being darn near discontinued with no warning or so rarely updated and never adressed how slow it is in updates…Maybe its the lack of finding anything to read but…episodes as a whole feels so dead and hollow now. Or is it just me? Like its dying or on life support.

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Having just come back from my hiatus, I can’t comment much. But I will say that coding Episode stories is hard, so it’s easy to lose motivation (hence why I have one published story and several unpublished).

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True but Ive had stories on my page for literal years x.x still saying they were ongoing…v.v

Even so…still stagnation feels evident. Like an elephant in the room no ones talkin about

I get the impression they were putting most of their resources into the new Episode XOXO, which honestly seems pretty stupid to me. As I understand it, they have all new stories that can only be read on that version and there’s no gem choices or tickets. But it’s just those few stories, not all Episode Originals and certainly not community stories. Though you are able to actually just read and make choices as you want to without concern for the gem cost, which is more appealing than the official stories they offer on the app. The problem is it’s on Apple Arcade, which is a subscription service and from what I’ve heard from others (I don’t use Apple products so I don’t know personally) it’s not worth the price at all so most people ignore it. Doesn’t seem like a sound business decision to me, but what do I know. :woman_shrugging:

At least now they changed it so the card says when the story was last updated, provided it’s been updated since they enabled that feature around a year ago. That makes it a little easier to determine which stories will probably never be finished.

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Yesssss literally thinking this. I go through phases of episode being my life then switched off again. I miss the ink era. All the best ink stories are discontinued and I have had to force myself to like limelight even tho most limelight stories are just meh and all the same thing.

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Maybe it’s just the forums. It’s pretty lively on Instagram

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Maybe, how do you even get involved with episode on Instagram. I have it for episode but idk what to do from there, I feel like I’m floating around lmao.

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I use Apple products and I think you nailed it!! I didn’t even bother to try, because I rather spent my 5 euro’s per month to something else than Apple Arcade (like food or something else, I am not that rich. :roll_eyes: :zipper_mouth_face: ) And I love to write, but not forced write. I have more to do around writing and I think I am not the only one. What I try to say is: I will not use Episode XOXO because first at all, if you’re an Android user (or another not Apple user) you can’t get Episode XOXO, second I think it’s not worth the money and third I don’t think the stress is worth it. If I have to write 3 episodes in 3 months, I know I can handle it if I have free time, but with work and household it’s difficult. So, yes it’s not worth the money and the time.

@Willowbean:

Hey girl, welcome back! Yes and no. I feel you with the updates, because I still waiting for the plus-size males option and more male outfits. :roll_eyes: And I would love the weekly updates back. But the featured stories didn’t change (I think. :thinking:) they are the same as before. Too cliche and not unique enough for me to read. :laughing: Only thing I want to add more is that there is more mafia, to my opinion. :zipper_mouth_face: (Mafia can be cool, if the LI is not a criminal. :shushing_face:)

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I wonder if this is the first step in them selling out to Apple? :thinking: From what I’ve heard Apple is trying to get better offerings on Apple Arcade so people will actually use it. But because it’s Apple, it wouldn’t surprise me if the stuff that is being put on there that wasn’t created by them is in a trial run of sorts. If it does well they’ll buy out the content/game (because much like Disney, Apple loves controlling everything associated with their products). If not they’ll just take it down after the trial period and move on. That’s the only reason I can think of as to why they would only put this on Apple Arcade instead of on multiple similar platforms as well, such as Steam or Epic.

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I think a lot of the reasons for why the forums is so quiet now is due to different sections being removed and the increased focus on story related topics. It has a more professional/melancholy feel to me when compared to the 2019 forums. A lot of active users have been suspended as well.

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Yeah I agree. Great way of wording

Honestly, I think Episode needs to revive their original stories as well and create new stories that actually have unforgettable plots and is all-around entertaining. I’m sorry to say it, but these new official stories they’re putting out lately is… not it. You read one and forget about it the next day.

The general public only remember the popular stories like the Demi series, Mean Girls, etc. The memes and discussion about these stories get a ton of engagement online and I think Episode needs a new hit story. I know not everyone likes the celebrity stories, but imagine if they partnered up with Doja Cat or Lil Nas X. They are two of the most popular artists of the 2020s. If they had Demi Lovato back then, one of the most famous American popstars, they could easily get these artists. It does not even have to be a celebrity story. They could branch out to popular movies and shows from the past 5 years, like they did with Pitch Perfect and Pretty Little Liars. If they want new users coming to the app, they’d have to keep up with trends. Everyone played the Demi stories back then and you can tell Episode was booming. Even to this day, people are still making memes reminiscing about that story. Now the jokes about Episode mostly focus on their ridiculous gem choices that humiliate the MC. These choices used to be funny, but now they’re just tiring to see. Anyone outside of the Episode community will easily get annoyed of this.

Another thing they need to do is to get rid of the 6 stories they force a new user to read when they first download the app. Everytime I talk to someone that’s unfamiliar with Episode, they seem interested, but quickly drop the app once they can’t get past these stories. I think this is part of the reason why Episode is staying stagnant because people are leaving the app before getting the chance to discover community stories with amazing storylines.

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Thats very true.

I always use to say what happened to the demi era…they kinda tried to come back with pitch perfect and clueless story and I loved tht…but then it all poofed. These trending stories are absolutely awful and forgettable. You read one you read all of em. But feels like we havent had a big boom of anything in a long time with them. Last thing to care about was updates and episodes chopped that while giving same amount of items only with an extended wait. Like if someone asked me what I would reccomend to read episodes I couldnt say oh mean girls. Demi. Pitch perfect…id have to say uhhhh you read my best friends brothers dads bully love triangle mafia vampire trilogy &_&

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I just came back after a long time and yeah I agree with the featured stories. (Though I guess I should call them Episode Originals now.)

It feels like they have their “authors” now but there’s no passion behind the stories. They’re all the same/similar plotline and there’s hardly any creative directing choices other than adding a ridiculous amount of choices to reach what I assume is a quota for the amount of gems to be spent per chapter. I miss when they would reach out to different genres instead of recycling the same thing over and over.

The art team has stepped up with some of the newest hairstyles I’m seeing in these stories though, and the diversity has definitely improved - but it’s a shame that the story writing quality lets that down.

I guess it just doesn’t seem like people are reading stories for the story anymore - it’s more like we’re reading to see what is new in terms of hair/clothes/backgrounds. If you’ve read one story, you’ve read them all.

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I havent been able to get myself to write on my episode story since I published my last chapter, which was the 29, this is legit the longest I have gone without writhing. not counting my two-week vacation to Malta where I didn’t have a computer to write on.

I also haven’t really been on the forum. I have so many unread topics, I never have that.

I am unmotivated about the app right now, I honestly feel like just dipping.

and episode isnt helping themself to keep people, they still has that stupid read 30 chapters their cost a half million diamonds to enjoy, before unlocking everything, that scares new people away, which is why episode is empty, long-time users leave, new once see the high prices and go too.

then their is that episode xoxo their just came, so many I think is gonna leave episode in favor of that free option.

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Yeah me too. But nowhere else to go that seems to have the same qaulity.

I keep hearing episode xoxo but never seen x.x is tht new

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Yes, I also noticed that this community entered a period of stagnation. I used to think that this would be the place where I could develop my passion and create new connections in the future, but one by one they left. I don’t think we should leave things like that, but we should find a solution to bring Episode back to the top.

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Sometimes I feel like episode really listens to people connected to it when it comes to art resources. For example, limelight wish lists, more diversity. But other times, they just don’t. Like it seems everyone is being open about the dislike to episode xoxo, the gems are extortionate and the feautured stories are not entertainig at all and are all so so cliche. How are they not picking up on it lol.

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It’s essentially a new version of Episode. As I understand it, it has all new stories that don’t have gem choices or passes, so you’re able to just read the stories and make whatever choices you want. This has led many to think that it is free. It’s not. It’s only available on Apple Arcade, which is a subscription service Apple has for gaming that no one really uses. Last I checked, it cost $8 a month in the US. And the only way to access it is to own an Apple product, such as an iPhone.

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Thats all around horrible marketing

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