I’m tired of keeping this to myself and I want to hear y’all’s opinion on this one.
I know i/we will receive a lot of hate for this but this is just my/our opinion and really, we/i dgaf . If you disagree with me/us/him/her/them you may proceed to a different thread lmao.
Okay so we all know that episode is a 12+ Interactive story video game. Authors are free to write their own stories and use their own imaginations to make a good plot for readers to enjoy.
When becoming an author there are specific episode guidelines that needs to be followed am I right? You can’t just write anything without precautions because there might be kids like 8-14/5 yrs old in the app.
Writing a good story with good narrations and descriptions is a good mark for stories but sometimes SOME authors gets carried away. Especially when creating sex/intimate scenes. It sometimes becomes to detailed, like literally. Due to this some reader reports this story to episode hence the story gets in review by the team or even permanently deleted.
I want to know your thoughts on this one because part of me agrees that these kind of stories may not be suitable for this app especially kids this days are getting to well known with gadgets.
I know that episode make its more realistic and you can see what really is happening or what the characters are doing but still.
Let’s open up are damn minds for once, no matter how good it is, limitations is a must.
My 2 cents:
There shouldn’t be sex/ intimate scenes on Episode, if that’s what the guide lines say.
But deleting entire stories is a bit extreme, they can just take them down for the scenes to be removed.
In my opinion, authors should write whatever they want as long as it doesn’t offend or trigger anyone. I mean, the surely need to take care of the way they write and represent certain stuff, because kids are on this app too.
When we talk about mature scenes, I’m all for it, but authors should always give a choice if a reader WANTS to read it or NOT. - it needs to be OPTIONAL cause some people just don’t want to read it.
Permanent remove? When my story had a mature scene I got a notification telling me to censor the scene which I did. No removal or anything… To be specific I had to dress the characters underwears
I think episode should follow their own guidelines before they try and inforce them on others. But if you are reading a romance you are going to probably come across some scenes that are not acceptable for younger audiences. I think episode has guidelines for a reason and if people can’t read them they shouldn’t be writing. Maybe to prevent this you should just try to keep those scenes as “clean” as possible and leave the rest for wattpad.
It has happened to others and made people protest in episodes comments. But to be fair the author did used a lot of these “steamy” scenes, they put a choice to read it if you are 18 but let’s not lie here most people would have clicked yes on the choice anyway.
Although I sympathise w all the authors who have their story removed, it’s always removed for good reason n episode don’t just remove it. They warn the author, tell them what they need to change n if it’s not changed/author does not cooperate then they remove. A story is only removed without warning if the story is badly breaking the guidelines.
I am aware that having all ur hard work n passion removed is v hard, extremely hard. But, episode has no choice. They want to remain as a PG/13+ app, so they have more players, so if they show on screen sex/violence in stories n let it go then they’re no longer gonna pass as a 13 rated app n their age status will b changed. Removing a story is the last thing episode wants to do but they have to, so, they warn the author before they do it. Unfortunately, it’s the price u have to pay if u don’t accurately follow the guidelines
But if it’s on the app, then episode will no longer b PG/13+ n that’s episodes aim in removing stories. We have Ivy for mature content, if it’s on the app, episode can’t just assume that 13 yr olds won’t read it. Plus, they always give authors official warnings of what to remove before they remove it.
If you have seen the ‘kind’ of advertisements Episode puts out in other platforms, you’d think Episode is being hypocritical by removing mature content of community writer. I am not supporting or abating ‘mature content’ but Episode having double standards really pisses me off.
There was a story (not sure it’s still there) that involved sex trafficking and had very detailed descriptions and visuals of a woman and children being sex trafficked. While sex trafficking is a very big problem all over the world, and should be talked about more- that story did not belong on a app where (and people have admitted to being very young when they started reading here) 10yr olds are reading them. I’m an adult and found the scenes triggering.
Back to topic: In my opinion, I get the reason behind the guidelines and that stories that break them should be given opportunity to be corrected by the author. BUT there are stories that simply do not belong on an app accessed by children. There are many platforms -perhaps not as visual as Episode, but platforms nonetheless - where authors can write to their hearts content. This is why I’m waiting for Ivy to be publicly released. I have plenty of story ideas that don’t belong here because of mature topics not just intimate scenes.
As writers, even though the rules are a bit extreme, we should follow them to the best of our abilities and check with the teams if you have questions about content… Trigger warnings should be more than the ones given by Episode as well “this story contains mature language and content” doesn’t cut it for some sensitive topics and authors should give the opportunity to readers to skip potentially triggering topics.
I’d like to comment on this, because I used to be a moderator on another 12+ app for 3 years and I remember clearly what was allowed and what wasn’t. And let me tell you, Episode is much more permissive than that app I used to moderate in. Too much, might I say.
Take a look at the rating descriptions
PEGI 12
Games or apps that show violence of a slightly more graphic nature towards fantasy characters, or non-graphic violence towards human-looking characters or animals would fall in this age category, as well as nudity of a slightly more graphic nature and simulated gambling. Any bad language in this category must be mild and fall short of sexual expletives.
PEGI 16
Once the depiction of violence or sexual activity reaches a stage that looks the same as would be expected in real life, this rating is applied. Stronger inappropriate language, encouraging the use of tobacco or drugs and depicting criminal activities can be content of apps that are rated 16.
I feel like this controversy of story content starts with the wrong rating.
Episode is classified as 12+, yet I think we can all agree that most of the most trending (and featured) stories out there seem to follow a 16+ rating instead.
Is it the authors’ fault? No, it’s Episode that allows those theme to be portrayed to that extent on the app. Legit, Episode has come to a point where it should just be changed to 16+ and be done with it, because clearly they can’t suddenly ban all the more adult themes that pervade the app to this day.
The problem is that now they have Ivy, which is the mature 18+ alternative to Episode. Except, at least for now, it’s only available to certain devices. Can we assume that once Ivy is fully functional, all the less appropriate Episode stories will be forced to be moved over there? Something tells me that no, that will hardly happen. Stories like these are the main attraction on Episode. And if they advertise Ivy as the mature version– boy oh boy, what will we find there?
Unfortunately it all comes down to marketing, unless something/one above Episode intervenes. Google Play/App Store, I’m looking at you both
But who knows. Hopefully I’m wrong and something will actually spontaneously change for the better!
I’m not an author yet so not quite sure if episode just permanently removes reported stories without any notice at all or no, but anyway,
I think permanent removal of an entire story just bcuz of one/two or inappropriate scenes is kinda harsh. They should first get in touch with the respective author and ask to remove those particular scenes or make some modifications and wait for their reply.
Moved to Episode Fan Community since Community is for discussion of specific stories. Make sure to check out our Forum Tutorial for more info about creating topics, and feel free to PM me if you’ve got questions.
Honestly, they remove very few stories permanently. Sexually explicit content and plagiarism seem to be the only things they consistently care enough about to remove stories for, but most of the time they flag scenes that need to be changed. And even most of the stories that have been removed for sexually explicit content within the last year were only removed temporarily and the authors got a chance to re-write and re-publish them. I do think the guidelines are not always enforced equilaterally and obviously it’s up to Episode’s discretion what gets removed and what doesn’t, but it really doesn’t happen all that often. So I think if they do, the story poses a massive issue either for its guidelines violation or because leaving it up would reflect poorly on them lol
I feel like we should be able to write about anything without fearing censorship. 18+ stories should be able to exist on the app but without letting 13 years old reading steamy scenes. I’m sure that they can make that work, sometimes I want to write mature scenes (not sexual or anything like that) but I’m afraid because of the guidelines. If you don’t want to read difficult topics you can skip the scenes or avoid the story, but some of us really enjoy those themes and it’s unfair to not be able to enjoy them.
I feel like Episode will become like Youtube if they continue to add strict guidelines, freedom of speech it’s important. I don’t want my 12-year-old cousin reading about sex, but I also don’t want to read stories targeted at teenagers.
I think that authors should limit as to how much details they go in regarding the more intimate scenes or at least provide a skipping option for now because of the app’s current age rating and just the general age of the player base. From the stories that I’ve read, they tend to talk more about their emotions during the intimate scene instead of the actual thing and the visual stuff gets covered, which I personally don’t have a problem with. I honestly haven’t seen many stories get removed, and if it does get removed, I doubt it’s not without reason. Hopefully the Ivy app comes out soon so that it gives authors more freedom with this stuff.
Yea, I mean, the guidelines are in place for a reason. We can’t forget that this is an app geared towards preteens. So I find it reasonable for Episode to delete stories that are borderline erotic fiction.
If anyone wants to write about mature topics (doesn’t always have to be s*xual), you can always wait for the Ivy writing portal to be released for the community. Idk when that will be tho.
Episode won’t accept that because people will just lie. Of course this isn’t the authors fault but a problem episode has with no restrictions. I could just lie about my age and I wouldn’t get caught unless I outed myself. But in general they could if romance isn’t important for the story to move on authors could try this but this wouldn’t stop episode from inforcing guidelines on authors. If possible I would try not to let your imagination run wild and keep it for another platform.
