They have just announced a big grid of the discord on IG. People in the comments are literally saying to save the forums. I dont mind it as a chat function and episode help/episode chat (ill be mainly lurking in the directing help/episode related and promote stories but not really the main chat) but to remove years worth of content, they should be saving or archiving all the threads imo instead of making users do it. I feel bad for the mods that arent part of the company or have no say in what coporate wants! Like people were arguing on the main chat at one point and like I missed 200 messages. I only interact with nice people/authors.
Plus its not about activity. Theres topics being made as recent as 20 min ago? Its just crappy that it was just thrust upon us with no warning whatsoever. I didnt know about it until the IG post.
Iām making a big word document with every bit of directing help I can find (with credits of course) and using that as my āforumsā. If I need instant help, then I might use it and ask for author help.
The positive thing is that we can get help from other authors (which is great). I just dont know how to feel about it exactly. I just feel like this site should be archived like they do with older posts.
I agree with this. I think its great that we can interact with authors and the community and send memes, talk about anime, episode related content. But when you have people arguing and being horrible to the mods (who arent episode employees just like us, I feel awful for them and even mods who dont have a say in how the company is handled) its annoying watching that unfold. Iāve only really talked to nice people/other authors/promoted my story/asked for help. So I am keeping to those kind of chats. I hated it when people were arguing and being gross and the 200 messages you miss in the chat.
They just announced a big discord grid on thier IG. Plus theres always activity on this site. I dont understand it/annoyed that I only learned it through their original IG reel.
Correct me if Iām wrong, but wasnāt Episode XOXO free at one point? B/c I remember downloading it and playing a bunch of the Episode Official stories without having to pay for the gem choices.
That huge grid on IG of the Discord logo basically felt like Episodeās way of saying āWe know about the fight to #SaveForums, but oh well! Weāll pretend we donāt see it. THREE CHEERS FOR DISCORD! HIP HIPā¦ā
Episode makes me want to leave more and more because of their immature actions as a team. Itās such a shame 'cause I love the app so much, it allows me to set my imagination and creativity free.
Thatās the thing thatās always bugged me, how are their guides so bad? They have access to the code, they just need one person to type up a useable guide with plenty of examples.
Also, Iām a member of the Twine community and theyāve moved forums a few times but their old forums, while in read-only mode, are still available to search. The oldest one I have bookmarked was locked in 2017!
Iāve been a member of Discord since 2018 and Iāve joined multiple servers since then.
How it normally goes is company A says join our Discord server, so I do. Install app on phone, browse server. Get bombarded by multiple notifications which I promptly turn off. Forget about Discord. A few months later delete app from phone.
Although Discord had been under constant development since Iāve joined, itās still as cluttered and disorganised as itās always been. The Episode forums, by contrast, have been far easier to follow.
It was part of Apple Arcade, which is a gaming service Apple set up for its users. You pay a monthly fee and get access to a bunch of different games to play for āfreeā. Episode XOXO was one of those games. From what I could tell, and I could easily be wrong on this point, most of the games are either licensed from top studios, or ones created in house. There are a few from lesser studios like Pocket Gems, but it seems like those games either eventually go away or they get bought out by Apple, because Apple loves controlling as much as possible when it comes to their walled garden. Hence why to me it felt like Pocket Gems was trying to get the Episode property bought by Apple. I havenāt heard anything about Episode XOXO in months. Since Episode doesnāt appear to be owned by Apple, Iām guessing this strategy either didnāt work, or they were simply trying to branch out and failed. I donāt use Apple products so I canāt look at the games offered by the service to check if itās still there.
So Iāve been lurking around the Discord server for a while checking it out and figured Iād say hi and try to be social. So I said āGreetings all.ā A mod immediately put the chat in slow mode!!!
Granted, it just slowed it to 10 seconds, but still hilarious.
I donāt think the Discord search is as good as they say. I see theyāve moved over some posts Iāve commented in so I thought Iād use search to find all the posts I was mentioned inā¦ and Discord search said there were no posts.
So I looked at some more posts and then searched for that contentā¦ and Discord search said there were no posts.
Iām using the phone app, maybe it works okay using a computer? So, if search doesnāt work, whatās the point of posting anything on there?
Honestly, I have nothing against Discord, but I have no intention of joining that platform. Itās sad to see how Episode decided to leave the forums behind so easily.
Doesnāt help that we were given less than a month to run around saving our own threads and then being asked to save other peopleās too. Like, what? You sprung this onto US, Episode??? Do it yourselves, since youāre the ones who have made this drastic change without asking the community how theyād feel first.
Instead of making things harder for us they should focus on listening what we actually need. Items from wishlist, more body types especially for children and plus size males, more new things instead of recolors or straight up just giving the same thing, a way to add our own prop, adding beauty marks and freckles to character settings instead of outfitsā¦ The list go onā¦
