I played “Episode: Choose Your Story”, a mobile choose-your-story game created by Episode Interactive. The game is targeted primarily towards young women, including preteens and teens. Many of its stories are romance-oriented, appealing to the player’s desire to control their character’s destiny. However, though Episode pushes the idea of player agency on its platform, it often requires players to pay for the best options in the game. This means that, in order for a player to complete a story in a satisfying or fun way, they need to pay for diamonds.
Popup about diamonds sale
I last played the game over a year ago, but, when I reinstalled it, I was immediately met with a notification of a sale for diamonds and “passes”, which are the tickets needed to play each individual level. This appeared every time I opened the app, and I sometimes accidentally clicked on the purchase button because of its size and placement. I’ve noticed that Episode almost always advertises short-term discounts and events, encouraging the player to purchase these sales with a false sense of urgency. Since it also encourages players to buy these diamonds or passes in bulk, it sets players up for a pattern of binging episodes and needing to buy more passes to continue having fun, one episode after another.
Paid decision that forces non-paying players to choose the worst option.
When playing the game itself, the need for diamonds becomes even more apparent through the options that players are offered. I chose the story “Don’t Hate The Player”, where I played a character looking for love on a reality TV show. Throughout the course of one episode, I had 12 opportunities to choose my character’s decision. However, 7 of these choices required diamonds to choose anything but the worst option. For instance, I was offered a family heirloom necklace from my love interest’s mother, but I had to pay diamonds in order to accept it; the only non-paying option was to “Tell her it’s tacky and you don’t want it.” Similarly, when I get the chance to open up to my love interest, the only option I can get for free is to tell him “Man up, it’s reality TV, none of this is real”, which isn’t just different from what I would ideally choose but likely the opposite of what I would like to do. This endless number of monetized choices reflects the “zombified” nature of this live game, where there is no real progression in the game but the priced options make the players think they are making productive choices. As explained by Edwin Evans-Thirlwell in “We should redefine live service games as the living dead”: “The zombie’s hunger can never be sated.” (Evans-Thirlwell)
Options being limited by the need to pay
In many other ways, Episode follows the zombie live game description with “generic fixtures and minimal story component that gracelessly munch away at whoever they can lay their hands on.” Stories that are popular on Episode often do not have a strong narrative direction or plot; for instance, reality TV show genres are quite common because characters are easily interchangeable, the “challenges” from each episode don’t have to narratively connect to one another, and choices don’t have long-term consequences. Because these story plots are easy to devise, even when a player finishes one story there are dozens more that a player can complete. They are set up to complete stories and spend diamonds continuously.
The randomization involved in the Episode is different from that leveraged in other games as the players gamble story outcomes instead of in-game rewards. Through their choices, the player can experience awkward, negative outcomes or satisfying, positive ones. They wish to keep making choices because there are chances they will have a meaningful difference. As I played through this episode, I was tempted to spend diamonds on at least one decision in case it would have consequences on my role in the game or my relationship with my love interest. It was concerning to see just how much the pay-to-play features were pushed forward, especially given the younger players on Episode. For instance, in one decision I choose not to spend diamonds to wear a dress, but I am asked and posed the option again by my love interest asking if I was sure. For younger audiences who feel more emotionally invested in the game and can be easily gratified by what is posed to be just a few clicks of buttons, these paying options are tempting and manipulative. In this case, I do not believe chance is not used in a morally permissible way. Because I only have the option to choose one choice when I do not want to spend diamonds, even the opportunity to experience chance is taken away from me because I do not want to pay. Players’ chances should not change or improve based off of how much money they can spend.
