For this assignment I have chosen to play a mobile game recommended by my peers called “Episode – Choose Your Story”. It is a decision-oriented narrative game that is widely popular among young people as it features storytelling collaborations with Hollywood and allows a player to potentially be the creator of a story as well. However, the main attraction of this game experience is the ability to make decision on behalf of a character or your alter-ego in rather dramatic, twisted and funny situations. In this game, your own choices determine its flow and outcome.

The app platform offers a wide range of plots for a user to choose to explore. From my observation, the content is mostly centered around modern day relationship drama for young adults. On their website, the creators of the “Episode” claim that their product is designed for a new generation that grew up with the Internet, smartphones and tablets, for whom passive entertainment such as film and television is no longer exciting. They are promoting interactive and immersive entertainment where the user is the active participant and, in a sense, a creator. I respect their idea behind the app, however, I did not like its implementation. I have chosen this game because I have seen too many annoying PG-16 ads online and I have heard from my peers that the game is stupid and inappropriate. Yet people keep downloading, playing and even investing money into “Episode” for the same reason it is also frowned upon by others.

Considering Miguel Sicart’s conceptualization of play as a form of expression, I can surely state that “Episode” provides this opportunity for a player to express who he/she is, is not or would like to be. Since most of the content, I am afraid, is rather dirty and controversial, the decisions made by the user are motivated by either their genuine desires or pure curiosity that does not reflect what they would actually do in real life. To provide a better understanding of what I am describing, I am attaching some screenshots of my play experience.

I started my “Episode” journey by choosing one of the two very popular plots that I assume each new player is offered to try out. I was instantly thrown off by its explicit narration. The characters were highly sexualized and the decisions that were offered for a player to choose were designed in a way that tests one’s decency. Such an experience makes me think of this game as a bubble in which you are free to play as you wish. Thus, the game reflects us and our society (as argued by Sutton-Smith), specifically, its vices and darkest desires. The controversies behind each decision define the carnivalesque nature of the game as it explores the limits of your own bravery behind a mask of a fictional character.

The general rules are quite simple and the whole experience is very intuitive. The mechanism behind the game does not seem complicated, since the app provides a certain range of pre-written story lines that the user navigates. The game begins with character customization. The user can enter his/her or a made-up name and change the looks of the default character, which can provide a great sense of personal investment into the game, if you make your character look like you. However, I was quite disappointed with the 2D graphics and the smoothness of animations that created an impression of the game being rather “cheap”. This observation reminded me of Chris Crawford’s notion that graphics can be the game’s biggest flaw. However, as I moved to another plot, my opinion shifted a bit.

The first story offered by the app made me feel rather awkward, so I browsed the catalog and chose what seemed to be the most innocent plot line and that was “Pitch Perfect: In Big Treble”. This story was created in a collaboration with the widely famous comedy film and the product included most of the original characters. This is where the designers did a good job at portraying real actors in a recognizable way. This particular storyline and a few others (other Hollywood or celebrity collaborations) reminded of a modern argument that games are an essential part of our pop culture (Jenkins, Upton, Sicart).

Throughout hours of playing, my character Alex joined an all-girl acapella group in a university, found a nemesis, developed a crush on a customizable male character, questioned her sexuality after meeting a customizable female character, fought with her parents and even performed a song only in her shower towel. The situations I found myself/her in were mostly unbelievably ridiculous, however, I must admit that “Episode” does get you hooked. Although there is no real way to lose this game, a certain fear follows the user – a fear of making a wrong choice. For this reason, I believe the game does have this balance between creation and destruction, because the user gets to “write” the story, yet also faces the risks of ruining it.

The main disappointment was revealed after playing the game for a couple of hours. In order to continue the story and move on to the next chapter the user has to “pay” a “pass”. If you do not have any left, a new pass will be given to you in 3 hours. This trick makes the gamer hooked to the game, forcing one to wait for the moment to be able to go back to the world of fiction. What is more, the game also has “gems” which allow you to “pay” for a certain decision. For example, my character had the opportunity to listen to a friend’s advice but in order to follow it I had to spend 20 gems (which I did not have). This frustrated me as a user , because it took away the pleasure of playing my story the way I want. Luckily, the player gets one gem after completing a chapter of the story. Both passes and gems are available for purchase. Actual purchase. For real money. #capitalism

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“Pitch Perfect” has 30 chapters and, in the 4-5 hours spent in this fictional world, I was not able to find out what is its outcome. In general, the play experience was quite entertaining and addicting, but I did feel like I could have spent my time in a better and a more productive way. Also, tapping on the screen for hours eventually felt monotonous and, therefore, a bit boring. These factors and the rather explicit content would not make me want to go back to playing “Episode”, yet it was certainly an interesting experience from an academic perspective of learning more about game design and nature of play.