I personally think it is up to the author. I know that lots of people beg authors without CC to put it in when in reality, it’s not their option. I am currently writing a story with art scenes, overlays, and other things that cut CC out of the picture. But I know once I publish there will be people who ask for CC even with all of the advanced directing I am putting in to make the story better.
I’ve also seen authors who struggle with their readers wanting CC with advanced directing and accurate art scenes which is practically impossible and an absolute nightmare to try and code.
This. Thats the exact reason i loathe art scenes. They never look like me. If you want art scenes okay cool BUT dont frickin…give Full CC then post passive messages saying(the MC will not look lile you etc etc)
If you have no set look for your MC add CC. Ik its a lot coding wise but ur telling me u have no look for ur MC and yet…Im still playing pale skin as the defualt…no just no. We are all different and we all sbould be represented.
Also. If you have a set look for ur MC DONT give CC hows that hard? Like dont put passive messages about(the MC is not you and art scenes wont match if u change her skin)
For a lot of non-POC people with non-POC MCs out there, remember that CC might draw POCs to your story more. We don’t get many stories where POCs are the stars (though this is increasing), so adding CC is a chance for us to see people like us star for a change
I included CC in stories where it didn’t matter how the characters looked. I think limited CC could also be a good choice, especially if just one thing about the person’s appearance is important
Tbh I like it when there is no CC because I prefer how the author portrays his/her character. But if there is a full CC option and he/she uses Episode default characters like the Jessica ink character then I will definitely change his/her look.
There’s only two or three stories that would allow CC.
Otherwise, I can’t allow any because then it would interfere with both the plot and overlays.
The way I see it:
It’s not YOU that’s playing the story. You’re just playing AS the character IN the story.
My upcoming story will happily have cc but will also have MATCHING ARM OVERLAYS. I’m going to that extra mile to benefit everyone. That and the parents will look like the Mc.
It irks my soul having cc but then the arm overlays don’t match and my “parents” look like strangers. It’s a lot of extra coding but I’m gonna do it for the sake of trying to have everything connect for every reader.
At this time in my episode life (haha) I would rather read a story with customization than a story with overlays. There are certain features that I like to choose.
I personally think that if there is no reason to not allow customization that seriously affects the story, then I would allow customization, but it took me a little while to decide this, because I have stories with limited customization, and now that I look back at it, I have no good reason why.
It always shows when people go the extra mile! It really makes a huge difference!
To be honest, I didn’t mind your reasons! They were a lot better than some of the reasons I’ve seen! “She has to be white for the story to work” being one of them. Then when I read the story, her race or skin colour doesn’t come up once
I think for first time episode writers it’s a lot of coding to get it to work though I can see the appeal to try and get it to work. But for the more experienced coder it’s a great way to connect with the reader.
I personally don’t add CC because there is a certain way I envisioned my characters in my head. Also, in my stories, the reader doesn’t play as themselves, so they don’t really need to make the MC look like themselves.
I think for my future Epi story, I’ll give (sort of) limited CC. The MC of my story is black, and there aren’t many high school stories (I’m trying to make mine non-cliche) on Episode with a POC MC, and I wanna be able to change that. I want to give readers the chance to customize my MC with only black skin tones, black hairstyles, black lip tones, etc. And also, BLM. I think I’ll put that at the beginning of my story title in parentheses.
I think it’s down to personal preference at the end of the day. If you want the main character to be a you character, then go ahead and add customization. If you want the main character to be their own character, you probably shouldn’t add customization. If you want an in-between, you should do limited customization. I usually prefer limited customization in case I want to change a few things about the character.
I’m still very big on giving limited CC or full CC for stories. While there’s an argument to be said for preserving the characters, I don’t think that it’s a particularly strong one. For starters, plenty of characters are designed to be reader self-inserts, which kinda need full CC to work well. I think limited CC is important because people have some very different tastes on specific features–there are times when I have stopped reading a story because of how the design made the character look. I think having some options (such as a few blue hair shades if their hair is canonically blue) is a good compromise because it allows people to change things that really bother them and feel like they can still have some control over the character while still retaining key traits.
That and the parents will look like the Mc.
