Changes in the diamond system in Choices

Dear Pixelberry team behind Choices,

We are aware that you are a small team and that you work hard to deliver great stories to us every week, and we deeply appreciate that! We also understand the importance of paid choices (i.e. diamonds) and advertisement in the game to make this amazing game feasible.
However, we have seen a growing concern with regards to diamonds among the Choices community, which has been leading to an increasing disinterest of players that are therefore slowly giving up on Choices. Some of these concerns involve the increase of diamond choices/scenes per chapter, as well as a decline in quality of diamond choices (e.g. the love scene that instead was ended by a cockroach, the Lia scene in TC&TF). There is also a general feeling that even though players would willingly buy diamonds, they are expensive and with the increasing need of diamonds they are not purchasing anymore.
We have a few suggestions:
1. Earning diamonds by replaying old chapters/books
2. Having a “log in everyday” bonus that could give extra diamonds per day or more at the end of a week
3. “Watch an add and get a diamond”
4. A diamond sale from time to time
We feel that both suggestions 1 and 2 would make people i. log in more often ii. have something to do inside the game while they are waiting for new chapters to come out. Both could lead to people watching more adds inside the game, as well as suggestion number 3.
We recognize we are not the most qualified people to make suggestions to a great team like yours, but as the final users of your product, we would like to share our concerns with you and hear about any ideas that you are considering in the matter.
Please keep doing all your hard work! We deeply appreciate it!

Best regards,
The Choices Users Community


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Examples of just some of the complains we have been seeing from several users (these were all collected in a matter of hours):

“I'm not buying nearly what I use to and just let myself fall behind i n books like TC&TF and ES 2 because I know I don't have enough diamonds to really play them. I just focus on TF and have just about got through ES 1 to the point I'm happy with it so I could now start book 2 but I'm really liking LH2 so not sure which one o should go with. And I want to finish TCTF.”

“I'm getting fed up with the amount of diamond options. And let me note in that... that by CHOICE I was one of those who played all diamond scenes and paid actual money for it. I know it's been discussed and I'm sorry to bring it up again but the new books had 3 diamond options, 25 diamond for each. So here is a bit of math: let's say there is 1 book, 3 diamond option and you play only that for a month. So : 3x25diamonds is 75 in total. 75 diamonds cost $9.78 (plus tax) . $9.78 X 4 weeks is $39.12 (plus tax) a month ... and we have what... 6 books now ? So if I would continue my old habits and play all diamond choice for each book for a month that would end up $234.72. Anyways I just felt writing this out. Also again please note that I did write it was my choice for spending money on this game. You don't have to play diamond scenes to enjoy it, I just really felt an increase in these diamond options (especially when it comes to clothing options).”

“I've been playing choices for quite some time now and I'm ok with buying clothes and special occasions, but ugh, in why must we spend diamonds to get the prize that is supposed to be ours? (It's roe book 2, the Alex's couple contest part)” 

“i actually gave this whole diamond outrage a thought and have mixed feelings about it. on the one hand as an owner of a small business actually an artist booking angency, i see the bunch of people behind choices. there is creativity and art behind this. people who need to make a living of their work. how does the creators of this app gain their money? The app is free and there is not that much advertising within the app. when i look at sims, its much more commercials and sims is an EA game right? I guess pretty much more budget in that company than pixelberry has. So the in-app-purchase of diamonds is the way they make their money, so special choices need to be paid for. if you think its worth the extra pages you get or not is your choice BUT on the other hand, when i watched the post about how old choices players are, there is a lot of pretty young people that are fixed on by a nice story and put a lot of their money into this game. and after i saw that post about how much money some of you spend on it, i think its pretty dangerous and maybe also lead to gaming addiction or really ruin these people. so i think having it a bit more like i.e. Sims where you can pretty much play without spending any money if you are willing to watch lots of commercials it would be safer especially for the teenage fans. But I also think the creative work of the people behind choices should be rewarded in some way.”

“I also think when they release a new book series, there shouldn't be many if any diamond options for the first chapter so people can get into it more and form an opinion without having to "miss out" on much.”

“I am one of the ones that was spending money on diamonds all the time by choice. I don't regret buying in the past, it was very worth it. With the increase in diamond choices, and books, I won't be buying diamonds in a while.”

“I've bought diamonds before, but can't afford too many, and since there's so many diamond choices it irritates me! I understand that's how they make their money and what not, I really don't think the name should be choices. -_-“

“I know they have to make money but it's excessive and putting off fans. I already can't be bothered with Hero because there are too many diamond choices before you get to any good stuff and not even a basic LBD for events, if you don't pay diamonds then you're going to a fancy party that's important for your career in a sweater. Come on! And even the diamond choices are declining in quality. In Royal Romance I recently bought a dress for the Apple Queen festival specifically because they said it unlocked a special scene but it's actually possible to get that without buying the dress. And in the Sophomore I spent diamonds for the MC to spend some quality time with their love interest but all that happens is that they're scared off by a cockroach in your room. Ok that's funny but not worth paying for.”

“the cockroach thing bugged me... If you're paying for a love scene I want to get a love scene... What BS is this?!”

“25 diamonds just for her to say 5 words....lol” (about the Lia scene in TC&TF)

“That was probably the biggest 25 diamond waste I've ever spent.” (same)

“I don't understand why we can't watch ads for diamonds like in other games, I watch an ad before some chapters and get nothing extra for it 😒”

“I love how they got more ways to make us spend our diamonds on like that whole support thingy on the sophomore book. But they can't come up with more ways to earn diamonds😂😂😂so silly… They just greedy tbh. I play sim freeplay and if I haven't been playing for awhile they give me a whole bunch of golds to welcome me back my sims missed me.”

“Who else thinks PB should have a spin and earn mini game in the app so we can earn keys,diamonds or outfits”

“Anyone else like the new heroes story I sort of do but you need 70 diamonds for three decent things so unfair”

“There's going to be a superhero book? I'm calling it now, this is gonna be my character's costume because I don't have diamonds. I'm gonna be stuck with the ugliest Superhero outfit like how I was stuck wearing LBD in all 3 books of ROE. Hahahahahaha I hope at least the game let me choose my superhero name without using diamonds. Somehow I can see this new book as even more pricey than Endless Summer.”

“I like the plot and the way that your choices affect your friendships with other characters but I don't like that the diamond options are integral to the story instead of optional extras.” (about ES)

“Of course PB need money to keep going but there are a lot of diamond walls, each is quite expensive and to keep buying diamonds would put a lot of us out of pocket :/ I avoid outfits as much as possible and only spend if I really am feeling the extra or love scene.”

“They started getting greedy. There used to be less diamond scenes and more non diamond and cheaper diamond options. The diamond options used to be better too. I used to spend more money on the games but now it's not worth it. I don't even play as much as I used to or get excited like I used to.”

“They should let us have outfits for free. Their books are costing more than actual books. I'm bout too give up.”

“The shitty outfits we have to wear. Like the sweater and jeans option for the hero gala. Like really? Not even a lbd. I just think diamonds for clothing options is so unnecessary. 25 for an outfit is too much.”

“I have to stop myself from using those diamonds, I have it automatically charged to my phone...it all adds up and racks up my phone bill. They make you pay for just about everything.”

“I used to be addicted to it, but recently I am not even playing a lot any more... Got behind in all stories, not even started some books... My problem was exactly the diamond thing... I want to use them, but I don't have enough, I wouldn't mind paying some money for them, but I think they are way too expensive and getting only 1/chapter is soooo little... I wish we could at least earn them by replaying favorite books/chapters...”

“They are milking the * out us. And i decided yesterday after the new hero book seeing how they charged for a dress i was over it. No more making these money hungry ppl rich . ill play using the free options and read premium screenshots from here or youtube. The game aint even all that to charge so much money. Each chapter lasts like what? 5 mins? Lol staywoke ppl.”