So What's the Issue With Voltage's "Love Choices?" (Discussion- Otome Tuesdays)

So, originally this was going to be a review of the new Voltage title on Love 365: Masquerade Kiss. The reason I say originally is because when I logged in and tried to play the prologue when prompted, I quickly discovered that this would be a “Love Choice” only story. 

Ergo, the stock photo you see above? While it's not my phone screenshot, it is similar to what I saw when I launched the page.

The Heart System was not liked among the Voltage fanbase in the West (for the most part). There were surveys that were sent about how much this audience wanted this system implemented. Based on purely observational knowledge, I can tell you that the audience (again, for the most part), did not want them. 

Yet, here they are, beginning to be implemented into new titles and supposedly headliner series. And they are not an "either/or" option. You cannot buy this new title (Masquerade Kiss), you can only play via Hearts.

So, why is this an issue? Well if you’ve been following the new system on the Voltage, they introduced the “Heart” or “Love Choice” System a couple months ago. This is initially a free-to-play option, where instead of buying an entire story and route upfront (that you do get to keep and reread), you have to wait to read an episode every 5 hours, and exchange “hearts” for desirable choices and options.

For the first “Masquerade Kiss” route, for example, I’ve seen people spend anywhere from 85 hearts, to 225 (from perusing Reddit forums and Facebook comment threads). Working that out to real money (assuming you bought the hearts and didn’t win them in the daily login wheel) that works out roughly between 8.50$ and 22$.

Now you might say, Meghan, why is 8.50-22$ a big deal? Lots of stories can cost reasonably between those costs. True. True. Except for the fact that I could buy a Voltage route in its totality, with CGs, and could keep it at roughly 4.00$ a story.

So in reality, is this a cheaper option for the person who can’t afford to buy a route?

My answer: meh? No. Not really.

I’ll tell you why I made the switch from Shall We Date Sims to Voltage. This is not to say I don’t play my favorite games from them anymore, but that is to say, I’ll go to Voltage first before I check anywhere else. Now I’m not so sure. When I first played Shall We Date Games, they had both “freemium” and “paid” versions. 

The paywalls and wait times essentially pissed me off. It wasn’t fun to wait to play especially if you were in a good spot, and it certainly wasn’t fun to hit a paywall every other chapter (or mini-game, or challenge that essentially made you wish you’d pay with how long it took). 

I remember, for example sitting on one chapter for a week because I couldn't get past this shitty roulette wheel or matching game they made you do. By that point, the story wasn't enjoyable enough to merit the worth of waiting that long, so I stopped. I switched to the paid versions of the app, and then eventually when those began to slow down, I switched over to Voltage in favor of their pay-to-play system. Voltage seemed to be getting ahead in terms of what their users wanted-- including an aggregated system of their stories (although I'm not sure if that was initially wanted, however, it was logical why they did that).

I want to be clear here. I’m not against a Heart System in place for those who do want it/ are okay with the option. I see the value in having a "free-to-play" option. I, too, was once a player who couldn't afford to buy stories regularly. That said, what I’m not okay with is if the entire system becomes a pay-walled, free-to-play system that essentially demands I fork over double the price I used to pay to play a story. Or to put it bluntly, if the entire Love 365 app becomes a pay-wall Heart System only experience. 

Now that? That is arguably, at its most extreme, exploitation of your consumer base. And that is not okay. Especially if the consumer base pays for your content via this new virtual currency, and is not allowed to keep the product they paid for. In the retail world, that is scammy, and since Voltage is a business in their own right, the practice is scammy too. I promise you I do not use these words lightly. Now, if they were to give users the option of both Hearts or Coins on any new localized titles, my tune would change significantly, because those who want to pay to play and keep the story can, and those who can't (or don't want to) can also play regardless. That's an okay solution. But, since they've localized one new title and made it exclusively "Love Choice" (or Hearts, I don't give a shit), who's to say the next big development will be to make this entire app exclusively freemium in nature? 

I don't want that. And prospectively I would've liked to review "Masquerade Kiss" for the blog this week-- but I will not be, and this is why. 

Another blog I was reading proposed an interesting solution for both paying/non-paying players, which you can read here . It was a good read, and I would suggest taking a look at it here if you want to do further reading. 

Anyway, that's my two cents on the issue. Let me know your thoughts in the comments! 

~Meghan