We removed the account from the checkout
The sign-up form was not protecting anything. It was standing between somebody who wanted the next episode and the next episode.
In short
On Generated Worlds a viewer can buy the next episode or the rest of a series without signing up: they pay, the episode opens, and an email afterwards offers to set a password so the purchase follows them to another device. Sign-up is now the consequence of buying something, not the price of trying to.
A sign-up form in front of a purchase is a question nobody came to answer. Somebody in the middle of an episode they are enjoying is not weighing up membership; they want the next part of the story, and a form is a change of subject.
01What changed
- Every unlock door takes payment with no account: the next episode on its own, or the rest of the series.
- The price is on the button, before the tap. No chooser appears between wanting the episode and paying for it.
- Afterwards, an email offers to set a password. Declining leaves the purchase working in that browser.
02The awkward part: a purchase with nobody attached
A purchase without an account has to live somewhere. It lives in the browser that made it, and the email we send is the only bridge to a second device. A viewer who pays on a phone, ignores the email, and opens the site on a laptop will not find what they bought — they will find the email, which is why it goes out immediately and says plainly what it is for. We would rather carry that awkwardness than the much larger one of losing people at a form.
For creators this changes one thing worth knowing: the people buying your episodes are not all registered viewers, so a follower count is a poor measure of who is paying. Viewer Journey counts what people did, which is the measure that survives this change.
What it does not do
It is not a better experience for everyone. A viewer who buys on one device and watches on another is worse off than a viewer with an account, and there is no way around that beyond writing down who they are. If you watch on more than one screen, set the password when the email arrives.
Questions
- Do I need an account to watch a short drama on Generated Worlds?
- No. Episodes that are free to everyone play with no account, and paid episodes can be bought without creating one. An account is offered after a purchase so it follows you to another device.
- What happens if I pay and never set a password?
- The purchase stays with the browser you bought it in and keeps working there. Setting a password from the email we send afterwards is what moves it to another device.
Keep reading
- Viewer Journey: see which episode loses your audience
Viewer Journey shows a short drama creator how far viewers get through their series, which episodes hold them and what they did next — with a worked example of how to read the charts.
- Tap to send a heart, hold to send a token
One control on the player does two things: a tap sends a free heart to the creator, a hold sends a token from the viewer's wallet. Both reach the studio that made the episode.
- A desktop layout that stops wasting the screen
Full screen on a computer now puts the vertical picture on the left and the episode list on the right, instead of a phone-shaped video floating in black.
All posts from the Generated Worlds Tech Blog.