Hanging Out With The Epals: Checking Out epal.gg
Author’s note: This article is based on using the website in April and July of 2020. Opinions of those interviewed and my experience using the website may be out of date due to the regular updates the website receives.
Egirl.gg
I don’t remember where I first head of egirl.gg but it was definitely in a negative light. The term “e-girl” is often used in a derogatory manner, often as nothing more than thinly-veiled sexism. From most of those I saw talking about the website, they weren’t exactly shying away from voicing negative opinions of a website sharing the same name. It is no wonder that the website has since rebranded to the more gender-neutral “epal.gg”.
In an age where “simp” and “cuck” are thrown around on a regular basis, it isn’t exactly surprising that this was the common reaction though. Women online having the audacity to expect people to pay them to hang out and play video games? Unthinkable!
So what is it
Obvious sarcasm aside, the website is a mixture of meeting the gaming partner needs of whatever someone might be looking for. Most people are offering a friend for hire experience, an opportunity to shoot the shit while, you know, shooting some shit.
Others offer more professional services such as coaching. League of Legends coach Eric Lay has shown that there is a market on the website, with almost 300 customers served. E-pal leaned into this sub-community of coaches and high-level players with a new section for “E-pros”.
E-pal profiles are broken down into categories from some of the most popular multiplayer titles. The obvious ones being games like League of Legends, Overwatch, Fortnite and Minecraft. Some smaller games like Gwent, Heroes of the Storm and even Slither io also feature on the website. A more recent “custom game” option for those wanting to play more niche games and an “e-chat” option for those who just want to hang out. Depending on the game and the e-pal in question, you may pay a fee per game or per hour.
Despite some of the initial stigma I saw about the website, there really wasn’t much in the way of “mature” content. The guidelines I found initially stated that the site isn’t for sexual content and that seems to be the norm. I did stumble on someone offering some power dynamic services like bossing the customer around, but that seemed to be very much the exception. A person going to the website looking for more than just games and banter would likely be better served elsewhere.
In fact, since I started writing this article the website has taken further steps to eliminate adult content from the website. The updated guidelines for the website go into this more clearly and after talking to people who use the site, these guidelines have been heavily enforced over the past month.
Trying It Out
So what is it like to use the website? Initially, in April 2020 my experience wasn’t super positive. I reached out to people through the website’s chat function, only to find most people didn’t know of it or didn’t check their messages. I don’t play many “mainstream” multiplayer games, so the small Heroes of the Storm section had only a few options. The website has an audio clip preview on people’s profiles, so I could at least narrow down my search to those with a decent mic setup.
The first person I spoke with and booked a time with ghosted me. Something that made sense in retrospect, as they had kept mentioning the other games they play (that had a higher price tag than HotS). It was a rough way to start things out, but I wasn’t going to let one bad experience dissuade me.
After messaging more people though, I had a few responses from people willing to talk about their experiences on the website while getting games in. Over the course of about two weeks, I played Heroes of the Storm with 3 different people from the website. Then after a three-month break, I returned to the Heroes of the Storm section to catch up with one of the initial people I played with as well as booking a session with someone new.
From there it was all pretty simple. After some pleasantries, times were booked for when we would play. The payments were agreed to be handled after the sessions since we weren’t sure about how long they last beforehand. Discord and battle.net details were exchanged, then we just played some games.
The sessions themselves were generally a really nice experience. One thing I found in common among all the people I booked sessions with is they were primarily the type of people who would be playing the game anyway. In one case, the woman in question wasn’t particularly interested in the money and just wanted to meet people to play HotS with.
The games were good, the conversation was good (if somewhat more formal due to the added interview context) and I spent under $25 for over 8 hours of games. The payments were a simple case of putting in an order after each session completed, then waiting 15 minutes before performing the payout. The system was clearly designed to book each session through the website ahead of time, but it seems most people just trust customers to handle everything afterwards.
With the sessions complete, all that was left to do was to leave reviews. Thankfully the people I played with were all great people, so it was nice to leave some positive reviews that I actually meant. Originally this system didn’t include reviews and the added systems didn’t replace the older ones. This leaves a strange blend of thumbs up/down, rating out of 5 and written reviews which seems a bit overkill.
The Women Behind The Website
During my sessions, I had a chance to interview each of the four women I played games with. Also getting the thoughts of how the website had changed over time with the one person whom I got the chance to speak with twice.
The main thing I learned quickly was this wasn’t seen as a career for those using the website. In one case, the woman was just looking for people to play Heroes with and didn’t care much at all about the financial side of things. Others held the point of view that they would be playing these games anyway, so making a bit of cash on the side was nice.
One person I spoke to seems to have built a healthy income from the site. With hundreds of sessions booked since starting on Epal.
The E-star program hasn’t been ideal though and its problems highlight some issues with the website. “A lot of people are complaining about their feedback not being heard. The fact that because the website doesn’t have any competition, they’re doing whatever they want however they want. Without listening to the feedback from customers, from people that just use their website.”
The fact that because the website doesn’t have any competition, they’re doing whatever they want however they want.
The changes to the community guidelines along with a number of user bans have made many people leave the website one way or another. “A lot of girls stepped down because of that, a lot of them were my friends.” With that said, they still continue to use Epal. Considering the existing brand strength and lack of competitors, I can’t exactly fault her for it. Any commercial platform will have its issues.
Another had built up just a small following on the website, but as more of a bit of side income while studying. “All I really do is just sit at home and play video games and do college classes online. If I can get a dollar out of playing a game, why not?” After a few awkward initial messages, they started seeing customers come in and had around 100 customers to date.
Another used the website early on, even having a couple of friends as customers in the beginning to reach the top of their category. They have since stopped using the website however along with another user that was just on the website to find people to play with. Both users or “epals” had noted a positive experience using the website at the time of interview though, with some issues with the website back in April.
Closing Thoughts
Overall, Epal is a fun website that caters to a specific niche of finding people to play games with. Whether it be for needing a player 2 for a niche video game or just some company during this lonely 2020, Epal is offering a platform for people to find others.
I don’t know how much I’ll use Epal in the future, but maybe one day if I really can’t find someone to play a game with I’ll give it a try again.
