People who really, really want multiple distinct paths for Monica, based on player choices, need to remember that each path slows down story progression proportionately. This, two story lines proceed at half the rate of one, three at one-third the speed of one, etc. I strongly suspect that those complaining loudest about the lack of major story choice would also be the ones complaining loudest about lack of story development speed.
As it stands, the story's main arc proceeds inevitably, with player choices only affecting what Monica experiences in each of the story stages. This means that the story is, at this stage, preceding at full speed. This is, I believe, the best approach for DM to take, for two reasons:
1) He is looking to add more patrons, and the more story he includes in each update, the better he looks as a client. Any given potential patron is only really going to be interested in one arc (nice or bitch) of the story, so having them be distinct branches halves the amount of content a potential patron sees, and
2) There's only a handful of people, I'd guess, who wouldn't rather the the story progress as quickly as possible to the point where Monica makes the REAL decisions that will affect her future. If we had story choices where (a) Monica loses her money but not her job or her house, (b) Monica loses her money and her job but not her house, or (c) Monica loses her money, her job, and her house, we'd almost all of us choose (c). So, why should DM spend time developing stories around (a) and (b), when he could be moving us towards the point in the story where players really WOULD like their decisions to make a difference?
There are flaws in the game, but I don't think that lack of different story arcs in episode 1 is one of them. Episode 1 is just setting up Monica's problem; interesting decisions will come from how we think Monica should resolve them, not from what we think that they should be.
DM, just keep on doing what you are doing.
