You can replace fortune with FRUSTRATION, FORMULAS or according to others, some other “F” words if you like.
How’s every one doing? Been strolling around the wide world of TSTO and recently I’ve noticed quite a few folks intensely focused on the Holiday Wheel that came with this year’s holiday update. What at first seemed like such a cool concept has ended up being a hotly debated item. There are folks who have become disillusioned, feel cheated, don’t care, want that last item that is taunting them. Whatever the case, it is definitely one of those items you either love or hate it seems.
Figured I’d chime in with my two cents for what it’s worth. The real truth about it is that I don’t really have an opinion. As one of the people who had a lot of the prizes from last year, I went into the wheel ahead of the game. Even then, there was a lot of stuff on the wheel even for me. As of this writing, I am one prize away from getting everything. I try my hardest not to become upset at things out of my control and this definitely seems to be one of them. I’m enthused when I win something extra and whether it riles me as I hit cash AGAIN, I just keep on keeping on and tapping away. The opinions of my peeps however do matter very much to me so I figured I’d take some of the “F” words I could think of and lay out some thoughts.
FORTUNE
Everything on the wheel is FREE (My favorite number). I find it hard to get too upset at a device that gives me something for nothing. While I have no need of $1000, it is more than what I had before I spun in the first place. As long as the wheel is completely played without donuts, you’ll never end up worse off for having spun it. If you play purely, you get one chance every day and some extras right towards the end. Even completely random, something’s gonna be missed. Not everyone wins on wheel of fortune, right? I’m sure a lot of newer players don’t mind the cash. My kiddo seems to think I’m crazy for not caring about 1000 dollars as she’s still on Level 14. She has a point and to date has not been upset with any of her winnings.
FRUSTRATION
I get it. Not getting everything you want is no fun. I consider myself lucky that my last remaining prize is the Ice God (which I really could care less about), but some days it does feel like me vs. the wheel as it taunts me and continuously lands so close but no cigar every time. I’ve probably spun at least 40 times now and not hit that blasted Hindi goddess. I decided rather than be upset at this I would look up multi-armed goddesses and decide which one was mocking me. I’m probably completely wrong on which one it’s supposed to be but I now think of it as Kali, godess of time and death. Seems like the manifestation of how people feel about the wheel. Takes a lot of time and has sparked some murderous thoughts lol. Every time I really get fired up, I can easily be satiated by making Rex Banner shake the heck out of Flanders. Works every time.
FORMULAS
No matter how hard we’ve delved into the files, the basic mechanics of this wheel are unclear. Algorithm, cheat, random unluckiness… whatever it is, yeah… hitting 1000 dollars numerous times in a row should not be possible. Whether it’s a clever way to make money or just something designed to make you have to wait for a complete pay-out, it is what it is. This entire game is programmed and EA gets to decide how the wheel works. My best advice for anyone who is convinced it is rigged is to just avoid t and not get worked up over it. As the wheel lacks a physical presence, it has to be completely programmed and is beyond any of our control. Don’t let some pixels get you down.
OTHER “F” WORDS
Obviously, I won’t delve further into this one but I’m sure you get it. Here at Addicts we completely understand being bummed about not winning everything and are here for ya. If you need to, curse all you want at your device and keep on tapping. If you need a break, take one. The game will be there later.
As for spending donuts on the wheel. I’d seriously advise against it. I have spent some but have the blessing of knowing I’d get donuts for Christmas because of my gig here. For experimentation purpses, I spent 100 to see if it would improve my odds. After only getting 3 prizes and a bunch of cash and gift cards, I realized free was the best option. I really would not be surprised to see every item on the wheel offered for donuts towards the end of this event. If you really want to spend your hard earned money on the wheel, I can’t stop you but hope you won’t do it. Melted snowmen and unseasonal Christmas Lights aren’t worth it.
Long post made short, this update really has been cool for me and I hate seeing fellow tappers and Addicts get bummed out about it. If the wheel is synonymous with four letter words for you then just let it alone and go out there to design/tap some of the cool stuff which doesn’t upset you.
The Holiday Wheel is what it is and to me is the least important part of the update. The 10 Personal Prizes are all sweet additions to the game and the community prizes aren’t too shabby either. I love Costingtons , Santa Flanders, Scroogey Burns, the plow truck, the skating rink and the Elves Ride for Krustyland. All of these could easily have been added for donuts but we got lucky and they weren’t. On the giant wheel of chance that is life, I consider that a WIN.
TTFN… Wookiee out!
All I want for Christmas is Claus Co.
I spent donuts(dumb idea)
All I want is that!
Any tricks for the wheel to get it?
It would be friggin awesome for premium items.
Any tricks on the wheel to get Claus Co?
No real tricks. Some people swear by picking a spot 2-3 above the prize and lightly spinning the wheel. Worked for me on my 40th or so spin for my last item. Definitely avoid donuts. Good luck!
I have gotten two Plow Kings from the Wheel of (mis) Fortune. Thank you very little, EA. I dont have Barney. Wish we could trade somehow….
That is odd. Two? I haven’t heard of people getting multiples. Lol.
I am hoping with all the push for Barney, that maybe…just maybe EA will have a yard sale with the Bowlarama at a discount after the event? (hint hint EA)
I won two of Snowball II. They’re now placed at the entrance to the Burns mansion – as if they were marble lions. 🙂 Too bad that they’ll melt.
normally I’d say “who cares, FREE STUFF” but it keeps freezing & crashing my system! I’ve lost days of collecting gift cards & boxes due to the wheel. *sigh* I just wish it worked a little bit better
Any theories on what might happen to any unused tokens when the event is up? I currently have 8 tokens and was lucky enought to get all the prizes. I could just go for the $1,000 cash but was dreaming they might convert to donuts. Hmmm token donuts……
It is all just speculation with the game lately. EA keeps pretty tight lips and information hidden from all.
It would be cool to swap items for donuts at the end.
Was wondering would these wheel prizes become available after the event? Im not to bothered if I don’t get the last prize now nut would be nice to have claus co.. I think its a clever ploy by EA to keep us tapping till the very end otherwise i would of stopped tapping along time ago. Just hope stoncutters comes at some point in 2014
It would make complete sense for all the holiday wheel prizes to be offered after the event. I wish I could say they’ll be for in-game cash but know premium is how they make their money. Maybe it’ll be a Christmas Miraculam and I’ll be wrong lol. As for Stonecutters, that’d be one of the Coolest. Add-ons. Ever.
I get that everyone wants clausco because it is a building, but I see myself storing it for a little bit. It looks cool, but like king homers skyscraper (which I also have in storage) it’s just way too big! It blocks other buildings, unless you have the exact right spot for it, which I don’t right now.
Well I had all but given up hope to get the last prize of ClausCo, but within minutes of reading this post I got my daily coin and spun, only this time I just “knew” I was going to get cash. Sure enough, I got what I needed to complete my Holiday 2013 set! Thanks for all the hard work TSTOAddicts, this is a great site and hope your Wheel of “F This” pays out for everyone.
I am not really frustrated with (towards?) the wheel. At the beginning I just weren’t happy with all the decorations I won (I know, some addicts can’t believe this 😉 ). But then I got pretty much everything from the wheel so that only the big Clausco Tower is left. Been trying it for a week now. With 4-5 coins a day I tried it quite alot. In the end I wouldn’t mind to much if I don’t get it. I got my little big snow monster (my town has never been cleaner) and all the bonus cash sculptures. However, I’ll follow the advice and collect all the coins until the end of the event and then try to do it by skill rather by fortune (the latter never used to be my friend so far anyway 😀 ).
The Wheel of unfortunate events… 🙁
Still spinning patiently for the Yeti and Helter Shelter…
My A game is finished, all I’m after is the Yeti. In the wheel all I get is $1,000 or 50 vouchers when I’d rather have gift bags which seem few in far between.
On an unrelated matter, how do you stop others giving you presents? There are others that need them and while I’m stocking up on spins I can’t block by not collecting.
I’ve tried writing No Gift next to my mast which seems to be working.
As for giving gifts, if I see Costingtons I won’t leave gifts and priority is given to those on lower levels.
As far as gift bags, writing in your town is really only way to stop other neighbor’s from dropping them.
The game gives you 1 present every 12 minutes. If you want that stopped, store the present depot. 😉
I am confident we will all get the prizes, It is frustrating at times but this game is about patience. I’m waiting for quite a few prizes but haven’t spent any doughnuts so hasn’t cost me anything but time.
I got my last wheel prize yesterday, so I’m with others in that I’m going to save up any more that I get to use in case anything gets added to the wheel near the end. I’ve actually been really pleased with the Halloween update and the Christmas update. I’ve gotten another 12% worth of bonuses from free items since October, so I really can’t complain.
I’d have no complaints at all and agree with you on all the points in your post *IF* I wasn’t a victim of the card-to-token converter glitch. It really sucks the fun out of the wheel when you can only spin it once a day. EA chatted with me, claimed I’d be emailed by the team working on the glitch, but then didn’t follow through. I was on the verge of buying donuts but the glitch and EA’s unwillingnss to deal with it have given me pause…
The glitch where it keeps folks from getting those extra spins does stink. By now EA is well aware of it and hopefully has a plan to make up for it. Absolutely nothing wrong with the freemium route. Furry fingers crossed for a fix soon.
In my A game after 10 straight $1000 spins, I landed Barney Plow King which is nice even I don’t have Barney yet. Helter Shelter, Yeti and Claus Co. are the only remaining prizes.
In my B game, I was lucky to land Claus Co. yesterday. Yeti, Snowball 2, Plow King are the remaining prizes.
I couldn’t care less about anything but the Claus Co.
Question, do we get to keep the snow people after the holidays? Thinking of keeping them now in storage to be sure they don’t melt. 🙂
Love this site and the mods. More power!
They stay in your town. Last year, the entire Simpsons family melted once the snow lifted. I expect the same for all the snowpeople.
Sadly the snow people melt 🙁 but they have cool melted graphics and they magically appear when it snows again. (Plus the melted snow people still earn the same bonus rates)
I think, the Wheel is an ILLUSION! No matter which way you try to spin – the result depends on the probability which is 5% for the most wanted items.
Funny enough, that the ice goddess and yeti are often missed which are not that rare according to Simpsons Wiki. I have got them very early with my anonymous account (which I use for tests), but after 50 turns not with my normal account.
What I want most is the Homer costume! Origin should offer all items for donuts before the Christmas Event ends. If not, I’ll send the Yeti!!!
Who cares about wheels….
Less than 15 minutes to the 4th Community Prize!!!!
I am forever hunting for the Simpsons to earn gift cards quickly. But I’m afraid I’ll miss out on other game opportunities if I don’t move on. What do you think? I need the yeti, plow king and another ice sculpture I don’t care about. Shall I give up or keep hinting for Simpsons to get gift cards? Id really like the yeti and plow king but I’m a free player only. Suggestions….
I still have to finish with Lisa hunting for Turkeys. Lol. As long as you have started the quest line…you are ok to take a bit to complete it.
My characters are forever hunting them too. I like getting all the cards. I got the 30,000 so every 1000 now I get a coin. My A game, I still need a lot of the wheel prizes, so I will keep on hunting. 😉
I finally my tenth Christmas decoration today, so that quest is complete. Yeah! I would like to get Claus co and yeti, but I’m not spending donuts on it. Only been playing the game since October, and loving it. Thanks for creating such an excellent website.
I am in a permanent battle to get the Claus Co. However, I’d also like to get Santa’s Little helper snowdog. I got a completely pointless one the other day: an alternative skin for Barney. Now I get it why it’s so cool to whoever can buy donuts and has unlocked regular Barney, but as a freemium player I don’t really see a use to that. Well, all in all I am grateful that EA did this for us anyway, but frustration is something one can’t really avoid in these times, apparently 😀
I love the wheel, but I wasn’t playing last Christmas so it was all prizes to start. As someone who refuses to spend real life money on this game while I am so broke, I am always very appreciative of free stuff. And I wanted those snow people so bad- prizes that were going for 20 precious donuts each, and I got them all free. I just had to have patience. Currently I am just missing the ice god and the orange house lights, but if I don’t get them that’s ok. I can make a huge list of all the stuff I DID get for free!
I got every item fairly quickly except for the yeti. I seriously think that EA keeps one thing unwinnable on the wheel so people keep caring about it and spinning. Maybe they just don’t bother posting, but I haven’t really seen anyone on here or other sites that have gotten every item. What are the odds that so many people have been stuck for weeks trying to get just one item the wheel refuses to land on? All that said, I’m done being frustrated or annoyed about it. All the waiting for the yeti has made me realize that he doesn’t really do much and while I’d like it, it’s no big loss.
I need / want Clausco Tower, its the only thing from that wheel which I wanted and still haven’t got!!
Alright, my time opened up.
As I said, the Ice God is cool. When was the last prize that netted a permanent 2.25% Bonus that you get for free????
The Yeti is cool, but he just wanders around.
Here is my strategy that seemed to work. I positioned the wheel directly across from the $1000s. Then I did the gentlest flick possible. It seemed to work, and I ended up getting all the prizes by the 20th (Full disclosure: I did purchase a set of 10 free spins before I realized that I didn’t need to)
Now the question is what I do with all my Gift Cards?????
I quickly realized that spinning the wheel now is pretty much useless. $1000 is .01% of the money I currently have, and winning Gift Cards only gives me a chance to win… $1000!
So right now I am saving them up in case EA adds something to the wheel for the New Years. I have about 30 spins saved up at this time (and I am 1000 Gift Cards away from 100,000 total!)
If not, I will probably spin them off on the last day.
Overall, not worth the (F)rustration. It was a free gift from EA. Even if I won none of the prizes, I didn’t spend any money to try to reach them.
More later – but the Ice God is cool! 2.25% Bonuuuuuuuus!
Games of chance that are run by computers………………..
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
I currently have 30 spins saved up, and by New Year’s Eve, I should have almost 40 that I will let my 10 year old do on that day.
The Yeti taunts me so! I have spun the wheel so many times and it continues to plague me!!! I imagine the day that I win it I will jump for joy…. literally! I keep getting the blasted $1000… I can say now that I don’t need the money… I NEED the Yeti! 🙂
I won most of the prizes pretty soon (20 tokens for donuts helped a lot). Then when only 3 of them were remaining, dollars started dropping. Constantly for about 2 weeks (that time I had about 3 tokens a day, from pub and collecting tickets). As if the game knows which reward player really wants. My missing rewards were ClausCo Tower, Snow monster and Ice God. I wanted at least the tower, that one I wished the most. So 14 days of bad luck, usually landing between two wanted prizes or close next to one of them. And yesterday luck turned the other way. I received ClausCo Tower in the morning and when I collected enough gift cards for another token, I won Snow monster. So now only Ice god remains, but I can live without that one.
My 10 year old got Claus Co on her first or second spin !!!
She’s dying to get the Bumble !!!
I didn’t buy any spin tokens, I just played consistently everyday and eventually I won all of the prizes on the wheel. I admit I was getting extremely frustrated near the end when I had only one prize left, the snow monster, which was the one I wanted the most. My strategy was to wait till I had 3 or 4 spin tokens before pressing my luck on the wheel. I would spin, see where it landed, and adjust the starting position until I won what I wanted. It you haven’t already tried this, I say go for it, it worked for me!!
Good luck everyone 🙂
that is an excellent idea! i had never considered that and Thank You! I will try adjusting wheel
Wookie, i love your reasoning and diplomacy! Very well stated! As i have stated on another site, i am missiing that Goddess thing and Claus but even tho i get the wheel of frustration, i know that the event is not over. There is time but also it is only a game. i have spent zero donuts on the wheel. My concern is that EA will fix those with issues that prevent Tappers from playing.
Thank you for taking the time to provide a voice of sanity and sympathy. I am definitely struggling with “F” words, and I don’t swear. (well, almost never)
I have 2 things left on the wheel, the Yeti and the ice god, the latter I could care less for, but oh I want that silly yeti! He taunts me when I visit my neighbors, he does! I’m pretty sure he’s snickering at me.
I am especially frustrated because I haven’t gotten a free spin every 1000 tokens for almost 20,000 tickets now. (stopped around 36000 and now I’m at almost 55000) Every time I visit my neighbors to drop those bags (we still have community prizes to work for darnit!) I am bummed out because those cards are currently worthless for me. Every time I spin that wheel with my precious 1 spin a day from the eggnog bar and land yet again on more of those same cards, it makes me want to throw my pretty new kindle HDX across the room and quit.
But, I enjoy this game, I really do. Despite the ridiculous odds against getting what I want, oh how many times I have landed just before, or just after that yeti, begging my kindle to STOP PLEASE, I know I won’t quit. I’ve shot off a 2nd letter to EA without using any “F” words, because it’s really all I can do.
To hear you say they might make what we want available makes me hopeful, it also makes me want to kick myself for the 30-40 spins I bought in hopes of getting my silly snow monster.
Anyway, trying to keep my chin up and remain hopeful, and visit my neighbors despite the futility of the effort. And reminding people here and on the EA forums that if we don’t drop those bags, if we give up because of this bug, we’ll have no one to blame but ourselves if we don’t make the community prize.
(heavy sigh)