I woke up this morning to another email update from MoviePass, the “seems to good to be true” service that works kinda like NetFlix, but with real movies. I am hopeful that they are able to figure out a model that works, because Deb and I see a ton of movies with MoviePass, now that we are done with weddings and are true empty-nesters.
But, like so many other great deals in life, they are changing and tightening their service process, because a few (maybe a lot) of people have apparently cheated the system, and found out ways to get more advantage than they are due. This seems to be the norm these days. Great deals, slowly defray into deals that aren’t as good, or simply flip on a dime with little warning. Sovin so many ways, TSTO is a great educator about life in general. In short…”Don’t think that this is the way it is always going to be…because we know you will adjust, as long as we do it slowly.”
As a guy who can take the time to think about such things…I started adding up the number of ways this kind of thinking has slipped into my daily life over the past few months. I was kind of shocked when I started realizing how many things in my life were changing…slowly…and not for the good. And how I was just like the frog in the pot…kind of ignoring the heat, until I reached a boiling point.
There are so many examples of this in modern society, and not surprisingly, so many of them are mirrored by the changes we have seen in TSTO.
I have been flying a bit in the past year. One would have to be an idiot to realize that the trade-off for all of the “Free Air Miles” and Super Discount Fair Apps, is that they now have completely changed the way we fly these days. It used to be nice. You picked your seat, you got a meal, they gave you a pillow and a blanket, the in-flight movies were free, and you always got a free carry-on and one checked bag. Needless to say…once the Airlines figured out that the driving model was low fares, they started changing the rules…slowly. The last time we flew…we got a GREAT deal on the ticket. Except that we had to pay to choose our seat, pay for each item of luggage, there was no meal served, and the movie/entertainment only worked with the airline’s earphones. Nice. What a DEAL! Oh…and to make up for lost revenue, they have crammed another row of seats or more, into the coach areas, making leg room and seat comfort a thing of the past. Progress!
Amazon Prime, one of the single greatest inventions for global commerce disruption, is something that continues to change its model, but in fact, adds more features and benefits to its users every year. This year, they asked almost apologetically for a $20 increase for membership, which won’t take effect until your current year is over. Pffffffttttt… no-brainer for me. I’ll make that up with my first order of erroneous. strange and random electronic gizmos that I can’t find anywhere else…and even being just $4,99 (gizmos are cheap), will be delivered in tow days or less with FREE shipping! Free movies. Free Music. Free Books. Sheesh…how can you complain about that? You can’t…unless you are one of the thousand of traditional brick and mortar stores that have been forced out of business. Toys-R-Us? See ya. Bookstores? See ya. Radio Shack? See ya. The list goes on and on and on. Are we better for the changes? Not sure. We’ll see how long it takes for the pot to start boiling.
I could use these kinds of analogies in countless examples, of how “Free” isn’t always a great deal in the long run. But, we are experiencing it right now, with TSTO. Like it or not…many of the changes in pricing, lack of customer support, and yes…most likely even Item Limits…are a direct result of a situation where more and more people (including little froggy me) have resorted to Donut Farming…or even worse…hacking. I farm, because I can. Just like so many other things in the world…I do it, because I am able…nobody is stopping me…and I can rationalize that “everyone does it, so what’s the harm?” Well…I think at some point the answer is obvious.
But, being someone who has worked on the “owning an Internet Services company” side of things…I know that nothing is free. Every bit of labor, time, creativity and support costs money. So free? Not really a sustainable business model.
I am going to make a very bold request. VERY BOLD. One of the most boldest things anyone has said about the great numbers that we have never seen before in the history of the…Oh. Wait. Sorry. I was channeling POTUS there for second.
But this is bold. I am going to suggest that you pay your fair share.
What is fair? Gosh…perhaps some kind of equation that comes down to how much you play? How many hours of FREE enjoyment (or addictive activity) do you get a week from TSTO? How many different games are you playing? A,B,C,D or more??? Are you paying for any of it…even though your activity is creating server drain, and adds to the overall impact of EA’s ability to afford to provide the service?
I’ll wait for your answer.
And how many of you are playing on expensive padular/cellular devices, which require expensive (and ever-increasing) data/internet plans in order to participate? You whine when your bill goes up…but, you pay it.
Are you a “cable cutter?” One of the new breed of folks who have cut cable TV, but think nothing of adding a ton of “Just $9.99” services so you can still “get your media on.” Hulu? HBO Go? NetFlix? And countless others…all providing what I would guess is far less time each month in entertainment as TSTO does for you.
What I am asking is tantamount to the same issues we face in the world for problem solving. Become a giver…instead of a taker. Just like those who complain about social injustice, but don’t do anything about it but whine, I am asking you to do your fair share. Do something that can solve the problem.
It’s really, really simply. Come up with a fair way to do it.
Here’s an example for you donut farmers. I’ll make it EAsy. For every 500 donuts you farm for free…BUY A DOZEN DONUTS for $1.99!
That seems more than fair…and you would be shocked to think how much that would add to the revenue stream for the game…which could actually entice EA to FIX the plethora of issues the game is facing. If the stats are correct, and less than 2% of all players spend actual money on the game…think what a change of even another 5% of payers would mean.
The issues we are facing in TSTO are all things that can be solved…If EA wants to spend the time, resources and money to correct them. If they don’t…the end of the game is inevitable. There is nothing more telling than enduring a huge, 6-week event, which with every prize earned, seemingly renders the game more unplayable.
Those Frogs in the Pot who keep adjusting and adjusting and adjusting, by storing items…figuring out ways to play by turning something on or off…or in my case, being forced to delete items in my town, so I can add the items I am being forced to add in an event, are all just biding time, without a solution.
If you already pay for TSTO. Good for you. I’m not asking the rest of you to do anything that doesn’t make sense…I’m simply asking you to pay your fair share.
Otherwise…just like leg room in coach, shopping at Toys-R-Us, and getting good entertainment on TV for free…we are going to look back at this time and say, “Remember when we used to play that game about the Simpsons for free?” Because the fact is…at this point, EA is going to have to make some hard choices…and I don’t think the Frogs are gonna like them.
Do it. $1.99 for every 500 donuts farmed. It’s equitable. It’s fair. It’s revolutionary.
I’ll wait for the backlash that I know is coming. No worries…you know I’m right. And that’s what will torque off the free-loaders.
SEE YOU ON ADDICTS LIVE TOMORROW!
When you reach the point of generating a bonut round with a single bloodmobile…. paying cash for donuts just doesn’t make sense any more. Long time players serve a purpose without a single dollar of spend because it adds to traffic and installed count ranking, both of which boosts EA’s bottom line.
Sure. And adds huge strain to the server load.
It doesn’t scale that way. The only difference between a long-time player with 10,000 items vs. a new player with 1,000 items is the size of the game-state file which is uploaded to EA for achiving. A premium player who jumps in, clears, and jumps out – that’s easy to manage.
Server load is primarily driven by the number of simultaneous sessions because of periodic synchronization required when someone stays in the game.
A player who has TSTO running constantly creates the greatest load. The worst customer are the ones who use emulator software like Bluestack, which isn’t limited the same way smartphones/tablets are, to play the game. That constant-connection and always-on session creates a lot of headaches for the servers. I tried it once, and I believe that’s what led to the rollback glitch for my account. So never again.
I suspect many others use Bluestack regularly…..
I imagine they write the code to only record changes, which may explain they have such a hard time during “restores”. If server loads are a problem then they could just stop the 4-hour grinding during events. Having 24-hour tasks would greatly reduce the need to log in every 5 to 6 hours.
I don’t know the exact algorithm but even if you do nothing in-game there will be periodic sync.
And there is an interval for full upload because EA is concerned about hackers so it needs a full upload of a complete game state now and then.
You are forgetting about the actual push from all of the animations, and cross neighbor interactions. If a player has multiple connections open, for multiple games, it is an increase exponentially.
But, to my point… those who play the most, generally pay the least…as they are able to do so by farming.
You have to be a real addict to have multiple games going at the same time. Plus I imagine all the animations are handle by the individual device not the server. That is why some people have problems with slow downs and others don’t. If not, you should ask people what speed the wifi is when they have problems. The second reason I would say it is not handled by the server is that when you visit your town from a neighbor the animation is not the same.
I Couldn’t agree more. I’m not big on spending money on digital trinkets in a game, but TSTO is the only game I’ve spent real cash on. I’ve been playing since the initial release and once the game started running pretty smoothly, it was easy an EAsy decision to buy a boatload a year. (The golden scratch off & character bundle here and there will be our little secret. The wife doesn’t need to know.)
Despite getting every console since the Atari 2600 as a gift at some point, the only games I ever bought myself and ever really played where Simpsons themed games. In my mathematics a boatload a year, with an on sale iTunes card, isn’t much more than I spent a year on Simpsons games before I switched to playing exclusively on a mobile device. I don’t buy every item, I pass on a couple every event except THOH, and I KEM here and there as needed. The games not perfect, but no Simpsons game ever has been and I play this one more than all the others. I just hope it hits 636 updates.
Since Poochie’s actualizacion the game hard close whenever I try to get into. I have an “old” iPad ( five years old).
Grinding days are over for me, in the past was fun, an you, the Addicts made it even funnier. Thanks.
But the game is in decadence, It can’t go much longer, the characters offered are irrelevant, too much grinding and lags for nothing thrilling, just more of the same in every new event.
EA, don’t linger this, just put a decent end to this game, instead of rising glitches and lags.
I don’t believe this can be fixed with money, it’s just that the game has surpased all its limits.
Juan from Madrid, Spain.
I only started playing this game because i was going through a bone marrow transplant for leukemia and needed a laugh. I never intended on spending any real money on virtual stuff that can go away in a blink of an eye. I still don’t get how people are okay with only virtually owning stuff. I still buy hard copies of everything. But then i started playing this game. The more i played, the more I realized that this is the only game i play that gives you a way to earn premium currency, and a lot of currency to boot. Every other game only gives you an ad to watch, usually once a day, and you get one whole gem or whatever the currency is for that game. The more i earned free donuts the more i wanted to give EA money for being the coolest game ever for not being stingy. So i started buying donuts. I had heard about KEM farming but I wasn’t interested since i was given the ability to earn donuts. By earning donuts i went from having only free characters to having premium characters and i was thrilled. And then they introduced the accelerator. And it seemed to me the only reason to have an accelerator was for KEM farming. I still resisted KEM farming because to me it felt like cheating. I liked being able to earn donuts from the only game i know that lets you do so. But then they started really hiking the price of stuff and started adding a ton of stuff with time limits to buy them. So i finally caved and started KEM farming. I’ve only done it 5 times but wowee does it ever make donuts. Lots of donuts. I still spend money on the game, but now i only do so when they offer bonus donuts or a character with the purchase. I dunno, it just seems to me it wasn’t the KEM farming that ruined the game so much as it was the introduction of the accelerator that made KEM farming so lucrative that it became just too hard to resist using it once they hiked the prices for everything….because everyone was using it. And then this last event happened and i read about all the glitches and lags and started to realize this game is falling apart and soon i may not virtually own anything, so i dunno, i am wary about spending money on it anymore. I mean, if they do another sven golly offer, i am jumping on those, but otherwise, i dunno. But, i highly recommend buying stock in EA. I bought some years ago and holy moly! Buy their stock.
First of all…very happy to see that you have come through the leukemia…that is the best news. The rest? I agree. It’s why I limit my real money input. Digital assets aren’t the greatest investment…
But, paying a bit each month for the enjoyment, is really what I am saying. I have been watching my donut farming, and am pretty shocked at how many I earn a week…pretty casually.
I am still an advocate of a “premium membership” offer for unlimited items. I’d pay for that.
Thank you. I was very lucky that bethematch.com found me a donor. They rarely drill into the donor’s hipbones for the marrow anymore, the donor just gives a blood donation now. So if anyone wants to save a life, please consider going to bethematch.com and signing up! 😃
And I agree. There is a lot of money to be made in reoccurring subscription payments. And from what i read here, there are a lot of people who would willingly pay to be able to place unlimited items in their springfield, or, to be able to buy unlimited land tiles, or, at least x amount per month of more land tiles, to go with their unlimited items to place.
Every time you go to the movies, see a concert, go to a theme park, etc. you are paying money for something (virtual) you can’t take home. For those who do pay money I would bet they have received more hours per cash spent playing the game then those other activities. Though I admit those other activities have a higher enjoyment per hour.
Ya think? TSTO is like watching the same plot line. Over and over. With different costumes.
It is like playing with LEGOs. You build something, add new pieces, re-arrange things. If you didn’t get some enjoyment out of it why would you play?
I don’t go to movies, but yes, concerts, and theme parks and travel, all of those things are experiences with interactions with people and/or new environments. Experiencing different places and people, changes my perspective of the world. Online games like the tsto are solo experiences. They don’t create significant memories or change my perspective of the world. Especially after all the chemo. I can recall memories of interactions and experiences with people and places, i cannot recall much about tsto events once they are over. My recognition memory about them is fine. If i see stuff from an event i can kinda remember what was in the event. But recalling them, not so much. To me they are virtually two different kinds of virtual experience.
As I said they are not equivalent. What you remember is usually significant to you, usually emotional. You can also compare it to watching TV (you buy the TV like an iPad – you may pay monthly fees for cable,DVR, or pay once for an antenna), movies, reading books, gambling or attending a sports event. But basically, most entertainment is virtual. Once you spent your money on the necessities (food, shelter, etc), it just a matter of the amount and the intensity.
Well Charles…as soon as you “Go there,” I’ll remind you about books, CDs, DVD’s, and countless other entertainment media that you in fact own. This new world of virtual entertainment is extremely new…but in every case, costs the PROVIDER money. The current pricing model for TSTO, when you fac5or all of of the freebies into the model, is broken and unsustainable. Particularly because of super donut farmers with multiple games…like you.
Using your analogy (and others here), you not only want to go to a new movie release…for free…but be able to watch it multiple times while others pay admission.
Sorry… no matter how you try to justify it…free is unsustainable.
Patric, despite what you might think, I agree with you the ” free is unsustainable”. It is why socialism fails. It is why taxing only the rich fails.
There are forms of “free”, broadcast TV, radio, Google. All which is supported by ads. The ads may cost the buyers of the product or the ads may actually reduce the cost to the buyer by generating demand such that cost efficiency results. In nature we get “free” stuff because plants get free energy from sun converting it into food Insects and animals get energy (food) from plants, insects and other animals. It may be”free” but there is work involved.
In our bio-system, EA decided entry was free to build up a user-base. Maybe they thought neighbors would enhance the game or enhance their revenue. Like a drug dealer they gave “free donuts” so that users would get a taste. A taste that would drive some to buy more donuts (either get virtual items or speed up tasks). They could create an endless supply of items to buy, so they could be more generous with the “free” donuts, to make up for flaws in the game (downtime, etc). They figured out that giving them for special occasions allowed those who started late or didn’t spend a lot to catch up.
Of course there is the problem who don’t spend money. The neighbors who disappear because they fall behind. When most of your neighbors disappear you might rethink why you are playing the game (especially when there are so many glitches). Some might leave the game.
My first game glitched early on. So I wasn’t going to pay money for things that were going to disappear. Since I was middle of an event I wanted to continue, so I started a second game while my first was being fixed. Because EA handed out donuts at strange time (10 donuts here, 20 donuts there), I realized I could use my second game to collect donuts easily and buy different premium items to follow the quests (I didn’t think about finding a site like this that would give you that information). Because I wasn’t a donuts buyer I would visit once a day on most days on my main game, and only when I needed to collect free donuts on the other. The second game became handy when you needed co-operation with your neighbors.
The side-effect of having neighbors who buy premiums items is that other people become desirous of the same items. EA set up an ecosystem where some people are farmers growing the food, and others are people who go to the grocery store. The farmers (those who spend a lot time earning Premium items) become the “Jones next door” that other will pay real cash to “keep up with”. They are the 49% that pay 50% of the taxes.
A small minority would be completists and spend whatever it would take. The whales are the full blown addicts. The 1% who pay 50% of the taxes.
EA has built an ecosystem that currently works for them. They may change again (going from levels, to events; from rarely giving out donuts – making Black Friday a big deal – to creating a bunch of buildings and characters that were 5 seconds in the show and allowing you to generate donuts, to special items you can only get by spending cash). My guess if they went to a subscription model now, they would lose 50% initially, maybe even 98% if your stats are true (there are people who spend money now who quit the game). Then you would lose 50% of the others as their neighbors disappear – as their social networks disappears on sites like this. Sites like this would see less traffic. If you lost 90% of your audience (and thus ad revenue) how long would you guys continue? The reason the Democrats wanted to put Obamacare in place despite all the bugs is because they know it is hard to take away a “free” thing. (The “free” thing is getting “insurance” when you already have a problem. Your premiums will never pay for your costs. Others people’s premiums pay for you. A transfer for wealth.) In EA case, it is the addicts who pay – voluntarily.
I really didn’t intend to write so much, so I will stop now. But basically you are right Patric, socialism works until you run out of other people’s money.
😂😂😂 or toilet paper…
Very funny 🙂 (and current – for those who are not following Venezuela).
I am Portuguese, and here 2400 donuts cost about $ 130 and a minimum wage here is about $ 680. With 2400 donuts you can buy between 10 to 20 items, or food for about 2 weeks. In my opinion the donuts have unbearable prices for most players around the world. I am sure that if EA drops their prices dramatically, they would have a lot more profits. Not to mention that I find it much more reasonable when you have an old device with which you can no longer play, spend your money on a new device instead of buying donuts in the hope that EA solves the problem.
That price point is not on EA. It has to do with taxes and duty around the world. EAs price point is the same for everyone around the world… it’s 99.99 US for a boatload. Anything over that (after conversion) is taxes and duty from the app stores.
No matter how you get there… that is an insane amount for donuts. I don’t blame you for farming!
Over the 6(?) years i played (wacking day) i bought around for 300 €+ of donuts. Last time i bought donuts was about a year ago. Before, with donuts you could do something. Now with every event, you can’t even buy a decoration without donuts. I like the game, but it has become a bit boring. It might be an idea to charge like an anual fee to play the game, but then they have to offer more support. For those who suffered from the RBG, they lost a lot and were barely compensated. With I&S land, the glitches were numerous, the login glitch…..
Bring back the old Tsto without glitches and grinding, and some good events, and i would pay again. Now it’s more like some warmed up stew every time
So cool of you to hypocritically take the moral high ground here. Nice. EA promise you a cut of any increase in revenue? Good for you.
Pfffft. Hilarious. Trust me. We get nothing from EA. Not a dime. Not a donut.
While I see your point with regards to paying EA $ for TSTO Game App? (I have my monthly Regal Cinemas Pass) I’m actually done spending real $ until –
the Glitch is fixed (no excuses)
offer Land Tokens instead of just Donuts (I’d pay $1.99 for 12)
listen to constructive criticism regarding Events / Mini-Events
offer real Premium Event Prizes
expand item amount limitations (I can’t buy new Decor anymore)
I’d take an AARP discount (lol) 🖐️
I’m sorry but Kem Farming is 90% all that this Long Time Tapper has left in this Game App if the Events are not offering anything worth the grind (I earn sprinkles, I spend sprinkles on Premiums that should be Prizes). I’m actually spending less time Tapping per week – which is fine as true life is more important than virtual life.
If EA threatened to shut down TSTO? I’d say “thank you for the years of mobile fun EA” and move on (I truly would miss my fellow Tappers). After all, this is the same EA that still hasn’t answered for it’s past criticisms (although I’d forgive them if they would offer a better / high definition version of the 2007 Simpson’s PC / Game Console which this Game App borrows heavily from with it’s Character audio queues).
I’ve put over 1k dollars into this game in the last four years I am sad to admit. Now I only spend when a character is locked behind a donut bundle. I think I’ve paid more than my fair share and even if I didn’t spend another dime would probably still be a profit to them. So no I won’t pay 1.99 for every 500 donuts I farm. Now if someone hasn’t spend anything, I’d say $50 a year would be a start.
Again… sounds like you’ve done your fair share.
I don’t farm but I am diligent at the railyard. And I’d told myself that I wasn’t going to spend any more money on this game, but I like your reasoning, Patric. I’ll buy a dozen donuts (and maybe a gold Scratch-R, too.)
Edit: Oops–I mean a dollar a week! (And not even that.)
Hear, hear. Well said.
I’ve been playing this game a long time. Before the automatic one free donut at every level, when you could win three. I don’t donut farm, except the occasional xp generator day. I spend roughly $50/yr on donuts. It just works out that way, I don’t have a “donut budget”. I figure, I play this game almost every day–$1 a day is worth it. When coffee is $6 and trendy adult beverages are $15+, it seems reasonable to me to pay the people who spend time writing this game a dollar a day.
I really don’t appreciate being called a free loader when I started playing this game it was because it was free. It killed time and I love The Simpsons. I’m sorry that not everyone is empty nesters yet and we are still supporting our families. I am a single parent. I might not be spending hundreds a year on Simpsons but I give EA money with their other game systems and games. It’s a shame that you think that the people that play are free loaders.
It’s $1.99. Not $99. But the real thing that is amazing, is that anyone expects a company to provide anything for free. The premise of “free loader” is someone who takes advantage of others efforts or investment. So…if the show fits. Especially if the shoes are free.
Patric, As always I love your posts. You have a unique way at looking at issues.
Having said that I’m going to disagree with you on a number of points.
I’m going to lay the blame for TSTO problems with the group responsible.
1. EA is in the powerful position here, so they are ultimately responsible for their business decisions and funding model. For whatever reason, they have chosen the fremium model in which a few whales (big spenders) and a few average players (small spenders) fund the game.
They could just as EAsily have chosen a more equitable model, for example, a small contribution to play each level or event. I’d much prefer that than having some characters/items linked to how many donuts I purchase.
I’m guessing that their modelling showed that it was better to have more players and therefore greater prominence to catch the few whales.
As far as house farming goes, again, EA has ultimate control to giveth and taketh away. I don’t know why they’ve chosen to include this option, but as we all know from doing our taxes, it’s allowable to minimise our contribution as long as we stay within the rules.
2. EA seems hell bent on providing more and more items, animations and characters to the game with each new event. Finding items and placing items is becoming unworkable. Animations are slowing the game on older devices.
I see frequent requests on TSTO Addicts to increase the item limit. The issue here is the hardware/software limits of the various platforms.
EA may be the god of TSTO but they still have to comply with each device limitation. No amount of extra funding will fix this issue, and more than likely will go to EA’s bottom line as extra profit.
So knowing these limitations, EA has decided to throw more and more unplaceable items at the players. Again, who is responsible?
Personally I think it was a mistake to bring Krustyland back into Springfield. It would have been better to alternate events between the two to allow greater item limits.
3. Events have become predictable and boring. Why? Because EA has decided to take a cookie-cutter approach to the game, and provide events to a common formula.
There is hardly any excitement generated by an upcoming event, because we all now expect a very similar theme to previous events.
EA has chosen a cost-effective but ultimately boring model, instead of an innovative approach to progressing the game. Here some extra funding would help the game. See back to item 1 above as to how to improve this.
========
So, my take is that it’s better to talk about who is “responsible” than blame others who have not made the decisions that have led to this situation.
Regards
You make good points. Right until the end
“So, my take is that it’s better to talk about who is “responsible” than blame others who have not made the decisions that have led to this situation.”
The current problem, is that most of the people wh drive server issues…the super players with multiple games all farming…is that they rarely if ever pay anything. Be careful what you wish for… A may decide to change the model significantly at some point in the future. Pricing is easy to flip.
“[E]A may decide to change the model significantly at some point in the future. Pricing is easy to flip.”
Agreed, and I wish they would. I doubt EA will change the pricing structure though.
They have a mediocre to average product making a profit.
Changing that would put those steady profits at risk for little potential gain.
To put it in card playing terms. EA holds all the cards. All the players can do is wait, watch, and react to the cards as they’re played. EA has a stacked deck, and I don’t believe that they’ve stacked the deck against themselves.
EA probably sees freemium players as ambassadors to introduce new addicts to the game, and so I think EA accepts them as a necessary overhead.
Regarding “Server Issues”, I haven’t noticed that many myself over the years. There is an extra “Time Cost” borne by players playing multiple games. For myself, I only play one game now due to that.
I’m aware that for researching the game, TSTOaddicts hosts have to have multiple games for research. So you may be more aware of these, especially when you’re trying to meet deadlines.
Regards.
I know it is a catch 22. I wont buy more donuts until ea fixes the glitches. But ea wont fix the glitches until i buy more donuts. What to do? What to do?
LOL! I know…it’s like I’ll repair the car I use to get to work, as soon as I get paid…but, I won’t get paid if I can’t go to work.
Only suckers pay for donuts.
Yep…nothing like a solid argument from the hacker community to make my point.
The fact is..like so many other things in life, those who pillage a good deal, make it harder for those who play fair. But, then again…by nature, thieves rarely care about the outcome. They just take, until there is nothing left…and then move onto the next victim.
For those who life outside the USA I feel for you with the way the currency exchange rate is. I lived in Italy for 3 years 1980 – 1983 and when I got there rent was $300 and when I left rent was down to $100 that is how screwy the exchange rate was. I am also glad to see there are numerous players voicing their opinion about the item limit. EA please make the ITEM LIMIT go away. I have seen simular issues, like I play WOW and when I ticket is sent in for something you get blown off. I stick to my guns and get it corrected or else they get a phone call. There is the same issue in the forums. But if you read the forums you see that players complain just to hear themselves complain. Could this be the same issue with EA?
I look forward to reading posts here after Patric and Alyssia make an informational post. Seeing them respond to the players is very heart warming because they truly care – unlike EA it seems.
I see on these posts some have profiles and some do not. How do you create one?
Be save everyone and have a great day and lots of fun. We do not want it to go away. I have been playing since Homerpalooa 2017.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2013/12/31/addicts-question-corner-avatarsgravatars/
I have never farmed and never will. I try to buy $20 worth of donuts every month… sometimes I can’t afford it and miss out on stuff. It stinks but the medicine I need to stay alive is more important than any game. There was no way I was going to spend $300 on Scratchy, and I also passed on Mrs Itchy, Mrs. Scratchy, and Marge based squirrel. Just can’t afford them, but luckily I had enough for Roy.
Ea hit on the winning idea about 6 months ago. Chuck in a character with the £/$4.99 bundle. I didnt even think about that one. Got a decent amount of doughnuts, and a new character to boost. Ea got some cash. Then they noticed this was popular, got greedy again, and changed it to the 19.99 bundle. And priced Scratchy at 300 sprinkles to emotionally blackmail us to do it.
I love the game, and spend about £5 a month on scratch-rs, typically if my limited farming has got me close, but not close enough to what I want to buy. I’d prefer just to do the Sven Golly approach every time. I don’t mind dropping a bit of money to support it. But they ain’t getting £20 off me. Not happening. Nope.
I am guessing they were “testing a price point,” and were given a clear message that $19.99 is way too much. It felt desperate, or manipulative to me. And ironically, was associated with a character that I didn’t give a rip about. I hope they learned. $5 sure…$10 maybe but likely…$20 not on your freakin’ life, EA!
I think the Sven Golly deal was awesome and hope EA does more of that!! : )
The best standard Donut value is a Boatload – 2,400 for $99.99, which comes out a 4.2 cents per donut. If, courtesy of farming, the new going rate for Characters is 100 Donuts – Cayman Island Banker, Calabresi Bundle, Scratchy – the Truckload of $19.99 is, essentially, 400 Donuts, which is 5 cents per donut.
I don’t like this change, but I really do not believe the pricing of Maw is as out of line as all the knee-jerk reaction would indicate.
Change? Yes. Undesired? Yes. But not that extreme, by the numbers.
$20 for any single item…which is virtual…and can go away with the flip of a switch is nuts. Especially for a character that barely appears in an episode. I gladly paid for Bleeding gums Murphy. Maw? Nope.
Agreed, but that’s not the purchase. The purchase is for Donuts, which we are both advocating. The Character is the bonus.
But the thing is, not everyone can/will pay £/$20 whatever the situation. Im happy to spend five quid a month. EA have to convunce as many people as possible to part with cash. And even most dedicated KEM farmers will stretch to a fiver for a good deal. But personally, I’m not handing over any more than that. Which seems to be the consensus – I’ve seen Sven in neighbours towns far more than I’ve seen Maw.
Like you said, I farm because I can. I still play by the game’s rules and I used to but my fair share of doughnuts. And I still buy them when a character comes with it if it’s once in a while. So I don’t feel guilty about farming. There is still a way EA could make me buy their virtual sugar coated pastry… Give free Land Tokens with them (like 1 for every 20$ pack, 3 for every 50$ pack etc…). That’s the thing I need right now, not that I don’t have enough land but because I hate being hold back like that.
I think a lot of tappers would agree…include land tokens in a package deal and see what happens👍😊.