I know…I know…you are going to come up with a million reasons to justify spending donuts and cash on Black Friday. It’s just the way people have been trained these days in the United States, and yes…it is creeping into Europe as well.
But, I will say this once again...do NOT let your impulses get the best of you. At best, this is gambling. At worst, it is a complete money grab by EA. (Sorry John)
Let’s take a look at the two primary “dopamine tools” that EA employs here.
Most of what follows has to do with those who are considering dropping REAL CASH for Black Friday. Let’s put this into perspective really quickly… we’re talking about $49.99 here. What could you get in the REAL world with $50. During the sales this weekend…a TON of stuff (like 5 pairs of jeans at Old Navy).
So…let’s break down why you think you WANT to drop $50…and why you should take a pause.
1. Instant gratification…driven by a boost of dopamine to the brain…which helps create addiction. No surprises here. The entire online gaming industry is built on this, and phone addiction is as common as the excuses we use to explain it. But…take a look back over the past year, and ask yourself one questions. Once you have done the grinding to get something (perhaps the huge number of donuts needed to get everything offered), do you get anything out of it? Do you even remember the last 10 items you bought for TSTO…without looking?
Nope. You buy it. You move on. And except for having to clear the task from a character, the “satisfaction zone” for a character is getting shorter and shorter. So…before you think you need EVERYTHING… think again. You don’t.
1b. – At best, this sucks in the gamblers that think they are getting a deal by winning…even if it takes hundreds of donuts to get something that will likely show up later in a Vault offering. Hundreds…for a bauble. Even for donut farmers…you have to place a value on your TIME.
2. Read the above reality check, and then…add to this that you are being asked to drop at LEAST $50 to get a donut factory that makes 6 donuts a day. Even if you are placing value on the donuts in real terms…they are worth between .16 each (if you buy a dozen) and .04 each (if you buy a boatload). Which means you will have to do “hard time” of as much as 208 days, before you recoup your expenditure! SERIOUSLY??? THIS IS A GOOD DEAL???
I am not going to call out those who will work hard to justify this ridiculous expense. You cannot be helped.
But, I will point out that EA is making every Black Friday more punitive than than the last…and that is is a rip-off of epic proportions.
More so… It is ALWAYS a huge “Regret-Fest” when the Christmas update hits…and we hear tons and tons of players whining that they “wish they had saved their money for this event, instead of blowing it on useless stuff on Black Friday.
Now…if you are a DONUT FARMER…much of what I have written is moot. You are playing with “House Money” and all you have squandered is the time spent to grind the donuts. And yes…I confess to being elated when I got Kamp Krusty for 20 donuts on my first spin….and Herb Powell on my 2nd. But, then I walked away! I didn’t want anything else. Vegas hates me. That’s why. I spend what I can afford…have my fun…and leave…especially if I am winning.
Here’s the thing… if you passed on items during the events…there was likely a reason. After years and years of playing, I have LOADS of items that I have not bought…and never will. They show up every Black Friday…and I ignore them.
Show some common sense… rEAlly!
Most of this isn’t worth your time…and certainly not your money!
OH……and a LOT of you are asking (once again) where to find info on donut farming. Do a SEARCH in the Search box on this site…
Or Follow this link…
https://tstoaddicts.com/?s=Donut+Farming
*******ADDENDUM TO ORIGINAL POST******
As I predicted, people are stumbling over themselves to justify the $50 expenditure.
For the record…. you need to understand that this is a marketing test by EA. They are testing the waters to see how far we will go, before we push back.
I Don’t Mind Giving Money to EA!! What I do mind…is that for the same kind of “lame-ish” items…they have gone from $10, to $20 to $50…in very short order.
If you continue to support this method…they will ultimately keep jacking it up to $100 or more. Mark my words… I’ve been in marketing my entire adult life, and they are “pushing to find the point of pricing resistance.”
If you want to be part of the problem…go ahead. Don’t resist. For me…I vote NO! Not worth it…at all. 208 days minimum to recoup the cost…that’s just silly.
I’ll probably pull the trigger tomorrow and get that factory. My Thanksgiving treat since I’m not a foodie. I’ve spent $50 on a movie with snacks for my family of four and didn’t get nearly as much enjoyment out of the movie as I do this game. I’m having fun with the boxes–getting characters that I would have never thought to get before and laughing at the dialog and quests. Plus, I gotta thing for Lard Lad. Yes, I got Sven before, but I don’t care that he’s in a box. I’m at the point where I could easily farm, but that wouldn’t be fun for me. The factory will make me smile just as the raining donut boat does. I’ll throw some holiday green at EA to keep this game going.
I am still undecided but I had the same exact $50 movie thought earlier today. Entertainment is entertainment. To each their own.
Too, too many years ago my friends and I would scrape up all the change we could find and go off to the local arcade to play pinball and video games. The money was used as kid entertainment, and we always thought we were getting our monies worth. But once we ran out of change we were finished at the arcade.
Fast-shift to the 21st century and it’s the same. Drop a few dollars on a video game and feel like we are getting some monies worth of entertainment. BUT, a plus is that we get to keep parts of the game: characters, houses, etc. and continue to play for free!
I budget for entertainment – $20 for Halloween, $20 for Christmas. Then maybe another $20 during the rest of the year for an event I feel as being special. The rest of my donuts are obtained from the game itself.
Just 2 cents worth from a person who doesn’t post much here but love TSTO Addicts.
Again, no worries. It’s all in how you approach it…I get it.
My primary concern, is that they are ratcheting up the price, for the same sort of items.
Ah! Forgot to mention that I am not paying money for their coins. It’s not in my “entertainment budget”. 😝
Thanks for the reply and everyone have a wonderful turkey day!
Just so I get it straight, if I buy the 900 donuts pack with real money now , I get the dounut factory ??
You will get enough tokens to get it…and everything else on that prize track. Yes
10x 4 all the info great job !
I personally had $4.81 of Google Play balance, so I went ahead and bought $4.99 worth of donuts as well as the 2 tokens, which gave me 3 gold tokens total + the free one at the beginning. I also bought one of the cheaper boxes since I don’t KEM farm yet but had some donuts saved up. In the end, I got the Crazy Cat House, the Powers House, Kamp Krusty, the Springfield Aquarium, and Motherloving Sugar Co. Pretty good for $.18 I must say.
i worked hard for 10k bonus %, now its time to get every single item in every single box
Wow! I’m still trying to get to 1000, i’m about to get 800/1000 for my goal. 10K is super impressive!
I bought and I’m happy. For 50 bucks I got 900 Donuts, 17 buildings and 17 characters, few decorative pieces and 4 leftover tokens that can be exchanged for 48 Donuts.
I hate the idea of KEM-farming as i like to style my town and having tons of the same item would look ugly.
I have a section…far, far, away from my town…where I have 38 KEMs “growing” in a very nice bog, separated by lines of water. They look cool…and earn 50+ donuts a day, without bothering the rest of my town at all.
Mine are surrounded by by bonsai plants I keep getting 😁😁
I donut farm. And that helps. But i missed out on stuff for 3 years. Started playing in 2014 then stopped until this spring. Those mystery boxes are full. Not having money for all the cool things (in the days before kem farming) was part of the reason i got frustrated and quit. So now that i have some money i dropped a Benjamin on a boatload and cleaned out several mystery boxes. Got everything i wanted and left tons of stuff unpurchased. Did the math, it would take roughly 10,000 more donuts to buy all the stuff i still don’t have.
So apologies to everyone as I’m encouraging EA’s money grab. Playing right into their hands and i don’t mind much. Starting to get to a point where i have “enough”. Almost. Until next time. Maybe. #sheeple
Love your post Patric!! Makes so much sense and YET we still feel the urge like we are missing out on something if we don’t buy. I do not donut farm. just can’t be bothered.. I do the regular daily donut makers and have occasionally bought some donut deals (there was a 50.00 deal (3000 donuts?) some time ago) and I’ve been rationing those out. I’ve always wanted ghost Maude (since I missed her from beginning, so Halloween was great opportunity).. did I get stuff in mystery box I didn’t want? Yup. Does it bother me? Not too much. I was still saving. I don’t mind using a 50.00 iTunes card for birthday or Xmas to spend every now and then.. But yes gamers mentality… like my retired in laws.. they are totally into TSTO.. they USED to be freemiums but it has since escalated to way more than a ‘few’ iTunes cards a year.. I notice stuff in their village EVERY time we have a new event, they have TAHT thing that generates event currency. I just shake my head and chuckle. 🙂
That bit about your in-laws is hilarious! You may have to do a TSTO intervention at some point! The good news, is that “hoarding” in TSO doesn’t fill up their house with rubbish! So…it could be worse!
If we get someone like baseball jasper from the mystery boxes, and don’t have jasper in our game already, do we get jasper plus his skin, or does his skin sit in our inventory until he is unlocked?
His skin sits until he’s unlocked.
I think it’s just the skin… I had won ‘Boxing Tatum” during an event and that skin just sat there locked forever until I actually bought the character. I’m guessing that is how baseball Jasper will be
Sage advice.
While this is a website about The Simpsons Tapped Out, I will oblige and provide you some advice about sage:
Sage is used for digestive problems, including loss of appetite, gas (flatulence), stomach pain (gastritis), diarrhea, bloating, and heartburn. It is also used for reducing overproduction of perspiration and saliva; and for depression, memory loss, and Alzheimer’s disease.
Fresh sage leaves should have no soft spots or dry edges.
To keep sage fresh, wrap the leaves in paper towels and store them in a plastic bag in the refrigerator; use them within four to five days.
Fresh sage leaves also can be covered in olive oil and stored in the refrigerator for up to three weeks. This sage-infused olive oil is great for sauteeing.
To freeze fresh sage leaves, wash and pat the sage sprigs dry, remove the leaves from the stems, and pack them loosely in freezer bags. You can use them for up to one year. Freezing intensifies the flavor of the herb so proceed accordingly.
HA!
Thanks safi.. I search all the time for help with my stomach issues and have not came across the sage advice. I will def be using more sage in my meals 😉
Agree, got a good deal on what I bought, spent 500 farmed donuts and got Sarah Wiggin with my free token, got 800 donuts and a 100 million game currency saved for next event, tempting to try for more but I wouldn’t get what I want and would end up disappointed.
Thank you!!! I’m a donut farmer and had no problem purchasing every mystery box. What else do I do in the game? But I was considering dropping $50 for the factory and thought I’ll hewd over to see their thoughts. You have saved me $50! Thank you
thanks for the post i was thinking of getting the Donut Factory but I`ll save my donuts for the xmas event
So well said. EA has gotten greedy. It’s a shame. We can’t even purchase land anymore. They take everything away from us. And take out money. I’m not buying it this year.
I do agree with most of what you say, especially concerning the mysteryboxes. Wether the token deal is a good one depends on your position in the game. When there are a lot of items in your golden box, it is a very good deal, of course only of you can afford to spend the money. You buy 900 donuts, get the donuts and 23 tokens. You get 24 mostly character/building combo’s for free and can save the dougnuts for Christmas. The factory is a nice bonus… for a mostly freemium player and a beginning farmer.
I agree Patric. I haven’t spent a dime on this game since last black friday. I reward good games by spending small amts. I am in the position now after playing for yrs where i don’t need to because i KEM farm. I had 3200 donuts in the bank & spent about 2000. Not because i wanted to but because i could. 1000 donuts is my bank amt for Christmas. I am producing about 100 a day at da mo. My advice to others get characters, raise % multiplier and have xp collider on at all times. U only need to produce 3 donuts a day for it to be worth it. And with my gold token i got scractchy. Woohooo!!
Also in oz our donuts r so much more expensive then u peeps. So i don’t reward thieves who think it is ok to charge other countries exuberant prices. Ok happy taps peeps & peace out
“You cannot be helped.” Ahhaahaaaa! I chuckled quite loudly at that.
When you make 100 donuts a day on KEM farming, that factory is completely useless.
As for the mystery boxes, I only had 3 characters available total. Got two of them (Ronaldo and Lyla) without having to buy anything else. CHUM I kinda don’t want because he has a joint 12 hr task with Martin that I guess can’t be done at the unemployment office.
All that’s left for me is a bunch of buildings, npcs and skins. I had 6500 donuts saved up so I’ve been trying my luck, don’t really care what I get since all the characters are gone
Sorry if that post came across as boasting, was trying to explain my rationale for buying the mystery boxes
Disregard my previous comment. 🙂
I realised after I wrote it how arrogant it sounded lol
I’m teasing. You’re good. For most loyal Addict readers and Addict tappers, your message will not be seen like bragging at all.
You sound like your boasting.
[See comment below]
Absolutely agree. Even if you are making 15-30 donuts a day you are better off farming. plus…the thing is HUUUUUUUGE!
Also, to add to your point, it takes 208 days to gain the same amount in terms of donuts, but the buyer’s never gonna regain the spent cash from it. And who knows if they’ll be still playing in 208 days
Its going to pay off in the long run it will be the last money i spend on this game after all the gold box and what ever i come up with with 900 donuts should get me at around 500% plus 20 + premium building characters plus 6 donuts and mini games railyard i should be able to clear 20 25 donuts a day and should get me any thing else i may want
It’s always a pleasure to read your posts, Patric 👏
Thanks! i try to be helpful…with a little smirk.
Anyone else lose their premium characters. I bought 2 of the women boxes and won the Itchy Ballerina dance studio and Apu’s apartment and now they’re gone. The 2 youngster prizes I won are still there.
Other marketing ploys to consider ****
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1. Reciprocity.
The game has given us hours on anger, love, hate, and lots of emotional roller coasters. It’s fun and unnerving. Funny at times. And 5 years + addicting… stronger than nicotine in some areas.
They allow us to donut farm and then give all the donuts to us for free, so we can get every single thing we want if we want it.
Not just for major discounts on Black Friday… but some rare items that we haven’t seen in ages (i.e. Bartman) — For Free.
Even giving us Sven Golly ( which could still be quite pricey, if you got him last in the box. ) All to much enjoyment as he hexes us to: “Buy ingame purchases” lol. hilarious.
1. Buy the Factory.
2. Use the tokens to get more stuff for free.
3. Use the donuts to get more stuff for cheap.
4. Get all the stuff you want. Get it while it’s cheap.
5. Next year. There will be less stuff in the box. So, you’ll have a better chance of getting the thing you want then.
=====
2. Scarcity.
How long do we wait for some items… 5 years and still no return of the clones… except Lisa’s fort during Outlands. (It’s coming. I know it is. Be patient.)
Some things pass. and never return.
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3. The Purple Cow
And let’s not forget how COOL that factory looks. OMG. It’s awesome-looking. And the only item in the game to pay direct donuts. The gameplay alone has so much value on that. The donut factory makes donuts. Move over Krispy Kreme. These donuts are Hot Now!
All great… but read my FIRST PARAGRAPH. You just did a great job of coming up with more reasons for EA to keep charging $50 for characters, like Sven. This is just the beginning…not a one off. It is a TEST to see how far players will go to justify their expenditures of cash…for a game they don’t own…on servers that could be switched off any day.
Which box is Sven Golly in?
http://tstoaddicts.com/2018/11/19/black-friday-2018-preview-spoilers/
THat’s an interesting question Patric, as to the kids growing up now it seems that the online realm has perhaps as much validity as a defacto ‘reality’ as the conventional one. I think because of when I was born that notion still seems a little absurd, yet it could be argued that all of reality whether online or in the ‘real’ world is something that is constructed in our minds based on the information supplied by our senses. I sometimes wonder if the future might be almost completely experienced in the virtual domain and if so would that existence be any less valid that the present one?
There are loads of theories on this…and in the end, yes, it is all a matter of personal perception. No two people see the same things the exact same way. If you want to drift into the world of Quantum theory and multiple universes, it gets even more interesting and challenging. As far as the “kids today,” I really do know that they are missing a lot by losing the ability to play, without a device. Bikes, bats, balls, train sets, so…many things are “out of fashion” now.
Yes, I reckon they are missing out too. My 9 year old daughter until recently went out to play frequently at non device oriented activities, which we were glad to encourage. Sadly now she and her friends are bringing their phones and tablets along so they can play online ( or via WiFi ) At least they still actually go to each other’s houses, so not completely absorbed by the digital domain.
Man…not a fan of that. Deb teaches 4/5 grades…and is the school counselor. These kids are too young to understand the dangers of these devices…period. She is constantly dealing with kids who figure out how to get around the blocks. It is very frustrating to see a generation that “knows more than they should” because they are too young to process it.
I’m debating this one. Im low on donuts after the Thanksgiving event, currently sitting at 35, and would likely drop the $20 to give me a little boost for the Christmas event. So might as well do it now and get the extra tokens and MonsterMart. Question is, is an extra 30 worth it?
I don’t KEM farm, don’t like the eyesore it would make of my town and I got very little free space to do it anyway. I do BloodMobile farm so I’ll get quite a few donuts when I do a round of that before Christmas hits.
So, decisions, decision
Remember what they say: Don’t listen to peer pressure. That being said, I’m not a PEER, I’m a suPEERior. Listen to me. DO IT!!!
Just kidding! Your decision, but you can’t go wrong either way. You can find reasons to justify why either decision is right.
I figure, if you normally buy donuts – get them now with some bonuses. If you normally don’t buy donuts…just keep farming and walk on by. You’ll be glad you did when Christmas hits. 🎄❄️⛄️
Ok, you folks need to take a step back and reconsider a bit. As a long time player and someone who does not have the time to donut farm via the whole XP system, this sale has several golden aspects.
1. I pulled the trigger on the $49.99 donut buy because A. I wanted to pick up some premium items that I passed originally because I knew they will go on sale. B. Only 2 people were in the “golden coin” mystery box. So after my one free gold coin, and my $49.99 donut purchase, I netted a whole bunch of god coins! More than just the 7! After expending those 2 golden coins, I could only spend the golden coins on more donuts! So I netted a bunch of extra donuts on top of what I purchased because I had nothing else to spend the gold coins on. (I think some players may now see the bonus here!)
2. So all said and done, I went one a shopping spree for $49.99, plus since I could only spend those golden coins on more donuts, plus since that whole quest line gave me more gold coins, guess what, I’m at break even in terms of my final donut count!
3. You need to loop back, post quest line for the Donut Factory, and recognize we are getting the ability to purchase donuts at a discount once you toss in that 1 gold coin = 12 donuts!
My quick excel sheet shows if you buy a dozen, it has the purchasing power of 60. Buying 60 has the purchasing power of 132, 132 of 300, 300 of 900. The best deal regardless of the gold coins is the boat load.(Purchasing power is real money spent per donut.)
So you folks there at TSTO Addicts need to step back and look into this a bit more.
Keep up the good work!
Patric! I love your Common Sense!
Confession: got the Megastore; wanted that dollar air balloon. Wfew, I don’t regret it. 50 donuts…well I did have to gamble for 2 ‘whatever items’ to finally ‘win’ my Want.
However! I will indeed use restraint til Christmas.
Happy Thanksgiving! RevJRO, Janice
I’m playing since the game came to Android in spring of 2013, so roughly 66 months. I’ve spent about 350$ on the game over the course of this time, equating to 5-6$/month. I’m okay with this expenditure for something that I play this often. Other people spend more daily for cigarettes or weekly on some other hobby/addiction.
I like the idea of a donut factory (and, unfortunately, its design), but anoither 50$ on top of that amount is almost prohibitive for something that EA can choose to shut down on short notice if they want to – and will eventually do at some point.
I’ll have to ponder the issue some more over the next few days…
It does help to encourage EA to keep the servers on if people spend money. I expect my spending will start to wain from here on out because i’m starting to produce enough donuts to get most of the things i want. But like you, i don’t mind spending some actual money on something i enjoy. Freemium players can stay freemium thanks to the people who prefer to pay every now and then.
Take it from me I dropped 20$ on the game I regret it. I literally wanted one character… Jesus of course… and got a bunch of other really expensive item such as the lovejoy daughter, sleep easy motel, that tiger walking guy, bleeding gums Murphy, as well as 20 other characters(in the 15 donuts box I got the 200 donut Gil deal dragon so that was sweet). But no Jesus! And even though I got many of my wants I still didn’t get the one character I wanted. Although all the premiums are nice I still asked myself if it was worth it and I think I’m going to say no. 🙁
If you consider how much money you spend to have fun at a movie or a Blue Jays games, you can consider the $20 as how much you spent for all the hours you’ve spent having fun playing Tapped Out. You’re contributing and giving the developers of the game a reason to keep the game going. You don’t have to love giving the $20. But you shouldn’t regret it is my point.
I will always regret spending $50… that is too much…
As someone with a very limited disposable income I totally agree!
However, indifferent circumstances I.e. without family commitments it might be a very different story.
First & foremost, everyone’s approach the game is different…and ALL are equally valid. It’s a game: as long as you’re enjoying it, what you’re doing is working for you. I love to hear about how other folks play, but I don’t feel like anyone is tellingme what to do.
That said…what works for me agrees with Safi. I get enough fun out of the game that it’s worth more than $50 a year to me (I’m also lucky enough to have the means to pay). My first few years—I started playing whrn the game came out—I budgeted about $20/month for it. I know lots of people who spend more on video games.
Once I reached the point where I could farm donuts, this amount went way down. I’ll occasionally buy $20 worth to support the game, but EA is making a lot less off me than $20/month.
I think a lot of us long-term players are in the same situation. Someone commented that they haven’t spent any money on the game since last year. EA didn’t make anything off that person…but continued to pay its staff to maintain, update, and imrove the game.
That’s fine. The economics of a freemium game are such that the bills are paid by a small percentage of players with more money than sense (like me)—I believe that in the industry we’re called “whales.” And we’re not doing it to support the game for the rest; we’re doing it because it makes us happy.
Still…I’m not comfortable with the implication that we whales are somehow stupid for paying $50 for a donut factory.
Play the game your way, give everyone else the freedom to do the same, and please respect everyon’s choices.
…Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
That was confusing.
Not your reasoning for playing your way, but the discrepancy of your name. Your user name is Don but your speech name is Ted. Are you Ted Sakers and this was your Ted talk or are you Don Sakers and this was your Don talk. Like I said, confusing!
Read my addendum…. if people were only paying %50 a year, for a handful of “Premium characters” I get it. But this is the 3rd or 4th time they have done this…with a price increase every time. So…..I guess we are losing the “test.”
I’m pretty sure that I’m going to do it. I very very rarely spend donuts. Last summer, I was lucky to be offered the boatload of donuts, 2400 for $20. I haven’t spent any and am now at 2500. Since 900 of them cost me only approx $7, it’s almost a no brainer for me to do. I won’t be spending donuts on much anything else – perhaps a Christmas item or two, if I really like the event. I’ll likely recoup the cost of the factory before I’m really looking to spend any more. But yes, I wouldn’t touch it if it was going to cost me $50.
Well…then you won’t be touching it. The factory is only awarded when you BUY WITh CaSH, the new donuts that give you the gold coins. Sorry…nothing you have in your stash will help you. LIke I said…EA money grab.
Well said. As a low end doughnut farmer I get want I want from events and leave what I don’t. Most of the items out for black Friday boxes are items I passed on because I didn’t want them.
That being said I picked up a couple of items from the kids box because the price was too good to pass up Rev. Lovejoy’s daughter and got her on the second attempt. I’m pleased and will hold on to the rest of my doughnuts.
I spent 80 donuts in an attempt to get Jessica Lovejoy out of the Youngsters box. Because she’s been on my ‘really want to gets’ list for so long but 180 is a lot of sprinkles. I generally loathe MBs because my luck is atrocious, but I only had 4 choices, so… Got Renaldo the first time, got her second, astonishingly enough. Looked at that 40 donut price and thought ‘even if it takes 4 tries it’s still cheaper…’ but I’m glad it didn’t take that. I am, however, more than likely done. There’s no other characters I want badly enough to take the risk on. There are a few things in the Alter Egos box I’d love to have but there’s so much in there that I’m weary of wasting donuts getting a bunch of things I don’t want right before my favourite event of the year. If only because regardless of quality, things I missed out on usually come back. (And I’m really hoping to buy some more reindeer this year, 4 is not a sustainable population level for a herd – or enough for Santa’s sleigh – and they’re either the same as or closely related to Caribou so much like my polar bear iceberg… a nice big herd would be my little nod towards dwindling Canadian wildlife.)
Agreed. How many skins do lisa, homer, bart, etc. actually need?
Exactly. Some of it, like Kamp Krusty, I’d want more for the building. Or Prairie Maggie would be nice, but I’ve got sooooo many for Homer at this point that I’ve gotten for free that unless it was Mr. Plow it feels utterly pointless. I still might try a time or two before the clock runs out, because if I could score Kamp Krusty for 20 donuts, or even 40-60? That would be amazing. But I’m not about to spend literally hundreds of donuts trying to get a particular skin.
I’d love to see them return to the timed cycle next year – I’d much prefer to pay a higher price to get exactly what I want – but I don’t really see that happening.