Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Here we are again. Yet another Thursday with no new update in TSTO released the previous two days.
It’s been 50 days since the last new content update in TSTO, Classless Reunion (March 13th), and 22 days since the last in-game update…or whatever the hell that thing was…Marge at the Bat (April 10th), and I have some thoughts. So let’s get to them…
-First off, let me get this out of the way right now…I do not think the game is ending. I don’t think it’s on life support. It doesn’t make sense to me that last year, after 5 years of blogging, EA would reach out to sites to share information about updates in the game, just to shut everything down a year later. (Although it would be nice if they utilized those Community connections to help communicate what’s going on… but I digress) I think a lot of folks are just reading to much into things because something is different and it’s easier to speculate than figure out just what’s going on.
Plus, there’s this…Twitter is a powerful thing guys….
-I think the server issues are simply that, server issues. This game has had issues with servers for 7+ years…no reason why they’d stop now right? The fact that they’re coinciding with the lack of updates, I think, is causing some folks to read to much into it.
-This is purely speculation, because (as I’ve said over and over) I know no more than you guys do but I think a lot of the delays in the game right now are a result of a few things. For starters, I think they’re having a reshuffling/restructuring of development teams. I also think they’re working on some bugs that have gone awry.
-The lack of communication about it is frustrating, to say the least, but I don’t think this is the end. EA is a big, publicly traded, company and they have to answer to Stock Holders. Which means they have a little more to worry about when it comes to their reputation (unlike TinyCo/JamCity). False moves might cause stocks to tumble. So I think if they were planning on shutting down TSTO they wouldn’t be silent about it. They also wouldn’t continue to sell donuts…
I wrote a post yesterday about places you can share your frustration about the lack of communication with EA. Check out those links here.
-We’re working every possible connection to EA/the Simpsons that we have to find out any information on what’s going on. (Pat even asked Matt Groening himself) As soon as we find anything out we’ll share it, provided we’re allowed to.
-I’ve said this many times, but I’ll say it again…since some of you refuse to believe this is a reality…Disney has NOTHING to do with this game. Literally NOTHING. EA has a contract with the rights to The Simpsons, that contract didn’t expire when Disney purchased FOX. Just like the contract for Universal Studios didn’t expire.
Disney didn’t buy EA, they don’t make decisions for EA. They have zero to do with this game. ZERO. I don’t know how many times I can say it, we even heard it from Matt Groening. The Disney purchase of FOX has nothing to do with TSTO. That acquisition is not causing this delay. (not to mention Disney had an existing gaming contract with EA that doesn’t expire until 2023, and Disney’s CEO recently expressed confidence in EA’s ability in gaming (Star Wars in particular). So they already had a relationship, even before the acquisition)
-I’m not going to lie, the downtime kind of sucks…but it’s also kind of nice. It sucks because I’ve spent just about every day of the last 7ish years griding out this game. Tapping, collecting, earning that next big prize. And that’s a really hard habit to break. Especially when you do a lot of absentminded tapping.
But it’s kind of nice for the same reasons. I’ve been blogging about this game every day, several times a day, for the last 6ish years. 3,775 posts in about 2,086 days, just from me. That’s a lot of writing. And I’m kind of enjoying the downtime of not rushing to post something, figuring something out, or staying up late to make sure I’ve got a post finished for the next morning. With the lack of updates, posting has been pretty easy, and dare I say more creative.
It’s been a while since I last wrote a Should I Buy post and it’s kind of nice not to be stuck in that routine.
-This one is really important, TSTO Addicts isn’t going anywhere. I’ve said this a lot over the last (almost) 6 years, as long as you guys keep coming here we’ll keep writing. There’s a reason we’re one of the last TSTO Blogs left standing. We enjoy what we do, and we love this community. That doesn’t go away just because the game isn’t updating.
We’ll all navigate this chaos together. Just like we’ve been doing since 2013…
-Of course, the site will look a little different without the updates to cover. Obviously, we won’t be writing walkthroughs, prize guides, Should I buys, or other event centered posts…but that doesn’t mean it won’t still be worth checking out the site regularly.
We’ve got a bunch of stuff planned from a new bracket battle to the Sounds of TSTO, and a lot more! Plus, we’ll still be running Simpsons Trivia regularly! You may have found the site because of TSTO, but we hope you stayed around because of the community and there are no plans to change anytime soon.
-And of course…as soon as an update hits the server (or if we get an info packet from EA) we’ll share that info with you guys immediately. In the meantime, try not to lose your minds over this. Be part Bliss Ninny and follow the ride wherever it takes you…
Thoughts? Care to share your own musings? Any thoughts on regular posts you’d like us to run during downtime? Did you contact EA to tell them you’re mad as heck? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!