Hey Howdy Hey Tappers!
Here we are again. Yet another Thursday with no new update in TSTO released the previous two days. At this point, while I don’t think this is the case, it’s hard not to feel like EA’s ghosting us. As usual, I have some thoughts on things, so let’s get to ’em…
-First, for all the new folks to TSTO Addicts…welcome! TSTO Addicts is an amazing Community of players from around the world who all love TSTO and The Simpsons.
I want to start things with a simple reminder (for those long time Addicts members, my apologies in advance). We’re not EA. We don’t work for EA. We don’t work for FOX, Disney, Gracie Films, or anyone else associated with this game. We just love TSTO and have since it started, so we’ve been blogging about it for the last 6 years.
I assume you’re here because you’ve enlisted the help of The Google to see what’s going on with TSTO, and I assume that you assume, because we appear pretty much at the top of the search results, that we’re part of EA. We’re not.
So please don’t yell at us about the game. We’re just as frustrated as you are. And we can’t do anything about it.
-I’m starting to feel like a broken record…but as of right now the game isn’t dead. It’s still active on the servers and, aside from the lack of updates, there’s no indication that EA has opted to stop supporting it. Also, EA had their 2019 FY Q4 earnings call yesterday, and while TSTO wasn’t mentioned by name, there was no indication that they’re eliminating the game from their catalog. (we’ll talk more about this on Addicts Live, this Saturday)
We’ve also heard from Matt Groening, Matt Selman, and some others that the game isn’t over. This is pretty much just a lull. For whatever reason, reasons we don’t/won’t know unless EA decides to share them with us, we’re going through a lull right now.
– Unfortunately, no one will be happy until we hear from EA on it (and even then there are those who still won’t be happy…) Either via an update, and continuous updates, or some sort of message.
Until we do hear from EA everyone is going to speculate wildly, and all over the map, on what’s going on. I’m hearing/seeing EVERYTHING you could possibly think of about this. Things like:
-Disney Pulled it/they’re waiting until they get an ok from Disney to continue. (both of these theories are wildly inaccurate)
-They’re moving servers.
-They pulled developers from TSTO to work on Apex.
-They’re out of ideas.
The list goes on and on. The reality is that unless you work on TSTO, no one knows what the hell is going on. No one.
The “internet analysts” are letting their imaginations run wild. They’re reading to much into one thing, and not enough into another. It’s the nature of the beast. Silence from EA breeds wild speculation. So just take information with a grain of salt.
-I’m also seeing a lot of people complain that the last “real major update” in TSTO was Halloween. Guys that’s bull hockey! The last major event update was Valentine’s Day, the last mini-event was Classless reunion. (I’ll have you that Marge at Bat was an update, but nothing else) Just because you didn’t like an event doesn’t mean it wasn’t an event.
-And speaking of wild speculation and people complaining about when the last update really happened…I’m seeing people speculate that Halloween was when they started to pull people out of the game because they didn’t finish it and used the recycled Dig Site.
Guys, this is EA we’re talking about. They reuse stuff ALL THE TIME! They’re lazy AF (yes, I really just wrote that). Why do you think Pat coined the term EALP? Because EA comes out with new and original gameplay styles for TSTO every single update? No, because they come up with 1 idea and recycle it 100 times until people get bored with it.
The Wheel during Christmas 2013 was recycled 1 event later for the 2014 Valentine’s Day Event. Mystery Boxes? Those started with Easter 2014! And it’s all just a recycled way of using the Wheel.
Remember those little animated videos you unlocked with The Springfield Jobs last year when you collected certain prizes/crafting items? Well, that was just a replay of the 2016 Wild West Event!
The list goes on and on guys. They come up with a new and original idea, and then they recycle it over and over. It’s been 6 years of this, it’s amazing how a lack of updates will mess with your mind…
-Now all of this nonsense goes away if EA just says something about TSTO. The TSTO team needs to reach out to the TSTO community, share some kind of message as to what’s going on (we know you know how to get ahold of us). To go from a pretty regular schedule of updates (from, at least, 2015 to now) to a screeching halt is frustrating, to say the least.
While, in reality, the TSTO team doesn’t owe anyone an explanation, after a month of no updates (and nearly 2 months of physical content updates) they should provide some kind of information. Even in a lighthearted way through the game dialogue. The radio silence is just infuriating customers.
The game is not over, but by allowing the nonsense to fester they’re just turning off players who’d otherwise stick around if they knew what was going on.
As a reminder, here are a couple of places you can go to share your frustration with EA, aside from our comments of course….
The TSTO Forums, there’s a post there by Willy. Add your voice
TSTO EA Answer HQ, there’s a post there by NAT. Add your “Me Too”.
Check out this post for more ways to share your frustration.
-While it’s not an update to TSTO, I hope you guys are enjoying some of the new regular posts we’ve added to the site during the downtime, and we’ve still got a few more to roll out. Plus a new Addicts Live on Saturday! It’s been a while, and we’ve got a lot to say! 😊
As I said last week, we’re not going anywhere. As long as you guys keep coming here we’ll keep writing. We enjoy what we do, and we love this community and that doesn’t go away just because the game isn’t updating.
We’ll all navigate this chaos together.
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 (as long as we’re allowed to), that’s a promise!
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!