In this chapter of DID (Designing in Downtime), I am going to address the reality that we have all been hinting at for a while. Working through apathy, brought on by repetitive update types, and the lack of compelling content.
So, in this case, DID could be called, Designing Over Apathy (DOA).
Not that I am implying the game is dead…or that I am encouraging us to “stop tapping” while EA/Gracie figure out the next direction for the game. What I AM going to do, is simply share my views on how/when to tap…and where things have ended up over the past few updates in my town.
DID or DOA?
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Let’s begin first, by admitting that I am somewhat surprised that I am even still writing about new content for TSTO. I truly thought that we were “done” after the huge lag-times in the early part of the year. We seem to be back to at least semi-regular updates, which is a good thing by any measure.
Are the updates repetitive and lacking imagination and challenge on the programming side? Yes.
But, to offset this, the writing for these updates has been hilarious. It has turned into more of a showcase for the writers…and it really shows. Anyone who blasts past the dialogue without really reading it, is missing the BEST part of the game these days.
But, let’s face it…the content has been pretty random.
Let’s take a look at the last couple of event updates…and then I’ll share where stuff ended up in my town, when I took the time to design (if I took the time).
The Flanders Family Reunion was really funny, with the dialogue shining through what was a moderately Non-Canon use of some of Ned’s relatives. But, like many of the updates this year, the offerings were pretty random. I get the “Leftorium,” aggrandized to the SuperStore version. But most of the rest of the buildings, unless they were labeled…really didn’t “wow!” me in regards to “must have this in my town!” I ended up scattering this stuff all over the place. Loads of people placed the Reunion Sign, and even the “herb tent” in Flander’s back yard. I placed most of the random stuff near my homage to Woodstock III (which I covered in another post). I admit I am repeating myself here, but at least KNOWING that I am repeating myself is different than NOT knowing…which is what old people do…or people who have hit the “herb wagon” too much. But, I digress…
When the Flanders clan parties in my Springfield…they REALLY party! It’s a hootendiddlyanny that gets everyone rocking…including a special tribute to Sky Finger, by Fem Fetalle!
Click on Images to enlarge.
As much as I was not a fan of the Simpsons Babies event we just went through (hate having so many versions of the same character, breaking the time space barrier), it gave us a LOAD of content. This really was Content Heavy, and “this event dialogue makes sense” Lite. Some just felt like it was stuff they had sitting around in inventory, others things that were cobbled together to make a story line that felt cobbled together, work…kinda.
Ironically…the ONLY item here that made sense to me, and ended up becoming part of my “Multi-Cultural Heaven is For EVERYONE” section of my layout, was the Cloud version of Bleeding Gums Murphy…who now jams with the angels…or at least a reasonable facsimile of the angels.
The rest? I admit to kind of plopping in a newly opened segment, that I may or may not develop. Random…yes. But, also a real statement about the apathy I am feeling about designing, or tapping, or really engaging much between the events.
We’ll all just wait to see if we get anything else before Halloween…or if we will truly be in the “Tapping Dead Zone,” a state of horror that is worse than almost anything else in TSTO.
Where did YOU put all of your stuff? Are you still playing regularly, or have you hit the DOA zone? Perhaps it should be, “Designing to OVERCOME Apathy?” Or not. So much to do…so little time…and tapping needs to have purpose.
We’ll see what happens next.
Designing to overcome apathy for me, for sure. I’ve played for about 4, maybe even more years already and if there’s not a really interesting event going on I can go for a week or two without playing these days. I have nuked my Springfield a few times over the years and I am still finishing the design from one of the last times – at the edges of the screen that is. I have more stuff than place to put it, and finding all the bonus items back is a pain (that should be a tab in the buildscreen!!!)
I do the (blood drive) truck thing these days instead of building loads of Kwik E marts every 4 hour cycle.
I don’t finish all events anymore and also don’t particularly care about that anymore (when I used to care very much.) Having said that I’m not ready to let it go entirely as I do still enjoy it, just not as much as before anymore. Hence: designing to overcome apathy 🙂
Designing Over Apathy is a very apt term. The other morning, very early, I was attempting to donut-farm, using my extra game cash to purchase Bloodmobiles. I couldn’t understand why my total cash count wasn’t dwindling as quickly as usual as I plopped down about 50 Bloodmobiles. No matter. Then more confusion as I was not getting the usual number of sprinkles as the XP flew to the corner of the screen. Turns out, I had placed 50 Fleet-a-Pita’s instead of Bloodmobiles. D’oh. Moral of the story: Between a lack of caffeine, not wearing my glasses, but most importantly, a growing lack of interest in the game itself (too much repetition, random buildings/prizes), focused and enthusiastic gameplay is getting more and more difficult, at least for me.
It’s called DIP — Drop In Place. It’s the method to use when a location hasn’t been identified for rearrangement yet.
DID (Designing in Downtime)
Alissa nailed it! We got an unannounced Update today Weds Sept 11 (ouch! what an anniversary date! 😔 ) so much for enough downtime to do something regarding everything I just plopped down! 😂🤡
Designing Over Apathy (DOA)
I managed to find a way to turn half of the new Prizes (Buildings) into a new District, but Item Limits isn’t helping with regards to decorating (the writers are spot-on winning in 2019 Events! the fact EA continues to still be L-EA-Z-Y about certain things is duly noted!) 🤔🤡
I guess I better work on some serious 🤡 business with this new update / Event (enjoy it, or just Farm 🍩’s if I don’t like the Prizes, because there is plenty of content in the Mystery Box to obtain). I remain thankful to EA regarding what we can do / that we can obtain prior Premiums EA-sily, but I got to admit we need new inspirations in the TSTO Game App. 😉🤡
Nobody is talking about the event we just got today? Finally we get Krusty’s Kollege after years!!
Sorry kiddo duty. Just finished getting them dinner! Looking through it now…
Update is live! Krusty’s last gap
I’m the opposite since I designed all the random content from the babies event apart from the cloud of BGM and the premium items which I didn’t buy. I would’ve done the same as you Patric and put it with the heavens which I plan to design somewhere in the future when I get some more land tokens and buy the land near mountains.
With me, I usually wait until an event is over before I start any designs, just to see what I am working with. I have so much crap in storage right now, but once in a while I will find a gem that seems to work with whatever “theme area” I am designing. I am pretty much where I want to be design-wise, I just have one major project to work on, which will be my country club/golf course/spa area.
Excellent! Glad to hear another golfer is among us!
Have been playing since the beginning! However I hate to admit that it is now becoming a little boring ! I do not want to stop but hope for some new updates. I am attached to my Springfield ❤️
I still love to play and design…when I’m allowed. I’ve got the Boot Bug, too. I haven’t been able to play since a couple of hours ago.
Sorry my last post was so negative, just frustrated how the game is going.
However I’ve not given up on it yet.
It was good before, no reason it cannot be so again.
I have a mixed feeling of dread, apathy, and confusion when I look at the items I have.
At the beginning of the year I decided that I had too many little areas that did not mesh well with what was next to them. I had tried to take events like Christmas and Halloween into their own areas, but I began noticing that I had missed items here and there. So, instead of nuking I started plopping buildings and decorations to the side and started redesigning. Sadly my inspiration for the new design comes in spurts and the newly designed area is not congealing nearly as fast as new content appears, this is where the dread comes from.
Since I do not know when the next event will come and I do not think that there is going to be that one item that shouts out to me that this is a major Simpson must have, I have grown a bit apathetic, I no longer do every four hours to log in. I am usually only on once or twice a day. I do a little donut farming to prep for an event but I am not as motivated as I once was. I usually use my donuts to push through all but the last task (I actually do take the time to read the dialogue and I enjoy having it follow so quickly) which I work on for the week. Pushing through all the tasks but the last task allows me to not have to worry about if I missed a four hour interval and I know I can finish that last task at the rate I now log in.
Now trying to redesign my town in such a way that I enjoy stopping by to look at it is where the confusion comes in. I will get an idea, try it out, and nine times out of ten, it does not look as good as I imagined and then I dismantle it again. I’m pretty sure that once I get my town put back together, the confusion will dissipate, but until then the confusion actually acts as a motivator not to visit my town since I am not sure how to move forward.
I do hope that the dialogue continues as well as it has. I do hope we still get fun characters, and I am glad that some of these characters are not just skins (Homer and Mr. Burns have so many different skins I forget which ones I have). I like to look at the different aged characters kind of like the event where we had the different Homers popping up and all of them left except for the NPC Evil Homer. I do hope that the next event might be a bit more engaging and have some items that scream to me as something from the show (giant toilet, giant toilet, giant toilet) but we will see.
Thank you for the post Patric!
Happy to do so, and you make excellent points!
Heres my moes lemonade stand area…
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5t6d3hz64fqezd5/Screenshot_2019-09-11-10-35-19.png?dl=0
Nice, pity it didn’t work the same as Moe’s express 😉
Sooo cute🥰…I like the lemonade stand as part of the play-yard, and the Easter Fencing works really well with all of it.
I still love this game despite its lows. Lots of stuff goes to storage but other stuff i find homes for. I still like those “Ooooo I know where that can go!” moments. Some of my land looks so cluttered….i try to squeeze a lot into most land squares. But if u actually stop and look, stuff makes sense. Lol
Sometimes I think that EA is playing skyfinger to our skyfinger. I think they just mess with us at times.
Well the replies so far tell you almost everything !
The format has basically become boring & I’m really only playing out of some sort of loyalty (misplaced perhaps ).
Like many others I also keep getting kicked out of the game. EA please sort this out or even more players will be abandoning this once great game.
Agreed. For the record…the server instability usually happens when they are doing some sort of major changes to the system. That can be bad (downgraded services) or good (preparing for a new huge event!)
Sick day today, man flu, cold lol, so I decided to play the game and design, collect and organise a bit, I have a similar area were I would plonk my items I get, like a waiting area to be placed and developed at a later time 🤪 nope the Bart screen just kept on appearing and after about 20 disconnects, I gave up, no joy in the game when this happens so much lately.
If an update appears today I will probably rush it and go back to my 24hr turn around until the game is fixed.
Oh no! Feel better! My cold is almost gone…no meds last night and i was good without them! Hang there! Healthy thoughts sent ur way!
Thank, 😁
Apathy has set in with me big time.Majority of friends never visit now so I only visit 2 or 3 that do bother. The events now follow the same format every time so can’t even be bothered to read the dialogue, just mechanically complete the tasks in the hope that something truly wonderful will appear. Worst of all though is the constant lack of connection to the server. This happens every few minutes no matter which device or connection I am using
Thanks a lot for your thoughts, Patric. I have a case of CEBTDOA (can’t even bother to design over apathy), because on one hand I have little time, on the other I have ideas but struggle to put them into design. Don’t really know if any of these ideas will ever be implemented 😂
I love the random content. I’m not forced into making a new themed area. They can mix in well with my normal parts of town plus that inspires me to move thing around in some areas that had grown kind of stagnant
I feel the same as you! I was unhappy with litterally every building I placed next to the fortune teller’s until the new Lower East Side building appeared. Bam! Perfect match!