Happy Musings Thursday my friends! I’m back with another musings post. I’ve got some thoughts, so let’s get to ’em…
It’s Thursday guys, and I have no idea what to write about. So I’m just going to start writing and see what comes out…fingers crossed it as some sort of “flow” to it.
No Christmas update yesterday, what a bummer. I was really hoping we’d see a little snow in Springfield to coincide with the influx of Christmas decorations going up all over the place! I was pretty disappointed, but honestly not surprised, that there wasn’t a shiny new update in my app store Wednesday!
While we’re on the topic of disappointed…am I the only one who feels like this was a disappointing year for TSTO in general? Sure we received updates, although it’ll be 1 less major event than we’re used to, but each one felt lackluster and like it was missing that special TSTO “spark”. We’ll talk more about this as we do our annual “year in review” podcast later this month, but it really feels like 2019 has been the lost year of TSTO.
Maybe I’ve just been playing this game for such a long time I’m starting to become a TSTO cynic! Although, I don’t think I’ll ever be as cynical about TSTO as some Tappers…I still remain positive on the future of TSTO. I just think things need a little shakeup. Who knows, maybe that’ll start with the Christmas event…
Speaking of Christmas…have you decorated yet? Gotten your Christmas tree up? Here in Jersey, the halls of Addicts HQ are officially decked, and the little Addicts are all ready for Christmas! Even Mickey, our scout elf, made his return. So Riley’s been enjoying running around the house each morning looking to see what Mickey was up to while she was sleeping! And Sam’s been enjoying watching his sister run around the house each morning acting crazy…
How about in your pocket-sized Springfields? Have you hit the light plunger on your town yet? Or are you waiting for snow? Come on, who doesn’t love to see the festive lights all over town? To me, there’s nothing quite as awesome in the mobile gaming world as our Pocket-Sized Springfields at Christmas…
The Candy Cane Cooling Towers looking so dapper in red and white…
Or the Wiggum house with the Santa falling over…Ralphie must’ve decorated…
The VanHouten’s with their Funzos swaying in the cool air…
The Mansion of Solid Gold…how Lampwick’s house has that little extra twinkle from the Christmas lights…
How cute the Purple House looks with Santa and his Reindeer up on the roof…
How Classic and simple the First Church of Springfield Looks decked out in Angels and baby Jesus…
Don’t mind how Mr. Costington is too big to fit through the doors…
How Sanjay’s House and Apu’s Apartment both look so simple, yet so elegant with their garland windows and few lights..
Only appropriate the Helen Lovejoy would be passing by…to judge.
Can’t help but love the Santa hat touch on Frink’s Lab…and even Willie’s got his shack decked out..
Town Hall has it’s tree up already too…
Even Candy Kevin can’t help but take a stroll through the lights…
And of course, who doesn’t love watching Homer and Flanders duke it out for the tackiest Christmas house on the block?!
Springfield is AWESOME for the holidays! Of course, it’s always better with snow
So I guess, if you’re like me, and pretty disappointed there’s no Christmas in Springfield yet…push the light plunger and turn on your lights and enjoy them! That’ll at least, hopefully, hold you over until the real event hits.
Enjoy strolling around town looking at the details of each decorated house. And enjoy it before the next event hits. Because soon the snow will be falling, the snowpeople will refreeze and then it’ll be too chaotic to enjoy the details! And let’s all hope that EA doesn’t screw it all up this year!
Anyway…that’s enough randomness for one Thursday. Hopefully next week I’ll have an event to muse about! Until then my friends…
Thoughts? How would you grade the events? Sound off below, you know we love hearing from you!
As far as Tapped Out goes this year compared to years past, 2019 has been the most underwhelming year ever:
– Lack of communication between EA and the people who still play the game regarding updates.
– That toilet/bird chirping noise that starts as the game loads.
– Events being delayed, such as the Halloween event ending in the middle of NOVEMBER.
– The events themselves having the same tired formula: send 7-8 characters plus 1 or 2 premium characters on a task every 4 hours.
– Worst of all, the BART SCREEN OF DEATH! I vowed to quit the game altogether if it hadn’t been fix. Fortunately, it has gone away (for the most part).
EA could had spend all this downtime trying to speed up the servers and fixing glitches/lags. The one downside of having so many characters and buildings in my town that it takes 30-40 minutes to collect everything. I can tap the Bart/Milhouse icon and return to the home screen and collect all the in-game money, but I only get one chance for free donuts when I could get at least 3 or 4 extra tries.
The sky finger statue is very disappointing. It can only be collected every 24 hrs and can’t be upgraded like some of the other items/buildings, such as the IRS building. This wasn’t what I had in mind as far as an “Select All” option. And when will this game do something about those
“Send All Springfielders to…” tasks?!
Playing this game for over 5 years, mainly as a freemium player but have since turned into a donut farmer, I do feel spoiled as I most of the items/characters/buildings the game has offered so far. I’m still bummed that I can’t get characters that are only available though bundles (evil Shopkeeper/evil Krusty doll, Mexican Duffman)
It used to be exciting to log in every 4 hrs during events. Nowadays, I only tap once a day (unless its during a event) to send all my characters on their 24 hr task (or 12 hr/8 hr task is they don’t have one for some reason or if their 24 hr task REQUIRES another character. I’m too lazy to search for each character that has a joint task).
Despite the complaints that I have regarding this game, there has been some good:
– Golden Goose building that gives free land tokens. Good thing I bought it although this item should return periodically for players who missed out.
– God (although overpriced, his 24 hr task worth it alone)
– Yearbox Mystery Box – the best thing EA has added all year.
– the Wailing Walls being $1000 with 2.25% XP Bonus for a while during the Halloween event (took full advantage of it until EA changed the price to 50 donuts)
Overall year review:
Best Mini-Event – Flanders BBQ reunion (only disappointment is no human Maude. missed golden opportunity there)
Worst Mini-Event – Krusty’s Last Grasp
Best Major Event – the Halloween event (lots of new items and returning items. And God!)
Worst Major Event – the Baby one (youth versions of already existing characters, plus this event started the “Bart Screen of Death” that plagued my game for weeks. This event is also when the bird chirping noise on the loading screen started)
I don’t expect the upcoming Christmas event to be any different. I miss the tapping items and neighbor interactions during events. I hope I am wrong.
Tree and decorations are up! Gingerbread houses are done. Christmas shopping is almost finished. I spent the morning baking cut out cookies, and I’ll decorate them tomorrow with my girls. Bring on Christmas! Thanks for the reminder–I need to hit my plunger.
I think Flanders Family Reunion was the best Event in 2019 for this Game App (except we didn’t get a living Maude Flanders), and that’s not saying much …. we got a lot of ‘rehash’ , or often Events came late (sometimes without warning). 🤔
It’s disappointing whenever EA couldn’t inform TSTO Addicts Staff with “hey here’s what’s next” (an equally so when the information they sent is not accurate). 😔
I get it! EA is a skeleton crew! Don’t have any expectations! 🤷🏼♂️
No Christmas Lights on ’til there is snow in my Game App (and Krampus rules my house all December!) Just farm for 🍩’s , get what I can from the Mystery Box (will we even get a new Event set up? Or more ‘rehash’ and ’12 🍩’s’ because we already have it? Is there going to be a 🍩 deal we can purchase that actually works? At this point it’s ‘whatever’ and that’s EA’s fault!) 🖖🏻
I missed most of the Flanders event. I stopped playing for a while due to the Bart screen of death thing. It was too annoying to play. For what it’s worth, my yearbook is gone (cleared), i do have some tasks to do, ALL of them requiring Homer. As lazy as Homer is, this will take some time. After that, emptyness. I hope x-mas gives us something worthy. I don’t farm anymore, only when i need something
rhayader1
I hope all of Ned Flanders Family returns (if obtaining all of them was difficult due to EA’s lack of maintaining a Network? I can relate, the Bart Simpson Screen of Death kept me from Tapping more often) 🙄
I’m getting to the end of obtaining everything …. guess it’s time for a 2nd Springfield?
Nice too see some tappers putting a positive spin on things. Personally I’m struggling not to be more negative. A sure indicator to me as to how the game is going is how often I visit it.
I now regularly miss a whole day at a time, occasionally two ! Used to play 3 to 4 times a day without fail.
Mind you like others I have tinkered with other game apps in the TSTO downtime, only to scrap them within days 😂
John Millar
For a 7 / 8 years old Game App? TSTO is actually better than what’s also available (it will suck trying to find a replacement)🤔
Agreed!
I’ve played other “free” games, somewhere between 60 – 80 of them, and None of them was as good as TSTO. A good third of them were downright horrible and got deleted in less than a week, buggy, glitchy, or forced to watch 60sec of Ads every 30sec of gameplay. I might have gone from playing hourly to playing 2 or 3 times a day, but TSTO is the best free game I’ve played.
~MIB👤
I logged in 3-4 times a day too. It took me like 5 minutes to clear everything. Now as a long time player with close to 400(?) Characters to clear it takes too much time. So i clear my town once a day, with events maybe 3 times a day
The thing i miss the most now is the challenges (eg friends acts, some side things etc
Highlights of the year for me are the Golden Goose reality that allows me to get ALL the land for tokens. The Monty python sky finger that collects all and of course GOD! 😎
BUT… and it’s a big butt… this time last Christmas we were ALL saying how much we loved the new style ease of play system with multi mini events. A whole freaking year of them?! Heck NO. Where’s the challenge EA?! I want something to tap! Bring back the tappable NPCs! A reason to visit neighbours! Mini-games! Even crafting was better than this! *yawn* 😬
Brooders
The new Building design (where you can place a road down the centre) I ♥️ that …. and Flander’s Family Reunion
I’d like to see more variety in the events. A few years ago, every event required neighbor visits, and multiple event currency – some for crafting, some to progress in the event, etc. It got repetitive. When they switched to the simpler events in the last year or so, initially it was refreshing. But now it also has become repetitive. I wish they could mix in more complex events like in the past with moderate events like the last THOH and mini-events lie Thanksgiving.
aarknader
Community Prizes (remember those?)
When an entire worldwide level of Tappers earning Event Currency got everyone a Prize
The advertisement s on this site are just terrible, either selling dentures or people who earn £££££££ a day, very distracting.
http://tstoaddicts.com/2017/11/17/about-the-ads/
Dear TSTO Santa,
All I want for Christmas is for you to fix the Samsung disappearing content bug. I would LOVE to be able to sort my town out but until it’s fixed I can’t so it’s either storing or dumping items 🙁
Oh and some more exciting games in the next 12 months like the superhero one back in the day which was fun with the battles!
I would also like to see some really old stuff, that I don’t have come back too for purchase from when the game first started.
Thanks
Fil
Bhe se l’intento di EA è di arrivare all’8 gennaio con la fine dell’evento di 4 settimane, bhe allora io spererei proprio che il prossimo mercoledì parta l’evento di Natale, anche perché sarebbe più auspicabile l’11 dicembre
Edit from Alissa: Per Google Translator
A bit disappointed there’s no snow on Wednesday, have all my decoration up in-game and the real ones going up tomorrow after my birthday today, bit of a tradition in my house and come down on the 3rd Jan after my wife’s birthday on the 2nd.
Think this might be my last event if it’s the same format they don’t excite me like they used to, don’t have the same anticipation as before waiting for the event to appear in store.
Here’s hoping for a special Christmas let it snow EA 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄⛄⛄⛄⛄🎅🤶🛷🎁
Keith Rooney
SORRY I somehow missed the part about your B’day😕.
So ……..HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY…..YAAAAY.🎂🎈🎆🎉
Hi, Sandy toes….. help me out in a belated birthday celebration. LOL 😎
I’m getting tired of not having free land tokens to expand my town. I don’t have room to move stuff around to arrange my town. What good is the rest of the stuff when it’s all piled up? It’s so annoying to put stuff into storage to arrange as well. Lame that the land isn’t just available for in game currency. They could at least bring back golden goose realty on a regular basis so people can buy the damn thing and get land. Free land tokens haven’t even been part of the prizes in recent events. I see myself losing interest soon without more land. Maybe that’s a good thing for my time in the end, but bad for EA.
Hey guys!
Has anyone else experienced disappearing don….
Just kidding
I have a theory about the game being so lame this year.
Y’know how there’s a general consensus about the Simpsons cartoon having a ‘’golden age’’ before going downhill?
Since I doubt TSTO will last 30+ years (‘’the end is near’’ LOL) perhaps our golden age is over. All the relevant characters are here & the events have become repetitive.
(Personally, I’ve never been a fan of that theory, I think every season has its ups & downs. Collective nostalgia?
I’ve been enjoying the show this year, maybe more than the game.)
What do y’all think?
i,d like to shoot elves out of my cannon again and go looking for hidden gifts. we need something to interact with our friends like dropping gifts.
I’ve been playing the whole time too, and I am SO disappointed with this year – it felt like they had fewer “currency” events, even over Easter.
They better give us some opportunities to gain land tokens, especially after we bought so many buildings in the Black Friday sale. Without land to play around with between events, the game is straight up boring.
I hit my plunger today too! Seems like no one else is going to Christmas up my town.
Everyone is so down on the game this year. Have you forgotten the statue that collects all your money for you? Or the yearbook? Or the GGR? Sure, the events have been a little lackluster but overall there were many improvements.
Interspersed with really boring, repetitive game play?
I live for boring, repetitive, silly nonviolent gameplay…. The more on autopilot I can be, the better! Makes it easier to get some walk-in-place exercise also.
I have other games (word games, hidden objects, puzzles) that require some exercise of the little gray cells. But this week, I’m translating a batch of articles, including one absolutely disgusting one about leather production, and definitely do not want to think on my breaks.
I’m being more productive away from the Game App now because I only Tap once a Day 😂
Good to hear! Moderation…the key to productivity.
I missed at least a few of the Christmas skins for the unique buildings.
I wonder if these will be brought back as track prizes.
Yes! Me too. I need a few more that I missed back in the beginning.
Snow Plow King Homer with Snow Plow
Ned Flanders on a Snow Mobile with Rod and Todd
(yeah those are fun when there is snow in Springfield)♥️
During quieter times, I look around my town. I put a movie on the outdoor movie screen. I know I this will date me but I am still amazed and smile that with one touch I can play “Happy Little Elves.” Definitely an advancement from “Pong.” So even if this past year did not have the same pizazz as prior years, it was still a fun, creative and entertaining game. Hopefully Christmas will be another happy event.
Hi Maddiethecool101
Are you talking about the drive in outdoor movie theater ? If so, how do you play a movie? Thanks 😎
Hi! Maddie is talking about this one:
https://imgur.com/a/1DibS6L
When you tap on it, you get these options:
https://imgur.com/a/uAVVeMu
I usually have “Bored of the Things” playing, because it’s the longest. But I really wish they’d add a double-feature option, so it could play for more than just three hours at a time!
Sandrashill
Thanks for your response. I don’t think I have that screen. But, would you know how the newest drive in which has a big truck parked askew on it work??
Thanks😎.
Unfortunately, at this point, most of the time it does nothing (https://tstoaddicts.com/2018/09/19/super-powers-prize-breakdown-stardust-drive-in/#more-60570). However, when one of those random times comes up when all of the decorations in the area you put it in come “alive,” you’ll see it playing a movie (although I don’t remember how animated it is).
Thanks so much. 😀 I will check out the link. Happy Tapping..😎
I turned on my decorations on December 1st. I’ll probably turn them off the first weekend after New Year’s Day. This year has been very slow for TSTO. Kinda sad. I don’t even check my town until 3-4 days when nothing is going on.
This Christmas is the first one without my dad, who died of cancer in January. I was very close to him. So understandably, I am subdued this Christmas. I hope we do get a TSTO update next week. I don’t mind it going over Christmas, but too far into January would feel weird like the other recent events.
Sorry for your loss, Matt (I know how difficult holidays are without family)
I emphasize, Matt…my dad died this past June and his birthday is in December, so he’s been on my mind a lot lately (and I’m kind of dreading when his birthday does arrive next week). So, I’m sending some supportive vibes your way and hope that it gets easier for both of us (and our families) with each passing year. 🙏
Ugh….Swype changed “empathize” to “emphasize,” and I didn’t catch it before posting.
My dear Matt, my heart goes out to you.😮 I too have lost my husband to cancer. He passed away on July 21th . I have been pretending that he’s still in the hospital. But that’s getting harder. That’s why I like coming here to distract myself with my dysfunctional virtual family. The people here are awesome. I know I can speak for many of them in saying, we’re here for you. Sending tons of good vibes your way. You and your family are in my thoughts. 😑
Take care. 😎
Maybe there’s some limit on cash or donuts or something? Gil always seems desperate, maybe he’s embezzling.
You might try spending the new donuts before you leave the game and see if your donut debit card gets declined or not…. or if you still lose the same number of donuts regardless.
This is a reply to RQuilt’s vanishing donut problem below. Dunno why it appears here.
Some were great and some were so so. I am so hoping the winter event is decent and would love to see some of the skins players are missing to come back for buildings and characters. My buildings are already decorated with what few skins I do have and almost done decorating the outside of the house in RL.
Im kinda holding out on putting out any TSTO christmas stuff as Im hoping for lots of new and or returning content to buy. I ve cleared a big space for Christmas stuff so hopefully EA wont dissapoint!
As for real life we have the tree up but not other decorations yet, the kids are getting older so not as enthusiastic now.
Has anyone else experienced disappearing donuts in their game? Two days ago my game leveled up and looked to assure I had been credited the donut when I observed that my donut total had gone from approximately 1288 down to 808! I have no explanation as to why. Called EA, first person acknowledged and said give us a couple of hours…12 hours later still no change. Called again, this tech says hold on one moment…half hour later I gave up. Third call, 23 hours after the first call, got a very helpful person who scrolled my game back several days, with no results other than going back to the previous level. He gave me some troubleshooting tips and said to call back if they don’t work. They didn’t. Frustration doesn’t accurately describe my feelings right now…
Any suggestions, advice, or sedatives would be greatly appreciated.
Marty Quill.
HAHA……….SEDATIVES !!😎😎
Hi Marty. This happened to me too a couple of weeks ago. I was farming donuts, but after synchronizing the latest donuts just disappeared. There are a couple of treads about this on the EA fourm, so you are not alone. My game is OK now, so I guess it was a server issue.
A part of me is…whew there is no Christmas update this week. I am busy catching up on all the side tasks from the Black Friday boxes. Seems Homer is needed is just about every story line at least once…
The event’s this year were indeed abit lacking. Am hoping that the Christmas Event will spruce thing’s up. ^^
I hit the Christmas Light Plunger as soon as Black Friday was done in-game.
And every time I see those tacky Simpson’s & Flander’s House Skin I get abit sad, wasn’t able to get em.
“Spruce” things up 🤣🤣🤣🤣 nicely done even if you didn’t mean too
^^
naruto224
Festive Decorations
Yep Flander’s House, Simpson’s House and our Favourite Hillbilly Clan’s Farm all got ’em (well the Church of Springfield, too with it’s Jebus thumbing)
Not every Building has Holiday Decor option (an each year we got new Buildings? this wasn’t available for ’em), but that Christmas Display where Simpsons Family each has a 16 hour Task (worth Getty if you don’t have it)
I really really hope they re-release all the xmas lights for all the houses/buildings/etc. I only have a few. I have so many donuts this year and i would love for those to make another comeback!!!!🎅🎁
I need all the Christmas skins, so I’m with you on that one. Totally unrelated, but I am a mere 226 land tiles away from unlocking all the land, don’t fail me now GGR!
Me, too. I keep the building Christmas lights up all year long, but the snow really makes them pop. I think I would like more of them in preference to even more stuff from an event. I have tons of stuff to put in yards and street corners, but haven’t placed any of that yet.
I also wish I could get winter gear for all the shivering residents. They can’t be comfortable in warm weather clothing…. I’m already freezing myself and it’s still warm enough to rain usually.
sandytoes74
And give that option to every Building / Home in Springfield! We’ve got too many without that ⛄
I posted this in the last thread (sorry if this is overkill), but is anyone else having issues with the Donut Factory and CostMo? For the last two days that I have noticed (maybe more), I would collect the 12 donuts between the two stores and see they were credited to me while still in the game. When I close the game and go back in the donuts are gone. 24+ donuts just vanished!
Don’t feel bad, I posted about missing donuts and the post is missing!
Now it’s back😳🙄
Marty Quill.
OMG, PLEASE STOP ! I don’t know why I find your post so hysterical ! Maybe I’m having some kind of breakdown. 😎😛😲😕😵😂😂 Lol
Marty Quill,
I was reading the new posts and saw this post again. ..I think it was those emojis that got to me. Any who, thanks for making me laugh. I really needed that.
Happy Tapping. 😎
Thanks for your musings Alissa ❤️ this has been an hungry year for us tappers, and let’s face it, the Xmas event is probably going to follow the same trend. Personally I’m not counting on a format change like last december, but… who knows, right? 😊
I guess I never got The Christmas skin for Frinks lab.