Happy Musings Thursday my friends! I’m back with another musings post for you. I’ve got some thoughts, so let’s get to ’em…
It’s been a few weeks since I’ve written a musings post. One of those was intentional, the other completely unintentional.
Last Thursday I sat down to write a musings post about my initial thoughts on the Holidays of Future Past mini-event, and Murphy’s Law struck me from every which way. So before I knew it, the day was over…and I didn’t get the musings post written. Such is life sometimes, right? The best-laid plans…
Anyway, I’m back this week. And now, rather than giving you an initial impression overview of the event…I can give you my full perspective. Since I’ve now finished the mini-event. So, let’s get cracking…
I’ll do this in the usual post-event wrap up style…with the good and the bad, and give it my final grade, but I want to preface this by saying: I enjoyed this mini-event. Future episodes are some of my favorite Simpsons episodes, so I LOVE whenever the content comes to TSTO. In fact, we recently sat down and recorded an Addicts Live Podcast all about the Holidays of Future Past update, look for that to air on Saturday, and things got a little heated. So be sure to check out that episode on Saturday to see why I got a little “mom” on Safi and Pat.
The Good
– Prize track full of new items. All 5 prizes with this mini-event were NEW prizes for TSTO. Not a single returning item, donut, or land token to be found. Just 5 brand new, unique, prizes to Springfield. Say what you want about the prizes…but a prize track with 5 new, unique prizes proves EA is listening to us.
In the last several events, our #1 complaint (outside of the event format) has been returning content, donuts, or land tokens on the prize track. This event has none of that. At least for 1 mini-event, EA listened. And they should be applauded for that. We’ll see what happens in the next event…
-Prizes fit one cohesive theme. Another top complaint of Tappers recently has been that the prizes don’t work together. They don’t fall into a specific theme, or they’re from random episodes, which makes decorating hard.
Every prize from this event is from the future. And they work well with other future items in Springfield.
-Future characters. I love that Jiff and Skippy are part of the prize track with this one. And I love that we can finally get the future versions of Marge and Homer. Granted, the future versions of Marge and Homer are just slightly older, and more hunched over, versions of regular Marge and Homer…but it’s still nice to complete the Future Simpson Family Set.
Now we have future versions of ALL the Simpsons, Jenda, Zia, and Jiff and Skippy…we just need Future Milhouse and we’ll be all set! (and Hugh…we need Hugh! Oh and Future Nelson! And Future Ralph! Ok, so it’ll be awhile before we’re “all set”, but you get what I’m saying!)
The Bad
-The dialogue. I’ve been praising the writers for a year. The dialogue for TSTO during 2019 was phenomenal. Great storylines, funny jokes, topical…but apparently, the great dialogue stayed in 2019. Because the dialogue for this event is…awful. It feels forced and disjointed. Not a fan.
-Not timely. Once again EA proves they don’t have a calendar. This event focuses on the New Year, and New Year’s resolutions. So it should have been released, at the very least, on New Year’s Day. Instead, it was released 2 weeks later. I think this has more to do with a programming issue on EA’s end than anything…after all, based on the files, it looks like Christmas was released a week later than it should have been, which likely pushed everything else back a week. But still, a New Year’s mini-event 2 weeks into the New Year feels off.
-Lack of independent visual tasks for Empty-Nest Marge. I don’t like that she only has 1 independent visual task. For her other visual task, you need Retired Homer.
Final Grade
Overall, I’d give the Holidays of Future Past a solid B. The dialogue prevents it from hitting the B+ to A- range. For a mini-event it’s pretty good, but not great. If the rest of the mini-events in 2020 follow suit with this I’ll be ok.
As I said earlier, we’ll see what the rest of 2020 brings…but so far it feels like they’re off to a good (not great) start!
Thoughts? How would you grade the Holidays of Future Past mini-event? Your Good? Your Bad? Sound off in the comments below, you know we love hearing from you!
You really think Ralph will survive the next ten years without getting himself killed or locked up for arson?
I actually get excited when I see land tiles. I ran out of land a very long time ago, so now I just have to get rid of sections to put in new stuff. But there is so many tile left to unlock! Please, give me more! I miss the days you could buy them….
i did like the event… I give it a C+… I got my neighbors back, BUT still can’t tap on building on my neighbors towns (sorry neighbors.. dont delete me from your friends, am trying to tap but the game wont let me)… the event was good, the format (mini event) 4 week event is ok, I wouldn’t like the return of crafting, but if it means something new, then maybe for just 1 event.. The delay of the mini event maybe.. MAYBE was to coincide with the Chinese new year… at least that’s how am seeing it. probably our game will get the Coronavirus and be done..
What do I expect from EA in 2020…… NOTHING!!!… (I may be on the last stages of grief for this game..) only that they keep the servers running for TSTO, so I can log in, tap my little world, send my characters to work, tap neighbors and pretend that the show didn’t get crappy and Homer dumber**, it just moved to my device for me to decide its future…
** I just watched a video on youtube that shows how the show killed Homer, and made him dumber and ruined the show.
We offer up MANY suggestions on here….event and character and item Wish lists. Very creative ideas from very creative tappers. Instead of some EA person taking and running with a gem of an idea off of here, they give us the same old thing with nothing that’s earn-worthy. New stuff is always good, dont get me wrong but this event is a C- for me. I got the character bundle cuz i have too many donuts that are getting stale. I do like the 2 Bart kids. Theyre cute😊👍
Mini Event – I’ll give this a C+ (that’s a better grade then the “it’s Christmas but it ain’t Christmas-y” December 2019 Event), because while things improved a little? they weren’t improved enough. This Event Format needs to be retired (I won’t defend the fact EA has had sufficient time to introduce a new Event Format) and the late release 1/3 into January makes a “new years” theme just dumb.
Prizes – I appreciate that we didn’t get 12 🍩’s when we’re fed up with that Prize Format (I feel EA listened to about 1/3 of our complaints – they got a thanks on Twitter / Facebook for it), because every Prize is New Content. But (for me) only 2 out of the 5 Prizes were rewarding (for me), and the rest was not worth the effort (for me). The useless Decor, another Building Skin, more Decor I got to Store and we all know why (I’m not defending these dumb decisions by EA). As “meh” as I am over the future doppelgangers, it’s not necessarily the future Simpson’s Characters being offered up getting called out as “meh” (some of them are rewarding) … it’s the fact we have too many variants of the same Characters (just like another Character Skin, this feels dumb on EA’s part when there are plenty of new Characters still not in TSTO – and they should offer ’em up).
Premiums – the new 2 Characters (voiced) I grew to appreciate, but the Decor they came with was dumb (this was a 150 🍩’s Premium that EA asked 175 sprinkles from Tappers – but I guess it could’ve been worse if they had made this a 300 🍩’s Gil Deal). I found it amusing that noobs had the ability to obtain prior Characters, yet they weren’t needed to move this Mini Event along (is that a first? because it was another dumb decision on EA’s part).
Writing – oh it was not up to par and that’s what contributes to any Event (Mini or Multi) getting dumb real fast (I can’t defend these dumb decisions from EA, but I can ask “why?” because we all should ask EA why they make such dumb decisions when they can engage Tappers online to find out what we want). Yes, the writers have been impressive for most of 2019, until late October thru December (this is when the writing started to slip to me, and this Mini Event marks the least impressive efforts from the writers).
As for the rest of 2020? If EA continues to listen to the constructive criticism and do some things about it …. that means they will continue to keep the Game App playable (ie we still need Item Limits increased, that vacant space next to Springfield Heights needs to be made available, etc).
My biggest concern is if EA takes this Game App from dumb to dumber due to their decisions (or lack of them) and a perfect example of “that was a dumber idea EA” is in the article enclosed. Yes, Dumb and Dumber is a funny movie, but it’s not a direction EA needs to go (no more defending dumb decisions).
https://www.gamesradar.com/the-simpsons-hit-and-run-2-was-in-the-works-at-one-point-and-even-had-a-gameplay-prototype/
Thinking about it.. EA is not a good game designer/developer/company corp.. just as an example, Fifa (whatever year), NFL (any year), NFS (any year) Hockey (any year) any sports game… it is THE SAME GAME with probably an extra light to make it look new, EA doesn’t change.. it sells the same garbage but with a shinny new name, it is repetitive just like Nascar… around and around and around and around for 300 plus laps…. that’s EA in a nutshell, they don’t have new content..
With TSTO, they probably thought that it was going to bomb, or that they could make it repetitive just like everything else… made plans for a few events, people would get tired, EA would have grab the money and go to the next project… so eventually when the game did have success and gather a following, they didn’t have anything planned, but to repeat their garbage motto.. argh… i’ll stop… nothing will change..
EA is already in trouble with the NBA and FIFA (and may lose both licences). I’m not saying managing a licenced intellectual property is easy (you can’t please everyone) but you have to engage the game players …. or they will quit and move on (yeah, EA irritated enough players of Star Wars last multi-player that the latest Star Wars game is single player).
I fear what the Simpsons would end up with Game App wise under Team Disney (their mobile games are awful). 🙄
If they move The Simpsons game to Team Disney, I will quit… am not a fan of Disney…
C : because the game went back to Bart screen and slowed down, is this on purpose, do they shut servers down, I don’t know but it takes the fun out of the game. Can’t play anymore
I think the timing was Bad because of the delayed Release of the Halloween Event on the Apple Store. The „xxx“ made problems as it was stated on Twitter.
Christmas started later than expected but before the hollydays. The newyear Event was already developed and in the Pipeline. There the Delay was much More obvious.
Too much future…not enough reality…still no increase on item limits…how many Homers do we need?????
C…and that is because Alissa went “Mom” on me during Addicts Live.
Of course…I really don’t know what that means. “Going Mom” on me these days usually means my Mom has called me for the 20th time in a week, because “her Google is broken.” I know. It is as creepy sounding when she says it.
Ha! Not enough “reality”?!
For me a C-. If the dialogue was better a C+, as is, below average.
I see that EA has brought back the Bart Screen of Death to try and discourage donut farming. The only time I get the Bart screen is when I’m collecting bonuts. I buy rat trap trucks. I’ll buy just two at a time if I have to in order to not get the Bart Screen. My bonus percentage is over 4200 so I get two rounds of bonus for each truck I buy. Why doesn’t EA just stop allowing us to farm instead of doing this?
Because we’d all quit TSTO if we couldn’t Farm 🍩’s
(I got the Bart Simpson Screen of Death once this week, it could be weather playing with Telecom … but it could also be EA puting their Network down for maintenance and if this is it? EA might as well tell everyone”we’re down for maintenance”) 🤷🏼♂️
I doubt that they are trying to discourage donut farming. I’m sure they have enough realspace $$ from people with big entertainment budgets. Donut farming takes work and probably a small percentage bother with it, and mostly people like me who refuse to spend a single realspace penny on any game.
I’ve had crashes occasionally while buying things with donuts from the Yearbook or maybe the store, but it seems to be a short-lived problem that eventually clears up. I don’t lose any donuts – either it brings me right back to the final purchase confirmation screen or it just doesn’t register a sale. Maybe once it happened while farming, usually other times. Sometimes the server is just usually busy or my isp is cutting out briefly. During transactions of any kind, they have to be connected the whole time because it’s going back and forth between device and server.
I’m surprised they don’t provide the option to earn donuts by watching little commercials, though. That would be really nice for cheap new players, but I would watch also.
I don’t really understand why people are annoyed that this was a mini event when for the past 4 years, a mini event was always the first event of the year. This is probably the third or fourth future update we had while there has been 4 superheroes updates. I agree about the prizes while most of them weren’t the greatest but 5 new items as prizes is good.
I don’t agree about the land tokens not being prizes since its been 8 months since there was a land token prize (also by Monday it will be 11 months since there was an item limit increase) and ever since they’ve been removed on the prize tracks its made people (including me) pine for GGR or some other way to get land tokens since the current way to wait for a “number of daily challenges completed reward” to be a land token other than donuts or a MB which only appears once every few months.
I like that Homer’s Dream House and a few other future characters and buildings returned since missing out on HDH in the Sci-Fi event was when I started to dislike the crafting concept because the costs are usually to high to get a unique or multiples of an item and there wasn’t many ways to get the crafting currency (the idea of demos and trading the demo currency to future bucks for extra items was neat though). I wish some more returning future items made a reappearance as well like the flowers, hedges and street decorations.
Design wise, for now I plan to keep all these items together and unless I do some rearranging or storing in my town to make a future area in my town. In the long term when I get more open land, I plan to have all the theme parks like I&S Land, Krustyland and the Efcot Center with international, future and wild west items on the edge of my town
The event itself was great, I liked getting the Ultranet and Jiff and Skippy and the dialogue for both of them was decent (I wish Jenda had some involvement in Jiff and Skippy’s questline). I didn’t read much into the main dialogue but I did like that the future Simpsons were involved in all the questlines. I’d give this event a B as well.
Tired Event / Mini Event format that needs to be replaced with something new (that’s the No.1 criticism, followed by Item Limits). Believe me, this Game App deserves to be better managed (and that’s why I won’t defend whenever EA does something stupid).
I do give EA credit for starting a new Mini Event that was all brand new Content.
The format at least needs a shake up and not be used after every mini event. I wish the episode tie ins and one week promotions would come back since 2019 was all mini and multi events. I hope the next update is either an episode tie in or a Chinese new year one maybe with a new format type or more to do in the multi event formats.
🌈Well, guess I’m the first to reply…
Pretty much in agreement, although actually the dialog still seemed fairly fun & entertaining IMHO…
The top 2 negative issues for me remain:
1) WINTER IS NOT OVER & SHOULD NOT END BEFORE ST. PATS… Continued major missed opportunities for implementing seasonal transitioning great graphics of sleet / rain culminating with ultimate classic Canon Hurricane event👌
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/1NWAteH.jpg[/IMG]
2) NO INCREASE IN ITEM LIMITS… permanently challenging the struggle for design creativity… The very least logic is for simultaneously increasing the exact amount of new items introduced😏
Otherwise💩…
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/bD27jTY.jpg[/img]
…Fixing graphic image code…
http://i.imgur.com/1NWAteH.jpg
2) NO INCREASE IN ITEM LIMITS… permanently challenging the struggle for design creativity… The very least logic is for simultaneously increasing the exact amount of new items introduced😏
Otherwise💩…
http://i.imgur.com/bD27jTY.jpg