Forum Discussion

BBnot8's avatar
BBnot8
8 years ago

Re: Zen Garden (Watering...)

For the bee, I used to watch an ad then the bee woke up. Is it still working ? Maybe it's a way to make people watching more ads ?
I am actually wondering how much EA win with this game, with and without ads.
Like just for a regular player that wants to get everything free he can get on one day, he will have to watch 3x10 ads for the daily 3 pinatas (5000 coins each), 3 ads for the gems, 2 ads for the gauntlets and 1 ad for the Pinata rematch, so 36 ads/each day to get every free contents ! That's a lot !
I am not an expert but I've seen it was around 0.1€ per click  (there it seems to be much higher http://www.businessofapps.com/guide/mobile-app-advertising-cpm-rates/), so at 3.6€/day so more than 100€/month for ONE player that just watchs ads. 

On an other topic, on the chinese version of the game, there are more or less 164 plants and only 4 are premium. Compare to our 115 plants with 30 premiums one.
And they also have 2 excluive brand new world (but they have less different levels for each world).

So I don't think the argument "it's normal to have some premium plants, they need to pay the developer" is totally relevant. EA already gets a lot just with ads. And there are some contents developed in the Chinese version (plants, levels) that could be implemented easily in the game.
EA is just optimizing the game and gameplay (some ridiculous difficult levels, PvP mode, quests to get seeds for a premium plants) to force players to buy or at least watch ads ☹️
I do enjoy the game but I don't like being considered as a cash cow. 😕

16 Replies

  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    8 years ago

    With all the invasive ads, my interest has wavered with the app. And as a principle, I refuse to purchase premium items.  I do not feel like supporting something I know will just bite me later and encourage EA so that every month there being a new $ release...

    The latest and greatest Pay-to-Win plant is here! Get your credit card ready kids! You can't win Battlz without it! 

  • BBnot8's avatar
    BBnot8
    8 years ago

    Same here. I don't mind paying for one game. I would not mind to pay for few add-on/DLC with exclusive contents.
    But there are so many things to buy in this game, so many mechanichs to induce you to buy them (ads, weekly quest to get seeds for premium plants,ads, incredible difficult new levels, PvP that tempts player to buy premium plants and gems to get more gauntlets or Pinata, etc), it is just too much and I don't won't to support that 🤔 

  • MAGICDAVESHROOM's avatar
    MAGICDAVESHROOM
    Legend
    8 years ago
    Dr zomboss, you might find the zen garden more useful on the endless quest that keep on getting harder as you progress.
    Go add up how much everything in your convenient on line store would cost you with just a few taps of your finger then turn pale.
    The bee is now almost useless since the last update, which is a shame because it gave some meaning to ad farming.
    The ads have taken all the fun out of this game but I'm hooked now and it's too late because I've got too much time and money invested in it to Just delete it and walk away.
    It's going to get far, far worse as most of my plants are at L3-L4 but as i very slowly get enough experience points to level up the cost in coinz jumps up massively and most of the pinatas i "win" are for premium plants i haven't bought.
    I think eieio mentioned on another post that the only plant he has at L10 is electric blueberry and he's been playing for a long time.
    The minimum number of experience points you get with each pinata is 2 and you have very little control over what they apply to, you can get pinatas for a specific world but not a specific plant.
    I decided that i quite liked holly barrier so i bought it. I could have bought the plant on its own for £4.99 but i bought the bundle for £9.99 with the extra seed packets etc. But hardly any of the premium seed packets applied to plants i already have. This is the first "freemium" game i have ever downloaded and i really wish that i had been warned about the true cost of playing because if i had known then i never would have tried it.
    As to being a cash cow, all i can say about that is "MOOOOOOO".
    I recommend the original PVZ to my friends but tell them not to try. PVZ2.
    I'm going to try and find out what it takes to max out eieio's electric blueberry and let you know.
    Run awEAy!

  • MAGICDAVESHROOM's avatar
    MAGICDAVESHROOM
    Legend
    8 years ago
    According to fandom it costs 293,500 coinz and 4,385 seed packets to take electric blueberry to level 10.
    This is just one plant.
  • Anonymous's avatar
    Anonymous
    8 years ago

    I've seen people with level 17 plants in my Battlez...

  • BBnot8's avatar
    BBnot8
    8 years ago

    Somehow, Pinatas are not that different from the infamous loot boxes, you are paying to get the chance of having something (one weapon/one type of seed) and most likely you will not have what you want at the first try.You are not paying to get one better plant you are paying to get a chance to have a better chance.

    @D0CT0R_Z0MB0SS Some basic plants like peashooter or sunflower can go to level 20 but actually the number of seeds recquired is not that high
    For example Dusk Lobber lvl 6 will cost 10+75+200+400+750 = 1435 seeds while with the same amount of the seeds for peashooteror wall-nut they will be almost at level 12 already.

  • MAGICDAVESHROOM's avatar
    MAGICDAVESHROOM
    Legend
    8 years ago

    I have just upgraded hurrikale from L4 to L5 at a cost of 10,000 coinz which equates to 20 ads (max 30 seconds)
    10,000 (lovely golden coinz)
    ÷500 (coinz for ads)
    =20 (ads)
    X 30 (max 30 seconds)
    =600 (seconds)
    ÷10
    =10 minutes.

    OR

    10,000 coinz in the oh so convenient and easy to use EA shop cost £4.99 in real money.💰KER-CHING!💸

  • BBnot8's avatar
    BBnot8
    8 years ago

    How did you manage to upgrade a specific plant using 10000 coins ?
    I know there are the daily Pinata for 5000 each

  • MAGICDAVESHROOM's avatar
    MAGICDAVESHROOM
    Legend
    8 years ago
    I was lucky enough to "win" a premium pinata for a plant i actually have at the pinata party which took me over the experience points needed to level up and the 10,000 coinz are the price i have to pay to EA to actually level up.
    Don't ask me what they spend them on.
    Those 5,000 coin pinatas are not actually pinatas but a daily offer put out by EA to get you to visit the shop, watch ads or buy coinz.
    Hurrikale is the first gemium plant i bought as soon as i had the 100 gems and i occasionally get a premium pinata with seed packets for it.
    I soon found out after buying it that every time you lose it costs you an extra 10 gemz to not to lose your streak when you lose a battlez match (10,20,30,40 and so on).
    It is well worth saving them (and mintz) for a rainy day.
    Most of the prEAmium pinatas i get are for plants i haven't bought so if i do buy one then i usually can level up 2 or 3 times.
    Now the rewards for a successful streak are BIG by my standards (the furthest i got was 44) but i woke up at 3am and decided to use a freeplay without setting up a defence before starting (DUH!) and it would have cost me 70 gems to retain it so i declined.
    ThEAy usually push premium pinatas for a new plant ahead of said plant appearing as plant of the week.
  • BBnot8's avatar
    BBnot8
    8 years ago

    Oh yes I forgot the coins to upgrade the plants.
    So not only you have to watch ads, win quests, etc to get the seeds but you still have to pay to upgrade your plant. I never realized how stupid and non logic it was. In many games, either you have to pay to get your weapon upgraded either you have to do some quest or achievement to get a new weapon.

    Here we have to do both doing both. That or paying for Pinatas then paying for the upgrade.

    Are we paying an engineer or a botanist with thoses coins so he can upgrade our plants or is it just another way to make players buy coins or watch ads, I'm really wondering ? 🤔


    Else, I only had one  daily offer at 5000 today, instead of 3, is it normal ? 

  • MAGICDAVESHROOM's avatar
    MAGICDAVESHROOM
    Legend
    8 years ago
    I had 3, i think they were em peach, puff shroom and guacodile.
    None are plants i normally use but i bought the seed packets anyway.
  • MAGICDAVESHROOM's avatar
    MAGICDAVESHROOM
    Legend
    8 years ago
    It's not stupid, it's actually very clever, vEAry clever.
    Offering people a free downloadable game that has in app purchases and it starts off being really easy and cheap to upgrade your plants then gradually getting harder and progressively more expensive in time, coinz, gemz then some plants can only be bought with actual money (usually the best ones).
    I suggest that you and any newcomers read ALL the posts in this forum and you might see the bigger picture because I keep on repeating myself which is probably getting boring.
    I suggest you try the original PVZ game which is fun and available for many platforms but isn't riddled with ads or ways to part me with my cash.
    It was quite old when i bought it so it cost less than what EA charge for a premium plant.
    I'm going off now to play my favorite level, it's raining seeds and nobody's going to make me watch another d****d ad tonight!
    I AM CASH COW! HEAR ME MOOOOOO!!!!!

  • BBnot8's avatar
    BBnot8
    8 years ago

    Yes I know 
    It's jun ""fun"" to discover another mechanics used to make player watch more ads and pay more.
    When you see all the topics with players having issues with the game and getting no answer, I can't stop thinking that EA should hired less people for marketing & co and more for dev' and support 🤔

  • eieio_31310's avatar
    eieio_31310
    Hero
    8 years ago
    @MAGICDAVESHROOM wrote:
    ... i woke up at 3am and decided to use a freeplay without setting up a defence before starting (DUH!)

    I confess I have done something similar, I forgot to pick a sun producing plant....   😃

  • MAGICDAVESHROOM's avatar
    MAGICDAVESHROOM
    Legend
    8 years ago
    Done that as well.
    I keep on waking up in the wee small hours, probably because i don't want to let a freeplay escape.
    I wish EA would cut down the 4 hour freeplays DURING THE NIGHT and give out extra "free" gauntlets instead so i can catch up on my sleep.🌛

About Plants vs. Zombies™ 2

Discuss your experience with Plants vs Zombies 2 on our community forum.5,725 PostsLatest Activity: 8 hours ago