Seasonal Scam

What a scam right enough. In UK it’s even more expensive as it’s £14.99 which is equivalent to around $20. EA your message boards are full of complaints about this season and you not only choose to ignore them but you add insult to injury by trying to charge us more for what we should have had with the premium pass. Either give every premium member these coins for free to allow us to complete the season or refund the cost of the pass!

I wish more players would stop spending money on this game. It’s the only way to make the developers listen to us. When the funds dry up maybe they will actually consider our complaints. 

You buy the Mayors' pass to get the buildings that are in there. You also get currency, which you can use to buy some more buildings.

As much as I, too, dislike being shown a lot of stuff that I won't be able to get, the current Mayors' Pass isn't a bad deal or anything. Some of the criticism surrounding the new way seasons are done is valid (like a lack of transparency regarding how much currency we can actually earn), some is not. Fact is, the current pass certainly isn't a bad deal in terms of how many buildings you can get, if you compare it with earlier seasons. It's probably even better now, depending on how much extra currency you collect.

Before, you bought a pass and you got 6 buildings. Which ones? That was entirely determined by EA. Now, however, you get four from the pass and currency which you can use to buy at least 2 more. It's easily the same number of buildings, even more if you pick the cheaper ones (like Gardencourt Estate, which in my opinion is among the best buildings available). The added advantage here is that you get a lot more choice, getting the option to pick the ones you like and ignore the rest. Let's be honest: in previous seasons there were always some (though, between players, differing) buildings included in the MP that many of us didn't care about, but they were included in the deal. Now part of the deal is that we get currency and can just supplement the pass with stuff we actually want.

Maybe people are just looking at this the wrong way. You don't get less than before. You can get as many buildings per season as before, the only difference is that you get presented with even more buildings. Can we get all of those? No, but perhaps getting disappointed over this is more a matter of setting reasonable expectations. Fact is, in terms of buildings, you certainly won't get less out of it than before and we have more choice now. I think €9 for four buildings and currency to buy at least 2 more, with more choice and more agency than before, isn't such a bad deal.

There are plenty of reasons to complain, but to suggest the MP has lost its value seems to be a misconception. Don't focus on what you can't get, ask yourself the question how much you get now vs. earlier seasons. I think you'll find that things have improved, in that sense.

I read an article that Electronic Arts (aka EA) might be taken private by an investment firm, which to me means the nickel and diming is only going to get worse.

While you make some interesting points, please acknowledge that the rules for mayors pass seem to change with every new iteration.

However, based on the format of the last 2 passes it was entirely reasonable to assume that if you purchased the pass, and devoted enough time to assignments, milestones, event tracks, DC etc., you would not have to pay any further real money to achieve the albums or merely attain the rest of the seasonal buildings through an exchange of tickets/tokens.

I am not sure why you are defending the obviously predatory system of this mp where there is literally no way to achieve album completion with the event track, mayors pass or token exchange as in previous mayors passes and acknowledge that the creators have implemented a bait and switch where they expect you pay further, more in fact, because you have already invested money. 

Do you work for the company? In what stretch of the imagination are you okay with playing in a manor that you played last mp but now expected to suddenly pay more money for the same gameplay.

I understand your point, and I agree we are seeing more flexibility in the reward selection. However, the way premium album completion is structured has taken a very predatory turn, and this Munich season illustrates it perfectly:

• Week 1: The pretzel-to-coin conversion rate was so low and labor-intensive that it effectively lured players into purchasing the Premium Mayor's Pass just to complete the album without an insane amount of grinding.
• Week 2: The album requirements suddenly skyrocketed to a level that even the rewards from the Premium Pass can't fulfill. This creates a classic sunk-cost fallacy, pressuring those who already paid for the pass to now buy seasonal coin bundles so their initial investment doesn't feel wasted.

This leads to the big question: Are we supposed to expect a similar huge shortfall in Weeks 3 and 4? Will completing the final album require another $15 top-up each week?

This whole model just feels wrong. We've seen EA occasionally hide information to incite spending since the album feature was introduced, but the execution this season is by far the worst. I'm convinced that if the Week 2 requirements had been revealed from the start, many of us would have made very different decisions, like not buying the Premium Pass in the first place or not even bothering to upgrade the fun fairs.

You buy the Mayors' pass to get the buildings that are in there. You also get currency, which you can use to buy some more buildings.

And because, for every season since the introduction of seasonal currencies, buying the Mayor's Pass was necessary to complete all season goals. 

As much as I, too, dislike being shown a lot of stuff that I won't be able to get, the current Mayors' Pass isn't a bad deal or anything.

It is, however, objectively worse than the Mayor's Pass for every previous season, since it is no longer sufficient to complete the season goals.

Fact is, the current pass certainly isn't a bad deal in terms of how many buildings you can get, if you compare it with earlier seasons.

We got more buildings in previous seasons.

It's probably even better now, depending on how much extra currency you collect.

Have fun exchanging your 87,514 pretzels. 

The added advantage here is that you get a lot more choice, getting the option to pick the ones you like and ignore the rest.

In previous seasons, the Mayor's Pass and weekly rewards gave you enough currency to purchase all of the buildings.

Let's be honest:

You're confusing honesty with gullibility.

Now part of the deal is that we get currency and can just supplement the pass with stuff we actually want.

What we can't do is complete the weekly collections, and in all likelihood, the seasonal collection.

Maybe people are just looking at this the wrong way.

Maybe you're an EA sock puppet. I'll let the comments decide which is more likely.

You don't get less than before. You can get as many buildings per season as before, the only difference is that you get presented with even more buildings. Can we get all of those? No, but perhaps getting disappointed over this is more a matter of setting reasonable expectations.

I would ask you to sound more like an EA rep greeting us with a "How do you do, fellow kids," but I don't believe that's possible.

Fact is, in terms of buildings, you certainly won't get less out of it than before

Is this your first season, or are you just mental? 

There are plenty of reasons to complain, but to suggest the MP has lost its value seems to be a misconception.

Professional curiosity: what are you on?

Don't focus on what you can't get, ask yourself the question how much you get now vs. earlier seasons. I think you'll find that things have improved, in that sense.

No, seriously, what are you on?

No, I don't work for the company. And I never said I'm ok with how things are, I said I realise that there were always things I could and couldn't get, given a certain amount of money and effort I was willing to put in.

The album tracks always required insane amounts of spending to complete, or doing hundreds of assignments/ building and demolishing a week. Of course we would all like to get everything, but this game - or any other game for that matter - has rarely worked that way.

I know I can get six buildings this season so I'm not going to complain as I don't think that's a bad deal at all. I know that's what I got in previous seasons.

llwater​,

First, thanks for the respectful reply. Unfortunately that seems to be the exception here.

I'm not particularly happy with the way too high requirements for the album completion either, but personally I've learned not to care about those. There have been a few seasons where I absolutely wanted them - like with the New Year tower. In other cases I just realised it's supposed to be a highly exclusive thing that I wasn't willing to spend the necessary money on.

I certainly agree with you that they should be more forthcoming about the requirements and what can and can't be obtained. Keeping things constant and not switching between seasons every time would certainly be an improvement too. I've always said so and filed the same complaint in other threads about this subject.

Maybe you should learn how to post a comment without half a dozen ad-hominems and wild accusations, then I might actually be bothered to give a serious reply.

In general: no, this isn't my first season, I have in fact been playing for years. Which is why I don't build my expectations around two or so previous seasons. You can either take that lesson to heart or stay angry over some pixels.