Have ea, just shot themselves?
Time will tell. Could go either way. Right now I'm enjoying the game more than ever before and the Easter injuries are healing!
Forum Discussion
People are so negative. Still surprises me.
Let me explain a bit about EA, so you know who they are and how this works. I've worked at a developer as well, so I know some of the ins and outs.
First, EA started back in the days of the Commodore 64 (and other classic computers) days. They were the best thing to hit computer gaming ever, at that point. Why? Because they started by publishing games made by small developers (programmers, people like you or I, that made a game on their own at home) to the world. Many of these games would go unknown by most people nowadays, but they gave many people their big breaks. Think of people like Peter Molyneux, with one of his early games being Populous and Magic Carpet ... two games I loved when I was a kid. And now he's doing games like the Fable series.
Now why did I tell you that? To tell you THIS! lol Anyway, there are two parts to making games. Publisher and developer. The developer is the one that MAKES the game. They design it, program it, keep it updated, and are the ones that TRULY care about a quality product. The Publisher is the one who pays the developer, advertises, presses the discs and sends them out, or gets the game on Google Play/iTunes/etc. In the case of EA, because they are so big now, they are both publisher and developer, although the rolls are still the same, but handled differently. The development team still is the ones who want the best product possible, but now they are EA employees. With mobile games, such as TSTO, they likely also handle the publishing of the games online, but the rest of the work is handled like a publisher on that end.
Now... Why did I tell you THAT? To continue with THIS! :) The developers want to make money, they want to keep making their games, and they have to bow to publisher pressure, such as donuts in TSTO, and how they are handled. Why? The devs want a killer game, the publisher wants only something that people will at least like, and pay for. If it was up to the devs, so long as they get a paycheck to live off of, they would almost definitely make this game 100% free, and donuts would only be earned (if they existed in the game at all) for the special stuff, and would likely come at a much faster rate.
So, there's some history on EA, before they grew into one of the most hated companies in the world (factual, not my opinion, they still have some good stuff, but have done wrong now and then, in my opinion). Then some about the developer/publisher relationship. So where does this all bring me?
No matter what anyone says, they have to produce a product as good as they can to make people want to play it, and in a case of something like TSTO, they have to have a product that will last a long time. Annoying the players with events of a type they hate means people will rate it badly and not want to play it. Giving them something they want, while also making money, will keep players. So the developers (EA Mobile) probably have dozens of ideas on what they want to do, and are obviously paying attention to the players to stop giving them what they don't like and giving them what they do like.
So, that boils down to: EA Mobile - We want a great game, but are only given so much money and time to make the product. EA (Publisher) - Make this game for this amount of money and have it, or the updates/addons, ready for this date. And handle the donuts this way or we'll get someone else (likely others within EA, in this case) to make the game from now on.
So put your annoyance where it needs to be, give the devs the credit for trying (There are tons of different Android devices and iPhone models are starting to vary quite a bit nowadays, so it's not as easy as you think). Give EA at least some credit for letting their devs do something like this great Stonecutters update.
So this was a bit longer than expected. :) I've been into gaming since pong made it to homes, spent a few years making PC games for a publisher that eventually turned into the ones that now make GTA, and have watched this industry like a hawk through magazines, then the Internet. I hope this was an interesting read! :) (this is so long, and it's past midnight, so I'm going to save before proofing it... Gotta get my Simions - just put Simpsons and Minions together there lol - to work on todays tasks!)
Let me explain a bit about EA, so you know who they are and how this works. I've worked at a developer as well, so I know some of the ins and outs.
First, EA started back in the days of the Commodore 64 (and other classic computers) days. They were the best thing to hit computer gaming ever, at that point. Why? Because they started by publishing games made by small developers (programmers, people like you or I, that made a game on their own at home) to the world. Many of these games would go unknown by most people nowadays, but they gave many people their big breaks. Think of people like Peter Molyneux, with one of his early games being Populous and Magic Carpet ... two games I loved when I was a kid. And now he's doing games like the Fable series.
Now why did I tell you that? To tell you THIS! lol Anyway, there are two parts to making games. Publisher and developer. The developer is the one that MAKES the game. They design it, program it, keep it updated, and are the ones that TRULY care about a quality product. The Publisher is the one who pays the developer, advertises, presses the discs and sends them out, or gets the game on Google Play/iTunes/etc. In the case of EA, because they are so big now, they are both publisher and developer, although the rolls are still the same, but handled differently. The development team still is the ones who want the best product possible, but now they are EA employees. With mobile games, such as TSTO, they likely also handle the publishing of the games online, but the rest of the work is handled like a publisher on that end.
Now... Why did I tell you THAT? To continue with THIS! :) The developers want to make money, they want to keep making their games, and they have to bow to publisher pressure, such as donuts in TSTO, and how they are handled. Why? The devs want a killer game, the publisher wants only something that people will at least like, and pay for. If it was up to the devs, so long as they get a paycheck to live off of, they would almost definitely make this game 100% free, and donuts would only be earned (if they existed in the game at all) for the special stuff, and would likely come at a much faster rate.
So, there's some history on EA, before they grew into one of the most hated companies in the world (factual, not my opinion, they still have some good stuff, but have done wrong now and then, in my opinion). Then some about the developer/publisher relationship. So where does this all bring me?
No matter what anyone says, they have to produce a product as good as they can to make people want to play it, and in a case of something like TSTO, they have to have a product that will last a long time. Annoying the players with events of a type they hate means people will rate it badly and not want to play it. Giving them something they want, while also making money, will keep players. So the developers (EA Mobile) probably have dozens of ideas on what they want to do, and are obviously paying attention to the players to stop giving them what they don't like and giving them what they do like.
So, that boils down to: EA Mobile - We want a great game, but are only given so much money and time to make the product. EA (Publisher) - Make this game for this amount of money and have it, or the updates/addons, ready for this date. And handle the donuts this way or we'll get someone else (likely others within EA, in this case) to make the game from now on.
So put your annoyance where it needs to be, give the devs the credit for trying (There are tons of different Android devices and iPhone models are starting to vary quite a bit nowadays, so it's not as easy as you think). Give EA at least some credit for letting their devs do something like this great Stonecutters update.
So this was a bit longer than expected. :) I've been into gaming since pong made it to homes, spent a few years making PC games for a publisher that eventually turned into the ones that now make GTA, and have watched this industry like a hawk through magazines, then the Internet. I hope this was an interesting read! :) (this is so long, and it's past midnight, so I'm going to save before proofing it... Gotta get my Simions - just put Simpsons and Minions together there lol - to work on todays tasks!)
