KillaSqirl wrote:
Nice post Mo! I hope the game has at least another year left. The show's producers seem to be saying season 27 is going to hapen so keeping the game going through 2016 would seem to make sense for fox.
Agreed - I have a tough time seeing this game ending while the show is still on the air, unless something drastic happens. The real problem that I think game developers face with something like this is that while there is a huge universe of characters, decorations, and buildings to choose from in adding content to the game, there are only so many that are going to be in high demand from players and most of those have already been added to the game. So once a player has reached the top level and has most or all of the content he or she wants, it's a big challenge to get that player to stick around to continue playing at that point. I actually think EA does a very good job in this area - we have aspirational items to encourage us to keep generating in-game cash, events that provide a fun change to the gameplay even when the event itself is flawed, tie-ins to new episodes (I rarely watch new Simpsons episodes anymore but when I have, it has been because of this game).
As the 'freemium' game model continues to explode and more and more competitors to Tapped Out are released, it's only natural that the game will become a bit less dominant than it once was. I suspect that EA is still making more than enough money for them to want to keep the game going.
I agree with other posters that a more effective social media presence would be useful for EA - perhaps a Twitter account similar to what many other businesses have that would be staffed 24 hours a day and be tasked with responding to player comments or concerns in real time in a format that customers are comfortable with.
