It's been too long since we had a solid event.
You know what I mean by solid event.
An
EVENTNot a mini-event, not a cycle of wash, rinse, and repeat... An event... Yes, tapping was slightly annoying but the games name is Tapped Out...
It gave us incentive to visit our neighbors, it had custom music and an atmosphere....one that current events don't give.
As I said and shall repeat, rinse and repeat.... That's all this is, sure previously we had to set a bunch of characters on four hour tasks, and tap all the tappables, check our neighbors towns and ....... Yes, yes it's true....
However in times like those, players like the above would have actually had something to do.
Even now, the only ones who struggle are new Freemium players.
Premium players have a larger roster of usable characters, or they can purchase new ones during the event.
Time and time again I'll hear people rushing to the end of the event with donuts
...
This style of large Mini-event hasn't gotten old, it's gotten stale.
It has mold growing on it and EA is trying to peddle it as penicillin...
Players will complain no matter what event we play, that will remain true.
However all we do now is log in and assign four hour tasks and that's it, no creative gameplay, no sense of atmosphere...
Let's not forget that while the beginning of the old events could be difficult once we got to the last act... we'd always breeze through it.
As to why they don't release all the acts at once?
I already answered that question.
They spread the acts apart to make sure everyone can finish them, both casual and hardcore players, old and new. Let's say they did release all acts at once... Someone GUARANTEED would rush through the whole thing in one day and complain.
It gives EA time to fix things (few events have I played without a patch released during the event.) As well as receive feedback.
Like Witch Marge and the Cauldron, or other changes.
The more in-depth reason revolves around the ticking clock and Skinner Box.
On the one the ticking clock creates a sense, a Fear of Missing out, so players often will purchase premium characters before they are removed from the store.
If everything is released at once, no one has an impulse to buy limited time characters until the very end (or at all) as most players will purchase them to help through the event, they might buy one but not all... (Mainly because they could get a head start on the next act if they finish early etc.)
The Skinner box, is more or less the way you're rewarded with the mystery box... Yes we get some Tokens during the event, however if you don't get what you want with those tokens...or if you're impatient and can't wait... You'll end up buying tokens to open the mystery box.
EA profits from both methods, both methods are lessened by releasing all acts at once:
Less fear of missing out on characters or prizes causes you to impulse buy less, access to the rewarded box tokens all at once causes less anxiety which could lead to impulse buy.
Etc.
So, EA has good reason not to release all acts at once... To quote myself:
"someonewashere;c-2137469" wrote:
To answer your question:
That's how EA has done it for a while now.
To be honest it has worked for them, so i doubt that will change anytime soon.
