Community gifts

MsNancyLou wrote:
Maybe others are having the same problem I am... I can not leave gifts for people. :(

cant leave gifts for friends who havent updated yet. I have a couple friends towns I cant. Or maybe they have to be at a certain point in the update to accept them? I dunno, I am just guessing.

I am having problems leaving gifts for friends, because I can't
Get any to leave. I was leaving 5 in each persons town, but have
Only been able to leave in a few....so new tactic building up presents
And leaving 1 per friend till I can build up to more
Hopefully community gifts will speed up:D

That's nothing, in the first ten minutes, we barely managed 1000 gift boxes. At that rate, it would take 30 years to complete everything! It's almost as if the rate increases as more and more players get the update.

Well, things have speeded up a little. At approx. 1.5 days we are at about 25 million! And at that increased rate we should attain our first community prize the day after the game ends! As Homer would say.... WooHooooo!

I sure hope this thing is tied to some sort of algorithm timer that makes sure we get it all a day or two before "Game Over" and not actual gifts delivered! Good luck to us all!

We collected 30B GOO, but we can't collect 450M gift cards??? WTF???

That's the problem Luscious JohnnyD we have to collect and give GIFTS not gift cards! Big difference! As I write this we are at just over 58 million gifts given at 2.5 days. It will take about 20 more days to reach the first community prize. The game will end 4 days after that! I think the prize level was supposed to be tied to gift cards, but somebody messed up and tied it to gifts given! Unless E.A. fixes it, we'll be lucky to get the first prize. The rest might as we'll be on Mars - we'll never see them!

After some more thought, it seems as though E.A. Is using the same game engine as with Halloween with modifications. They turned the goo to gift cards and the gremlins into gifts. We collected goo in our own Springfield and we collected gremlins to collect goo in other Springfields. We also collected both when we visited other Springfields. Now we collect gift cards (as goo) in our own and other Springfields, but we only collect a few gifts (similar to gremlins) in our own Springfield. The gifts don't help us gather more gift cards in other Springfields. The previous prizes were based on total goo collected which is about 10 times what we can now collect as gifts. Which is ok, except that they have kept the same goal amounts as before! It's like trying to reach the previous goo totals by only counting the gremlins you collected in your own Springfield! Our first prize goal now should be somewhere around 45 million, not 450 million! Like I keep saying, if E.A. doesn't wake up and fix it, we're done!

sawduster3 wrote:
After some more thought, it seems as though E.A. Is using the same game engine as with Halloween with modifications. They turned the goo to gift cards and the gremlins into gifts. We collected goo in our own Springfield and we collected gremlins to collect goo in other Springfields. We also collected both when we visited other Springfields. Now we collect gift cards (as goo) in our own and other Springfields, but we only collect a few gifts (similar to gremlins) in our own Springfield. The gifts don't help us gather more gift cards in other Springfields. The previous prizes were based on total goo collected which is about 10 times what we can now collect as gifts. Which is ok, except that they have kept the same goal amounts as before! It's like trying to reach the previous goo totals by only counting the gremlins you collected in your own Springfield! Our first prize goal now should be somewhere around 45 million, not 450 million! Like I keep saying, if E.A. doesn't wake up and fix it, we're done!

they mixed gift bags with gift cards imo . Its impossible to get to 450m with just 5 per friend and with so few bags or they got start and will offer the rest for donuts

Guys. Calm. We'll reach the total and get all the community prizes.

EA don't want to have made prizes and for them to go to waste. That's annoying. Also, does anyone remember what happened at the end of Halloween, where everyone got a free Wailing Wall to "help us meet the goals"? That was EA stepping in to make sure we got the prizes. So from that, we can infer that we'll get them all.

Yes, the counter has sped up as more people have got the update. That's to be expected. It doesn't mean a lot, except that the counter is realistic.

Yes, right now it looks like we're not going to hit all the goals. Why would EA do that? What's in it for them?

Two things. Firstly, the initial reaction from players will be to play often and tap lots to get as many gift bags as they can and spread them around. That's engagement in the game, dedication, and those sorts of things lead to committed long-term players and thus donut purchases. Money for EA. Yay!

Secondly, if it continues to look unlikely - which it will - then it might lead to people purchasing gift bags with donuts to try and speed things along. Again, more money for EA. Yay!

So, to conclude: yes, it looks unlikely; yes, this is intended; yes, EA hope we will spend donuts one way or another because of it; yes, we will get the prizes eventually, one way or another.

As for the gift cards vs gift bags discussion - the wording is ambiguous, but it does say that leaving gift bags for your friends is how to reach the community goals. What it doesn't say is whether the counter reflects the number of gift bags left, or the number of gift cards found within those bags (which would be about 6x higher). I don't think it really matters, though, as there's strong speculation that the Halloween counter wasn't "real", so this one may not be either.

Correct me if I am wrong, but we were able to meet the community gifts because it was overall "goo" which would equate to "gift cards" this time but instead, EA has it set to gift bags which are far more rare and not as easy to hand out. The gift bags would equate to "goblins", which didnt contribute to the community goal as far as how EA has the gift bags doing so.

I am not sure we are gonna meet it but like the above poster said, I am sure we will get everything regardless if we meet the goals or not.