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Doughnut price.

Umm...you do understand that the game itself is free? And that you can play without buying doughnuts?

Listen, I get that there is some awesome stuff in the premium category (hello Hank, Dr. Nick, Hans, etc.). That's kind of the whole point. I don't begrudge EA for charging for doughnuts since it allows them to justify maintaining (some times....) and updating the free parts of the game.

Replies

  • Butterflybaby9
    91 posts
    edited December 2012
    I agree it's EA's game but as a former FarmVille player who has bought farm cash this games prices are way too steep.

    Zynga games always offer deals on purchasing premium items.

    I want the homer Santa but 200 doughnuts averages to roughly 13$ that's craziness.

    The average premium horse on FV is about 4$ maybe less.

    But again FV usually offered items at a discount at the end of a season. Like a last chance to buy deal. Be nice if EA did that.

  • jasonicus321
    1811 posts New member
    edited December 2012
    Besides all that the game has a lot of issues for many of its players. If it ran as advertised, I could justify some of it. Maybe,.
  • lissarv68
    5588 posts Member
    edited December 2012
    Besides all that the game has a lot of issues for many of its players. If it ran as advertised, I could justify some of it. Maybe,.

    Exactly that.

    If the game could go a solid month without issues, then I may just go and treat myself to a boatload ($100...do you hear that EA??) LOL. As it is, I have spent that much between my game and my sons without thinking about it back during the Halloween update (you know, it's only $9.99 here and there) and I've been kicking myself ever since for not buying that boatload.

    But until they can go an extended time without the sort of issues that seem to be rampant in this game, then I won't be buying any more donuts.

    The good thing is that it is perfectly attainable to have a really nice Springfield without a single costly item. Just don't whine when your free game is full of bugs.
  • userjay321
    13 posts
    edited December 2012
    I do grasp the concept of this 'freemium' game, Mike.

    Just there is not justification in the steep price of the doughnuts.

    like i really wanted Kang, but it was over 10 dollars, please, try and justify the crazy price,,,,
  • tizz4hire
    60 posts
    edited December 2012
    While I do feel your pain in-that The characters are high priced, I agree with the others. Also, I haven't experienced any bugginess aside from getting deleted once early on. TSTO is largely free and highly enjoyable as such.

    I feel as we are given enough free donuts to enjoy ourselves, so long as we act smart. I got SVTeen early on by saving up, and then HAD to have Otto. Building/character combos are best.

    Then theres Dr. Nick. Thats a lot of awesome for a measly 90 doughnuts.
  • jjjett2
    23 posts
    edited December 2012
    tizz4hire wrote:
    While I do feel your pain in-that The characters are high priced, I agree with the others. Also, I haven't experienced any bugginess aside from getting deleted once early on. TSTO is largely free and highly enjoyable as such.

    I feel as we are given enough free donuts to enjoy ourselves, so long as we act smart. I got SVTeen early on by saving up, and then HAD to have Otto. Building/character combos are best.

    Then theres Dr. Nick. Thats a lot of awesome for a measly 90 doughnuts.

    The only issue I have with Dr. Nick is that he is 90 donuts! He, so far, is the only premium character without a building that is for this price. Every other premium character was between 30-60 donuts. I'm wondering if this will be the new normal price for characters from this point on. He is voiced, right?
  • sonny1618
    1543 posts New member
    edited December 2012
    Thing is, everyone thinks that the price of donuts is crazy at the beginning because we're comparing them with the price of other iOS games and apps and as a result they seem ludicrously overpriced.

    But what a lot of people realise as they play more is that for the amount of time had having fun with the game, the prices start to seem more reasonable. When you consider it would cost you £30 to drive to a cinema, have a few drinks and watch a movie for a few hours enjoyment, the same price for a month's worth of fun tapping away in this game seems fine. That's basically a pound a day, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

    I've ended up paying about that (for two months of continuous playing so 50p a day) and will probably do so again in a few weeks and I have no regrets. I get those covetous premium items that make my town look cool and EA get profits so they can keep developing the game so everyone who's playing it for free can enjoy it too.

    I do think they should do some kind of donut sale at some point though (I was amazed they didn't take advantage of Black Friday for this) as I predict that they'd sell like hot...donuts. Apparently that's just what's coming during the Christmas season though, so sit back and wait to see if they do. Keep an eye out for Gil.
  • mike_bornste
    941 posts
    edited December 2012
    Re. the cost of doughnuts vs. their actual buying power, I can't speak to since I've never played Farmville or something similar before.

    However I do compare the amount I've played and spent on doughnuts versus what I might pay for a game for my PS3, and I think that its a wash at best.

    What gets me is that there is no real way to earn doughnuts in the game. I know that you can get the (very) occasional one for cleaning debris and that some have gotten in mystery boxes. But there should be some way to do it -- maybe by combining character tasks at one time (say, have all the Simpson family go to church, all the kids go to school).

  • DurtyDave10
    63 posts
    edited December 2012
    This is a great topic! I too wanted to point out the high prices for this content. I would definitely purchase $19.99 or even $49.99 worth of donuts if it got me more. It's just that the prices of such building are too much!

    I have been playing WeRule by Ngmoco for years until they recently pulled the plug on updates etc. But the great thing about that game is they had SALES on buildings and (Mojo - the equivalent of Donuts). They occasionally would have a premium building on Sale (Less Mojo) or they would have 20% off the purchases of Mojo.

    HEY EA! HERE'S A MARKETING IDEA....PUT DONUTS ON SALE FOR A LIMITED TIME AND SEE THE GROWTH OF PURCHASES! This is how you keep a loyal player playing and buying. :-)
  • petergeenen
    948 posts Member
    edited December 2012
    I have given my opinion on this matter several times on the forum. This topic keeps coming back. So once more.
    This is a free game. If you do not want to spend money on it, then don't. If you realy want a premium item, you will have to come up with the money. I have bought a boatload and will again if I run out of donuts. Best money ever spent. Hours, days, weeks, no months of gameplay. And still tapping every day. Keep it coming EA.
  • julesg007
    374 posts
    edited December 2012
    Apart from the "add me" threads the price of donuts seems to be a very common thread on the forum.

    I know we all have our own ideas of the best way forward but at the moment I don't see any thing on the horizon that will make the price of donuts change.

    Since the last update the game has gone to no. 1 in the top grossing charts on the App Store so as far as EA are concerned there is nothing they need to do as they have a new crop of players that will be tempted to buy donuts and of course and this is by no means any form of critisism, there are already loads of players that have all of the premium items and they will buy more donuts to get the Christmas update premium items if they do not have enough.

    It would be good if the price was lowered as I think it would tempt players who for whatever reason haven't thus far purchased them and I think overall EA would end up making more money as a result.

    I do, also see the logic behind the argument that the cost of donuts reduces the longer you play the game, but that could also equally be used with PS3 games for example and the difference is that one you've bought the game the game is yours forever, whereas the donuts are a once use item only and when they are gone, you have to spend even more money to get a top up.

    I do, also appreciate that the game cost money to develope and the ongoing costs involved with maintaining servers, Origin and future content update, but if you want to compare again to PS3 games, when a certin number of games are sold they become Platinum games and the cost reduces, so could you not argue the same for iOS games?

    It is my opinion that the cost of donuts will not drop until the game starts to drop down the App Store charts and EA uses a price drop to attract new players but even then I think it is still a long way down the road.

    From EA's point of view, and I am not in anyway supporting them, if if ain't broke don't fix it!

    And finally, I do also appreciate that you do not need to buy donuts to play the game so essentially you are still getting a really decent free to play game.
  • userjay321
    13 posts
    edited December 2012
    Sorry for being an a$$ here, but this 'From EA's point of view, and I am not in anyway supporting them, if if ain't broke don't fix it!'

    That statement should never be mentioned here in ANY context, like im posting here now because the game is down, yet again. lol
  • joshuacogo
    24 posts
    edited December 2012
    I hear you all.... Glad some of you won't shell out the extra for limited time stuff... Increases the value of what I have purchased... Each piece is a piece of artwork... A year from now the value of my Springfield will be astronomical ...these quibbling arguments will go on and on while you miss the chance to complete your collections is passing.... And collectors who are diligent will have complete sets.. I personally am collecting Matt Groenings Amazing artwork that builds in size and variety every month ... So if your to cheap to see the value in that then your lost ...you cannot create high value giving it away when 99% of the artwork is free ... Cough up and say thanx for such a great game... And yeah it does crash but it also works pretty damn good too... #1 game on App Store combined with a developer team that creates content monthly also equals patches and fixes... So no one is abandoning the game as is, all will be fixed quit belly aching :)
  • userjay321
    13 posts
    edited December 2012
    With the game constantly going off line, its not exactly encouraging to players to pay through the nose for content they can hardly access!
  • SlothTing
    10 posts
    edited December 2012
    I appreciate why the prices are high but they are VERY steep... Compared to say Fifa another EA game... in UT, $10 gets you around 8 packs, that's fairly decent in my opinion... $10 gets you nothing on TSTO. Literally nothing. I understand in the long run a boat load kinda works out but I'm just not prepared to pay so much in one go. If they reduced the prices I may be tempted to buy the occasional tray or something. If the game ran consistently I would also be more prepared to pay more I think. If EA reduced prices I'm suuuure they would make more money as more people would buy donuts, therefore run the servers better... probably... who knows, I mean the Fifa servers are FANTASTIC :shock:
  • julesg007
    374 posts
    edited December 2012
    userjay321 wrote:
    Sorry for being an a$$ here, but this 'From EA's point of view, and I am not in anyway supporting them, if if ain't broke don't fix it!'

    That statement should never be mentioned here in ANY context, like im posting here now because the game is down, yet again. lol

    Having a bit of laugh aren't we!

    I was only making the point that no matter what issues or problems there are, and I'm as annoyed as anyone that there are, and yet again today Origin being down is preventing me from getting on in my game, that so long as players carry on buying donuts EA will simply not drop the price of donuts.

    So yet again I have to re-iterate the point, EA do not see the price of donuts as a problem and presently you just have to stump up or miss out. However, am I happy saying that no, I'd love to see a price reduction but until I see one I won't believe it is going to happen.

    You might not like that but as the saying goes, life's a * and then you die!
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