A day away from the end of the event, and because it was deliberately designed to not give baskets until the Faberge egg is found, I have not had baskets in 20 days.
I have done everything to earn as many eggs as possible; I have been in my town constantly, but without baskets, I have lost out on potentially thousands of eggs.
Dropping eggs in friends' baskets was difficult because:
a- so few people had baskets
b- few who did had the right color
c- for days they were broken
And most importantly, when the only source of eggs from friends is to give, with the inability to receive, it is an action of diminished returns. I lost out on thousands of eggs, by only being able to receive half the quantity in return.
Add to the above, the dreadful odds of getting good prizes from the boxes.
I wrote emails to EA, explaining the host of reasons why this plan did not work. Quoting one of the emails:
"I do not expect an event to be easy. I want it to be fair."
I am willing to work and grind away to have a fair chance of attaining goals. I do not expect to get everything. That is acceptable, however, I expect a fair chance. That was the original draw of this game. An event like this one is like banging one's head against a wall.
I co-sign this petition as well. The last several events have been terrible.
I do think there might be a way to do chance based events in a way that most people would find acceptable. Let me provide an example of a way I feel like might be ok.
If there were a wheel like Valentines and Christmas but it had 10 prizes that were good that everyone wanted on it, I think we'd be fine with it. For example, if the 10 prizes for the Easter wheel were the Bunny, the Lizards, Egg Council Guy, Banana Dictatorship, Blocko Store, Johnny Fiestas, Hugs Bunny, Father Sean, Shary Bobbins, and say 5 donuts, I doubt anyone would complain too much so long as when prizes were won they were replaced with a token amount of donuts instead of more holiday currency (say 1 donut for non-task characters, 2 donuts for buildings and 3 donuts for characters).
Every prize on the wheel would be something most people would be interested in winning and if you won it again you got a small amount of donuts for your trouble (infinitely more satisfying than another pond or more fences). If you desperately wanted everything, spending donuts on spin chances would give the strong possibility of recouping a little of your investment as well and I think you might be able to get more people to pay for spins. This also allows holiday decorations to be sold for game cash instead so that you don't get overburdened with tons of ponds and the like (although I would have bought about as many fences as I ended up winning but only for game cash). Max level players could use more things to use their massive cash stores on. This wheel design would also encourage players to play throughout the entirety of the event to bank as many free donuts as possible (which is why EA wouldn't like it). If you could only average 1-2 spins per day I doubt awarding free donuts would wreck the game economy though as people would have trouble getting more than about 50 donuts throughout the course of the event. If they were really concerned about players winning too many donuts, they could install a maximum donut winnings cap for the event.
I'd be pretty happy with an event if you could win some cool prizes and a handful of donuts even if it was random and you couldn't win everything without spending donuts on extra opportunities. The scripted boxes on the 80/81 opened box per color was a good idea although implemented extremely poorly. The problem with this Easter update is that you won about 95% junk. It is unsatisfying and unfair.
I feel like at this point, EA should be trying to convert freemium players into paying players by gifting them donuts and giving them a taste of the premium content. I doubt EA is getting too many new players at this point. There's already been an example in the thread of someone who did pay for donuts after getting a sample through the Halloween update so I'm pretty confident the strategy would work for them.
Playing every 4 hours (or more) and one day left. ZERO chance I'll get the remaining items. I normally spend about $10/event on donut purchases. I don't mind - I see it as the price of keeping the game lively and growing. Not this time. Won't do it.
I liked the sense of (admittedly fake) accomplishment from finishing an event. Not going to get that here - it was replaced with a sense of frustration, hatred of beach towels and umbrellas and pastel picket fences, and being screwed over.
I will probably just stop playing. Yes, I'm packing up my donuts and going home, but you know what? If EA wanted my donuts so badly, they should have played nicer.
This game blows now. Make them stop it. 250 blue or pink eggs for 500 gold eggs is an insult. I'm a total idiot for ever spending any money on this game. We won't ever discuss how much.
This update blew harder the than Lindsey Lohan looking for her next fix. I've only gotten 15/50 fences, three beach towels and enough Easter trees to plug up the Mississippi River. ****!?
I made the mistake of buying two baskets at first, only to see them disappear after collecting from them. Again, ****!?
Sorry to my neighbors since I haven't been visiting very often. I don't see the point in collecting eggs from you just to get another tree. I did get the lizards, but they don't even give a bonus, so they are pointless as well.
If the next update is like this, I'm done playing.
After buying 4 boxes today, and as a result of getting eggs, eggs, eggs, eggs, and eggs, thus actually just losing 1000 blue and 250 pink eggs for nothing, yes. At least the gold eggs were covered.
Playing Twice or three times a day to make sure you can reach the goal is good. Having extra incentives, also good. Simply saying "Better be lucky" is kinda crappy.
Replies
Hey hey, ho ho, this chance-based junk has got to go. Hey hey, ho ho.
A day away from the end of the event, and because it was deliberately designed to not give baskets until the Faberge egg is found, I have not had baskets in 20 days.
I have done everything to earn as many eggs as possible; I have been in my town constantly, but without baskets, I have lost out on potentially thousands of eggs.
Dropping eggs in friends' baskets was difficult because:
a- so few people had baskets
b- few who did had the right color
c- for days they were broken
And most importantly, when the only source of eggs from friends is to give, with the inability to receive, it is an action of diminished returns. I lost out on thousands of eggs, by only being able to receive half the quantity in return.
Add to the above, the dreadful odds of getting good prizes from the boxes.
I wrote emails to EA, explaining the host of reasons why this plan did not work. Quoting one of the emails:
"I do not expect an event to be easy. I want it to be fair."
I am willing to work and grind away to have a fair chance of attaining goals. I do not expect to get everything. That is acceptable, however, I expect a fair chance. That was the original draw of this game. An event like this one is like banging one's head against a wall.
I do think there might be a way to do chance based events in a way that most people would find acceptable. Let me provide an example of a way I feel like might be ok.
If there were a wheel like Valentines and Christmas but it had 10 prizes that were good that everyone wanted on it, I think we'd be fine with it. For example, if the 10 prizes for the Easter wheel were the Bunny, the Lizards, Egg Council Guy, Banana Dictatorship, Blocko Store, Johnny Fiestas, Hugs Bunny, Father Sean, Shary Bobbins, and say 5 donuts, I doubt anyone would complain too much so long as when prizes were won they were replaced with a token amount of donuts instead of more holiday currency (say 1 donut for non-task characters, 2 donuts for buildings and 3 donuts for characters).
Every prize on the wheel would be something most people would be interested in winning and if you won it again you got a small amount of donuts for your trouble (infinitely more satisfying than another pond or more fences). If you desperately wanted everything, spending donuts on spin chances would give the strong possibility of recouping a little of your investment as well and I think you might be able to get more people to pay for spins. This also allows holiday decorations to be sold for game cash instead so that you don't get overburdened with tons of ponds and the like (although I would have bought about as many fences as I ended up winning but only for game cash). Max level players could use more things to use their massive cash stores on. This wheel design would also encourage players to play throughout the entirety of the event to bank as many free donuts as possible (which is why EA wouldn't like it). If you could only average 1-2 spins per day I doubt awarding free donuts would wreck the game economy though as people would have trouble getting more than about 50 donuts throughout the course of the event. If they were really concerned about players winning too many donuts, they could install a maximum donut winnings cap for the event.
I'd be pretty happy with an event if you could win some cool prizes and a handful of donuts even if it was random and you couldn't win everything without spending donuts on extra opportunities. The scripted boxes on the 80/81 opened box per color was a good idea although implemented extremely poorly. The problem with this Easter update is that you won about 95% junk. It is unsatisfying and unfair.
I feel like at this point, EA should be trying to convert freemium players into paying players by gifting them donuts and giving them a taste of the premium content. I doubt EA is getting too many new players at this point. There's already been an example in the thread of someone who did pay for donuts after getting a sample through the Halloween update so I'm pretty confident the strategy would work for them.
this Easter event sucked!
Playing every 4 hours (or more) and one day left. ZERO chance I'll get the remaining items. I normally spend about $10/event on donut purchases. I don't mind - I see it as the price of keeping the game lively and growing. Not this time. Won't do it.
I liked the sense of (admittedly fake) accomplishment from finishing an event. Not going to get that here - it was replaced with a sense of frustration, hatred of beach towels and umbrellas and pastel picket fences, and being screwed over.
I will probably just stop playing. Yes, I'm packing up my donuts and going home, but you know what? If EA wanted my donuts so badly, they should have played nicer.
The last few events have not been fun at all!
I made the mistake of buying two baskets at first, only to see them disappear after collecting from them. Again, ****!?
Sorry to my neighbors since I haven't been visiting very often. I don't see the point in collecting eggs from you just to get another tree. I did get the lizards, but they don't even give a bonus, so they are pointless as well.
If the next update is like this, I'm done playing.
Playing Twice or three times a day to make sure you can reach the goal is good. Having extra incentives, also good. Simply saying "Better be lucky" is kinda crappy.