Premium or Freemium it's getting ridiculous

talljrock

i don't spend money on events at all and i am on track to complete this event easily just like every other one except easter.

unfeasible

I don't know if you're familiar with EA outside of this game at all, but they're pretty notorious for stuff like this. A lot of gamers disliked the way they presented Spore when it came out in 2008 because it was DRM-protected, among other things. There was also a lot of furor when they introduced the Origin PC client, since it asked for a lot of computer permissions and personal information that EA just holds onto. For as long as I've known them, they've always been like this. I guess they still meet their revenue goals despite all of the backlash, so they haven't really had reason to change?

This game does have problems with scaling. I can't seem to produce enough in-game cash to keep up with my leveling up and questlines (I'm like six buildings behind right now. Land expansions get costly.), but I figure I'll eventually catch up with the higher-leveled players if they release new levels as slowly as they have been.

cpodraza

I always find it amusing that people find it necessary to announce their departures. If you're not happy...go. Frankly, EA isn't going to care. Their current business Model works for them. As both a premium player and a freemium player, I find the arguments listed don't really Hold water. In one town I spend only the donuts I earn through gameplay. Yes, I have less and sometimes it makes me twitchy. But through every event I have always managed to earn everything available. Even during the "event that shall not be named". In my premium town I have everything. I've played since day 1. There is plenty of land. I have a few things in inventory because I choose to have some areas highly decorated. My stonecutters and **** areas Are large by choice. My prison, my racetrack...the list goes on. All of them could be significantly smaller and still look nice. I choose not to have it that way. And yeT I still have some open space.

At the end of the day it's a free game. No one is forcing anyone to spend money. You can play just fine without ever dropping a cent. I'd rather do this than drop the $65 on a video game that I Complete in less than a month.

jraffa50

I'm totally freemium and I disagree that it's getting harder to win rewards. I also haven't seen any extraordinary reason to spend money. If anything I've been LESS motivated to actually buy donuts because I have not been impressed with recent prizes.

kingmob31838

Freemium (ish - I have bought donuts, but not enough to say I'm a regular Premium) here. Not had issues with space, but I prefer to keep things tight rather than sprawling (if that's the problem, EA can't accommodate all tastes without having even more crashes which I can't imagine anyone wants). Not having issues with this event either - close to 7000 probes so should get the last prize in this sequence fairly soon.

MrWhiplash82

Complaining about stuff being too expensive and not enough space to put it?

You do realize that you literally (and I literally mean literally) make as much sense as the elderly women in the Woody Allen joke who complain that the food is terrible and that the portions are too small? Like, literally?

richardaca969

I've yet to spend donuts on this event, and im on track to get everything in the next few days.

Youre leaving. Good. You sound like another entitled * head. Good riddance.

Jedihntr

jraffa50 wrote:

I'm totally freemium and I disagree that it's getting harder to win rewards. I also haven't seen any extraordinary reason to spend money. If anything I've been LESS motivated to actually buy donuts because I have not been impressed with recent prizes.

Fully agree. I'm 11 rigellians away from the donut torture device, so I'll have that next time I check back, and I'm about a dozen candy corn away from getting Hugo. I have spent zero donuts thus far. This event is far from over, so if anyone wants to spend money on it, that's their fault and their problem.

SUM1HATED

talljrock wrote:

I didn't mind being a Premium player for most of the time I've played but it has gotten to the point that they are sucking more and more out of us and creating event after event and there just seems like no time to just play without the looming thought of having to buy things. The problem is that EA has gotten greedy and the spending has increased exponentially. Anyone who spends money on games expects the spending to increase but TSTO has gotten out of hand. I could prove this with bank drafts but I think EA knows what they are doing.

The additional problem they created is lack of space. I have every single item to this point and yet they have not increased the land adequately to cover the additional needs. I love The Simpsons and if the increases had been linear I probably would have stayed longer but at this point I feel I need to wash my hands of this.

And for the Freemium players who will flame this saying that I am just crying about this they can also admit it's getting harder to earn the rewards because of ever increasing event requirements. I have always tried to complete events before spending money but now that is nearly impossible even for an active player.

Bottom line is EA should not bite the hand that feeds them and this practice will drive more paying customers away. Premiums will spend money but there will be a limit for any of us whether they admit it or not.

You've only just noticed that EA are greedy, i don't know if you play console games but if you do you should have already known this, this company are the worst gaming company ever, they made things like online passes, abuse DLC, support stuff like locking discs to consoles so you can't sell or even give away your copy of a game.

They even come out with stupid comments like the iphone 6 has more power than the next gen consoles.
EA seems to think we should like what we are given and shut up, when it should be the consumer says what they want and EA make them happy, is that not how you run a business?

I don't understand why people defend EA so much, they are a dirty company that doesn't respect their consumers and are just out for what they can get, they really don't care about what we want, but for some reason people still support them and defend their shady business practice, I really wish people would wise up to EA and make them go under, maybe then they will learn to stop biting the hand that feeds them.

teo47

I still fail to understand the complaints about EA charging too much for premium game items from players who then go on to admit that they still buy everything. If you think it's too expensive, don't buy it! That's why a whole lot of us don't have whales or bowling alleys or solid gold mansions in our towns - the game is still a lot of fun without having every single premium item available.

Jedihntr

Whoops, I completely miscalculated and I'm still 2600 probes away from getting the torture device. Still not spending any donuts…

ephphoneapps

talljrock wrote:

I didn't mind being a Premium player for most of the time I've played but it has gotten to the point that they are sucking more and more out of us and creating event after event and there just seems like no time to just play without the looming thought of having to buy things. The problem is that EA has gotten greedy and the spending has increased exponentially. Anyone who spends money on games expects the spending to increase but TSTO has gotten out of hand. I could prove this with bank drafts but I think EA knows what they are doing.

The additional problem they created is lack of space. I have every single item to this point and yet they have not increased the land adequately to cover the additional needs. I love The Simpsons and if the increases had been linear I probably would have stayed longer but at this point I feel I need to wash my hands of this.

And for the Freemium players who will flame this saying that I am just crying about this they can also admit it's getting harder to earn the rewards because of ever increasing event requirements. I have always tried to complete events before spending money but now that is nearly impossible even for an active player.

Bottom line is EA should not bite the hand that feeds them and this practice will drive more paying customers away. Premiums will spend money but there will be a limit for any of us whether they admit it or not.

Short version rebuttal: pretty much everything you say is wrong.

GeorgePatton5

Nobody is forcing you to spend money.

Neglecterino

Jedihntr wrote:

Whoops, I completely miscalculated and I'm still 2600 probes away from getting the torture device. Still not spending any donuts…

You are ahead of me, and we are both still on target to get the DTM by the end of phase 1. I haven't spent a donut yet either on this event, but if I get one more donut I'll get the ray gun.

Lovelybella87

I haven't spent a single donut this event, I'm actually 20 donuts up since the event started, right on track to get DTM.

My dad that just started playing about a week and a half before this event and is only about 1000-1500 probes behind me, and only has 2 trick or treaters. Even he's on track to get it! so it most certainly can be done. I was kinda worried he might not, but he's holding his own ( and only a lvl12).

EA doesn't force you to use your money at all. Now is it overpriced, For Sure! Would I love to have every item they bring out, YES, but life doesn't allow me to spend real money for a game.

This event isn't Easter... It's not chance based and definitely not necessary to spend donuts

AJtheboss1

cpodraza wrote:

I always find it amusing that people find it necessary to announce their departures. If you're not happy...go. Frankly, EA isn't going to care. Their current business Model works for them. As both a premium player and a freemium player, I find the arguments listed don't really Hold water. In one town I spend only the donuts I earn through gameplay. Yes, I have less and sometimes it makes me twitchy. But through every event I have always managed to earn everything available. Even during the "event that shall not be named". In my premium town I have everything. I've played since day 1. There is plenty of land. I have a few things in inventory because I choose to have some areas highly decorated. My stonecutters and **** areas Are large by choice. My prison, my racetrack...the list goes on. All of them could be significantly smaller and still look nice. I choose not to have it that way. And yeT I still have some open space.

At the end of the day it's a free game. No one is forcing anyone to spend money. You can play just fine without ever dropping a cent. I'd rather do this than drop the $65 on a video game that I Complete in less than a month.

You're assuming everyone is like in many regards by your statement. The truth is everyone is different, and obviously they can't cater to everyone's needs. With that said they do make some very odd choices that can only be explained by greed. I get companies need to make money, but that doesn't mean trying to take advantage of their players.

The system that was put in place this past Christmas and carried till Easter was obviously EAs way of trying to con people into paying. They know that a lot of players we're die hard completionists and they took advantage of that. They clearly payed dearly because a ton of players quit the game and they fell out of the top 10 in the App Store. That's very bad for business especially for EA.

If you really believe that EA doesn't care about players leaving you're either delusional, or just don't understand how exactly they make their money. If they didn't care about players leaving, they wouldn't have changed up their events, and wouldn't have tried to pump out so much content towards the end of the year. In case you didn't know the end of Q3 and Q4 is when companies start doing the numbers of the that year, and clearly EA didn't gain as much as they thought, so they scrambled to come up with events and more ways for players to spend money so they can meet their yearly quota.
(This is very obvious to me since all the recent events feel like they were rushed, in both quests, content, and execution.)

That alone shows how much they DO care about people leaving this game. The forum is a great costumer service thing for EA to know why people are leaving since no one will call them and tell them. This not only benefits them, but also the players who did decide to stick around and put up with a lot of their crap this past year. If no one said anything they'd continue the money grubbing, and eventually would've ran this game into the ground.

Raven_Darkstorm

Unfortunately there is the potential for companies to far too easily cross the line with the cash shop model and make more than they should premium for the extra padding to their bottom line from the minority who has to have it all. The unfortunate side effect is it ticks off a lot of people who do want more than one or two premium things here and there especially if the content is constantly coming out with no time to sit back and earn (real world or in game or both) for the next set of premium items. In fact in far extremes it makes some people desire a monthly fee to get the ability to earn the premium stuff through game play. And some think it would be better if the game company put at price tag on the game ($30) and charge for quarterly expansions ($15). Similar to the old expansions model that has almost been forgotten.

In that model all this premium content would be obtained through game play (game currency or earned in some other way). Personally I would prefer the expansion model over the level of premium items they have been making part of limited time events or deals. At least I could then buy the content at my own pace instead of just missing out because I refuse to pay tons of real money on a game that by all gaming industry standards is worth only $30 at this time. I spent $50 on donuts and I felt that was plenty enough to pay. I would spend more if they switched models and packed the premiums into expansion packs and let us earn the items through game play.

patzmcm

From my limited experience, it is easy to get caught up in the completionist mentality. When I started (Dec. 2013) I was happy to get a few prizes. The first time I got everything - Stonecutter's- changed me. To OP - it just might be time to cut back and enjoy your town, visiting neighbors, and tapping when you feel like it. That's what I'm going to do. Soon. Probably.

annettemarc

Raven_Darkstorm wrote:

Unfortunately there is the potential for companies to far too easily cross the line with the cash shop model and make more than they should premium for the extra padding to their bottom line from the minority who has to have it all. The unfortunate side effect is it ticks off a lot of people who do want more than one or two premium things here and there especially if the content is constantly coming out with no time to sit back and earn (real world or in game or both) for the next set of premium items. In fact in far extremes it makes some people desire a monthly fee to get the ability to earn the premium stuff through game play. And some think it would be better if the game company put at price tag on the game ($30) and charge for quarterly expansions ($15). Similar to the old expansions model that has almost been forgotten.

In that model all this premium content would be obtained through game play (game currency or earned in some other way). Personally I would prefer the expansion model over the level of premium items they have been making part of limited time events or deals. At least I could then buy the content at my own pace instead of just missing out because I refuse to pay tons of real money on a game that by all gaming industry standards is worth only $30 at this time. I spent $50 on donuts and I felt that was plenty enough to pay. I would spend more if they switched models and packed the premiums into expansion packs and let us earn the items through game play.

I'd definitely go for the model you've described, but they also have to appeal to people looking for something that can be gotten for free. I imagine the bulk of the downloads are by young people, and many of those are likely to look in the "free" category of apps and games.

How about a free version as it is now, but the premium items can only be gotten with donuts won ingame? Then, offer an upgrade to a subscription model as you describe. Adobe Photoshop Express is entry-level, FREE, functional version of Photoshop, with a number of nice features. IF and when a customer wants all the bells and whistles, they pay for the upgrade.

If they don't upgrade, the premium items are available for purchase. EA is the type of business that would take away the possibility of earning donuts through regular play. THAT would cause lots of hard feelings, but I doubt EA would care what the strictly free players think. They're not making money off them in the first place. Like every other software company -- if you want a bell (or a whistle), you need to buy the version that has them.

DIrishB

talljrock wrote:

I didn't mind being a Premium player for most of the time I've played but it has gotten to the point that they are sucking more and more out of us and creating event after event and there just seems like no time to just play without the looming thought of having to buy things. The problem is that EA has gotten greedy and the spending has increased exponentially. Anyone who spends money on games expects the spending to increase but TSTO has gotten out of hand. I could prove this with bank drafts but I think EA knows what they are doing.

The additional problem they created is lack of space. I have every single item to this point and yet they have not increased the land adequately to cover the additional needs. I love The Simpsons and if the increases had been linear I probably would have stayed longer but at this point I feel I need to wash my hands of this.

And for the Freemium players who will flame this saying that I am just crying about this they can also admit it's getting harder to earn the rewards because of ever increasing event requirements. I have always tried to complete events before spending money but now that is nearly impossible even for an active player.

Bottom line is EA should not bite the hand that feeds them and this practice will drive more paying customers away. Premiums will spend money but there will be a limit for any of us whether they admit it or not.

If you think this game is expensive and has a problem regarding not providing enough land, I definitely recommend you don't play the Family Guy game. That game is a ridiculous money pit. Granted, they release a lot of content every week, but much of it is premium, and if you buy anywhere close to everything you won't have any room at all. I literally have almost 30 buildings in storage, with another 15 or so buildings tucked in behind smaller buildings just so I can collect the money and XP they drop. And that's with ALL the land available already bought.

Trust me, TSTO is far more manageable regarding premium content and space than FG-TQfS is.

The "not enough space" thing I just don't get. I've been playing since the game was released and have 1 of everything (premium and free), and multiples of things like trees, flowers, fences, etc. And I still have enough room for another 7-8 buildings without needing to move anything. If I removed some roads and squeezed by buildings closer together I could probably make enough room for another 20-30 buildings of varying size.

Point is, there's plenty of room. You must be taking up a lot of room with lakes or forests, or spacing your buildings pretty far apart, or using multiples of certain items and taking up precious space in that regard. The space is there, you just need to know how to use it.

00-marco_rosas

SUM1HATED wrote:

I don't understand why people defend EA so much, they are a dirty company that doesn't respect their consumers and are just out for what they can get, they really don't care about what we want, but for some reason people still support them and defend their shady business practice, I really wish people would wise up to EA and make them go under, maybe then they will learn to stop biting the hand that feeds them.

It's not always about who you are defending/attacking.

There is an objective right and wrong in many situations and the OP's argument that it is unreasonably difficult to complete the Halloween 2014 event without donuts is just plain wrong.