Final ios rant.

Discussion in 'General Game Discussion and Questions' started by Mene, Dec 20, 2014.

  1. Mene

    Mene <b>ACCOUNT CLOSED</b>: <em>Officially</em> Quit iO

    Mar 18, 2012
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    Okay, here's my last ios moan of the year ....or possibly ever.

    Yes it's long, if you don't like reading I suggest you simply ignore it.

    Just for the record I have an ipad 2 and an iPad Air. Both were bought mainly for gaming and I have been pretty happy with both devices but I came to the conclusion a while ago that my iPad Air would be my last ios device.

    Why? Well to be totally frank I loathe the way it's heading, freemium is all but taking over the App Store, the last game I bought was almost 4 months ago and I used to spend £10-30 a month on ios games but not any more, I cannot remember the last decent rpg I bought.. It was a long long while ago.

    I think most (not all, but most) of developers are just greedy now and see freemium as a way of bleeding people dry. Why release a game for £1-2-3-5 when you can make it freemium and permanently bleed people's wallets dry.

    I hate this practice and I think its quite despicable. Don't get me wrong, I'm not against paying devs and allowing them to eat.. I've bought many games in the past for £5-10 and more. I guess there was room for freemium and premium in the App Store but it seems freemium is now ruling the roost and there's no sign that this greedy and vile business plan will ever burn itself out.

    I'm in the process of moving my mobile gaming to another platform, a games handheld and let me tell you, it's really wonderful to actually play a game without constantly getting nagged into using faecesbook/twitter or forever being pushed towards paying for consumable iap.

    The App Store used to be awesome, sadly all the golden gem games are stuck rotting under a 500,000 ton turd of freemium apps that stink up the App Store.

    Ok rant over, you can go back to candy crush now.
     
  2. coolpepper43

    coolpepper43 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Aug 31, 2012
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    All sad but true#
     
  3. Jim Shorts

    Jim Shorts Well-Known Member

    Nov 3, 2014
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    Agreed... I thought Facebook was the place to play this crap.
     
  4. madreviewer

    madreviewer Well-Known Member

    Sep 22, 2013
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    The problem is not fermium, but how they have introduce it.
    Get on YouTube and search extra credit
    lol at the last Spider-Man game from gameloft, it's actually pretty good.
    You can ask Freind for energy, and u can participate in events.
    Developers need to start the game from scratch as a freemium.
    For example.
    Let's talk about timers.
    Timers would not be so annoying if they did not keep user from playing, but instead put them in a position to play mini games.
    Imagine if the devs add a power up you can buy from IMAP that will give you unlimited energy, or a lot of credits( enough to finish the game )
    They will still have million downloads with a lot of money.
    Once they make you try a game, and u like it spending 2$ , 3$, 5$ is ok with you
    But not 35$ to 100$
    I think Galaxy on Fire 2 had expensing pack, and booster pack.

    Warning- do not make IMAP skin
    Some games have cosmetics in app purchase, which is completely outrageous.
    1$ for a skin-
    5$ for a skin for God fire.
    This not good practices, BS
    Those are cheap tricks with no creativity.
    What about paying for a worthy story extension, or even some alpha levels, you guys did not includ into the game.
    With some story elements. Make the player feel right about paying.

    At last I am going to stick with iOS, I have no intention of buying a game system, I need a all in one package.
    I worked on my iPad, and do a lot of other things.
     
  5. coolpepper43

    coolpepper43 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Aug 31, 2012
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    Does IMAP = IAP? I'm confused.
     
  6. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    I agree. I used to spend a lot of money every month buying 20 or so apps easily. Now it's about 5 a month

    I still love ios as I do have so many games to play I can go through my backlog. I always buy games at launch price as I believe it'll help devs.

    If we all got promo codes or waited for price drops then so many devs would go out if business.

    I want to spend more money but there's not the level of games I want. The last 9 months I haven't bought as many games sadly. There's been classics this year like Leo's fortune, monument valley and traps n gemstones to name a few. But last year I was playinf and buying so many more games every week.

    With so many people with iPhones there'll be tons of games created in 2015 but they seem to be heading down a path towards more casual gaming which I'm not a fan of at all. Freemium/timers/social media crap. Arrrrgh ;)
     
  7. madreviewer

    madreviewer Well-Known Member

    Sep 22, 2013
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    Yes, it's my auto correction,
     
  8. madreviewer

    madreviewer Well-Known Member

    Sep 22, 2013
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    One more problem with mobile gaming.
    Casual games are cheap to produce, and are more likely to be played by non gamers= more potential buyers
     
  9. Edmilan

    Edmilan Well-Known Member

    Dec 2, 2011
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    There are freemium games done right, check out Hearthstone
     
  10. Anonomation

    Anonomation 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Done right, but still cause the problem.
     
  11. coolpepper43

    coolpepper43 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Aug 31, 2012
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    For every 1 free 2 play game done right their are 2000 free 2 play games that have endless micro transactions
     
  12. slamraman

    slamraman Well-Known Member
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    Aug 27, 2011
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    Your rant was very measured, Mene. I probably do agree and I hate all the freemium stuff as much as anyone, but then when I think of music, films and literature whilst, thankfully, none of them are freemium (yet! Although perhaps spotify and the like are taking it this way) 99% of all films, music and books are, in my opinion, rubbish, but searching for that 1% makes it all worthwhile.
     
  13. negitoro

    negitoro Well-Known Member

    Apr 7, 2011
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    And while this is true, Hearthstone will likely earn more money and get more downloads than 1999 of those 2000.
     
  14. negitoro

    negitoro Well-Known Member

    Apr 7, 2011
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    This.

    In our society, people who appreciate quality goods and content are not the norm - the enthusiasts (and gamers are certainly game enthusiasts) are the higher end consumer. As such we constitute a vast minority. If we counted the amount of content and products being produced by manufacturers that cater to a low baseline consumer we would find this is the case in every industry. For every car made for people who love to drive, for every film made for arthouse cinema lovers, for every finely crafted high end wine, for every well crafted pair of leather shoes, we get dozens of economy cars, popcorn movies, cheap beers and low end sneakers. The same is true for games.

    This is a normal part of the industry growing from a niche industry to a mass market one and we all benefit from it... because as gamers we have games that cater to us but so do the other 90% of the population.
     
  15. Andy C83

    Andy C83 Well-Known Member

    Oct 20, 2010
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    Which handheld would that be? The PlayStation Vita which you were ''considering selling'' due to the lack of games to your liking, or the ''childish 3DS'' which you had ''no intention of buying?'' :rolleyes:

    We all know that the App Store is bloated with Freemium junk. It has been for a while, and is getting worse every year. That doesn't mean that there are not any quality, premium games still being released. It just makes them harder to find (almost impossible if you're not gonna put in any effort).

    I know that your genre of choice are RPG games, which isn't exactly my specialty. However, our Shaun Musgrave has been doing a great job with The Official RPG Reload Club Thread and I would point anyone looking for RPGs on iOS in that direction.
     
  16. Mene

    Mene <b>ACCOUNT CLOSED</b>: <em>Officially</em> Quit iO

    Mar 18, 2012
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    It's neither of those. ;)
     
  17. Primoz

    Primoz Well-Known Member

    Aug 14, 2012
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    Yes! I left this platform for the same reasons well over a year ago (http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?t=208654). And let me tell you right now, this is the best decision you made this month.

    I will only occassionaly pop in to play "real" games when they get released (Heroes and castles 2, Aralon: Forge and Flame and a handful of others).
     
  18. Exact-Psience

    Exact-Psience Well-Known Member

    Jan 12, 2012
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    To be fair, there's been tons of really good premium titles that came out the past 4 months:

    (to name a few)
    Papers Please
    Telltale titles
    Shadowrun Dragonfall
    Dragon Quest titles
    Oddworld Stranger's Wrath
    XCOM Enemy Within
    Icewind Dale
    Ghost Blade
    Inferno 2
    Goblin Sword

    BUT...

    ^^^This.
     
  19. redpanda33

    redpanda33 Well-Known Member

    May 9, 2012
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    Decatur GA
    I just ignore the freemium. Just because there is so much of it does not mean that there are no longer quality paid apps. Maybe I don't game as much as other people do, but I always have more to play than I have time. Companies like exe-create put out middle to good quality so often that it fills the gaps between titles by the high level studios like Foursaken nicely. The Vita and the 3DS do not get a major quality title every week either. Nor do the home consoles. I'm not saying you are wrong for moving on to another platform if that is your choice, in fact, you will have quite a back catalog to choose from. But, I feel like iOS is still a wonderfully vibrant and expanding gaming platform. Go with what works for you and have fun. :)
     
  20. psj3809

    psj3809 Moderator

    Jan 13, 2011
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    Even if i never bought another game for the next 3 years i've still got LOADS to go through and play.

    I mean MAME (Gridlee) alone gives me access to 800+ classic arcade games on my phone, same for my Spectrum emulator. Just got tons to play plus a Gameboy emulator etc. Or the 50 tables i've got on Pinball arcade. I've got 8 fighting fantasy gamebooks to go through as well, great football and american football apps.

    Aralon II will come out some point next year, Exiles is coming out in Jan, two classics there.

    Yeah its a shame i buy less but there were still many classics to play through last year. I do feel iOS gaming is headed towards a dangerous point though if there are more and more freemium games. I prefer iOS than Android due to the quality of games, but if we're getting more and more freemium i might as well make the jump to Android, the big difference there is i can play lots of old classics (Jedi Knight/Quake II etc) and get emulators easier. To be successful the app store has to have quality premium games

    I would prefer a minimum set price of each iOS app of $5 and dont allow price drops ! Plus make it like Android so you get is it 30 minutes with a game before you can get a refund.
     

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