Not so. It's actually easy to end up with a situation where the legit version of the app lack many features (for example, offline gameplay, which is crucial to alot of people) that are available in the cracked version, which does nothing to discourage piracy, and actually incites many potential customers to download a cracked copy because it's the only way they can get the functionality they need. For me, the only major issue I have is the "temporary" items, unless they're properly justified; it was understandable in the case of Eliminate, where you were basically paying for extra bandwidth usage. This simply isn't something that translates well to single-player games, however, since you would basically be denying the player the ability to buy full, unlimited access to their own game, and possibly even the ability to play offline - and people There are ways DRM can be done properly, but this is not one of them. See Spore for an example of how poorly thought-out DRM harms developers. I haven't tried We Rule yet, but serveral people have said it's a major improvement, so hopefully a turn for the better.
So if we have something negative to say about the game's pricing model, or, indeed, how it affects the gameplay we aren't allowed to post in the main thread? Am I understanding this correctly? Eli, I have a genuine question: are ngmoco contributing to this site financially? Be it through advertising, sponsorship, or through any other means?
just an excuse to rip people off. they say it's to stop piracy.. so why not just sell the actual game, missions or extras etc. as DLC?
It's hard to argue with We Rule's implementation of "Freemium" except from an ideological standpoint. You pay money if you want to do things more quickly. Otherwise the entirety of the game is available for free with several very obscure ads. It's definitely an improvement from Touch Pets and Eliminate.
The point is that it's insulting. There's no other reason for things in the game to be so exceedingly slow except to annoy you into paying. If your intelligence isn't sufficiently insulted by this, then I don't know what to say. If I went to a restaurant that advertised serving food for free, and then discovered that they expect you to wait 8 hours from the time you order OR you could just pay them many times over what the meal is worth and have it NOW, I would promptly tell them where to go, and go pay a reasonable price for a meal delivered in reasonable time, elsewhere. So would you. This is no different, except that there's a psychological angle here ngmoco are able to exploit, and they are doing it and getting away with it.
First of all, almost nothing in the game takes 8 hours except for the businesses and some crops. Here's the real restaurant in the game: The restaurant advertises free food. They say, "We'll either give you a small appetizer every 5 minutes, or a big meal in 2 hours. But we'll start you out with 5 points. Each one of these points can make you have a free big meal in 1 minute. The more you come here, the more points you eventually get, but there may be some times when you can pay a slightly high price to get those points back. We'll also have some small, unnoticable billboards in the restaurant so we can make money."
Don't really care that much about Ngmocos business practices just wanted to say that DLC doesn't stop piracy at all.
Agreed. I personally don't mind the freemium concept as long as it's not taken advantage of. If I download a game for free with the option of buying short cuts, non essentials like wallpapers or a new t-shirt design for a character, or content that's developed after the release like a bundle of new puzzles or new episode in an adventure game, fine. I don't believe it stops piracy in any way but the people who do buy the optional dlc will eventually covers the cost of it being given away for free. But if a dev takes out key gameplay elements, advertises udgrading something to level 30 but caps it at 5 unless you pay, promotes support of gaming network like OF and makes half the achievements require the use of dlc, or straight up cuts off the last 25% of game and releases it 2 weeks later as "new content" for a fee, I think I'd have to look up the definitions of both "free" and "piracy" because I'm pretty it's not at all one of them and on the borderline of the other. Freemium is fine. I just hope we see a shift into the "it's not about what we're giving them but what they think they're getting" mentality.
I agree 100%. I like games that you can download and play a certain amount of levels and then buy more levels if you choose. I prefer this rather than downloading a lite version and then buying the full. Temporary purchases are
we rule? whats that? ah ok .. it just another mediocore game from ngmoco which I'll not bother with .. I've totally abandon my attention to ngmoco after Eliminate ..
Notgoodmoco targets the gulible, the uninformed , the impatient of gamers to buy their dlc. There is not doubt they are making money and laughing their way to the bank , it's a scum done legally.
chill dude.....chill. I have We Rule, and it is a game that is entirely playable without paying for downloadable content (unlike eliminate and touchpets) Im only a level 11 but I have a lot of high end stuff in the game. Sure, paying will speed up the process, but the game works fine without it.
Addiego, Let me see how educated are you about the game you are playing. What is the point of WE RULe? What is the main goal? What is the leaderboards based on? Do you need Skill to be good at it?
I really don't like the freemium model, but I think you guys are still too quick to distinguish ngmoco as the scum of the earth. They still make quality games any way you look at it, whether the freemium model ruins it for you you have to acknowledge that the games would be enjoyable if they "normal." Now my main issue is that freemium games don't let you play on your own time, We Rule and Godfinger more this way than TouchPets and Eliminate. You have to go into the game in We Rule or your crops will die and your kingdom will not be profitable. That is a pain in that I can't always get on. I like to play games when I have free time, not feel obligated to play them and if I don't I fail in the game. Also the fact that leaderboards are just flooded with people who have the ability to throw endless money at these games and do not really show who is the best. Eliminate did not have this problem with the skill leaderboard, but We Rule absolutley is plagued with this. My other problem is that ngmoco bought freeverse, I don't have a problem with them converting to the freemium model themselves but when you take another company who makes fun and cheap games and force your hand upon their payment models, I have a real problem with that. We're most likely gonna lose things like Flick Fishing, Parachute Ninja, and SlotZ and just get more games that resemble those Text-Based MMO's like We Rule in that you can play normally and come back when your time has come, or simply speed up the progress through payment
i read freemium, i think greedium. i will not support that company or any company they bought. heck, i deleted parachute ninja after reading they bought the company that produced it. i can be stubborn. but hey its my money. i guess i just can not get over the rent to own model of gaming. o well. all i can do is not use anything they produce, and hav my family and friends do the same. not much in the big scope of things. as they are making money.. so, life goes on. i wish i would of got centipede before atari took all their titles from the apps tore. chris.
