I know you weren't asking me, but I'm going to chime in anyway. I'm 44, and I've been a gamer since the first time I saw a pinball machine. All of this so called freemium stuff, actually feels like an insult to me. I realize that this type of marketing is here to stay, so I will try my best to ignore it. But I really have a strong negative reaction to it. It feels like a con job. A cheap money grab. A trick. A Ponzy sceme. Maybe someday there will be a sort of divide between gamers who like feemium, and gamers who just want to pay money and get a premium experience. Maybe a sort of thing where freemium and free to play people can go over threre and the rest of us will come over here.
The problem is, 'real' gamers like free games, not just the casual people. Views on TA aren't representative. Around 90% of the money in the paid app market has disappeared in the last four years, presumably it's being spent on IAPs instead and most of it ends up in the pockets of a couple of huge publishers.
+1! I cannot agree more! I am also 46 years old and a hardcore game since I was 12 ... But sadly it seems that the "new generation" of gamer are not willing to invest in "owning a complete game" ... when I see which way the iOS gaming goes, well ... I have to say, I am going more and more back to my PC / Notebook for gaming ... thanks to EA and all the other companies which ruins this great platform ...
I think a big reason for the decline in paid app revenue is trust more than anything. I have to have a very good understanding of a title and it's developer before I'll bother theses days. Without naming names a certain iOS title was released on Vita recently, after my experiences of how the developer treated the iOS version I wouldn't touch the Vita version even though it was originally a very good game. Once burned, twice shy.
The problem for developers is that, no matter how much people on TA claim to hate free to play, most of the people who used to be happy to pay $0.99 - $9.99 for a premium game only a few years ago are evidently spunking their cash on IAP for a handful of games that make millions every week instead. Most developers would rather just make a game than get involved with all the psychological tricks that make f2p work but can't because the statistics prove that nobody wants to pay anything up front any more. In my opinion the golden age of iOS gaming was when I was downloading a few premium games every week and knew there was no point in even looking at the free crap. That was sadly four years ago now...
300+ followers, two wheat fields, three expansions. The introduction of wheat has really slowed the game down, but I sort of appreciate it. It has allowed me to save up on belief and do some fun landscaping and add trees while I plan my next move. I think if the resource were not introduced, then the game would expand at an unreasonable pace. What really annoys me is that once you tap a builder (accidentally most of the time!) they will wander around mischievously looking for a way to use your wheat without your permission, choosing any old building plot which then forces you to wait for the next batch. There should be a way to cancel the tap, or they should only build where you intend. They keep building their little trashy huts instead of the nice upscale houses available. I'm trying to make this place look nice guys! Also does the price of trees ever come down? One tree is now 450 when I think it started at maybe 100?
I blame Apple for the rise of freemium. When they set the lowest App Store price to 99 cents, they were basically saying that a game is like a single, rather than an album. Super cheap software locks you into an expensive hardware ecosystem, but devs can't make a living from the old buy-to-own software model. Having said all that, I think there are far worse offenders than Godus. If Godus had something challenging, it would be really good. I'm about to settle a new continent. There'd better be some new gameplay dynamic there, or I'm off. Where are the natural calamities? I want fires, floods, plagues of locusts. Where are the rival Gods? Where's the poor b****** who played Curiosity for 6 months straight? Smite me!
Thanks! Does anyone know about the section of extra fields that you unlock? Is the point to build a bunch of houses nearby then convert to a settlement in order to use them?
According to the text on the loading screen, each player's world is different (although given the relationship Molyneaux has to truth....) in my world, the fields are on very steep steppes, so I don't think it'd be practical. Farmers need to be able to move back to the farmhouse to sleep after a days work. So at some stage I'll probably just.... Level it
Thanks! I hadn't seen that loading screen or didn't read it. That's really cool if everyone's world is randomly generated. I've been leveling off one side and building houses to try to convert to a farming settlement. by the way the rain power is excellent, now I pretty much have unlimited crops!
You guys are lucky that you're even able to play. I've deleted and reinstalled the game 6 times. Starting each time from scratch since the save doesn't work. Finally yesterday I was able to accomplish getting past the da@m auth screen and played a whole 15 minutes. I thought the problem was solved and was happy. Lo and behold I can't even get past the load screen now since last night. I will not put myself through the hassle of even bothering to start again. I have never ever experienced this with any game, free or paid. And apparently, this was a well known crash issue since the beta testing. I feel bad for anyone who backed this game. I am a f2p player. Hell, I've had Hay Day for over a year and a half and haven't ever needed to spend a penny. I have, however, just to support the developer. Dragonvale I was there from the get-go. I also won't hesitate to throw money on a premium game that would give me a great gaming experience like Oceanhorn or bastion. Godus I would have zero issue spending 15 buck on as a premium game. If the freaking game worked. I can tell you now that even if issues resolve I will never -ever- spend one penny on this game. For what? To have it work for a moment and then disappoint? It's a catastrophic mess.
What a lot of smaller developers are learning is that free-to-play does not guarantee success, or ensure a larger profit then a premium release. The real draw for developers isn't that "everyone's spending thier money on F2P", or "nobody is willing to pay upfront", it's those millions you mentioned. Unfortunately (or in our case, fortunately), the FTP games that rake in the millions are in a VERY small minority, and most FTP games make a bigger flop then any premium dud. But that draw of hitting the "freemium lottery" is just too much to resist. The possibility of becoming the next Clash of Clans or Candy Crush Saga just seems like a risk worth taking for most devs. And about the Golden Age of IOS gaming.....4 years ago!? That's just nuts. 4 years ago I couldn't play XCOM or Monster Hunter on my phone. Sure, there's more crap on the App Store then ever before, but there are also more high quality premium games then ever before as well. It's just a matter of not seeing the glass as half empty.
I've not got as far as you, but I've seen cards for meteor shower and swamp. First one sounds cool not sure about the other.
I just mean that as someone buying iOS games back then, it was better. As a developer the only reason I've played any F2P games is to look at what they're doing. I've never released anything with consumable IAP and the idea of building a game round it just doesn't fit with the kind of games I want to make. Meanwhile, the paid app side of the app store has shrunk to a fraction of what it was. The only hope is that it's now so small (the same is true on Android) that the big publishers will lose interest completely.
