Too much of a grind? Hope everyone had a happy holiday filled with fun, family, & friends, filled with joy. And I wish everyone in advance a Happy New Year. Non sequitur about interesting facts: 1) There has been a progressive slowdown in this thread 2) There has been a drop in group participation in the Player's Club (as judged by the team's standing since winning the "silver roof") 3) This thread was begun 7/25/2014. The Pocket Planes thread ion 6/13/2012. The Pocket Frogs thread on 9/16/2010. All but this thread still has fairly active participation. And BTW, NB hasn't been updating PF for a long time (don't know about PP). Given these facts, I'm self-validating the conclusion I reached about the game some time ago, namely that the "grind" factor would be too great to ensure popularity, maybe longevity, of the game. The floors cost too much to build. The updates take too many bux to make. The elevator updates take too many bux & add but a fractional speed. Surprisingly, the part of the game I thought I'd like least (gambling) is the only thing holding my interest since I've stopped building & upgrading. I'll continue to play until my chips are used up either gambling or reciprocating or until I simply lose interest altogether. My case is hardly unique, the participation in the thread vs. the threads of the other NB games I've mentioned should give NB serious pause. NB might also give considerable thought to the effect of changing the floor update costs after one had been playing for a while, not only because the updates added to the "grind factor" but because it was essentially unfair & set a terrible precedent for future games. I'm writing this post out of sadness for what I see as the unfortunate direction NB has taken with TTV.
No updates for PP either - just iPhone 6 compatibility and screen resolution fixes All they do is ask for ratings so they can "make more games", not even update their older games
A very pre-emptive Happy New Year to you and all my wonderful forum friends too. Too much of a grind? You're absolutely right... but it's the unavoidable nature of this style of game; where actually achieving the end game means you basically stop playing. My appreciation for TTV is in the obvious love that David put into the graphics and so I'm compelled to keep playing so I can unlock them all. (I know I could look them up on a wiki, but I want to make it last). Have NB been meanies by tweaking upgrade costs and such? Nah. No one could ever accuse them of trying to fleece us poor punters with their devilish freemium tactics - pay if you want, but they never attempt to reel you in and then shake you upside down hard enough to loosen your pocket change (yes, I'm looking at you Tiny Disney Star!) I've always appreciated NB's non agressive, though seemingly, comfortably profitable business model; I bought the red gem (doubler) in Nimblequest and still play it practically every day (go team Bolas). I would happily pay the $0.99/£0.69 it should cost to unlock a new character or three and I've no idea why the original dozen plus line up was simply given away, but now the game is forgotten about while valuable time is wasted creating dull 3D clones of Desert Golfing!? Still, this isn't a rant, and I'm not the one in charge of a well respected and very popular indie publisher who get's a lot of things right. Isn't that Pocket Frog thread the longest running on the TA forums? That says a lot I feel.
Here I tend to disagree. I adored Tiny Tower, the game that once won an Apple Award for best game of the year, held my interest to the end. Yes, it had the same repetitive action (elevator up & down) but there were 4-5 elevator updates, total, for one thing. There were floor upgrades but fewer & less virtually expensive. There was the excitement of building random floors which held different amounts of stock. There was the fun or challenge of hoping that that a bitizen landed on his a "dream job" floor. [Hope I'm getting details right -- it's been a while since I finished the game. BTW, it never occurred to me that I couldn't/wouldn't finish]. Although I dislike consumables in a game & didn't need more bux, to show my appreciation, I bought some anyway. I wanted to show the devs that I really was enjoying the game & hoped they would update & continue to producing top-notch games with superior support. 100% agreement on this! The graphics & animation are superior, no question. I've even grown to love the holiday special bitizens/objects. I never said NB was mean or anything like that but I felt it was essentially unfair to move the goalposts mid-game. What if someone was about to upgrade, having saved their bux, only to find out that *now* it cost more? In my mind it set a bad precedent for future games. How would anyone know that NB wouldn't do exactly the same thing in subsequent games? In PF, when NB wanted to encourage more people to use IAPs, they added features, like the "instant taming" for potions. Adding features for value makes sense but taking away or reducing features risks player loyalty. Personally I liked the way the Palm devices handled this by releasing a game/app with reduced features & if you wanted the whole game/app, you paid for it. And, wow, Corky, I love the way you expressed some of the more egregious freemium tactics of other game devs. TDS was an excellent example of the perversion of freemium though I've seen worse. Freemium, well-executed, is rare but definitely well-done in PF & PP. And, IMO, IAPs are the devils work. I've read of people spending $500 on a game whereas if the game had SOLD for $500, I bet they wouldn't have given it a second look! My point was that NB seemed to be becoming more aggressive, IMO. Yes, abandoning games after a year or so, in terms of updates, is discouraging. PF, which came out prior to TT & PP, had updates well beyond a year. It's still playable & enjoyable all the while by not requiring one's daily attention. The player is not penalized (like stock being depleted) by taking a hiatus & picking up the game a day or a month later. And, yes, PF is the longest running thread in the TA forums...by far. NB certainly did something really right with that game, even with IAPs. Add to that a vibrant community (much like PP's as I recall) which was highly collaborative. As I said in my previous post, I'm more saddened than anything by the change I perceive in how NB is currently executing/employing "freemium" as judged by my experience with TTV.
Playtime My playtime has slowed on TTV mostly because I have found that the only gambling game I like in it is slots. So, you'll see me probably in the top 10 during a slots challenge but not much else. I make sure to hit up my friends games when I play those rounds. I actually went back to PF and have been enjoying it. . Also did the PP Christmas runs that gave us the Kringle Kruiser. Anyway, Happy Holidays
This week is switched to the original Tiny Tower. There are somethings in the original game that I miss in TTV. One is the same coin value in the three items, with different value it's more strategic, not only a tap game. The other thing is the amount of stock in the different levels is always the same in TTV, this make that every level you can built (one for week, because the big increase of the cost) are the same, the only difference is the look. In TT every level is different and make the game so much funny. And only 10 upgrades isn't so much. I don't understand why they changed this things.
Howdy and happy new year all. Been quietly playing whilst on holiday so haven't been on the forums at all. Glad that the holiday missions are over and am able to enjoy normal missions. I do notice that my holiday lobby has disappeared since switching out of it, anyone else notice this? my roof and elevators are still available.
The update released today was supposed to fix this, but I still can't switch back to my Holiday or Halloween lobbies :/
Same here, I did the update today. My Halloween lobby is still missing. I still have Holiday Lobby equipped, but if I switch from it, it disappears.
Unable to visit friends This is just to let everyone know I have been unable to visit friends towers to play and tip. The only way I can visit is if they visit me first I can then tap the visit sender and get thru. Has anyone else had this bug, and does anyone know how to fix it. I've had this problem for about four or five days and updating to the new update didn't help. Everyone of my friends know I try to tip everyone daily. Thanks, JM
Mine is working fine. But I do want my friends to know I am no longer playing regularly. I really appreciate the regular tippers - not just for the chip, but for the sense of community it helps to build.
I think the sense of community in the game has decreased greatly in the past few weeks. I purged my friend list a week or two ago to remove those who did not appear to be active any longer and I think I may have to do it again soon as there seem to be an increasing number of inactives on my list. Like others, I seem to be losing interest myself. I find myself playing less although I haven't given up on the grind yet. I do find myself wanting to spend less time on it overall and in particular I am noticing that I do not want to waste time looking for the Players Club floor in someone's tower, especially as tower's get bigger. It is helpful when other players move the club floor to the floor above the lobby for the duration and I have been doing this. i'm not trying to suggest to people how they should lay out their towers but this move for 3 and half days does help other members of the club find the current club floor if they have it.
Easy to see, by a number of benchmarks, that interest in the game is fading. I have not been too quick to purge anyone unless they haven't been playing for a while. It costs me nothing to play a game in his/her tower vs. mine so why not? Don't much care what the game is, not picky. Even in PF, I kept people beyond the "sell by" date, if only as a memento to remember our good times together. I continued contributing to THAT forum because when I joined & for years after the community was so strong, so cohesive, so collaborative - I was enjoying the camaraderie more than the game! Heck, even people who had collected all gazillion frogs more often than not stayed on offering to breed frogs for others. Amazing. Gifts didn't go unrecognized; they were as graciously acknowledged as they were generously offered. Bottom line, IMO, a strong sense of community is critical to lifespan of a game. So why did I stop? When the weekly "Sets" were discontinued (which meant to me that NB had essentially abandoned the game), I pulled the plug. But I STILL kept my "Neighbors" (AKA "Friends" in TTV). I used to say the same thing, that the Players' Club game should be easily accessible but now I realize that many have specific ideas of how their tower should be set up, how it should "look." My games, for example, are on the ground floor but organized each day (unless I'm too busy or lazy) according to when the 3rd stock item will be depleted (if it isn't already). When I played more, that wasn't a factor for their stock never ran out. Yes, I love seeing the game right in front of me when I visit a tower but, if not, I don't mind scouring the tower for the right floor. Meanwhile, back the ranch, heard elsewhere that NB is developing its next game, the 2nd after TTV. That would be four games in the space of a year, counting TTV's predecessor, Disco Zoo! Don't those guys ever sleep?!
I have also noticed a dramatic decline in activity over the last few weeks. I'd estimate and say about 1/3 of my friends list is now quite inactive, which is fine, it's just a game after all. Personally, I do agree that it's become a grind and do find myself playing other games more actively. I continue to play TTV simply because, as lisianne put it, it's just too easy to play. Especially while doing other things like watch tv.
I'm still playing although not as much and my fireworks counter restarted at around 120 days around the holidays, I'm back to 20 now, but that was very annoying. I finally built a few floors the other day after being at 62 for a long time. It takes forever for floors now. I'll try to keep playing as I'd like to get all the characters unlocked. I don't think I'll have the patience to get to all the floors, but this is the longest I've stuck with a game. It's very easy to pick up and play while doing something else
I think that the algorithm for the daily fireworks check was fiddled with in recent updates, but it's gotten worse. I have this app open for several hours every day (while I'm doing other things) but the counter has reset three times on me. Often I'll have the app open after the midnight rollover, and all the casino free play icons pop up right at 00:00, but I sometimes don't see the fireworks icon in the bottom left until many hours later--once at 11:30 pm, 23.5 hours late! As someone who has played daily since the day it was released on the US App Store, it was quite annoying to see my fireworks counter start all over again.
Today when I got a black jack I mistakenly hit hit real quick instead of stay and it gave me another card but still paid me twice. The dealer never took cards. This might be a better way to do the trick since you'll never push this way.
