The Simpsons Tapped Out

[Rastuso]

It is fun, and seems to be the result of the similar Freemium games. Sort of the culmination of all those that came before it, fine tuned by an army of psychologists and accountants.

 

Luckily, I have an Android phone, so I'm not tempted to be farming coins at work all day. I gotta do SOME work every once in a while.

 

But it seems as you get past about level 10, farming coins becomes a much more tedius task. Yeah, you can have a huge slum of brown houses, but you'll spend one minute collecting, and need to restart in 4 minutes.

 

And the huge amount of donut only items is just scary. I remember when my wife bought Smurfette for like $5. I thought she was crazy. But she is a major character. But, $10 for Scorpio, and his lair, which you can't even get inside and see (Smurfette joke here)? I mean, maybe if he could send out a team of commandos and kidnap Flanders, or something.

 

And after my Homer Bhudda fiasco, not to mention that I'm sure teh bench with clothes on it, and the dumpster pretty much exist solely as booby prizes for the HB, I won't be spending money to gamble on more. I never understood why these games don't have some option to use ingame earnings for the "big item", be it Smurfberry, donut, or whatever else. Say $500 for a donut. Not cheap, but at least an option. So you could at least farm and get good stuff. Maybe they would be stale donuts, and not usuable for absolutely everything (if you use that idea, EA, pay me some money).

 

Ultimately, these games are the ultimate in Pavlovian control. I'm sure the good Dr. never thought his ideas would be used to get people to earn virtual Santa Coins to buy small pictures on a portable color display matrix, and make hundreds of millions of dollars. And not only that, the game makes fun of you for playing it, before you even play it. Sure, the Simpsons game from a few years ago did the same, but didn't bait you with not-so-micro purchases.

 

Remember when people actually made fun of idiots that bought horse armor? Now we are buying benches with a pair of pants on them.

 

Post Modern Pavlov.

 

-R

[evilmat360]

Looks like the daily Origin drop-out is on right now!

 

I only just got half way through my friends

[COASTER FREAK 11]

I still have yet to access y origin account at all for the past two days =(

[jray21]

Supposedly some guy has been reding through the code and found some possible updates with possible discounts. Like 25% bonus when buying doughnuts, or Santas Village and a Christmas tree for only 200 doughnuts. Some other people "verified" the information but this is the Internet, so it's most likely BS.

 

I do think they are way too stingy with the doughnuts, but that's how they make their money. It's interesting to think you would pretty much have to pay more than a full PS3/XBox game to get all the premium stuff, but even those games now have additional premium content.

 

I missed it, but during the Thanksgiving update people were able to get a ton of free doughnuts the day before the update came out. They would switch their clock forward to Australia time, then back to the current time. This would re-trigger the Mayan Halloween 30 doughnut bonus. Until your location time switched over to the next day you could do it as much as you wanted. So annoyed I missed it.

Edited December 11, 2012 by jray21

[COASTER FREAK 11]

^I hadn't heard about that at all! DAMN!!!!

[robbalvey]

I never understood why these games don't have some option to use ingame earnings for the "big item", be it Smurfberry, donut, or whatever else. Say $500 for a donut. Not cheap, but at least an option. So you could at least farm and get good stuff. Maybe they would be stale donuts, and not usuable for absolutely everything (if you use that idea, EA, pay me some money).

I'll actually answer the question, because I know the answer... I've had to put forth many proposals in my past life dealing with this very thing. Here goes...

 

You used to pay on average $49 for a console game title, and $29 for a handheld game title. Now you're paying either nothing or up to $1.99 for most games.

 

When you make a $49 console title, the majority of your development cost happens PRIOR to release of the game. So you spend millions to develop, release the title, and hope you re-coup and then some.

 

On a game like Tapped Out, you're still spending millions to develop, but then you have to CONTINUE to spend development money after the initial release happens. Downloadable content costs just as much money to make as the original content, and servers (even those that are currently broken) cost money to keep active.

 

And in theory, you can play the game... you can play a LOT of the game, without having to spend a single penny. So publishers have to figure out clever ways to re-coup not only that initial development money, but also continue to make the game profitable enough to produce DLC and the continuous upkeep of the system throughout the life of the product being popular.

 

There have been several different models and payment scales that have been tried over the years - subscription based, buying "coins", buying "items", etc... What seems to work the best for most games like Simpsons is the "pay is much as you want to play" model. Which basically says, "we're giving you a vast majority of the game for free...but if you want to play more, speed up your process, or get certain items, it will cost you..."

 

And as much as you like the game, and want to contribute to it, well, is totally up to you and how much you're willing to spend.

 

I've heard both sides of the argument. I've heard people tell me "I'd gladly spend $100 on the game because it's better than the last ten $39 Wii games that I've bought." and I've heard people say "Games should be free, I'm not paying for it, they should be doing in-game advertizing."

 

Really it comes down to this - do you like the game enough to spend money to keep playing?

 

This model works well because it's 100% the customers "choice." Gamers aren't paying a penny for the original game, and you can choose how much you want to spend.

 

My biggest gripe with this model is that at some point of spending, I feel they should just "give" the game to you. I would gladly pay $49 for an in-the-box console game, so when I reach $50 worth of buying donuts, please just give me this game to play...or at least give me a heavy discount on future donut purchases, since I understand the the cost of DLC is also ongoing.

 

But the other reality is this - Super Mario Galaxy comes out and sells 2.5 million copies, well, that's 2.5 million times $49. If 2.5 million are playing Tapped Out, you could have 1 million playing for free, 200,000 who have spent $40, 300,000 who have spent $20, etc, etc....

 

So my $49 spend on Tapped Out doesn't help EA re-coup as fast as it did in the console days, because while I might be spending $49, the next guy could be spending NO dollars.

 

Ok, this is becoming way tl;dr... sorry, it's just something I happen to know a lot about.

 

Anyway, to answer your comment of "I never understood why these games don't have some option to use ingame earnings for the big item", it's because they NEED to re-coup their development cost somehow because no one will spend $49 on a game for their iPhone or iPad.

 

Sorry for the long response!

 

--Robb

[robbalvey]

Sorry, one more note -

 

The model of "buying donuts" (or whatever the payment method is) has worked MUCH better on a mobile game because of the sliding scale of cost. For example, it's hard to offer different "subscription" costs, and most subscription games are about $10 a month, which is still a high price tag for mobile gaming.

 

So many studies have been shown that people will spend $1 - $5 without really batting an eye, especially if it's a game you like. So the options of being able to buy $1.99 to $99 worth of donuts is very attractive to some people. And this model also ensures you will more than likely USE that currency that you have bought.

 

I can't tell you how many World of Warcraft players we had in our studio who were giving their money every month for a subscription to a game they were no longer playing.

 

Buying donuts is like buying a non-expiring WDW Park Hopper. They don't expire, and you CHOOSE when you want to use them, and how much of them you have.

 

And this model has been nothing but a proven success for mobile gaming.

 

Ok, I'm done now!

 

--Robb

[COASTER FREAK 11]

^That was amazing! And now I feel ok about spending more money one the game...if I can ever get back in that is...

[televisedconfession]

My school finally finished building, and once tap it to finish it, the building pops into place and the app shuts down. Every time. AHhh. It's been doing this for a few hours now. These little glitches are getting really aggravating to work around. I really hope they fix them so I can keep building up Springfield. Love this game otherwise.

[evilmat360]

My school finally finished building, and once tap it to finish it, the building pops into place and the app shuts down. Every time. AHhh. It's been doing this for a few hours now. These little glitches are getting really aggravating to work around. I really hope they fix them so I can keep building up Springfield. Love this game otherwise.

 

Wait until tommorrow,I had this with the Van houten House yesterday,so just gave up on it,tried today and it worked fine.

[Rastuso]

i agree with a lot of what Robb said, obviously he knows a few things about selling video games. But the big issue is what you touched on. At some point, I should have everything. But, you also hit a few other things. You should be able to buy small amounts of donuts. There is no option of that, becuase $2 of donuts gets you nothing but a Homer Bhudda, and I've already ranted on that.

 

Another thing is: This is NOT a $50 console game by any way shape or form. This game, if it was on XBL, would be $20 tops, probably. That's my amazement with the purchasing. Yeah, I'll buy a couple of hats on TF2, because I've played the game for hundreds of hours. Tapped Out is really only a couple hours of real playing, when you remove the Pavlovian tapping.

 

I'm just amazed anyone would pay $100 for donuts for a simple game like this. I'd love to know how profitable these games are. I can't see the development on them being that huge. C'mon, they are little more than a really advanced Gameboy games, really. And the server they run it from is only needed to generate the money, so that's really not a justification either.

 

Obviously, if they are turning a profit, they are doing something right. I just wonder if they are, and how much is it. There are tons of games like this, so they must be profitable. Ones that are making insane money, I'd guess. I think video games seem to be either financial failures, or insane profit centers, just like movies.

 

Of course, NOTHING compares to the $100 ring you can buy someone in TF2 that you barely even see, in game. It was obviously a joke in some Valve meeting, but I STILL see the announcements popping up.

 

-R

[robbalvey]

^ You'd be surprised. When I look at this game, I see a LOT of money spend on animation, voice acting, writing, and that's just on the content. I'm *assuming* most of the engine is from SIMS or Sim City so a lot of that core functionality was already done.

 

Even still, I can't imagine this game costing any less than $3-$4 million to initially develop, and that might even be on the low end depending on what the licensing cost and deal with FOX that EA has for the Simpsons.

 

I agree, though, at some point I would either like to have the full game, or at least a heavy discount on future purchases. A game like this is kind of equivalent to the old days of buying a PC game and then an "expansion" pack, instead of being two finite purchases, it's an ongoing spending, so I get that I would be expected to spend a bit more money as new content is produced.

 

It's hard to put a price tag on what this game would be as a "box product" because the box product would probably have included a lot of what we're paying for and possibly more functionality, but who knows. But saying "$49" is a pretty good benchmark, give or take a few dollars.

 

I would welcome a model that says "Once you've bought $50 worth of donuts, you now get a 25% discount on future donuts, and once you spend $100, it gives you a 50% discount, etc..."

 

But I'm sure the reality has two parts of the equation: Part 1 is that there are more people than you think that don't spend ANY money on mobile games and want everything for free! (You should see how hard it's been for us to get people just to spend one freakin' dollar on our trivia game!) and Part 2 of that is, if there are enough people who are actually buying donuts (and I've seen plenty of towns where it's obvious people are spending money), that I'm sure they have execs in finance that are pressuring them to continue to develop more content to sell more donuts at full price. And if people are buying them, why discount them? It's only until those sales taper off that they'll need to drop the price.

 

Game development is so insanely complicated and so hard to re-coup any money it's not even funny. You would think that people are making shittons of money hand over fist with how much games cost, but it's CRAZY to see how much they are to develop. I mean, I watched over $12 million get wasted on an AWFUL Transformers game. So bad that I always didn't want to put my name on it.

 

And this game is actually GOOD. I'm sure it's expensive to develop. More than you'd think....

Edited December 11, 2012 by robbalvey

[robbalvey]

One other thing I would have expected in the game, is a premium item that produced donuts. I was actually shocked that Lard Lad Donuts didn't produce more donuts, especially with how much it costs. I think that item alone costs $12, and I don't think it would be out of the question, or decrease EA's revenue that much if that building produced like, two donuts every 24 hours....

[COASTER FREAK 11]

^That's the reason I bought Lard Lad, I just kinda thought there would be donuts involved somehow, lol.

[SharkTums]

If you haven't requested me yet as a friend please do...if you have Xmas Decorations!!!

 

I just did a bit of math and I need to collect an average of 177 Santa Coins a day for the next three weeks in order to be able to complete all of the tasks!

 

I only have 45 friends because I was really trying to do this a normal way, but it seems like the only way to get Xmas done is to load up to 100 friends. I WILL NOT BUILD SLUMS THOUGH!

[jray21]

The best slum I have seen is one of my 'friends' put a fence around the entire brown house slum so it looks just like a concentration camp.

 

Thanks for posting all of that Robb. Makes a lot more sense, and makes me not as bugged if I spend a little money in the future. I also wish there was a point where you would either 'buy' the ride, or get some sort of discount/premium status. I also wish there was a standard way to earn doughnuts. I used to get doughnuts randomly from cleaning up nuclear wast, but I haven't in a really long time.

 

I had Sideshow Bob show up yesterday! I haven't seen him for months.

[Rastuso]

I did the math on slums today. For 50 coins, I got brown house decorations. I have like 15 houses. So, just tomorrow, I'll pay that off, since each house gives 5 coins a day, or like 75 coins a day. You're crazy not to have the slums for coins. For money and XP, you're probably high enough level, it ain't worth it. But it DEFINITELY is for Santa coins.

 

My wife is playing now, so you, and everyone else, can add her. She said she didn't care what name I gave her account, griping that I was signing her up, even though she now likes the game. So, her name is:

 

DeppSucks

 

To Robb, the thing with paying for games is: I paid 99 cents for Bad Piggies, which is awesome, and has provided me months of fun in the can at work already, makes paying $5 for a much lesser game, or $12 for a static Lard Lad sprite just not attractive, especially with Bad Piggies, Angry Birds, and others always giving new content.

 

-R

[jray21]

It's been mentioned before, but you only get the coins once per type of house, not coins for each house. So it doesn't matter if you have 1 or 100 brown houses, you will only get 5 coins total every 24 hours.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

I still can't get I to the game. Going on almost 3 days now... What the hell EA! This is bull crap!!

[Rastuso]

^^ Booo, that sucks. I'll have to buy donuts for coins, NOT!

 

-R

[Erik Johnson]

I have access to my town, but the friend's list has been down most of the day.

[COASTER FREAK 11]

I keep getting the 'Ugh, I hate this screen' page. What the hell does that even mean?! GAH!

 

I've deter the app 5 times. Restarted my phone tons of times, did a few hard resets all in different combinations. Nothing helps.

[jray21]

Still no access at all for me today. Just the long message that they are aware of the problem and are working in it. Im still getting all my alerts telling me things are finished, but i cant get into the game at all. Really annoying.

[jray21]

Sorry for another post but I had to. I've been reading some of the comments on their Facebook page, and I had to post some.

 

Someone definitely needs to learn to proofread.

 

Hopefully the people responsible for fixing the problems with this game are reading this comment from me. Earlier today, I was rearranging my city so I moves me school and willie's shack to a different spot and now both buildings are stuck in that translucent stage with the green base. Now, I can see them in that state, and I still have the carachters that came with them bur it seems like the game doesn't recognize that they are there because I can't click on the school to make the bell ring sound, and I can't send Lisa or Millhouse to attend school to make me some money that way...so, can you please fix this an make those 2 building go back to normal? I'm losing challenges for Lisa and millhouse and skinner and Willie because of this, and it doesn't look pretty like the rest of my town. It's starting to piss me off, I tried everything that I could to try and correct this but nothing is working on my end, and waiting it out isn't working either cuz it's been like this for like 12 hours now...and like everyone else, my neighbors disappeared and haven't come back, but at this point, I just want my school and willie's shack to go back to normal more than anything. Please fix this because I can't.

 

This is why they can get away with having terrible servers. Even with how terrible the servers are, people are still wanting to play.

 

Two days with this...it's crap....add me hafarias25

 

Most posts are people wanting free coins and doughnuts. Really though, unless people have actually bought something it is a free game.

[OldJJman]

I just did a bit of math and I need to collect an average of 177 Santa Coins a day for the next three weeks in order to be able to complete all of the tasks!

 

I've been wondering if anybody knows this - I really want Santa's Little Helper. Do I have to get those damn funzo things first?? I mean, one is 50 donuts, the other 2 are craploads of coins. I want SLH, but no damn funzos. Is that possible??