The benefit of a glitch?

candysodacrusher

Last week my game got some sort of glitch which caused it to run sluggishly.  The fix involves having to reinstall the game, which of course means I will lose all my boosters.  So, I have spent the week playing down my cache of boosters.  Also, I haven’t had the benefit of ads since this sluggish play began.  

Ever since the Quests were removed from the game, I have been very cautious about using any boosters I received, so that basically means that I had a pretty good supply built up—over  basically 7 months.  During that time I was basically relying on the timed boosters from the ads.

As I was working on playing down my cache of boosters, I realized that I was essentially able to play the game the way I used to play—before the ads, before the Quests were removed.  And it was really, really fun!  

This makes me think about how some of the new features affect the game.  I can’t remember if I managed to win Batula’s Key during the past week.  Despite the rewards with Batula being “better” than the old treasure chests, not recalling whether I won it tells me it doesn’t have a big effect on my success in the game. I do remember thinking that I would have managed to open at least 3–maybe even 4 of the old treasure chests.  

I will probably have depleted my boosters in the next day or so and will reinstall the game.  But, I’m actually rather glad this is happening.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to build up a booster supply with the “new” game.

Dirty_Nurse

candysodacrusher said:

Last week my game got some sort of glitch which caused it to run sluggishly.  The fix involves having to reinstall the game, which of course means I will lose all my boosters.  So, I have spent the week playing down my cache of boosters.  Also, I haven’t had the benefit of ads since this sluggish play began.  

Ever since the Quests were removed from the game, I have been very cautious about using any boosters I received, so that basically means that I had a pretty good supply built up—over  basically 7 months.  During that time I was basically relying on the timed boosters from the ads.

As I was working on playing down my cache of boosters, I realized that I was essentially able to play the game the way I used to play—before the ads, before the Quests were removed.  And it was really, really fun!  

This makes me think about how some of the new features affect the game.  I can’t remember if I managed to win Batula’s Key during the past week.  Despite the rewards with Batula being “better” than the old treasure chests, not recalling whether I won it tells me it doesn’t have a big effect on my success in the game. I do remember thinking that I would have managed to open at least 3–maybe even 4 of the old treasure chests.  

I will probably have depleted my boosters in the next day or so and will reinstall the game.  But, I’m actually rather glad this is happening.  It will be interesting to see how long it takes me to build up a booster supply with the “new” game.

The Quests haven’t been removed, they’ve been steadily available to me for years now.  Were they to be taken away and replaced with the Farce id simply stop playing as the “team” features are an insult to anyone attempting to enjoy a single-player game such as this.

The only way that the Bakula feature would be better than the old chests is if it reset immediately upon completion and allowed the player to get to a few of them per episode.  

@Xarly had mentioned that the recent “improvements” to the game were focused on players not getting”burned out” yet the increased focus on the useless timed boosters suggests the complete opposite.  It would be nice to receive a response from someone of importance in regards to these recent “additions” instead of just generic responses we are given by someone [...] like @Xarly that simply relays messages from the “studio” that apparently cares greatly about our input even though based on reviews all of the “team” features are wildly unpopular.

(Edited by CM: Offensive Language)

candysodacrusher

Dirty_Nurse said:

The Quests haven’t been removed, they’ve been steadily available to me for years now.  Were they to be taken away and replaced with the Farce id simply stop playing as the “team” features are an insult to anyone attempting to enjoy a single-player game such as this.

The only way that the Bakula feature would be better than the old chests is if it reset immediately upon completion and allowed the player to get to a few of them per episode.  

@Xarly had mentioned that the recent “improvements” to the game were focused on players not getting”burned out” yet the increased focus on the useless timed boosters suggests the complete opposite.  It would be nice to receive a response from someone of importance in regards to these recent “additions” instead of just generic responses we are given by someone useless like @Xarly that simply relays messages from the “studio” that apparently cares greatly about our input even though based on reviews all of the “team” features are wildly unpopular.

I should have said, “...Quests were removed from MY game...” rather than THE game.  I stand corrected.

When Mr. Toffee’s Fair showed up I was extremely critical of it.  However, there have been SOME improvements and now that I look at it as an event to be played separate from the game (in the same manner I view Bubblegum Hill), I find it not that bad.  Is it as good a feature as the Quests?  No.  Would it be better if it were a single-player feature?  Yes.  Do I like the two ticks per day rule?  No.  Are the rewards commensurate with the level of difficulty?  Sometimes.  The bottom line for me is that you have to play the cards you are dealt, and my hand has Mr. Toffee’s Fair.  Your hand has the Quests.  Quests trump MTF (in my opinion) but trump doesn’t always guarantee a winning hand either.  

Batula’s Key could definitely be improved with an immediate reset of the key and chest.  It seems to me that the switch to the timed rewards, coupled with the random rewards in the various features is an attempt to integrate a casino/slot machine type strategy into the game designed to elicit behavioral changes in the players.  

I’ve said this in other posts, but since Activision released 3rd quarter earnings last week, it could stand an update.  King showed a considerable increase in revenue this past quarter thanks to the ads (no surprise there) but MAU’s (Monthly Active Users) dropped again.  Given this news, I suspect we will continue to see changes in the game as efforts to attract and retain new players continue.

Xarly

Hi both,

First and foremost, @Dirty_Nurse, I will not allow you to speak about me (or anyone else in this Community, for that matter) in that way. I am a human being, and whether you like my answers or not, you have no right to disrespect me as a person. You do not know what I do or don't, so don't ever call me "useless" again if you wish to keep using this forum.

Regarding your points around playing solo, the idea is to balance things so that both social players and solo players can enjoy our game. A new type of event is being released right as we speak that is targeting players that enjoy more playing solo. Not everything to the game will be aiming at pleasing all players, obviously. This event will be ramping up slowly to prevent bugs and provide a good experience so you will hopefully soon be able to play it and provide feedback about it.

These features have input from myself as well and the team looks at player feedback when crafting new elements that come into the game. Suggesting I am of no relevance again is clearly due to being ignorant around what I do.

Regarding your points @candysodacrusher , that I find very interesting, it is indeed always a focus to make sure new players find our game attractive and appealing, but at the same time, we always consider how this can affect veteran players like yourself. The obvious focus on releases of new episodes every week is a clear example of this. Building live games like this, that remain a success after 5 years of life is always a difficult job and balancing decisions and priorities is key.

Cheers,
Xarly