The holiday event is just junk

[Moonlight Queen]

I've played this game for many years and there is always events you like more than others. I have always liked the holiday event. This year it is terrible. The rewards are junk. You get better in the recurring quests. The elf shelf doesn't even start to make you want to buy the items for a whopping 2995 diamonds. This event is blatantly appearing as presents for Inno. All my guild members are complaining about the event and some are not doing it at all. Typically when a poor event is going on, the younger players are still getting things that help them. Not this year. Shame on you Inno!

 

[Dursland]

Funny because many people are calling this the best event building inno has released. Plus there's the canal, train, spire, and bakery kits. Last two are meh but first two are great for a world like Dilmun where we're all starting off and need more attack boost.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

I've played this game for many years and there is always events you like more than others. I have always liked the holiday event. This year it is terrible. The rewards are junk. You get better in the recurring quests. The elf shelf doesn't even start to make you want to buy the items for a whopping 2995 diamonds. This event is blatantly appearing as presents for Inno. All my guild members are complaining about the event and some are not doing it at all. Typically when a poor event is going on, the younger players are still getting things that help them. Not this year. Shame on you Inno!

What is there to complain about this year versus years passed? The mechanic is the same, the Elf Shelf is the same as Santa's Sleigh. The daily specials are very good (SOs, Trains, Winter Canal, Winter Bakery). The new Event building is very good. About the only thing to gripe about is that the bonus prize line cannot be bought with diamonds this year, only real money. I play on 5 worlds with cities from IA to SAJM. There's something for everyone in this event.

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

Why blame Inno for not providing prizes to free-to-play players the prizes they want? How does free-play translate into income for a for-profit business? This type of complaint has been addressed ad infinitum, ad nauseum in just about every game I've ever played that has a pay-to-play option. I concur with @Pericles the Lion that if you are willing to pay and the option doesn't exist than it is "the only thing to gripe about." Why exclude the people willing to pay real $ for something? Then it would be unfair. I personally like the fact that I have so many options to choose from in games that were once only offered for purchase by the gaming industry.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

I would agree that the main event building is much better than many they've had lately. Other than that, this event sucks. Lame daily prizes even when you switch them out. The Elf Shelf/Reindeer Sleigh is no better than before, despite the ability to "choose" prizes giving us the illusion of improvement. And having to spend real cash instead of slowly accumulated free Diamonds for the extra prizes is a step in the wrong direction and implies that the increase in free Diamond availability is hurting Inno's bottom line. That is troubling and does not bode well for the game.

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

I would agree that the main event building is much better than many they've had lately. Other than that, this event sucks. Lame daily prizes even when you switch them out. The Elf Shelf/Reindeer Sleigh is no better than before, despite the ability to "choose" prizes giving us the illusion of improvement. And having to spend real cash instead of slowly accumulated free Diamonds for the extra prizes is a step in the wrong direction and implies that the increase in free Diamond availability is hurting Inno's bottom line. That is troubling and does not bode well for the game.

Good points but I still fail to see how that would affect a company (any company providing a game, not just Inno) offering a product that allows for play for free. Their "purpose" isn't to please the people who play for free but to keep the paying customers satisfied and to garner more sales for future customers.

Once upon a time there was something known as Shareware. lol

In the misty days of life before Shareware was - purchase a stand alone product and then keep purchasing upgrades/updates. For me, I prefer the chance to play "rent-free" a game to determine whether or not I like it and then purchase it if I'm liking what I've found. To each his own but honestly, complaining about not getting more free stuff doesn't change the simple fact that they are a for-profit business. If they don't satisfy the players who pay nothing and those players stop playing what have they really lost? Nothing.

 

[Xenosaur]

I've played this game for many years and there is always events you like more than others. I have always liked the holiday event. This year it is terrible. The rewards are junk. You get better in the recurring quests. The elf shelf doesn't even start to make you want to buy the items for a whopping 2995 diamonds. This event is blatantly appearing as presents for Inno. All my guild members are complaining about the event and some are not doing it at all. Typically when a poor event is going on, the younger players are still getting things that help them. Not this year. Shame on you Inno!

I think you're missing a huge piece of the big picture on this event. You really need to see the power of the pieces being offered, and think forward to what they can do for your city, your game - or ANY city.

Wow, you've made a huge disconnect, sorry to say. I'd urge you to introspectively read the feedback topic on it here: https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/winter-event-2022-feedback.44741/ so as to get a much better balance on your overt and misplaced event negativity.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Good points but I still fail to see how that would affect a company (any company providing a game, not just Inno) offering a product that allows for play for free. Their "purpose" isn't to please the people who play for free but to keep the paying customers satisfied and to garner more sales for future customers.

Well, the trouble is that they've now put a hard price tag on what could have been gotten either way in the past. That doesn't satisfy anyone, pay or free.

To each his own but honestly, complaining about not getting more free stuff doesn't change the simple fact that they are a for-profit business.

I'm not complaining about not getting more free stuff at all. I'm simply stating that the free stuff I can get isn't worth much this time around, and the stuff (worth it or not) that I used to be able to get for free now costs cash. Big difference, at least to me. And yes, they are a for-profit business, but charging for things that used to be relatively free isn't a good sign for long-term profits. Whales are great, but pissing off the casual buyers is not smart.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

Well, the trouble is that they've now put a hard price tag on what could have been gotten either way in the past. That doesn't satisfy anyone, pay or free.

I'm not complaining about not getting more free stuff at all. I'm simply stating that the free stuff I can get isn't worth much this time around, and the stuff (worth it or not) that I used to be able to get for free now costs cash. Big difference, at least to me. And yes, they are a for-profit business, but charging for things that used to be relatively free isn't a good sign for long-term profits. Whales are great, but pissing off the casual buyers is not smart.

I think that the only players that are really impacted by the decision to put the bonus prizes behind a cash paywall are diamond farmers (and I'm one of them). Players that never paid diamonds for the crappy prizes don't care. Players that used to buy diamonds to buy the crappy prizes are happy because the $14.99 cash price is less than its equivalent cost in diamonds (unless the player lucked into a 200% deal). Players that farm diamonds but never bought the crappy prizes don't care. Only the diamond farmers that paid diamonds for the crappy prizes are affected because they now need to pony up cash (and I hardly think that INNO is concerned about upsetting them). I'm not seeing a downside for INNO.

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

Let me make my position clear: a for-profit company isn't going to expend any effort into satisfying clientele who pay nothing. Why should they? They lose nothing if they are disastisfied except the slim possibility that that same player might buy one of their advertisers products. Their efforts are and should be expended by pleasing the paying customer whether or not that customer pays a little or a lot. So, yes, if the product they are offering is in some way inferior to what's been offered before then by all means address the issue of quality but not the issue of price. Prices change and to cloud the issue of whether or not it's 'fair' or 'unfair' to 'this' or 'that' percentage of the entire client base rather than the 'paying client' base goes back to my original point, they are a for-profit business and it's in their own best interest to address the issues of keeping them happy/garnering more paying clients from the free-play player base. They owe nothing more.

There's an awful lot of bashing of the "whales" here. Try to remember that if it weren't for them the company wouldn't offer a 'free' product at all.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Players that never paid diamonds for the crappy prizes don't care.

Except that this building is much better than the recent ones, so those who usually don't pay Diamonds for the crappy prizes might have this time.

Players that used to buy diamonds to buy the crappy prizes are happy because the $14.99 cash price is less than its equivalent cost in diamonds (unless the player lucked into a 200% deal).

This part is true.

Players that farm diamonds but never bought the crappy prizes don't care.

Again, except for the fact that this building is worth getting multiples of, while many in the past weren't.

Only the diamond farmers that paid diamonds for the crappy prizes are affected because they now need to pony up cash (and I hardly think that INNO is concerned about upsetting them).

And are the Diamond farmers who are also casual buyers likely to keep buying occasionally now that they're being squeezed this way? I doubt it.

There's an awful lot of bashing of the "whales" here.

Just to be clear, I am not in any way, shape or form bashing whales.

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

Just to be clear, I am not in any way, shape or form bashing whales.

How true but the whale-bashing continues nevertheless! lol (There's got to be an Ahab joke in there somewhere....)

 

[Pericles the Lion]

Except that this building is much better than the recent ones, so those who usually don't pay Diamonds for the crappy prizes might have this time.

Again, except for the fact that this building is worth getting multiples of, while many in the past weren't.

When I said "crappy prizes" I was referring to the prizes on the "Winter Prizes" lineup that would be available to otherwise F2P players. I agree 100% that the event building is a winner (and it appears that players that are able to intelligently play the mini-game will get this building for free).

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

When I said "crappy prizes" I was referring to the prizes on the "Winter Prizes" lineup that would be available to otherwise F2P players. I agree 100% that the event building is a winner (and it appears that players that are able to intelligently play the mini-game will get this building for free).

And you can get extra kits for it in the Winter Prizes lineup if you go far enough, which you could do with Diamonds before, but now you need cash. The players talking about getting multiples have referred to it repeatedly.

 

[SomePlayer5000]

i mean.. its alright, im hoping to get as much progress into a chocolatery since i felt convinced off of bonuses, although im not sure how you even get keys for the advent calendar, i havent been able to like get a key or anything out of it so far.

 

[Xenosaur]

It sounds like to me that Inno has every intention of CONTINUING to charge real-world currency ONLY (Cash) to unlock the Premium track.

The next event coming, Forge Bowl 2023 has the same feature: $15 US to UNLOCK the PREMIUM track even for their beta test community. Like WOW - go figure on that one.

Remember though, once you pay the UNLOCK FEE with CASH - you can then use ANY diamonds you purchase OR earn in the game (from multiple sources) to proceed DOWN THE TRACK. Zoom, Zoom...

THE KEY for the PREMIUM TRACK LOCK (to unlock it...) though, is cash (currently $15 US), and feels like the UNLOCK FEE is going to stay cash for future events.

 

[spartacus2.0]

this game is slowly becoming ebenezer scrooge

 

[Pericles the Lion]

this game is slowly becoming ebenezer scrooge

Did you read all of the story? It has a happy ending.

 

[UBERhelp1]

For me, the biggest problem isn't the cost of the event pass being in real money. The problem is that it is a free (with diamonds) feature that was turned into a paid one, without adding any special value to it, in fact making it cost a greater amount than it used to (~2.5x the monetary cost of the diamonds needed for the previous 1200 price). If I'm paying 2.5x as much, then I want at least some kind of value. For example, there could be store bundles of something like:
$10 Event Pass
$15 Event Pass + 200 Stars
$25 Event Pass + 800 Stars
etc.

Also, it could have been added value to Forge Plus to include the event pass with it. Once again, adding value, not taking it away.

 

[Emberguard]

Let me make my position clear: a for-profit company isn't going to expend any effort into satisfying clientele who pay nothing.

(1) It’s a tactic for converting potential customers into paying customers, and if done well can result in those customers being far more generous with their wallets (2) the game would be meaningless to pay to play if the free to play get isolated and leave.

While I can’t blame Inno for wanting to turn a profit, the game is advertised as free to play. So the paying customers will have a certain set of expectations stemming from that. It’s in Inno‘s interest to keep the free to play players happy, even if that seems counterintuitive