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Next steps with Mobile Video Ads (Feedback thread)

Pericles the Lion

Well-Known Member
1 week later after this update, 5 inactives purged from Friends List.

I have a feeling the most recent changes will bring yet more, there were a lot on 2 day idle that I didn't remove yet.
You seem to be implying that there is a causal relationship between the changes to in-game advertisements and the number of inactive players on your friends list. Quite a leap. Out of curiosity, I just checked the friends list on my main city. It is comprised of 140 advanced players all of whom continue to be active.
 

Dursland

Well-Known Member
You seem to be implying that there is a causal relationship between the changes to in-game advertisements and the number of inactive players on your friends list. Quite a leap. Out of curiosity, I just checked the friends list on my main city. It is comprised of 140 advanced players all of whom continue to be active.
I checked my list at the time of this update, and posted that I would be checking it again in a week+ and wagered I would have inactives.

You're right I can't assume it's due to the ads but you can't say it's not either.
 

Dursland

Well-Known Member
I did some googling and think I found the email address for one of MTG's upper ups - the President and CEO. I sent this

I hope this is the correct email for the Maria Redin from MTG, the new owners of InnoGames.

I'm not sure if you're aware but the latest changes to the games are driving away so many players. They are clearly designed to increase FoE's revenue but they are going to do the opposite in the long run.

I have been a player for over 5 years and I've never seen an exodus like this one, over the new mobile ads and Guild Expedition 5.

If MTG wants a long term prospect out of their purchase, I would recommend you taking a personal look into the situation. Thank you for your time.

I recommend everyone try to reach out to MTG management via social media, emails, etc. Make them aware of the situation. They are likely business suit types that only look at revenue numbers and aren't paying attention to what's going on behind the scenes. Make your voice known!

If you're going to take the time to post on the forums, then take the time to do this - because it will actually be worthwhile, unlike posting on the forums (sad but true).
 

Andrew-Scott

New Member
I did some googling and think I found the email address for one of MTG's upper ups - the President and CEO. I sent this



I recommend everyone try to reach out to MTG management via social media, emails, etc. Make them aware of the situation. They are likely business suit types that only look at revenue numbers and aren't paying attention to what's going on behind the scenes. Make your voice known!

If you're going to take the time to post on the forums, then take the time to do this - because it will actually be worthwhile, unlike posting on the forums (sad but true).
I am on the fence as to whether I will continue to play FOE. As you say the new mobile ads and GE5 are kind of the last straw for me. And I have spent hundreds of dollars in diamonds over the past 3 years. But until there really is a real exodus, and revenue effected, complaints will fall on deaf ears. That’s just the way our business culture now works. Profit over reputation.
 

Kaidi

Active Member
Saying that someone "must have spent about 14K to earn 2 castle tower levels in the mid- to high-teens is, imho, a total guess. Inno's math may be confusing or even confounding from time to time but there are set parameters and it's been announced. (My total expenditures over a 1/2 year time frame are pretty high but surely no where near 14K, either!
The castle system has existed for 78 weeks, and as you say they are set parameters, which is where I got my numbers. The math isn't confusing, honest - it's really straightforward. The time the city has existed doesn't figure unless you started it more recently than that (like your Carthage/Dilmun cities). If you're at L12 that is 399600 points. A level 18 castle is 2,698,400. Two level 18s plus a level 17 is 7,360,300 points. You get a tiny amount for fights/negs/etc.
  • If you do all the fights/negs you can get points for, that is 480 points per day. (Almost, because of the GBG/GE dead day once every 2 weeks. But I won't quibble, lol.) So that is 3360 per week.
  • If you never miss a daily challenge, that is another 1400 per week.
  • You can get 235 per week collecting from your castle.
  • Winning an auction gives you 30 points. Buying an item outright gives you a few more depending on the item (my antiques dealer currently ranges from 4 points for the cheap stuff to 53 points for a tac tower upgrade at 10800 coins and 34 gems). Assume you're an auction fan and win 3 auctions per day, every day, every world, and buy the highest item every day. That's another 143 points per day, or 1001 per week.
So that's a total of 5996 per week. We'll round it to 6k per week for a VERY active player and auction fan, which means you could hit L12 for free, if you played that way since the Castle system was brought live. Any level beyond that requires money.

If someone played all three cities, maxing the free points, and ended up with 2 L18s and a L17, that leaves around 6 million points on the table. Inno gives 500 points per dollar spent. So that'd be about $12k assuming that someone was also an auction freak.

For me, I very rarely use the antiques dealer, and I don't get 15 negotiations in per day, even with SC, which I just built a couple of weeks ago. I do the ones required for quests. I probably miss a couple of daily challenges per week, so my weekly average is more like...3000 points.

I started my Carthage city just a few days after the castle system started. (lol, and didn't get the fights OR negotiations in at first. :D) I hit L16 on that castle about a year in, maybe a couple of weeks past that. That means it took around $2545 to get there. (Sounds right - I was averaging $40 per week with extra during Christmas, my birthday week and Wildlife. My lack of patience is expensive. lol.)

How on Earth is any different from any other Internet Company - gaming or otherwise - in the whole world??

This change is different for me, and not all Internet gaming companies do things the same way. I play free games and pay games both. On games with ads, some turn them off if you have made any purchase. Others let me make a one-time payment to remove ads. When I like a game, I happily pay it. And some are optional for a bonus of some sort, as Inno has done, though the rewards strike me as low for that type of ad.

If ads are forced, I won't play that game. For optional ads, for me, they need to not be intrusive, and I really feel Inno failed there.

Regardless, would I pay $48 or $360 per year, in perpetuity, in any game just to turn off ads? Nope. And certainly not after spending $2500+ in one year. (I don't know about the $4 subscription they are beta testing, but the $30 Forge Plus to remove ads...I think that was *per world*.)

I think it's a really bad implementation.

Plus I'm really sad to see people leaving.

(BTW - apologies for any typos. I tried to be careful, but I had eye surgery a week ago, can't see at all out of one eye, have a cataract in the other...typing is kinda rough going.)
 
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