Next steps with Mobile Video Ads (Feedback thread)

[Ignatius Krachus Gigantu]

While you are doing your experiments my guild lost 3 members that quit because of this crap. Maybe put someone with an imagination in development and design ? The app is off my phone after being on it for almost 3 years so if this is just your weird way of making it PC only then please just pull the plug on the app and leave the rest of the game alone. This is such a slap in the face.

I don't work for Inno, but I do work in the industry.

Fairly certain that both development and design thought this to be, ah, ill-conceived; the actual language used may have been more colorful. No, this bright spark of an idea came from somewhere else.

 

[Mit the explorer of dos]

On my way to inform the guild I'm taking a sabbatical.
Maybe I'll be back, maybe not.
Was a whale. Started seeing ads. Spent way more than $30/month, feel free to check. Eff your no ads for $30/mo.
I'll be seeing zero ads this way.
Thanks.

 

[TopCatUSMC]

I also have been playing for 5 years and I have 5 worlds to contend with so that’s 5 times the amount of videos…how about an option to spend 5 diamonds to skip the video…I have enough wishing wells to cover the added expense on diamonds…otherwise like others my days are numbered playing Forge of Empires in the future and the days are quickly elapsing having to watch videos. Actually let’s just start my indefinite sabbatical effective immediately!!

 

[DreadfulCadillac]

L update.

Try reducing the price of Foe Plus from $30 a month to $2.50-$5.00 a month, and I'd consider it.
Edit: Ads should be removed your account across all worlds if you have ever purchased anything in the game, no matter how cheap it was. Seriously. Any Purchase should disqualify you from ads. As a paying customer, this is ridiculous.

 

[Severus 700 the Fair]

Worst decision you could make for IMPROVING THE GAME. If you are attempting to make players leave, attract less players overall, and lose all momentum you've retained so far then continue with implementing ADs.

The main problem is ADs bring nothing positive into the game. As a game creator if you add any addition into a game after its been released it should only be a positive one. Ads only cause negative aspects to all the players, if your looking to retain the same amount of $$ from potential ADs then you need to start looking at what really makes a player spend money on this game.

Here's some great ideas to promote players to spend more $$$:

1) Be involved with the community, as you have been - if not more
2) Add in a new creative event(s): Limited time event, or a Buy-in Event where you have to spend diamonds to enter, or Mini-events that cost diamonds and don't last long, or a Large annual event
3) Continue on increasing player competitiveness overall - GBG additions & improvements have been great for this
4) Add New features in the game backed by diamonds, you can use the community to voice opinions or hold a voting process before implementing
5) Rewarding guilds that have high ranking, a ladder based system ? Not sure on which rewards but depending on the rewards, it could really increase overall competitiveness of players, in turn promoting spending and/or purchasing diamonds
6) Limited-number rare profile Avatars (Ex:"only 200 of this specific avatar can purchased") Or a purchase-only profile avatar selection? ( basically make it more desirable for the players to get them or spend $$ for them)
7) Add in more incentives to purchase limited diamond packages, EX: "Buy this amount of diamonds and get this rare profile avatar, or Buy this amount and get an atk/def boost for a limited time.. etc etc."


Boiled down into 1 sentence... FOCUS ON HOW TO PROMOTE PLAYERS TO SPEND MORE $$$, don't bring ADs into the game.

 

[Jammer.]

Have you even checked how these ads work. The appropriate way is to watch, then exit at the end. We can’t even do that without being forced to open a new page and wait. Even YouTube has a limit of adds as well as 15 second limits. These 1 minute adds are not only ridiculous but they don’t even appeal to the current demographic base of FOE. Most of us are adults and these ads are for very childish repetitive games.

 

[Oswyn the noble]

Its done. I have removed myself from guilds. I said my farewells to everyone. Deleted the app as well. But ill try stop by the forum from time to time. 3 long years the one guild ive been with, in O. Iam disallusioned. Thats the way it goes.

 

[Moose the Furry]

To the game developers,

the introduction of video ads has ruined the game experience for me. I am seriously thinking of leaving the game due to this change. I hope you roll back this change.

 

[Oswyn the noble]

On my way to inform the guild I'm taking a sabbatical.
Maybe I'll be back, maybe not.
Was a whale. Started seeing ads. Spent way more than $30/month, feel free to check. Eff your no ads for $30/mo.
I'll be seeing zero ads this way.
Thanks.

I spent less than 30...20 to 25 so im considered a dolphin

 

[NewBobMarket]

I have spend many dollars on this game. I have to also agree with most of the comments I’ve read here. I liked this game because there were no ads to watch. If this does not change some how I will stop playing, I don’t mind spending my money for entertainment. But now having to watch ads that are annoying and irritating is just something I can’t accept. Sorry guys but if I have to watch ads for simple bonuses, I’m out!!!!

 

[Saphira the Red]

Been playing for awhile now and have probably spent less than $100 total. Won’t be spending money here no matter how many adds they shove in my face. Sorry Inno.

 

[Marina Kalinin]

EDIT 22 Sep 22: I haven't seen any ads come up since my Forge Package ran out. I collect my coins and productions and I "complete a quest" of collecting 1 coin. I don't see something where I have to watch an ad or anything.

I really like this game, building a city through history, and I only play on my phone. I haven't seen ads because of the Forge Plus package the past couple of months. But I'll probably get them tomorrow when it runs out, and that's really going to suck. Whoever at Inno, in their infinite wisdom, decided to insert ads into this great game evidently had a screw loose, since this decision is so stupid and will turn off a lot of players.

 

[Amyality the Relentless]

No...just no. I will watch no ads.

 

[mellofax]

@mellofax Can you verify if you need to continually pay for Forge Plus to get rid of ads, or is a one-time purchase of it enough? Players are assuming that they have to buy it every month and that's not how I read the announcement. So could you clarify?

(I bought it once and only once, and I currently get no ads on mobile.)

Please remember at this time it is only a test and may never make it past this point. I can confirm in its current iteration it would require a live subscription in order to not see the ads if you are a part of that group.

 

[RazorbackPirate]

Please remember at this time it is only a test and may never make it past this point.

This is comedy gold!

If it got this far, it's going all the way live. Time will tell who has it right and who is full of it.

 

[Devon of Gloucestershire]

I bet this thread will be the first ever in the forum where literally every single post is in agreement. Ads are universally hated, Inno. Some may accept some small degree of intrusion but this will make the game unplayable. I have not yet seen an ad, and will leave when I see the first one. I cant even stand the looks of the Truce Tower with its ticky tacky Go Wild sign in the art. Subliminal messaging much? Its a bleeding irritant. I have spent real money. Way more than any game ever. I cant help but wonder if y’all have design contests where the winner is chosen by how much more the proposal will make the game suck. This ad scheme is the gold standard of Suck. Congrats.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

Please remember at this time it is only a test and may never make it past this point. I can confirm in its current iteration it would require a live subscription in order to not see the ads if you are a part of that group.

With all due respect, this does not feel like something that will be discarded completely. It feels like something that will end up being implemented game wide (hopefully just on the mobile side, but then that's the majority of your players, so that may not be ideal, either) in one form or another. Also, as someone who has purchased the Forge Plus package, I can tell you that it is massively overpriced. Only a new player would benefit much from it. The only part of it that I actually appreciated was the increased limit to the FP bar. But that is definitely not worth $29.99 every 28 days. Those who have mentioned a $4.99/month price are closer to the actual game value of the Forge Plus package.

I have been around long enough to remember the last time Inno tried ads in FoE. Then it was tied to an onscreen building that you could ignore if you didn't want to see ads. And that felt like something that could be discarded if the test didn't go well...and it was discarded. I don't know what Inno thought had changed that prompted this attempt at injecting ads into the game, but they're dead wrong. FoE's appeal all along has been the ability to play without spending money or seeing ads. Yes, many players (including me) have spent a lot of money on the game. But it was voluntary, and from the point of view that the game was good enough to spend money on. It no longer fits that description, and the forced injection of ads is not the solution. I would be happy to spend money again if the game returned to the interesting and fun game that I remember. Where farming GBG and sniping with an 80+ level Arc weren't the main play styles. Maybe the return of Historical Questlines could prompt renewed interest. Or maybe new ages that had something really different...and not just more and more "special" troop abilities and space "colonies".

Bottom line for me is that power creep and the single minded focus that the Arc and GBG have brought to the game have made it less and less of a leisure time activity and more of a chore. Probably why I stick to solo guilds and Diamond farms now. And way less spending than before. Doesn't make sense to spend money when players are allowed to amass ungodly amounts of resources from GBG, and tens of thousands of FP from Arc-based sniping. So I'll just keep playing my solo game...until ads become intrusive even on PC, and then I'm gone.

I've been playing for 7+ years...I've been a Forum moderator...but ads that you can't avoid are a deal breaker. Not just for me, but for thousands of other players, based on the responses here. And losing thousands of players is not something FoE can survive, IMHO.

 

[Mit the explorer of dos]

Just checked my account, I've been spending $100-$280USD monthly for the last year, more than that the previousl year. Average $150.
No more. Done. Finished.
I noticed a significant drop in player participation in the past few weeks. Did you already try group A, have dismal results and actually attempt to reproduce those results by trying group B?
I am not interested in watching ads, and definitely not going to SUBSCRIBE for $30USD.

You just lost a sure $100-$200/MO trying to get $30.
Get lost.

 

[Mit the explorer of dos]

I spent less than 30...20 to 25 so im considered a dolphin

I was spending $100-300/ month over the last year. Was.

 

[Anastasia Lionheart]

I've been playing this game for over 2 years now. I'd like to share my thoughts because I am reaching a point of frustration.

Forge Plus: $29.99 for 28 days is a bit excessive for only 1 city. At a minimum, it should be a full month, 30 days. A better idea would be to increase it to $49.99 and have it apply to all of a player's cities... so make it account wide. I'd pay for that. But I am not going to pay $29.99 for all 4 of my cities... that's over $100/mo to play this game. I'll give the game up before I do that. The Forge Plus package doesn't even provide forge points. I also purchase diamond packages here and there. I should not have to see ads across any of my cities because I do spend quantifiable dollar amounts. It's absurd. I am beginning to feel nickel and dimed. It would be one thing if this game was without bugs that never seem to be fixed, but that is not the case here.

These video ads are too long and disrupt gameplay and make me want to go play something else. Why should I pay for this game at all if portions of the game are not ad free?

I would reconsider this strategy. For those that don't spend an average of $50 a month? Perhaps. You do have to make some revenue, I get that. But I average more than that. Given that is the case, I don't think I should have to do any more and if I keep feeling like this, given the state of the economy, I'll go elsewhere for my gaming wants.

These are just my thoughts and my 2 cents, for what it's worth.

Thank you

I, not paying 29.99 for any of it. I buy diamonds when its 200 % and I won’t be buying any more of these ads don’t stop. Omg, the newest is on the auto aid. Go to he I. I’ll do it by hand, the old fashioned way. Same thing for the castle. What do you think you’re doing, Inno.