Author Topic: Zombie Farm Battles  (Read 3862 times)

Mike

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Zombie Farm Battles
« on: June 15, 2013, 11:54:35 AM »
I've been working mostly on this game since December.  We just released it to Canada for a test market.  So if you are Canadian and have an iOS device check it out and let us know how it is.  https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/zombie-farm-battles/id577856462?ls=1&mt=8

Betazep

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Re: Zombie Farm Battles
« Reply #1 on: June 16, 2013, 10:47:56 AM »
Not Canadian, so haven't tried it... but...

$100 for a chest of brains.  Really? 

I think that is kind of par for course for these kinds of *pay-as-you-go* games.  Maybe very rich people will just drop a hundred bucks like it is pocket change.

I made a pact with myself that I would never play that kind of game again.
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Mike

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Re: Zombie Farm Battles
« Reply #2 on: June 16, 2013, 11:00:10 AM »
There are lower price points as well.  But yeah, either you buy into the model or you don't.  Think about this though, a typical subscription based MMO is $15 a month.  So for a years worth of play it is $180.  Other forms of entertainment are even more expensive.  So it really is just picking the poison you are willing to drink.

micah

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Re: Zombie Farm Battles
« Reply #3 on: June 16, 2013, 03:24:10 PM »
There are lower price points as well.  But yeah, either you buy into the model or you don't.  Think about this though, a typical subscription based MMO is $15 a month.  So for a years worth of play it is $180.  Other forms of entertainment are even more expensive.  So it really is just picking the poison you are willing to drink.

similar point made by a former zynga employee on an interesting reddit IAMA that I saw a couple weeks ago...

Quote from: http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1fpbv1/i_was_one_of_the_520_people_laid_off_by_zynga/cachiz7
I think that a lot of freemium games suffer from the obvious fact that they're asking for money. But that's what you get from a free game, right? I mean Zynga wasn't making games to be charitable. It's a business. So the games they provided were free, and most people never paid. And for them that was fine.
I think a lot of gamers look at that with disdain because they hate the idea of paying to win. It takes the sport out of the game and makes it unfair. If I could pay $1 and win a deathmatch round of Halo I'd be a cheating asshole. But that's because everyone playing Halo already dropped $60 to play that game and it's also just not fair.
The playing field for freemium games is different. Farmville isn't a deathmatch. It's a solo grind that requires players to spend time and spam their friends to advance. If you don't want to do either, you can spend a dollar. The general attitude with freemium is that if you're going to pay us, we'll let you skip through the game as fast as you want. Because, who cares? We get the money, and you get to save some time. We both win.
I'm not saying it's for everyone. But there's clearly a market for this kinda gaming.
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Betazep

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Re: Zombie Farm Battles
« Reply #4 on: June 16, 2013, 06:27:56 PM »
Pfft... $180 puhleez...

I probably spent over 4K on the original Shaiya (http://shaiya.aeriagames.com/) during the three years that I played.  I had a pretty kick ass character... one of the best Mages money and mountains of time could buy. $100-$200 a month habit.

Still have the character and all that rare gear... but the game economics fell over.  Some people spent waaaaay more than me and had gear that is impossible to farm (some hacked from back in the day).  Rumors of people in Japan spending $25K USD because it was pocket change for them.  I found myself playing *only* with people that have invested lots of money.  No new people could come and compete.

I walked away from all of that when my computer broke.  Now I have time with my family and actual sleep: where I am not playing a video game from midnight to three in the morning and then going to work at 7... almost every day.

So yeah... I get the reason... and I know it is a business, but since I find I am unable to control myself with pay to play games, I would rather just buy up front and play to play.
"The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents." -Nathaniel Borenstein

Perspective

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Re: Zombie Farm Battles
« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2013, 11:24:02 AM »
If I ever manage to finish my thesis I'll give it a shot, maybe next week.

Mike

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Re: Zombie Farm Battles
« Reply #6 on: June 17, 2013, 11:31:12 AM »
I'm sure you could use a break ;)