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Post by Danjal on Oct 8, 2014 3:09:33 GMT
Its a matter of quality versus quantity...
A decent to good SEA title would definitely have racked them up sales by now - but that'd mean either sacrificing the 'more populous' mobile market, OR expand the dev-team to include some dedicated personel on both sides of the fence.
I think something important to keep in mind here is that while there are FAR MORE mobile players, the majority of them don't pay.
So its really a matter of playing the odds, keeping retention as high as possible for as low an investment as possible - so you get more foot traffic.
More foot traffic means more eyes on the product, which inevitably means that more people will drop a few bucks here and there.
It also increases the odds of a whale coming by and dropping quiet a bit more than a few bucks on your product.
However, and here's the catch with mobile development. Aside from a few titles, most mobile titles do not shine. And if they do, they only shine for a short time.
To expect Godus to be the new Clash of Clans or Angry Birds purely because its made by Peter Molyneux seems a rather strange and risky proposition.
Moreover, because of the nebulous nature of mobile players, its really easy to get them in - but significantly harder to KEEP them in.
A PC player has invested, if only if you account for the $20 entry fee. So a PC player is more likely to stick around, or at the very least return at a later date.
While every PC player does not bring in a potential trickle of revenue, they represent a certain degree of retention especially if your game is good enough.
A mobile player on the other hand, they got in for free, once you lose their interest it'll be significantly harder to get it back.
"Oh that game, yea I tried that it was boring." is a vastly different argument from "Oh hey, Godus got an update, lets see if something changed."
That said, going by the past 20 months it seems unlikely that something will change.
Turning mobile in a nice trickle of cash now - but ultimately merely meaning the difference between a slow death by strangling or starvation as opposed to a swift and clean execution.
That is, ofcourse, assuming they keep to their current course and hold their focus on mobile.
To expect Godus to become "the next Angry Birds" or any similar such title is foolish.
I love more content as much as the next guy - though I doubt that 22cans understands that "more freemium content" will not satisfy that desire.
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
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I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Oct 8, 2014 5:53:16 GMT
More eyes on the product can also lead to hastened extinction of your game if the product is bad.
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Post by Danjal on Oct 8, 2014 6:41:32 GMT
Lets just say that I don't have the slightest clue how the logic and reasoning skills for the average casual iOS users works.
These are people that claim that PC gaming is too expensive yet some of them are more than happy to sink dozens if not hundreds of dollars into a mobile title.
They also complain that certain PC games are too hard or too boring - only to spend hours tapping away at cookie clickers or candy crush.
Above all else, they seem to be very lenient when it comes to quality assurance, which likely comes forth from the low pricepoint and ease of accessibility.
Afterall, something you get for free on your phone surely doesn't have to stand up to the same requirements as something you play on your $300~400 console or your PC...
Its safe to say that I do not understand how some of these games get as successful as they do.
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Post by engarde on Oct 8, 2014 7:03:34 GMT
Well I can't wait to get to wayworld. On a sidenote, it seems that none of the 22Cans cm-peeps any longer care about posting on this board. I wonder what it was that caused them to abandon us. It's not because they are posting on the official forums either though. No idea about steam. Given statements there about burning midnight oil for frankly very little to show for it they appear to have time management issues. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2014 8:32:25 GMT
No worries, this is still an alpha version.  All the worries, they seem to think an alpha version is a beta version because terminology is used fuzzily. -> Yes, that's first iteratively pretty dumb to think that they believe to be in a beta while nothing of even the mobile version s completed. ->Nah they'll just say "it's mobile content, we told you that before hand, pc sprint is later. duh!" It's bullshit. I want GODUS pc to be the priority like they promised. ->To me, mobile s "unfortunately" kind of priority as it brings funds to make the rest. Lets just say that I don't have the slightest clue how the logic and reasoning skills for the average casual iOS users works. -> It's like girls who go shopping except that you replace clothes by video games. As I said in the sister thread on the Steam forums, the Wayworld content shouldn't exist at this point. We've been told they were going to do the "pc focus" after they finished their mobile push. When and where did they get the bandwidth to actually design all this new content? If they have the ability to design this, they have enough manpower to split their "tiny group" into pc and mobile teams so we can finally get some emphasis on what we paid for. Since they've repeatedly denied their ability to do so, it boggles my mind just how big a reality warping their narrative has undergone in the last 3 months... As mentioned (indirectly, after some edits taking this post into account) on the Steam thread, I think it emerged from the extensive meetings they were conducting post-iOS release in mid to late August, and work began then, despite also announcing the BFE then. I think to some extent our response encouraged them in follow-up meetings to just put it on the backburner to focus on Wayworld. Last week the main focus was in taking stock of just about everything and giving ourselves an honest status report for the game and company... So this week the team is spending a bit of time breaking some new ground on a few things. For example, adding a bit more complexity into the gameplay is something that the team's working on. I know that sounds obnoxiously vague, and I suppose you'd be right. So on that note, here's a couple of questions that we're working on providing answers for: What about players who don't want to only play voyages when not working on their homeworld? On a completely separate note, is there another place followers can go beyond just Homeworld and Hubworld? Maybe somewhere in between?They were implicitly telling us they were already shifting gears to content over the BFE as early as the beginning of last month. So...Yeah. -> They should make official info update instead of wasting time of CM doing those underground news for only 10 people out there out of let's say 30000 people "concerned" by Godus by now. What a waste of energy/time for everybody ! Hello people from 22cans, update and just follow example of teams of 3 to tenish people new game studios who makes brilliant things or maybe it's harsh to admit to iOS gamers that they "invest to play" in an unfinished game that ll have to start over in a month or so. >_< It's not worth to play Godus, as for me, as it's not what I backed... and it's what concerns, and worries all the people on forums I admit, arg. Can we trust 22cans? No if they don't give any official news to the community they give half a fuck to it, as 22cans seems to act as a big studios going to conventions and stuff. They seem not to have understood that from the beginning, and afterward to not understand reaction of the community, hum or lol? Fair enough to me, once again. edit: damn it, lol, we're only 180 people on this forum  |
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Post by engarde on Oct 8, 2014 9:37:57 GMT
Ah so we are the bully then because we outnumber them...
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Post by rubgish on Oct 8, 2014 11:14:59 GMT
The CM people haven't abandoned us intentionally, it's just there are way more mobile players and way more to do on the mobile side. I dunno if you guys have been following mobile stuff much, but it's going decently for them after a pretty rough start. They had a huge number of problems first with save files getting lost, then iOS8 losing save files etc, and you have to be insane to think they aren't going to drop any PC dev work to fix mobile bugs. They were able to manually re-instate peoples games through their usernames, but that's awfully time intensive, especially when you think just how many times more mobile players there are than PC players. However now, the bugs seem to be mainly fixed and generally mobile players are enjoying the game. If you care to take a look at the grossing apps, Godus seems to be holding steady in terms of it's income and even getting a bit better on iPad.
Essentially this means they have got a hold of the market, but to keep it they have to continue to update the product and improve it in a relatively short time-frame. Mobile players won't drop a game and come back to it in a few months/year and play it again. PC players on the other hand, they will wait and will come back to play a game. On mobile, if you play something and don't like it, you just uninstall it and never think about it again. On steam, you install it, don't like it, and then think "maybe i'll try it again in 6 months". I think what I am really trying to say is that while it sucks for us that the PC version is going to have to wait even longer, it's entirely expected and a logical choice from 22cans point of view.
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zeruelb
Junior Apprentice
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Post by zeruelb on Oct 8, 2014 12:55:27 GMT
As I said over on Steam, rather than address the pc concerns and focus on the only thing they've offered at this point (the BFE), they've chosen to focus on a feature-set that benefits mobile, with the side effect of giving us the content as well. This isn't stability patching, which is what we were told was holding up the pc focus. This is content for their already released platform. I don't see them releasing anything of note that isn't also pushed to the mobile version. We're Harry Potter going to the zoo. Thats what they call PC Sprint. Sprinting Away from PC as fast as possible. |
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Post by Monkeythumbz on Oct 8, 2014 16:22:55 GMT
On a sidenote, it seems that none of the 22Cans cm-peeps any longer care about posting on this board. I wonder what it was that caused them to abandon us. Mostly because of posts like this, if you must know. |
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Oct 8, 2014 17:03:32 GMT
On a sidenote, it seems that none of the 22Cans cm-peeps any longer care about posting on this board. I wonder what it was that caused them to abandon us. Mostly because of posts like this, if you must know. Aaaah ic. Well that post was made looong after you went away on holiday and never came back. And it's not like what I wrote isn't the truth. We have been asking for regular updates about what's been going on inside 22Cans since o say February 2013. And over time we have heard countless times that it's a good idea and it would be worked on but yet afterwards nothing really changed. I believe you yourself have told us this at least once but probably multiple times since you came on the scene, as have others who were in your position before you. By the way, my post is not a personal attack on you but a mirror of my impressions of the collective experiences I've had over the past (almost) two years with 22Cans and it's community efforts*. I know you would do tons of wonderful shit for us if you could but your hands are thoroughly tied and there's only so much you can do. When you first started out things were looking up and then when some other 22Canners joined the forum things were looking even better. It seemed like we finally had a good thing going. But apparently that all went down the shitter rather quickly. As such I see no reason to alter my statement. I guess it's up to you to either prove me wrong or ignore it altogether. I'm not sure if I even really care, but I'm sure there are people out there who still do. For me this whole project has been a journey of disillusionment. But you're a swell guy George. * I intentionally didn't say community management because that term has gotten a very negative connotation for me as if we are a flock of sheeples that need to be managed/handled by 22Cans so we don't cause damage to the company. |
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Post by Monkeythumbz on Oct 8, 2014 17:11:07 GMT
Mostly because of posts like this, if you must know. Aaaah ic. Well that post was made looong after you went away on holiday and never came back. And it's not like what I wrote isn't the truth. We have been asking for regular updates about what's been going on inside 22Cans since o say February 2013. And over time we have heard countless times that it's a good idea and it would be worked on but yet afterwards nothing really changed. I believe you yourself have told us this at least once but probably multiple times since you came on the scene, as have others who were in your position before you. By the way, my post is not a personal attack on you but a mirror of my impressions of the collective experiences I've had over the past (almost) two years with 22Cans and it's community efforts*. I know you would do tons of wonderful shit for us if you could but your hands are thoroughly tied and there's only so much you can do. When you first started out things were looking up and then when some other 22Canners joined the forum things were looking even better. It seemed like we finally had a good thing going. But apparently that all went down the shitter rather quickly. As such I see no reason to alter my statement. I guess it's up to you to either prove me wrong or ignore it altogether. I'm not sure if I even really care, but I'm sure there are people out there who still do. For me this whole project has been a journey of disillusionment. But you're a swell guy George. * I intentionally didn't say community management because that term has gotten a very negative connotation for me as if we are a flock of sheeples that need to be managed/handled by 22Cans so we don't cause damage to the company. Thanks. Tbh, from the moment I got back from Burning Man until basically yesterday I was dealing with iOS support issues, so I had literally no time to do proper community management - I was so slammed I had to ask Matthew to compose the most recent blog piece. I'm still frighteningly busy and dealing with the remaining dregs of the iOS issues is still taking up some of my time (as well as player acquisition/engagement/conversion/retention stuff, plus internal reporting duties), but I've made some decent headway over the last two days with what I'd call proper community management. Just wish i'd done it three weeks ago as originally planned following my trip to Yogscast with Peter and Jack. |
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Lord Ba'al
Supreme Deity
Posts: 6,260
Pledge level: Half a Partner
I like: Cats; single malt Scotch; Stargate; Amiga; fried potatoes; retro gaming; cheese; snickers; sticky tape.
I don't like: Dimples in the bottom of scotch bottles; Facebook games masquerading as godgames.
Steam: stonelesscutter
GOG: stonelesscutter
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Post by Lord Ba'al on Oct 8, 2014 17:25:51 GMT
Is that why Matthew Allen has stopped posting community updates in the announcements section? Coz while you were gone I've noticed news about various announcements being posted by board members that were apparently posted on steam but there was no peep here. Not that you guys are obligated to post those of course but since this all changed quite suddenly it's quite obvious why it would feel like we were being abandoned. |
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Post by Qetesh on Oct 8, 2014 17:43:54 GMT
Personal real life stuff happens for sure. I have more than a boatload of major lifetime changing things happen in last few weeks. My absence or lack of time here is more about I just don't know what is of value to post at this point though. What can I add of merit to a bunch of highly skilled gamers like yourselves? I still have a very tiny fraction of hope for the game but I also have so much more enjoyment in the community, that the game is falling by the wayside for me.
Am I wrong or a horrible person? I am just a lowly casual gamer, so I don't even know if 22cans cares what I think.
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Post by hardly on Oct 8, 2014 18:19:41 GMT
George the need to focus on mobile over pc may be the reality but its not a reality we accept since to us it was a choice 22cans made. There will be conflict as long as 22cans are neglecting their original vision. This doesn't mean we blame the CMs since they are as powerless in this regard as us but it does mean we blame your company.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2014 13:29:23 GMT
Ah so we are the bully then because we outnumber them... Mmm, I guess yes, but not because people outnumber others, because some people spend too much time, stuck in front of the same screen... |
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Post by earlparvisjam on Oct 9, 2014 13:50:05 GMT
George the need to focus on mobile over pc may be the reality but its not a reality we accept since to us it was a choice 22cans made. There will be conflict as long as 22cans are neglecting their original vision. This doesn't mean we blame the CMs since they are as powerless in this regard as us but it does mean we blame your company.  Hope that's not too obscure... |
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Aron
Master
Posts: 125
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Post by Aron on Oct 9, 2014 16:09:08 GMT
seems to be delayed..
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Post by rubgish on Oct 9, 2014 17:30:33 GMT
If it's going to get released it won't be done till 8/9 GMT, that's pretty standard for 22cans releases.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 9, 2014 17:59:24 GMT
What's the name of this kind of realease? Content realease? Mechanic realease? Testing realease? Starting over realease?
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Post by Danjal on Oct 9, 2014 18:02:08 GMT
What's the name of this kind of realease? Content realease? Mechanic realease? Testing realease? Starting over realease? Its being released in opt-in for now, it will contain only part of the features as listed in the Weyworld/Ark blog as not everything is finished yet and by all reports it will NOT require a world reset. |
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