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Beware of sinking money into online social games

Posted 09-05-2012 at 12:42 AM by AlexFili
I've now seen two Facebook games close after an arbitrary period of time. Plants Vs Aliens and Lucky Train. The first was a rip-off of Plants vs Zombies which is fair enough, but the other game was still making money and was otherwise being casually used by thousands of people. What's common in both is that neither bothered to inform their userbase in advance of the closure, and neither offered to refund customers.

While it's all well and good paying for virtual services, be aware that when the service ends then you end up losing out.

It's different when you buy games from things like Steam and Origin because supposedly you own those forever. Virtual goods are different though, once that online world shuts down, you have no access to them.

I'm a little guilty of this in terms of Rock Band 3 songs and the occasional DLC, and in general, companies do a good job of making sure customers don't get a raw deal in terms of online purchases.

What worries me most is when companies drop support of online games, or make matchmaking so significantly bad that a certain section of the community are physically unable to play online multiplayer. If this keeps going it will reach a stage where people play a game for about a month and then suddenly everyone drops it and moves on to the next thing.

To quote Ferris Bueller: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
Total Comments 12

Comments

Phylum's Avatar
I agree with the title, but for different reasons.
Posted 09-05-2012 at 01:27 AM by Phylum

Jordan's Avatar
I think it's a waste of money sinking it into games like that regardless of whether or not the world will shut down.
Posted 09-05-2012 at 02:06 AM by Jordan

Crashpunk's Avatar
I've sunk way to much money in TF2. One of my biggest regrets.
Posted 09-05-2012 at 02:47 AM by Crashpunk

JennyGenesis's Avatar
Server shutdowns are something I've never understood, though I assume that keeping servers up costs money and companies don't want to keep servers up that people don't use anymore. Which I suppose is fine if a little inconvenient for some, but what has really annoyed me is that the Test Drive Unlimited servers are being shut down at the end of the month, which would be fine but Test Drive Unlimited 2 is an awful game and the Facebook page has been full of people demanding they keep the servers up for the first game because the second game is so bad.
Posted 09-05-2012 at 03:30 AM by JennyGenesis

Varrok's Avatar
:
I've sunk way to much money in TF2. One of my biggest regrets.
I actually earned much from TF2. There were the best trades in my life.
Posted 09-05-2012 at 06:06 AM by Varrok
Updated 09-05-2012 at 06:14 AM by Varrok

Jordan's Avatar
i sort of think it's better to sink money into tf2 than anything on facebook
Posted 09-05-2012 at 06:57 AM by Jordan

Nepsotic's Avatar
Yes, it's silly to put money into games just for a coin or some stupid shit like that. "Pay a tenner and get ten coins you can use to see who's been visiting your profile the most!" "I DON'T CAARE!"

Nothing on Facebook is worth playing, never mind paying for.
Posted 09-05-2012 at 07:15 AM by Nepsotic

MeechMunchie's Avatar
Actually, you don't own the games you have on Steam, you just have the right to play them.

Well, it's better than iTunes. There paying the fee just entitles you to not be sued for owning those MP3s. I shit you not.
Posted 09-05-2012 at 01:40 PM by MeechMunchie

MA's Avatar
i don't spend money on that shit. simples.

and i fucking hate FB. it's just my nightmare.
Posted 09-05-2012 at 04:41 PM by MA

DarkHoodness's Avatar
Those who spend money on Facebook games have more money than sense. Or simply don't have any sense - If you're going to waste your hard-earned cash on crappy videogame entertainment, there are plenty of choices that give a much better value for money. Most mobile phone games, for example.

...But then says the guy who spent a total of 3 years (non-continuously) paying sub for WoW... £9 a month so wasn't worth it, even though it was fun playing PvP with the friends I made during my last 1 and a half year period of play. Communities are the only reason MMOs keep you hooked. They'd quickly get boring otherwise.
Posted 09-05-2012 at 08:18 PM by DarkHoodness

AlexFili's Avatar
Mentioning TF2 reminds me of something else:

Games that have an arbitrary "minimum purchase limit"

Everyone's guilty of this, TF2, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft. It's bloody criminal. Basically they want you to waste as much money as possible and every digital penny you don't spend is an extra one in their pockets. What a disgrace!
Posted 09-06-2012 at 12:38 AM by AlexFili

MeechMunchie's Avatar
Well, you usually don't have to actually buy the game in question. What's the difference?
Posted 09-06-2012 at 08:10 AM by MeechMunchie

 






 
 
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