Too Late for Farmville? Part 3

Other things we want less of:  stOOpid control-freakish rules, limits & requirements...oh, and clutter! Unless it's our clutter, then it's okay - yours is not.  
 
Rules
 
I have - had - a system for my trees. Other players have - had - systems for their horses... or other critters, or whatever.... 
 
sure... go ahead and lock trees, horses, pathways, pens, whatever.... to a particular farm ... it's your game... if you want to piss off more players and make us leave because now you've decided it would be a good idea to break our collections AND our systems - if that's your goal, well done... you're doing an excellent job.
 
If, on the other hand, you'd like us to stick around, play, and give you money ... perhaps you could quit with things that really just don't matter?
 
Limits 
 

Seriously...I buy expansions using actual FC and you fill them with ugly crap I can't move that needs 28 or 42 ugly stupid parts to get rid of each one and THEN you set a limit on how many I can collect for each post?

You want I should collect daily collections stamps and then you limit each post as to the number I can get from the (very) few friends I have who are still playing?

And while I'm on the topic, why IS it that in your other games the gift box actually works and lets me access whatever gifts people have sent me, but in Farmville, the max is 50 and anything over that seems to disappear into the ether? Does anybody even bother sending/receiving gifts in Farmville any more? I don't ... too tedious to flip through pages of crap I don't want to send to get  to the few things I might ... and then the vast majority disappears anyway.


And the safety deposit box and bushel limits? Hello? We've been whining about the bushel thing for eons ... ever since you started throwing new farms at us for no good reason.

You've broken the gift exchange thing ... so we are left trying to craft the things we need ... but we are CONSTANTLY having to dump bushels that we COULD use for crafting things we need if only we didn't need so much fuel to keep trying to grow the bushels we need to craft the things we need to... well, you get the idea, right?

We're not nearly as stupid as you think we are, by the way... we know you changed the settings on the bushels that we get from farming to try to push us toward buying what we need to craft things... what, exactly, ARE you people trying to do with Farmville, kill it entirely?

Now that the farms don't load/play properly with too much (any?) stuff on them, I've been trying to clear out my junk into my safety deposit box .... not enough room there either. Which means that I have to either sell off all my old stuff, or stop buying/growing new stuff. Guess which one most of us are choosing?

I invested time and money into my trees back when Farmville was fun .... not likely to dump all that in favour of new stuff now that it isn't.

Requirements

Stop already!

I know, I know... someone went to the trouble of making the fishing hole... the yarn barn... the dairy .... whatever...  but honestly, if we don't like it, we don't like it - and constantly forcing us to do stuff like "craft 12 yarn" in the yarn barn is NOT going to change anyone's mind.

What, you thought that somewhere around #10 or 11, they were going to say "gee, this is fun after all!"?

Not happening.

Ever noticed that you had millions more players BEFORE you started shoving quests down our throats? Billions, even, by some accounts.

Less trees, less horses, less crops, less buildables, less farms - but you had many, many times more players than you do now.

I know, I know ... y'all are convinced that people started leaving in droves because they preferred other games on other platforms... they got bored, right?

Except that that is NOT what happened.

What happened is that they got frustrated, fed up and over whelmed.

Zynga lost sight of the fact that some sorts of players prefer this type of game and some prefer that...

some people like quests and demands and challenges and competition ...

but those of us that played Farmville? That was not why we played.

We liked working together with our friends.... collecting whatever we happened to be into .... mastering what we wanted to master.... and lots and lots of us LOVED decorating our farms the way we wanted them to be .... whether we were good at it or not (I'm not, but I enjoyed it anyway).

There were lots of other games that included quests and challenges and competition... if we'd wanted to be engaged in those, we would have played them.

Farmville appealed to people that liked to do things their own way - but is now being run by a whole lot of people that demand we do them their way. It's sad.

We came to Farmville...and stayed...and paid money ... for a different gaming experience - and Zynga has, over the last couple of years, completely and utterly BLOWN IT.

And yes, we know that we don't have to do the quests - but doing them is the only way to get the blasted ugly icons off our screen - so we often do them even though we'd rather not. The icons all over our screen - and stuff like the fishing hole and summer camp adventure and lost animals and... it is all clutter and every last bit of it annoys people like me no end.

Even if the farms weren't so bogged down with bad programming, unnecessary pop-ups, and other issues, I still wouldn't bother doing any all out decorating the way I used to - between the "new" hideous facebook and the sheer number of idiotic ugly icons your devs scatter all over my screen and around my farms, why bother wasting my time?

I don't know if Farmville can even be fixed any more... it may well be too late...

but I do know that it won't get better if someone up there in Zynga-land doesn't smarten up and start paying attention soon.

Hawaii Farm - Epic FAIL

Zynga released a new farm for Farmville - paid access started last week; free access was expected this week, but so far most seem to be still waiting..... yet another slow rollout, which, given the tight timelines and other nonsense associated with the (ridiculous, most of us hate them) quests, puts those who do not have the farm at a huge disadvantage compared to those that do.

If that was the only problem, they could perhaps be forgiven, but OMG have they blown it this time.

It's very appropriate that this new farm is the first that includes water critters like whales and jellyfish and SHARKS. Because yes, indeed, my friends, with the nonsense of this week, Zynga has clearly jumped the shark.

And ripped off and infuriated a whole lot of their still-loyal-through-all-the-crap-to-date customers.

The new farm uses coconuts as currency - so everyone, even those among us who have amassed millions or billions of coins are starting back at 0. And that was fine. BUT apparently some wing nut with NO sense at all decided that people were finding far too many ways to earn coconuts.

They released a special crop that one could only plant by paying - yes, again, not coins, FC, which costs real money - and which paid out coconuts. Oh no That would not do - they took it out of the market altogether and refunded the FC to those who had paid for it.

Imagine the nerve!! Spending money - yes, actual REAL MONEY - to start earning coconuts.

So, they axed the orchids - but at least they gave us our money back.

But that left us with trees and animals - also available for FC. So many people bought those items so that they could continue to earn coconuts, so that when they finally get the new farm, if that ever happens, they would be able to plow plots, expand, grow stuff.... you know... farm.

No no no! That will not do - everyone has to have an even playing field apparently - so they axed earning coconuts on any farm but Hawaii.

SO everyone that paid actual FC - you know, that stuff you get with real actual money? - got ripped off. No refunds this time.

Feels rather like a bait & switch to me... and it is no surpise at all that there are a lot of very, very, very unhappy ex-farmers out here....

But it gets better, eh?

Even those of us that paid to go to Hawaii early now have very very few options for earning coins. Basically, you can plant and harvest. CROPS. For now.

On other farms, you can push trees through ready orchards ...which means not only that those of us with rather iffy attention spans always have something we can be doing, we can be earning coins and growing trees for our friends.

But some customer service extra-ordinaire type decided that we should not be able to do that on the Hawaii farm because we might GASP earn extra coconuts by doing so!!

So now, when you move a tree into a ready orchard, the orchard is no longer ready. Each tree added adds time until the orchard will be ready.

I was not terribly impressed to find this out AFTER I paid FC to grow the damn things to 100% so that I could harvest them.

SO not impressed, Zynga.

Oh, and the other stroke of brilliance - there was one tree that actually produced a fair number of coconuts - 900+ I hear.

Rather than adjust the payout level to something more reasonable, they totally trashed the tree - both the level one and level two gum trees now grown not rainbow gum - they grow Jaca trees. A totally unrelated and not nearly as attractive tree.

Every single person who paid - yes, REAL MONEY DAMMIT - for the level 1 tree so that we could grow the level 2 tree for ourselves and our neighbours - deserves a refund.

Same for those that purchased any of the other formerly-coconut-producing critters, trees, etc.

And if you are not yet convinced that Zynga has jumped the shark with Farmville and deserves to fail (sorry to anyone that actually has invested in their IPO - should'a done some more thorough research first, eh?) ..... the rip offs are apparently not the end of it ....

Now, to further irk and irritate their players, apparently when one does get to the Hawaii farm, you get to start out now with 14,000+ coconuts the way the first paying customers did... or 5,000, the way those who started a bit later did.

From what I'm seeing in the forums and on the feeds, people who go there for free today get to start out with a big fat goose egg. Zero coconuts. No way to earn them, none to start with (can't even farm) - and when you harvest the pens you can build there - have to build there, if you are tyring to do the quests - you are going to get coin, not coconuts.

How is this supposed to be fun, Zynga?

Be damned if you're getting any more of my real actual money. Ridiculous!

Winter Wonderland Early Access

Well...what do you think?

I was thrilled when I first got there - the graphics are great; I particularly like the moving train!

And - the best part - was that when I clicked on the nifty new storage building - the igloo - I was able to see my main farm storage. Grabbed my kicking cow in snowpile and then I decided to throw a tree into the igloo and head to my home farm to see if I would be able to move things back out or if they would be forever trapped.

And that was it. There is NO shared storage - apparently our ability on first visiting the Winter Wonderland was only a glitch.

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is - especially with Zynga.

There are some features I like:

• gifts that can be unlocked by collecting hair dryers or pickaxes - if you're waiting for free access, I suggest you start collecting those now (also train parts and other assorted bits & pieces)


• more plots than we had on Lighthouse Cove - they are still restricted by expansions - but the number you are able to have is much much higher - SO high, in fact, that you have to choose between plots and decorations; there just is not room for everything.


• did I mention the graphics? The available crops are very pretty, with a good variety of growing times - and oh yeah - the train moves :)


• coin items in the market!

But unfortunately, as is normally the case with Zynga in 2011, they have once again stuffed it up:

• no shared storage - that, of course, is the biggie. Many of us have scads of winter items which we very much want to be able to use. We have been asking for this since Lighthouse Cove came out. It does not make SENSE to restrict items to particular farms, or to prevent us from moving them from one to another. It is irritating! And irritated farmers are less inclined to spend real money.


• a few trees AND THEIR MASTERY SIGNS that are locked to winter. I collect and display tree mastery signs. It IRKS me no end to not be able to put them altogether. It also irks me to not be allowed to buy a polar ice tree for my main farm. I want to give Zynga money and they won't let me - how is THAT good business?

So .... my first impression is that Winter Wonderland is another one of Zynga's stingy, control freakish, poorly thought out experiments and I will not be spending FC - even though, as a result of the Cyber Monday 40% off sale I happen to have some - on any more items that can not be moved from one farm to another.

Master Fairy Zebra

Wow. Just how stupid does Zynga think Farmville players are?

They've made the latest Fairy Hollow Quest absolutely undoable. The whole quest is alloted only 14 days - but the fairy zebra does not go in any of the pens and takes 3 days to harvest - AND it has to be harvested 5 times to complete the quest. Last I looked, 5 * 3 was 15 - and you don't even get the stupid thing until you're more than halfway through.

Nice.

They have posted it as a known issue. No kidding. Issues with the critters in quests have been a recurring theme lately.

And excuse me, but ANYONE with even the littlest bit of understanding of object oriented programming knows that once you've done the code for one critter, you've got the code for all.

They know how to change the variables to allow the thing into the pen. Or, they know how to change it so that it is a more reasonable 1 day harvest. Or, they know how to change the quest so that this step is not required.

None of which they have done. Instead, they are no doubt watching the FC roll in as some people pay to use instagrow. Not caring about the other players they are losing because of slimy underhanded business practices like these.

SUCH a rip off, and very badly done.

And absolutely intentional in my opinion.

They are killing off Farmville. Why, I have no idea. But they definitely seem determined.

Price Testing - again

Seriously ...that's what Mr. Live Chat called it when I contacted them to complain that I was unable to buy a candy corn tree in my market.

How is it price testing if some people can pay the stOOpid exorbitant price of 8FC while others like me can not buy it at all? SO IRKED!!!

That does not even make sense!

If it is not available to buy I am not going to buy it - there... are we done ~testing~ now?

Can I pretty please with sugar and a cherry on top have a candy corn tree now?

HOW many flipping feet do you HAVE, Zynga? Are you almost done shooting each and every one of them? How 'bout you hurry it up, already?

In other news, they have started to offer an expansion in Lighthouse Cove for coins. Of course, everyone that paid actual FC for it is now irked. I did not so am not - but it does irritate me no end that there is no consistency - once again - in how many neighbours one must have to expand for coin.

Some people in the forum are reporting that they need to add more than 30 neighbours to expand ... others, not a one ... and there seems to be no rhyme nor reason for the difference. Me, I only need to add 1 - from 165 neighbours to 166. But I am not inclined to go so much as one itsy bitsy teeny tiny bit out of my way for Zynga any more.

I am IRKED...and then some.

Still steaming over the 4x increase for biplaning orchards.... and now no candy cane tree in my orchard (I am, once again, not worthy).

Know what you can do with your expansion, Zynga? And your quests? And even your 40% off FC offer?

Same thing you can do with your game.

You obviously do not value your players' loyalty - so why should I have any?

Seriously irked!

Do you use the biplane/instagrow feature in Farmville? I do - well, I did!

NOT ANY MORE!

Apparently, Zynga has decided that some players, once again, are more ~worthy~ than others....

while nothing has changed for the majority .... it seems very clear that at least some of us are being scammed...gouged... price-tested.... whatever you want to call it.

For me to instantly grow my orchards now costs 4x as much as it did a week ago.

My bottom end is once again 1FC, the way it used to be, while others is still at 3FC.

So ... no more harvesting orchards whenever I have time and inclination, and sharing lots of trees with my neighbours. Now, I have to wait the full 2 days until they're ready - and run whatever trees I'm trying to master through each orchard - which means that it takes far longer, I can't control which trees I produce, and it is TEDIOUS and NO FUN.

Way to go Zynga... you finally found the perfect way to break my addiction. Thanks for that.

Oh...and by the way... that 40% off sale on FC - you know where you can put that, right?

Charge me 400% MORE than other people and then offer me 40% off. As IF.

Live Chat - For premium players only?!

Well - that is disturbing!

Apparently as of today people are being kicked off Live Chat (without being helped) for not having spent enough on farm cash? Or not buying recently? Or....? The criteria is not yet clear - but oy!

Way to go Zynga!! The ONE THING that you were doing so well and now you're turning THAT into yet another way of pissing off players?

Unbelievable.

I guess they have SO many customers, they don't need to worry about keeping them.

I seriously hope any potential investors are doing their due diligence. This company is seriously intent on self-destruction.

Super Orchards

For the low, low price of only 14,915 FC (that works out to about $2300 CAD) I can double the size of my orchards and harvest them twice as fast.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

And to make it even MORE absolutely totally beyond belief ridiculous again - they're playing with prices again ...some people can buy them for as ~little~ (HA!) as 40 FV$.

AS IF!!!

I hope nobody buys ANY of these... we must NOT reward Zynga's greed & stupidity.