I found this to be ingenious:<p><i></i>To allow for the building of alliances within the game, the app needed a sophisticated chat feature. In the middle of development, Leydon decided it made sense for all players, no matter what their native tongue, to speak the same language. So he built a messaging platform that included a translation engine based not only on Google Translate but also on crowdsourcing. Within Game of War, text messages, comments, and push notifications are translated with about 70 percent accuracy. Log in to the game in Polish, and everything you read from other players is in Polish, too. The game’s players correct any errors they notice in exchange for virtual rewards within the game. From the start, the average player corrected 10 misspellings and slang expressions per day.<i></i>
In a funny way it's players teaching game developers bad lessons.<p>Consumers don't wanna pay 60 bucks for a phone game. Or even 6 bucks. They <i>do</i> want to make in-app purchases.<p>The saying may go <i>don't hate the player, hate the game</i>, but its a funny turnabout one level up, where players influence developers.<p><i>Don't hate the nature of the game, hate the nature of the player.</i><p>Tant pis.
We were bound to get to this point, but I'm still a bit disappointed. I have very little desire to play a game which intentionally skews the playing field based on in-app purchases. Personally I would far rather pay $60 or whatever for the game and then compete based on skill and luck, rather than on who wants to waste the most money.
Does no one here play arcade games?<p>Okay granted In-App purchases are generally more than 25-50 cents or the 1-2$ it costs these days at your local AMC, but I don't think it's disappointing in the slightest (and pretty predictable if you look at gaming history) that many people prefer to throw a few bucks a week at a casual game vs. spending $60 on something that might sit on the shelf.<p>Though, I'm more a Clash of Clans guy...
It's really disappointing to see this trend, both as a consumer and as a developer.<p>On the consumer side, freemium games are designed to be inferior to their pre-paid cousins, or else there wouldn't be an incentive to spend on in-app purchases. And the lucrativeness of the market has turned the heads of most of the game development companies in the world, so it's getting harder and harder to find games that don't use this model.<p>And as a developer, I want to make things that people enjoy. I want to recreate the same feelings I had as a kid, the delight of mastering a game. Or the bliss of a program that enhances the user's capabilities, without adding new impediments of any kind. But <i>consumers</i> have so gone towards this freemium model that they just don't seem to pay attention to pre-paid programs. How do you compete against a company that can take a game that is as big of a piece of crap as Game of War and turn it into a printing press for money--can afford to spend $40 million to have Kate freaking Upton show up?<p>I'm sure it's stupid of me, from a business sense, to declare I'll never make a freemium game. But dammit, I went independent specifically <i>because</i> the general lack of ethics I had encountered in industry bothered me so much. If I can't make it on my own terms, I guess that's the fate I'm going to have to take.
At least South Park has taken criticism of their model into the mainstream.<p><a href="http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s18e06-freemium-isnt-free" rel="nofollow">http://southpark.cc.com/full-episodes/s18e06-freemium-isnt-f...</a>
Read this article hoping for more about the Upton / marketing angle. One thing I took note of with this game - has anyone noticed on networks like instagram, all these pretty amateur model girls taking selfies with Game of War playing on a tablet in the picture, talking about the game etc? I have never seen that sort of promotion and I keep wondering if it's natural (maybe followers of the "Upton" aspirations) or if GoW marketing reached out somehow..... never seen that sort of mainstream viral promotion
I guess I will never make something popular because I am apparently on the different side than all those people who are happy eating shit (playing games that try to rip them off).
it confuses me as to why some people are more susceptible to paying for in game items where those are not.<p>as soon as I see in game purchases, it's immediately uninstalled.<p>I want to pay for a game and compete based on some dexterity or skill gained over time not on the wallet.