"Walls"

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Originally Posted by Luther

It IS a money grab because supercell had a far easier alternative to increase gold available in looting. When you attack, only a percentage of the gold of the defender is available to you. By simply increasing this percentage, supercell would have solved the problem. Instead, they implemented something which increases the chances of frustrated players buying and using gems. Also, players who had already bought extra builders were effectively screwed in that the money they spent on those builders went back to square one.

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Your argument makes no sense. If people could still pump all of their extra gold into their walls before logging off, they would have very little gold to steal. A higher percentage of very little is still very little. Forcing a decision to keep a free builder or log off with some gold stockpiled makes it a better game that requires better planning.
It is the same rules for everyone, so they are not building extra things while you fall behind. They must also make the same decisions about keeping a free builder vs. stockpiling resources.

personally i dont care - walls don't take time to upgrade, just time it right thats all

gets more resources in the game so there's more for me to pillage :)

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Originally Posted by Ryan

Your argument makes no sense. If people could still pump all of their extra gold into their walls before logging off, they would have very little gold to steal. A higher percentage of very little is still very little. Forcing a decision to keep a free builder or log off with some gold stockpiled makes it a better game that requires better planning.
It is the same rules for everyone, so they are not building extra things while you fall behind. They must also make the same decisions about keeping a free builder vs. stockpiling resources.

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What you say is true, but assumes that all players are active. There a plenty of targets out there who are clearly not active players where getting a higher percentage of gold from them would be great. Also many players take several days to stockpile enough gold for the larger upgrades which also make nice targets.
Youre right about it being fair, but that doesn't mean it's not frustrating or increases the likelihood of more builders being bought. I had four builders pre-upgrade (still do) and found that to be a good amount to keep busy, now I watch in frustration as I keep one free most of the time and wish I could get another one. But I won't because the cost of a fifth builder is an absolute rort.

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Originally Posted by Luther

What you say is true, but assumes that all players are active. There a plenty of targets out there who are clearly not active players where getting a higher percentage of gold from them would be great. Also many players take several days to stockpile enough gold for the larger upgrades which also make nice targets.
Youre right about it being fair, but that doesn't mean it's not frustrating or increases the likelihood of more builders being bought. I had four builders pre-upgrade (still do) and found that to be a good amount to keep busy, now I watch in frustration as I keep one free most of the time and wish I could get another one. But I won't because the cost of a fifth builder is an absolute rort.

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It's $20. How is that a scam? People spend $10 just going to a 2 hour movie. It's really not much to spend if you play the game for hours.

You may not want to spend it, and that's fine...but to call it an absolute rort is silly.

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Originally Posted by dahimi

It's $20. How is that a scam? People spend $10 just going to a 2 hour movie. It's really not much to spend if you play the game for hours.

You may not want to spend it, and that's fine...but to call it an absolute rort is silly.

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Firstly, it's $20 AFTER the money already spent to get 3rd and 4th builder.

Secondly, it's not money to pay to play the game for longer, it's money to buy an extra builder which costs increasingly more each time.

Thirdly, things cost relative to the market they are in and the product they are rather than the length of use you get from them. Otherwise, I'd be paying hundreds of dollars for a comb that would last me years. A movie will cost you $20 because of the high production cost and cost of running cinemas. Game developers have far smaller costs than this.

Fourthly, COC is an iPad app where $20 for anything is a considerable amount. The mass market of the iPad/iPhone means that developers can offer their products cheaply and still get a profit because so many people buy it. To then use this mass market to charge such relatively high amounts is most certainly a rort.

I'm glad that fifth builder is so expensive, otherwise everyone would have one, and they wouldn't be leaving their resources out for me to take.

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Originally Posted by Luther

Firstly, it's $20 AFTER the money already spent to get 3rd and 4th builder.

Secondly, it's not money to pay to play the game for longer, it's money to buy an extra builder which costs increasingly more each time.

Thirdly, things cost relative to the market they are in and the product they are rather than the length of use you get from them. Otherwise, I'd be paying hundreds of dollars for a comb that would last me years. A movie will cost you $20 because of the high production cost and cost of running cinemas. Game developers have far smaller costs than this.

Fourthly, COC is an iPad app where $20 for anything is a considerable amount. The mass market of the iPad/iPhone means that developers can offer their products cheaply and still get a profit because so many people buy it. To then use this mass market to charge such relatively high amounts is most certainly a rort.

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Interesting. So you base the value of an item not on supply and demand (or perceived value to you), you instead base it on the cost to produce said item. That must mean when faced with two movies you'd like to see, you go online and look up the production costs of the two movies to determine which one you'll be watching. That's an odd way to choose a movie, but then I'd be willing to bet you don't choose movies this way.

The truth is you have been conditioned to accept the $10 fee for a 2hr movie, so you pay it. If movies cost $5 one week and the next they cost $10 people would flip. Also check out the price of movies vs. inflation:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/bu...es-shrink.html

If you care at all about the cinema you must buy popcorn (which is marked up over 1000%) because they make very little money on the movies themselves.

Not that it's relevant, but you have no idea how much it cost Supercell to make this game. You don't know how much the servers were, how much their office space costs, how many developers there are, etc. There's a good chance it cost more than the $30,000 it cost to produce The Blair Witch Project, which people happily paid $10 to see.

For me, my choice to buy the builders was based on the demand that Supercell created by making such a fun and compelling game and the supply (they are the only ones selling gems). Funny thing is the fake gems mirror real world ones. Look up the fake scarcity surrounding diamonds, which people pay outrageous sums for.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...070203990.html

Either way, calling it rort is very insulting to the people who did pay. You may not feel it's worth it, and that's fine. $40 for me on this game was totally worth it as I play it quite a bit. I certainly have gotten more value out of it then I would by seeing 4 movies. Yes it's more than the initial cost of most other ipad games, but most of them suck. This one is damn fun and seems to have a committed development team that at least communicates with the players.

Even if the 5th builder cost $1000, I wouldn't call it a rort...it's just that my demand wouldn't be high enough to warrant forking over the cash. Although if I were a billionaire I might, who knows.

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Originally Posted by dahimi

Interesting. So you base the value of an item not on supply and demand (or perceived value to you), you instead base it on the cost to produce said item. That must mean when faced with two movies you'd like to see, you go online and look up the production costs of the two movies to determine which one you'll be watching. That's an odd way to choose a movie, but then I'd be willing to bet you don't choose movies this way.

The truth is you have been conditioned to accept the $10 fee for a 2hr movie, so you pay it. If movies cost $5 one week and the next they cost $10 people would flip. Also check out the price of movies vs. inflation:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/01/bu...es-shrink.html

If you care at all about the cinema you must buy popcorn (which is marked up over 1000%) because they make very little money on the movies themselves.

Not that it's relevant, but you have no idea how much it cost Supercell to make this game. You don't know how much the servers were, how much their office space costs, how many developers there are, etc. There's a good chance it cost more than the $30,000 it cost to produce The Blair Witch Project, which people happily paid $10 to see.

For me, my choice to buy the builders was based on the demand that Supercell created by making such a fun and compelling game and the supply (they are the only ones selling gems). Funny thing is the fake gems mirror real world ones. Look up the fake scarcity surrounding diamonds, which people pay outrageous sums for.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...070203990.html

Either way, calling it rort is very insulting to the people who did pay. You may not feel it's worth it, and that's fine. $40 for me on this game was totally worth it as I play it quite a bit. I certainly have gotten more value out of it then I would by seeing 4 movies. Yes it's more than the initial cost of most other ipad games, but most of them suck. This one is damn fun and seems to have a committed development team that at least communicates with the players.

Even if the 5th builder cost $1000, I wouldn't call it a rort...it's just that my demand wouldn't be high enough to warrant forking over the cash. Although if I were a billionaire I might, who knows.

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Interesting stance. Personally I would take the $20 and but something more permanent like tl2. Or gw2. Hell probably 1-2 months of a triple a title. Honestly not sure how much longer I will play. I find the game balance off. I have worked on a number of online games stretching back to '94. This one is one of the more unfriendly to new players and casual gamers in both game play and community that I have the opportunity to play. It is dissapointing as the game overall is very interesting and almost enjoyable. One of the better iPhone games I have run across. Unfortunately I am a casual gamer and the game causes more frustration than enjoyment. But for now I will tinker and when I am done I will destroy my buildings as I won't leave a farm. This game reminds me of eve. A good game but tends to balance in favor of griefers (no I am not a carebear, I enjoy me some pvp too, just tend to challenge myself when I do. Tends to mean more when you beat a real opponent than someone without a chance to win)

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Originally Posted by Knall

Interesting stance. Personally I would take the $20 and but something more permanent like tl2. Or gw2. Hell probably 1-2 months of a triple a title. Honestly not sure how much longer I will play. I find the game balance off. I have worked on a number of online games stretching back to '94. This one is one of the more unfriendly to new players and casual gamers in both game play and community that I have the opportunity to play. It is dissapointing as the game overall is very interesting and almost enjoyable. One of the better iPhone games I have run across. Unfortunately I am a casual gamer and the game causes more frustration than enjoyment. But for now I will tinker and when I am done I will destroy my buildings as I won't leave a farm. This game reminds me of eve. A good game but tends to balance in favor of griefers (no I am not a carebear, I enjoy me some pvp too, just tend to challenge myself when I do. Tends to mean more when you beat a real opponent than someone without a chance to win)

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That's certainly your perogative and I can respect that. Generally speaking I never look down on people for how they choose to spend their money. If they spend more than I would have on something, I assume they wanted it more. Plus while I would not spend $1000 on a builder, I would spend $30,000 on a car or $300,000 on a house.

To call it rort or scam implies that people are being duped out of their money or that they aren't getting what they are paying for. That's ♥♥♥♥ and seriously insults the intelligence of the buyer or if you will implies some serious duplicity on the part of the developers. Neither the players nor the developers deserve that.

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Originally Posted by dahimi

That's certainly your perogative and I can respect that. Generally speaking I never look down on people for how they choose to spend their money. If they spend more than I would have on something, I assume they wanted it more. Plus while I would not spend $1000 on a builder, I would spend $30,000 on a car or $300,000 on a house.

To call it rort or scam implies that people are being duped out of their money or that they aren't getting what they are paying for. That's ♥♥♥♥ and seriously insults the intelligence of the buyer or if you will implies some serious duplicity on the part of the developers. Neither the players nor the developers deserve that.

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Absolutely true. I think the sentiment stems from the desire to have it and can't afford it or frustration that others have done it and they can't and feel at a disadvantage. Either way the prices are there and you can chose to buy or not. The only way I could see it as a scam is if you could easily accidentally spend gems and no confirmation. I have played those and there was absolute refusal to rectify the situation. I have seen none of that here. Heck iirc they recently added a confirmation to spending gems. I find that a great change. So umm no scam here. Quite the opposite as far as I can see. They are making certain you get what you expect. Arguing you wish the prices changed us a whole other story.