Jams and Pizza - Increased Payouts later today !!

[Guest]

Check this out

<blockquote><hr>

Posted in Uncategorized by Luc on the January 27th, 2008

To celebrate the changes in economy, and the new features that enable us to dynamically change the payouts in the game, we will have a cooking contest tonight. I will dramatically increase the pay outs of the canning stations and pizza maker between 6pm and 8pm PST. Probably one for an hour, and then the other for the next hour!

This is not to be missed! Pass the word. Call your friends. Increase your skills, build your pizza teams.

Prepare your houses today, and get ready for the event!

A small group of Maxis judges will visit the different lots to find the best teams and we will celebrate those houses this week!

We will not need to bounce the city for this event. And remember, this is only on EA-LAND.

Sincerely,

Luc

[/ QUOTE ]

To those of you that are going to get rich later, enjoy !

Polly

 

[imported_Poppy Darling]

I will probably be in the land of nod, perhaps I should move from the UK to the USA. lol

 

[Guest]

Haha me too Poppy ! Thats 2 til 4 am for us and I have to get up at 6 !

I will be very interested to hear how much the payouts are (it does say "dramatically") and also look forward to seeing more of this on other job objects ::cough:: pinatas and code ::cough:: at other times of the day

Polly

 

[Guest]

HUH make that me 3 - i got kids to get up in the morning i cant be up that late((

I hope they will remember the UK players (and Europe, Auz &amp; NZ players) when they have these 'sessions'

 

[imported_Gracie Nito]

Go to bed now Polly and get up early!


Yay! Pizza party!

 

[Guest]

I'm sure they will, hopefully this is the first of many and we'll see it happen frequently with different money objects and at different times

Polly

 

[imported_Dali Dalinza]

<blockquote><hr>

I'm sure they will, hopefully this is the first of many and we'll see it happen frequently with different money objects and at different times

Polly

[/ QUOTE ]

If this is going to be a regular bonus feature for the game, I am hoping that in the future it can be set for hours that will benefit those of you who are not in North America.

Let those of us in NA have to worry about taking a nap in order to reap some cash.

 

[imported_debslee]

Agree and perhaps a Saturday for those of you in the States, so that those of us in Australia/ Singapore/New Zealand can benefit, by playing on a Sunday due to the 21 hrs time difference. So happy its a holiday today, so we could benefit too.

Thanks Luc...good idea!

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Check this out

<blockquote><hr>

Posted in Uncategorized by Luc on the January 27th, 2008

To celebrate the changes in economy, and the new features that enable us to dynamically change the payouts in the game, we will have a cooking contest tonight. I will dramatically increase the pay outs of the canning stations and pizza maker between 6pm and 8pm PST. Probably one for an hour, and then the other for the next hour!

This is not to be missed! Pass the word. Call your friends. Increase your skills, build your pizza teams.

Prepare your houses today, and get ready for the event!

A small group of Maxis judges will visit the different lots to find the best teams and we will celebrate those houses this week!

We will not need to bounce the city for this event. And remember, this is only on EA-LAND.

Sincerely,

Luc

[/ QUOTE ]

To those of you that are going to get rich later, enjoy !

Polly

[/ QUOTE ]
Soooo.......... this is the way our precious "economy" is to be 'stabilized'???
Payouts decided on the whim of the devs???

You've just been insulted, people - can't you see that?
With the advent of 'in-game adjustments' (manual) to the various payouts, they have found a means of leading us around by the nose.

All 'economic' adjustments need (and should) be made by economic algorithms using game data. Not humans tossing some dice.

 

[Laverne]

Donavan,

I have to agree with you. This is both creepy &amp; dispicable at the same time

.


Slightly OT: I wonder how many hundreds of thousands EA raked in this weekend from the ATMs?

 

[imported_Dali Dalinza]

<blockquote><hr>


Soooo.......... this is the way our precious "economy" is to be 'stabilized'???
Payouts decided on the whim of the devs???

You've just been insulted, people - can't you see that?
With the advent of 'in-game adjustments' (manual) to the various payouts, they have found a means of leading us around by the nose.

All 'economic' adjustments need (and should) be made by economic algorithms using game data. Not humans tossing some dice.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not only insulted, but there are many players who can justly cry "foul!" First, there is the time zone difference. For those on the East Coast of the USA it means the play must be between 9 PM and 11 PM -- on a "school night." And those further along in the evening are even more unfairly treated.

I know this was intended as a fun event, and I am sure for many it will be.

But, Donavan, you hit the nail on the head in your comment. It will be a windfall for those few who are in a "convenient" time zone, and who happened to hone their pizza skills during the past week.

If the game is going to depend on a "dice roll economy", can I please have my casino objects back?

 

[Guest]

Let's face it though. They could not do this at any time where "EVERYBODY" would be happy. Luc said in the blog comments that this is just a trial run, and later events will vary to make things more convenient to others.

 

[imported_Spaghetti Legs]

All I can say is that sims are having a great time already and it hasn't even started!

 

[festrmentmagnet]

I am at 8pm central time and I see no change in the payouts on jams.

 

[Guest]

<font color="purple">Not seeing an increase anywhere... pizza or jams... (?) its almost quarter after the hour. </font>

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I am at 8pm central time and I see no change in the payouts on jams.

[/ QUOTE ]

I asked Luc in game. Pizza will get raised first. As far as I know, it's starting late.

 

[imported_SimTripps]

I'm getting $249 for a large pizza supreme, with average skills. This is what the pay outs SHOULD be regularly....

 

[Guest]

Luc was just at the house where I am. He asked if he should switch to jams. There were a few nooo's. And a nott yetttt or two.

Luc said (and I quote) "ok"

Just an update.

 

[imported_SimTripps]

Ya like duh - I've only been pizza-ing for like 15 minutes lol...

 

[Guest]

Canning stations in 5 minutes, everybody. Repeating...canning stations in 5 minutes!

 

[imported_SimTripps]

Canning stations are cooking-skill biased, unless you don't need any skill to get a good payout... If not, then it's not worth it...

 

[Guest]

When and where do we find out which houses won???

 

[ozzynowgone]

so instead of playing the game as ppl would like to

players in ea land get to bounce around at the whims of the dev team

its real nice to see that now ealanders have become the victims of evil dictators with their fingers on the buttons controlling their lives

i would say that is a real interesting turn of events now

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>



<blockquote><hr>


Soooo.......... this is the way our precious "economy" is to be 'stabilized'???
Payouts decided on the whim of the devs???

You've just been insulted, people - can't you see that?
With the advent of 'in-game adjustments' (manual) to the various payouts, they have found a means of leading us around by the nose.

All 'economic' adjustments need (and should) be made by economic algorithms using game data. Not humans tossing some dice.

[/ QUOTE ]

Not only insulted, but there are many players who can justly cry "foul!" First, there is the time zone difference. For those on the East Coast of the USA it means the play must be between 9 PM and 11 PM -- on a "school night." And those further along in the evening are even more unfairly treated.

I know this was intended as a fun event, and I am sure for many it will be.

But, Donavan, you hit the nail on the head in your comment. It will be a windfall for those few who are in a "convenient" time zone, and who happened to hone their pizza skills during the past week.

If the game is going to depend on a "dice roll economy", can I please have my casino objects back?

[/ QUOTE ]
Time zones and convenience are not the point.
What is important is that this is an international game, which has aspirations of 100's of thousands of subscribers, and is being controlled (financially and economically) by a handful of individuals (maybe just one) with no justification (at least in this case).
They decide what's fun and then tell us to enjoy ourselves - if we have too much fun (according to their/his/her) standards, they cut us off without so much as a "how ya doin'/Go to hell".
This is just sooo much like playing a game module on a LAN, where the local Game/Dungeon Masters drop treasure and monsters, challenge us with ridiculous quests and reward us with experience points.
This is supposed to be a professionally designed and built on-line game, and I think it's time it started to play like one instead of the personal playground of the devs, with us players as characters in their scenario.
In other words, no more dictatorial decisions - code "economical" decisions into the game.

 

[Guest]

I agree Donavan! I've appreciated your posts tonight. Thank you for getting the voice of many of us out there.

 

[legscroft]

<blockquote><hr>

I agree Donavan! I've appreciated your posts tonight. Thank you for getting the voice of many of us out there.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ditto!

 

[Guest]

*TTL*

As they say, you cant please everyone. I of course know better then to expect anyone to say thanks to Luc for giving us a small boost in income. You may notice that when we login to EAL we see the word beta next to it. Of course not all of you were here for the first beta test so you wouldnt understand, but to those of you who were try to remember we are still testing!!

Sheesh people.

 

[Guest]

it was a fun night in a new game

 

[Guest]

Thanks Luc, I appreciate the increase

I got 402 simoleons per jam ;D got me a craft computer hehe. It was fun while it lasted!

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

*TTL*

As they say, you cant please everyone. I of course know better then to expect anyone to say thanks to Luc for giving us a small boost in income. You may notice that when we login to EAL we see the word beta next to it. Of course not all of you were here for the first beta test so you wouldnt understand, but to those of you who were try to remember we are still testing!!

Sheesh people.

[/ QUOTE ]
Okay - fair enuff. Please link me to the post wherein Luc describes how they will be implementing a coded economic evaluator in the future.

...and as an aside - the testing is supposed to be in TC3, so... what they were doing tonight was testing something that was never tested in the city specifically intended for testing untested stuff.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

what they were doing tonight was testing something that was never tested in the city specifically intended for testing untested stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]

What they did last night was create an environment where people packed pizza and canning houses for a few hours of fun. Shame on EA. Shame! Shame! Shame!

 

[Guest]

I think the majority of us had a blast last night with the pizza and canning. It was really a lot of fun and we actually got to earn some money!! I love beta testing and I really don't care where exactly they do their testing. I never thought that Luc or any of the other devs were trying to control me. It was something fun, different and exciting to do and the houses were packed. When is the last time you had to sit floating over a city waiting to get into a house??? I haven't for a very long time.

To me, this is a game. It's fun. When it gets to the point that I don't enjoy it anymore, that's the time I'll click that "cancel subscription" button.

 

[imported_Poppy Darling]

To no one in particular.

Don't get me wrong, I am pleased for the players who were able to make some money. It would also have been nice for some of the players who because of the event taking place in what was the early hours of the next morning, made it unable for them to take part.
Perhaps in the future Luc would be kind enough to arrange some to take place 4 hours earlier.
I don't begrudge the players the money they made but I would like to have filled my sims purse as well.

This is not a rant just a hope.

 

[Zinzi]

Yes - sounds like it was great fun and I don't particularly find it a 'bad idea' - but as someone mentioned; this is an international game - and some of us are in Europe and can't be up at 2-4 am in the morning on a Sunday night.... So I expect some fun coming at us too!

 

[imported_DutchAmerica]

<blockquote><hr>

so instead of playing the game as ppl would like to

players in ea land get to bounce around at the whims of the dev team

its real nice to see that now ealanders have become the victims of evil dictators with their fingers on the buttons controlling their lives

i would say that is a real interesting turn of events now

[/ QUOTE ]

It's because of these comments that I find myself shaking my head and taking more and more TSO vacations.

I view this 'event' as the beginning of a new era in TSO. An Era where there will be more fun event and opportunities to win prize or earn special rewards.

Sure this one seemed a little lame but it's a start.

I wish you folks would <font color="red"> GIVE THE DEVS A FREAKIN BREAK FOR ONCE!!!! </font> ...I find that I'm really rather annoyed with TSO because of ungrateful jerks who don't see the devs as people that may need some encouragement instead of constant kicking!

If YOU have a better idea for an event, why don't you plan it out from start to finish and then post it on the wiki for consideration.

 

[imported_Shirl1211]

I have to agree with you Donavan. To make progress in this game is all about making money. Sims seem to have to run back and forth reskilling in order to benefit from payouts.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

It was really a lot of fun and we actually got to earn some money!! I love beta testing and I really don't care where exactly they do their testing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually we're not beta testing. We're paying for the game. I have mixed feelings here. For one, I think it is a very good development that EA picked up TSO again. On the other hand, I don't like it that the current players are testing the game AND having to pay for it. They should make this game free until EA land is ready to be released.

I think EA is very happy about the major money surge coming out of the ATMs. I hear people buying simoleans everywhere. They will definately continue milking us.

 

[imported_DutchAmerica]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

It was really a lot of fun and we actually got to earn some money!! I love beta testing and I really don't care where exactly they do their testing.

[/ QUOTE ]

Actually we're not beta testing. We're paying for the game. I have mixed feelings here. For one, I think it is a very good development that EA picked up TSO again. On the other hand, I don't like it that the current players are testing the game AND having to pay for it. They should make this game free until EA land is ready to be released.

I think EA is very happy about the major money surge coming out of the ATMs. I hear people buying simoleans everywhere. They will definately continue milking us.

[/ QUOTE ]

Sorry, the regular part of the game are the production cities. Pretty much everything is the same there. EAland is the new regular city and I haven't noticed any major problems there.

If you don't wish to test out new things or be involved, you could make a sim there and play without being molested.

If a player decides to devote a major portion of their time in TEST center 3, then they should realize they will have all the fun of testing out new stuff and concepts and they also will have all the problems associated with testing.

(I would love to see money starting to flood back into TSO's ledger sheet over at EA. The more money that flows in for TSO the better it is for TSO's future. And I will add that EA isn't forcing anyone to buy simoleans. Those not wishing to volunteer for the 'milking' can make their simoleans the good old fashioned way.)

 

[imported_Dali Dalinza]

<blockquote><hr>



What they did last night was create an environment where people packed pizza and canning houses for a few hours of fun. Shame on EA. Shame! Shame! Shame!

[/ QUOTE ]

But...so...the zero sum economy is out?

Instead we will have a "dice roll" economy, with random changes in payouts decided on a whim? Instead of planning ahead to skill and earn we just wait to show up for the 'big event' -- like getting coins tossed at us from a float at Mardi Gras?

Well DOH. All this time I thought the talk about the new economy was serious.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>


(I would love to see money starting to flood back into TSO's ledger sheet over at EA. The more money that flows in for TSO the better it is for TSO's future. And I will add that EA isn't forcing anyone to buy simoleans. Those not wishing to volunteer for the 'milking' can make their simoleans the good old fashioned way.)

[/ QUOTE ]

I do agree with this, Not to mention EA should put a buttload of money into research for Sims 2 online with Sims 2 graphics but without all the mistakes they made in TSO ;-)
However as for the milking part... I find both subscription price and simoleans-dollar exchange ratio to hefty for a game in this state (beta stage of EA and a main 'game' that is flawed and suffered years of non-development, no customer support to speak of, not working links on the TSO site). But then again, everyone is free not to pay of course.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

what they were doing tonight was testing something that was never tested in the city specifically intended for testing untested stuff.

[/ QUOTE ]

What they did last night was create an environment where people packed pizza and canning houses for a few hours of fun. Shame on EA. Shame! Shame! Shame!

[/ QUOTE ]
You can be as sarcastic as you want, it doesn't change the equation.

I know people had fun with this and I probly would have too if I had been able to be on.
But, the point is that you cannot expect the game to survive in the long run if it's going to be run like a Saturday Bingo at the local V.F.W.

 

[imported_Gracie Nito]

OMG! I love Bingo! Someone figure out a city wide event for them to host just like bingo and submit it on the wiki!

 

[imported_DutchAmerica]

$10 a month isn't much and really is the minimum for most paid games.

Check out the 'premium' play costs of some of those pogo games? And how long does it take to finish the majority of them? A few days at most?

Some 'popular' online games make you pay more and get this....if you want to play in the 'expansion' areas you have to buy the 'expansion pack' outside of your regular subscription.

I could only imagine how people here would scream if they had to physically purchase the "Sims2 Online" expansion pack along with the subscription fee.

As is, the team is 'attempting' to help us keep our sims that we have invested a lot of time into. They could just say "To hell with it" and just give us our pink slips and then sell us Sims2 Online when it's ready.

Personally, I appreciate their efforts totally.

And what is all this whining about the cost of TSO, $10 bucks. Is that really all THAT expensive? Let's put this in prospective. That's the cost of a couple cups of Starbucks coffee. That would be the equivalent to eating 2 Macdonald's extra value meals per month. It's a choice. I get more pleasure out of playing TSO then eating at McDonalds or missing out on a couple of cups of coffee.

(Actually Gracie, we do have some folks with bingo set up. Monopoly is pretty cool too. If you have roof artists, you could make up a grid using props for the board......they could make each house one of the monopoly lots....hmmm. Instead of having all this dinky doo neighborhoods....create a 'game' neighborhood and people wanting to participate could live there. Their houses would be the ones used to do the roof art on for the game...do we need another thread to discuss this type of thing?)

 

[imported_SimTripps]

<blockquote><hr>

I do agree with this, Not to mention EA should put a buttload of money into research for Sims 2 online with Sims 2 graphics but without all the mistakes they made in TSO

[/ QUOTE ]

Right on, Johnny.. I was thinking about this last night - what the dev team SHOULD have done was kill TSO, and introduce S2O, the Sims 2 Online. How many people do you think still play TSO or S1, as compared to the possible hundreds of thousands worldwide that play the S2 sp? A small production investment of their time would have guaranteed such a tremendous return for them.

As I posted on the blog, the purchasing of simoleans via a convenient ATM machine, yet hypocritically claiming a so-called Social Market ‘controlled’ economy by lowering payouts so much that it's next to impossible to make any level of fantasy earning, may possibly be the death of this game. The only company known to successfully pull this type of thing off is Microsoft...

 

[Guest]

<font color="purple">Well, I had a blast with it last night. Thank you to whatever EA devs implemented this. I wasn't skilled in Cooking or any of the pizza skills but I'm certainly not going to whine about it. I still made some good money on a no-skill sim. And I'm quite certain there will be other times when I won't be able to participate because of the time it takes place, But I'm not going to whine about that either. Stop being Fun-suckers, gawd.
</font>

 

[Tristan Lewis]

TTL
And the point is this was a test run. I have a feeling thay are trying to set it up so its automated. So everyone around the world can enjoy these lil' perks at random times.

 

[Guest]

My take on this was something fun and unexpected, an incentive to get people playing and actively participating at their keyboards and to help boost their start up funds in EA-Land.

Seems for the most part the above was accomplished.

I also happened to note it was a Sunday evening - not just for the players, but also for EA and there were going to be a small number of "maxis" judges around town visiting. How nice of them to give up part of their weekend to enable others to have some fun, particularly given the little thanks or appreciation they get for doing so.

I hope this isn't the one and only time we see such an event.

Polly

 

[Guest]

I agree Polly. Last night was a blast and people were the least AFK I have seen in a long time. When Luc stopped by the property there were cheers instead of the usual complaints. It was a boost in community spirit that I'd like to see happen more often, and maybe next time it can happen at a time more convenient for those who had to miss this one.

[EDIT] Sure, it might take a few reduced payouts leading up to or following an event like this one, but in the long run these spontaneous events bring some life into the game, even if only for one night...

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

OMG! I love Bingo! Someone figure out a city wide event for them to host just like bingo and submit it on the wiki!

[/ QUOTE ]
I absolutely, positively refuse to believe you are that dense.
But ok, you wanna stick your head in the sand? That's your business.

 

[calvinscreeksim]

<blockquote><hr>

OMG! I love Bingo! Someone figure out a city wide event for them to host just like bingo and submit it on the wiki!

[/ QUOTE ]


How many caffeinated drinks and/or sugar products do you have in a day?...before logging onto TSO of course.