Price of food these days...

[Guest]

After the huge cut in pizza payout, wich is in a row of other payouts cuts. I start to ask myself what kind of food we're serving and eating. The costs of food as it is now is way out of proportions I believe.
I dont get upset with payout cuts, raising prices and all other things changing, but to me it seems i'm serving only Beluga Caviar with Veuve Cliquot nowadays.

So, why arent obvious things as the cost of filling a fridge cut by half too?

 

[Guest]

Agreed.
If you make a plate of hc every 5 minutes of a day, it will cost the house <font color="red">6912 simoleans</font>. And you probably need to make it a little more often at certain times.

<font color="red">This is a whopping 48,384 simoleans per week!!</font>

I know they want to drain money from the economy, but that's too much.

It creates a lot of friction in the game too - such as the "hatred" for free sims, people <font color="red">treating new players badly just because they need to eat</font>. I played a free sim for a while and she was almost starved, since the welcome houses were angry at her for needing to eat.
I do think that makes a worse experience for new players, and is detrimental to Maxis in the end. They lose players I believe.

It also promotes afk stores.

I say, drain the money somewhere else.
Lower the cost of food to 1-2 simoleans per plate of six.

 

[SilverSpike]

I agree.. I know how much i spend when i am hosting and its a lot of money.. I rely on tips mostly and even that doesnt cover it..

 

[Guest]

I agree with all of you 100%... but it's not like the Dev's don't know it, I doubt we'll see any change in our favor so, here's to us addicts!

 

[imported_MattelMichele]

So--so true! I rely soley on my buffets to feed avi's now-a-days

 

[Guest]

There is a simple fix for this. Every visitor needs to tip. Doesn't matter if it happens on their first greening trip or every time they go to green. Typically I tip the person directly (trade) who is cooking and taking care of the house. I was at a house last night where there were 30 people. The house was being run by my friends (Mr. Me's house) and no one was tipping. It got to a point when the roomies said they couldn't cook cause they were out of money. I waited a few minutes to see if anyone would go to the tip jar and start giving... no one did. I did the only thing a sim should do. I walked over to the 2 roomies and gave them each 1k. Yes, in this economy that is alot but what house owners and roomies give us cannot be measured in hours.

Everyone needs to remember. If the skill houses close, what will happen next? If the money lots close, then we will all be in trouble. If the love houses close... where can we get our groove thang on? lol

Everyone do your part. For visitors we can come and go making money when needed. Roomies and owners keep their house open for us. They don't have to!

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

There is a simple fix for this. Every visitor needs to tip. ... Everyone do your part. For visitors we can come and go making money when needed. Roomies and owners keep their house open for us. They don't have to!

[/ QUOTE ]

I think the price of food is a problem for the developers to fix.
<font color="red">We the players don't own this problem, the developers do.</font>

I agree that if people tip, the roomies can afford the outrageous prices.
I'm not contradicting you.
But the tip jar was never designed to be payment for food received.
It was designed to be a "thank you".

People tipping more does not remedy the original problem, that the food prices are horrible.

It also doesn't help the new players, who have no money, and get treated badly because the game is designed so a sim has to eat.

I think many of these "TIP FOR CRYING OUT LOUD", "PICK UP YOUR PLATES" and "I HATE FREE PLAYERS" feelings in the community, in some way or another stem from the outrageous prices of food.
More people would enjoy the game, stay in the game, be happier and so on, if the food cost was fixed.
It's a very simple fix for the developers to do.

 

[Guest]

ya know i love this game. I have had accounts in tso since dec of 2002. And im very saddened to say that for the first time in 5 years im really not liking to play anymore... its not fun anymore its work and hard work... not fun the way it was intended to be. I hope and prey its not gonna stay this way... Im sorry for the botters.... but u know you got real people in here that dont bot give us a break and give us some half way decent prices in our enconmy so we can have fun again. Games are not intented to be work they should be fun!

 

[SugarCane]

I can't really keep my welcome house open anymore - I have used the ATM a couple of times - but that's real money and I am not going to rely on that to keep a house going, with a lot of players coming, who have no money to tip with.

 

[Guest]

How much does it cost to fill a buffet as opposed to cooking HC for your guests? I know the skill house I frequent the most uses the buffet to feed everyone. They were charging for it, now they don't.

Its a delicate balance in game keeping your skills and money up while also running a property. This is why I have yet to run one. My girlfriend and I are saving at least 25 000 each to get things started, and even then we have to figure out the cost of greening everyone and making sure we can still work and skill.

I personally think since the jobs require mucho effort, they should pay even more than they do now. I make 800+ per shift as a suitable server, but really with how difficult the jobs are that should be the main source of income and be upped a little more.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I can't really keep my welcome house open anymore - I have used the ATM a couple of times - but that's real money and I am not going to rely on that to keep a house going, with a lot of players coming, who have no money to tip with.


[/ QUOTE ]

The free people have no money to tip with. We have the same problem in stores which is one of the house types where they can land.

I am also getting a huge number of Brazilian and other spanish speaking visitors. I cannot speak or understand spanish. Is there a house that can communicate with these people?

Yesterday was so wild with them saying "I hungry!!" and "where is my bed" that I thought is was Parizad playing a joke on me.

 

[Roger Wilco]

As I've said before, I think the dev's are making a mistake making the game SL Lite. Yeah it's harder to run a house now with this zero sum economy design, but it's certainly not all that difficult. The new design requires too much of many of the players that are used to hosting with money being essentially unlimited.

Anyway, food costs are starting to weed out many of the weaker players from hosting who want to be part of a successful house, but can't hack it under the new economy. That makes them frustrated and sad, and sad players very often whine and then quit. That's not good for the game unless goal type players are joining faster than fun oriented players are quitting, and I very seriously doubt that's happening.

 

[Guest]

When I first began playing in 2003 I remember the entrance had a pay door, you had to pay to enter a lot of lots. The game is in a state of change, perhaps shut down and come back next week. I for one am getting out my old spanish books he he Ola

 

[Guest]

*TTL*

I guess everyone should be glad that Gracie wrote the design for the current food prices found here. Its considerably lower then the old cities. If anyone thinks its too expensive they should comment on the wiki article or do the obvious thing and charge for food!

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

*TTL*

I guess everyone should be glad that Gracie wrote the design for the current food prices found here. Its considerably lower then the old cities. If anyone thinks its too expensive they should comment on the wiki article or do the obvious thing and charge for food!

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely. Use the buffet and charge people.

The game has changed, people. That means it is time to change your playing habits as well.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

I guess everyone should be glad that Gracie wrote the design for the current food prices .. Its considerably lower then the old cities. If anyone thinks its too expensive they should comment on the wiki article or do the obvious thing and charge for food!

[/ QUOTE ]

Couldn't find that in the wiki, thanks. I still have some navigation problems there.

I still think 50 real life american dollars a week, is too much for anyone to get from the ATM for feeding customers in a single house. I also don't see how people buying that money will help the game. Yes, EA gets more money perhaps, but this poisoned atmosphere within the game will lose them customers.

Also there is a long time "de facto standard" in TSO, that good houses do not charge people for food, and good houses do not serve buffet.
I think that will be very hard to change overnight.

Give it a try:
Make a skill house and only serve buffet, and charge. See how your business goes. Also make a house for free players and make them pay for the buffet - they will all starve since they can't pay anything at all.

I really hope they rethink this 50,000 simoleons per week to feed people-thing.
It is not good for EA.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Also there is a long time "de facto standard" in TSO, that good houses do not charge people for food, and good houses do not serve buffet.
I think that will be very hard to change overnight.

[/ QUOTE ]

Its not TSO anymore. Its true that it will take time to change everyones mindset. Personally I think eventually people will conform unless they have unlimited funds to spend at the ATM or they have roomies willing to work to feed guests, or houses will close and the new ones that open wont know how things used to be in TSO and start charging because its simply the logical way to run a business.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

Absolutely. Use the buffet and charge people.

The game has changed, people. That means it is time to change your playing habits as well.


[/ QUOTE ]

Are we trying to get new people to join EA Land? The trial or free accounts cannot get a job and can't go to a money house to earn money. They go to welcome, services, and stores. How can we charge for food if they have no money? Certainly they will never come back to a game where others cause their avatar to die of starvation. Perhaps Welcome houses could have free food to feed others (just on that category).

 

[imported_MARCIN2006]

I made a page on the game wiki called "Leftovers",

The Idea:
Many people are losing money when visitors don't eat a full serving of food. What if we could have the option to put leftovers back into the refrigerator so it can be used later, however it would loss a bit of its greening capability. If not taken out, the serving of food would last a few sim days (each day it would lose a bit of its greening capability) and by say, the 3rd sim day it would go rotten and have to be thrown away/disappear while its in the frig.

 

[imported_MollyG]

Unfortunately my way of dealing with this in TC-3 is to just not open my money house. Everytime I have had it open in the last couple weeks I get nothing but free players, all of who are broke and none of who know game etiquite. I refuse to harp on players to clean their plates or tip the hostess. I try to be as helpful as possible and teach pizza and band to those who want to learn, but simply after two weeks and only 100 in tips, I just don't open except for private pizza at this time. Maybe in the future, when things turn around a bit I'll open again, but for now, I visit other houses, tip them and help where I can. I already have a job, I don't need a second one just to keep my house open. I want to play for fun, skill and pizza and what not; and visit with people. If I feel that I have to make X number of dollars to open my house for an evening, then its stress and the gaming is reduced.

 

[Guest]

<blockquote><hr>

<blockquote><hr>

*TTL*

I guess everyone should be glad that Gracie wrote the design for the current food prices found here. Its considerably lower then the old cities. If anyone thinks its too expensive they should comment on the wiki article or do the obvious thing and charge for food!

[/ QUOTE ]

Absolutely. Use the buffet and charge people.

The game has changed, people. That means it is time to change your playing habits as well.

[/ QUOTE ]

See this is the problem with paying for buffet... let's compare it to a real life situation.

A few years ago I was at my local McDonald's and I went up for more sweet and sour sauce for my chicken nuggets. The McD's employee told me that they were 10 cents each. I though to myself, 'Are you kidding me!?'. Yea I had ten cents but that was just a turn off... I'm a customer and I already paid for the nuggets... the sauce is as good as mine!

Going back to simlife... guests are indeed giving owners and roomies something- hours! So to charge buffet just isn't good for business. It's not that sims are selfish or rude, it's just that they have to be thrifty to save up for that floor tile! So, as a host you're at a standstill. To stay competitive you also have to cater to those sims that may not mean to but will subconsciously prefer the house that does not charge them. Why make a host choose between something they love to do, that is an essential part of their enjoyment in this game and having 10 simoleans in their bank account.

I don't know... it doesn't seem very considerate to the gamer to me. floor tile