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iOS Gaming July 2013: Filled with unethical beverages, like Lipton Brisk Iced Tea

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okno

Member
Got Order & Chaos through IGN, was loving it until I hit level 5 and then everything that made me stop playing WoW in the first place came flooding back into picture. That said, I really love being able to play a MMORPG on my iPad laying down in bed. Will keep grinding away because, hey, it's free.
 

Roi

Member
I never really got into Real Racing 3 until now and damn, driving down the Melbourne track made me realise: damn, I've got Gran Turismo in my pocket. It looks and plays fantastic. This game could easily go for a tenner, and it's such a damn shame you have to wait half an hour after driving a car for 5 minutes. I know, we all cried about it before but it's so irritating. I hope Real Racing 4 wont go this way.

But apart from that the update is quite clever - it looks like they made the game more like the premium RR2, but I have a feeling this update lets them milk the players even more though it is quite subtle. Also the graphics have been improved slightly, the lightning looks even better. Yes, you get less money but also the repairs are supposed to be cheaper - I cant tell because i wasnt playing it much before.

Yeah I'm still doubting if I should update the game, seeing a lot of complains..
 

PittaGAF

Member
Thanks for The Nightjar recommendation, I'm really enjoying it...it's a really unique and superb experience.
I'm really glad I picked it up (at full price).
I wonder if there are similar games in the AppStore, besides Papa Sangre (which setting doesn't appeal me that much).
 

PFD

Member
Very interesting article on F2P monetization and money grabbing techniques over at Gamasutra

http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/RaminShokrizade/20130626/194933/

Here's a few snippets. But be sure to read the whole thing.

Research has shown that putting even one intermediate currency between the consumer and real money, such as a “game gem” (premium currency), makes the consumer much less adept at assessing the value of the transaction. Additional intermediary objects, what I call “layering”, makes it even harder for the brain to accurately assess the situation, especially if there is some additional stress applied.

This additional stress is often in the form of what Roger Dickey from Zynga calls “fun pain”.

A key skill in deploying a coercive monetization model is to disguise your money game as a skill game.

The [Reward Removal] technique involves giving the player some really huge reward, that makes them really happy, and then threatening to take it away if they do not spend. Research has shown that humans like getting rewards, but they hate losing what they already have much more than they value the same item as a reward.

There's some pretty devious shit happening here.
 
I read that a few days ago and didn't find it particularly interesting. It's basically a summary of what we already knew, but in about a million words.

Developers don't give a shit about making games any more, because iOS is purely about making money. Now that even great devs like Halfbrick and PikPok have gone that way pretty much all hope is lost.
 

Goli

Member
Reading that thing reminded me of how great Groove Coaster Zero is, in that regard.
The game's free to play and you get new songs as you level up (and there are a lot of songs). There's also premium songs you gotta buy with real money (no fake currency), but they let you try one of them once a day, if you like it you can purchase it and if you don't you can just keep on playing the free songs.
It does have some social hooks and stuff like that, but all in all it's a lot better than most other free to play games on iOS.
 
Reading that thing reminded me of how great Groove Coaster Zero is, in that regard.
The game's free to play and you get new songs as you level up (and there are a lot of songs). There's also premium songs you gotta buy with real money (no fake currency), but they let you try one of them once a day, if you like it you can purchase it and if you don't you can just keep on playing the free songs.
It does have some social hooks and stuff like that, but all in all it's a lot better than most other free to play games on iOS.

I don't think anyone ever has any issues with paying to get more content. The problem is in pay-to-win games (or as pointed out in the article, "pay-to-not-lose"). It's in games that have a skill element on the face of them, but which actually favour players who pay money over those that don't.
 

PFD

Member
Developers don't give a shit about making games any more, because iOS is purely about making money. Now that even great devs like Halfbrick and PikPok have gone that way pretty much all hope is lost.

It's not all doom and gloom. Yeah, there's a ton of cheap cash-grabs and f2p crap, but there's still quality content to be found on iOS. Luckily, I never got into f2p games (I despise tiny tower and its ilk), but I still found it fascinating to read about the various techniques employed in the f2p business.
 
It's not all doom and gloom. Yeah, there's a ton of cheap cash-grabs and f2p crap, but there's still quality content to be found on iOS. Luckily, I never got into f2p games (I despise tiny tower and its ilk), but I still found it fascinating to read about the various techniques employed in the f2p business.

I really like Tiny Tower, but timers in games never really bothered me. The IAPs in Tiny Tower are purely for the impatient and that wasn't me. Obviously other games mess with the formula and ruin the genre entirely, like anything with "premium" buildings that you will never ever earn enough free currency to obtain, but Tiny Tower was always an example of that genre done RIGHT. It might still be the only one. There was Happy Street for a while, but updates ruined that beyond belief.

I'm only ever bothered by IAPs which make the playing field uneven. If you're going to make a game which you are marketing as a skill game, then IAPs for extra lives, or anything like that, have absolutely NO place in it whatsoever. I either pay more money than someone else or I lose, so what's the point of that from a gamer's point of view? I mean, it's brilliant from a business' point of view, but then that's where they differ from us, and as I say, when previously great developers have lost touch with gamers in favour of eking out a few more pennies from whales, then there's no hope left in genres like the endless runner.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
Developers don't give a shit about making games any more, because iOS is purely about making money. Now that even great devs like Halfbrick and PikPok have gone that way pretty much all hope is lost.

I know we had our disagreement over RUA2, but I should point out almost everybody else in the thread disagreed with your assessment of the F2P model in that game.

I also find the suggestion that my company doesn't "give a shit about making games any more, because iOS is purely about making money" pretty insulting.
 

Marco1

Member
I read that a few days ago and didn't find it particularly interesting. It's basically a summary of what we already knew, but in about a million words.

Developers don't give a shit about making games any more, because iOS is purely about making money. Now that even great devs like Halfbrick and PikPok have gone that way pretty much all hope is lost.

What rubbish!
There are still plenty of games coming I'm sure that don't require or need IAP on ios.
If it wasn't for the ios app store I would have missed some of my greatest gaming experiences ever and I am sure IAP is coming to gaming with the next-gen of consoles I'm sure.
 
I know we had our disagreement over RUA2, but I should point out almost everybody else in the thread disagreed with your assessment of the F2P model in that game.

I also find the suggestion that my company doesn't "give a shit about making games any more, because iOS is purely about making money" pretty insulting.

Yeah, I'm not getting into this with you again because you're not impartial, so it's kind of pointless for us both. I'll just counter with "prove me wrong, then," and I'll leave it at that.

If you're still making games for gamers over profit, make one, I'll be truly happy if you make me look stupid on this because I really loved your earlier, more innocent stuff.
 
I read that a few days ago and didn't find it particularly interesting. It's basically a summary of what we already knew, but in about a million words.

Developers don't give a shit about making games any more, because iOS is purely about making money. Now that even great devs like Halfbrick and PikPok have gone that way pretty much all hope is lost.

I don't agree. If there is a market there, then making these games can help provide income for riskier titles that they then may want to make.

It is a much better way to stay in business compared to say price gouging regions on steam.
 

Mario

Sidhe / PikPok
If you're still making games for gamers over profit, make one, I'll be truly happy if you make me look stupid on this because I really loved your earlier, more innocent stuff.

We don't make games for "art" or charity. We are a commercial business, and in order to make games on an ongoing basis we need to make games that are commercially viable. It is necessary for what we produce to be profitable, and only we greenlight games on the expectation they will be.

However, that doesn't mean we aren't passionate about creating great games, and that doesn't mean what we do is proactively exploitative.

The majority of players of our games play without ever having to pay for anything, playing sometimes for dozens or even hundreds of hours. Those same gamers rate our games highly, and praise the experience we have provided. Relative to that, we have virtually no complaints of exploitation or providing little value for money, despite millions of users. If that isn't evidence we are creating games for gamers I don't know what is.

Out of all the very real exploitation that happens in mobile gaming (and console retail for that matter), I cannot fathom why you are choosing to class us and Halfbrick as the "bad guys".
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"

Goli

Member
Anyway, I got an iPad mini last week and I absolutely love it.
All my previous iOS gaming had been done on either iPods or iPhones and the bigger screen on the mini feels like such a big improvement. I never really had a problem with my fingers getting in the way of the screen, but I feel like now I can't go back to playing on a tiny screen since I can see a lot of little details in games I didn't before.
So, what good iPad only games are there?

Also, would anyone be interested in playing through the Chaos Rings series at some point? I really liked all of them and I was thinking of getting the iPad versions and playing through them again because of that, and the fact that Chaos Rings Sigma is coming out soon.
 
So I've been stalking these threads for a while, and only recently re-acquired my iPhone 5, so I'm looking for some suggestions that I may have missed from reading the old threads/posts that I haven't explored yet.

My current lineup is as follows:
-Bastion
-Layton
-Superbros
-Year Walk
-Kingdom Rush Frontiers
-Gem Keeper
-PvZ
-Spelltower
-Quarrel Deluxe
-Tiny Wings
-Osmos

Pretty basic stuff, but I'm in love with Bastion and am always down for a solid RPG or adventure, so if anyone has anything I need to add please say so! When I had my old iPhone I downloaded & deleted plenty of games, so it's hard to find quality in the entirety of the store that are actually worth your attention, and that keep it for longer than the tutorial and aren't just clones of better games.
 

numble

Member
Yeah, I'm not getting into this with you again because you're not impartial, so it's kind of pointless for us both. I'll just counter with "prove me wrong, then," and I'll leave it at that.

If you're still making games for gamers over profit, make one, I'll be truly happy if you make me look stupid on this because I really loved your earlier, more innocent stuff.
This is silly, you make an accusation against a developer, and then you say you aren't willing to discuss your accusations with the developer you make accusations against because they're impartial?

I heard you got paid moneyhats by Richard Stallman to make those accusations; I'm not going to get into this with you because you're not impartial.
 

PFD

Member
In case people miss the other thread, Tiny Wings and Where's My Water are free at the moment. So is Infinity Blade 2

And Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery (ipad version)

Also, not a game, but How to Cook everything is normally 10 bucks, and just went free for the first time. I only mention it because it's such a good app/book.
 

KiDdYoNe

Member
Will any more games go on sale?

probably, Superbrothers became free only few hours ago, after everything i knew. Or maybe it's just me.

Anyway, wow. I was thinking about getting BADLAND for 1-2 bucks and now look what's happening. Same with Superbrothers. Let's just wait for more haha.
 
Anyway, wow. I was thinking about getting BADLAND for 1-2 bucks and now look what's happening. Same with Superbrothers. Let's just wait for more haha.

That is a bit of a problem for ios. For any other platform? It is a major sales event you would wait for. For ios? It is just Monday.
 
probably, Superbrothers became free only few hours ago, after everything i knew. Or maybe it's just me.

Anyway, wow. I was thinking about getting BADLAND for 1-2 bucks and now look what's happening. Same with Superbrothers. Let's just wait for more haha.

If it is because of the 5 year anniversary of the app store then there should be an official category in the store. Hopefully we'll see more games!
 

igor

Member
Oh god, them free games look brilliant. I knew Badland is going to be free at some stage but I bought it for the full price.

I already told all my friends to get them freebies, hope there will be more gems coming!

By the way, have anyone heard about this:

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/iesabel/id666232910?mt=8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp9NYs2o2u8&feature=player_embedded

It looks very promising and it's got some nice features (up to 8 player cross platform multi), I would love to see Torchlight on iOS...
 

SteveWD40

Member
Oh god, them free games look brilliant. I knew Badland is going to be free at some stage but I bought it for the full price.

I already told all my friends to get them freebies, hope there will be more gems coming!

By the way, have anyone heard about this:

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/iesabel/id666232910?mt=8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp9NYs2o2u8&feature=player_embedded

It looks very promising and it's got some nice features (up to 8 player cross platform multi), I would love to see Torchlight on iOS...

Seems to have come out of nowhere...

No IAP, may buy this right now.
 

igor

Member
Seems to have come out of nowhere...

No IAP, may buy this right now.

No IAP and the price is super cheap - I would buy it now but i have nada on my account T_T

I'm not expecting anything better than Torchlight but it shouldnt be too hard to make it better than Diablo 3?
 

PittaGAF

Member
Oh god, them free games look brilliant. I knew Badland is going to be free at some stage but I bought it for the full price.

I already told all my friends to get them freebies, hope there will be more gems coming!

By the way, have anyone heard about this:

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/iesabel/id666232910?mt=8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp9NYs2o2u8&feature=player_embedded

It looks very promising and it's got some nice features (up to 8 player cross platform multi), I would love to see Torchlight on iOS...


DAMN!!!
I knew I should have obeyed more strictly to my rule:
'If backlog>2, do not visit NeoGAF'
 

SeanR1221

Member
I asked that a few pages ago, but didn't really get an answer.
What does the Random Jetpack do?
Is it worth the grinding?

Oh, it just starts you off with a random jetpack from your collection.

I think it's worth it because then you're using something different every round.
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
Oh god, them free games look brilliant. I knew Badland is going to be free at some stage but I bought it for the full price.

I already told all my friends to get them freebies, hope there will be more gems coming!

By the way, have anyone heard about this:

https://itunes.apple.com/ie/app/iesabel/id666232910?mt=8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wp9NYs2o2u8&feature=player_embedded

It looks very promising and it's got some nice features (up to 8 player cross platform multi), I would love to see Torchlight on iOS...

This looks really really good. What's the catch? :p

Will get it as soon as I beat KOTOR. I'm up to the Malak fight and it's such bullshit that I'm tempted just to delete the game and pretend I beat it. I'm 99% of the way there as it is, all I'm missing is the happy ending video at the end...
 

Tunesmith

formerly "chigiri"
This looks really really good. What's the catch? :p

Will get it as soon as I beat KOTOR. I'm up to the Malak fight and it's such bullshit that I'm tempted just to delete the game and pretend I beat it. I'm 99% of the way there as it is, all I'm missing is the happy ending video at the end...

I had forgotten about that fight, it was annoying on Xbox as well if you didn't have the correct character build, can't imagine it being any nicer on iPad. :p
 

Jedeye Sniv

Banned
I had forgotten about that fight, it was annoying on Xbox as well if you didn't have the correct character build, can't imagine it being any nicer on iPad. :p

Yeah, I'm feeling really quite screwed, my MC is a pretty crappy Jedi and I don't have any powers to inflict damage from a distance so I pretty much need to hit Malak, run away to heal then rinse and repeat for 15 minutes. Might just watch the ending on youtube and be done with it. It was a very good game indeed but this ending is no fun at all.
 
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