Another member of our club that has been a longtime TSB player (since TSB16) and a VIP badge owner has decided to hang it up... Sucks to see good decent guys just looking to have a little fun and enjoy a game based off the sport we love, get to the point where they can't take it anymore and hang it up. It shouldn't be this way. There has to be some middle ground where Glu still makes boat loads of money (which they made over $8 million in Q2 of 2018 on TSB18) and the users get an enjoyable and fair gameplay experience. Stop driving away loyal and decent people that love baseball by screwing them out of their paychecks with crappy odds on draft picks or boxes, and practically unattainable event rewards for a majority of players. Give a dog a bone, in this case better odds on draft picks and boxes (instead of 2.5% that feels like .025%, maybe 10% or 20%). Don't make it so that final rounds in events like WoH can only be beat if you have a player with 10 times better ratings and use 20% boost and multiple restarts until you get that rare pitch sequence that you may or may not capitalize on. Make it so if you have a great team with great players, you can achieve the reward. In a club like mine, having only 1 team beat it this week and not teams beat it the previous few weeks is wrong. We have some great teams that have put in a good amount of $. No reason in three weeks only 1 team has beat WoH once...
I know other have ranted, and many feel the same way... sorry for my rant. But when a good guy like our club member gets to the point where he walks away from the game after putting in so much time and money... something needs to be said so hopefully something someday will be done to correct it. These games should be fun and enjoyable, not make you feel like you got bent over in an Atlantic City casino and left to beg on the streets for spare change to eat with.
From Wentz he came, he shall be returned!
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With all of those downloads, they only have 50k followers on Twitter. In other words, they have about as much probability of turning a downloader into a user loyal enough to click a follow button as I have probability of pulling a Legend from a Legend Box.
Those are absolutely pathetic numbers. In any other business arena, the people in charge of this project would've been replaced already.
Yes, the graphics are really good for a mobile game. Sure, the gameplay is at least palatable most of the time. (Although certain modes are absolutely unplayable at certain levels.) The interface design is far superior to other baseball games out there, which tend to get cluttered with way too many confusing options.
But, and this is a huge but, it's clear the app developers don't know much about baseball, the gaming community, or how to monetize a popular game properly.
If they understood baseball, player statistics and ratings would matter during gameplay. Jose Berrios, rated at 123 or 169, wouldn't induce 3 straight infield popups against a boosted 226 Jose Ramirez or a boosted 287 Prime Freddy Freeman. He might get the better of that matchup 1 out of every 3 or 4 at bats against far superior players.
They also wouldn't have closers who throw one curve per month in real life chucking curve after curve all of which start as near pickoff throws to first or third before "nipping" the outside of the black. There wouldn't be teleporting fielders who go from playing the shift to diving in the hole prior to throwing a strike across the diamond to get the fastest runner in the league. Even the slowest base runners would tag up on a fly ball to the warning track. Etc.
If they truly understood the gaming community, they'd realize that most will gladly pay something to enhance their gaming experience. But, they won't sit back and get screwed (glu'd) day in and day out.
It's fine to randomize parts of the game experience. But, actual gamers want challenges to be winnable. They don't take it well when they do everything to beat a certain challenge for hours on end only to repeatedly lose based on unrealistic events or clear manipulations of the gameplay to encourage more spending.
If they truly understood how to monetize a popular app, they'd be blowing their competition out of the water. The concept of the game is that good. Several guys in my club have independently posited that this format could easily become a very popular updated version of Fantasy Baseball where you not only seek the best players for your roster but also get to use them in gameplay.
Unfortunately, $8M in a quarter shows they don't have any concept of what they're doing. Again, that's a PPA of $4.
They could easily double (or more) their revenue by charging $10 for a Mountain of Gold instead of $100.
In addition to charging 1100 gold for a 50 percent chance at 1 of 2 players of the week, they could offer each PotW for sale at 5000 per player. If you want to take a pull at the random box, you essentially pay $1 real money. Pay $5 real money, you get the player you want without the risk.
For Players of the Month, they could charge 50,000G for a specific player. For $50 real money, you get 1 player for the month with boosted stats. Guarantee that player will be a super bonus player at least 3-4 times during the month, and VIP users would get multiple.
They could use the same buy it now concept with Prime Draft picks, Legend picks, and weekend Bonus Boxes. Want a Legend for your team? Play the boxes for a longshot or buy 250,000G for $250 real money.
Frankly, for all the good aspects of this game, it's little more than a classic bait and switch now. When you first start, they give you tons of things to enhance your gameplay. You get far better "luck" on boxes. You easily complete the Accomplishments that give you more and more resources.
Unfortunately, the more you play, the worse your experience tends to get. You can't level up your players anymore without paying ridiculous amounts of real money. It's not actually worth leveling them up anyway because they're just going to be replaced by a newer version next week that you'll have to pay ridiculous amounts of money to have a small chance at getting.
If newbies knew what they were getting into upfront, no one would download the game until real changes were made to how users are treated.
Outstanding.
Good day sir.
I mentioned that the other day. For $10 for mountain I would spend waaaaaaay more money.
$30 for Johnny bench! I would have been all over that.
Current VIP, but just barely, and I’m certain i won’t spend another $1 on this game.
I also don’t enjoy the feeling of being screwed over, which is how I feel most every day I play the game.
I always advise guys to play events that they enjoy. Personally, I love the heck out of WoH so I focused almost exclusively on that event. I do derby because it's like 'income' for my team. I ignore weekends because quite frankly, I don't enjoy it and I already spend enough time on the game as is.
If TSB was easy and didn't frustrate, we'd easily get bored. In particular, the frustration fuels the joy and excitement of winning. I'm not saying everything is ideal, but it's a game. We get to pick and choose the parts that we enjoy. That said, everyone needs a break. I wish your friend the best.
If they have you ONE free legend of your choice,
Ruth, Griffey, mantle, mays, I would play more.
The guy of of your choice, the guy who would be at the top of your roster, the last guy you choose on WOH. That would be more fun
I think it's fine to make the chase part of the game. But, chases should have a conclusion that makes sense.
Walk Off and Slugfest are my best examples.
It's fine to make those towers challenging to complete. But, they shouldn't be randomly impossible for some people no matter their roster.
On my main team, my entire slate of hitters are rated above 5 stars. They're all maxed. Many have skills boosts. I know the pattern to each level pretty well, so I can usually match up left versus right etc.
But, for some reason, I always bump into trouble with Cessa on level 1, Roark on level 2, Olson on level 3. I'll usually beat them manually after a couple tries. But, it's rare when my 234 hitter can beat 64 Cessa on the first try.
Recently, on level 4, Garrett Cy Young Cole seems to befuddle hitters with twice his ratings. And, yesterday, Berrios was completely unhittable for me throwing round after round of curves to batters with 60, 70, 80 and more point advantage.
I'm fine with the chase. I'll play all afternoon trying to beat it. I'll gladly try to reorder my lineup, boost certain players, adjust my timing, etc while trying to beat the challenge. But, you got to give me a chance to do it.
Same thing with Slugfest. My slugger roster is better than most people's. I have 8 Prime Sluggers.
I don't mind losing rounds. If I misshit a couple homers, I'm fine losing on distance. If I miss one all together, I should lose the last few rounds without question. Every once in awhile, I should lose just because that happens.
But, if I consistently crank bombs of 520 feet for a full round, including bonus balls, I should win that 9 times out of ten. Not the other way around. If I'm scoring 5900-6000 a round, I shouldn't lose to a lower rated slugger who somehow hits 560 foot homers.
You literally drove your consumers away. And as stated earlier above, why cant you reward guys that play this app 40 hours a week or more with something to help them score pts? Almost no reward for real effort, just luck. And guys that barely or never play latch on to a club for free rewards.
If you take care of the people who play, we will find each other and continue to spend for reasonable rewards. But as its been lately, joe schmo gets a free ernie banks and true gamers get more xp and players to trade in for xp. Its a great app to the new player collecting FREE gifts, terrible for people who SPEND in it for the season.