What data justifies a $60 avi? I’m sure the old system worked just fine. The players who can’t afford to buy ecs for avis would try their luck with timer boxes. The ones who could afford to drop big bucks on an avi had the option to buy ecs. But taking away the chance to get a free monthly avi is distasteful imo. There are so many other ways this game brings in revenue. For example: Adds on the spinner, people literally needing to buy ecs to get anywhere in game🤷♀️, bbb parties, shards boxes, and vip passes. Charging $60 for one avi should not be an option. I’m glad our concerns have been acknowledged but it needs to be done more publicly and professionally. Calling your player base childish is not the right move. Thank you💕
Can confirm. I was referring to comments that sang to the tune of "money-hungry," "greedy," "shit," and other such flowery language. If you did not leave a comment of that sort, then that was not directed at you because you were not being childish 😊 I'll be back but let's keep it civil. ✌🏼
Oh I completely understand that point of view! I could be wrong, but Marcie did originally post in response to Adaline. It gave a fairly good explanation for the recent changes, and didn’t appear to be rude. However, following that many players were quite negative and did not give constructive criticism. So naturally, I’m sure ATA wasn’t inclined to continue to be as responsive.
We are civilly not buying until the previously presented decisions (16k drops and no Avis in month boxes) are reversed.
ATA I love ya, I've really enjoyed playing the game over the past year and seeing how things have changed and evolved in just this small fraction of time that this game has been out. I've grown to love the community here and the interaction that the devs have with the players in forum contests and world chat. That being said, I'm pretty disappointed with some of these recent changes 😔 Since I started playing, I saw new features like pets be introduced. Timer boxes frequently changed (time to unlock; minimum drop count; and before speedups were introduced to the game, the time remaining to where you could open it for free was even adjusted here and there). Monthly timer boxes for spinners and avis. Forum overhaul. Subscription plans for increased money and hunt drops. New story passes that were cheaper (100ec instead of 200) and/or giftable and tradable. Extracurriculars! With all these new changes, even though there were always some complaints, I could always see that there was careful balance for people that are not able or just choose not to spend a large amount of money on the game VS people that want to spend more. We all get that ATA is a business and needs to make money. But when in the past we see that ATA has made considerations for f2p players or small spenders, it makes it even harder for us to understand a series of recent changes that really seem to lack that balance. Let me compare and contrast some of the new features from 2019 that I mentioned, vs the changes we have already seen in 2020. 2019 new feature: Pets. This was a fun to feature that also added to the PvP element of the game. Everyone gets pets and capsules for free, but if you want to spend money you can use EC to buy extra costumes or level them up faster. I thought this feature was well balanced because you can enjoy it without paying for anything, but you can benefit from it a little more if you do decide to pay money. 2020 changes: new pet levels added. I don't think there anything to criticize here actually, I'm happy with new levels even though I'm not quite at the point where I can get past level 30. And the speedup bags provide mostly pet related speedups so there is some balance there. 2019 new feature: Extracurriculars. This added a lot to the game by making it so there was some extra goals to attain. Some XCs were obviously geared towards money spenders (live fabulously) and some were geared more towards a wider variety of players (dance/party hard). Collectathon - flashers or box openers. Box opening - box openers, which usually also means moderate spenders (if you had saved up a bunch of old timer boxes and speedups you could do this f2p but that only works once or twice). 2020 changes: dance/party hard were removed as well as box opening. Steal the spotlight was added which is more for high stat and pvp players. For two short days, drop cat XC was added which had huge rewards but required a lot of spending to win. These both seemed to have fairly small audiences who could participate so I think these changes lacked balance. But I hope we will seem some new ones soon that more people can participate in. 2019 added forum updates which were free to all and I think most people have grown accustomed to the new update and appreciate the new look. Subscription plans were added which are cash only, but they seem reasonably priced and just add a nice bonus to the game rather than being something that you feel like you need to be able to enjoy the game. Overall, I think there was fairly good balance with the updates that happened in 2019. Nothing made me seriously think that ATA didn't care at all about F2P or low-spending players. ----- As for some of the most recent 2020 changes... Without any warning (though I'm not sure warming would have helped with a change this drastic), the requirements for getting the main hunt avi reward was more than doubled. Later, a vague explanation was given that it was to help "balance the game economy". I'm confused as to how nearly tripling the requirement balances the game when there's no other change accompanying like increasing drop payout or anything like that. If anything, there was another change that made this requirement even more difficult: reducing the minimum drop from the timer boxes. Sure you can hold a higher number of timer boxes, but for most people (ie people not in cat clubs or going to flashes), that doesn't matter because you just don't accumulate them nearly as fast from just doing POTD. And the most recent change of all: March Avis being cash only. I'm suuuuper confused and disappointed with this change because as long as I've played this game, monthly Avis were always something you had a chance to get for free. Or pay for, if you wanted to. But this change means not only can you never get the avi for free, you can't use any saved up EC to get them or even get a nice bonus for spending so much on them through the Live fabulously xc 🤦♀️ And as others have pointed out, there's no "bonus" for buying them (like extra DNs or EC, as with other Molly corner deals). Last, the prices are even increased from previous monthly Avi prices (example, for US prices avis were previously 50/100/200 EC to now $10=100EC // $25=250EC // $60=600EC) yet the stats are the same as previous months. I strongly feel that this update totally lacks balance and I completely understand why there's all this outrage , more than I've ever seen since I've been playing this game. Thank you to whomever made it this far in my essay 😅 Hopefully my point is very clear. Please bring some balance back to the game 💖
Let me start this post by stating that my previous account has been banned for complaining about the changes and demanding a game that is fair to everyone. "Constructive feedback" isn't just the words you like to hear. In my posts, I might have sounded frustrated because we have been constantly ignored and our gameplay and the fun we had on this game has been drastically affected by these changes. But I did not "bully" anyone or made direct attacks to anyone. The posts are still there, so it's clear to anyone that I have written real criticism and have been struggling to point out (multiple times and repeatedly) how these changes are bad for the playerbase. While I explained my point of view in long detailed posts and got banned, other players have been trolling and calling you names and are still here. Funny. Second, it is highly unfair to belittle our distress by saying that we are only "being childish". Many people have been expressing their discontentment in eloquent ways, that despite frustrated and even harsh, are not disrespectful and much less childish. I know that this has been commented on already, but it is deeply upsetting. I wish our feedback was treated with more seriousness. We didn't ignore the original post. We just don't agree with it and the excuses offered for those changes, and we have the right to disagree with you. Don't we? That's why we kept protesting despite getting a response. This is how protesting and feedbacks work, we do it until we reach a middle ground that is satisfying for us. It doesn't seem like you're making choices based on the interests of the community or what's better for us when all the feedback on this thread is negative. C'mon. You can be more professional than this. If the designers of the Sonic movie were able to listen to feedback and make an entire new movie because their target customers didn't like the first result, you're also able to stop these absurd changes.
I’m super curious in what their data showed that prompted the drastic change tbh. Was it a problem with alts? People spending way less bc of a loophole? v curious. I get that it isn’t something a company needs to share to their consumers though 😔
Completely agree. And yeah I'm sure there's legitimate reasons to be somewhat vague about exactly what they saw the problems to be, but at the same time people really value transparency.
Yeah, I'm super curious to but I understand that ATA can't be 100% transparent with us. Catch me hiding because a plant in their conference room to try to eavesdrop the answer 👀 *Change Andy to Hailey
Yeah, I'm super curious to but I understand that ATA can't be 100% transparent with us. Catch me hiding because a plant in their conference room to try to eavesdrop the answer 👀 *Change Andy to Hailey Please ignore the previous reply with broken image
I think they were as transparent as they could be 😮 But I get this entirely. I personally like reasoning behind any type of major change. Seeing as the hunt is already going on though, we just have to look forward and anticipate the changes that will be made next Hunt.
I would, but I'm not experienced in coding games (and not super interested) and I'm a horrible artist. 🤣 Plus, have you seen the rent prices in Vancouver? 😵 Good Lord.
What about community liason or PR or something 😜 And lmao, I have not, but I too am struggling with high rent where I live. Less than a year ago my area was hit by some tornadoes which drove up demand in the rental market 😔 Gonna bring this back on topic to the thread and say that I do still budget some money for this game because I get a lot of enjoyment from it and I like to support artists and games that I play a lot. But I'm not going to keep doing that if I feel the prices are unfair/unreasonable/unwarranted.
Fuck. I hit post without actually typing. I meant to say, PR sounds like it would be up my alley but god damn dealing with people in general can be so draining. 😭 I would get so overwhelmed. I think that's why I'm glad to see a response from them at all, and pleased that they took the time to read through all the replies. It's one thing me being able to read through this thread knowing it isn't directed at me and that I don't have anything to do about it, but I can imagine this may have been the devs behind the scenes:
I understand that at times for a company, you are gonna recieve pretty harsh criticism but as an employee or someone part of the business, you should always act professional and not reply to customers in the manner that they give you. Very unprofessional and sad. And I understand that you are just the messenger, so you being in that position you representing ata, and using language as to call the customers “childish” or whatever for voicing our concerns and how in OUR opinion, the game has took a hard left turn and making people not want to play, just makes the whole ata look bad and everything is gonna be pointed to you for how you responded. And even to say “handle some spice back” or whatever is very unprofessional. Fighting or responding back the same way angry customers have been is not right and not a good image for ata since people are already leaving bad reviews in the App Store now. But, we shall see what happens in the future and where things will go, hope for the best I guess, right?
Thank you Marcie for responding to us and trying to clear the air. While we may not be fully satisfied it's better then a kick in the ass 🤭. Yes the prices are ridiculous still but, hopefully next month we get some kick ass new avis! And hopefully the hunts moving forward will also be much better for drop rates! While we want you guys to hear out what we think, we also need to remember to not be greedy and demanding. ATA is only one company with so many people hosting millions of us. Definitely an uneven fight 😂 But I am hoping this will be a learning experience on the communities side and atas side 💕
I do miss this old spinner, but I’ve learned to love the spinner boxes a whole lot more. I’m disappointed that the avatars aren’t in the boxes, but I’m even more disappointed there’s no like, EC/DN bundle with them like in years past. I feel like people can justify buying a $60 avatar if they’re at least getting doctors notes and extra credits. That being said, ATA, I love your game, and will continue to even though I may not love this month. I fully understand how difficult it is to operate an online business which also doubles as a GAME. I have been called some pretty rude things because I defend you guys 💀 people are quick to a-holes, but you guys actually do take our opinions into consideration, but we seem to conveniently forget.
I understand that hoppers and flashers can complete a story shortly after release. But I feel like that's such a small number of people. I have sent tickets about pro cat parties which I think would be a huge help since there is an increase in 100+ mcs players. I know I came across frustrated because I'm not a huge pay to win player. I spend when I can and have been able to make decent progress. But if these changes were implemented when I was smaller I dont believe I would have been able to commit to playing like I have. Raising drops has made it nearly impossible for small accounts or accounts in potd clubs. Another way that I thought was genius that you guys did was during easter hunt. You had premium party leaderboard and potd. I think that could be implemented to story line and leaderboard so it covers all bases of players. If you choose to do the premium party hunt then yeah get your drops at 16k go beyond 90k drops. But dont forget the little guys.