Reassessing my life. OMG, what have I done?

[AngrLee]

ROVIO, this has gone too far!

– You started with a cute side scrolling shooter game.
– Add coins (useless) which used to be the currency of the game.
– Add pigs (likewise useless – you accumulate them faster than you can spend them).
– Add squad bonuses which multiply your bonus for useless coins.
– Add a “Silo” and 7 materials (btw – jerk with that BIG time).
– Add a casino aka Lab where you largely earn more useless coins.
– Add Challenges (which btw we have not had for over a year).
– Add FB buddy bonuses for using your friends TFs in exchange for your social network data)
– Add gems (currently the MAIN currency of the game).
– Add energonicons (OMG, only 45 of those?) Not a new one in years.
– Now add live events where you can earn Tokens! Tokens to promote your characters to get more pigs and coins to add accessories that may or may not work.
– Keep adding more characters – that are largely just a new paint job on an existing character with the same tired old weapons. Even the new Grimlock – shoots Megatron style gravity holes. Assume each squad will have 4 characters at some point.
– Then add Sparks, Promotion, and the Spark Run. What??
– Now add the “overpowering”.

Wow! So now with 100M coins, level 690 (that is so funny by itself because they can’t even come up with new words to describe the new levels. Seems we are stuck at planet eater). 30k gems, 350k pigs, all the TFs, some promoted some not. I am looking at the list above and wondering what the hell I have been doing with my life. My family makes fun of me, and I sneak to play in the bathroom or car or on a break from a meeting or at family parties or a bar or while talking to my mom on the phone or or or.

I can’t imagine being a new player in this game. It would be totally bewildering. I have spent a few real bucks over the years. I bought Jenga mode. I bought one spark thing for $5 early on. How many whales are putting real money in this game? It has gotten SO complex, that even people that have played for 2.5 years can’t follow the “latest”. I offer a warning to others. Evaluate what this “game” has done to your life. O M G.

I estimate I have put an average of 2 hours per day for 850 days into this nonsense. WHAT? that is a man year of effort!

What The #_(&;?.

What is wrong with me?????

Even as I read my own writing… OMG. This is an illness! Rovio and Exient have exploited me. I won’t say us, but will for sure say me.

Signing off folks. For real and for good. My best to all of you.

Topic

[Anonymous]

To be fair, coins used to be actually useful. Before the addition of all of the Squads, Energonicons (Goldbrick and Goldslam), and the stupid pig lab, coins did take a bit of effort to accumulate.

And honestly, I’d probably like the new Overpower levels if it wasn’t just another thing to no-life events over. If it was my choice, I would have made the Overpower levels cost strictly a crap ton of coins. Maybe 1mil per bot with a 500k increment per level. That way, we would actually have a use for coins, while rewarding the people who have stayed with the game for a long time.

Besides that, I agree with literally all of this.

[datguygamer]

@partshade

Fans: Rovio give us something to use our coins on!

Rovio: Okay, here are new upgrades that are instant!!!!

Fans: :D:D:D

Rovio: But they cost tokens!!!

Fans: :D:D:D:D:D:D

Rovio: But the cost is so high that you’ll need a lot of gems

<cricket noises>

[Optimus_Pig]

I shudder to think how many hours I’ve wasted in two-and-a-half years.

What could I have accomplished if I’d used that time differently?

How much sleep have I lost?

[Anonymous]

@datguygamer Where did you find this completely legitimate conversation between Rovio and the fans?

xD

[Tobyjug]

Yes but just think about all those blown up piggies.

[nancy]

Amazing to come across this post because I was preparing a similar one but this is so much better than anything I could have come up with. This game has been nothing but constant, money-grubbing disrespect for all of us playing this and all the other Rovio games.

[Gabee1611]

I can’t remember the last time this game has been fun. I think the reason I play it now is to finish leveling my last 11 tfs from Level 13 to 15.

Every new feature is terrible and takes whatever fun that is left in the game away. They continue to nerf tfs all the time. They took the gems in the lab away or at least turned the probabilities way down. We now get 400 instead of 500 sparks from the daily quests and most of the quests that gave us tokens or gems are also gone.

The worst of all is there is no more sense of completion in this game. Every month there is a new tf that is just a paintjob on an old tf. They have added sparks and overpower levels.

[AngrLee]

I just checked in to see if this thread was still running. Since I deleted the game, I have played a game with my children, read 1.5 books, gotten at least 1.5 hours more sleep per day.

I see the posts with crashing and rebalancing, and the time it would take to get your TFs to Lvl25 being measured in years.

I actually shared with my family that I deleted the game.

For anyone who is driven to “be in the top 5%” of everything they do, you should get out. I realized that I spent a whole FTE year playing it and imagined all of the things I had sacrificed. They are coming back now. I didn’t start with a lot of free time, and somehow this thing came up and gobbled ALL that I had and some that I really didn’t have

I still think about it. Obviously, I am posting here, but I deleted the game. Wish I could sell my UID – 2.5 years and max everything. Would be worth thousands.

Anyway, if my post causes even one of you to get your 2.5 hours per day back in your life, then it will be worth it.

[ramonpontes]

I know exactly how you feel

I’ve played another online game, an MMORGP, and after a couple of years I could finally leave it. Hours lost, wake up in the middle of the night because some creepy event is running, and the feeleing that if you don’t play the game a single day, you are being left behind.

In this game, I still have some daily routines, but I try to keep them as a secondary schedule, to be done on my free time IF I have no other things to do.

The moment I spend more energy is when another bot is available on events. But I’m always saving gems to complete the amount of tokens if necessary. I don’t lose a single night of sleep anymore. It is simply not worth. Especially now that they took away my main motivation to play this game that was to have all bots and level them up to the maximum.

[Cloudguy]

Rovio just solved the problem for me. I can’t start the game after the recent game upgrade.

[Xenohart]

As a waste of time – YES! Alternatives: cleaning the house. Learning a new skill. Reading a book. Something useful. etc. So … why do we keep doing it? Because working 10 hours a day at business and working 3 hours a day at home, and working for church on the weekends and donating time to charities and giving time to family and listening to news radio tell us about how terrible the world is and political leaders bickering like children and raising taxes like we’re made of money … and … and … well … I guess stress is bound to happen. We all need “me” time. I look at it this way. I didn’t pick up smoking or drinking like the rest of my family. I didn’t get into gambling or over-eating. I worked out at the gyms. I go on hikes and campouts. Television has become a duldrum of sheer stupidity … and anything significant takes too much time to squeeze in those tiny moments of ‘me’ time … a quick sneak to play a round of this stupid game … and at least it’s my time. I guess that’s why I get so frustrated with Rovio when they mess with the game. It’s actually my short break from reality and frustration during that time — steals away those few moments of breathing. I guess meditation might be better … now if only there were somewhere free of the beeping phones, bleeping machines, cars whizzing by, and people clammering on … *sigh* :)

[EF5OX]

This forum thread is like therapy, good to hear how other players truly feel! I hope Rovio is reading. I think a lot of people are getting turned off to the game. I know I have spent too much time but like Xenohart said a little escape is good. But we are practically forced to play a lot(or pay) just to get a new character or accessories.

[datguygamer]

@ef5ox Rovio reads comments on facebook which are much more toxic than comments posted here and they keep to stay silent. They may read comments here but all they will ever reply with is:”We are sorry that you feel bad about our game.”

[Optimus_Pig]

@datguygamer

If they read the comments here, I wonder what they think of “JARSU”?

[datguygamer]

@optimuspig They will still keep quiet.

[Deszaras]

I understand everyone’s frustration and I agree, I couldn’t imagine understanding how this game truly works if I was just beginning. It doesn’t help that when they added the promotion of bots with sparks, they didn’t explain it at all. Same thing with overpower which I didn’t even bother to fully investigate.
At the core, I still enjoy the side scroller shooting aspect and being a Transformers fan since 1984 or so it keeps me playing. While I’ve enjoyed these events to get accessories, I don’t make an effort to get new bots because most of them eventually or immediately nerfed. I used to play MMORPGs a lot and now I am glad I’m done with that. Some of them are great but they are so time consuming and are subscription based. At least with this, I don’t have to pay money to enjoy the core game. I look at these bundles now and just can’t help but sadly laugh. I can buy their bundle of a bot that’s part of a game that is limping to its end or I can buy a few older console games for just as much and get a more rewarding experience. I dropped about $70 on the new Mass Effect game and have already gotten my money ‘s worth. I bought the current FIFA game at full retail and have played it for more hours I care to admit. I’ll do it again when next year’s version comes out too. Bottom line, once you get over the disappointment and resent about ABT and just play like ya just don’t care, you’ll feel better.

[EF5OX]

@datguygamer A small island of civility is why I have continued to read this forum. Everyone is helpful.

@optimuspig I don’t think there is anything wrong with JARSU, just a not too subtle hint that people care about the game. I don’t have a lot of time to play, so I spend money on gems and sparks occasionally. Only way I can have all the characters and most accessories. I enjoyed playing a lot more without all this new money grabbing sparking overpowerups! I expect a fully​ functional product that doesn’t crash a good percentage of the time. Especially during competitions where you lose your gems(money) without any chance of compensation.

@deszaras I have never liked the random unannounced changes that comes with every hard update.

[datguygamer]

@ef5ox Fair enough.

[Xenohart]

@ef5ox but, therein lies the catch. I don’t imagine that most people ‘member back to the days when an Atari or Commodore 64 were the only options (or an Apple IIe if you hated life), but I think we appreciated what we had more because it was all we had. Gaming boomed during those days. It meant as much to the programmers, companies, get-rich-quick-moguls, as it did to the players. “Earning” in game stuff was actually fun. Sure – I have said some pretty bad things in my time about video games, especially in agreement with @angrlee, as the amount of time wasted on gaming is way too much. But, when we talk about “time wasters”, and that’s all the mobile games are … they are supposed to be a little challenging (otherwise, we’d sit in front of some cr@ppy television and let our brains rot), and it’s supposed to be a little fun. Accomplishments are just a way to say “hey, you’ve spent enough time on here. Now go do something else for a while.” Having to buy into these games … well, when you consider that only 20 years ago, a landline cost $25 per month and now you pay, what … $60 or more (before all the hidden fees)? So… when is enough, enough? After all … on my post on the discussion about how much Rovio makes per day in the latest competition forum … your advertising viewing is worth a LOT, not to mention your information.

Here’s the thing … we shouldn’t have to think about all of that. Just pop a quarter in the coin slot, pull on the springy thing, and bounce the ball around for a while. It doesn’t have to be alone … it can be with others, too. And, we’ve paid out quarter in advertising. But, if your ball freezes mid-stream and you’re required to put a quarter in every 30 seconds … the momentum is lost. If the fun of seeing your high score or whatever you could accomplish (not even being the top), is replaced with a screen that says, “Sorry – please deposit more cash and play the same thing for another 50 hours so you can hate your score later,” you wouldn’t be thrilled. A time waster is no different than a slot machine. Drop a quarter, pull the handle and hope you get three in a row. It’s that simple. It’s a time tested formula that works (just ask Las Vegas). Sorry – gone on too long. So much more to say. But, the point is – whether Rovio reads these or not … not only do they not care about the players, they don’t care about their own game. They don’t give it any effort. And, they don’t even understand how the gaming industry works … that’s why they have to spread themselves thin across 15 variants of the same game … rather than making a few, single, well-made games that bring in more players.

*sigh* Sorry. but I feel what you’re saying about time. That was what I said. Time is short. Time is valuable. You’re giving it to Rovio with only one, small request … just make it fun … and they won’t even do that … even when you do give them money. Hatin’ on the birds!!

[EF5OX]

@pcguru You should be a writer, well wrote! I agree with you,. I remember Atari very well. I like the Vegas example. Just looked at the Lab. By vastly reducing the reward, they have failed to reward the pleasure centers of or brain. A slot machine game like that would never be played. It may be time to quit. Really and truly not much fun to be had anymore.

[RizDub]

@deszaras At least I’m not the only one that thinks the underlying gameplay is still kind of fun. I only make real efforts in the events if they’re offering a new bot for at most 5 to 6000 tokens (7500 is too far out of my range, even with gems). Or at least, I do when the game works (which it didn’t for me in the last event. No Skywarp for me…).

[nancy]

Your post was really good…so glad you’ve gotten back to life as it should be.

[Optimus_Pig]

This is beyond the pale.

Rovio has moved beyond simple incompetence, and is now into outright malevolence.

[AngrLee]

Dropped in here to see what was new. Nothing. Not a damn thing. It appears Rovio has nerfed the characters that mattered. You know the ones you put weeks or months or years into maxing out. So glad I am out,of this trap. Quit the game. For weeks or a month or for good. Come back and SEE what nonsense this is. Imaginary cartoon characters under the power of the developers we spent years (in my case) playing. The FB group is called ABTDAILYPLAYERS for God’s sake. Like that is OK or normal.

Have read 3 books, slept in, played with my kids… wow, did I get sucked in.

I stand by this thread. If you are competitive or obsessive in anymway, get out. This game has been well crafted to suck you in and not let you out. Well done Rovio. You make a living literally exploiting addictive personalities. Wow. If you were selling drugs, you’d be organized crime. Instead you addict players to micro rushes of endorphins playing a “free” game.

Good news is that I got free. Like Stockholm Syndrome. Wow.

Hope that anyone else like me has a moment of truth to get out of the anxiety overloaded, sleep deprived, addicted hole you so elegantly created and so finely tune to keep your whales buying stupid shit. With their real money and more importantly their real time.

Peace. Out.

[datguygamer]

@angrlee Incredible words of truth.