Why is Rovio punishing paying customers?

[Zam]

Players who don’t pay, get free videos in ToF, Arena, Bamboo challenges.

Once you pay, the free videos disappear (for some everywhere, for some only in ToF).

It’s painful everywhere, but especially in ToF it’s a constant reminder to regret the day that you paid.

The best example is the daily gemletter, otherwise the best deal already in terms of gems per buck. But it’s all wasted with no benefit, and then some, versus a non-paying customer…. And here’s why:

– If you’re not a paying customer, and start ToF with, let’s say, 100 gems, you get your first pig at floor 3, ok, you pay 20 gems. If the next pig is at floor 4, you just watch the free video, pick another card, go to floor 5, maybe get an event hat, then Exit with the loot. If the second pig is only at floor 7, you can choose: if you got a lot of gems already, you spend 50 and you move on (maybe next pig is only at floor 19, with a lot of loot in between and chance for 2 more hats); if you didn’t, you just watch a free video at floor 7 and leave with the loot, which is more than worth the 20 gems.

– If you’re a paying customer, same start, pig at floor 3, you pay 20 gems. But then if you turn a pig at floor 4, what do you? If you pay 50 gems already, the loot so far is just not worth it. If you don’t pay the 50 gems, you wasted 20 gems and your time for nothing.

Oh, and must I mention that before I paid, I was flipping on the average 1 pig every 5 floors, and after I paid, I now flip pretty much guaranteed (9 out of 10) 2 pigs before reaching floor 5!!!

Does Rovio really think that 1 purchase makes me an addict that keeps buying gem packs weekly to get the hats? I feel so f###ed right now, because with the free vids I could play ToF strategically to get at least 3-4 hats per event. Now I barely get 1-2 hats, because they milk me of over 100 gems constantly before I even get to floor 10, so more gems than their cr@py gem letter.

It’s like buying a data package from your mobile provider, only to discover that as result of your purchase, you lost the free minutes of your standard subscription. WTF?

Topic

[APN]

you know what the simple answer is. don’t ever spend money on the game. as you said its not worth it and in my opinion there is no sense of achievement if you just buy your way to the top rather than slowly increasing your flock power through skill

[TripHOP]

I 100% agree. This policy so nonsensical that I assumed it was a programming bug at first but it has been a issue so long that it must be intentional. I would actually spend a little money on the game if this single issue was fixed but there’s no way  a 70 gem letter is more valuable than a ToF video that will save me 50 gems on pig 2, 100 on pig 3, 200 on pig 4, ect, ect

[Zam]

It’s definitely intentional… They confirmed in response to my complaint. The nauseating thing is that their argument is that as part of the choices they make “in order to provide players with the best experience possible”. I asked in what world is that a better experience, and they went in circles pretty much saying the same thing.

 

My only guess is that not enough people complain of it, otherwise they might have done something about it. I suppose the world is full of game addicts with enough $$ to spend on the game, who don’t care about this. :(

[Zam]

1st day of regret:

– 1st card: apple

– 2nd card: pig

Without the free video, who pays 20 gems for an apple, knowing that 3rd card can be a pig as well, and then you have the choice between 50(+20 already) gems for an apple and few feathers, or saying good-bye to the 20 gems you threw in the day before?

[TripHOP]

It’s no surprise that rovio has had huge financial losses since they hit their peak, they are completely incompetent. Imagine if you spent real money for microtransactions on a mainstream game like call of duty or fortnight and it somehow put you at a disadvantage compared to players that spend nothing…there would be hundreds of articles and YouTube videos complaining about it, there would  be a player backlash and the issue would be quickly fixed. Since AB2 is such a niche game and so few people actually spend money on it is the reason their backwards idea of providing a “better experience ” by screwing paying customers can be tolerated.

[maverick]

<p style=”text-align: center;”>Zam is correct.  More people need to be filing complaints, and doing so everyday.  Rovios threat that they will ban you for “abusing” the in game report system is nonsense.</p>

[AggieGuy]

Just don’t pay gems, or watch the video if there is a pig on floor 2.

[Doom Baby]

I’m so glad I never spent money in this game. So much about this game is bs. I can’t imagine how good of a game this would be if Rovio wasn’t run by a**holes. It’s not just the greed, they’re just plain a**holes.

[maverick]

<p style=”text-align: left;”>If you pay to play this free game full of cheaters that is maintained and developed by incompetent imbeciles, it’s almost a certainty you will have less fun.</p>

[Zam]

I forgot to add my updates… I’ll do my best to keep a log:

2nd day of regret:

– 1st card: apple

– 2nd card: I think it was a spell or a few feathers, can’t remember

– 3rd card: pig – I decided to take a gamble and paid the 20 gems; I think I got an apple or 10 gems

– 4th card (here I decided to take a further gamble and risk a 2nd pig for 50gems): phew… not a pig, can’t remember what it was (not gems though).

– 5th card: hat turning to 10 pearls

And there I stopped. This is one of the better days without free videos, as you’ll see below. But no hope of ever getting a lot of the event hats, because who would risk after this turning 50gems, 100gems, and so on cards even before reaching floor 10. No hat is worth the gems that took you days (or weeks above a certain floor) to earn.

—

3rd day of regret:

– 1st card: spell or apple IIRC

– 2nd card: pig – stopping here as per arguments above at 1st day of regret. No loot. Wasted day.

—

4th day of regret:

– 1st card: feathers

– 2nd card: pig – stopping here as per arguments above at 1st day of regret. No loot. Wasted day.

[Zam]

5th day of regret (copy-paste :():

– 1st card: feathers

– 2nd card: pig – stopping here as per arguments above. No loot. Wasted day.

Let’s see tonight…

[Zam]

6th day of regret (sadly a copy-paste yet again… and yes, it may look boringly repetitive for the reader, but at what the “randomness” of flipping a pig as 2nd card 90% of the time should be labeled as suspicious? Because I had the very same experience last time I made a Rovio purchase… especially in the first 2 week 90% of the cards flipped as of the 2nd card were pigs):

– 1st card: feathers

– 2nd card: pig …and Exit.

[Zam]

7th day was of less regret… I managed to get to floor 10 with only 1 pig.

But I would have dared go much further had I known that I can count on a free video.

[garethw]

Well I’ve not paid for anything for over 18 months but have suddenly lost the video option.

So it’s bye bye on the first pig for me.

[Zam]

8th day of regret:

– 1st card: apple

– 2nd card: pig …and Exit.

 

Oh, and I noticed another “penalty” for the paying customers: only 1 free Rare chest per day, versus 2 before.

[Zam]

9th day of regret… I decided to take a risk – big mistake!

– 1st card: feathers

– 2nd card: pig… I decide to take a chance and pay the 20 gems.

– 3rd card: Inflator spell IIRC (of which I have 200 already)

– 4th card: pig… Who would pay another 50 gems for a “chance” to get another spell, an apple or a handful of feathers??? Obviously I gave up, flushing 20 gems and 30 seconds of my life down the toilet. Still a better deal than wasting another 50 gems on a totally useless card. Thank you Rovio!

[Zam]

10th day of regret (back to the depressing usual):

– 1st card: apple

– 2nd card: pig …and Exit.

[TripHOP]

I think this issue was finally fixed! I paid for the gem letter for the first time in probably 6 months and at the time, totally forgot that it might remove my ToF or other free videos but thankfully it did not. Finally the gem letter is not punishing those that pay for it 😁

[Doom Baby]

Stop spending money on the game. You’re an idiot and a sucker if you do.

[Airplane Lover]

Doom Baby, you’re right. But that might not be the solution. I watch this YouTube channel called MobiLand Games, and the host (Mobik) spends money on the game. If you lose the ToF free video, use another emulator. I never spent money in the game, and never lost the free video.

[Airplane Lover]

If you play the ToF, you really should keep in mind that the rewards are worth it only after floor 20, but because of my shortage of gems, I normally don’t get very far.

[Airplane Lover]

Oh, and by the way, getting to floor 30 isn’t a good thing sometimes. You flush down a lot of gems to get to floor 30, hoping you would flip the Legendary hat, only to find that you flip a rare hat that you already own; it gives you 50 (or 100 with the BPP) pearls but how is that worth it if you are buying the Exotic hats that cost 10 000 pearls each and you are far from that amount? Seriously, you won’t flip the best hat if you flush down HEAPS of gems. It’s better off  trying your best to get 1 piggy along your way to floor 30; this happened to me once, and I got the Legendary hat.

And there I stopped. I decided that going up even more to floor 40 wasn’t worth it, and I didn’t want to lose my hat that I won, so I left. It was a very good run, I thought. Except it wasn’t great.

Just after my run, the Pig Hat event started, but I had a ToF ticket to spare, so I used that, and found 2 Pig Hats. Another run in the ToF. Great.

There was also a time when I got a pig on floor 2 and 3, and after the pig on floor 3, I gave up. I had won 1 apple (useless, cause I don’t have a hatchling) and 1 blizzard (of which I have 43 at the time I posted this). I basically flushed down the 20 gems I threw in on the floor 2 pig, and the apple AND blizzard. That run was bad. Those rewards aren’t worth the 50 gems.

If you want more rewards, try to get the cards without pigs. It will help you greatly.

[Boom Smaxx]

I had this problem last year with Rovio about ab2.

I stopped with the C notes, to me it just seems they have more problems then ever before and unless you are a cheater. You just get screwed over or my problem stop growing.

[Airplane Lover]

If you ever get to floor 30, click the 3rd card. All 3 Legendary hats that I won (I won another one 2 days ago) were on the 3rd card. Click that one (remember, it might not work today, so click the 1st one) and see what happens.

[Airplane Lover]

I got lucky yesterday and had the auto-pick button take me all the way to floor 40 from floor 1 with only 3 pigs. I also won my first Exotic hat for Bomb, but missed Matilda’s, and left.