Nileregwen DoUrden
It seriously only had 20,000 players?
I think one of it's problems was bad advertising to begin with. You had what? One contest? Maybe two? I never saw an ad for it on Facebook but I see ads for things like Farmville 2 and Cafe World all the time.
But I do agree that the multitudes of free cash hurt them. Course if they didn't do that then you'd end up getting stuck in some quests or stuck with an expandable farm. I refuse to pay actual cash for things on Facebook. I've done it on Gaia itself (when I actually had an income) but I'm not sitting here thinking that maybe my money will go completely to waste when I use it on Gaia.
I used to play Ragnarok's Korean version (I'm not Korean btw) and yeah, I get that people in Korea LOVE these types of games... but I still think with the proper advertising campaign that an English facebook spinoff of something they may turn into a full-fledged PC game in the future could bring them more revenue. Lots of people quit because of weeklies and you could switch that to a random item instead of cash, and lots of people quit because there was a complete lack of updates. There were a LOT of things that could've been done to promote the game... like the Grunny! That's what got me there in the first place! That little Deidrich Grunny.
I guess I'm just annoyed that I spent probably at least a month's worth or time, if not more, playing that game and soon everything will just be washed away. It's the same sort of anger I felt when I played Final Fantasy XI and when I didn't pay for two months due to moving, they deleted my characters and account completely... and don't get me started on the debacle of Star Wars Galaxies...
I haven't been able to get SS to load (been trying all day) so obviously it's buggy.
There's an unfilled niche in farming games... CUTE farming games, not cartoon-y or 3D-ish but straight up cute... in the US and while Harvest Moon does fill the gap... having something like it on Facebook was awesome!
Course now there's even a Ragnarok game on Facebook so who knows... maybe one day in the distant future we'll see some form of Summer Springs again.
Well, 20,000 shows up when I typed in summer springs on facebook search bar, more or less I believe. A lot of people quit of course. The Korean version doesn't even give out cash that regularly, aside from 30 cash for 10 consecutive login, it would be just occasional contest which not everyone will win. The quests there do give out cash items, but not cash. Yet, so many people play and join. I have a couple of neighbors who decided not to upgrade their houses, and they play the game just fine. As for SS, I pretty much just ignore the quest whenever they ask me to buy houses and building, and I still had fun playing it everyday.(then again I'm one of those rare people who don't care about the story) I don't see why people are always complaining how hard or expensive the game is, you can still play the game without spending actual money. If you really want some of the nice things or go on with the quest, either be patient and save up cash or spend real money.
Honestly, I would buy some cash if they didn't give them out that regularly....and if they updated their catalog more often. It really upset me when they kept on taking things out instead of adding in. I'm a student, so I don't have that much money either, but I wouldn't mind spending $3-$5 if I have spare cash at the end of the month.
I agree with the advertisement though, they could have done a better job with that. I think I've seen more ad for soul crash than SS.
P.S. I played international ragnarok before and other mmos as well, I know it's frustrating trying to save up money in real life yet still want to enjoy the games, but we have to make sacrifices for things we love, and if it conflicts with our priority, we have to learn to let go.