Is the game better or worse for you since the last update? [ Edited ]

[esch5995]

Since I'm essentially shutdown in my game due long time factory runs and no Vu Tokens and I've got plenty of time to think and post so I'll ask you this question.

Are you enjoying the game more or less since they introduced the Mayors contest and the Maxis Manor(see my earlier post about this)?

For me I vote less.☹️ I'm no long building a city but trying to figure out a way to win a contest that most weeks I never had a chance to win anyway, all so I can get some new buildings to add to my city that I can no longer build because of the contest. 

I'm also thinking of starting an organization; SCBA(SimCityBuildit Anonymous) to help us over come the strange addiction this game has over us. Let me know if you would be interested. All inquiries will be kept confidential. 😉

[jamiel222]

I think the same maybe leaning towards better.  What keeps me motivated is those epic buildings. I love the look and variety of them. . As for the contests, take a break from it. Just dont play. It's very mentally stressful even when you are winning. The game is a lot better when you focus on designing your city and I'm taking advantage of the rare items on trade market as everyone seems to be producing when the contests are on. This game is like a relationship. You love it then sometimes you hate it. It's always been a slow game with ups and downs. What I would love to see is more land expansion, rivers, forests,  islands. They should have just given us an island to build on instead of the contest. Also stuff like movie theatres and gas stations. As for the market it needs a complete revamp. What would be great is if we could ask what we need. Select the items that we need.Then the market  comes up as all wishlist items instead of items that need to be sold....Then if you have the item and want to trade then click that city..something like that.

[esch5995]

Jamiel222

As I mentioned in my OP the entire reason I was interested in the contest was to have a chance to add new and different buildings to my city. Right now my city has 4, soon to be 5 Washington Monuments, 3 Ferris Wheels, 4 Universities, 10 Luxury Casino Towers, 8 Heliports if you like Epic buildings you know this is what you have to do to make the Epic challenges manageable. Its all about 3 pt. buildings, I can complete a Cheetah level building in 2-3 hours for most of my Specialty lines without using a single Speed Token but its boring having all the same buildings.

If I take a week off I will drop a league and need to work my way back up to have any chance at a Platinum Key.

[SomeSimGuy]

I will say by far, for me, the game is 110% better than it was before the contest.  Mostly because the Global Trade HQ is a whole lot more balanced than it was before.  Yes, we have the unintended side effect of an abundance of Mountain items, but that is minuscule in comparison to getting SOLD signs all the time.  Yes, more SOLD signs have come back in weeks 4 and 5, but it is still vastly better than what it was.

Different people have different goals.  If the contest is going to be the end all be all of your happiness within the game then you'll never be happy unless you come across a string of good luck and lucky draws in the contest.  Mine haven't been too difficult, but I'm obviously on a different server.  I've never seen those 50k-60k scores like others have.  On my server and my league they've been ending in the 20K area, maybe 30K if they're lucky, so it's been quite possible to be in the running for a decent prize every week.

It got me to thinking that maybe it's possible they have had different ways of assigning tasks across different servers just to see which one would work better for the masses.  Not saying that is what they did, but that it is possible since I've never seen anything near that high.

[esch5995]

SomeSimGuy

I will agree that it has been a little easier to successfully make purchases in the GTHQ I don't agree that it has been more "balanced" in the sense of having a varied product offering, just the opposite in fact I've seen as much as 90% of the slots filled with Beach and Mountain Tokens that's not balanced to me.

[SomeSimGuy]

Balanced as in, before you could never find any item made in the factory besides metal, wood, plastic and sometimes minerals.  If you needed Seeds, chemicals, animal feed, Electronic components, textiles, spices or glass you better start making them because you'll never find them in the market.  Likewise, other items have been easier to find like Cheese, cement, glue, brick, tree sapling, creme, beef.  Things you could never find in the market before.  The market IS INDEED more balanced.  

In reality, at most, the mountain items covered maybe 70%, of the items on a single screen, yes  you are correct, but of what is not mountain is more balanced than it was before.  Right now, there are no mountain items being sold on my screen and it is very balanced with the exception of watermelon, which I can never find. LOL

More balanced merely means the possibility of finding what you need is increased due to it actually being sold on the market vs. everyone hording it.

No matter what you're going to have times where one item or another is in low demand and thus is all over your screen.  If it wasn't mountain, it was burgers.  Although, to really stress the point, I'm not talking about what shows on a single screen, but the balance of variety of what can be bought now vs. what you could never find before.  The contest forces you to make an abundance of things you would not have made otherwise, thus causing you to sell some of them and making items that were not ever available on the market now available.

Balance of product, not a single screen.

[spjanis]

I don't mind the contest, sometimes the items I produce provide me a challenge to use them all in production.  WHAT I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT STAND....is the new checkmark that automatically appears in the "Advertise" block.

It is garbage, because of the close proximity to the "put item up for sale" block.

It is too easy to hit one button instead of another before the item gets unchecked.

I just lost a whole bunch of 1 coin Vu items because I was trying to move them between my cities.

between my 3  cities, whether it makes me an idiot for spending my real money for simcash or not, I spend money on this form of entertainment for myself....and though some might think the 20 bucks a week or more sometimes is a bit much, trust me when I tell you it is much less than what I was spending at the bar every week, but that's another story.

If EA/Track Twenty is deliberately trying to create an environment for me to make mistakes and cost me my game resources....I am going to take my $100 or more a month and spend it on another game....shame on you EA

[Arcadia0426]

I'm  with you on the new checkmark on the sale block; it just stinks. Almost, but not quite, as crappy as the lack of a confirmation screen before spending sim cash.

Bear in mind that this is EA we're talking about, a company known for wanting to milk every last dime from every last customer, no matter how it's done. As any gamer under 20 will tell you. (I'm not an under-20, but I have some in my household). When (a beloved block placing game) was for sale, a lot of people were very nervous that it might be bought by EA, which they saw as tantamount to wrecking said beloved game. Happily, EA was not the buyer.

*edited to remove name of "other" game, which is probably against some rule, somewhere.

[EverestTZ2]

Auto advertising is the worst idea they have ever had!

[SomeSimGuy]

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@spjanis wrote:

If EA/Track Twenty is deliberately trying to create an environment for me to make mistakes and cost me my game resources....I am going to take my $100 or more a month and spend it on another game....shame on you EA

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I don't think that was their intent.  I think the intent was for new players that put things for sale, but they never sell because they didn't advertise it, so wanted to make it easy for new players to ensure their items sell.  That's a question that has been asked 10,000+ times.  They don't realize that you have to hit advertise for it to hit the GTHQ.

Intent vs Impact though.  Where their intent may be a noble one, the impact is the multitudes of people with already established games and friends and trading partners now have to be extra vigilant to not advertise.