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Brat Pack Not Participating in Next Coop Challenge
FarmerMarkD (US1)
US1 Posts: 119
Since I am posting this on the US and EN forums, I wanted to introduce myself. I’m FarmerMarkD - Mark - co-leader with @marywisc (US1) of the Brat Pack, the #1 coop on the US server. I apologize in advance for the length of this post, but we have a lot to say.
The Brat Pack has decided as a group not to participate in the next coop challenge for many reasons unless major changes are made to the new structure. First let me say that I completely understand that GGS is a business, and all that that implies. I’m hoping this can be a positive post, letting GGS know what our coop feels about the changes to the coop challenge, and that positive results might come from them having this information.
Let’s start with the good. It’s great that GGS listened to some of the users’ complaints about the coop challenge:
- · The coop challenge is now coming less frequently, between the islands. The frequency was becoming wearing and tiresome, and many in our coop were burning out. This is a great adjustment
- · The solo mission fix was a good one. It’s great not to have every mission be a solo all day long.
- · The league structure is a good one. It gives coops a chance to compete against their peers instead of one huge group with everyone competing against the most established, top coops for the top prizes.
Thanks very much for listening to our concerns and addressing them.
Now the bad:
- · One of the major complaints in the past was the reputation point buys that were available during the challenge. Instead of evening the playing field in some way, this issue was made far, far worse with the latest iteration of the challenge with more shopping bags, more boosters, more ways to buy points.
- · The new Wheel of Fortune during the challenge is a disaster. It should be called the Wheel of Silage. Most of the prizes are the fast pig and cow feed, which we can produce cheaply and easily on our farms. As we saw from the outcome of the challenge, many folks were spinning many, many times in order to build up rep points and get to the top spots, with the prize of 1m rep points. This is certainly a win for GGS, as folks spent a lot of gold to get those prizes, but not a win for the users. It took a lot of spins just to get to the top 500 for double experience points, as folks were spinning for the rep points.
- · The new booster system is not a good one. The coop boosters are much more expensive to run. To compound this problem, the personal boosters were also very expensive, so our members needed to save their farm cash and gold to run their own personal boosters, and could not contribute as much to the coop for the coop boosters for fear of bankrupting their farms.
- · The hard worker prizes were a mixed bag. Some were great - gold mining certs, goldflower seeds, seaweed. Most of the prizes were pretty lousy though, and the amount of rep points to get them was very high. The top prize, for 100m rep points, seems way out of proportion. As far as I am aware, only 2 coops on the US server reached this level and won that prize. In past challenges, few coops have EVER reached 100m rep points in a challenge. This makes the top hard worker prize out of reach for most everyone in the game. To add insult to injury, many of our members (and others in other coops) never received this prize or many of the other hard work rewards. We were promised them at the end of the challenge due to a programming glitch, but they have yet to show up for many of my members.
The issues with this new system can be seen by glancing at the top 3 individual rep point earners on the US Server in this challenge - who earned a combined 155m + rep points during the challenge. I don’t fault these individuals for what they have accomplished - they played within the rules of the game as GGS created it and did very, very well. But to put it in perspective, if these top three players had been in one coop - with NO other players in the coop - they would have placed 2nd overall in the gold league on the US server. How is this a “coop championship” rewarding teamwork when 3 individuals, acting alone, could have placed second overall in this championship? It’s difficult for our coop to work hard, playing mission after mission, to achieve these hard work rewards and then watch as others just buy them. Really takes the fun out of the challenge for us.
Let me add this: Mary and I don’t have complete control over the other 63 players in our coop (though sometimes we certainly wish we did lol). You may see Brats in missions during the next coop challenge. We are asking our members at this point, though, not to do missions during the next challenge. We’ll be watching from the sidelines, hoping for positive changes. Best of luck to everyone.
Thanks for listening.
Brat Pack
Comments
- for this one I would give you 100 000 gold miniing licences!!!
...For whole post - I CAN NOT AGREE WITH YOU MORE!!!
Same thing we are thinking about in our coop, but we all stick together, so I believe we also will not be playing it again.
Our players got blocked by other players because we were good ( getting excellent) during this CC.
And also, we saw individuals getting 60 000 pigs,from only 2 pigsty's, in less then 5 seconds of the mission (!!!) , and much,much ,much more of that stuff...
............
I don't mind having the option of boosting co-ops and spending a LITTLE gold in missions (a little secret
The shopping bag was present again which is also another thing that is great if you are spending anyway but to spend only because the challenge is on - not so great.
The leaderboard for reputation points was massively changed with the outcome of one challenge - I mean the top 10 people before the challenge are now the top 25. Imagine what that board will look like after the next challenge if the wheel is still in place.
That being said, what happened to playing missions for fun and socialization? I love it when people say hi and start chatting - yes distractions work
One final comment - Missions should be about how you have built your farms and what is on them and not what is in the bank.
Connie
I will personally not be participating in the next co-op challenge if it remains unchanged from what it is now.
And although I cannot officially speak on behalf of my coop, I strongly suspect that the vast majority feel exactly as I do.
We placed in the Gold League for this past challenge (on the UK server) and are usually strong competitors in the Challenge. After 12 hours of playing, when the insanity of the present situation became fully clear to us, we made the decision to stop participating completely.
Since then there have been numerous yellow and orange lights every day, even a red one - unheard of in our co-op.
I predict that this Challenge fiasco will have consequences rippling out much wider than just the challenge itself.
This is NOT good - not for us, not for GGS.
But now as it is divided into leagues,each and every cooperative can now try to get to top in their league and also there are more prizes for more cooperatives.In my current coop,we never manage to get all 50 rewards previously but this time we were in silver league and not only completed all 50 rewards but also stood on 2nd rank in our league.
Yet,there are some problems in current champs,like Wheel of Fortune Reputation points,that's a sort of cheating,and the missions fairness,as low level and high levels got same missions,GGS shall fix this,while i like the new league system.
Some lovely players say I go out of my way to find faults with GGS and big farm, sorry but I do not have to go anywhere, GGS does a great job for me, it is just that some cannot see them. Some come out with the old comments "if you dont like it why do you play" it is simple.. because i love the game, but hate how, in my mind, GGS seem to go out of their way to ruin the game for the sake of gold sales. Come on be honest do we need Omar camping out on our farms almost 24/ 7 ? Do we need the wheel of fortune back within 24 hrs of it going ? then there are the hot deals etc, . If a player has a problem.. what is the first thing the CM's usually say ... refresh the game . That means having all the hot deals pop up again. Besides showing us that GGS are only interested in a GOLD turnover, they cannot see that it is ruining the game and players are leaving. Go back to the Chinese New Year event.. was it anything special ? being run with 4 - 5 - 6 other events I do not think so. Is getting a deco or double XP anything special now ? NO because almost everybody gets them. I have said elsewhere, some long time players have spent a lot of time to get to their level and to win their rewards, some like myself even stayed up all night doing the first co-op challenges. Yet now all a player needs is to buy some gold, i dare say others will agree, it hurts when you have played mission non stop for days, then along comes a big gold spender and gets more rep points than you've earned.. just because they bought gold, not played missions but just bought gold. So I ask while GGS promotes this tactic, what do they really think of the players that PLAY big farm for hours and hours on end ? NOTHING, yet buy GOLD and you can be King or Queen for a day.
Also I have arrived at firm conclusion, that the only motivation behind this game development has for some time been a short term quick finantial gain. The development targets a few high spending players while completely neglecting broad spectrum of players who would be happy to finance with moderation a good long term strategy game characterised by stability, concept and sustainable development (which would be another separate article again). t's definitelly not a player focussed game, just money drain focussed one. It's a lot more "slot machines" system than anything resembling reasonable strategy farming game. Farming atm is just a faint shadow painted on the walls of ths Casino project.
It helps to realise what type of game we are dealing with as this CC is not just an individual issue, rather one in a long string of features clearly revealing over and over the same "slot machine" game typology. Shame CM don't communicate these things to community. If the game continues as Casino and will not revert back to solid strategy farming game which I started to play about 20 months ago, I'll inevitably sooner or later have to find another game to play. Not throwng the towel in yet, but atm I'm more of an observer then player. It is clearly impossible to reconcile both styles and the game will continue either one or the other direction. It has huge potential as farming strategy, but just potential itself without responsible management is clearly not enough to make and keep it a good game. If the managers resurects some concept and stability and devote themselves to provide responsible and sensitive strategy game developement rather then haphazardly adding one slot machine after another I'll be happy to start playing again.
In general, I find the Co-op Challenge a tedious endeavor; however, I faithfully play as a responsible member of my co-op.
I sincerely hoped the new CCE would liven the task. I was appreciative of the option to purchase boosters on my own because it offered the freedom to work harder for myself and give more to the co-op, but ultimately, I found the boosters to be a waste of farm dollars because the rewards were so difficult to obtain. Similarly, I was encouraged by the proposed leagues as a means to level the competition, but in reality, I performed dismally as my competitors' levels were far beyond my own. I was far more successful without league leveling!
By the end of the second day, I decided to limit my farm dollar and personal time losses. I stopped buying boosters and reduced my missions to four a day.
There is little fun any more in this game unless you are prepared to spend horrendous amount of real money. So I am on a leave of absence - no more playing as I can not stomach it at the moment - I've found a new game that goes back to the heart of strategy gaming - I will watch the forum boards for any sign that GGS is listening to it's core customers - but I doubt it - so long as new players come along and spend loads of money - they won't listen. New players beware - this is not a "free online" game.