DeletedUser
Proposal:
In general a donations system without diamonds (not replacing diamonds).
Specifically, I suggest a small area on the town hall that you can decorate with a "special decoration". Ideally, it would be a spire/flag pole with a flag on it that could get bigger if you paid real money for it. Ideally you could pay for different colors, shapes and texts on the flag. Clicking on the area when empty would link to the "shop" where you could buy what you wanted for this special decoration. Clicking on it yourself or as a visitor in someone elses town would display a bigger version of it in pop up window as well as a counter showing how much money had been spent on it. - It should be possible for the owner of the town to hide the amount if he/she wanted to.
Reason:
Well, I was actually expecting to tire of this game quickly, but much to my surprise, Ive found it quite addictive. To the point of actually considering paying some money into the game, which is rare for a stubborn old tightwad like me. Only a couple of games can boast getting money out of me.
Here is the catch though. I accept the idea of diamonds in the game as it pays for it and in reality makes the game possible. - I like the idea that I can earn a few diamonds through quests, competitions and what not and ponder endlessly what I should use them for. I do however not want to buy diamonds. - I dont want the ingame advantage as I personally find that it would diminish the challenge and balance of the game for me. I know that I dont have to use them and if I want to use the ones I work for, I could simply keep track of how many I buy and not spend those, but it would somehow just feel off to me.
Im not sure how many people feel like I do, but considering that there are succesfull non-diamond guilds out there with quite a few members that (for their own reasons that I wont pretend to have data on) pledge only to use diamonds earned through quests and such, I think there is a market out there, that would support the cost of coding it into the game. - There would of course be some programming involved, but likely not too much?
Details:
A special small spot on the town hall links to the shop (the diamonds shop for convenience and promotion of diamonds as well), where you for real money can by a donations spire or a flagpole to place on your town hall. You can pay for a taller spire, different colours and shapes, different flags including flags with texts on it. Some of the "normal" texts could read "Best city", "My mum bought me this flag", "I hate Rinbin", "Trespassers will be hung", "Mine is bigger than yours", "Stop reading this flag and do something useful" etc. etc. - Some of the more expensive ones could read "I paid XX $ to the game and all I got was this measly flag" Where the counter would be included in place of the X´s. "This is the most expensive flag" and an even more expensive flag where you can write your own text. (Might have to be approved).
Texts wouldnt be visible directly from the city screen as the flag would be too small, but clicking on the spire would make a pop-up window appear looking at the spire from close on and the text would then be legible.
The possibilities are almost endless and the fun never ends ;-).
There should be a space in the inventory for flags and possibly even different spires/poles that people arent currently using/have replaced. Possibly it could even be a "display case" that the player could set up in neat order with a link from the donations spire on the town hall.
This way there would be a sort of collectors effect as well (gotta buy them all), and the price of individual spires flags and what not could start very low, so there is both the idea that everyone has a chance to join in the fun as well as the option to spend quite large amounts to support the game.
As there is no ingame advantage associated, the entry level items could be really, really cheap to make sure that even people wanting to donate a dollar have an option to do so.
There should also be a counter (possibly a highscore with links to peoples towns?) so theres a competition aspect as well.
For people that dont want to show off, there should be an option to hide ones counter, possibly an option only to display it to ones guild.
Visual Aids:
Not the visual type, Im afraid.
Balance:
No effect. Not even on diamonds. Its simply and extra option to spend real money on the game. Whether it makes a trickle of money or takes off huge is hard to say.
Abuse Prevention:
None possible. No ingame advantage.
Summary:
Game option to spend money in the game outside the diamonds system. - The system could be open to diamonds as well as direct cash money to appeal both to diamond users and non-diamond users.
Programming needed, but otherwise there should be no issues beyond whether enough people will use it to make it worth the programming hours. I think it would, but Im not sure how long it would take to make the programming cost back. Especially as I have no idea how big the programming cost would be.
Oh, and if you go for it and it does generate a surprising amount of money, I apply for the job of coming up with new flag texts and new gimmicks for the millions and millions of collectors out there. ;-)
Regards, Tviorr
In general a donations system without diamonds (not replacing diamonds).
Specifically, I suggest a small area on the town hall that you can decorate with a "special decoration". Ideally, it would be a spire/flag pole with a flag on it that could get bigger if you paid real money for it. Ideally you could pay for different colors, shapes and texts on the flag. Clicking on the area when empty would link to the "shop" where you could buy what you wanted for this special decoration. Clicking on it yourself or as a visitor in someone elses town would display a bigger version of it in pop up window as well as a counter showing how much money had been spent on it. - It should be possible for the owner of the town to hide the amount if he/she wanted to.
Reason:
Well, I was actually expecting to tire of this game quickly, but much to my surprise, Ive found it quite addictive. To the point of actually considering paying some money into the game, which is rare for a stubborn old tightwad like me. Only a couple of games can boast getting money out of me.
Here is the catch though. I accept the idea of diamonds in the game as it pays for it and in reality makes the game possible. - I like the idea that I can earn a few diamonds through quests, competitions and what not and ponder endlessly what I should use them for. I do however not want to buy diamonds. - I dont want the ingame advantage as I personally find that it would diminish the challenge and balance of the game for me. I know that I dont have to use them and if I want to use the ones I work for, I could simply keep track of how many I buy and not spend those, but it would somehow just feel off to me.
Im not sure how many people feel like I do, but considering that there are succesfull non-diamond guilds out there with quite a few members that (for their own reasons that I wont pretend to have data on) pledge only to use diamonds earned through quests and such, I think there is a market out there, that would support the cost of coding it into the game. - There would of course be some programming involved, but likely not too much?
Details:
A special small spot on the town hall links to the shop (the diamonds shop for convenience and promotion of diamonds as well), where you for real money can by a donations spire or a flagpole to place on your town hall. You can pay for a taller spire, different colours and shapes, different flags including flags with texts on it. Some of the "normal" texts could read "Best city", "My mum bought me this flag", "I hate Rinbin", "Trespassers will be hung", "Mine is bigger than yours", "Stop reading this flag and do something useful" etc. etc. - Some of the more expensive ones could read "I paid XX $ to the game and all I got was this measly flag" Where the counter would be included in place of the X´s. "This is the most expensive flag" and an even more expensive flag where you can write your own text. (Might have to be approved).
Texts wouldnt be visible directly from the city screen as the flag would be too small, but clicking on the spire would make a pop-up window appear looking at the spire from close on and the text would then be legible.
The possibilities are almost endless and the fun never ends ;-).
There should be a space in the inventory for flags and possibly even different spires/poles that people arent currently using/have replaced. Possibly it could even be a "display case" that the player could set up in neat order with a link from the donations spire on the town hall.
This way there would be a sort of collectors effect as well (gotta buy them all), and the price of individual spires flags and what not could start very low, so there is both the idea that everyone has a chance to join in the fun as well as the option to spend quite large amounts to support the game.
As there is no ingame advantage associated, the entry level items could be really, really cheap to make sure that even people wanting to donate a dollar have an option to do so.
There should also be a counter (possibly a highscore with links to peoples towns?) so theres a competition aspect as well.
For people that dont want to show off, there should be an option to hide ones counter, possibly an option only to display it to ones guild.
Visual Aids:
Not the visual type, Im afraid.
Balance:
No effect. Not even on diamonds. Its simply and extra option to spend real money on the game. Whether it makes a trickle of money or takes off huge is hard to say.
Abuse Prevention:
None possible. No ingame advantage.
Summary:
Game option to spend money in the game outside the diamonds system. - The system could be open to diamonds as well as direct cash money to appeal both to diamond users and non-diamond users.
Programming needed, but otherwise there should be no issues beyond whether enough people will use it to make it worth the programming hours. I think it would, but Im not sure how long it would take to make the programming cost back. Especially as I have no idea how big the programming cost would be.
Oh, and if you go for it and it does generate a surprising amount of money, I apply for the job of coming up with new flag texts and new gimmicks for the millions and millions of collectors out there. ;-)
Regards, Tviorr
(the special decoration part)