The Giant Stripper in the Room…

Hello There Clammers!

Here we are in the final week of a long and grinding Comic Con Event.  Every week for 7 weeks there has been something new introduced into the game, some good and some meh…but we’ve been grinding it out together for the last 7 weeks.

And now we’re in the home stretch…when those of us who have all of the prizes and almost all of the costumes are starting to think we can slow down a bit.  After all, bombing minions and collecting harpoons is REALLY starting to feel like a grind.  BUT TinyCo doesn’t want us to slow down….no they like when we’re constantly in our games checking every couple of hours.  I get it.  It’s what makes this game great.

So what does TinyCo do to get us grinding out these last few days?  With less than 6 days left in the event they release Stripper Bonnie (a costume MANY of you have been requesting for a while now).  Cool right?   Wrong!

With a Comic-Con Event that has been AMAZING…this, in the final days, is an EPIC fail on the part of TinyCo….

First, let me say (as many of you already know) Bunny and I ADORE TinyCo and the staff that works there.  It’s a fantastic company and they really love what they do.  They want to make this the best game they possibly can….and are ALWAYS up to listening to player feedback (in particular the feedback from this blog).  For every poll we do, we send TinyCo the results…and they almost always tweak something in the game based on YOUR feedback.  That’s AWESOME.

Because we have such respect for them we’ve been able to easily defend them in a lot of cases.  While we agree with player reaction to a lot of things, we can see the other side of the situation and often times get what’s going on.  We always relay your feedback to them, but we get it.  We can defend them.  We can understand what it is they’re doing, and why they’re doing it.

But this….I can’t defend this.

It’s bad enough that they release a character with Rare and Extra Rare items  with less than 6 days left to go…BUT to put the item collection AFTER a 58 hour questline is just wrong.  That leaves many players with only 3 days to collect 20 Rare items and 5 Extra Rare items (I know there’s common in there but they should fall fairly easily).

THREE DAYS?!  Are you kidding me?  It’s been a week since Rollocop hit the game and I’m STILL not done collecting everything for him (and he also only needed 5 Extra Rare items) and you expect me to get everything for Bonnie in THREE DAYS?!  Especially when all of the tasks are 4, 6 and 8hrs long?!  Seriously?

Not a fan of this AT ALL.  If TinyCo wanted people to spend Clams on Stripper Bonnie they should have just made it a Premium Costume.  I gladly would have shelled out clams for her…if they were being honest up front and saying “Hey spend Clams on her if you want her!”  Although…I WON’T pay the 650 clams it would cost the rush build her this way.  (especially after already spending $150+ in my personal game just for THIS EVENT and having less than 500 clams of it left)

I know many of you agree with me on this.  You have no issues grinding it out to get stuff BUT you take exception when you have THREE DAYS to do it!

So, because we’re not just those who like to attack and run away…let’s give some constructive criticism to TinyCo about what they can do to make this situation better….here are my ideas:

-Switch Stripper Bonnie to a Premium Costume, costing no more than 150 clams (it is a skin after all)…or bundle her with the new Stripper pole for 170 Clams, and let it be an instant create.

-Open her costume up in Al Harrington’s NOW so we can start earning the STUFF needed to collect her BEFORE we complete the 58hr questline.  That way we have more than 3 days to earn everything.

-Change the drop rates on the items so the rare items are Uncommon and the Extra Rare is Rare.  That should make it slightly easier to earn everything you need in the allotted time.

-Make it so Stripper Bonnie is NOT tied with Comic-Con.  Allow players unlimited time to unlock her. Afterall, what does Stripper Bonnie have to do with Comic-Con anyway?  She’s actually a highly requested costume, and by making her limited-time you just alienate a bunch of newer players…and we’ll have a Cleveland situation all over again.

I think any one of those four options are fair.  Many players, myself included, are MORE than willing to grind it out and earn the costume (or spend a reasonable amount of Clams on it)…BUT feel it’s extremely difficult to do so with the allotted time.  Any of those four options are fair to both players AND TinyCo. 

And let’s try not to have short term memories here.  Let’s remember all the AMAZING things TinyCo has done during this event….

-Actual Celebrities, VOICED, in our games!  (many for free)
– Made it A LOT easier to earn ALL of the Blam! Required to unlock all of the prizes (and many of us are sitting at or near 200,000 Blam! Already)
-Countless freemium buildings costing Blam! Currency
-Blam! Boxes where you can get FREE Clams!
-All the Free Clams they’ve given us during this event!
-Really awesome character animations
– And most importantly they kept us all engaged.  Each and every week they introduced NEW and exciting content, that had many of us clamoring for Thursday night to see what would be coming and what they had in store for us.  And in MANY cases they not only updated Thursday BUT updated Friday as well.  That is the mark of a great game!

This in my opinion is the FIRST major fail of this update…and hopefully TinyCo will continue to be the awesome company they are and do something about it!

Now it’s YOUR turn!  What are some suggestions you might have for TinyCo to correct the Stripper Bonnie situation?  What are some of your highlights from this update?  Did you initially think you wouldn’t make it to 100,000 Blam! and are now sitting at WAY more?  Sound off in the comments below, you know we LOVE hearing from you!