So here it is Merry Christmas, everybody’s having….. STOP!!! Drat I’m a week early aren’t I? Oh well, guess that means there’s still time for me to send my Christmas letter to TinyCo. And here it is in the form of a blog post of course!!!
Dear TinyCo Santa,
So I’m finally getting round to chatting to you about one of the hottest topics of this fun, maddening, awesome, frustrating, addictive and totally bonkers game we all have in common. Yes, I’m going to ask you about creating a legacy for our premium characters. You’ll find full details below….
Yours
Russian Tigger
Now I know many of us addicts like to tag ourselves as premiums, freemiums, or somewhere inbetweens, a kind of hybrid of premium & freemium. But no matter how we define ourselves and play the game, we’ve probably all bought a premium character or two to wander our Quahog’s.
Now whether we got those premium characters by spending free clams we built up by working hard in our games, or whether we got them from clams we bought from working hard at the day job, the one thing we all seem to agree on is expensive premium characters need to have a better legacy than being useful for just a few weeks during an event.
Now we buy premium characters for all sorts of reasons, it could be they’re a favourite character in the Family Guy TV show. For example Consuela, how many of us threw 600 clams at TinyCo to have her in our games before they later gave her away for free. Or maybe it’s a character from another show or movie franchise you love. I bought Pinhead faster than I would run if the Hellraiser puzzle box dropped in my lap as I just love the character. Same with Freddy Kreuger, although I wouldn’t want to bump into him in my dreams, I wanted him in my Quahog. Hey I even bought Tinker Bell because my little niece loves her. So there’s no doubt sentiment or fond memories gets us to open our clam accounts and you know what I’ve never regretted any of these purchases, not even Tinker Bell.
At other times we buy characters to give us a helping hand in events, they drop much needed items or assist in attacks, I’m thinking back to buying Nathan Fillian for his harpoon drops to help defeat Demon Stewie during the Comic Con Event, or John McLane for his help in defeating the Yeti during the Christmas on Spooner Street Event. There’s no doubt they sometimes give us a real helping hand for those weeks, but are they really good value for our clams if they do nothing after? That’s the million clam question!!!
Vs 
Vs 
Of course some of us just buy premium characters as we need to have it all and are a game completionist. I sometimes look at this as a new strain of OCD caused by mobile gaming, I call it OCC, Obsessional Character Collecting and from what I see it’s a tough habit to break.
You will be reading this, nodding, agreeing or disagreeing with where you see yourself in the above, or maybe you will be in total denial about how seriously addicted you’ve become. That’s perfectly understandable, I would probably be embarrassed to admit to family & friends how much time I devote to this game, and the truth about all those trips to the toilet.
And it’s that devotion I think needs rewarded, we are a hard core group of players who have stayed loyal to the game whilst others have come and gone. We’ve stuck together and helped each other by supporting Bunny with this blog through our interaction, comments and sharing of tips.
We’ve gone through the hitches and glitches, and provided lots of feedback to TinyCo as they continually work to improve the game. Basically when it comes to this game we’ve done it all, seen it all and some of us will have bought it all.
TinyCo have said they are trying to find a way to reward us for those premium character buys but just haven’t come up with a “how” yet. Well let’s look at a few options.
Many have asked why can’t premium characters be used in all events, it’s a simple way to further utilise our past purchases but I can understand why TinyCo have pulled back from this. They don’t want to skew future events by giving players with many premium characters an easy ride whilst newer or freemium players fight over the scraps. That would see a rise in the “freemium vs premium” anger we’ve seen in the past. And I feel, in recent events especially, TinyCo has tried to level the premium vs freemium playing field a little. For example, purchasing premium characters did not give premium players a massive advantage in Peter’s Booty Haul, and only helped you get things quicker in There’s No Place Like Quahog.
One option is to give all premium characters a clam dropping task similar to Jesus, but the more I think of this, I think the downside is for those with many premium characters this would mean more work, having to set all the premium daily tasks at same time as we’re working through the full on events TinyCo throws at us. We want rewards for the work we’ve already done, not more work.
And sitting thinking about this, the answer came to me, and hey it’s so simple I don’t know why TinyCo haven’t already done it. To get an idea of what I’m suggesting, first think of Tan Lines, an area where we send our unused characters to relax, we check them in and sit back and collect the Stewie Bucks we’re rewarded daily. No work, no grind, no hassle. So why can’t we do the same with premium characters, only instead of Stewie Bucks we get a rare drop of clams, how many depends on how many premium characters we have checked in.
Imagine a private island, hey if it’s good enough for Mr Branson it’s good enough for us. Or an exclusive country club. Similar to the Tan Lines Resort we check in our premium characters and then collect from it daily in the hope of a clam or two dropping. Very little extra work for players, we just need to collect from it when we are in collecting from our Tan Line Resorts. So basically once your premium characters are checked in, it’s just one extra tap a day and suddenly all those premium characters we complain are useless have a legacy in our games.
So fellow addicts, what do you think, would you like to see a new hang-out that pays out clams for your premium characters? Take a moment to vote in the poll below and tell not just us what you think, but TinyCo as well. Remember they read this blog and want to know what players want, and by completing our polls and leaving feedback in the comments it is a great way to reach out to them.
And if you’ve any other ideas of how premium characters can have a legacy in our games please share your ideas in the comments. Maybe if we all work together, players and TinyCo alike, we can find the solution to this problem.
~ Russian Tigger
Family Guy Addicts 
Something, anything to do with my older characters would be great. I don’t put anyone into Tan Lines until they have maxed out, so I just keep putting them in tasks after the event until they max out. (Except for the dinosaurs…you can no longer get them to level up…). Anyway, I’m still working on the monkey but after that, I’ll have nowhere to spend Stewie bucks. I’d also like to see a way to search for characters or buildings easily. Someone mentioned Jesus in a previous comment and I cannot figure out where in my game he could have disappeared to.
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You can use FaceSpace to find characters. Just zoom in on your town, go to FaceSpace, select character you want to find, open their FaceSpace profile then close it, and you’ll be taken to the building or part of town they are.
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Has anyone reported the dinosaurs not leveling up problem to Tiny?
I’m done with everything, including 80s gamer Bran and just waiting for week 4, which is late again.
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I have been playing from the very beginning. I currently have 191 characters and more outfits than I will ever use again. Not to mention a colossal number of premium buildings. But about three or so events ago I completely stopped buying the premium characters and buildings. Now and find I often cant even finish the main questlines because of not buying premiums. This Christmas event is a perfect example Im still trying to get Peaches! I even skipped Donkey Kong outright even though it was one of my favorite games as a kid. (Whoops did I just age myself?!)
Maybe if they had some purpose after the event they came from I would think about buying some again. Maybe we could have separate questlines. I have Santa from last year (or maybe the year before I cant remember anymore) how about a questline involving him if we have him? It doesn’t even have to help us progress in the main questline just give us something to do with all these charters other than storing them at Tan Lines like MIB Action Figurines. (Another tell?)
And even the Stewie Bucks are a bit of a letdown. I was happy at first to have at least some purpose for my 180+ characters at the time but now that I have Evil Monkey Im just saving them up hoping they drop us another character to buy with them. I really don’t need any more decorations. Seriously I cant even scratch the surface using the ones I currently have.
If Tinyco decides to give us something substantial to do with all the premium bought characters and buildings I will definitely start buying again but until then The Sims Freeplay is getting all my Clams… uh… Simolians… well you know.
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Blazpheme is right:
“So seriously, TinyCo, who cares if utilizing past Premium Characters during events gives long-time players a bit of an advantage? They paid for that advantage and helped keep your company’s doors open – so treat them right or they just might take their money elsewhere. Just please do something, anything, to make these characters useful again – because it would be so much better that nothing at all…”
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Devils advocate… buying premium characters has the added benefit of adding to the overall headcount in tan lines that allow for better stewie bucks rewards faster when they fill up the floors. The problem is that there aren’t enough available options to spend those stewie bucks on.
They should have a catalog of old characters available to buy a year after their event ended for a price of like 5-10 gold stewie bucks. That’d solve everything. Premium players would collect stewie bucks faster than freemium, further validating their purchases, and give everyone a chance at old missed characters.
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I’m actually somewhat baffled why they don’t have more characters or costumes available for sale, i.e. on a permanent basis.
Yes the Stewie Bucks are basically useless once you’ve got Evil Monkey and the other characters offered that way but moreover there’s not even many available for clams.
Why? Surely they’re missing out on potential sales by not making more available. The only reason I can think of is that they seem to prefer occasional mystery boxes rather than straightforward buys.
I reached the point ages ago where the only non-event character remaining in the store for me is Kool-Aid Man; he’s way too expensive at 750 clams, but maybe I’ll eventually get him anyway since there’s nothing else left!
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Agreed. But they should let us buy those old characters with all those useless coins we have. I would pay 1 million coins for characters like Koolaid Man, Bootomtooth, and Commander Will Riker.
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I slightly disagree with the thought that TinyCo and others think it wouldn’t be fair to use premium characters in future events, with the whole unfair advantage to new players.
Surely if someone spends clams, mostly fine by giving the company money to get said clams, then they DESERVE to have an advantage.
I think it’s very unfair to say – you’ve given £10 for this premium character, here’s a benefit for the next 2 weeks, but then the next event is on and if you want a benefit again, we expect another £10. People who put more hours and more money into the companies pockets should get more benefits in the game. Period.
I write this as a completely freemium player, playing this game for over 2 years and still enjoying every moment of it
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I would definitely pay 1 million coins to convert annoying costumes to separate characters — or to buy old characters like Commander William riker from the Star Trek event. That was the best event. Bring it back!
I joined because of the Star Trek ads I saw on TV 2 years ago, but didn’t start playing until the event was 95% over. Back then, I didn’t realize events had start and stop dates on the calendar.
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IMHO, while I agree that there should be a “reward” for long term players, I don’t feel it is reasonable to expect it to be in the form of Clams. We have to keep in mind that Tiny Co needs to make money to stay in business, and while most long term players have supported them with actual cash over the years, that is not necessarily true for everyone. Many players simply hoard their free Clams until they can afford a premium character at no cost. I therefore think that offering characters directly would be more reasonable, but those characters could be ones that were offered in the past, but missed, as opposed to the “new” characters that are only available through Tan Lines; Evil Monkey, for example.
And I still think we should be able to CONVERT costumes to characters, in exchange for Coins, though at a high cost (e.g. 1,000,000 Coins each). 🙂
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Perhaps they could start having options to earn drops: example) send Stevie on a 8 hrs task for a rare drop or send Jake Tucker and rare changes to uncommon, but you can’t send both. That way the premiums get used, but they don’t accelerate earning things so much that it skews the event. Exempt short events, or items that are required for the main story arc (turtle shells in the current events, for example). I’d aim for items that help unlock secondary characters or costumes. This would be in conjunction with getting more characters earning everything, or adjusting the rarity/amount needed to be more realistic.
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Fantastic idea. I joined the game late and would like to be able to buy Will Riker and other old characters — either using Stewie Bux or via coins — even if they cost one million coins per character!
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It’s fairly easy to find a model that works, you only need to look at TSTO. TinyCo have neglected the purpose of game currency ($$) and XP (levels) such that they’re essentially meaningless and useless once you’ve been playing this game for awhile and find that you have lots more than you can actually use, but they could fix that. By contrast, in TSTO both $$ and XP continue to be important factors and premium characters earn more so benefit the player more, especially through the ‘bonus premium currency game’ upon reaching the top level. Your idea is similar, in some ways.
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TinyCo aren’t against letting us get free clams due to the advert watching TV so more clams would be nice. I wouldn’t mind if a previoulsy unlocked character, that isnt being used, had a 24 task to get a clam. Even if it was one or two characters that changed every week. Jesus has a 24 task and hasn’t had a chance to rest in Tan Lines because of it.
Tan lines itself rewards with Stewie bucks for occupancy but there are no characters left to spend them on w and decisions and animated characters with no questlines don’t interest me.
So the daily event that uses any unlocked characters with be better paying out a clam for doing the three tasks as otherwise it just gets ignored. Alternatively if the Stewie bucks could be used for unlocking previously missed characters that would at least give them a purpose again.
Just some thoughts.
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Tiny Co should be making the expired premium characters available to new players via monthly sale through clams or add them to purchase via stewie bucks .So those who missed the particular character can get em.
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It would be amazing if I could use my premium characters for something again. I have a lot because I was an obsessive character collector for over a year until shortly after they started putting them in mystery boxes. I stopped buying clams completely once I realised these mystery box characters were going to cost 50-100 dollars a piece. No way I’m going to pay that and if I can’t have a complete collection there no reason to buy clams at all. Crazy to think of all the money they could have made off of me if they had just simply continued to offer them all as a straight clam purchase. I was spending about $40 a month for a while to keep it complete until they started putting them in mystery boxes. Their loss I guess.
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I like the idea. Interested to see what we actually get from TinyCo.
My idea; a Bollywood style dance action that includes every character you’ve unlocked (or as many as you want to use) that can be performed once a day. Takes…let’s say 12 hours…and has a drop chance equal to the percentage of your total character pool performing said task. Visually fun, bit risky if challenges/quests are live and a bit weird. Because we love weird.
Drops are clams and a small chance for a ticket. What does a ticket do? Spins a wheel. The wheel has every skin and timed character you’ve never unlocked, available as prizes. But these tickets are SUPER rare.
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First, I would like to thank the FGAddicts for the opportunity to address this issue. I know this intended to be a helpful forum for players of The Quest For Stuff, and this particular subject has been lurking just below the surface for far too long…
As an “Inbetweenium” player, I typically lean towards the free side of playing this game – but I am not averse to dropping a few Clams here or there for specific items. So I have indeed spent real-world money during the course of playing this game. What concerns me is the investment value of my occasional purchases.
When I buy a console game, there is a one-time cost and I am able to enjoy the game anytime I desire – no further purchase necessary. However, some games do offer optional downloadable content in the form of Expansion Packs. Once purchased, I can enjoy the pack’s added benefits anytime I choose to play the game.
In the case of TQFS, there is also optional available content in the form of Premium Characters. For simplicity’s sake, I will say that each character also costs around $10 (given that the average cost for a premium character is around 270 Clams, and the Clam Shack lists a “Bin” of 275 Clams at a cost of $9.99). Not a large expense, but an expense nonetheless. The obvious incentive here is also to enjoy an added benefit towards playing the game.
While the intent of these two separate items is very similar, one cannot ignore the fact that they are quite different in overall value – because the Premium Characters lose all of their added benefits within a few weeks of purchase. It is this point alone that makes me extremely cautious when considering the purchase of any premium content. Even TinyCo themselves has admitted to knowing of this design issue regarding a more permanent advantage, but remained optimistic that a solution could be found.
So what is the solution? For many frustrated gamers, their answer has been to cease purchasing premium content – or to quit playing the game altogether. This is a loss for TinyCo, and could lead to future losses if this trend continues. While I applaud their efforts to give newer players a fighting chance, they have made a crucial business error in ignoring their long-time paying customers whose investments have carried them this far.
When a player purchases premium content, they are investing in their own games at the same time they are investing in the company which is producing them. It is audacious to assume that players would continue investing in a product that has no beneficial value beyond a two-to-three week window, and it is simply bad business to deliberately offer a product which is designed to fail.
So seriously, TinyCo, who cares if utilizing past Premium Characters during events gives long-time players a bit of an advantage? They paid for that advantage and helped keep your company’s doors open – so treat them right or they just might take their money elsewhere. Just please do something, anything, to make these characters useful again – because it would be so much better that nothing at all…
I say all of this only as a concerned citizen of our silly little town. As the governing body, TinyCo alone has the ability to improve the quality of life for their premium residents. It would be a shame to have our Quahog turn into a ghost town due to mismanagement or the unwillingness to show our elders the respect they deserve.
Thanks for listening, this old-timer does tend to ramble… Now get out of my yard!
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I love this idea. I’d love to have some incentive to buy premium characters. Right now buying knowing that they’re only useful for about a week in most cases, makes me think hard before I buy. I’d like to see premium buildings be recycled too. It doesn’t have to be every one in every event but I would have loved for some of the buildings I got for last Christmas to help me out a little this year. I would have been happy with 1 stocking stuffer. I’d also like to see Family jewels used more often too. It’s a premium that is easily within reach after only a few earned clams.
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I agree whole heartedly with clob. TC using the excuse that old and premium characters cant be used because of new players is a cop out, and even this blog has perpetrated this. I have many characters i eared last year at christmas that could have been used for this event. i have jake tucker and have never used him. I dont care about new players. They can level up over time. EVERY event should add old chracters as an addition to all tasks. TC knows what characters you have and uses your stable of characters from tan lines to complete daily quests. They can do the same for event tasks. Just have a slot open for old characters to do event tasks. Easy.
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I’m happy for old premium characters to have a use in any or all events, even if it’s just to earn the event currency. But I understand why characters unlocked freemium in the later Districts aren’t, this week’s main Questline is an example, at the moment it’s showing Brian is needed to complete it, lot of players haven’t unlocked him yet, so they are stuck unless TinyCo have a plan to change this or something. But yes,I agree, premium characters can and should be used more often.
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So many of us are stuck now, and if not yet, they will be. Frustrating! I knew this would happen, so I made sure not to speed anything up with clams. Why bother? They just means they get my money with absolutely no advantage to me. I just would have been stuck sooner. I do hope they see the error of their ways quickly on this one.
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Is it Ghostly Gifts or Power Pellets that are holding you back? Or both?
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That is a fine idea. Scaling it based on amount of characters would work well. I just love that they are actively looking at rewarding day 1 players!
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I love the clam drop idea, and it doesn’t even have to be a new location. That could easily be a new algorithm to tan lines. I would also like the opportunity to purchase early characters I missed.
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Good idea, RT! I agree. Also: NEED MORE CHARACTERS AVAILABLE TO EARN IN TAN LINES!!
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So very rarely have they used characters from one event in another. They should really make them legacy characters in that if a future event uses the same or similar characters then you already have them. It gives you a leg up for being a long time player. Like the second Star Trek event or last year’s Christmas event. Make it so you can earn them, but if you already have them we might have a chance to get more than half-way through an event before it ends.
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My point of view is that for the most part this IS NOT a competitive game. We’re not going against other player towns in any fashion. Yes, they have had a few leaderboard events for prizes, which many players dislike, but on the whole it’s an individual game. It shouldn’t matter if one player has an advantage in events because they have played longer and have more characters. Players starting new games on other platforms are accustom to being disadvantaged in the beginning. It’s a primary reason for character advancement, getting better items, armor, etc. so they can compete. None of that really exists in this game. Events should be set in such a way that new players are rewarded during events but probably not advance as far as veteran players. As they continue to play though the gap would close and eventually they too can complete events. As it is the long time players are what I continue to describe as “handcuffed.” There is a restricted feeling of advancement because everything is limited to early access characters.
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I voted yes. I would also like to add to it. Maybe a new form of ‘bucks’ to buy older premium characters like Ghost Face, Nathan Fillian, John McLane, Pinhead and more. Maybe a rotation of 5 a month?
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This is a fantastic idea!!! As there is not a lot of great things to buy with the Stewie bucks….I like characters, more and more characters!! Muahahaa!! Ooo, sry. But evil monkey(super expensive), Barbra Pewtershmit (everyone just got her for free), and someone I don’t recognize-King Butt? Are the only good things, everything else is a deco…I, and I think everyone else, have more than enough decos, and not enough room to put them all! It’d be cool if we could spend some of the millions of coins we’ve gathered on more space in our towns. Maybe that would up the crash rate though? Hmmm.
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I’d just like to see them start using toons you \get in later chapters more. I get using the early ones so new players get a chance but how about having toons from district nine help the toons from the first 3 districts collect stuff. I’m sick of peter getting all the task. Most of the toons after district 3 are useless.
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I’ve been playing more than a year so I can agree with you on this point. But watching my brother start the game about 2 weeks ago, I now get why they only use early district characters for events….. But some kind of “hey thanks for sticking with it” district 9 character task in the event would be a nice touch!
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