Hey there readers, I’d like to welcome you to my first event review of 2017, where today I’m going to be talking, ok, crying into a giant tissue due to a dose of the holiday blues brought on by pixel pills, triangles, care packages and more. Or to put it simply the event that just was, Quahog’s Not So Silent Night. After 5 weeks of arcade madness it’s all over but for the poll, and hey I know we all uttered Game Over, over and over during this event. Nothing was handed to us as a gift in this, it was one tough event and I’m not sure many of us will be saying victory was ours this time!!!
Still on a high from the well executed Oz event, I must admit I skipped into this event with very high hopes. Retro Arcade characters are back in fashion thanks to movies such as Wreck-It-Ralph and Pixels, and I felt it was only a matter of time before FGQFS did an event featuring them, as so many of the Arcade characters had featured or been parodied on the TV Show.
Well it all started with a teaser from TinyCo and I suddenly felt like a kid at Christmas, honestly they couldn’t have come up with a better concept for a Christmas event, and soon we were all excited to be playing Quahog’s Not So Silent Night.
With the likes of Q*Bert and PAC-MAN they couldn’t go wrong could they? Well it turned out all the Waka, Waka, Waka, was actually a whack over the head for the players as this event may have hit the spot with the content but it soon hit the self destruct with the execution.
The event certainly started positively with Q*Bert as a freemium unlockable character, we all went a little daft for him but panic set in early as it felt like the amount of Stocking Stuffers needed to unlock him and Christmas Morning Peter was a little high. Also drop issues reared their ugly head, Giant Tissue anyone? So from Phase 1 we started to see players, including myself, fall behind. But hey Q*Bert was freemium so I felt this event was going to be another positive one. Oops, think I better trade in my crystal ball.
Suddenly we were into Phase 2 and having to decide whether to unlock Q*Bert or the Phase 2 freemium character Peaches first. Add into the mix a timed Monkey Kong and things got tough. Now I concentrated on unlocking Peaches, followed by Q*Bert, and didn’t place Monkey Kong until I was close to unlocking Peaches. And I was lucky to unlock them all but despite purchasing Baby Bobble Stewie, I was again behind, starting Phase 3 a day or so late. And sadly moderating the comments I realised I was lucky at that, as many players were still struggling to get into Phase 2 never mind complete it. And once there drop issues were slowing them down further. This event was now seeing a return to the bad old days, and all the fun and goodwill from the Oz event was being ripped apart.
Drops and glitches were starting to take a toll on the event and players alike. I can’t tell you how disappointed I was to see this, I know we all play for our own individual games, but if I get something in my game, I want everyone who puts in the sane effort to get it too, and to see so many players unable to progress really started to affect my enjoyment of the event.
By the time Phase 3 hit, bringing with it the premium PAC-MAN, and freemium Pixel Lois and 80’s Gamer Brian there was a gridlock, players locked out due to issues with the present plaza, and others stuck in Phase 2 due to drops for Peaches. I moved into Phase 3 and having purchased PAC-MAN at his discounted price, progressed quite smoothly compared to many others who found themselves stuck as they couldn’t unlock 8-Bit Lois.
Then there was another group of players stuck as they didn’t have Brian unlocked in their game yet, and yet another group of players were stuck as 80’s Gamer Brian’s character costume wouldn’t drop. So as Phase 4 hit, not many of us were ready to go thanks to Brian. But as it wasn’t really Brian’s fault I’m hoping you’ve all let him out the dog house by now.
And for me Phase 4 was a highlight as we finally got Rupert to unlock, not creepy Human Rupert, but cute, cuddly Rupert the bear. This should have been the highlight of the event, we should all have been feeling so happy we were farting rainbows.
Only problem was too many players were stuck in Phase 3 and getting anxious they weren’t going to get to Rupert.
Joining Rupert in Phase 4 was Black Jesus, and it was soon apparent he would be unlocked over the remainder of the event rather than a week, but there was a snag, to get one of his items you needed to unlock Baby Heimlich, but for most players only one character was available to get the Beach Balls needed to attack her, and she, Bonnie, was constantly trapped by the holiday blues. A lack of Glee Bears to cure her, Lois and Bruce coupled with a poor drop rate on triangles for Rupert saw the event completely stall for many players, including our own Lotty.
i seemed to get better drops and managed to unlock Rupert, albeit just as Phase 5 started. This let me crack on with getting Black Jesus and I was lucky to unlock him and even Onesie Mayor West with a few days to spare. But during Phase 5 I honestly felt I was just going through the motions, all the fun had been sucked out the event as everything was harder than it had to be, especially for a Christmas event. This really should have been a lot of fun, so how on earth did things go so wrong? You tell me addicts, that’s what these posts are for, your feedback.
So to sum up, yes I spent some clams, and yes I unlocked all the freemium characters & costumes, so why am I not sitting with a massive smiley on my face, well probably because I know I got lucky. Yes I play more than most due to my wretched sleep pattern but I still feel guilty I made it to the end of the event whilst some players were still stuck in Phases 3 & 4.
I’m disappointed that all the goodwill we saw during the Oz event has disappeared quicker than Monkey Kong up his scaffold. I’m disappointed that great content and animation has been overshadowed by game issues. I’m disappointed customer services seemed so overwhelmed they just sent generic response to every query. I’m disappointed I couldn’t do more to help players progress. I’m disappointed that many players said they were walking away from the game. Im disappointed that TinyCo didn’t seize the day and steal the best Chrustmas event crown as Tapped Out went into meltdown over its lack of Chrustnas spirit.
And finally I’m disappointed I’m writing a review like this, I like to see the bright side in things, but I couldn’t sit and write a deserved glowing review of There’s No Place About Quahog last month then not be just as honest in my review of Quahog’s Not So Silent Night.
Now by the time this post goes up, we will no doubt be into the next event. The system of starting a new event just as one finishes has served TinyCo well in the past. Basically because all the grumbling about the event that just ended is cut off by the madness of a new event. But I’m not so sure that will work this time as this event seems to have pushed many players towards the cliff and it’s going take something special to pull them back from the edge.
Now onto my breakdown, there was some positives, and I’ll start with them.
CONTENT:
More Family Guy TV show linked content. As I said earlier many of the Arcade characters have been parodied in the TV show, as have Black Jesus and many of the Weekly Challenge prizes. On top of this we finally got Rupert in his original form. So plenty of Family Guy related content to keep us happy.
CHARACTER DROPS:
With regards to gameplay it was good to see less characters have multiple tasks for different drop items, although as the event went on I know there was still some crossover but that will always happen as core characters that were unlocked in the early Districts are used in events to allow newer players to join in events. I don’t think TinyCo quite got the balance quite in this event but I can see they tried as many drops came from buildings we purchased, so there was less burden on characters. But… well, for now let’s just say I’ll talk more about that in my what I didn’t like section.
CHARACTERS:
The characters chosen for the event were really who any retro gamer would want, they really got this spot on, Q*Bert, PAC-MAN, Monkey Kong, Blinky. It’s like a who’s who of gaming, although a certain Italian plumber was missing, but hey they covered that by giving Chris a costume. Yes, many weren’t original characters but Family Guy parody versions, but I can understand why TinyCo played it this way and think they did a great job with the character choices and their visual tasks. Also a new character that has an ongoing clam drop task, something we’ve been asking for.
ANIMATION:
Cannot fault a thing here, top job as always. Every thing looked amazing.
FACESPACE:
Gold to see the FaceSpace Sets make a return. Long may this continue.
QUESTLINES:
Nice to have a little side Questline that awarded clams again. But I’d love to see a small clam reward for completing any Questline, even just 1 or 2 and for the final main Questline in events how’s about a 10 clam reward for the few hardy souls who get there.
GAMEPLAY:
They seem to be taking on board issues that derailed previous events, for example Dream Levels were easy to move up, in previous events Levels have caused gridlock, remember Death at the Drive-In. Also little chance to win clam opening Q*Berts Pyramid Packs, I think I got about 25 free clams this way. I also got repetitive strain opening those parcels.
CLAM GENERATOR:
They seem to be making these premium buildings a regular occurrence, hope this continues. The Retro Arcade Christmas Tree was a great addition to the game.
SALES:
We saw two in this event, firstly a discount off the clam price of PAC-MAN if you were an early purchaser. Very nice touch TinyCo. The second was a 20% off clam packages offered and as much as this was a good discount it was possibly offered at a bad time
And now to my thoughts on the problem areas that still seem raise their ugly heads in events.
MYSTERY BOXES:
It’s no mystery what my feelings on Mystery Boxes are, I continue to despair at the way TinyCo implements Mystery Boxes in events. Yes, I know we don’t need to buy them but to put an event character in a box that costs 130 clams and then fill it with materials that can repeat contines to show a bit of disregard for premium players. I think I’ve gone on enough in past about these so I shall say no more.
BOSS BATTLES:
I found it bizarre TinyCo brought in Baby Heimlich as a boss and then made the Bonnie, th one character we all have who could drop the beach balls needed to defeat her also be afflicted by the Holiday Blues. This meant attacking past 1X was impossible for many players due to the fact Bauble Glee Bears were in short supply. A big error that severely impacted the later Phases.
QUESTLINES:
Now the dialogue and tasks were fantastic, no issues at all there, but what I do find troublesome is having a character than needs unlocked being essential to completing each Phases Main Questline. This causes a delay in players getting new content and maybe needs looked at. I’ve said it before but I’m saying it again. Any delays in unlocking Q*Bert, Peaches, 80’s Gamer Brian, 8-Bit Lois, Rupert could all lead to gridlock and they did. Also using a character unlocked at a later district, such as Brian, in the Questline isn’t fair when you say players only need to be at Distruct 3 to take part. Also 80’s Gamer Brian should have had a fail safe to ensure he dropped in a Ghostly Gift before Phase 4 started. Players were stuck whilst they waited for a chance drop of the costume and this wasn’t fair as it held them back when they had done everything they could to be ready to progress. Also many of the side Questlines needed Bonnie who was trapped with the holiday blues, so no progress on these and an ever increasing task bar.
DROPS:
There continues to be no rhyme or reason to these, the event seemed to have way too many rare drops, whereas the unpopular uncommon drop all but disappeared. Were these problematic uncommon drops simply relabelled rare? And is that why issues plagued some of them. Also when every other player is telling you they are having a problem with the drops, you need to react and try to fix it. The words “as intended” have drove many an addict to join Bunny in the basement, please delete these two words them from your responses TinyCo.
PRESENT PLAZA:
The Present Plaza started well, who doesn’t love opening gifts but it soon became a source of grief as the drops weren’t good for many and for others trying to open anything in the Plaza saw there game freeze until TinyCo could fix it. Big thanks needs be given to Bunny for helping players get back in their games ASAP. But in general this was just more of something players have hated for a long time, gathering one item to try for another item to attack sone thing else.
WEEKLY CHALLENGES:
The weekly challenges were once again in some ways toned down and very achievable for all players apart from throwing us a curve ball in Phase 4 with a “challenge” we had no control over as it depended on drops of Glee Bears which were random. Not cool TinyCo.
STRUCTURE:
For the most part there was no surprises, everything you needed to do in each phase was spelt out early by simply moving through the first few parts of the main Questline for each Phase. But the timer on Monkey Kong caused anger as although they marked this on him if you placed him from the store, many placed him via the Questline and this didn’t highlight this. In the Oz event they showed common sense with the tornadoes whereas they seemed to throw this new found wisdom out when it came to the holiday blues. And having your screen jump to the holiday blues continually was a nuisance. The mixture of freemium to premium characters/costumes was fair in my mind, but the pricing of premium items, especially those that dropped Stocking Stuffers were outrageous. Also for an event that would span Christmas Day and New Years Day, no little gift built in for your loyal players TinyCo?
FORMAT:
A 5 week event with some horrendous drop issues just felt like it needed an extension but in another way I just wanted it to end. The event had sucked the fun out of the game over many weeks. Every player who missed out on then should be given an opportunity to unlock Rupert and Black Jesus freemium whether it be through Tan Lines or some other way. Also basing a new event on the template of a previous event not only causes issues with repetition but it seems to pull coding issues along for the ride. Maybe time to create something new.
GAMEPLAY:
They seemed to be taking on board issues that derailed previous events during the Oz adventure, but every issue that could happen did in this event. I wouldn’t be surprised to see this voted the least popular event of 2016.
PREMIUM PRICES:
Currency buildings and character costumes are priced too high. But characters prices were fair in this.
SUPPORT:
There had been definite improvements in this area, but this seemed go into reverse in this event, whether this was due to the sheer volume of issues and complaints being sent in, or lack of staff over the holiday period I don’t know. But everyone seemed to be getting the same standard “as intended” response to their pleas for help. This only changed in final days when a new standard response started to surface. But nothing changed in the game, no changes, no help. No here’s 50 clams everybody to say sorry for the issues. It seemed like heads had been buried in the sand and would stay there until the event ended. Please don’t do this, come out, engage with us, we want the game to be good, we want keep playing.
So fellow addicts, that’s some of my thoughts, sorry they aren’t my usual upbeat musings, and as usual I want to stress they are just my thoughts, they in no way reflect what Bunny or Lotty felt about the event, to be honest I’m not sure I could post Lotty’s thoughts in a PG manner, lol.
Anyway that’s my ramblings, now I want you to tell me your thoughts. Cause I honestly do care about how fellow players get on. I’d like to know if you were lucky like me, or did you find yourself trapped in a vortex of failed drops and holiday blues. But please don’t turn this into a What the Deuce post by releasing all hell on earth in your comments as Bunny will throw me head first into the nearest Christmas tree recycling machine if you do. Please give us your feedback and thoughts in a gift wrapped way. Tell us what you liked, didn’t like? What you’d like to see more of, what you’d like to see less off. What your thoughts on five week events are? Share with us everything and anything you think would improve FGQFS. And if you can please take a minute to complete the end of event poll at the end of this event I’d be very grateful.
Now before I go there’s another couple of things I’ve got to say. Hey did I just hear you snore? No, okay then, well firstly thanks to every addict who took the time to read our ramblings during the event, shared hints or who just popped in to the comments to say Hi or Thank You. All much appreciated, you really are the reason writing for this site is so much fun.
And just incase you can’t see the poll or find it jumps about when you’re trying answer, here’s the direct link:
https://goo.gl/forms/bQBukDfES1xlXFHC2
~ Russian Tigger
Family Guy Addicts 
I did Kind of badly in this one (not MY worst event though). I loved the theme and I think that the storyline was fun, but the drops kind of ruined it.
Anyway, I think the worst part were the blues. I don’t mind getting a character taken/kidnapped by something (I actually found it fun sometimes), but we should be able to get them back with actions from another character like it used to be (Lois and Slayer Cat, Meg and Mort), not through items that may drop from items that may drop. Not only were the bears difficult to get, we needed several. And the characters would often get the blues immediately after being freed without giving us time to send them to a new task. For me, the blues killed the event and any chance I had of getting anything else.
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I competely agree that it is time for something new. The constant recycling of gameplay inevitably leads to the same problems repeating themselves. Perhaps if TC would simply learn from their mistakes, but it is all too obvious that this is not the case.
Rather than spew a lengthy diatribe highligting the multitude of problems we all encountered, I will instead address the Overlords with a singular concept that they should consider for the future.
Quality over quantity.
This simple idea could turn the entire game around. Stop assaulting us with the ridiculous amount of squatters and the materials needed to defeat them or received from defeating them. It is entirely too convoluted to be any fun on our end, and apparently seems to wreak havok with coding on your end. This is several steps beyond “challenging”, almost to the point of sadism.
There is too much superfluous activity happening all at once for the game engine to have any kind of stability, and you folks keep piling on more and more with each phase – then offer no apology when stuff breaks down. So seriously, stop trying so hard to impress us with a zillion haphazard items/characters/tasks/materials/bosses, and just focus on putting out a solid product. The game you save could be your own…
Anyway, enough about those jokers…
I want to thank the Addicts for all of their efforts, and for providing a forum in which players can share ideas and experiences.
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The Christmas even really put my loyalty to the test. I’ve always refused to spend any amount of clams on items that you could earn. But I felt that if I didn’t spend some clams to speed things up or pay for a few beach balls, then I wouldn’t have stood a chance to earn two freemium characters. So ultimately, after all the clams I spent on this event, Rupert and Black Jesus turned out to be more of a premium character. If there is one positive thing I can take from this event, is my new found appreciation for this blog and this community of people. Knowing that I wasn’t the only one going through this frustration, I think saved me from slamming my tablet into the wall.
I really wish I had known about how helpful you all are when I lost three months of progress early on and couldn’t get TinyCo to respond to any of my pleas for help. I get so upset seeing Kook Aid man for sale for 750 freaking clams when I once earned him for free. WTD indeed. But I have been a loyal player now for 18 months, but after the Xmas event, I think I’ll be engaging this site way more. Thank you all!!
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Thanks for the kind feedback, it was my toughest event to blog through for sure.
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Your review is spot on I don’t usually moan etc but this event totally drained me it wasn’t fun to play this time round. I was always a few days behind going into the next phase due to drops by the time phase 5 started I chose not to go forward as putting Rupert on beach ball duty to unlock Jesus was more important than mayor west onsie With only Rupert collecting balls and the odd 1 from Bonnie I managed to collect nearly 200 robes with minutes remaining I bought black Jesus for only 143 clams. I didn’t buy any premium stuff for drops as I personally think their to expensive. I really think tiny co needs to re vamp their game strategies before they alienate a lot of players. I’m lucky enough to be able to log in whenever I want and I think tiny co forget people have jobs/lives and arnt constantly glued to their games making it harder to unlock characters thanks for the post 🙂
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I use to love this game. I stopped playing the Simpsons to focus on it. Now I regret it. I would spend $20.00 on clams each event knowing it would mak it possible to win. Last event I spent 20 and not even close. This time I said forget it no more cash on a game. If I lose the event oh well. I was thinking of deleting the game but decided to hold off in hope the developers actually care to fix the game.
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Whole event a perfect storm of problems. Just one thing piled on after another. It’s like the developers saw the religious nuts lose it over the simpsons game winter event and took that level of player outrage as a challenge to try and top.
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😀😀😀
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Thank you Russian tiger for your post, it’s very much how much game was played except that I wasn’t able to get past week 4. Stuck fully with the drop rates. That’s with setting alarms for everything, buying two premium characters, the retro clam tree and a clam package. I have to say as well, so frustrated that the generic responses from tiny co the last three times I have asked for some sort of help, have nothing to do with the acual sent in request. Nothing! Talk about not listening. It does give a sense that they only care about the new customers that come in, cause when they get sick of the lack of fairness to the game, ie…drops rates, having to use clams if you want to get “free” items, bottleneck of needed characters, ext. There is a new group coming in. I truly despise feeling that way. I love this game, have played since begining, and it’s been since first star trek event that I don’t get to final week. And With all I do, I should. I just keep hoping for the good old days.
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This is the second Christmas event I didn’t like……….. What I want to know is how come the cost of spending clams to speed up an event are so high? I remember it used to be only 1 clam for speeding up 45min… now its like 5 or more. Tinyco… I would spend more clams if you lowered the amount to speed up a task. Also with land a scarce, can’t they change the dimensions of the current items we have or at the very least make the new ones smaller?? All of the large buildings or anything that doesn’t pay out less than 40.00 is in my inventory also NO decorations are allowed after the event (enjoyable or not) since they just take up room. Having the water area is nice but it isn’t useable for 98% of the buildings.
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I was just happy I had enough stocking stuffers to buy a bunch of the Calvin & Hobbs-esc snowmen.
By the time I got to Black Jesus I could see failure written all over the event. So I decided not to even try for him and concentrated on the rest of the game. That decision is probably the only reason I didn’t drop the whole game.
Only sad part was missing the phase 4 challenge as it was Rupert themed and He’s my favorite. On the positive side of that, I didn’t get the baby Heimlich “big” prize, which I thought was rather lame.
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you mentioned it was unfair that Brian was used as ayers who opened district 3 are supposed to able to play the events BUT WHAT ABOUT MAYOR WEST i hit a brick wall near the end cuz I do not have him
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Yes, very true, but for me as he was in the last phase it didn’t stop you progressing, just stopped you completing the last phase. Others were stuck in Phase 3. But it’s a very good point, glad you highlighted it. Thanks.
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Not the first time this has happened, the booty haul event had a costume for carter in the last phase that was required to finish the questline and I didn’t have him at the time so couldn’t get costume or complete questline.
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Worst event ever, I knew after week one it was going no where fast. I collected daily from the clam earning deco and other than that lost all interest. I had played this game from the very start and even as friends and family members dropped out I stuck with it but to me this event felt more like if they took every complaint and bad idea from previous events and made a disaster. As always, keep up the great work on this site, very appreciated, even when the game is unplayable
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I’m just going to keep hoping they stop stacking everything on the same handful of characters. Bonnie and her blues and balls “broke” the already frustrating event for me.
With 10 minutes remaining I still needed lots of robes for BJ and stories for Onesie (90 clams to unlock BJ and 96 for Onesie costume). I made the decision to pay to get Black Jesus since he can recover some of those clams. I’ve gotten very stingy with clams now because premium characters become useless/pointless once events are finished. Waste!
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got all the free characters and skins, but had to spend over 20 bucks in clams to do it… if I was a freemium player, this event would have been the end for me… ( yeah we all say it, but how many really do it? Too much work put in to delete now) Im keepin it real, sorry…
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i got to Rupert just 2 days before the event ended so i couldnt get all the robes needed for Black Jesus .. also in 4 days i only got 4 wreaths (2 drops) … but the first 2 weeks were kinda fun … if I dont count placing Monkey Kong Ladder too early cuz i didnt know he is timed …
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forgot to add i got lots of clams from boxes though .. about 30 or so ..
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Got God as a freebie. Didn’t Barbara Pewterschmidt pop up as a freebie also during the event? Can’t remember. I know I got her for free just the other week. Loved Peaches, shes a very cute character and my fav of the whole event. Didn’t personally care that much for the retro game character thing. I played those original games back just out of high school. But I know a lot of folks did like it. Worst thing was the drop rate. Horrible just Horrible drop rate.
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Yeah God and Barbara were dropped in as freebies but many of us had already worked to unlock them previously, so we kind of got the naughty list prize, nothing, lol.
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Your poll was a helpful reminder that despite frustrations in the last week (phase 4 for me). I really did get a lot of stuff : three really fun skins for Peter, Lois, and Brian (Brian will no longer be wasting his days drinking beer at the brewery), two new freemium characters (Peaches and Rupert), and one premium character who is fun to watch (Pacman); and quite a few very nice gamer eye-candy buildings/decos that I won’t be stashing in inventory if I can find the room.
Note to TinyCo: All I want for Christmas next year is a lot more land so I don’t have to hide so much of your work away after events.
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I love 80’s Gamer Brian, he’s going be wearing that skin forever…. Glad you’re enjoying what you did achieve!
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I am a rarity in that I got every character and finished the event with only a few clams spent to rush some tasks for Monkey Kong since I unknowingly started the timer before I was ready. But it was a grind. It WAS possible to play out the event but you needed to be dedicated to a fault. My drops were poor but not near as bad as what I am reading. There is no way TinyCo should establish an algorithm that doesn’t drop the necessary items in a reasonably finite period of time. If people are only collecting one time per day for an eight-hour drop, I would think they have no standing to complain. But when I read about premium players who have purchased the “helpers” and playing a lot and still are stuck at stages due to poor drops, it makes me wonder why bother playing the game at all. I wish they would consider depending less on chance at the drops and requiring us to have to collect more items so you can feel as though you are progressing. It is “the quest for stuff” after all. If they want it to take a week to collect for something then set the collection total and the algorithm accordingly. They should realize by now that forcing people to spend clams by making the drop rates ridiculous isn’t the option. People will go without rather than feel as though they are forced to spend clams to get a character/skin that is only useful during the event and never again.
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I was just thankful to have both of you (Bunny and RussianTigger) and your help (including with the glitch which did seem to hit many player’s games). 👍
I did like this event but have to agree with many of the points which you made RussianTigger (including Mystery Boxes – yes, there is no need to go into all that again).
In the end, I did manage to unlock nearly everything (I did spend some money on clams along the way though). 😃
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Thanks Jacob, is there anything you’re trying getting in this Best of event?
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Not really, as I already had the majority of characters / costumes / buildings / decorations that I wanted from last year. Getting Cowboy Astronaut Millionaire Peter was alright though (I think he was in a Mystery Box earlier – probably why I did not already have him).
I am basically just working on unlocking Jim Kaplan at the moment.
The character that I would most like to see return is Bertram. I missed the first Star Trek event [as I did not start playing until “Peterpalooza” – I could not miss out on having Weird Al or Alice Cooper in my game 😁]. So I did not do as well on the (Star Trek) leaderboard. I usually do much better than that (as I do have characters such as Hercules and Robot Super Elf). On the (second) Star Trek event leaderboard, I think I managed to get the Borg Puppy only.
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Yes Star Trek Second Contact Leaderboard got skewed too much in favour of us who played the first event. I’m amazed they’ve not brought Bertram back in some way now you mention it. Enjoy the downtime this quieter week brings.
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An example of the way Tiny Co has been doing events lately:
Ghost packages were a rare drop, while other gifts were not. Pellets were also at least an uncommon, if not rare drop from getting rid of carolers. This means that we’re waiting on a rare drop (that only two characters can get, if you don’t spend clams), having to get multiple boxes just to get the right combo of ghosts that add up to enough points (bad, Tiny Co, for not being consistent with that format, either. I shouldn’t have to use more than two of anything to defeat something, especially when the items needed are hard to get), and then hoping that I get pellets. With every layer of collecting X item to earn a chance at Y, needed to fight to possibly earn Z reward that you need multiples of to progress through the story, the chances fall exponentially that you’ll get it. It was an almost two week bottleneck to get past stage 3, and that was after the turtle shells bottle neck to earn buildings needed for Peaches, and the same for earning Qbert. I barely started phase 4, and past events I was able to finish all the free stuff with small clam boosts at most. We’re heading in the wrong direction, fast.
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Thank you for the review, poll and assistance RT. This event would have been a lot worse if you and Bunny weren’t doing this.
Like many others, drop rates throughout all phases were beyond the typically grind. I expect there to be intended timing in the way things are programmed. But this event was too extreme in the timing and drop restrictions that were introduced to be enjoyable in any way. The worst by far was having Bonnie locked up for days with no bears to clear her. And when she finally did clear only getting s.stuffers. I only earned 4 beach balls throughout the whole event. And only managed to get Rupert in the last hours of the event with clams because of triangle drops. I would like to say that this event was a one time experiment by TinyCo but not encouraged by the new Best Of event. So far the carnival awards have primarily earned building tokens which give me oppurtunity to purchase things I already have. The OZ event was so much more fun. I’m hopeful that TinyCo will consider players feedback and move away from this new design strategy.
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I hope so CJ, it’s why I do these review posts, in order they can see our feedback. I just hope they take it on board. But thanks for your kind words and taking time to share you’re thoughts.
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From reading Tiggers post and comments etc it seems I was really lucky wit 80 Brian as he dropped on my first attempt. I can’t remember exactly (maybe i’ve subconsciously blocked it out due to the fact it wasn’t fun) but I’m sure i spent some earnt clams on unlocking QBert and Monkey Kong. I think I was lucky with Rupert at the end as I was waiting on a few triangles. I spent a few clams trying rush the wreath building too but never got a drop from it.
I echo many other sentiments with regards to drop rates, bonnie constantly living under a cloud, and only having Bonnie drop beach balls unless you were lucky to get Rupert early.
I can understand why some ppl hated this event. It was very frustrating at times and I never got past Phase 3 but there were some good points about it – I just wish they’d have given us some sort of boost given the fact multiple ppl sent them messages to complain
(apologies if this posts twice, it said it failed at first so i’ve tried it again)
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Thanks for that feedback, I think by the end the whole event was under a cloud, and it’s sad as there were great elements and content.
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I got every freemium character except for onesie mayor west but that’s due to still not having unlocked stewie in the main game. I could have bought negatron if I didn’t spend so many clams on unlocking freemium characters (wich layer turned out to be not needed)
Well of to watching my daily ads so I can buy a new premium character in a few months 😉
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Good article, glad to know it wasn’t freemium only players that were struggling to keep up. I had awful luck with drop rates through the whole event, and was struggling from the start (I let tinyco know this too).
This was my 3rd Christmas event and really do think the events were easier when I was a newer player. I finished most events or came very close. Used to unlock all freemium characters available – which was my main goal. Now I never get into the final week, not even in the Oz event. The last event I remember finishing was the music one. It’s frustrating not to complete events anymore, as i am a completist at heart (even though I know it’s impossible to complete this game I still play it).
And what’s with Dr Hartman never being used anymore? He’s a really early character if memory serves correctly.
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You make an interesting point, I have been wondering if the algorithms for drop rates take into account the length of time played or the amount of $$ spent on clams. Seems like that would be unfair. Anyone have insight on this?
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I got great drops of triangles and although I spend clams I don’t spend as many as say Lotty and she didn’t get good drops, so I don’t think it favours premium players.
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I was thinking the opposite – that the drops would favor the newer players and would get worse as you played more since you are already invested in the game, maybe entice you to buy some clams to keep up lol.
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Interesting thought but I personally think the drops are like a throw of the dice, you either get lucky or you don’t. I’ve pretty much played from start and my drops were good. So I just don’t know is the honest answer I guess.
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I never made it into the last phase. My main goal for the last week was to complete Rupert. I set a 4-hour timer on my phone so I could get as many of the packages and care bears as I could. The most frustrating thing was getting a lot ghost presents instead of actual care bears. Ghost presents had 2 hour time tasks, I certainly didn’t need them to be a mystery box gift. I was able to get everything but one triangle for Rupert which ended up costing me 25 clams which was frustrating but at least it wasn’t an outrageous price for a character I really wanted. I’m really glad I put out some clams for the 14 clam a day retro tree. I ended up with over 550 clams, way more than I’ve ever had!
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I ended up paying 25 clams for Rupert about 2 or 3 hours before the event ended, too. Toward the end, in the last couple of days, those triangles just stopped dropping for me. I was lucky I only needed one more, though, since I’ve become such a Scrooge McDuck about spending clams even though I have more than 900 stockpiled now! I feel as though my next step will be diving into a money bin full of clams like Uncle Scrooge… I live in fear that clam tv will stop producing, I think. Economic insecurity is a bummer.
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Overall the event was just OK.
I did manage to unlock everything except the week 4 challenge (and therefore the overall challenge) and the final building (was 3 robot things short)
The only clams I spend were on Pac-Man who was a big help but I only bought him because I wanted him not for any help he offered.
Week 1-3 were great finished each one with a day or two to spare allowing me to stock up for the next week.
Week 5 was also fine, not much to do which allowed for catching up from the one down point of the event.
Week 4 Oh dear this is were the event failed big time and it all fell on one thing Bonnie. Having her and the only Freemium way to get Beach Balls and also having her stuck under a cloud was really poor planning.
There were 3 simple options that would of solved this had TC wanted to
1) Have other character drop Beach Balls.
2) Have Bonnie not be one of the characters stuck under a cloud.
3) Stick with the precious weeks system and allow any color Bear to be used to clear any character.
Overall what started as a very good and very achievable event turned into a real grind of an event to finish. Hopefully they can improve on this as the last few events had been very good this one took a step backwards.
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I forgot to add the other downfall was having Items in a luck based box required to advance the main quest and therefore the event is a big no no for me.
It took close to 100 attempts to get 80 Brian and 3 days to get something in an earlier week that I can’t even remember now.
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Your review tells it all. My hopes were also high due to the well balanced Oz-event. The only thing I have to add is about Monkey Kong. I was on schedule when he appeared so I placed him figuring that it would be doable within a week. When I saw that I had to unlock Peaches, which would also take I week I knew I could just give up on him. Thanks for all the help and info RT!
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I think TinyCo lost a huge opportunity with this event, especially as it was a holiday event based on giving and generosity. It was not a fun event for me, even though I loved the theme. The drops were insane, and the cost to rush some of the tasks was equally insane! 90 clams to rush a 4 hour task?
They need to think if it is in their best interests to make the game more reasonable, without getting rid of the challenges that make it fun, or if constantly replacing lost players is worth it to them to not do so.
It is one thing to see all the hate on the facebook board, but this board is actually filled with people who like playing the game, and when it starts going more negative then not, they really need to think about what they are doing.
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My biggest issues were. Having to heal a player with bears that another character has to get and need multiple bears too!!. (That’s if you got bears and not useless junk) that character then has to get another item e.g balls, to then use those balls to hit the baby. How on earth did tiny co think we were ever going to get to X5 hits on the baby in 24 hours!!! I was lucky to get one in a day. On top of that black Jesus need 250 of these robes. Also a few times I sent bonnie to get balls, come back to the game and she’s under a cloud, after I cleared the cloud she just stood around it cancelled her task. The event wasn’t bad to start but they should have made that after all the hard work to get the packages u should 100% got what u needed, many times I got 3 care packages to only get 1-2 Care Bears and the rest was useless and on top of that you need 3-4 of these on some characters. Was very stressful in the end and happy for it to end. In the pole u asked about if i bought any clams with the 20% offer. I didn’t and because this event was so bad in the end and I’ll see how things go, to see if I keep playing this game.
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I like to think we were soothing the baby to get her down for a nap, not attacking her… Not nice to hit babies, no matter how annoying they are. My Baby Heimlich didn’t get much soothing, however, due to the beachball shortage.
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Overall, I think this was my least favorite event. Didn’t totally hate it but was not super enjoyable either.
In the end I did get all the freemium characters so I am one of the lucky ones.
BUT I think I was successful only due to the following (some in my control, some complete luck, some really stupid uses of clams that miraculously worked out):
– I saw it was timed and didn’t place monkey Kong until the only thing I needed for peaches was stocking stuffers and I had all of his buildings that dropped items placed. I was going to stop playing for the holidays once I got him but then I saw the pac man deal for the set and…
– I bought pac man with earned clams, he had an always drop for the ghost gifts so I kept going…
– 80’s Brian dropped for me a day before the next phase was starting,
– I wanted the character Death so I used earned clams to buy him with the Angel of death costume and he had an always drop for care packages,
– spent clams on two clouds for Rupert to finish phase 4 sort of on time,
– progressed to phase 5 so got to do tasks for robo boxes which occasionally dropped care packages that sometimes had bears,
– got lucky on bear drops the first few days so managed to get a few beach balls from Bonnie in addition to Rupert’s which enabled me to attack the baby 3x a few times.
– Rushed the wreath drop a few times to get the 4th drop per day,
– Got lucky and had final two bedtime stories drop an hour before the event ended (had placed building 5 days prior) .
So a lot of earned clams spent (maybe I should have put myself on a holiday budget lol) some on great characters, some due to drop rate. Thank goodness for the clam generator and the videos.
Biggest peeves:
– Inconsistent drop rates (some rare items dropped every other time, others only once every three days)
– Needing pac man, a premium character, to complete the set with three freemium characters on face space (that just seems wrong, no matter how many players were interested in owning going him, no other set is that way, is it?).
The tediousness of opening the packages week 5, the only motivation to keep going was that each one might drop the previous week’s package and the pyramid packs from week one might have a clam.
Bonnie and her blues and bears being the gatekeeper to beach balls and questlines.
And then ending up with a ridiculous amount of stocking stuffers at the end – and no fabulous big ticket items to spend them on. And why not sell the fences in packs of 10…or 100…or 1000? LOL!
Best things:
Getting all the characters after all that. Exhausting but YAY!!!!!!!
The Calvin and Hobbes type snowmen for sale.
The 10 catapult transformers in my town throwing snowballs into the water at the sea creatures from booty haul. They are throwing them staggered, like a wave, SO FUN TO LOOK AT!!!!!
A BIG THANKS to Russian Tigger, Bunny and Lottie for all the help on this and all other events!!!!!!! You guys ROCK!!!
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Thanks Aggie, great feedback. And yes they have made FaceSpace sets a mix of premkum and freemium in the past. Ouch.
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Didn’t we get God as a free gift? I did Didn’t everyone?
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No many of us already worked our little elf socks off to get him in a previous Christmas event. So we got nothing, maybe we were on the naughty list 😁
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See that stinks! They shouldn’t give for free what others had to work for! I’d rather not get it free, knowing how hard these lil guys are to earn at times. Makes ite seem like all your work was for nothing.
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I don’t really mind that, it’s more they should given something none of us had too.
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I’ve got mixed feelings about this event. In the first 2 phases I was very lucky. Drops were good & I progressed easily. Buying PAC-man helped in phase 3 but as the week went on I began to fall behind a little bit. Phase 4 & 5 I was completely stalled. If I hadn’t used clams to finally get Rupert I probably would have been stuck in phase 4. The only thing left for me to get were pink triangles and I needed SOMEONE to drop beach balls because Bonnie was constantly having the blues so I pulled the trigger on Rupert & spent clams. I got Onesie Mayor West with less than 48hrs to go in the event and was able to get the buy price of Black Jesus down to 111 clams with less than 6hrs until the end.
I had over 12,000 stocking stuffers unused, was 37 power pellets short of one of the prizes and had 5 of the 14 robo fuels needed for the other prize in the Puppet Theater. Sorry, can’t remember what they were called.
BTW one tiny little WTD: Three days of Stewie Bucks daily challenges in my game required Bonnie when I needed her to drop beach balls and all she could do was have the blues. So I missed out on 3 days of that. Not cool.
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Good point, I couldn’t do daily challenges either for that very reason, no Bonnie.
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The drop rates for this event were so frustrating that it served as the last straw for FGQFS, and I uninstalled it. Game Over.
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I was just completely gridlocked by the care packages only giving out stocking stuffers and ghostly gifts. Acquired Only 2 beach balls the whole nearly 2 weeks I was stuck in phase 4. That’s just absurd in my opinion. Locking up characters so essential to drops needed for progression is just bad form imo. They also really need to do away with needing unlocked character/costumes to even progress the main quest line as it creates way too much of a road block. No reason someone who logs on every 2-4 hours daily shouldn’t be able to finish even freemium content during an event. This event made me such a sad panda
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It was a total grind. Tedious and uninspired. Drops issues and issues saving progress were awful.
However I did get all characters and skins with only buying Pacman as my premium purchase. I received Onsie Mayor with just a couple hours to spare. 5 characters and 3(?) Skins is a pretty good haul… it just wasn’t fun getting them.
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Way I felt too, despite bein successful in my unlocks.
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This one was a roller-coaster for me. Fell well behind in phase 2, but got lucky with Brian coming early in phase 3 and caught back up. But took two full weeks and couldn’t get past Phase 4. Unlocked Black Jesus with a 90 clam rush at the end because the wreaths simply wouldn’t fall and I got Rupert a little too late to take out the Baby enough. Not really bummed about missing phase 5 based on the content though.
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Good article, nicely illustrated; well done. Strangely enough, I had no difficulty with the triangles for Rupert, as they all dropped straight away before I’d even started to notice and check my progress; but there were plenty of other drop issues during this event that caused me severe headaches.
The lack of a proper timer warning on Monkey Kong was really the trap that ruined the rest of the event for me; hoped they’d already stopped doing this – they sometimes do the right thing, but not this time and why not every time? I think we all know the reasons why, but it’s disappointing to say the least!
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I was exact same, triangles dropped great for me. Makes it all the more baffling why others including our own Lotty couldn’t get them to drop. And thanks for the kind words, hopefully some my little illustrations lightened the piece, I hate writing something so negative, but honesty had to come first.
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I never got to phase 5 and Black Jesus was out of reach for reasonable clams because of the beach ball shortage. Sometimes Bonnie got the blues so fast after a cure, I wasn’t able to collect and reset before she got depressed again. Toward the end, she too often wasn’t dropping a beach ball anyway. If I had reached phase 4 on time, maybe it would have worked. But I was too many days behind.
The very last triangle wasn’t dropping for me toward the end because of the bear shortage and everybody deciding to give me useless rainbows instead of triangles. So once there was not enough time to hope for another care package (they had also become scarce even with three characters working on them) – I coughed up 25 clams to get Rupert. He’s worth it.
I had collected a few dozen packages in each of the lower categories by the last day, since I was focusing just on care packages and poofing sprites had lost its allure. I hear you about the RSI. But I wanted to get clams from the pink ones and persevered. Got only two clams for my efforts!
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I could’ve written this comment; it describes my experience with the event too (right down to only getting 2 Clams after opening aaalllllll the gifts I had piled up! lol).
I spent Clams to pick up Rupert after waiting about 36hrs with no Triangle drops (& early on I was getting lots of green Bears to cure Lois, and even some for Bonnie to collect Balls, which she dropped almost every time for me, though eventually she got stuck in the Blues longterm), & then spent Clams to rush tasks in hopes of unlocking Black Jesus (so Touchdown Jesus could have a friend!), but no love. 😥
I knew God was offered free, even though I already had him, but I didnt know Barbara Pewderschmidt was offered too! I am sad I didnt get her.
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Maybe a cool down after freeing blues captured folks might have helped? At least let them get one or two tasks completed before blueing them again? But that would have reduced the number of rainbows you could get too. Perhaps they misjudged the drop rates too much? Bottleneck Bonnie was an issue as was Log Jam Lois.
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Yes. Agreed.
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You nailed it. I liked the event, but the drop rates, the rare on top of rare on top of rare combos, and the Bonnie problem ruined it. With 3 days to go, I was in excellent shape to get Rupert and Black Jesus, but I missed by 15 robes and 2 triangles as drops went from really bad to nonexistent. Bonnie would become reinfected faster than I could tap on her, so I wasn’t able to even send her on the beach ball task. The last 2 days, while I still held out hope, I received nothing but ghostly gifts and stocking stuffers. Sorry to turn this into a WTD, but there is no other way to describe this event. I got lucky with a timely placement of Monkey Kong, thanks to your help, but that is when my luck pretty much ended. I’m not ready to delete the game yet, but as a very long time player, I don’t know how many more broken events I can handle. Thank you all for the help and guidance that you provide. Sorry for the negative rant. As to the poll question about whether Tinyco is listening, I think sometimes they do, and then some bean counter over rules their common sense..
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Hey did you forget? We got God for free xmas character. I did not delete the game due to the event, but was unable to play because of crashing, and I am not playing the current mini event, I now remember how nice uninterrupted sleep can be! This awful event finally cured me of the addiction to the game. May play again in the future, I will certainly keep what I have, and play with it from time to time, I love the game, it just became too much stress for me. Wow, I hadn’t noticed how much the house Windows needed cleaning!! No really, I am getting other stuff done with time this game was taking. I’ve also been binge watching Family Guy and American Dad! Happy new year addicts, love you!
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Some of us had already worked our little elf socks off to get God in the past, so we got nothing, must been on the naughty list!!! 😀 I’m not sure I’d want to swap playing for housework, think you’ve actually just given me an incentive to never stop playing, lol. Hope see you back some day!!!
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I didn’t think this event was Christmas turned just set in snowy Quahog.
I say this as Chris could have been dreaming and game characters at any time and if it was because he was dreaming of them because he was hoping for game related presents that could have also been on his birthday.
And it felt like TinyCo only included Santa did to players not feeling any Christmas appeal to the event. No reindeer, no elves, no Lapland, no Santa’s grotto/workshop, no Christmas crackers, no Christmas tree, no Christmas spirit.
Usually during the 5 week events I do get in the first week then slow down but this time I was about 10 days behind from the end of phase 1 and never recovered.
The best thing I can say about the event is I enjoyed the chance to get extra fee clams from the Q*Bert boxes.
Now that a new mini event has started I cannot begin it as I have the bug affecting android devices so not a good start to a new year of events as I’ll be behind on this before I even get begin.
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“Also for an event that would span Christmas Day and New Years Day, no little gift built in for your loyal players TinyCo?”
Granted, they did give out God, for free, for those who didn’t have him unlocked.
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But many of us had already earned him previously so he doesn’t count, sorry God, please don’t strike me down for that comment 😀
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I got one free care package as a gift. It did not contain bears. 😆
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That packaging didn’t ‘care’ about you, lol
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I was a bit disappointed , I spent some clams to rush timers for monkey Kong and black Jesus and didn’t get either one due to the lousy drops from the buildings that were supposed to drop needed stuff for them.
Also the present plaza drops were pretty ridiculous too, after sending 3 characters on a 4 hr quest, then getting maybe 2 items needed and then not getting any items needed from the package, was pretty frustrating . It seemed the drops finally got better into the next week when they weren’t really needed anymore.
I wish they would just make everything an always drop, and adjust the amount needed. At least then we can feel like we’re not wasting our time
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Well done. bang on thank you for echoing so well what many of us felt at the end of the event. I’m glad its over. Thats sad to say, but its how i feel after a frustrating 5 weeks. ive detailed most if my issues several times so im not repeating them now. i just wanted to say i ended the event without unlocking Rupert or black jesus, never saw stage 5 and had nothing to spend nearly 10 thousand stocking stuffers on. i also couldn’t be bothered opening the 100+ useless ghostly gifts.
anyhow thanks guys for your hard work and for giving us a chance to air our concerns!
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I can’t get my responses to register in the poll.
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Have you tried responding through the link rather than on the poll here?
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Worst event ever!! I’m a long time player that plays free. I always do pretty well on events with a 98% finish rate with 3 yrs of play. I might not get all free characters but usually finish and enjoy the game. But this event actually made me wanna quit playing it was that horrible n unreasonable
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