I know this topic has not been brought up, so here goes …In life sometimes we have to go back and see what worked and what didn’t. Years ago there was a series that small giant did, called ask me anything. Granted some of the questions were soft but there was still a bit of transparency. I understand the mods get a bit of one-on-one and that’s great. But what about us bottom feeders? We all have questions, we all would like to know their goal besides the obvious of putting us all in the poor house… why don’t we get to ask questions anymore? I’m tired of the cloak and dagger. In this world, businesses have the right to make money. However, as investors, we have the right to ask questions also. You can call it quality of life, spectral analysis, or just being human. After playing this game for 6 years, being one of the original houses in the game, and being a whale ( now a dolphin ) I don’t think a little transparency is a bad thing. Especially if they want us to keep paying for the rental of pixels.
Tell me your thoughts because I’m done being serious, it actually hurts my brain.
My thought is they are running on a skeleton staff. To the new company this game is old news. Only making a measly few million a north is small potatoes.
Quality of life and more bodies willing to help and promote the good of the game are gone because this cash cow’s teets are growing dry.
I’ve had this thought before, but every game I play has bugs (most more debilitating).
My company has bugs in our work too and we have tens of thousands of employees. Maybe SG/Zynga is caught up in corporate bureaucracy? Many of the things (unannounced items in beta, changes in schedule or releases, last minute changes) happen at my non game company. It just feels like a corporation.
I’ve wondered if Petri is still actually Petri? What if the original Petri no longer works there, but they just use the Petri account to post?
As for transparency, a few years ago there was a lot of clamoring for a Q&A. Then they did it. And I don’t remember too many happy folks They communicate what they want and extra questions don’t seem to do much. Some are unhappy with the questions answered and others don’t like the answers themselves.
When SGG was still in control, the then CEO did mention the current SGG headcount and it was less than <50 pax. Headcount did increase a bit after that. But <70 (if my memory is accurate).
Point is the then SGG CEO was proud of the fact that a small lean company manages an epic revenue blockbuster game: a game that earned > US$1B revenue within 3 years post launch on 1/3/2017.
You can work out just how profitable this game was then. Hence the sale to Zynga.
Fast forward to current times: this game is still earning about US$20m monthly. Definitely more than just a few million. This game is still the highest earning game in Zynga’s portfolio.
Given the impending settlement or refinance of TT’s US$1B debt in end March or June 2024, I expect the current management team to squeeze existing player base to get as much as fresh money in to keep TT afloat for awwhile.
Nearly five years into the game and I remember right at the very beginning everybody shouting up in the forum about lack of communication from SG …
Then came the Q&A and the QOL …. And we all thought it was a Great Leap Forward …
But to be fair a lot of the questions didn’t get answered and keep being asked today (W3K) …
Next came changes in ownership and the game moved direction…
For me there is still fun to be had in the game …
But yes there is a need for some form of Q&A but I doubt it will return…
At the moment a lot of questions get raised in Beta but the majority fall on deaf ears …
Just my two pennies worth
I completely agree with your post but the investor part is a real good one!
Normally an investor invests into someting to get something of value back!
You can invest time into E&P and get fun, maybe satisfaction or something else back you like.
If you invest money into E&P you will at best get some short time satisfaction back but nothing of monetary value will remain!
I am now a 5+ year ftp and still get my fun out of the game.
I hope it will stay this way for another 5 years but I doubt it the way the game is going at the moment.
Answering question costs money, there´ll be a lot of people involved deciding which questions to ignore, which ones to answer, how to answer them and if they lie about it or not and so on. It´s not as cheap as putting an intern there to say hi.
And what benefit would it have for SG? No matter what they say people will hate them anyway lol, there is no possible outcome that is beneficial for SG.
So no, not likely to happen if you ask me. But maybe they´ll hand out a free EHT to everybody just for the fun of it
as someone who has always worked in a corporate setting, I can already imagine it…
maybe some intern collects the questions; then the questions will be sent to a couple of higher-ups… maybe there will be a half-dozen meetings to review the draft answers… the lawyers might have a look at it… marketing too…
there will probably be like 12 iterations before the final Q&A is posted
As I recall, the AMA was not really an AMA. The questions were pre-submitted, filtered, and answered as vaguely as possible. There was not really any transparency to speak of. We all took it as a starting point for some real openness from the developers that then petered out into nothing (even less than from before the AMA’s TBH).
The only solid thing I gout out of it was a statement from SG that the boards are random.
I haven’t been there from the beginning. And I joined the forum even later. I particularly remember the QOL/Q&A efforts. Great discussion, great hope. But what is left?
And there’s no sign of the staff anymore. I don’t know exactly, is this at the time of the sale? First measure after a takeover: reduce costs.
But in the end there remains a single question that applies to everything that happens and doesn’t happen: why?
) I don’t think a little transparency is a bad thing. Especially if they want us to keep paying for the rental of pixels.
