šŸ˜² Is it me? or people started to quit the game / become m.i.a.? #1

What exactly was said?

Found this:

Live services drove our record Q2 top-line results with better-than-expected delivery from Rollicā€™s hyper-casual portfolio, Words With Friends, and Zynga Poker, partially offset by lower-than-expected user pay across our portfolio toward the end of the quarter. Revenue was up 268 million or 59% year over year, driven by bookings growth of 194 million or 37% year over year and 75 million swing in the net change in deferred revenue. We generated user pay revenue of 587 million, up 51% year over year and user pay bookings of 579 million, up 27% year over year. This was driven primarily by our mobile live services, including full quarter contributions from Toon Blast, Toy Blast, Harry Potter: Puzzles & Spell, partially offset by declines primarily in Merge Dragons!, Empires & Puzzles and Merge Magic!, as we lapped heightened levels of engagement and monetization we experienced in Q2 2020.

Source: Zynga 2021 Q2 Call Transcript

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Itā€™s actually a very interesting article to read if you like Business analysis articles.

Though it has a lot of financial lingo in that might not be easy for the man on the street to follow.

They have very high hopes for Puzzle Combatā€¦read into that what you will

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I sat in on one of these once. Small fish werenā€™t allowed to ask questions. But I got to listen.
So muchā€¦ Postering. Always postering even if a CEO has just been fired.
Even BP bragged about their escrow account and capital resources after the Deepwater Horizon explodedā€¦

But that price dropā€¦ is glaring!
Largest drop since 2012!
And if you look at the YTD model
It much resembles:
image

Really makes me wonder about that:

But you never knowā€¦
The price could spike to 20 tomorrow.

Looks like panic to me though

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Iā€™ve been saying this since about 2 months after zynga bought a portion of this game. The changes were noticeable for those of us paying attention. Many claimed we were just conspiracy theorists. But over the last year or so the mask has come completely off. And you know that no matter how in their face it is, there will always be those that deny just how rigged it is. Just how $ hungry the take over has been. And how massive the damage to the player community has been. I said you could see it in raids, you could tell the damage done by comments in this forum. Instead of listening and making proper adjustments they went to censorship. And as always, censorship leaves far more damage in its path. If you read the Q&A of the players to the devs youā€™ll see that NOTHING needed in the game is actually being worked on. That can gets kicked down the road for the next worthless summon portal. Another portal filled with the same S1 feeders. All in all, the ship could be corrected and get back on the right course. But we all know that logic and common sense are spat on by the management and devs. So itā€™ll sink. Itā€™s not if at this point. Itā€™s when

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Thank you. You could give them as much credit as possible and say COVID created an increase in gaming a year ago that wasnā€™t going to be surpassed this year. You could also say this just says revenue is down but it necessarily players.

Or you can use this to paint any other picture you want.

Biggest takeaway I have is that words with friends had its best revenue quarter. So why do we think this game is going away?

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If Empires is in decline, both in player base and revenue generated, itā€™s because it is a victim of itā€™s own success, imo.

Nothing the devs release now will/can satisfy the majority: the endgame players blitz new content and are bored with it almost immediately, while new players just see yet another event/map/quest they canā€™t complete or compete in.

Both sets of players look at it all and just shrug.

A match 3 game is only ever going to satisfy for so long and that Empires has lasted 4 1/2 years is impressive. Maybe though itā€™s just had itā€™s dash and is time to wind it down.

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Lol. I had to read up and try to recall what I said and why! :thinking::exploding_head:

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Yeah I read that too. Interesting read. Very interesting.

EP revenue did stupendous in Q1 2021 (read: exceeded expectations). Didnā€™t do as well in Q2 2021. Blamed on ā€œgame being oldishā€. My guess is that they need to catch up in Q3 cos Zynga didnā€™t retract their previous revenue call for 2021 overall, not directly.

Most interesting if you read all the way to the bottom is : 3rd and last payout for the last 6.6% of SGG will be made in Q1 2022 (probably on or after 1/2/22). So ā€¦ how much will be it for the 3rd payment?

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Maybe they still believe in the Blue Sky mine? Maybe they are on a last desperate cash grab. A totally biased judgement here is to use a hypothetical.

SG puts as little effort as is humanly possible into fixing issues. The recent build; 40.1.1 is an absolute rabid dog. Raids and Titans, it crashes at ramming speed. That suggests to me that they cannot even take 12 hours out of the devs time to see if something works, is totally dysfunctional or is even worth 200 Euros of devā€™s time.

EDIT: canā€™t read the reply, sorry.

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Iā€™m debating buying ZNGA
Now is the time!

I forecast it hitting $11 this winter.
Not because e&p, tho the magic tower and aether shop should give a bump.

Get some of my money back :yum:

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I canā€™t find itemization for E&P,
Please share!
Howeverā€¦
I see a slump then also

Mobile peak was Q2 2020

https://investor.zynga.com/static-files/277335cf-6725-42f0-8c1f-ed428915a0e1

This was during our TVG debacle
I.Eā€¦ had nothing to do with E&P
And everything to do withā€¦
Covidā€¦ Lockdownsā€¦

and other game titlesā€¦

Which was accurately described in their last report for the current decline company wide.

I predict delta variant repairing the slump

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(Still off topic). Here you go ā€¦ https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.fool.com/amp/earnings/call-transcripts/2021/05/06/zynga-znga-q1-2021-earnings-call-transcript/

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After 4 years, my husband Alzar has finally had it with the game. Heā€™s quitting after this war. Weā€™ve both been losing interest and weā€™ve disconnected our credit cards so we arenā€™t tempted.

Iā€™m planning on using up all the hundreds of battle items I have in inventory, take my titans down to 2/3 stars and just play casually with my two profiles.

For Alzar itā€™s because itā€™s too time-consuming and frustrating. For me itā€™s because itā€™s just becoming too complicated. With the new heroes and their 5" descriptions, I just find it mind-boggling. Iā€™ve had lots of enjoyment during the past 4 years, and I donā€™t regret the money Iā€™ve thrown at it. Going forward though, it would be crazy to keep spending.

Iā€™ll let you know how our withdrawal symptoms are doing!

Alzar wants to find a building-type game and Iā€™m happy enough with my card and word games. Iā€™m not interested in the mechanics of another match 3 game.

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@princess1 Iā€™m glad we will at least still see you around? and that youā€™re still enjoying the game a bit, and have no regrets.

I can relate to both -

if I raid up too high, it gets frustrating as my heroes canā€™t compete with the top premium ones.

I havenā€™t even bothered to learn the names and skills of all of the Slayers and Tower of Magic heroes. too many to remember. Iā€™ll just click on them if I meet one in a raid or war. otherwiseā€¦ yeah.

Best wishes to both of you, and hope Alzar finds a fun new game!

@Sarah2 thought youā€™d want to see this!

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I just can not like this post at all, but sadly, understand completely. Thankfully I have your Line ID, so can still keep in touch.

Take care my friend, bestest wishes in your next gaming adventure :smiling_face_with_three_hearts:.

Thank you thoughtful :kissing_heart:.

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People are leaving because they are being cheated! Everything taking to long to build or level up! They expect us to pay to play and if your F2P it takes forever to do anything!

When i say cheating like going up a 3* Balthazar thatā€™s attack is 2770 Defense over a 1000 and outrageous health. Look at this picture from Trial of mysticism all 3 enemy hero was 2770 on attack etcScreenshot_20211001-035848

Regular Balthazar

But when you contact support about being cheated by way over powered enemy hero you get straight up bull crap automated reply about how those enemy or hero are supposed to be like that and the recommended team power they give you is a suggestion on how much you need to beat them abd even the strongest of peoples heros suppose to have issues beating them!

Its a friggin rip off and dishonest from small giant and empires and puzzles or zinga !!

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@DarkWolf

I mean they are supposed to be hard but taking purple is the single worst thing you can do in starfall because after 5 turns you will become yellow. And then you will kill yourself as they reflect yellow. So for 5 turns they become invincible to you.

So whilst itā€™s a tough challenge you are basically just making it nearly impossible yourself.

Try a red/blue/green team. Starfall is way less punishing and can actually be used to your advantage as you spend one colour of gem and can set up the next colour

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I appreciate your frustration, but personally the difficulty of the gampley is the last thing I would complain about. Depending on the level I would recommend a mono blue team I used that for most difficult 4* levels. The difficulty is fun you really have to think about a worth team comp.

As @Cheds stated, DO NOT USE DARK OR YELLOW HEROES ib Starfall circus.
You need. TP of some 4100 and bathle items to complete Starfall in Epic. Do not knoe your roster but st least bring axes, healing potions, small mana potions and smal antidotes. The sntidotes are only nreded onbzhd stages facinv Emilio. With a healer a defdown ( Grimm, Gormek) hero or an elementsl def down or mana controller hero plus 3 damage dealers you will beat the event.
In rare I used: Valen , Nordri, Namahage, Belith, Berden.
Valen, Belith, Berden with costume bonus.

In epic: BT, Wilbur, Kelile, Hansel, cSonya.

In Legendary : Gefjon, Wilbur, BT, Reuben, Marjana

Good luck to you