General / Off-Topic Godus - Free to Play

Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
Philip Coutts
Oh dear 22 Cans seem to have made a bit of a boo-boo by announcing that the mobile versions of Godus will be free to play. People are getting pretty hacked off because it looks like they have been slightly mislead by the kickstarter. Originally people were backing the game on PC but it's now sprung onto Android etc and will be free so people are feeling that they have coughed up their hard earned cash to fund a game that they could have had for free. On the surface it doesn't seem very fair but 22 Cans are keeping pretty quiet at the moment so maybe there is a really good explanation.
 

Alien

Alien
This may be just my way of thinking or personal preference, but if I had a game on both a smartphone / tablet and a PC, I'd prefer to play the PC version, even if I had to pay for it.
 

Aewarin Jameson

Aewarin Jameson
Alien said:
This may be just my way of thinking or personal preference, but if I had a game on both a smartphone / tablet and a PC, I'd prefer to play the PC version, even if I had to pay for it.
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Very true .. PC all the way .. however I can understand why people would be hacked off if they were (deliberately ?) misled. Main reason why I didn't back Godus was that I simply don't trust peter molyneux - full of (insert random word thats blocked by the forum filters) :rolleyes:
 

Darren Grey

Darren Grey
It's really stupid that people react this way. Kickstarter is for backing projects, not buying products. The game wouldn't exist at all if they didn't back it.

If Frontier end up making Elite: Dangerous free to play I will not regret a penny I funded. I paid for the game to exist at all - getting my own copy of it is just a bonus.

Having said all that, free to play is almost always evil. The only time it works without ruining the game somehow is when the payments are purely for cosmetic items.
 
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Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
Philip Coutts
I think people are getting very worked up about nothing. Yes the phone / tablet version will be free to play but it is surely going to be a much slimmed down version. I think the issue people are having is that it wasn't made clear at the start that there would be a free version of the game available as well as the PC.
 

Barns

Barns
Hmm, I backed Godus and hadn't noticed this. It does seem a little unfair. Yes I understand I backed the development but, honestly, 95% (random number from air) of the people who back a game on Kickstarter do it at least partly because they feel like they're getting a good deal on a pre-order. Certainly many Kickstarters are marketed like that.

If the mobile versions are free to play, then I hope that as a backer having paid a decent amount to get it made, I'd get some sort of "unlocked" version that gave me everything in the cash shop for free, or a bunch of coins to spend a month in there, or something like that. Along the lines of what happens when MMOs that have lifetime subscribers go free to play (happened to me both with Lord of the Rings Online, and Secret World - they give a bunch of credits to spend in their cash shop each month to anyone who was a lifetime subscriber, amongst other perks).
 

Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
Philip Coutts
I was really pleased when FD came up with the idea of including all future downloads for free at the £80 level (I think it was £80 but I might be wrong) as I felt that was a good deal. I don't really play games on my phone so I'm not an expert but most mobile type games are either free or pretty cheap, usually a couple of pounds and you can't really compare them to a full PC game. The issue may be more with the tablet version which might be quite similar to the PC one. One of the issues with Godus at the moment is the sound of silence coming from them about the issue, although maybe they are working on a "bonus pack" for the PC owners who have funded the development...but I wouldn't count on it.
 

Aewarin Jameson

Aewarin Jameson
Philip Coutts said:
I think people are getting very worked up about nothing. Yes the phone / tablet version will be free to play but it is surely going to be a much slimmed down version.
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Don't be too sure about that - mobiles and tables are moving at a cracking pace. Samsung now have their 8core mobile (4 low speed and 4 high speed CPUs) - tablets are taking off with quad core devices and soon (with the latest intel chip) having processing power to rival that of a laptop.

Darren Grey said:
It's really stupid that people react this way.
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People react in different ways, some more mature than others ;)
 

Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
Philip Coutts
Liqua said:
Don't be too sure about that - mobiles and tables are moving at a cracking pace. Samsung now have their 8core mobile (4 low speed and 4 high speed CPUs) - tablets are taking off with quad core devices and soon (with the latest intel chip) having processing power to rival that of a laptop.
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Jeepers! :eek: In that case I can now understand why people are getting hot under the collar. Fetch the pitchforks and flaming torches....;)
 

Slawkenbergius

Slawkenbergius
I think the issue, which a lot of people like myself are worried about, is the route the actual gameplay is going down. Some of the videos they've posted involve a lot of tap-tap-tapping, as though it's being made for the 'casual' crowd who really got into Curiosity. You had to tap all of the houses to collect belief, tap trees and boulders to clear them away, tap the land to shape it.

As of yet, the game footage hasn't shown much complexity to it, which is not what was suggested by the Kickstarter page:
GODUS blends the power, growth and scope of Populous with the detailed construction and multiplayer excitement of Dungeon Keeper and the intuitive interface and technical innovation of Black & White.
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As long as I get something that's roughly equivalent to Dungeon Keeper in complexity, then I'll be happy. DK wasn't the deepest game ever, but very enjoyable nonetheless.
 

Aewarin Jameson

Aewarin Jameson
Slawkenbergius said:
I think the issue, which a lot of people like myself are worried about, is the route the actual gameplay is going down. Some of the videos they've posted involve a lot of tap-tap-tapping, as though it's being made for the 'casual' crowd who really got into Curiosity.
Click to expand...

That's also as if Tablets & Mobiles were in mind when they designed it.

Take Diablo 3 - used to be an 8 player game (Diablo 2) yet when they released Diablo 3 it was 4 player with the excuse "too much graphics action going on screen to be able to keep up" .. yeah right - Funny then how 1 year later they announce that they're releasing it on consoles that .. wow, fancy that .. have a natural 4 player limit on the 1 console :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Perhaps the same thing here ?
 

Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
Philip Coutts
I have the increasing fear that 22 cans have pulled a fast one here. Watch what this hand is doing but don't watch what the other is doing. I appreciate there is a large market for tablet and phone apps but the KS sold it on the back of being a PC game.

Starting to smell a bit whiffy isn't it?
 

Slawkenbergius

Slawkenbergius
I do wonder if it's slightly that we haven't seen everything the game has to offer yet. There's some kind of Dungeon Keeper element which was briefly alluded to and a glimpse shown on screen. Some kind of tunnelling under your opponent's land and undermining them in some way I'd guess. Also, there's a proper single-player campaign with a story, and there should be a possession mode for '1st person world crafting' according to the stretch goals.

I'm holding out judgement for now, but do have worries that I'm going to be disappointed. Fortunately I only backed at £25, and did so as support based on the fact that I got so much fun out of Bullfrog's games, rather than being too bothered about the end product.
 

Philip Coutts

Volunteer Moderator
Philip Coutts
I think I backed at the early bird £15 level, all my pennies were sunk into ED and Godus was a bit of a side event. I still think the concept is sound but Molyneux has a habit of talking a really good game but failing to deliver. His Bullfrog stuff was immense and it looks like there's going to be a KS for Syndicate Wars coming up in June but it's not by 22 Cans or Molyneux. I'm still hopefull of getting a really good game but my main focus is on ED which I am convinced will be superb.
 

rgmarett

rgmarett
The problem with 22Cans is that it appears they've been very devious from the start. They've now got a publisher too, which makes you question why they went down the Kickstarter route in the first place, it was to 'avoid publishers' after all. They reached the pledge goal they had set themselves, if they had needed more they should have set it higher.

For me, I feel like I've just help pay 22Cans staff wages rather than help an 'indie' company achieve its vision of a new Populus game - well, I'm sorry but that's what a sensible business plan and a bank loan is for.

Frontier have been very open about what they plan for their game, even setting the record straight about planetary landings (which could have had a negative effect on their pledge drive), but they were honest - and, for me personally, that's why I've lost faith in 22Cans. (Plus I could have pledged elsewhere if I'd known...which probably explains why 22Cans remained tight lipped about their true intentions, I think a lot of people would have pledged elsewhere).

Wow - sorry for getting all worked up.

Elite Dangerous looks great, let's just talk about that :)
 
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