did anyone else see this?
I see your subject and message content, but, what else?
Looking at the App Store, it looks like there are in-app purchases for both “T-Coins” and subscriptions to this “T-Club”, the latter of which is $30/year.
What in the world is T-Club? “Join fellow Tetris enthusiasts and gain an advantage with bonus lines and T-Coins.” So…I have no idea.
I just had the weirdest dream about someone charging $30/year for Tetris. Surely nobody would be that crazy, right?
Dunno, but don’t complain about it in their forums.
Badass. EA definitely testing the limits on that one.
Theme Park for iOS is much worse.
(By the way, the article only mentions one ride for $60 as an example, but there’s another one that goes for as much as 1500 tickets, or $100. Yes.)
Theme Park is classic freemium. We expect it to be evil.
Trying to monetize Tetris , on the other hand, through leaderboards and social stuff is seriously aggressive, particularly since the game itself is not free, they’re charging a buck for it.
I hope it fails… but knowing EA, they extensively researched the psychology and will make it work.
You apparently score up faster when part of T-Club.
I don’t know how much of, “There are shitloads of stupid people with more money than brains”, is considered research.
There’s been a tremendous amount of research and thought put into the study of freemium psychology recently. It’s actually pretty fascinating how they trick consumers with a strictly regulated time/reward mechanism. Google around, you’ll see it.
I like Tetris. I’d be willing to pay $30/year for something with quality that greatly improves the experience. But a social club with leaderboards & extra spacebucks? No way.
I don’t like giving money to EA or have a iphone anyways, so I’d be out no matter what.
I worked for some of the companies that make those games. It’s down to a science now and …well, I no longer felt comfortable being involved with them.
Tetris died when they mandated infinite spin into all official versions anyway, so who gives a fuck?
Yeah, they have incredibly detailed statistical models determining exactly how long they make users wait to water their flowers or whatever. Lots of math mixed with aggressive psychology and personality profiling. Fascinating from an academic standpoint. If I worked there, I’d feel dirty too.
Would it kill people to make first posts that aren’t trash? A link, maybe an excerpt to a story about the topic?
No one in their right mind would pay $30 a year for Tetris, right? Right?
Electronic Arts thinks people will. The publisher is relaunching Tetris for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, with an optional subscription for extra features, Gamasutra reports.
Here’s how it works: For $1, the basic Tetris app*includes three game modes and a ranking system that allows people to level up as they play. For $3 per month, or $30 per year, players can join the “T-Club,” which provides performance-enhancing perks, faster rank progression and exclusive content. Yes, EA wants people to subscribe to Tetris.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/245458/ea_bets_youll_pay_for_tetris_on_iphone.html
These no-effort threads are for the birds.
One day EA is going to say, “The heck with it.” and turn into Cobra. Or AIM.
Well, at least the base game is just 99 cents…seems like all the subscription stuff and DLC is periphery gamification nonsense that only adds fluff to the main game.
Is infinite spin that thing where if you rotate the shape over and over the piece doesn’t fall into place? That is a bit of a kludge I wouldn’t miss.
people to level up as they play
…
performance-enhancing perks
faster rank progression
So they turned Tetris into a spreadsheet + hamsterfood game, where you pay to cheat (going to assume performance enhancing means that) and level faster? Awesome. :\
That’s even worse/lazier than what I expected.