On the contrary, that sort of thing is exactly the reason freemium games are profitable. The profit breakdown of a freemium game quite readily shows the vast, vast, vast majority of its profit coming from a vanishingly small handful of players who spend hundreds on it.

They basically target kids with their parents' credit card numbers and teens/young adults with obsessive disorders. This is, for them, working as planned.

edited 11th Mar '13 1:40:22 PM by Pykrete

@ Turtle

That's actually an interesting few ideas there, thank you.

@Marston; Or make an actual game and not a blatant cow-clicker.

I have nothing against Free-to-Play in and of itself, but its a model you have to do right and its a tricky balance because the company still needs to make money.

I'd like to know how the Gameloft game came to be. Did Hasbro decide to start small with My Little Pony's "return" to gaming by getting one of the major phone app developers (in this case, Gameloft) to make a little something for the meantime until something bigger and better is made, or did they go through every publisher/developer they have connections with until finally reaching Gameloft and they of all companies are the ones to go "Yeah, we'll make a My Little Pony game! We'll jump on that bandwagon!"?

Gameloft is kind of the Malt-o-Meal of games. They deal in ripoffs, albeit ones that actually tend to have effort put in, and are almost entirely takes on stuff whose original hadn't been ported to IOS yet for some reason.

They're not exactly a last resort company, but they're a bandwagon one sought out by companies looking to capitalize.

The scary thing is, this already was an example of a freemium game that had an unusual amount of effort put in. Most of them are just an incredibly rudimentary menu interface with an energy bar that proceeds to throw unbalanced pay-to-win crap in your face, and there are code templates floating around (mainly in China) that "developers" just plug in artwork (mainly stolen) and ship it. That's the sort of thing Kongregate started shilling right after they were bought out by Gamestop.

edited 11th Mar '13 1:50:02 PM by Pykrete

There needs to be something about banging coconuts together to simulate teh soudns of footsteps.

Well, this was inevitable.

An old one, but probably the best use of this meme.

Hey y'all. I haven't checked this thread for more than 200 pages. Been pretty much (self imposed) cut off from the fandom since the end of season 3.

Anything interesting happen in the meantime? The only news I've heard is that Lauren Faust joined the Mane 6 crew to make a new fighting game. I'm happy for them since they probably are excited about the prospect but personally I can't bring myself to care. Particularly since I'm not actually a fan of Faust.

BURN THE HERETIC!!!!!!!

Oh I'm aware of Gameloft's reputation, in fact I've been curious what specific game they were ripping off with My Little Pony. When it first came out I remember people comparing it to Farmville and SimCity, but that didn't entirely make sense. Granted I've never even looked at farmville, but I've played SimCity (the old ones, not the latest one) and Gameloft's MLP does not look like SimCity. I think I've found the game Gameloft modeled it after though.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out

EA made a lot with this, to the point of controversy regarding recent business decisions that I'd rather not derail the thread about. Its even based on a cartoon TV show! It came out in March of last year.

I wonder if High Moon Studios would say no to making a My Little Pony...

There needs to be something about banging coconuts together to simulate the sounds of footsteps.

*CLOP* *CLOP* *CLOP*

Well Crowlover came back. There's a new storybook out that does a lot of worldbuilding, including revealing the fact that Cadence was formerly a pegasus. Also, it has Derpy (unnamed) in it.

Oh and there is a new spinoff coming out, that is My Little Pony, without Pony. A wierd anthro/human version of the Mane 6 as a High School AU. Yeah expectations are not high.

Also, Megan tweeted that she recently heard the words "that's the most epic things we've ever done with Pony" at a recent staff meeting. (Not regarding the spinoff, they have nothing to do with it far as we can tell.)

and the MLP comic is kicking ass.

edited 11th Mar '13 2:32:47 PM by Seraphem

The art in the Twilight Sparkle mini was a bit.... off...

yeah, but the story was good. Was more dialog focused anyway at least, so wasn't TO bad, but yeah definitely sub-par.

I'm still optimistic.

Also, the jokes about the spinoff inspired me to start a new fanfic.

The story arc of the main comic was great though. I want to say the comic was maybe... better than the show... *hides*

How is My Little, the epic tale of Spike and his adventures in the peaceful town of Ville, coming along?

Well, will agree it was better then some episodes, but about even with the season 2 two parters IMO. It was freaking epic, and hilarious.

Two viscous predators begin a battle to the death to find out who gets o eat the Mane 6, 5 of them avert their eyes and get sickened at the sight of them tearing each other apart, Flutterhsy just looks on with a interested smile. "Isn't nature wonderful?"

So it's official now? I'd heard the rumors of course but last I'd heard it hadn't actually been announced. Any more art released or anything?

I really need to read it it looks awesome.

I haven't actually read it yet but it sort of looks that way to me.

edited 11th Mar '13 2:42:16 PM by Bluespade

yeah it's official, and a separate piece of art with a more anthro style was released, though still no word on if it's the official art work, or just concept art.

All we know for SURE, is it is called Equestrian Girls, targetd at teenage girls, was a humanoid version of the Mane 6, will be launched with a TV movie later this year, then a toy line, and full details will be unvield at Comic Con.

Reception to the idea is expected to be anywhere from riot, to "Meh, we already know, and who cares?"

If I'm not mistaken, the Japanese dub should be out in a month or so. I'm curious how it'll fair in that particular market seeing how cute girl-targeted anime are quite firmly established and how MLP will fair against said anime. At least the little online fandom it's gotten over there will be happy.

The Equestria Girls Comic Con reveal will probably be both awkward and entertaining to say the least. Remember to bring popcorn!

@ Blue: There's also a neat Spike dog pic that's rumoured to be in Equestria Girls.

Looking forward to it. Hoping he turns out to be like Salem.

edited 11th Mar '13 2:57:57 PM by Badwolfwho

I still have my fingers crossed for an Urban fantasy along the lines of Juniper Lee or Jackie Chan Adventures. If its a plain old teen Drama Im out...

Well that was known before the end of season 3.