Just saw that the new update lets you buy, through in app purchase, an upgrade of your lives to 10. Hopefully, the folks who buy the upgrade (I'm deliberately trying not to harsh on the type of people that would buy this instead of working to get better) are given their own high score table, didnt have time to check. I guess I am all for game developers making money on the kind of folks that would buy this...as long as it doesnt corrupt the high score tables. Discuss.
Does it make your lives 10, or give you 10 more lives? There are some 360 games that do crap like this. "Buy this to get 300 gold, can only be purchased once". "Buy this to give all of your characters 10 levels, can only be purchased once". I hate crap like this, it shouldn't be allowed.
A real gamer would never buy lives.....it's cheating.....If they don't make a seperate leaderboard I would delete the game. Why not make it an option to have 3 or 10 lives ? Now were paying for options ? Just make the app more expensive if you want to make more money but because people are so cheap, that's hard to do. What's the point in buying lives?..................sheesh !! How about buying your way to higher levels..........or to add 100,000 to your score...............
lol, me neither, but I agree that it is not cool to "buy" your way into easier gaming...if you're just not that great at a game, well, then practice practice practice til you get better ...there's certainly a bunch of iphone games I really enjoy, but I am terrible at...I still enjoy playing them tho
Yeah, hopefully they get their own scoreboard if not I too think I might stop with this game as it completely invalidates the scores. I also have to ASSUME this purchase means a permanent change to 10 lives or are you supposed to pay EACH TIME you want the extra lives?
Yeah the thread title is weak, I had only a few minutes before going to work, where I'm now posting from What I was trying to suggest with the title is a question: is this ok, or is it a sell out from the developer? In my mind, its OK if the buyers get a separate high score table, and a shameless sell out if they dont. I share the opinions about the kind of person that would buy this. I mean, it might be one thing if a particular game had a super-cool last level, and you tried and tried but just couldnt get there, and are dying to see it. Its another thing to buy lives in a game like parachute panic, where getting a bit further doesnt change the fundamental game play.
we wanted to give people who have trouble reaching the required scores to gain an additional life a chance to stock up their lives. this is pure optional and does not corrupt the highscores in any way. no one who buys an extra life will ever become a real thread to the top listed players. if the same person manages to climb the leaderboards to the top, he sure would have managed someday wihtout the purchase as well would you call someone that plays through a game with a walkthrough he/she has payed for is a cheater? certainly not... if they learnt and use strategies they have payed for (e.g. strategy guides, clans, etc), should they get their own servers or are they called cheaters? certainly not... would it be unfair (and cheating) if you can buy 15 lives in parachute panic but only unlock a maximum of 10 lives by playing? certainly, yes. to answer your questions: yes, the purchase is permanent and will unlock a total of 10 lives in both easy and normal modes. nothing has changed with the leaderboards (there´s still one for easy and for normal mode) and players having bought the lives are not marked. this inapp purchase is not meant to offend gamers, but to give casuals a chance. think of it like the handicap at golf, that´s not cheating either, but balancing different person´s abilities =) philipp FDG Entertainment
I really have to question the logic of your initial statement. Why would you assume those in the top 10 wouldn't relish the chance to improve their chances with double the lives? Especially since it sounds like there won't be any indication with the score if this player was "enhanced"? Using your logic we shouldn't have to worry about steroids in professional sports since these are already the top professional players, surely they wouldn't need to artificially enhance themselves to get an edge, right?
Please understand that we on this forum are, generally speaking, really big fans of your game, and we want you to be financially rewarded for your work. Yet, this is not the way. I have fallen out of the top 100 (or never made it, dont recall) and would like to get there. This purchase may be enough to get me there. How is that not unfair to the player I bump out? I dont think there is any real defense of this, and hope you rethink it.
when talking of sports: is it cheating when one uses better gear and stuff than someone else? no. no one will get better simply by buying lives. it´s still his skill which decides how many points he´ll achieve. i would agree that it´s cheating if you can buy some sort of automatic landing help or something like this. something that really nullifies skill differences such as steroids do in sports. look at swimming, those guys are beating records thanks to new swimsuits. that´s not cheating, every profesionnal swimmer could buy such a suit. honestly, i suck so bad at parachute panic. i don´t get past 300 points, and it makes no difference at all if i play with 5 or 10 lives. the difference may only be 20 or 30 points, which is not very much... i´m pretty sure that some players will be happy to be able to buy some additional lives. to me, cheating is an unfair advantage that is against the rules. if someone hacks the scoreloop server and changes his scores or uses an exploit in the game, this would definitely be cheating what´s your definition of cheating? maybe i´m getting something wrong...?
Your swimming example is dead on. There was a massive backlash against the swimming suits this summer leading to coming regulation prohibiting the highest tech suits. Its widely believed that Phelps may have lost a gold medal because he refused to be pressued into using the highest tech suit. Cheating is not the right word. Since you are giving all people the option to buy, it clearly isnt cheating to buy. Its just not fair to the others that worked hard for their high scores -- there is a big difference between 1st and 2nd to the people that worked their tail off for those scores, between 99 and 101st, and similar. You are potentially altering that, and pressuring people interested in scores to pay more for your game. I dont think you'll find anyone that approves of the update on this forum...that said, we do understand you need to make money, and we love your games. I just wish you could have found another way...this sets a very bad example.
5 or 10 lives no big deal, but the game should note in the online score which one is used, it doesn't have to be separate boards, even though it should be, because in all actuality it is like two different levels. Normal and easy. If people want to pay for the easy mode, cool, more money for the dev's, but you need to keep the scores separate, maybe even make it to where people can select Easy 10 lives, Normal 5 lives. That way they can go back to normal mode if they want.
I like this idea because at least then the scores would be separate on the leaderboards. I have always liked this game a lot, but I do not agree with this update. What is suppose to separate people on a leaderboard is skill not the ability to buy extra lives. If a friend of mine and I keep trying to outdo one another on the leaderboard, it becomes an unfair challenge if one of us buys this advantage. I really would have preferred that this been set up as a different level, perhaps "Beginner", with its own leaderboards.
I would have bought the lives just to support the dev, but this comes down to removing the online highscores... so I'm not going to pay for less.
Developer could have made a purchaseable pack that does things like change the shark to a mermaid or piranna, add new music, new taunts, etc... Wouldnt change the game play or the integrity of the scores, but might be fun for people that love the game. =Better way to get some additional revenue.
As far as in-game purchases...buying extra lives is not something I would really want. Maybe a different theme of something, might be worth buying (maybe landing army men or something).. But, extra lives costing $ is pretty lame.
The Parachute Panic 1.3 engine can´t hold much more without losing performance so we´re going on with Parachute Panic 2 next year. We´ll make it a fresh new experience. Thanks for your suggestions and support, everyone! As for the life-purchase discussion: Yes, some may dislike it but think about it: If you´re good at playing the game, you earn 10 lives without buying them. You can not buy more lives than you can earn when you´re a good player. So there´s actually no advantage for weak players, even if they "cheat"-purchase 10 lives. If I look at the highscore list, there are lots of players beyond 500 points already, giving them 9 lives already. cheers Future777
