What I meant is to have a subscription that you would pay to have 1 month or 3 months or 6 months or 1 year of privileges, with probably some discount for buying a longer subscription (less per month, so like if it were 2 bucks for one month, it might be 5 for 3 months and 10 for six months and 20 for a year). And the two-tier subscription system could be a smaller price to just get rid of the ads and a bigger price to get rid of the ads AND have the "easy-click" play as well. Some games even give newbies 2 weeks free of the best privileges so that they can see what they would be getting for the money (and to show them what they're missing out on if they don't subscribe).
It would be nice to just pay once and have privileges forever, but that doesn't create a steady income stream to pay for servers, etc., which is what seems to be needed here. But I definitely wouldn't use it if I had to pay each day, either. Subscriptions are a happy medium, and offering two tiers of payment and different lengths of subscription opens up more possibility for someone to be able to afford some level of subscription, even if it's month to month just taking away the ads (which also speeds up gameplay by reducing page load time).
This is a variation on the most popular type of monetization out there--everyone can have everything, if they are willing to either wait/work for it or pay for it.
Posts by froglady
-
-
Paying to eliminate ads from while free players still get ads is a pretty standard way to generate more income on most browser games I've played. And I've played a lot. I really would object to content that is restricted to paying players, but I think it wouldn't be too much to make the sun and water reduce more slowly and/or give a bigger watering can that fills with the minigames and can be used to one-click water each plant on its page instead of having to clickity-click. Would be even better if it would water your whole garden as long as you'd played enough games to get enough water in the can for it. I also wouldn't be averse to allowing paid players to search (regular only) species and receive a whole wild garden page (or list if that's not possible) from which to randomly pick a seed of that species. If the only plant I don't have is the new monthly version, I might have to refresh the Wild Garden page repeatedly to find one. Maybe the daily amount of help you could give to and receive from other players could also be increased (more trees to bend, more snails to chase off daily).
Time-saving and work-saving advantages that give benefits to daily play are the way to go in giving players "perqs" for subscribing. Restricted content for free players only creates resentment and a sense of less importance. I know people are willing to pay for faster, easier daily play and don't necessarily need "exclusive" plants to get them to part with their money. Perhaps you could also offer two different pay levels--one to just put the kibosh on ads, the other a bit more expensive to get you the daily "easy-click" play. -
You can't keep seedlings, but you can see them all in the Compendium. So you don't lose the mouse permanently. You can still "visit".

-
Plants will not grow without sun. Plants will not grow without water. Plants wil only grow with both. But your plants/seeds don't die, they just sit patiently and wait for sun and water to start growing again. Better than your real garden you have to water or else.
It's an improvement over the original version of the game, where even adult plants needed water. It was too stressful, so they changed it. -
I've only ever gotten that on mature plants, never on sprouts. I get the snails and water on sprouts. But I've never gotten it in my own garden, only those I've visited.
-
You get half a drop of water for each plant each time you rain on the garden. So if all your plants need just 2 drops, you can just play 2 games and never have to touch your watering can.
-
It's while I'm playing in the garden. I could care less what time I post.
I guess I could set my computer clock to German time (and Eastern, Central, Australian, etc.) and back when I play, but that's not an appetizing solution, somehow. The progress meter would be truly great. -
I like being able to come here twice a week and put in 20 minutes or so playing fun little games with no stress. I like that people who have been here longer have been rewarded for their patience with more variety in their gardens. I like that new players can still join and expect to get the same plants all us "veterans" have in the space of time. I quit a bunch of click-heavy sites because people were paying for clicks and getting so many clicks a day that the sites had to limit the clicks to keep them from growing up multiple generations in one week.
We already have the opportunity to exterminate grubs, water plants and trim trees for others to help them out. That's enough. -
Ooh, that meter would be lovely. It would solve all my problems. And I don't need my local time--I have that. I just wanted the server time displayed so I knew what time and date the game "thought" it was. I play lots of games from different TZs and countries, and I just go by the game clock, even though it's different from mine. At least I don't have to try to figure out midnight in Eastern, Central, Mountain, England, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. I just look at the game clock and go by that.
-
I am lazy and don't want to have to convert time on the fly after working 10-12 hours a day on a 12 day stretch. I have put in 240 hours at work in the last 4 weeks alone. By the time I get here (if I do before I crash out in my dinner plate in the evenings) I don't have the brains left to add time across midnight, then subtract and change days and subtract 24 x the number of days since I planted the seed to figure out how close to 100 hours I am on a plant. It's the time of sprouting/maturing that I'm having trouble with keeping track of.
-
Yes, there is a time stamp in the forums, but it also shows Pacific Standard Time for me (my local time), not the server time. The date you picked up the plant that's listed on the plant's page isn't your local date and time, it's the site server date and time. I'd like to know what date and time it is by the game's count. (Right now, my time says "Friday July 5, 11:18 pm").
I know that the holidays are staff-mediated, but in lieu of the indivdual timestamps on seeds and seedlings it would at least help us know when to start looking for sprouts or mature plants. I usually get to check only in the evenings, as I work (sometimes even holidays and weekends, as this week I am in the middle of a 12-day stretch from July 1 to July 12 inclusive without a day off). -
Would it be possible to have a clock on the pages of the site to tell us what day and time it is on the server? I'm on a different day, and I often can't remember what day the site is on (which is important in figuring out when events start and end, mainly).
I'd also like a timestamp on flowers. When on July 1 did I get that plant from the garden or breed it? With the 100 hour thing, sometimes it's impossible to remember whether you got that seed on Wednesday night at 10 pm (site time Thursday morning 8 am) or actually picked it up on Thursday evening after work. So you look and fret and wonder when it might sprout (or grow up). Would be nice to be able to figure it out more easily for ourselves.
Likes? Dislikes? Suggestions for improvement? Thanks, all.
-
They get added in batches and when one runs out you have to wait for the next batch. Same with all holiday/special plants. You can refresh forever and never see one, then come back 10 minutes later and they're everywhere.
-
Yes, online translators are stupid. I tried to use one to help me with articles so I didn't make any big mistakes, but it seemed to not say what I wanted it to. So I winged it. Glad you managed to understand my garbled German.
-
Entschuldigung Sie, bitte, ich spreche nur ein bisschen Deutsch.
Blau und rot Zauberfarn sind in der Wilde Garten, aber keine rosa oder gelb.
Sie mussen kreuze Zauberfarn mit Wurmfarn.
Sie konnen kreuze Zauberfarn mit Wurmfarn jetzt zu 7.Juli.
Konnen Sie verstehen mich?Sie haben in Kompendium ein Fragezeichen wenn Sie nicht alles farben auf eine Pflantze haben. Nur 1 Fragezeichen.
Ich hoffe ich hilfe.
-
I would love to have Gladiolus. They are such a beautiful late-summer bloom. Hollyhocks are gorgeous,too. Of course, any of the Alcea/Mallow/Hibiscus family are big, showy, wonderful blossoms with lovely colors.
-
I do the shortcuts, too, True. But it's easier to tell someone how to do it with the menus. I'm an old DOS girl who ctrl-whatever's her way everywhere.
-
I always copy/paste the links into Notepad and the also completely compose my post there, as well. Then it's just "Edit-->Select All-->Edit-->Copy" click in the forum reply box and hit "enter". Done. No forum timeout or browser crash to make me crazy. I use this for any reply to any forum on any site where I might be typing a long reply or having to put in links or other time-consuming stuff.
-
I remember last year, though, people were sacrificing plants even after staff said it would be in the news when the sacrifice had started. And the sacrifice day was April 30. It might have carried on after that, but it didn't start until Walpurgisnacht. It didn't work for the whole time that the mushrooms were growing and breeding, just the 30th and maybe a bit on from there.
And I just wanted to say a big "Thank you" to Nephele and staff for the lovely lake! My computer froze in the middle of the post pixie delivery the other night, so I didn't know what the prize was. Finally figured it out.
-
The sacrifice only worked on April 30, Walpurgis itself, anyway. It wasn't all week. You need to pick a plant you don't want, because it will be gone once you abandon it. Find an extra one in your greenhouse to sacrifice this year, as we'll probably have another request for it on the 30th.