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Codename Entertainment
In-Game Friendship Suggestion
7 Posts
Link to post - Posted June 4th 2012 at 7:56 PM
Kori Cecile Biggs
There is absolutely nothing that will make me invite random people into my facebook friendslist, regardless of my privacy settings (it's not about privacy). There is also no way, no matter how many friends requests I send, that I am going to get anyone else to play this game who is already on my list. And spending money on it is definitely out. I prefer to spend my cash on things that are actually real. All of this means that it is literally impossible to advance in this game. There is no way to work around it.

Nothing I can do, no matter how much extra effort, that helps my game at all. It seems to be causing a lot of people to stop playing.

To me the best solution would be to add an in-game friends system. Other games have them so it is clearly possible. Have friends that are only added in the game, without having to add them to your facebook friendslist. Obviously, it wouldn't bring new people into the game the same way that the current system (theoretically) would, but it would certainly allow for a lot more people to get a lot more play out of the game. As it is, it has only the potential to leave a lot of people feeling very disappointed and have cause to no longer play at all.
Lvl 53 "Hero to the Downtrodden!"
1 Post
Link to post - Posted June 8th 2012 at 4:03 PM
Anthony Whittingham
I remember the first game having a glitch or something that let you do that with a link. Shame you can't do that anymore.

Other than that, this is a good idea!
29 Posts
Link to post - Posted June 8th 2012 at 6:05 PM
Shane Johns
Facebook frowns upon this idea. As part of it's guidlines, interacting with people you are not friends with is against the rules. That's why they call it a social network.
7 Posts
Link to post - Posted June 14th 2012 at 10:44 PM
Last Edited June 14th 2012 at 10:51 PM
Kori Cecile Biggs
That's surprising, considering the mentioned Farmville including it. The social part and the gaming part are completely isolated aspects of Facebook for me. Alternatively as a way to slowly work toward getting past the friend gates... earning bucks every once in a while? I really, really want to be able to play this game without having to pay real money or add people I do not know.

As another alternative, having a separate site attached to the game (or independent of the facebook version) on which one can have friends for the purpose of the game (playdom being an example - the company website allows gameplay independent of facebook and friend contributions through that site)
29 Posts
Link to post - Posted June 14th 2012 at 11:15 PM
Shane Johns
Don't take anything Zynga does as the "How To" guide for making social games. They break nearly every rule in the book and manage to get away with it purely by volumes of players they keep on FB.

I understand your desire not to add random people,but if you look closely at what every other game does, you will find there are areas, items or activities you can't do in all of them. Simple game design success is based on player numbers. The way to get player numbers is to get everybody to invite as many new people to the game as possible. ALL developers do it one way or another.

The way around that for us is to add randoms rather than bother our real friends who we know won't play. The simple use of lists in your friends allows you to group randoms together to delete later when the game requirement is no longer needed.

But, I will say something about random adds. When I first joined FB and played my first game, I random added a lot of people. 10 percent of those are now good friends who I interact with regularly both in and out of FB. It is a gamble though.
7 Posts
Link to post - Posted June 15th 2012 at 12:23 AM
Last Edited June 15th 2012 at 12:26 AM
Kori Cecile Biggs
I don't really desire to add new people to my friendslist as I do not intend to relate with them in any other way than through the games. I added people a lot a couple of years ago for games, and ended up deleting them all because it was just too uncomfortable for me. I was making use of lists. It is not about privacy just is not what I want. I do not wish for people to be on my friendslist with whom I have nothing in common other than a game or two, and with whom I may be at total odds in every other way.

I understand that there are aspects of many games which cannot be played without friends - generally, however, it is still possible to progress through a game without those. Such is not the case here, though it was in the first version. So the choice is either to remain in the same section of the game, making no progress, or to either add unfamiliar people or contribute money. There is no third (well, fourth) option. It is one thing to have extra bonus features or things that make the game easier with the addition of friends, but to have all progress in the game rely on friends is too much to ask.
Lvl 400 "Public Servant"
793 Posts
Link to post - Posted June 21st 2012 at 1:00 PM
Justin Stocks (CNE Dev)
This is certainly something that could be possible in a future update, but right now it's much lower down on our list then content and other features. We totally understand that most people don't want to add random friends on Facebook, which is why we have taken some steps to try to lessen the sting of not having a lot of friends who play the game (by being able to re-use the same friends at blockers, for example). At the same time, we do want you to play with friends, because it's more fun and because it helps us grow the game.
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