tfadp's dashboard

Thanks.

1. It's often harder to implement every idea right away than it seems. Esp in a multiplayer environment. So we have to be disciplined our every game will have massive feature creep.

2. All games go in beta to Star Members. We get tons of feedback for a couple of weeks and we adapt. And we adapt ongoing as well. We changed the splash because of feedback. We are testing just one pin right now. There is a manageable process.

I just want you to know that the crew, i.e. the people who work here, read this stuff every day. All of it. And not just some crew, but almost everyone. So first of all, you have some pretty remarkable power. This is a site with over 2 million members. More people play in a day, then could fill multiple football stadiums, and yet you have a direct line to the people who make the games and make the decisions.

But it is not fair or realistic to think that every idea will immediately be implemented or that because it is not implemented nobody cares. I mean, there are top level, rock star programmers here who will take a few minutes to fix someone's password - even though that doesn't scale to millions of users.

So when we look at the comments, we do a couple of things

1) Technically - is what is asked in our road map? We have a long list of stuff to do, but it takes time and priority. Sometimes things people ask for are done, but in due time. Otherwise we run around unfocused.

2) What's the mass sentiment. There is a theory of website and game design that says you do something when a critical mass of people have asked for it.
So we wait for a critical mass.

3) We are under lots of pressure to make this a successful and viable business. Sadly advertisements help, but they don't generate enough money to keep the site up and running. Sometimes we have to make decisions which help us build a real business here. If a local pizza place gave away so many free samples that no one every bought pizza, theyd be out of business.

4) Believe it or not, we have a ton of analytics that drive this business. We can look at what you say but also look at general behavior. If a bunch of people say they hate game X because we did Y to it, but the numbers in our database show the opposite - that more people are playing and inviting friends, then we follow the data.

5) I know most kids don't have credit cards. I certainly didn't. But I always had a few dollars and I spent it on what I valued - baseball cards, a candy bar, a soda, a game etc. We hope that you value what we do and will spend it - and that's why we have game cards (ultimate game card) as well mobile payment etc.

Thanks for reading and commenting. We always pay attention!

Would you pay $1 for the right to play the old balloono? for a week? for a month? if so, let me know. if not, then that's why it went away. Are we trying to make a profit - well we are a business. And as far as I know every business from a pizza parlor to world of warcraft tries to make a profit. we try to provide entertainment, just like the movies, or anything else you pay for. But if 50,000 of you told me they would pay $1 a week for old balloono - then let's hook it up. Personally old Balloono is cool - and what you see today is the result of lots of changes over time. I think the new Balloono will follow the same path.

Because of star members - omgpop exists. when they buy stars or coins, we are able to pay for massive bandwidth and servers and full time customer support and game development. If we didn't reward stars with something special, and they didn't pay, there would be no omgpop. The real answer is how we can continue to find ways to let people pay for star and earn coins, which we will, and offer specials on star.

There will be greater rewards for inviting friends and such and some changes in Star Membership options (how to get as well). It just takes time to implement but I agree, there are some good point in here. Right now every match costs us at least a penny just to serve. If no one is paying then we are a charity paying for big servers so people can play for free. If only a couple of people, pay, they make it possible for everyone and we should reward them.

When you get a slice of pizza, or a soda, or a track from itunes, or clothes from the mall or minutes on your cell phone. You pay a few bucks. Why is it then when omgpop asks for a few bucks to get coins you can use in the game (which is free) is it any different?

Balloono Classic is available for star members. Especially as star members support the site and staff for everyone else. I do think if you play Balloono Plus a little more you'll start to like it. And yes we considered everyone's opinion. The number one request was for items for the monkey. That would not have worked with the view and size of the monkey in old balloono

That's your choice. If you like Balloono classic you can pay for star and play it. It's still less than you'd have to pay at gamestop, maplestory, world of warcraft etc. it's ridiculously less. And there are 10 other games on omgpop as well. – tfadp, on November 25, 2009 02:59

That's your choice. It's a free country. And if people don't buy coins or pay, OMGPOP will go away as well. – tfadp, on November 25, 2009 02:56

First of all, sued is how it is spelled. Not sewed. Sewed is what you get with a needle and thread. Second of all, yes the goal of omgpop is to generate revenues. We have ten servers serving up games and a staff of people making the games and supporting the members and they need to get paid as well. You don't go to gamestop and curse all the games with your mispellings and think they should be free. Our games are free. You can play all day without spending any money. Try to do that on a console or a DS. And yes we charge money for some things. Payment is optional. But servers are not free and neither is the staff. If you want low quality free games you are more than welcome to go to any other website, especially one that will celebrate all your mispellings. But if we didn't try to charge people and make money, we would be out of business. This is not a charity. And if you love old Balloono, buy star and you can play it. Star for a couple of months is still cheaper than any xbox or DS game.

If you look at buying coins, it's really pretty cheap. For a few bucks, the cost of a soda or two you can get a lot of coins. Think about it - going to gamestop will cost you $50. Playing on something like WoW costs you about $15 a month. And we let you buy 35,000 for as little as $5 and you can even mail in the money if you have no other way to pay. It's a pretty fair deal - you could never get as much gameplay from an xbox or DS game for $5

actually coins are easy to get. they are in the shop. you can pay with credit card, paypal or mobile. and by the way, for the price of two sodas you can get 70 pins or outfits or whatever. If you're willing to buy a soda or a candy bar, you can get a lot of coins for the same amount of money. and for $10 you actually get tons of coins. think about it - you're willing to pay a few bills for a snack or maybe a ring tone, how about for the balloono shop.

there are elements to this idea that are interesting. Thanks

Yes. There is a reason that every other site in the world does not let you change your name. We thought we could be different but people abused it and it was disruptive to the community. So we changed it according to the wise ways of facebook, myspace etc. so that you had only one name for the reasons mentioned above. We figured if we put a high price on it people who really really wanted to change it could.

you bet. we are working on it.

working on it

thanks for the ideas

Yeah but then they never have an incentive to pay or buy coins and we go our of business. There is a balance between giving people enough coins and us being able to sell coins to some people. If we can't sell coins to some segment of users (not everyone but some) then we can not make money to expand and make more games etc.etc. Why do you think people who don't have enough coins don't just buy more?

I like this. Thanks!