TiramaSue, thank you for setting this up, and allowing me to join you.

In the past two weeks, I've finished Little Noir Stories, Love Chronicles: Salvation CE, Princess Isabella: the Rise of an Heir CE, Settlement Colossus, Unsolved Mystery Club: Amelia Earhart, and Be A King.  

Loved Little Noir Stories, I'm thinking of replaying in a couple of weeks so I can get all the secrets.  Love Chronicles, Princess Isabella, and UMC I enjoyed, UMC more than the other two.  I didn't really care for the changes to how you used the dragon and the fairy in Princess Isabella.  As a side thought, I wish devs would stop putting the voices for cutscenes on the music track.  I usually turn the music down, and it was annoying to not be able to hear the voices on the cutscenes, when they were fine in the game itself (both Princess Isabella and UMC did this).

I thought Settlement Colossus was boring at first, but I later got into it once I figured out some tricks.  It was fun seeing the Settlement grow.

And finally, Be A King.  It was fine, if repetitive, but I couldn't stand the Advisor who popped up every 30 seconds or so telling me to build more houses, or build a farm, or whatever, and I couldn't find a way to turn him off.  Totally spoiled the game for me.

By the way, I started some word games but anyone can start a new Word Game topic.  It doesn't have to be started by me.  I hope more will join in, at your leisure.  I'm now going to play my games so see you all tomorrow.

Now that the shock has started to wear off, I'm going to post some personal info that might help explain what I think happened over at BF and why they're not saying much.  It's okay if you don't agree.

Back in the 1990's, my DH worked as a programmer for a company that wrote and sold software packages (billing, payroll, patient record keeping, etc) for healthcare facilities (hospitals, doctors, dentists, etc).  The client could buy the plain vanilla out-of-the-box sofeware, or they could pay extra for customizations.  The company was usually bidding for contracts against other companies, and who would make the pitch to the prospective client depended upon the size of the contract to be awarded.  The more money involved, the more senior the personnel sent to try and procure it.  That also meant that the person negotiating the big deals was more removed from the actual process of writing the software code. When this person would triumphantly return with contract in hand, programmers sometimes be aghast at what the contract contained and start praying that they would be able to deliver the promised customizations in the promised timeframe.

What does all this have to do with BF, you ask?    Well I think people forgot that BF employees weren't writing the new forums software, BF was buying a software package from another company, whose name I didn't write down but who provided the forum software for some really big corporations (can't remember whether it was Home Depot or Lowes that was mentioned, also maybe an electronics/appliance firm like Best Buys?).  And it's very possible that right now legaleagles from both sides are reading every clause of the contract both parties signed to determine exactly what was promised and whose fault it is that it wasn't delivered.  And while lawsuits are gathering on the horizon, employees of both BF and the other companies will be under orders to say nothing to nobody in regard to what went wrong.

It will be interesting to see if BF has a half-price credit sale to:

1) raise extra $$$$ to pay their legal eagles
2) attempt to appease their customer base

 

teeitup46ok wrote:

Got this in an email that was apparently posted in the FB Pond Friends group.  Interesting!!

Found this on the Vator News, dated 6/2/13:

"At Vator Splash LA on Thursday night, we were honored to have Paul Thelen, CEO of Big Fish Games, take the stage."

<snip>

"By any measure, Big Fish Games has been a success. The Seattle-based company posted $220 million in bookings last year. up 20% from 2011. The company has four million PC users, and six million mobile users...

"Casual games, as we defined it, wasn't growing anymore. That this new thing called social has caught on about three years earlier. That really impacted out growth.

To compete in these new outlets, the company was forced to figure out what it was really good at, and how it could use its larger userbase to capitalize on these growing segments of the gaming space."

<snip>

"We have pivoted and now our revenue, in the last 18 months, has gone mobile," he said. "We were able to take our assets, understand what we were really good at and say, 'we're not a single gross company.'
--------------------
Any wonder why BFG was so willing to jettison their loyal PC customer base?
 

Well, I don't do mobile games because I don't have any of those new gadgets.  I don't do FB, Twitter, etc. I hope they won't stop doing PC games or else I'll just have to go elsewhere for my games, or stop buying games altogether since I already have so many, but not as many as you have.  I will have to think seriously about d/l all my games from BF.....however, since we always have to play them from the GM it's no point...if BF decides not to do PC games anymore, we're doomed if they get rid of the GM, right?
 

Tee,  this is very interesting,  and explains a lot.