[iOS] Plants vs. Zombies 2

Intropy_sl said:

How many plants are premium vs non-premium? Also I loved the original PvZ and so did my gf, but we aren't iOS users, is this ever coming out for PC or Android?

Click to expand...

bro just take their advice and get her an ipad like i did

^^ 5 and 4 star reviews way outnumber the 1 and 2 reviews. Why the low star reviews are rated "most helpful" is another matter.

Most people are happy to enjoy the 99% of the game you get for free.

16 million people have downloaded the game, according to Popcap (http://thenextweb.com/apps/2013/08/2...-opening-week/), many of whom are happy with the game, which is why it has a high rating. Annoyingly, there's a vocal minority that is continually hating on the game because of its IAP monetisation, which is why there's so many 1 and 2 star reviews. These people are writing long reviews, upvoting 1-2 star reviews, and downvoting 4-5 star reviews. It's pretty pathetic.

I always wanted to play PvZ1 but I had an android phone. I recently got an iphone5 and got PvZ2. I am having a great time with the game playing for free. I am also having fun playing the Simpsons Tapped out and the Hobbit game on my iphone, without spending any money on in-app purchases.

The game really is great without shedding a cent. There is some grinding involved to gather keys to unlock all the upgrades/plants and stars to unlock chapters 2 and 3. But there is a ton more variety to "challenges" you have to grind to gather the stars. The maps vary a lot more than in PvZ1 too (mostly the same map style within each chapters though). The plant food and magic powers are also a nice improvement. The powers seem a bit overpowered to me and I typically restart levels if I cannot beat them with plants only. But I like knowing I have the option if a level ever gives me too much trouble.

The price for the stuff you cannot grind for is completely ridiculous though. $3 to $5 bucks per plant iirc. It does not impact my enjoyment of the game much. But I do freakin miss the bomb plant (jalapeno pepper I think?) for example. There is no replacement for a it that is unlockable as far as I can see. The snow pea is also quite unique and fun to use. The Corn plant kinda makes up for it in a lamer, weaker kind of way. Same with the squash. I think I had these 3 plants is 90% of my builds in PvZ1.

Were I in a review writing mood I would definitely give it something positive. But I would also very likely upvote anyone mentioning the prohibitive cost of some of the IAP. Not sure if that makes sense to anyone. PvZ 1 and 2 are great games but the full game is not worth $20 to me. The "lite" version you get for free is tons of content and fun and if I was to rate that on its own I'd give it a solid 4.5 stars. The .5 would be because "where da fuck my jalapenos be, mafa?". But people rate the full game, IAP and all. And the cost (even though only potential) of my pepper, pea and squash does knock the quality of the complete game down a peg or two.

Yeah, I sadly have to put PvZ2 in with all the other game franchises that are worse for EA involvement.

One of the most fun parts of PvZ1 to me was finding/unlocking all the plants. You could so this for $3 or less depending on sales. The "box" price covered everything. Now... If you want all the plants/upgrades, you have to spend over $30. That's just crazy. I wanted to throw some money at this game as I love the franchise, but their pricing structure is just nuts.

That being said, the gameplay is still super fun. I really like the Mario world style over world map. The challenge levels are pretty fun too.

I hope they come to their senses at some point so we can buy the full game at a reasonable price point.

The thing with PvZ2 is that nickel and diming isn't even accurate; it's fiver and ten spotter-ing. $30+ for a full mobile game is just retarded.

Dandai_sl said:

It would be nice if they offered a full game purchase vs. nickle and diming, but I have to assume that the bean counters told the producers that the most profit to be made was in in-app purchases, not a one-time charge of $XX.99. With my own apps the conversion rate on free downloads :: purchases is ~5%, and no IAP but an upfront $0.99 price point is between 0-2 per day on average. For me, going free (assuming I can generate enough of an audience) is almost always better because I'll get 150-300 downloads per day when it's free.

Obviously I don't have the branding of PvZ, but I imagine the principle is the same.

Click to expand...

It is more nuanced than this. The # downloads is only one factor. Another factor is the point of acquisition cost. When you let people have the game for free, they have already invested something in it (hope, bandwidth, disk space, interest, etc), that automatically makes it easier for them to continue investing (time, communications) and eventually money. In other words, giving it away for free reduces all barriers at the most problematic point of transaction (acquisition). A second factor is the distribution of investment. Previously, buying games was a binary situation: you could buy it and give X or not. But the F2P model allows a much wider spectrum on both sides: those what only want to give x-n and those who want to give x and those who want to give x+n. If you chart out actual returns, you see that giving people an opportunity to play the game by paying far LESS and far MORE than they would for a single-priced solution is much more cost effective.

I'm not saying that I like this kind of model or invest in it. But it is exactly the opposite of retarded: it is completely rational and makes total sense based on people's current buying patterns. The AAA $60 box is what is retarded: it prevents people who would have paid 35 bucks from paying you anything, and it prevents people who would have paid 300 or 10,000 bucks from paying more than you originally wanted. That's why that model is dead - in a few years you'll see every major release with some kind of mtx tacked on. For some you might have the initial premium cost + premium sub (e.g. BF), but others will go F2P + mtx.

Again, I'm not saying I like this, but from the point of view of pure economics the new way has tons of upside and very little downside.

P.S. Hence one reason for the crying happy face as my avatar. The kind of gaming I love will likely not surivive this transition.

Popcap needs to come out with a PC release for this game...This comic pretty much sums up my thought on the game:

Plants vs. Zombies 2 - Out of Stock | 8BitGamer

Barraco Bisi_sl said:

Thread necro story

Neighbor's 9 year old managed to spend over $400 on PVZ2 microtransactions.

Seriously though, fuck freemium.

Click to expand...

So I'm guessing your neighbor asked for advice on where to bury the body?