Sad News... No More In-Game Code Giveaways

Hi Everyone,

Some sad news about in-game codes…
Unfortunately Apple has decided we are not allowed to give away in-game codes any longer once 2.2 releases.
This decision has mystified us, as a number of games do in-game code giveaways.

Apple have not communicated to us WHY the codes must be removed, only that we must comply or our game cannot appear in the store… I can only guess that some unscrupulous developers were selling similar codes for their games online to bypass the Apple Store, and so Apple have decided to ban all future code giveaways.

We made our final appeal today, and it was rejected.
As of 2.2, the REDEEM CODE button will vanish from the store on iOS, Android & Steam. Since we want to treat all mobile/pc players equally.

As we’ve been growing more successful in the last 12 months, I’m afraid that we’ve also noticeably been receiving a LOT of extra scrutiny from Apple, Sony & Microsoft… things that have been in the game since release, are getting singled out, and required to be changed… In a sense it’s a problem you don’t mind having, because the game is doing well-enough to gain the extra attention, but on the other hand, these changes are extremely annoying, making it slower to provide updates for you, and making us remove features you might otherwise enjoy.

Anyway… I just wanted to share the news as soon as possible. We’ll continue to appeal as we apoproach 2.3, and see if we can change their mind.

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:confused: What else are they trying to make you remove?:cry:

Thanks for the explanation Sirrian

Appreciate the update, but dislike the content. =(

F*cking apple, this just adds to me already not liking them. .

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Great to hear that GOW is growing! Well done.

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And this is the fundamental flaw of the marketplace model the industry has been moving towards, with a very few large companies controlling the means of distribution. It gives them an enormous amount of power, the ability to dictate what can and cannot exist, with the goal being to funnel all transactions through them, so they can skim a percentage off the top.

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Dang. I was really hoping that one day the code would be expanded to the point where I could buy a custom code to give as a gift.

Of course then I realized none of my friends play this game, and the occasional buying of guild seals serves a similar purpose.

Oh well, this will continue to reinforce telling my roommate in college 26 years ago, that Apple was evil and not to be trusted.

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NOMORECODE it is!

F Apple. How ridiculous that different rules apply to the games that are played the most. Their terms and conditions should be the same for every dev and that should be that. You either meet the conditions or don’t meet them.

The notion that a particular OS platform developer can tell an app developer what features to put in or out of their app is f’ing depressing and laughable in equal measures.

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They can at least tell us WTF the deal is. They’re so idiotic.

Microsoft and Google have the same issues.

So only ones without problems are Android and Steam.
So I’ll stick with my fuk apple opinion.

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This is a good idea. @Sirrian, can we get one last “NOMORECODES” code, before the update goes life, as the code to end all codes?

For this game, the ones without problems are Android and Steam.

This really isn’t a new concept. The distributor always has some level of say in production, whether it’s video games or any other medium. Hell, the TV networks have been meddling in producers’ plot lines for decades. It’s the nature of the game.

For many other games only complains I’ve heard where about Apple, never android. Don’t know about pc section but as for mobile section, Android is way more developer friendly. And apple is way more jerk style.
Don’t get me wrong I rarely use codes, so my guild mates can get more, so this isn’t a loss to me. But it’s an irritating idiot move from apple.

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@Sirrian ,

Okay, so “Apple” strikes again… that company is doing more and more to irritate me, but Okay, so Apple said no ‘redeem codes.’ I feel like this one is minor in the grand scheme. You may still be able to achieve the same end, without the same means.

“Tomato… tomatoe”

So, we are all creative minds here. What was the purpose of the code? I see it as:

  • free lootz
  • marketing tool
  • Customer appreciation - dev’s in chat to give on the fly swag and loots to those in chat at the time.
  • It afforded streamers an incentive to give back to audiences who were regulars
  • It drummed up quick interest to get folks back in game quickly when word of the code spread by mouth

Wasn’t one of the big changes coming, the ‘on the fly events?’

What if, you had an event that said ‘play a game in the next 1 hour with an alchemist, to receive developer appreciation loot!’

What if there was a disappearing and elusive locations on the map, that were already coded in the game, but you could ‘reveal / hide’ at will. Maelstrom of @Nimhain or Labyrinth of Sirrian (and / or the like…) that appeared on the map, but only for 15-min when Dev’s triggered it. If you could get in, you got to make a run on the fabled loot cave after hitting up a special battle which could or could not change, and lootz were random.

You could even have @Tacet event. Since he generally is revealing new cards, could tie it to that… but honestly, you guys might want to preserve that ‘reveal’ and any tied bonus to yourselves, but I could see a Isle of Revelation… or Mist of Revelation location on the map that might give you an extra run on the weeks loots or something…

But for your streamers and community organizers, if given so many ‘triggers’ a week, they could schedule specific online web casts, streams, etc around the availability of said loot bag or location in the game. Perhaps its as simple as play 2 games back to back, win or lose in explore mode in location 1, location 2 and then burn a map to hit a ‘special’ version of the treasure vault! (Making Maps Great again!!!) Where the loot drops are improved, but only if you fulfill the starting criteria and then start the map event within 1 hour of the event starting or something.

There are sooooo many ways to get around the “you cant have a redeem code” anymore, and these are just a few fun ideas.

You could tie it to something terribly simple. Here’s a quick event folks… open 1 or more gold chests in the next hour - for mystery dev power loot drop out of the gold chest! Only works once, and only in the next hour… something like that.

Could even have a new menu that opens and closes on event while active… what if in your ‘mini games’ icon, a 3rd option appeared, then disappeared, only while ‘redeem’ events were active. You simply click on the mini-game, click on the 3rd “event redeem” button and viola, Sirrian thanks you… done and done.

Once you have an event / rewards system that can be tapped into on the fly, your options are endless. ‘codes’ aren’t even needed.

Just something to consider and just ideas to get the Apple not gonna poo on our parade thought processes going.

Appreciate all you guys do, and how much you communicate to us! Looking forward to the next update and keep up the great work all!

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For the record, a super quick google search reveals that, apparently, this has been Apple’s policy for a long time now. This seems like a case of “We didn’t pay much attention to your game before, but now we are and you aren’t conforming to our existing rules” as opposed to an arbitrary decision. Basically, the game was doing something illegal and finally got caught.

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I work with these companies every day, outside of gaming. They all engage in practices that favor their platform and content over their competitors. That doesn’t excuse Apple for doing this but it’s part of the industry as a whole…

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I know it is, and of course they all look for their best interest. But I have my opinion of apple as a jerk company (not a bad company, they are a great company, but I consider them jerks non the less).

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