A couple Honest question to developers

[Abhishek1996]

Just to give you a background, I myself Am an IT engineer and I have a brother who’s works for valve Till now as well. My brother was the one who introduced me to town of Salem back a few years and we absolutely loved the game back then I mean the idea of it was very creative, We lost a bit of track As we got busy in our respective careers but recently as this pandemic has taken over my brother has come back home to stay indoors and we decided to relive our old days and play town of Salem. We are more then disappointed and probably won’t play this game further. Okay so now coming to the questions we have For the developers/admins or whoever are active employees of this game and suggestions from me and my brother at the end.
1)Do the developers check the reviews given by various people on play store or App Store etc. If yes why not respond
2) Why was the game changed from free to play to watch ad/pay 5$ to play a game.
3) What purpose do Silver Coins serve in the game which you get from the Daily Cauldron or winning games.
4) Have the developers hit a wall in terms of developing the game because my brother has a lot of in depth solutions which can be spoken over skype if one of the developers are interested which in turn you can forward it to your team.
5)What is the solution for player who get to play 1 game a day due to Your new ad systems but they get Ruined due to leavers or gamethrowers?
6) What does the game bug out and sometimes not give classic tickets even after watching the ads? It says you will receive your ticket shortly but they never appear we tested this for a couple of days Now and they have never appeared later.
Suggestions:
1) A person will be willing to make more in game investments if that person is addicted to the game or enjoys playing it and the way the game is now you have restricted the amount of people that can enjoy the game. I mean the recent reviews of the game say so too and they are really disheartening to watch a game I love go down like that.
2) Make it free to play and remove the watch the ads because half the time ads aren’t available or better give everyone 10 classic tickets each day to play this is a comfortable amount to give the person a pleasant experience everyday and not leave them starving for more as there are people who can’t afford To pay 5$ still trying to enjoy a game
3) Remove the silver coins or make random role scrolls available each day which people can buy with silver coins
4)We checked out the coven expansion and it is absolutely dreadful, I mean Jesus if you focus on classic more it will be better. Also most the time coven lobby don’t even reach 15 players as the number of people playing them is extremely low
5)The more you put in the more you will get out- Focus investments on promotion of the game many people still love this game and will 100% come back if they knew about it but the game just seems dead
6) The game being free to play is most important issue to tackle now as the reviews I have seen say that itself. It is stopping your game from growing.
7) Make Suggestion/ Feedback in game itself for better reviews many people don’t have time to go on the site which is different then normal suggestion websites.
None the less we wish you luck and hope to hear soon from you. If the developers or anyone from the team would like more suggestions we are down to help you more as we are mostly free during lockdown and as it ends we will have to go back to our own lives. Good luck and if there is not much response from anyone at all I will feel bad as this game will die soon too thereafter in couple of years. I hope games like dota 2, league of legends, Apex legends set an example to you that being Free to play can still earn you money and this game already has everything That can make people just keep playing it ,making it popular again and still making more money then you were previously. This game has the potential don’t waste it. Cheers

[Superalex11]

Before I answer, I'll clarify that I'm not a dev, nor do I formally work for BMG in any regard. I'm sure someone who does will end up coming through after me and warning you against taking my answers for what they are, but I've been active long enough that I'm confident in providing them with accuracy. So, then:

1) Do the developers check the reviews given by various people on play store or App Store etc. If yes why not respond

They do not. Some people might tell you they do, but as there is right about 0 evidence of this - even implicit evidence (e.g. implementing suggestions) - those people are liars. Honestly I have my doubts that the devs even read any parts of these forums other than bug reports and player reports, but again some people will tell you otherwise. If you're really curious, you can check devs' posts from their profiles:
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&un=DocExer
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&un=Achilles
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&un=PyromonkeyGG
memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&un=shapesifter13

2) Why was the game changed from free to play to watch ad/pay 5$ to play a game.

Claimedly to stop a certain group of people from bot-spamming games (which it didn't entirely succeed at, by the way). Of course, looking at the vast number of other multiplayer games which haven't switched to a p2p model as a result of botting, you'll understand that at least one of two things is true:
- the devs are technically incompetent and do not know how to go about solving the issue most efficiently
- the devs are lying about this and have done it for some other reason (likely monetary gain?)
I've heard it said that revenues decreased after going p2p and remained that way for many months, so I don't think it's the second option. There's also plenty of instances where the devs have demonstrated clear and direct incompetence in their work resulting in a net worse state for ToS in other areas of the game, leading me to believe the reason for p2p is more likely the former.

3) What purpose do Silver Coins serve in the game which you get from the Daily Cauldron or winning games.

I don't know what exactly you can do with them without premium (i.e. paying for the full game), but at least on the steam version I'm able to buy certain character skins, house skins, map skins, pets, lobby icons, scrolls, death animations, and (most recently made available) taunts.

4) Have the developers hit a wall in terms of developing the game because my brother has a lot of in depth solutions which can be spoken over skype if one of the developers are interested which in turn you can forward it to your team.

The devs have (supposedly) been working on a port from flash to unity for the past 3(?) years. They've taken the opportunity to excuse themselves from many important and actually useful updates as a result. Whether or not they've actually hit some kind of wall I can't answer (and as I highly doubt a dev will reply to this thread themselves, I'm not sure if anyone can).

5) What is the solution for player who get to play 1 game a day due to Your new ad systems but they get Ruined due to leavers or gamethrowers?

The devs' answer will be to pay the $5 for premium.

6) Why does the game bug out and sometimes not give classic tickets even after watching the ads? It says you will receive your ticket shortly but they never appear we tested this for a couple of days Now and they have never appeared later.

See above: I believe the devs are incredibly incompetent, so bugs like this shouldn't be unexpected. Feel free to browse the bug reports forum and see for yourself.

[Abhishek1996]

Well SuperAlex11 thanks for providing this info to the best of your knowledge, If the developers or no one from the team has reached out to me Even after so many hours says a whole lot. As someone from the same industry as them I wish me and my brother could help them but these developers seem to Be monkeys anyway. Making people pay 5 dollars to stop bot spamming is their solution Which literally made me laugh As there are so many ways to stop bot spamming which I feel a highly qualified professional like me could easily help them figure it out After Knowing the whole story from They themselves. For us 5$ is nothing to pay But as long as I am getting some value for it I would have payed. But they not even responding to people makes me sick on how bad their customer service Is or communication with the people that play their game is beyond poor. Well safe to say I am gonna uninstall this game and still be here until the end of April to see if any developer still replies. Ruining the experience of users who use your application for your own monetary gain should be punishable by law, but a very immature approach by the Devs. None the less this is me signing off. Also Alexsuper11 if you know anything else that you wanna say cause I would still like more information about this please post another comment would love to know. Take Care.

[Abhishek1996]

Also it’s funny to see that a global moderator named Favourable answers suggestions after me of someone who posted today regarding his doubts asking about a tutorial but cannot answers even one of my question or challenge me on my suggestions in anyway. So disappointing to see people half heartedly doing their job for a game that could be so much more. If anybody working for this game if you work like that in Valve or any high profile company you’ll wouldn’t even last a month. Also reading the quality of response is as good as the garbage I take out every morning. Time to straighten up or not as it seems you don’t care. Wow I am shocked for certain.

[Joacgroso]

I'm also unrelated to the devs, but I want to add that the paywall is also usefull for keeping trolls away. They used to just create new accounts after being banned, but the paywall stops them a bit (even though they can still play via mobile, which is pretty bad imo).

[ScarfVendetta]

1)Do the developers check the reviews given by various people on play store or App Store etc.

They probably don't have a lot of time to read reviews (their time is valuable) but I would assume they do check them occasionally.

2) Why was the game changed from free to play to watch ad/pay 5$ to play a game.

The developers did implement many solutions prior to pay-to-play in an effort to stop the botters (harsher spam-filters, CAPTCHAs, etc.) but the botters adapted their bots to counter these new measures. This "arms race" of sorts was also taking the developer's focus away from other areas of game development (keep in mind that BMG only have 3-4 programmers). Some of these measures would also decrease the game quality for users, such as the previously mentioned CAPTCHAs. All the while, the bots would find their way through and ruin the experience for users. Pay-to-play was likely a business model the developers had considered from the beginning, but they decided they would rather allow their usres to play for free. The botting crisis highlighted the issues this model had, so they went pay-to-play as a more permanent solution to the problem.

As you mentioned, you can still play for free on mobile version by watching ads. I suppose this was their way of keeping the game partially free-to-play, although this does still come at the price of giving bots an opportunity to get into the game. I would argue that this feature causes more issues than it solves, but there are players who cannot buy the game outright that do enjoy this method of playing.

3) What purpose do Silver Coins serve in the game which you get from the Daily Cauldron or winning games.

You can use them to buy avatars, pets, houses and many other cosmetics from the in-game store. This in-game store is only available for users with premium/grandfathered accounts. Players who play for free on mobile can still earn Merit Points, but must upgrade their account if they wish to spend them.

4) Have the developers hit a wall in terms of developing the game because my brother has a lot of in depth solutions which can be spoken over skype if one of the developers are interested which in turn you can forward it to your team.

The developers are currently working on bringing the unity port to web version. You can find their latest announcement regarding what they're working on here: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=107706

If you want to make suggestions, this is the right place. Alternatively, you could try their email: support@blankmediagames.zendesk.com
They are unlikely to ever accept suggestions over Skype.

5)What is the solution for player who get to play 1 game a day due to Your new ad systems but they get Ruined due to leavers or gamethrowers?

For issues with lack of advertisements, that is on the advertisers' end. BMG doesn't get to choose which ads and how many are available for free players to watch. For issues with gamethrowers and leavers, be sure to use the in-game report function.

6) What does the game bug out and sometimes not give classic tickets even after watching the ads? It says you will receive your ticket shortly but they never appear we tested this for a couple of days Now and they have never appeared later.

if you're encountering a bug with receiving your classic tickets, you can report it in this subforum viewforum.php?f=60





Your main gripe seems to be with the pay-to-play model. There may be some reviews from others like you that are unhappy about it, but there are also many players (such as myself) that strongly advocate it. The monetary requirement to play give accounts more value, which is a strong disincentive for botters and trolls. The $5 entry fee really isn't a big deal for most genuinely interested players.

[Joacgroso]

For issues with lack of advertisements, that is on the advertisers' end. BMG doesn't get to choose which ads and how many are available for free players to watch. For issues with gamethrowers and leavers, be sure to use the in-game report function.

But leaving isn't reportable, isn't it?
And only blatant gamethrowing is punished, right?
I've said several times that the only bannable things are admitting to gamethrow and gamethrowing, revealing your faction as mafia/coven/vampire and killing a revealed mayor or a revived townie as town, and no one has corrected me about that. Are any other kind of offenses being actually punished?

[ScarfVendetta]

But leaving isn't reportable, isn't it?
And only blatant gamethrowing is punished, right?
I've said several times that the only bannable things are admitting to gamethrow and gamethrowing, revealing your faction as mafia/coven/vampire and killing a revealed mayor or a revived townie as town, and no one has corrected me about that. Are any other kind of offenses being actually punished?

You are mostly correct: leaving should only be reported if they admit/imply that they are leaving intentionally, otherwise we can't know fur sure whether they left on purpose or disconnected. For Gamethrowing cases, you have a good gist of what is usually enforceable.

The developers have confirmed that a leaver-buster system is on their list of planned features for after the unity port is brought to web version. So when that's eventually implemented, general leaving should become less prevalent.

[Flavorable]

Also it’s funny to see that a global moderator named Favourable answers suggestions after me of someone who posted today regarding his doubts asking about a tutorial but cannot answers even one of my question or challenge me on my suggestions in anyway. So disappointing to see people half heartedly doing their job for a game that could be so much more. If anybody working for this game if you work like that in Valve or any high profile company you’ll wouldn’t even last a month. Also reading the quality of response is as good as the garbage I take out every morning. Time to straighten up or not as it seems you don’t care. Wow I am shocked for certain.

Not sure what I have to do with anything? I also didn't reply to any suggestion about a tutorial after you posted, I think you may have misread the reply dates or something.

Regardless, I already sent a link to this post to the Devs after you posted it. They have been looking at suggestions and feedback on different media and try to handle things that they feel the community would like to see improved.

P.S. The name is Flavorable.

[orangeandblack5]

the duality of man

[Abhishek1996]

ScarfVendetta appreciate the reply but are you an admin or moderator or personally know the developers that you have so confidently said certain things that I am gonna break it down further for you and ask further questions.
1)I have gone as far as the review of back to 6 months On Play Store(Andriod),Steam Market and App Store(IOS) but review as back 6-8 months haven’t been replied to, people who have even given 5 stars haven’t been replied to. So you saying occasionally does it mean yearly. As it is very poor of developers to not respond to app reviews.
2)To mention regarding pay to play, I haven’t payed and even though you say that watch an ad to play still keeps a loophole for bots to come well in the past 30 days I must have played close to 50, I never experienced a bot just gamethrowers, racist slangs etc but I haven’t experienced bots in anyway and mind you I am from a close to similar developer background and captcha and harsher bot filters are the most pathetic ways to get rid of bots, but captcha could still be relevant if included at a right time and right place. If you are a developer I would Be interested in elaborating About this otherwise there is no use of me sharing knowledge that won’t be used and if the Developers have chosen a model of pay to play from the start why not make it official Just that because people are buying the game and giving it a bad report so what is the plan here or a simpler solution I have is that out of classic, ranked practice and ranked keep classic opened for free to play rest the coven and the ranked practice/ranked can be made available to people who pay 5$.
3) Well that’s utter nonesense for a person who is playing free as the game itself is free. So if all this is available for people who pay again just make the game for people who want to pay as I mentioned earlier any person addicted to the game will look to spend money in a game. So either give silver coin to people who pay to play and not to non payers.SIMPLE!
4)If I want to make suggestions on to blankmediagameS website why does the get help function Direct me to here. If the suggested page is proper for suggestions then why does this page of town of Salem exist with a suggestion tab... is to waste the time of people or for the entertainment of the people who work for BlankMedia and TOS.
5) Ok so you are blaming blankmediagames for the number of advertisement, Son you may fool others On this website but not someone like me who has a stronger background then the developers themselves as I say not To disrespect these developer but as Something that I can help them with which they make lack the knowledge of and I am most certain of helping. Can you explain that after trying from me and my brother account after a while that each one of us get 1 ad to play is it a coincidence I don’t think so because I am sure lot of people who are using free to play face the same thing so are you saying BlankMedia give 1 ad or no ad to everyone and that is a coincidence right? Please at least be honest and know who are talking to I purposely wrote me and my brothers background to not face bs like this but you still keep feeding me just that.Also as it is ruining the experience of the game it is foremost the job of the developers to sort it out asap not expect players reviews to do it. I Mean come on. I just see this mostly as monetary gains rather then caring about people and the game.
6)Ok I will check that one out let’s see how they respond as I am gonna ask for 6 tickets which I rightfully bugged out of, let’s see the time to respond and even if they respond.
Also signing Of let me correct you In certain things when you consider people who are genuinely interested do you consider people who know town of Salem already as genuinely interested or people who are as well interested but are new to the game? You may say they can play free from watch to ads and learn about the game, but let me tell you something If I made a absolute newbie play a game of Town of Salem they would take a minimum of 10 games to truly understand the game. They may get lynched or just don’t know what is what. Also the ad to play which you so politely blame blank media for only gives 1 game a day to play so any logical person will mostly likely uninstall the game Right away. For me I have value for money Coming from poor parents Though I have a lot of money now but I like to spend on things that value or give justice to money so for me buying 5$ isn’t a big deal but still leavers,gamethrowers, racist people still exist and if your 5$ would improve that and deal with those issues I am happy to pay but let me guess it doesn’t. Also I can easily tell you that the ratio of people wanting the game free versus the one who wants to make it strictly pay to play is 25:1, go on the reviews and please have a look check play store for a start let’s see if you share the same opinion there after as well. Also I myself was not long before in my younger days was one of those people who couldn’t afford 5$ Or otherwise there are children who ask their parents or are financially dependent on them so do the developers think of that. It’s easy for you to say 5$ is manageable try to visit a third world country son you will value 5$ thereafter too.
I feel you know the developers or are A developer undercover replying to my messages Well if you Are, I would like to help you provided you want to be helped and even back then when we use to play bots didn’t make a big deal on a average let’s say if there a bot in game but there aren’t gamethrowers or leavers I would still have a good experience on the game. Also if you are not a developer I must say you have been brainwashed well by the developers. Also If you are developer or someone from the company I am gonna reply further if not I am not gonna bother wasting my time as a I genuinely wanna help free of cost which I feel is a big deal. None the less thanks for your reply ScarfVendetta. If my language or way of speech made you feel upset or unpleasant I would apologise to you .Take Care and Stay safe

[Joacgroso]

Scarf just said the advertisement thing is not BMG's fault, but for some reason you keep saying he said the opposite...

[Abhishek1996]

Hagg1s where I come from customer service of a game is never so poor Especially the ones that has active players till date that it takes more then a day to reply I like how you’ll are trying to gang up man really good. There are lot of people like me who would speak up but now I see why they don’t, cause people like you gang up To try to silence them out by making fun of them how ironic and “Flavorable thanks for your efforts I hope the developers see this”. I would say other then that also say that I speak out of emotion too out of the love I have for this game and I was truly disappointed of how it has turned out to be having the likes of Pewdiepie play this game just gives me a glimpse that the game is in a downward spiral and is a mere shadow of what it was . Anyways I encourage people like Hagg1s at least I am getting more exposure this way Of what I wish to put out. Lol cheers

[williewest]

(that entire blob of text)

If you put anymore run-on sentences in, I'm gonna start making period jokes, because it's scaring people that you're not having enough of them.

Good god, if you're as experienced as you say, you need a few lessons in your approach to customer service and how you reach out to other platforms.
Formatting and grammar, that's all I can give you as advice. It should not be a chore for them to decipher what you're saying.

[Abhishek1996]

Joacgroso well my bad still my point remains the same that it is something that hampers the game experience and Should be dealt by the developers as those so called advertisers are not doing a great job also getting 1 ad itself Leading to one game a day must have been a say of the developers and not the advertisers I hope this explains my point better. You can’t just blame those advertisers blindly when many players face similar issues after having the game a couple of days of having one ad one game or no ad no game per day. I mean I hope you understanding what I am saying and aren’t pretending to be not. The developers must have said the advertisers to make the game to play once a day after a while Is what I wanna know. Also I am very very curious to know about the problems with the bots as that seems like a very very huge deal well I am here to help let’s see how things go. Take care

[Joacgroso]

Joacgroso: Well, my bad. Still, my point remains the same: it is something that hampers the game experience and should be dealt with by the developers, as those so called "advertisers" are not doing a great job. Also, getting 1 ad itself leading to one game a day must have been a say of the developers and not the advertisers. I hope this explains my point better. You can’t just blame those advertisers blindly when many players face similar issues after having the game a couple of days or having one ad one game or no ad no game per day. I mean, I hope you are understanding what I am saying and aren’t pretending not to. The developers must have told the advertisers to make the game to play once a day after a while. That is what I wanna know. Also, I am very, very eager to know about the problems with the bots, as that seems like a very, very huge deal. Well, I am here to help. Let’s see how things go. Take care.

I don't think you're being fair with BMG, tbh. You blame the devs for what the advertisers do, but you forget that the job of the advertisers isn't to convince people to play Town of Salem or to show them ads. Their goal is to convince potential customers to buy the product they are advertising. And since they have to pay in order to be advertised, they won't waste their money by showing ads to a public who isn't their target market, or by showing the same ad twice if they don't consider it neccessary. And that has nothing to do with BMG.
The main problem with what you are saying is that you are assuming devs have something to do with ads without reason. I must admit I don't know a lot about how advertisement works, but you haven't explained it either. Why would devs want people to play less games? That doesn't really align with their actions (see how they created coven tickets and free coven weekends so people would play coven without paying). I'm inclined to believe they don't choose the amount of ads per player.
By the way, I'm not pretending I don't understand what you say. I really don't get why you assume the devs chose to restrain people to one game per day. The fact other players have the same issue can be explained by the saying that advertisers choose who to show their ads because of their profile, while BMG has nothing to do with it.
Also, I can't answer you question about bots since I wasn't playing the game when it happened.

[kyuss420]

jeeze... Im in australia, and getting ads for free stuff in games is a nightmare.. (I have premium for BMG, so I can only compare other from other games) The ads are regional, and australia doesnt have many advertisers who advertise in this fashion, so I might get 20 ads the first day, then none for a week, in some cases (for some reason they dont like to repeat)

[Flavorable]

Advertisements are based by advertisers and are generally based on multiple things, among which your location, age, gender, purchase/download patterns and even which phone brand you use and which OS is on your phone. If developers had any influence on ads to begin with (which I am very very surprised a self-proclaimed IT engineer such as yourself, OP, doesn't know), they'd be showing ads all day long, since ad revenue is actually a big thing for developers.

[Abhishek1996]

Well Flavorable and others who don't understand my clear question regarding the ads let me explain it easily to you, you are telling me that ads are based on the various factors which you mentioned before and I will give that to you, you are very right in that but I am asking that not only me but a lot of people from various backgrounds, different Operating Systems face the same issue regarding ads, well from country to country It differs and is a justified point but most people face the same issue of getting only 1ad a day or no ad per day as this itself is hampering the gaming experience of people who don't pay to play as it limits them from playing.
Ad revenue is not as simple as you put it and I am not your Dad to teach you if you wanna learn more there is much information on the internet cause your understanding is as good as a donkeys in this case, also your knowledge is half or you just have copy pasted the reply given to you. Here the way you claim it the advertisements own more power then the companys as they are degrading the experience of players and lot of reviews and posts indicate the same and yet I will refer to as "Team of Town of Salem" hasn't handled it. Flavorable if you wanna act rude again and not treat my doubts respectful then I truly don't have much to say. If you have anything else to say in a respectful manner which is constructive then I am here until the end of the week which I doubt is gonna help and I am only replying to you cause you are a part of the company or hold some sort of power in it or if I find anyone rude here Whos not a part of the company , I am not gonna reply to them but thank them for reading and making the post boom

[LevinSnakesRise]

Yet you responded to Flavorable after calling her 'rude' and basically in no lesser terms, called her a Donkey.

This thread is getting locked. First of all, it's in the wrong subforum. You might have tacked on some suggestions, but even the title says 'question'. I could just move it, but the fact this has devolved to mud-slinging for those who are trying to help answer your questions and concerns, there's no point in keep it open. Half of the mud-slinging on here would get those of you doing it banned if a Developer were to look at this thread, which Flavorable mentioned she sent their way.

To re-address all concerns in OP;

1.) I doubt they review any review on any of the app-stores. I know they check Steam, mainly due to they get a bunch of "fake" reviews (i.e: "I was banned unfairly for spamming the N-word. Let me have my fun! They stole my money, and I'm suing" (real 'downvote' review btw).

2.) It was changed in due to having little other choice to try to preserve the remaining integrity of the game. While they attempted many other fixes for the botting, it took too long and the game degraded into every other game having someone spamming racial slurs or targeting staff members and dragging their names through the mud. We then swapped to P2P to prevent this. While we did bring in some botted accounts, we then proceeded to remove them. We also put out Cease and Desist orders towards those who were running the bots. Today, we have a system in place to help get rid of the very few remaining botters that might lurk before they even get to do any botting, and they've basically been dissolved.

3.) The Merit Points were introduced to make Town Points more valuable as a Premium Currency, and Merit Points as a freemium currency. I'm pretty sure most people understand a Freemium/Premium currency system, so I won't bother explaining.

4.) The Developers have plans. They're just working on making sure the entire game is still accessible before Flash dies prior to December 2020. This way people aren't forced to buy Steam when they already can access the game via Browser and pay more unnecessary money.

5.) I created an ad-based FAQ here: viewtopic.php?f=38&t=106594
Unfortunately there's nothing you as a player, or the Developers can do about it. That's completely up to Unity. Neither party aside from Unity has any control (or influence) over those ads.

6.) As for this I'm not sure. You probably need to email the Developers and ask, but I do know they were fixing bugs with tickets for Classic and Coven about 2-3 weeks ago. I was in-game while they were working on it and speaking to them about it.

Anything further you can email our Community Manager via;
support@blankmediagames.zendesk.com

And I implore you to link this thread in your email to them. I'm sure they'd enjoy it.

Cheers.