The Simpsons Tapped Out is a phenomenal success for EA. In truth EA really have not exploited The Simpsons license like many people thought they would when the secured the rights to TV’s most famous family. But they sure as heck are making up for it with their Simpsons Tapped Out game which started life out on the iOS, but has since found its way onto the Android market place as well.
The Simpsons Tapped Out is a free city builder style of game. While the game is 100 percent free to download. If you want to get some of the games cooler content you need to use donuts in order to do this. So things like various classic Simpsons properties and characters cannot be unlocked in game and you have to buy them. Donuts are the games form of currency. And while you can earn donuts in the game by doing various tasks and whatever. If you really want to get the best items you simply have to put your hand in your pocket and pay for them with real money……… or do you?
Some people have managed to hack the game in order to get free donuts and thus unlock all the games premium content for free. Some people are even going the extra step by using their hacking knowledge to sell donuts to other players, but at a cheaper rate than what the game offers.
This really has split the community of Simpsons Tapped Out right down the middle. Some gamers are up in arms about this. Others are disgusted by the prices EA are charging and see this as a way of “sticking it†to them. And as you would expect EA are trying their best to fight these hackers off, but for every update they do it’s like the hackers are one step ahead. The question is though is should gamers be doing this?
One thing about Simpsons Tapped Out that has rubbed many people up the wrong way is the price of the in game items. You can spend the better part of £100 of real money on donuts and that still is not enough money to buy every single item in the game. This is something that has really annoyed many gamers. You spend £100 on a game, but it is still not enough to see and experience everything the game has to offer and that is ok? Or you can buy a game like Grand Theft Auto 5 where say £45 is enough to see everything the game has to offer, but a mobile game can require over £100 to see all the game has to offer? There really is something wrong when you look at it like that.
One thing that perhaps EA could have done to avoid this was say offer a version of The Simpsons Tapped Out at a higher price say £20 which would then have all of the premium content up to a certain point unlocked. Then the gamer could decide if they wanted to buy more premium content as it becomes available.
The high price of in game content though does not give people the right to steal these premium items. The truth is you can play this game and still have a great deal of fun without ever spending a single penny. Which is great and you have to give EA a great deal of credit for that. And if a player wants to put their hand in their pocket and buy some premium items then that is up to them.
The Simpsons Tapped Out can be a very expensive game if you let it be, but at the end of the day if a gamer wants to spend their hard earned money on premium items in the game that is up to them. But in no way should people be stealing in game items.
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