To pay or not to pay

[craigodile]

Hi guys,

On a couple of the Airport City Facebook groups the topic of payment comes up now and again and some people take a lot of pride in not paying for anything on Airport City, ever.

This is sort of fair enough. I’ve bought a few greens, but consider it cheating in a way. I like to progress by play only, and have bought greens after I’ve stupidly accidentally clicked to speed up a one minute house collection or something. Duh!

But I’ve been thinking recently that this is a pretty good game, I spend a lot of time on it, and I get plenty of enjoyment. As such I intend to “thank” the developers by buying the occasional thing from the bank.I think this is probably morally the right thing to do.

Just interested to hear the thoughts of others.

 

[Dave]

I buy sometimes. In the recent sale I purchased 720 greens so I could expand my land and also get a few more Tesla Power Plants. That will probably do me 6 months when I will purchase a few more.

It's a great games that provides many hours (or years) of entertainment. A purchase everynow and then isn't too bad!

 

[AvsFan]

I have been contemplating the same thing. I don’t necessarily want to purchase greens though as you mentioned feels like cheating and I enjoy playing through it. I might do the 3 month silver subscription. It gives a permanent bonus to coins and exp gained as well as bonuses to fuel. Seems like that would be a good way to pay for the entertainment.

 

[Barkmi4 (Mike)]

To be very black and white on the matter, if the game doesn’t make money it will eventually get shutdown.

I can see why people take pride in not spending on the game, I played for the best part of 8 years or more without spending. I was a lot younger then and didn’t have the same level of disposable income.

I wouldn’t consider it cheating at all. There is a point where you can only buy land with greens, this price rises gradually. You will make 4 or 5 greens per week, land costs me 120 at full price, 60 at sale. 12 weeks is a long time to wait for a small gain. It sounds like you aren’t at that point yet?

Personally I would buy greens rather than a subscription- I did a subscription recently and, in hindsight, wish i‘d spend the money on greens and land. You need a city of a certain size to be able to fly the bigger planes, particularly if you fly maps. It would take years of free codes to get to that point without spending.

 

[Dave]

I've got the 60 greens per piece of land to look forward to! Mine just changed from 30 to 40 greens when I was adding land the other day.

Now if they add a green producing building that was active for the duration of the subscription - That would be a great incentive to subscribe!

 

[Chloe11111]

GI is a software company. Developers deserve a salary. Improvements in the game come from investment. If there were not people putting actual dollars into the game, GI would probably kill it because they wouldn't get enough from ad revenue to improve the game.

Play for free if you like. But thank the players that put actual money into the game.

 

[Ddave1]

It’s always a topic that gets lots of answers.

It’s all down to the individual.

When I started playing computer games it was the late 70’s with home game stations and “pong” . It cost money to buy the basic console. I then moved on to commodores and Atari and now I had to pay for tapes or discs to get new games. I moved on to PlayStations, I spent god knows how much on games like gran truismo, tomb raider, etc etc. As I moved onto PlayStation 2 I got it chipped so I could download copied games and play them but even that cost money , the chipand blank cd discs or dvd discs.

As we move into the current games period with iPhones and android we have apps, some are free and some we pay. My wife has played candy crush since it started and every now and then she pays a few pounds to get bonus,s

what I’m trying to say is that if you play a game long enough thenwhy not pay some money. In the current age people are all about getting free this and free that. It’s up to the individual and it’s certainly not any form of cheating or getting an advantage.

I would guess over the 6 or 7 years I’ve been playing I think I have paid maybe 300 pounds on a gold sub and before that some greens. That amount could not even get me a second hand latest PlayStation console and it’s way way less than what many people have payed on AC. AC is a game which can be played by those who pay nothing and those who want to pay, just like almost every game in the app stores.

You said in the OP that you enjoy the game so why not, how many people have spent 30/40/50 pounds on a PlayStation game or Xbox game then played it for a short time before getting bored.

I laugh that my wife pays a few pounds on candy crush as I think it’s a rubbish game but she enjoys it

 

[Husam]

I spend money for something I like and this game is part of my life now (family first) and I spend a lot on this game and I am happy, I have CBM buildings and they give me greenies what I need but some times I need more.
So always I am saying some people spend money on restaurants food and others for travilling and other things and some gamers spend money on games, I am one of them 😁

 

[amir77a]

IMHO a player is unable to make significant progress without paying.
Yes, I aware the fact that some players, made progress without spending one penny, but as I (in my current stage) need 40 greenies (on sale) to buy land, I can't wait 14 weeks to buy one piece of land.

Yes, I am willing to pay, and I am paying, but it makes me angry, that as you progress, the costs rise to ridiculous amounts.
Take for example the 1000 greenies oil station. that is ridiculous.

 

[Dave]

IMHO a player is unable to make significant progress without paying.
Yes, I aware the fact that some players, made progress without spending one penny, but as I (in my current stage) need 40 greenies (on sale) to buy land, I can't wait 14 weeks to buy one piece of land.

Yes, I am willing to pay, and I am paying, but it makes me angry, that as you progress, the costs rise to ridiculous amounts.
Take for example the 1000 greenies oil station. that is ridiculous.

I remember when 360 greenies was £23, Now it's £28
Some of the pricing is a bit odd, i'll give you that!

 

[Kiwi Claire]

Generally - I balance my enjoyment of the game against the level of service I get when considering whether to spend....

• service - have an issue, report it to 'customer care' who seem to reply to some other issue entirely and when I reply trying to clarify the situation - I get email returned to me, saying I have replied to a closed case. That non service does not deserve my support.
• Working within game - create a building that takes up space that took a while to be able to purchase... only to find the building is absolutely useless and now I can't even remove it. The function it is supposed to enable is no longer part of the game. Why leave buildings in game after you have changed the game to make them useless?
• Bugged items stay bugged for way to long. And even after customer care acknowledge an item is bugged - it remains in game, usable by the player - and even stays as part of limited number of items available in event 'shop'. That's shameful and not a strategy I see as worthy of direct financial support.

Personally I think the number of ads I play supports the game as much as I think it is worth... and to get me to spend - they need to up their service, and reduce the amount of rng in game. If I could buy 1 item for an event collection specifically - spending is way more likely... but spending $10 for the chance that I may get what I want amongst who knows how many items I don't need does not work for me.