Another update

I am finding it quite amusing to watch the rating drop at the iTunes store. It's gone from 3.5 to 2 overnight. How low will it go?

Look on appdata.com and see how many users they've lost

30,000 in the last week

Soone wrote on my wall re a 24 hour boycott. Has anyone else heard of this?

yes the boycott is tomorrow, please join. its all over their face book page
x

Chickenchick111 wrote:Just left this review, but guess what, it won't post so I can see it on there, I've submitted many times and refreshed to see if there with the others but nope, another conspiracy?

The worst improved game play I've ever seen. Can't enter friend codes, can't gift properly as it crashes your game, there's hardly any drops on tokens needed to enter rooms, plenty of exchange items but you can't find any of the creature to exchange with. The Olympic theme is fun but they should have checked game worked before sending a crappy update that is not working for anyone on any forum anywhere in the world! Not fit for purpose and the game will now cost anyone getting it a lot as they've fixed it so that nothing is free in gameplay if you want to progress and complete various quests. Be prepared to now buy seventy quid of diamonds a week just to increase energy sufficiently to play for a decent length of time, to visit rooms or to buy the items that no longer drop to complete quests or collections. Ive emailed support and got a ridiculous reply completely contradicting the post they've put out on Facebook about apple not allowing friend code use, my reply said the server had problems and that gameplay would be fixed 'sometime' soon and the guy asked me if I hear or have any more information that will,help them resolve the bugs then to let him know!! So I already buy diamonds weekly, I now can't complete quests as I can't add enough high level players to gift the needed items, If they were high enough level they can't gift anyway due to the bug and they won't have the item needed as it doesn't drop anyway!!! This player is off unless the game is playable which it hasnt been for two updates. They've worried more about trying to stop multiple gifts being sent and pretty graphics than they have making the game function correctly and the update prior to this was as bad but this one has bugged more than fixed. DO NOT GET THE GAME IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SPEND A LOT ON IN APP PURCHASE, THIS IS IN NO WAY A FREE GAME NOW, GREED OF DEVELOPERS IS ASTONISHING NOW. loyal players are being punished and can't play a game they've invested time and money in. 
Fix the game g.i and I'll back this up to five stars, until then from what I've read from everyone everywhere, we are all giving you one star reviews and if we could give zero we would!

I too am at the end of my rope with this game. I gave it a one star rating with a review, but it also did not post? I retried multiple times refreshing in between. Still nothing Here's my review:

Game has great potential, but with the recent updates has become outrageously expensive & impossible to play. Older versions had "glitches" that evened out the playing field in favor of the game players. With the new updates, GI has not only fixed the glitches, but also made changes that take away from the user experience and make game play slow, painful & frustrating (e.g. gift sent modal when accepting gifts, not listing friends in alphabetical order for easy searching, not providing a way to search for specific friends, not filtering friend list when requesting gifts that require friends of a certain level, removing ability to add friends via friend code to collect diamonds, and the list goes on and on...)

Quests & events in the new version require impossible amounts of items to collect & charge. You of course have the option to pay for the items, but when you need 200 flaming skulls to charge a collection at 6 diamonds per skull, it gets a little out of hand. You can request these items from friends, but again GI has not only made this task incredibly painful, but also places daily limits on the number of items you can send & accept. 

From what I've seen, most of the updates have been in GI's favor with none of the enhancements focusing on usability for the end user. If anything they take functionality away from us users. Examples:
1) When accepting gifts we used to be able to tap anywhere in the friends picture. Now we have to tap a ver specific & small button at the bottom of each friend picture. What is the reasoning behind this? Who gains what from this "enhancement?"
2) When accepting gifts we used to be able to simply tap to thank the friend who was kind enough to send us a gift and move onto accepting the next gift. Now after each gift there's an annoying & pointless "Gift Sent" modal. Again, another "enhancement" that decreases usability for us and significantly slows down the process of accepting gifts. Many of us have hundreds of friends so imagine this modal after a gift from each of your friends. Very time consuming! You're other option is to skip this painful process & directly pay. Win for GI & loss for game players. 
3) Using charms used to increase the number & frequency with which items dropped from rooms & when trading with or banishing creatures. With the latest update, drops are noticeably less even when running charms. End result - you have to spend more of your resources to collect items that you need for collections, quests, etc. 
4) There is a legitimate function that allowed us to add friends (by accessing the friends button on the right & then going to the services tab). Having many friends in the game is beneficial to game players as we can request gifts from friends, make trades with friends, etc. There are also achievements where we're rewarded for reaching different friend thresholds (e.g. You get a gift for having 100 friends, then 200 and so on). There were already limits with this function. Each person could only be added 3 times in one day. Now GI has completely removed this feature. 

Personally I love the concept behind the game, but am being forced to stop playing as the economics behind the game are unreasonable & unrealistic. This (economics) in combination with the updates that constantly take away from usability have taken all of the fun out of the game for me. In order to avoid spending money to play & progress in the game, you are required to lean on friends. The "enhancements" they've made around friends & gifting have made it so painful & time consuming that this game is no longer an option if you want to also participate in your real (non virtual) life. If GI brought back some of the old "glitches" & removed the useless gift sent modal, I would be inclined to pick the game back up. 

My recommendation: unless you're willing to shell out huge amounts of cash to complete quests & events or spend all of your days painfully requesting & accepting gifts from friends then avoid this game like the plague. 

Wouldn't post my 1 star review either

Demdike wrote:Wouldn't post my 1 star review either

I heard it takes 24 hours to post. I'm checking back tomorrow

If these don't post by tomorrow, we should really contact Apple. Has anyone heard from them since it is their "policy" being lamed for theses shenanigans?

jill4444 wrote:

Demdike wrote:Wouldn't post my 1 star review either

I heard it takes 24 hours to post. I'm checking back tomorrow

FYI - just checked back & my review is now there

xoxo DONNA xoxo wrote:I will be joining the Monday boycott of MM hope you will all join me x

I'm boycotting today too, I'm amazed that there has been no response from GI, the Facebook thread has over 500 posts, surely someone working for GI (And I hear there are 400 of them) must be monitoring it. Shows their complete contempt for the players who are paying their wages. I think that if there isn't a response after the one day boycott we should step it up to a whole week and then pack it in completely! Can anyone recommend another game we could all migrate to?

It's monday morning overhere! Normally I play MM during my breakfast, but not today! Joining the boycott, because MM really pissed me off this time. My highlights of playing this game 9 months;

- I bought diamonds to assemble the Christmas tree. This tree would give me one free collection item every day. After 3 days, my tree dissapeared. GI is still 'fixing the problem'
- I've lost countless collection items because of crashing
- I've lost countless gifts because of crashing
- For a whole month I wasn't able to visit friends
- I've charged a lot of collections, without getting the items promised
- I got a warning for 'time cheating', I don't evenknow what that is or how to do it!

And let's not forget the countless 'internet connection required' messages, random crashes and the period with empty thank you gifts.

After the Christmas tree disaster, I swore never to buy diamonds again. I didn't, and just used the synthesizer for ridiculous quests like the 300 oil cans. But wait! Can't enter friend codes anymore!

Not only should we boycott for one day, but idiots like me who actually gave these greedy meanies money, should demand a refund.

Avis wrote:Can anyone recommend another game we could all migrate to?

I've dabbled in a number of games over the years but always go for puzzles over FPS etc and the only one that I found addictive was Puzzle Pirates. It's not on iPad though

I'm boycotting today too.

I had an email back from them this morning - the last response asked for usual stuff, UDID screenshots etc

I told them they knew what the issues were and to stop stuffing up our game. I said I want to know when friend codes were coming back, what was going on with gifting etc

The new response was - we are passing your queries over to our specialist team and someone will be in touch in 5 days

Funny they didn't mention it was because of Apples policy that friend codes had been removed.......

Since I'm on MM strike today and maybe forever... I though I'd contact some of the other game developers such as Big Fish and see if they would develop at game like MM... Hope some of you will do the same... If they see how many of us are interested and the profit they could make it would be beneficial to us all... Wish me luck... :-)

Push notification from MM this morning: "Katherine is surprised so many letters from friends are sitting unread in Mystery Manor. They are asking you to send them some gifts!"

Dear Katherine,

I am surprised so many complaints from your guests have gone unanswered. They are asking to be treated fairly and in return, they will do the same.

Oh, and guilt tripping has backfired with me since I was about 15, which was a long time ago.

Sincerely,
So Done With This Game

Since I'm on MM strike today and maybe forever... I though I'd contact some of the other game developers such as Big Fish and see if they would develop at game like MM... Hope some of you will do the same... If they see how many of us are interested and the profit they could make it would be beneficial to us all... Wish me luck... :-)


I am sending you this message to ask if you would please develop a game like Mystery Manor Hidden Adventure from Game insight...There are a lot of dissatisfied paying players with GI... You can check for yourself on the MM app reviews and on Facebook MM Hidden Adventure page... There is even a boycott of the game going on by players... 

I feel your time and effort into developing a new game would be profitable... Some of the post of players are asking if anyone knows of a game to download and I for one would much appreciate a new challenge... 

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon... 


Sent from my iPad

]Since I'm on MM strike today and maybe forever... I though I'd contact some of the other game developers such as Big Fish and see if they would develop at game like MM... Hope some of you will do the same... If they see how many of us are interested and the profit they could make it would be beneficial to us all... Wish me luck... :-)


I am sending you this message to ask if you would please develop a game like Mystery Manor Hidden Adventure from Game insight...There are a lot of dissatisfied paying players with GI... You can check for yourself on the MM app reviews and on Facebook MM Hidden Adventure page... There is even a boycott of the game going on by players... 

I feel your time and effort into developing a new game would be profitable... Some of the post of players are asking if anyone knows of a game to download and I for one would much appreciate a new challenge... 

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon... 

This is the message I am sending out to developers of other games... I truly hope GI will come through and take us serious but if not... Hopefully a new game will come along we can all play and be appreciated...

Just received this Roy and appreciate the prompt reply and being address like a human... Has anyone played this Moonwall game yet... Think I'll try it just because they have been so nice and helpful...



Have fun, and if you need any help with the game, you can always use this e-mail, to contact me

Marcin


Thanks for your prompt reply... I will download TSOMP... I will recommend this game to friends and other players if all go well...
I will keep checking back on your new games...
Thanks again,
Cynthia
 

Hi Cynthia!
You can try out our adventure game series - The Secret of Moonwall Palace, maybe you would like it as well.
We already have additional adventure games in develop, so stay tuned

Best regards,
Marcin Makaj,
The Moonwalls.


Message
Dear Developers,
I am sending you this message to ask if you would please develop a game like Mystery Manor Hidden Adventure from Game insight...There are a lot of dissatisfied paying players with GI... You can check for yourself on the MM app reviews and on Facebook MM Hidden Adventure page... There is even a boycott of the game going on by players... 

I feel your time and effort into developing a new game would be profitable... Some of the post of players are asking if anyone knows of a game to download and I for one would much appreciate a new challenge... 

Thank you for your time and I hope to hear from you soon... 

jill4444 wrote:

jill4444 wrote:

Demdike wrote:Wouldn't post my 1 star review either

I heard it takes 24 hours to post. I'm checking back tomorrow

FYI - just checked back & my review is now there

Been checking hourly, mine still isn't and I still get the you cannot review or star rate this app at this time message. I too call shenanigans lol

Oh wow, look what just came through to me.....


Please do not write below this line ##

Request # 162615: Hi, Since new update there is a blank screen in the services tab where the friend code add w...

Dear Bigbeast_1999,

We are going to go ahead and mark your request as solved. If you have further questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to reply to this email and we will gladly further assist you.

Michael Pastorius, Aug 13 18:26 (MSK):

Thank you for writing me back!

All items in the game will appear, but there is a certain amount of luck involved. Some items are harder to come by than others, but using the appropriate charms and helpers will make them appear sooner. Anyway, I shall transfer your request to our specialists for review. According to the gameplay the creatures appear randomly during all your playing. To get different creatures you need to hit all previous characters in your Manor. Note that you need to be at a certain level. The higher level you have, the more various creatures you get.

We love hearing from our players. We're constantly working to improve and upgrade the game, and we take feedback from our players seriously! We transferred your request to our specialists so they could take it into account!

In the meantime should you come across any other questions feel free to contact our Support Team! We are always there to help you!

Your Support team, Michael Pastorius

Bigbeast_1999, Aug 10 22:16 (MSK):

Hi Michael, Thank you for your reply. I have just purchased my regular £69.99 diamonds, this is a weekly purchase I make on a Friday when you put weekend offer up. I love mm, I believe I am a good loyal player since I found the game. I have some questions regarding my game play. 1) since the pirate island update the drop rate for cannonball, seeds, batteries, gravitron, containers and corals has been much lower plus there is now almost no possibility of finding the monsters to exchange these items with. My inventory is full of the swap items but only two of my 200 friends have blackbeard and a seahorse but have since banished these themself. Will a new update make accessing the token rooms easier? There are many things since the last two updates that seem to show that game insight are now almost forcing advance in the game to be by purchase of diamonds.. I am not a player who uses friend code synthesizer or other ways to 'create' free diamonds, I just buy from the bank so I may buy tools and roses for artefact. I will not EVER use my diamonds to buy tokens for rooms. The drop or exchange of this must be amended. 2) many players manage a system whereby they can send more than one gift, I don't know how to do this and usually purchase charge items I need but having an achievement to attain many friends seems futile when you can only satisfy certain players with fifty gifts. 3) will there be any update that lists your friends from low level to high level in the gift requests to make it easier to request from the correct level player the correct level gift?4) friends in USA say they are able to buy collector chests and detective chests through the shop, I can only get this from maximum achievement award. Are there plans to allow shop for UK players to sell these?5) I notice in friends manor some creature I attempt to banish knowing I have weapon (for example I just received snatchin chest so have 500 each weapon), I try to banish snatchin and it says buy and banish instead of allowing me to banish. There are many great features of the game, hence why I play and purchase when many people do not, but each update seems to cause extra difficulties so far since July. Do you have any idea of when things will be fixed?Oh and also since Olympic update, I always have roses artefact charged and always used coins to purchase bronze phoenix to run concurrently with it but since the update I see this now will only allow if using charm you must purchase with diamonds. I will NEVER use my diamonds to buy these charms, only the roses, so all blocking this has done is to cut down my game play and consequently my need to buy diamonds, if I can't play all day I will not use up as many diamonds so in the long term, for game insight to make money from diamond purchase this has negative effect as I would use many more if I was able to use my 300000 plus coins to spend 7500 bronze phoenix charm, I will not buy 20diamond golden. Can you let me know what you think? It'd be great to know.

What did I like about this game?
I liked that I needed to complete collections of items and that the main way of doing this was interacting with other players. I liked that if I wanted to just do a visit/gift day, that was fine, but when I had more time, I could use a turtle and that really helped collection items to drop making it easier for me to help my friends, in turn. I liked the altruism that I felt when gifting and the specialness I felt when I was gifted by others. I liked the wall and the relationships I have been able to develop that are mainly game centered, but we ask what we're having for dinner occassionally too. I liked that most players seem to be more experienced (not teens). I liked that I needed to exercise patience, but if it got to be too much, I could use diamonds (free) to complete quests. I like the goal of opening new rooms. I like that I could do it entirely on my own, or with loads of help. These are some of the qualitites I would like in a new game if we switch en masse. I'd even buy some in-game currency from a new game just as a thank you!

Sorry, if this might have been posted already. Didn't have time to read 10 pages of posts.

Other things of note in the latest update.

You cannot gift Flowers, Atlanteans Collection or anything collection that has a cash register symbol with it (meaning any collection that you can buy the collection items) Unless they are in the friends wishlist. Sending them randomly from the collections tab is no longer possible.

Since I have yet to update, I can still send all of those items as well as anyone else who has remained behind.

Also, for those looking for Mercury, this can be loaned from another friend who has updated to the latest update. It will be in the collection to the left of wolf pelt. So, instead of buying idols to appear or using up all your energy, just ask a friend who has it to loan it to you, then send it back.

puertokelly wrote:What did I like about this game?
I liked that I needed to complete collections of items and that the main way of doing this was interacting with other players. I liked that if I wanted to just do a visit/gift day, that was fine, but when I had more time, I could use a turtle and that really helped collection items to drop making it easier for me to help my friends, in turn. I liked the altruism that I felt when gifting and the specialness I felt when I was gifted by others. I liked the wall and the relationships I have been able to develop that are mainly game centered, but we ask what we're having for dinner occassionally too. I liked that most players seem to be more experienced (not teens). I liked that I needed to exercise patience, but if it got to be too much, I could use diamonds (free) to complete quests. I like the goal of opening new rooms. I like that I could do it entirely on my own, or with loads of help. These are some of the qualitites I would like in a new game if we switch en masse. I'd even buy some in-game currency from a new game just as a thank you!

Very well said! I feel exactly the same way. That's what made me spend sooo much time on this game, and that's what GI screwed up. You should post this on their fb page so they know. They need that vision of the kind of freedom we need to enjoy the game!