Deleted User - 4343124
Guest
I think what is happening is that Inno pays the bills by selling diamonds. Consequently, they can't give too many away for free so cutting back on wishing wells. They also need to have something special for people to spend diamonds on so they are trying to establish a new (lower) normal for event buildings so that diamond buildings can really stand out. It's hard to sell magic houses if event buildings give as much or more than the diamond buildings so it looks like they are really cutting back on how much pop the event buildings give. Maybe what they are finding is that the big players mostly already have all the diamond buildings they are going to buy and the money is in selling diamonds to smaller cities that want to become bigger more powerful cities faster. Consequently, it doesn't pay to to be offering too many really awesome event buildings. So what we're seeing is a move to focus more on the little cities more so than the bigger ones.
Going back to the issue of diamonds I suspect that Inno had really hoped that the Spire would result in more diamond purchases. By making the fights hard enough that many people would have to cater I think they imagined people buying diamonds every now and again to keep going and that there would be peer pressure within each fs to encourage folks to push further. They recently removed a bunch of diamonds from the individual chests and moved them to the group chests both to make it harder for some people to get through without buying diamonds and to increase peer pressure from those who reach the top to unlock the top group chest. Hopefully it is working because ultimately if they don't sell diamonds there's no game. Consider buying some diamonds even if you don't need them to just support your game developers. Is $5, $10, $500 really so much to put into something you really enjoy doing? The majority of diamonds I've purchased have been more as a donation than for anything I particularly wanted to buy. I feel guilty being a complete freeloader.
I see a lot of newer players buy up a bunch of magic workshops and residences, realize they either have to A) continuously spend in order to upgrade those residences and workshops or B) be in a 10 chest FS. They tend to quit the game not long after. There are only so many new players Inno can pull in and if they can't retain them then that's an even larger issue.
As for everything else, I was buying diamonds to support Inno because at the time, I saw they were caring for their whole player base and not just a minority. That has now changed and I have subsequently stopped spending. Before, the increasing amounts of diamonds it cost to get expansions seemed fair- especially with the ability to work towards getting wishing wells (though I know more advanced cities are able to clear the event quests quickly, that's not the average player experience as far as I understand). Patience and a few diamond purchases could get you there. Now it feels like a greedy cash grab.
Also, it's not like they cut back on wishing wells, there are no wishing wells available to earn. Sure, they could bring them back, but for now, it's not in the game. Putting pressure on players like this makes them less incentivized to pay or even play. Why pay for a game that is actively making the experience worse? Yes, Inno is a business and needs to make money, but the service they provide is to entertain. If someone served you a bad meal and expected you to pay for it, would you?