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We Rule content update, server fixes incoming

by Mike Schramm May 3rd 2010 at 9:00PM

Ngmoco CEO Neil Young posted another update last week about We Rule. That game is probably the biggest hit Ngmoco has come across yet with its freemium model, but unfortunately, the title has been plagued with service outages since the release. Young says that they simply underestimated the amount of people who want to play the game, and that they're working as quickly as possible to scale the server infrastructure on both the We Rule and Plus+ systems. The game is free-to-play, but in-game purchases still seem to be doing well for the company, as the app currently sits at number 40 on the Top Grossing list in the App Store, above a few $0.99 apps and even much more expensive fare.

Young says the company is also pushing out content updates for the game -- there are new crops to grow and new buildings to buy and build on the farms. I'm playing We Rule (if a little reluctantly), and it seems like Ngmoco is playing around with the variations on crops and reward times -- some crops seem designed to bring people back to the app in as quickly as a few hours, while some promise a large reward daily (as if they're trying to at least drive people back in every day). I've experienced a few more bugs as well, like not seeing any of my friends' kingdoms on the main screen.

Despite the bugs and the issues, it certainly seems like people are playing (and paying), and clearly Ngmoco is dedicated to support and producing content (Young says they're planning more updates for players who've reached level 25 already). Other freemium games like Godfinger haven't quite taken off as quickly, but as a flagship title for Ngmoco and a learning experience for their future releases, We Rule seems to be working well.

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Ngmoco CEO Neil Young posted another update last week about We Rule. That game is probably the biggest hit Ngmoco has come across yet with...
 

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13 Comments

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Walla96

Great game, but I'm losing interest due to connection issues, crashing/stability, and a lag after having many friends. Well I guess it can't hurt to have a few more friends... my name is walla96. I created a database where you can enter your username for others to see @ http://sites.google.com/site/appundb/

May 05 2010 at 5:14 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
NutMac

I am level 21 but with stability and usability issues, I am quickly losing interests. Frequent outages, connection drops, and long start time are certainly critical, but just as annoying are poor UI (it's very difficult to design the layout of your kingdom), slow performance (even scrolling can be very slow), and fact that there's not much to do really.

May 04 2010 at 6:24 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Jason

GodFinger needs a content update... I've played it for less than 2 weeks and I'm already at a point where I've done everything there is to do in the game, as far as buildings go anyways.

Leo Laporte mentioned the same thing a few days ago IIRC.

I still have a ways to go with We Rule, I have about 7 levels worth of new crops still greyed out, and 5 or so more buildings left.

May 04 2010 at 12:48 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
TexRob

How the hell can you say that? They have put out some A-list titles.

This game is fun, and lol to the person saying "to little to late" this isn't a freaking MMO, it's a free 2 play game with a tiny time investment compared to something like an MMO. No such thing as to little to late for an App Store game, unless it is in fact, an MMO. This has PSW type elements, but not an MMO.



May 04 2010 at 10:42 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
jonathan ober

I'm still playing despite the bugs it has, or that I have had in the past. There were some days when I wouldn't play at all since it wouldn't connect me or it wouldn't find any open towns. I will say that the iPad version is way past the iPhone version in terms of UI and easy to pick up and play, still crashed when I try and bounce around from map to map though...

May 04 2010 at 9:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to jonathan ober's comment
vseae15o


I also posted this elsewhere: WE RULE CRASH PROBLEM IDENTIFIED!
We need to make this known. I am not a programmer but I have some basic knowledge of what is causing We Rule for iPhone to crash when launched on iPad:

My observation was that the iPad Mail program was using 27% of my free memory. After turning off Mail in Preferences and REBOOTING (mandatory), I freed up 27% of free memory and was able to play MUCH longer. Also make sure no sites are open in Safari on your iPhone/iPad/iTouch before or after reboot. Safari on our mobile devices is also known to use memory. Further observation showed that after We Rule was launched, Springboard also used on avg about 15-16MB, causing wired (system) memory to exceed 50% when the game crashed.

Thus, We Rule ultimately caused Springboard to choke when We Rule accumulated 27-28MB of resident private (RPRVT) memory and not releasing/freeing it as the game progressed. As it turns out, it is not a memory leak and the game was well-coded. The game is merely not freeing up unused memory during play which would render any game unplayable. If everything is saved at the server side, then moving around town or going around for hire/buying items shouldn't cause We Rule to eat all of my RAM (memory)! Clearly, for a game this advanced, NGMOCO needs to implement a "Garbage Collector", as used much in Java, to free ram when not in use. Now we just need to wait for a fix...

Apparently, Apple has also deemed my post inappropriate for the sole purpose of wowing people of it's app store with some really crappy apps. I think only Apple can turn NGMOCO's head to fix the problem. Which is the reason why I try before I buy apps off iTunes.

May 27 2010 at 1:30 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Adam D

looks interesting

May 04 2010 at 12:22 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Johnny Thrash

I don't expect much from these guys anyway.

May 03 2010 at 11:41 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Johnny Thrash's comment
)ROFL(

Yea, seriously.

May 03 2010 at 11:57 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Dale

Server outages aside, the game is very clearly designed so you can only progress by buying crap. Everything takes aeons otherwise.

May 03 2010 at 11:22 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
1 reply to Dale's comment
dave.healey

You can progress without buying anything, it just takes time but then if you could build everything quickly, it would hold no interest anyway.

I'm on level 17 without buying anything, I didn't think I was interested in these sort of games and only put it on when the iPad first came out because I tried a lot of free stuff like most people.

I think its quite well designed, because I can drift in & out some days, for example if I'm not too busy and want to play it, you can plant quicker growing stuff, if I'm too busy to play or not in the mood, I just login in the morning, harvest and cash in anything that's ready and plant a crop that takes 12 hours or a day to grow, negating the need to re-visit in a hurry.

May 04 2010 at 4:25 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Noah

Too little, too late.

May 03 2010 at 11:09 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
withrowsp

Hmm

May 03 2010 at 11:03 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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