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Why Do I Keep Playing The Simpsons: Tapped Out?

Posted on Thursday, December 6 @ 05:49:00 Eastern by Daniel Bischoff

This is Comic Book Guy. I feel like he'd have a lot to say about Origin if he could: "Worst. Digital Storefront. Ever."

Of course, I can tell Comic Book Guy to do anything I want. I tap on him and poke him around. He lives on my phone in The Simpsons: Tapped Out. I can make him sell comics, interact with other Simpsons mainstays, or even cosplay as Spock... a fat, overzealous, judgmental Spock. In this case, I've got many of my Simpsons running tasks on the hour. That means I check back with them and set them off on other tasks. Here are many of them shopping at the Kwik-E-Mart. Overnight I'll assign them to 8- or 12-hour tasks while I sleep.

Comic Book Guy's 60 -inute task is to dine at the Gulp N' Blow, of which my Springfield has two. One of them just so happens to be right next door to the Android's Dungeon, but does Comic Book Guy go there? No! He goes to the "good" Gulp N' Blow... the one near the Springfield Penitentiary.

It's moments like these that make me question why I'm still playing The Simpsons: Tapped Out, despite writing in my review that EA's horrid Origin service acted as "the binding on a mule." I think I keep playing because a few successes in EA's stab at Zynga's farm-grown "Ville" mechanics have kept the experience fresh and funny.

Tapped Out has covered the holiday bases by tying into the new season of The Simpsons on Fox. Homer and company found my Springfield overrun by zombies and a black hole earlier this Fall in the lead up to the newest Treehouse of Terror. Currently, in fact, at this very moment, Homer Simpson has transformed into Cool Homer, a walking, talking, money-generating play on Hipster tropes. Above you'll find him judging people.

I still haven't spent a single cent on EA's free-to-play game, despite the fact that I'm dying to have Hank Scorpio walk around my Springfield with a flamethrower. I also wouldn't mind a working Duff Brewery set down the road from Moe's Tavern, complete with Duffman himself. So I ask you:

Why am I still playing? If you've ever been bitten by the free-to-play bug, what was the game and why did you keep playing and why did you finally (if ever) stop playing?

Related Games: The Simpsons: Tapped Out

Tags: The Simpsons, EA, Origin

Comments

Nick_Tan
Joined: Jul 2006

Posted: Dec 6th, 2012 at 5:55 am
Punch Hero and Words with Friends are my two games of choice on my phone. I think Gamevil made Punch Hero a bit too crazy with how many coins and "Stars" the player needs to level up the boxer, but at least it has a good participation reward for signing in every day.

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Herb211
Joined: May 2009

Posted: Dec 6th, 2012 at 8:54 am
Freakin Evony and Mafia Wars got me through my year in Iraq. N

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Herb211
Joined: May 2009

Posted: Dec 6th, 2012 at 8:57 am
Checking in every couple of hours on the slim strand of Internet I had was the only thing to do, besides "prison style" workouts. Once I had online shooters and stuff to play those easily fell into the background. Lost and forgotten.

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drathbone
Joined: May 2011

Posted: Dec 6th, 2012 at 11:25 am
I played Tapped out for a bit but just kinda lost it's charm after a while. Althoguh I might pick it back up since you said it ties into the show (I didn't know that).

Currently my mobile games are Rage of Bahamut, Kingdoms of Middle Earth and Clash of Clans. Also a few random ones here and there like Punch Quest (kinda like Jetpack Joyride but for fantasy geeks), 1000 heroz, Angry Birds Star Wars (even though I said die for try buy die, I actually appreciate what they did with it lol) and Devil Dark

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used44
Joined: Mar 2002

Posted: Dec 6th, 2012 at 1:10 pm
I can't believe you're still playing that. It drove me away pretty quickly.

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Bras
Joined: Jul 2008

Posted: Dec 6th, 2012 at 4:56 pm
I've played games like that when you have to constantly be checking your device, but the ones I played were also multiplayer PvP so you could be killed by other players while you were sleeping, which made me even more paranoid.

I stopped playing those kind of things because of how absorbing they were.

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