Standalone FF books not registering on FF Classics hub?

[Smagpie]

Hello Tin Man Games, and any players in the know.

I purchased Forest of Doom standalone a while back, and now I've begun my collection of FF games with the FF Classics hub. Is there no way to add my Forest of Doom purchase to the FF Classics hub? -I'm not seeing any obvious way. The Forest of Doom edition for the FF Classics hub looks to be the exact same item as the old standalone version.

Do I really have to buy The Forest of Doom again if I want to play it in my FF Classics Hub?

[Shady Knights]

So basically, they improved the existing content and owners of that existing content must buy itvas a dlc if they wish to use it. A paid patch?

Interesting notion.....not one that would win many fans....

Sure, if they did a complete overhaul of the content, a different story....but it does not sound like that at all.

It sounds more like an asset flip.

[Smagpie]

Yeah. Granted, each book is relatively cheap, but seeing as I bought the standalone Forest of Doom just a short while before the FF Classics hub came out, I feel shortchanged.

Tin Man could maybe at least offer us the books we already own at a rebate for the FF Classics hub.

And, it would be nice to get an official statement from Tin Man games.

[k00lworld]

Just noticed in another thread the developers said they aren't giving existing owners the DLC versions which is a bit ♥♥♥♥♥♥ really.

[tin_amelia]

Hey there folks, we've put up a post regarding the difference between the FF Standalones and FF Classics. You can check it out here.

[Smagpie]

Well, ok, a little bit miffed about that standalone book yet, but still, very much better getting a comment about it from the developers. Thanks.

[Handsome Mr. Death]

I love how the offical response from TINMAN states "Gamebooks are very niche".
Knowing this why would you want to ostersize the people that have supported your products in the first place? I myself own all of them but seeing their behaviour has made me question if ill be purchasing any of the others that im currently missing.

[Axeking]

At the very least, the Standalone books should allow us to NOT have to purchase them again the classics engine - even if that means we have to use the standalone version to play them. I would look at getting the new ones that I don't already have, possibly even the bundle, but as long as the bundle requires me to repurchase those I already have, its not going to happen...

[You]

Very disappointing... Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

[Darviathar]

I bought all of the old books from this company earlier, and while I do find this slightly annoying, I'm willing to pay a relative pittance to encourage this company to continue developing all the FF books that (as an American) I never had the chance to read when I was young. The FF series ended in America with Trial of Champions around 30 years ago, and I just assumed that the series had died out, as had so many similar to it at that point. I'll readily pay 3 bucks each (same price I paid 30 years ago) to read more of these in the future.

[KLÁNOS [HU-GG] attis]

Very disappointing, the books purchased before should be unlocked in FF classics. Or at least they should not be available for purchase twice.

[Korgz]

No Excuse for this at all. I won't be purchasing any books within the hub as who is to say another "improved" hub won't come out in a few months and we will have to buy them all again. Poor business decision which has no doubt cost them many sales.

[Psyringe]

Originally posted by tin_amelia:

Hey there folks, we've put up a post regarding the difference between the FF Standalones and FF Classics. You can check it out here.

So basically you've improved the products I bought, but want me to buy every single one of them again at full price (or, currently, at full price -25%) if I want to benefit from those improvements and have my collection in one place. And your justification for doing this, as explained in the post you linked to, is ... presenting it as a good thing that you don't take the already purchased standalone books away from me?

I'm sorry, but this is insane.

I'm a huge fan of gamebooks, and I've bought every single one of the standalones (feel free to check my library). If there was a way to transfer my standalones into the new system, I'd do so in a heartbeat. Even at a cost of (say) 3-4 bucks total to support noticeable improvements and further development. You could easily provide such an option by distributing non-tradable coupons to owners of the standalones.

Instead, I would have to pay 29,61€ (or 16,56€ at the current discount) to re-buy products I already own. That is ridiculous. You're locking the customers that have supported you in the past out of the bundle discount unless they buy everything again. This is also grossly anti-consumer, because many gamers don't know by memory which games they already bought, it's getting difficult when you own hundreds. So we rely on Steam to mark owned games as such in the store. You have deliberately created a situation where such customers will inadvertently re-buy products they already own, because you are now presenting them as products we don't own already.

The end result is that you're simply losing me completely as a customer. I'm buying games for around 300€ at this Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale, and if there had been a way to transfer my previous purchases, I would have gladly paid 3 bucks for that and _also_ bought any new gamebooks you're releasing. But instead, your poorly thought-out policy just causes you to not see another dime from me before this is fixed. I guess you don't really know how your customers tick.

I'm sorry for the strong words, but I really, honestly, feel disgusted by these practices of a developer I have been a fan of until now.

[LordOfDarkFlame]

Because the developers are lazy scammers, that reissued a new platform for their library and not giving PAYING CUSTOMERS of the previous version the new one for free.
Absoultely terrible customer loyalty practice.
Also these devs so lazy they only come out with one game book every 2 years, even tho the pages are copy/paste from the 1980's books....ridiculous. I guess they don't have the vision of making money by making all 55 books digital...

For example: Paying customers of Skyrim got the HD Remake for free, today Evoland 1 & 2 removed from the game store and bundled into the 'Legendary Edition' and given for free to paying customers, and i can go on & on with the same example for multiple games & dev companies...
Im really ashamed of TinMan games, as ive been a paying supporter of your products since iPhone 2009.
I will no longer be buying ANY TinMan games and boycotting the company until they show paying customers respect and stop trying to double-dip customer's pockets by asset flipping.
Vote with your wallets!

[Darviathar]

Do you really think these guys are making as much money reproducing these books as Bethesda made with Skyrim? We are lucky to have someone that is willing to reproduce 30 + year old gaming books (that the rest of the world has forgotten) in a much easier format than tracking down old copies from used book stores in the UK. It would cost me a fortune to have those shipped to America. I'm much happier to find them here on steam for virtually the same price I would have paid for them in 1989 at Waldenbooks in the local mall. If you already bought some of their previous efforts and don't want to pay for the same book again then DON'T. But boycotting new books from this company over a couple of bucks is absurd.

[Shady Knights]

Originally posted by Darviathar:

Do you really think these guys are making as much money reproducing these books as Bethesda made with Skyrim? We are lucky to have someone that is willing to reproduce 30 + year old gaming books (that the rest of the world has forgotten) in a much easier format than tracking down old copies from used book stores in the UK. It would cost me a fortune to have those shipped to America. I'm much happier to find them here on steam for virtually the same price I would have paid for them in 1989 at Waldenbooks in the local mall. If you already bought some of their previous efforts and don't want to pay for the same book again then DON'T. But boycotting new books from this company over a couple of bucks is absurd.

You are missing the point entirely. It's that they are trying to sell the exact same content to the customer base that's already purchased the book, the only difference is the GUI that it's served up on. We are here because we bought the content, the book itself which we are thankful for.

It seems petty to do this when it would have been just as easy to retire the older book GUI and credit the customer base with the book in the newer GUI. This is why people are boycotting buying the newer books under the new GUI.

While I have no doubt that there was development effort in building out the new GUI, and it would be a better user experience, the decision to do it this way from the developers rather than the one I suggested above has left some of the customer base disgruntled. Did our initial purchases on the first GUI fund the development of the newer one? This is what the complaint is.