rondelagua,
Interesting perspective.

I can get a glimpse of how the developers could have got it so wrong if you were one of the people they were basing "user requirements" on.

leader boards ? I don't give a damn about them. Haven't even looked at them and aren't about to start. Don't give a hoot if they're broke. Or not. As for cheating your way onto/up them.... Words fail me.

Curious comments of yours though, about the developers 'caring' and about there being other means to communicate and that ''other opinions' being heard apart from those in this forum and the app store. All left me with an unpleasant feeling. As did your post.

It's all been most instructive, this episode, to see how people can get things so wrong.

Like many other posters - the vast majority in fact - I just play for my own amusement and enjoyment. that's it. And cheating my way to a presumably fabulously high score on a leader board is something I can't quite decide whether to call risible or pathetic. Perhaps both.

I thought about the same thing last night.... Glad you posted this opinion. This guy wasn't defending the developers so much as he was himself. He cheats the game and uses it in a way where a tiny fraction of players ever hope to understand. Knowing the the developers made critical game edits on recommendations from some who is using the game in an unintended and obscure manner certainly explains how they got it so wrong.

Rather than cater to the way he plays the game and provide 99.9% of theIr users with a classic version, they should of closed his holes for cheating and created an Ultra Version where he and his ilk can purchase a $10 version and create their blow out/cloud scores on a separate platform.

Hi,

I just need to make a quick formal correction here:

Rondelagua was not involved in the design process of the 1.20 update. He only provided feedback to us after 1.20 had shipped. He has offered great feedback to us in that time as a user who found the new features fun and challenging, but also voiced concerns about the Toxic Tiles and offered potential solutions for the issues we created with certain players.

Also, the iCloud cheat hole had no bearing on the 1.20 update. It would be great to figure out a way to close that hole, but it would take a significant amount of redesign and engineering time, and more importantly, players that are accustomed to it would have voiced a strong objection. As some other posters have pointed out, it is not necessarily cheating since it is a feature of the app and technically available to everyone.

We are glad that many users have been happy with the restorations of 1.21. We are continuing to work on new updates.

Thanks for playing.

Okay, I feel thoroughly and properly flogged and chastised, some it justified.

I do need to respond to a few things:

The features in the updates were not based on any recommendations I made. The first inkling I had of any of the changes was only when the game was made available for Beta testing. Our role (I think) was to verify the game played as they intended and expose any possible glitches. BTW, my main issue during feedback was that I didn’t really like the aspect of the IAPs.

The only recommendations I have ever made to the devs were suggestions on how to possibly close the “cheat” hole and an encouragement to do that and then start a new leader board that would exclude scores that weren’t earned legitimately. I have no idea what the technical issues are to actually close it.

I too play the game for amusement, to unwind, but also to explore all the possibilities. Once Iron Monkee first exposed the cheat hole, I finally figured it out too and then exploited it to see how it worked, what new game strategies might be opened up (there are several), and what the limits might be. IMO the WELDER leader boards can serve two functions: to demonstrate what is possible using all aspects of the game and secondly, to compare true competitive play. Unfortunately, the competitive scores are currently buried. I have no delusions that multi-million point scores “lead” the board. Scores posted by ctdkite and others who hover around the 1 Mil mark are the truly admirable total game scores.

Much of this high score, leaderboard, cheat hole stuff was discussed months ago on this forum under Achievements, “Leaderboards, Wow!” and “Gold Tile Query”.

Britt,
Re. the comment about continuing to work on new updates, I strongly hope that any future update will incorporate sound lessons learned from the last disaster. I still feel somewhat let down by the whole episode and taken aback by the company response. (I'm reserving my opinion on the game until I've had a chance to play the latest release for a while.)

I also hope that you have taken suitable action to have much better sources of gathering information on customer satisfaction - eg, from the many players who vented their dissatisfaction in this thread and on iTunes. Finding out what customers like/don't like by 'upgrading' and then provoking the storm of protest you did is neither a recommended nor an effective path to sustained success.

Count me in the group that is thoroughly dismayed by the changes to a perfectly wonderful game. If you feel that the game needs to continue evolving, simple create a second version. Call one Welder Basic and the other Welder Advanced...whatever. I have no interest at this point in learning how to use the gigawatts and the green toxic tiles. Perhaps I would have after I had achieved a certain level of success under the former scheme/rules. Any way I can unwind the "upgrade (?)" so that I can continue to enjoy what had become a favorite passtime or am I stuck with the latest and great?est version?

Chiming in with many others: Release a classic version without the gigawatts, wrench, and that Green tile (use it now or lose points).

So, I go to Game Center fo the first time in maybe a week. Last time I checked, my current score of 55k would have been worth maybe 42nd place, maybe even better. Now I find players with scores in the 100s of ***millions*** due to cheating and my legitimately earned 55k is worthless.

You have not just ruined the game, you have so utterly alienated me that I will never, ever buy a product of yours again. You took a great idea and totally killed it. Why in heaven's name would you even dream of messing with success?!

I am so angry. I've been playing diligently for weeks, slowly building up my score in a personal challenge to get as high as I could on the leaderboard. You've taken everything away and I'm sorry I made this purchase. Sorry to be harsh, but you guys are idiots.

Hey there,

Thanks for the feedback.

We have been closely tracking the scores on Game Center since version 1.2 came out. The day that 1.2 came out, a score of 55,000 in a game achieved a ranking in the many thousands on the global all-time leader boards. A score of 55,000 has not ranked as high as #42 on the leader boards since the day the game was first released back in November. The #1 score the day that 1.2 was released remains the same-- 412 million+.

Perhaps you were previously logged into Game Center Sandbox? If you have ever played a pre-release version of any Game Center game, you become logged into Game Center Sandbox, which has a much smaller group of people playing. Even if you did not play a pre-release version of WELDER, you can be logged into Game Center Sandbox this way, and your WELDER scores would be reported to the WELDER Sandbox leader boards, where a score of 55,000 would be worth about #15.

Thanks for playing.

Re Sandbox. I'm only in Sandbox mode to beta test and immediately sign out. I assure you I've been on the leaderboards dozens of times NOT in Sandbox mode, to check scores. I've told you what I found.

In any event, the huge scores coincided with a recent release. I can't be precise on the timing. My point is that I've played the game as originally designed and after many weeks, now have nothing to show for my efforts. Level 15 is now meaningless, it's all meaningless. You've made horrible decisions concerning your once awesome product and you've pretty much let the Genii out of the bottle. It's so sad. I have really lost my desire to even play now. For what?

I can only hope that in the future, whatever you come up with, if it's successful, you stick with it rather than morphing it. Sigh.

I'm done with the game. I'm done with highline. I don't think you can be trusted to avoid tampering with a great idea. Ironically, if I knew without any doubt that the game woud not have suffered this fate, I would have gladly paid more.