I am really mixed on getting badges added to my game on Kongregate! By the way, there's a "Kongai Card Challenge" on it now, which is an extra special big deal.
I noticed again with
Robot Wants Puppy as I did with
Robot Wants Kitty that getting badges added resulted in a
massive drop in my rating. For the first 100,000 plays it settled a bit, definitely drifted down a little, and then was steady for
days, around 4.15. It is no longer in the fours, and it got there literally overnight (without a whole lot more plays!).
The badges are a curse! I know I'll make a lot more ad money this way, so that's good. I just hope it makes up for the decrease in prize money. The tenor of the comments changed completely too (could just be imagination, of course). It seemed to go from hugely positive with the occasional complaint to a massive screaming hatefest that I have NO interest in reading anymore. Interestingly, before the badges, negative comments were almost universally downrated, and now they are almost universally uprated. I don't think either one is really the right use of the comment rating system, but nonetheless, it says something about the crowd visiting the page.
My only theory is that the kind of people who want to get the badges are not the kind of people who are playing the game because it appeals to them, so they're gonna rip on it. Before badges, people chose the game because it looked interesting from the screenshot. After badges, people are choosing it because they "have to" earn the badges, so they're suffering through it, but not suffering gladly.
And that said, I'm not saying I don't want badges in the future! It's probably worth the abuse to get the ad money and more hits on my website. And I appreciate the time and work the badge guy puts into doing them (he actually plays through the whole game! Imagine the horror!). I just wish the human race wasn't a wretched hive of scum and villainy and ugly bags of mostly water. But I'm always wishing that.
For the record, I think this might be the best game I've ever made. I've played it through many times, and I always enjoy the thrill of tossing a cat on an alien's head! I know something like
Supreme has vastly more to it, and if I could only play one, I would pick Supreme, but in terms of quality of development, polish, fun factor, style, and innovation, as opposed to raw content, Robot Wants Puppy is something I'm very proud of. Naysayers are welcome to not like it, that's fine too. It's not the existence of haters, it's the massive influx of them the second badges were added that is my concern here. And by "concern" I mean "whine", because there's nothing broken or wrong about it, it's just a sad fact.
In Robot Wants Goldfish, Robot will throw bombs.
