Archives for posts with tag: Golden Scratch-R

Outsiders’ Musings XIV: to be, or donut to be?

By rcsprinter
June 16, 2013 //
68

Hey everyone. Yes, this week’s title is a lame pun intended to parody a line from Hamlet which basically means, are donuts the way to go?  Should you buy them? Yes, we’ve covered this here before, but I think it’s time I did a bit of essaying about it myself.

Well, as we know, TSTO is a free game and it can be played in its entirety without spending a penny. But, for EA to keep developing new content and maintaining the servers, there needs to be a paid element to it, the premium items, where we can spend money so we feel like we’re complete, and EA rake it in for themselves. This is EA’s highest grossing game, however, so you don’t necessarily need to pay anything yourself to still enjoy the game, because lots of other people are buying things. You might still want to! That’s fine, that’s great. Nothing wrong with wanting a bit of extra premium content for your game.

So, exactly what package and price and frequency should I buy my donuts at? Luckily, you can just read about that here so I don’t have to fill up this post with it. If you’re only an occasional donut buyer, I would say go with the Golden Scratch-R; you can get up to 100 donuts for only 69p, (see odds) which is extremely good value if the gambling pays off. If it doesn’t, you’ve still got at least 6 donuts to spend on buildings and land expansions, which is better than none.

More posts coming later today!

film_concours_donut

Tags , , , , ,
Categories Donuts, EA, Gameplay, Golden Scratch-R, Outsiders' Musings

Repost: Which is better – buying a Golden Scratch-R or buying donuts?

By TSTO Tips
May 5, 2013 //
25

While we’re on the subject of Golden Scratch-R’s, here’s a repost of something from a couple of months ago on when it’s better to buy a Golden Scratch-R and when it’s better to bulk-buy donuts:

When you buy a Golden Scratch-R at the Kwikimart, you win donuts every time. But is it better than buying donuts at the donut store? Well, here’s what Lais has to say (the currency used here is Euros, but it applies for other currencies as well):
You buy the cheapest set of donuts, 12 donuts, you pay €1,79, and that’s double the amount of donuts that you get with the worst result on the Golden Scratch-R, and double the price of it too. So if you can’t afford to buy a truckload of donuts but just need another dozen to reach the amount of donuts you need for that premium building you’re saving to buy, it might make sense to try the Golden Scratch-R and maybe you’ll get some extra donuts for the same price!

And Jayson had this to say (using $US):
I’ve calculated the Golden Scratch-R “Worth” using this site’s info –
http://simpsonswiki.net/wiki/User:Phinbart/Tapped_Out_progress -
to determine scratcher odds. I found the average donut output on the scratcher is 13.57 (or 13.7 per $1). This is slightly better than the $9.99 donut buy (13.2 donuts/$) but not nearly as good as the $19.99 donut buy (15donuts/$).

Here’s a comment from Renosis:
Well, I bought a Golden Scratch-r and won 20 donuts. Could have been better, could have been worse. Looking at the break-out of donut prices, it never makes sense to purchase the dozen donuts for $1.99 (not that it was EVER a good deal). As, for $0.99 you can get a Golden Scratch-R and you are guaranteed at least 6 donuts. So if you are itching to spend $1.99, get two Golden Scratch-R’s instead, as the worst that can happen is you will get 12 donuts but more likely you will get between 12 and 200 donuts.

And finally, one from janibach:
Here’s something from Until today I had never spent any real money on this game but today I bought five golden tickets – my way of paying for the months of fun I have already had with it. My prizes were as follows: Ticket 1: 50 donuts; Ticket 2: 12 donuts; Ticket 3: 100 donuts; Ticket 4: 6 donuts & Ticket 5: 12 donuts. Total # of donuts: 180. Total cost to me: $4.95. Now I have Frink’s lab and the TV satellite.

So, even if you don’t have the occasional bigger win, each time you buy a Golden Scratch-R, you’re doing just as well, and even slightly better, than buying a dozen donuts through the donut store. And you’re making Apu very happy.

image

Tags , , , , ,
Categories Donuts, EA, Gameplay, Golden Scratch-R, Kwik-E-Mart, Scratch cards

Repost: What are the chances of winning 100 donuts on the Golden Scratch-R?

By TSTO Tips
May 5, 2013 //
28

I’m feeling pretty good today- I finally won 100 donuts on the Golden Scratch-R! And because many players are considering whether to use donuts to jump a Whacking Day prize level or two, it’s reason enough to look at again at the chances of a big Golden Scratch-R win.

image
The money you spend on a Golden Scratch-R gives you one chance and one chance only at winning donuts (it would be great if the 99 cents – or the equivalent in your currency – gave you a Scratch-R subscription, but it would make very poor business sense for EA!). For those who haven’t played yet, these are the possible winnings:

image
And here’s the probability you’ll win any of these:

100 donuts – 2% (maybe 2 wins in 100 purchases)
50 donuts – 4%
20 donuts – 10%
12 donuts – 20%
9 donuts – 33.33%
6 donuts – 30.37%

The interesting thing is that you’re slightly more likely to win 9 donuts than you are to win 6 donuts, which makes the Golden Scratch-R at least as good as, and often better than, buying a dozen donuts through the donut store.

And, of course, there’s still the hope of a big win!

Tags , , , ,
Categories Donuts, Golden Scratch-R, Kwik-E-Mart

Is there a problem with the Scratch-R tickets?

By TSTO Tips
April 4, 2013 //
18

Over the past week or so, some players have been reporting a problem with the Scratch-R tickets – even before you can scratch, the game crashes and you lose the money you’ve spent on the game. While this is annoying when you’ve bought a regular Scratch-R with game dollars, it’s far more than that when you’ve spent real-world cash on a Golden Scratch-R.

This doesn’t seem to be a general problem, though, and this glitch may be one why some players have seen a couple of in-game updates in the past few days while the rest of us have seen nothing at all. If there’s been a problem with your installation, the game sometimes self-corrects when it tries to connect to the servers.

If you’ve been experiencing this problem, deleting and reinstalling the game may resolve it. And if you’ve lost money on a Golden Scratch-R, the first thing you should do is contact Apple or Google Play directly to claim a refund:
- You can contact Apple through http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/#app_store to claim a refund. Look for the “Contact support” link at the bottom left of the page to start the process.
- You can contact Google Play through http://support.google.com/googleplay/bin/request.py?&p=play_contact&rd=1

Any problems, though, are likely to be corrected through the next update – whenever that may be…

image

Tags , , , , , ,
Categories Bugs and glitches, Crashing, Golden Scratch-R, Scratch-R

What are the chances of winning 100 donuts on the Golden Scratch-R?

By TSTO Tips
March 29, 2013 //
37

The Golden Scratch-R was a great addition to the game, and has encouraged many people who have never spent money on donuts to contribute a little something towards EA’s coffers. But if the chances of an Easter update are slim to none, it turns out that the chances of winning 100 donuts on the Golden scratch-R are only a little better. And thanks to some great digging into the files by j_3xx9 posting on http://tstappedout.proboards.com, we’re able to know exactly what those chances are.

The money you spend on a Golden Scratch-R gives you one chance and one chance only at winning donuts (it would be great if the 99 cents – or your currency equivalent – that you spent gave you a Scratch-R subscription, but it would make very poor business sense for EA!). For those who haven’t played yet, these are the possible winnings:

image
And here’s the probability you’ll win any of these:

100 donuts – 2% (maybe 2 wins in 100 purchases)
50 donuts – 4%
20 donuts – 10%
12 donuts – 20%
9 donuts – 33.33%
6 donuts – 30.37%

The interesting thing is that you’re slightly more likely to win 9 donuts than you are to win 6 donuts, which makes the Golden Scratch-R at least as good as, and often better than, buying a dozen donuts through the donut store.

And, of course, there’s still the hope of a big win!

Update: Just after posting this, this screenshot came in on Twitter from @SovietData, who got really, really lucky today:

image

Tags , , , , , , , ,
Categories Donuts, EA, Golden Scratch-R

What are the chances of winning $10,000 at the Scratch-R?

By TSTO Tips
March 29, 2013 //
34

The Scratch-R game is available to play free at the Kwik-E-Mart every 6 hours – and if you’re at an early a stage of the game, a big win can really change things for you. As you almost certainly already know, it offers a range of game dollar prizes all the way up to $10,000:

image
But despite playing 2 or 3 times a day every day since it was launched at the end of January, I’ve yet to win big. In fact, this is the kind of thing I usually see when I’ve scratched everything away:

image
So what are the chances of a big win? Based on information in the files, here are the possible prizes and the probability that each of those game dollar amounts will end up in your account at the Bank of Springfield:

$10,000 – 1% (just one chance in every 100 games)
$2,500 – 4%
$1,250 – 10%
$750 – 20%
$500 – 33%
$350 – 32%

Why these numbers are coming up slightly differently to the Golden Scratch-R numbers, I’m not sure – particularly given the message that comes up telling you what you could have won if you’d spent real world cash on the Golden Scratch-R rather than scratching away for free. And of course, probability being probability, it doesn’t mean that you’re guaranteed to get the $10,000 once in 100 scratches, either. You might need to scratch a whole lot more before you win big. But, unlike the Golden Scratch-Rs, at least you don’t have to spend anything to do it!

image
Acknowledgements once again to j-3xx9 at http://tstappedout.proboards.com for the information used in this post.

image74

Tags , , , , , , , ,
Categories Cash, Golden Scratch-R, Scratch-R

Is it possible to buy a Golden Scratch-R by accident?

By TSTO Tips
March 20, 2013 //
16

The Golden Scratch-R above the Kwik-E-Mart has been my favorite recent addition to the game – and that’s because, as a donut-buyer, it often gives me a bit more of a “bang for my buck”. Unless you’re buying donuts in large quantities, you often get more donuts through the US$0.99 Golden Scratch-r than you would through the donut store for the same amount of money. But, especially if you’re playing on a smaller device, it can be very easy to tap on the Golden Scratch-R when you really meant to tap on the regular Scratch-R game. Does this mean you’re at risk of spending your money accidentally?

Thankfully, the answer is no – and that’s because it’s not an instant purchase. in fact, the first thing you see when you tap on the Golden Scratch-R is this message:

image
I’ve covered what happens if you decide to go ahead with the purchase in a post a couple of weeks back, which you can find here. But what happens if you decide to tap “cancel”? In that case, this is the message you see:

image
Well, you may have made Maggie cry, but at least you didn’t accidentally spend your real-world cash. It’s a small price to pay.

Update: As Lucy pointed out in the comments section, you do need to be be very careful once you’ve made your first purchase, though. The Golden Scratch-R stays there until you choose the regular Scratch-R, encouraging you to try again – and a second purchase immediately after the first will be instant.

Tags , , , , , ,
Categories Donuts, Golden Scratch-R, Kwikimart, Scratch cards, Scratch-R

Do you always win at the Golden Scratch-R – and is it better than buying donuts?

By TSTO Tips
March 10, 2013 //
20

When you buy a Golden Scratch-R at the Kwikimart, you win donuts every time. For those of you who haven’t been brave enough to buy one yet, here is a screenshot of the game and your possible winnings:

image
But is it better than buying donuts at the donut store? Well, here’s what Lais had to say a few days ago (the currency used here is Euros, but it applies for other currencies as well):

You buy the cheapest set of donuts, 12 donuts, you pay €1,79, and that’s double the amount of donuts that you get with the worst result on the Golden Scratch-R, and double the price of it too. So if you can’t afford to buy a truckload of donuts but just need another dozen to reach the amount of donuts you need for that premium building you’re saving to buy, it might make sense to try the Golden Scratch-R and maybe you’ll get some extra donuts for the same price!

And Jayson had this to say (using $US):

I’ve calculated the Golden Scratch-R “Worth” using this site’s info –
http://simpsonswiki.net/wiki/User:Phinbart/Tapped_Out_progress -
to determine scratcher odds. I found the average donut output on the scratcher is 13.57 (or 13.7 per $1). This is slightly better than the $9.99 donut buy (13.2donuts/$) but not nearly as good as the $19.99 donut buy (15donuts/$).

So, even if you don’t have the occasional bigger win, each time you buy a Golden Scratch-R, you’re doing just as well, and even slightly better, than buying a dozen donuts through the donut store. And you’re making Apu very happy.

image

Tags , , , , ,
Categories Donuts, Golden Scratch-R, Kwikimart

Bumblebee Man is the winner!

By TSTO Tips
March 10, 2013 //
2

Last weekend, I asked you to imagine that you had 60 donuts spare from a win at the Golden Scratch-R. The question was – which of the cheaper premium characters you would spend your donuts on (you also had a choice to spend them on decorations if you didn’t really want any of them or you already had them all).

The votes are in, and Bumblebee Man would be the first choice for readers of this blog. Here’s the split:

image
He didn’t win an outright majority though. Here are the percentages:

Bumblebee Man – 39.34%
Hans Moleman – 27.1%
Kearney – 12.54%
Squeaky Voice Teen – 12.16%
Decorations – 7.36%
Funzos – 1.5%

I’ll be doing a walkthrough of Bumblebee Man’s quest sometime today or tomorrow. And there’ll be a new St. Patrick’s Day themed poll coming very shortly.

image

Tags , , , , , , , ,
Categories Bumblebee Man, Donuts, Golden Scratch-R, Kearney, Moleman, Polls, Premium characters, Premium decorations, Squeaky Voice Teen

How do you buy a Golden Scratch-R?

By TSTO Tips
March 3, 2013 //
3

A few people have commented that the Golden Scratch-R was a smart move by EA as it has tempted them into making their first ever in-game purchase. And it seems to have generated a lot of interest, going by the search terms hitting my blog. So, here are the steps you go through in buying one, including something that surprised me (but probably shouldn’t have).

My apologies upfront to Android players – this post primarily goes through the Apple device process. If anyone would like to add a comment highlighting and similarities or differences for Android users, that would be great!

A Golden Scratch-R costs $US0.99 (or the rough equivalent in your local currency – e.g. £0.69 in the UK, $HK8.00). For that investment you get one chance and one chance only to win donuts – and if you want a second go, you have to pay again. This means that it operates just like a scratch card in the real world. The payment comes from whichever payment method you’ve attached to your iTunes or Google Play account or any account credit you have. Every ticket wins you something, though, and the least you’ll go away with is 6 donuts.

As soon as you hit the blue bar indicating that you want to buy a card, this message comes up:

image
But you have a second chance to think about it, because for Apple devices, the following message comes up from iTunes (and I’m assuming a similar message comes up through Google Play):

image
Apple players then need to enter their iTunes password for the purchase to go through. Once that’s done, this is what you see:

image
And then the game tells you exactly the same thing:

image
Now, you’re ready to play, and the game tells you this by taking you straight to the Golden Scratch-R screen (which means you can’t change your mind at this stage and use your purchase for anything but the Golden Scratch-R game).

Now, here’s the bit that surprised me but probably shouldn’t have. Unlike the regular Scratch-R, once you’ve played, the Itchy and Scratchy logo doesn’t seem to go away. It stays until you have decided that you’ve bought enough Golden Scratch-R tickets and buy a regular Scratch-R instead.

For increasing in-game transactions, that’s definitely a smart move, EA.

Tags , , , , , , , ,
Categories Donuts, EA, Golden Scratch-R, Google Play, iTunes, Scratch cards

You win 60 donuts at the Golden Scratch-R. Who or what do you buy?

By TSTO Tips
March 2, 2013 //
14

So, here’s this weekend’s poll and it has a Golden Scratch-R theme. Imagine that you win a prize of 60 donuts (despite what the standard scratch card game says, I know that’s not one of the listed prizes – I’m using that number, though, for the purposes of this poll). So, you now have 60 donuts burning a hole in your pocket – what do you do with them?

In this poll, I’m not giving you the option to save them up (sorry about that). And that’s because I’ve had a lot of questions from people who want to know the best way to spend a limited number of donuts – and particularly which of the cheaper premium characters they should buy. It’s also interesting to see which of the 30-60 donut characters everyone thinks adds the most value to their game.

If you already have all the characters, you can either vote as if you have none of them or choose the decoration-buying option. It’s your choice.

So, take a moment to vote and let’s see what everyone thinks. If you want to give the rationale for your vote, please feel free to make a comment.

image

Tags , , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Bumblebee Man, Donuts, Golden Scratch-R, Kearney, Moleman, Premium characters, Premium decorations, Scratch cards, Squeaky Voice Teen

Are the scratch cards trying to make me gamble now?

By TSTO Tips
March 2, 2013 //
14

Yes, they are. And they’re not being very subtle about it. The Kwikimart’s Golden Scratch-R, launched with the Gorgeous Grampa update, is now your top scratch card choice. It’s carefully positioned so your finger hovers right above it (especially on smaller devices) when you tap on Itchy and Scratchy. At least you have a couple of chances to change your mind if you tap it by accident, though.

But the biggest encouragement to gamble your real world money away actually lies in the original Scratch-R game. Now, when you collect, you see what you would have won if you’d chosen the Golden Scratch-R, as you can see here:

image
So, don’t let yourself be tempted – only play the Golden Scratch-R if that’s what you really want to do. And if you’re a parent, make sure your kids aren’t spending your hard-earned cash on virtual gambling.

I really would have liked those donuts, though…

image

Tags , , , , , , ,
Categories Donuts, Golden Scratch-R, Kwikimart, Scratch cards

Why is there no special event or level 27?

By TSTO Tips
March 1, 2013 //
11

The latest update saw Gorgeous Grampa, the Gorgeous Grampa Billboard (both for a limited time only), and the Golden Scratch-R Game. But there was no new special event and no level 27. Why not?

Let’s deal with Level 27 first. It’s only been a couple of weeks since level 26 was released, so expecting a brand new level within that time frame was always optimistic. Currently, there’s about a month to six weeks between levels and I really don’t expect them to start coming any more quickly than that.

As for a special event, each time one finishes, the game seems to go back to normal play for a while before the new event begins. Easter is not until the end of the month, so that’s still possible. And with Springfield’s Whacking Day in May, that’s also a possibility as a special event for April/May.

So, something will come – but probably not until March 7/8 at the very earliest. It may already be sitting on your device, waiting to unlock at just the right time.

burns_grandpa_01121518_595_slogo

Tags , , , , , , , , ,
Categories Costume, Easter, Golden Scratch-R, Gorgeous Grampa, Gorgeous Grampa Billboard, Level 26, Level 27, Update

What’s the Golden Scratch-R?

By TSTO Tips
March 1, 2013 //
19

The latest update kept the Scratch cards at the Kwikimart, but introduced a new twist – the Golden Scratch-R. But beware – this game costs you real world cash.

The Golden Scratch-R gives you the chance to win donuts. But, it’s your real world money that pays for it, not game dollars. Clicking on the Golden Scratch-R is a micro-transaction in the same way that a donut transaction is (and luckily you get a chance or two to change your mind). And if you decide to go ahead, this is what you see:

image
Scratch away and you stand the chance to win big – or win just a little. A bit disappointingly, I won just a little:

image
And your regular scratch game now tells you that you the donut equivalent you could have won with a Golden Scratch!

Remember, though, it’s a gamble – and like real world scratch cards, it’s a gamble with real world cash.

image

Tags , , , , , ,
Categories Cash, Donuts, Gameplay, Golden Scratch-R, Kwikimart, Scratch cards, Update