Reviewing Facebook Games (UPDATE): Suburbia abandoned.

Oh boy, I am wanting to eat my words now. A while back I reviewed a Facebook game known as Suburbia and gave it a moderately positive pass as a sim game. Unfortunately, I now realize the dark truth behind Suburbia, beyond the murder and scandal is something that is actually pretty bad.

My first sign that something was going on was when I noticed that the Easter themed items were still able to be bought and hadn't moved on to summer themed ones. I just assumed that they only did ones for specific holidays, shrugged it off, and continued to play. Then I got to episode six and hit a brick wall. The game said, and I quote;

"More to Come: Thanks for playing our beta so far. Like our game to receive updates about new releases! In the meantime, move up the career ladder and decorate your home. The Suburbia Team."

At first this seemed innocent enough. Okay, so I went through the main storyline faster than expected, right? It'll get a new episode soon, right? Wrong.

Upon checking the actual Facebook page for Suburbia I saw something that confirmed my worst fears. Fears on the game I mean, of course. The last post from the game was on September 20th, 2015, and this was just a, "Happy weekend! Some free money!" post. If we'll get technical, the last post that wasn't one of those was a contest where you could spot a zebra and win in game money. That was May 1st of 2015.

The Easter stuff came in April of 2015. I thought it was this year's Easter, but it was last year's! This was also the last update of any kind. Now brace yourself... Episode 5 was posted, get this, on March 13th, 2014.

This game has been abandoned by its creators, no longer updated, and yet it is still taking people's money. I saw thousands of comments begging for a continuation, lamenting spending money on rubies, and getting not even a response. The company that published this, the 'team' knows its in an unfinished state, and they haven't been able to update in two years. It's not that hard; these Facebook games don't need much implementing.

Look at City Girl Life, a game I panned because of its greediness for gold to get actual prizes. That game updates constantly with missions, specials, roulettes, and such. If that game can do it constantly, then why is it so hard for this game to do it? To do even the most basic of things? Game designing isn't this hard; all you do is set the mission to require x amount of items and type a little dialogue. It shouldn't be that hard.

And honestly, regardless of the little bit of money they make off of this game, they would be able to make so much more if they continued adding episodes. These people who bought rubies would have most likely bought again if the option was given to them, but it wasn't, and the game is abandoned.

I found this game on the front game page presented as though it was popular and thriving. Facebook doesn't have any sort of rating system, no comments on the actual game page, and frankly doesn't regulate the games it does have at all. This game should be labelled as incomplete and either taken down or have the ruby system removed entirely. This 'team' doesn't deserve money for slight content.

I will not be playing Suburbia again, I don't recommend it at all, the story really isn't good enough to warrant playing it, and I hope you take my suggestion and stay far, far away from it.