Taryn V.

I played games on Pogo for years, many of those as a club member. I let the club membership lapse a couple of years back awhile (I had no time for it for awhile), but recently decided to peek in on it again.

Seeing the dreaded EA logo, I had a feeling I would be in for disappointment. Was I ever not wrong.

First of all, I found that all my points (or whatever Pogo used to call them) were just... gone. Along with all my custom minis, and the little bits and bobs it used to be fun to do challenges and win points to collect.

From other reviews I see that some folks (likely lacking in prior experience dealing with EA) have tried reaching out to their... *hack*... *cough*... "Customer Support"... for help with these and similar issues. At least I already knew not to waste the time.

I stuck around long enough to try a few games that didn't require me to shell out $$$ for a renewed membership just to play. That's when it became painfully obvious Pogo's gone microtransaction-happy. A $72 a year (monthly) subscription just isn't enough for them. These new games are going to require "tokens" or "energy" or "sand dollars" or what-not to play, and they are clearly set up so that not long after you're hooked in, you'll find you can never "earn" enough of these resources through normal play to keep up with the growing "cost" of that next round.

Do I want to play the next level of some puzzle game now without endlessly grinding through boring stuff (if they've even made that possible) to earn enough tokens for it? Looks like I'll have to shell out extra $$ then. I mean, who hasn't got spare bucks lying around for that kind of nonsense, right?

Or I could just move on.

I avoid games (and companies) that employ this kind of business model like the plague. Anyone else who doesn't like burning money for nothing should probably do the same.

R. I. P. Pogo