Wishful Features: Adding pop-ups to the newsletter in Cafe World
As a level 63 Cafe World player, I find myself sitting in the middle of all users - I'm not a newbie, but I'm certainly not a level 150+ player. However, my cafe is at its largest (currently available) expansion size, and I have plenty of stoves and serving stations active at any one point in time. My buzz rating is at its maximum, and I have plenty of decorations to boot. Needless to say, when I try to load Cafe World, it takes quite a while.
By the time my cafe does load, I'm normally more than ready to start cooking, but can't. Why? Because I am instantly bombarded with more than my fair share of in-game pop-ups, detailing my progress on my current quests, my active Catering Mission, how many coins I've earned since I've been away, whether or not I've received gifts, whether there is a new in-game promotion (the current being one with Maxwell House), whether there is a sale on in-game items... you get the idea.
Once gameplay actually does start, the pop-ups just don't stop, as I'm told that I could be mastering dishes faster in one pop-up, and told about earning big tips in another, after almost every dish that I've cooked and/or served. All of this complaining aside, it's not that I don't like receiving all of this information, keeping me up-to-date with what's going in my own game, and in the Cafe World universe as a whole, it's just that I wish there was some streamlined, or at least condensed way in which to view it all.
Why not add these pop-ups to the in-game newsletter that has already been released in the game? As it stands, the newsletter is available to view by clicking on the small newspaper icon in the left-side game menu, but it is entirely useless, as of this writing, containing information about "new" items that were added to the game weeks ago. This newsletter doesn't appear as an in-game pop-up, interestingly enough, as you have to click on it manually to view it, so why even have it there at all?
Why not add some of this information - how many coins you've earned since you last visited, how much time you have left in your catering mission, and so on and so forth - to this newsletter, to actually give it some purpose? I'm pretty sure users would accept and even appreciate the newsletter appearing when they logged in, so long as it didn't mean 10 other windows would appear after it.
While Cafe World could do with more additions than this to streamline the experience, a simple reduction in the number of pop-ups one receives when loading the game would do wonders to help player morale, as numerous threads are created in the "Cafe World Suggestions & Ideas" sub-forum on the official Cafe World forums on a weekly or even daily basis, begging for a fix to the number of pop-ups.
We can only hope that Zynga listens to these pleas sooner, rather than later.
What do you think about the amount of pop-ups that appear in Cafe World on a daily basis? Have you played the game less specifically to avoid them, or do you not mind them being there? Let us know in the comments. Add comment
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Wishful Features is a new regular column on Games.com - The Blog in which we talk about the features we wish were present in our favorite social games. Leave your ideas and feedback in the comments!
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