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Hi, Marian!

You're most welcome! All of the accolades that you receive are well-deserved because you always go above and beyond what would be considered normal Moderator duties !

The 15% "cashback" for Game Club members when they purchase a game will benefit those of us who don't normally buy a lot of games every month. Under the old system, we received 1 Punch Card credit if we purchased 6 SEs (or 3 CE or a combination of both) in 1 month. If we purchased less than that, we received nothing. Under the new system, if we only purchase 5 SEs in a month, we will receive 105 points (rounded up) for each one.

The only thing I'm not liking so far is the change in the exchange rate because, prior to the new system, I was paying $7.14 Cdn. a month for my membership and each SE game, whereas I will now be paying $8.98 for my membership and SE games. Of course, I haven't bought anything yet .

Susan

Thank you so much again for your kind words, Susan.

This rollout has not been kind to those who do not live in the United States. I just saw someone in Australia saying that as a pensioner, the increased costs were too prohibitive. That is sad to me.

And that's a good point about the 15% cashback for Game Club members.

Hi, Marian!

Thankfully, the increase in the exchange rate does not impact my budget that much, but I will still limit my purchases to 65% off and BOGO sales unless I find a game that I just can't wait to play. The 6 Game Club credits and 1 Punch Card coupon that were converted were purchased at the old exchange rate, so I'll start to pay the new price on August 11 for my monthly membership fee.

It is very sad that the increased costs are too prohibitive for some pensioners and they can no longer afford to buy games from Big Fish. For some seniors on a fixed income, an extra $2 or so a month makes a huge difference, especially when combined with everything else that's increasing at an alarming rate, like rent , gas and groceries.

Susan

I had a weird thing happen where I ordered three games from the app, and it only let me activate one of them. And the dealio you used to be able to do, where you try to buy it again, and it says "this is already your game, want to activate it" with an activate link is gone.

I've got a ticket with Big Fish and I'm sure they'll fix it. But I thought I'd give you guys a heads up, you might want to buy games one at a time for a little while.

ChrisMM,

Did you try:

Start up the demo version
Exit the demo version
On the page you end up on upon exit, it says "already purchased this game?"
Then click on this same page where it says "reactivate it."

This has helped several people I know with this activation issue. The one time it did not work for someone was because she could not start up the demo because her trial time had expired.

And thank you for posting on your issue. I only buy games one at a time unless there's a BOGO sale, but it's good to be aware of this glitch, which hopefully will be fixed very soon.

I also just received an email from Big Fish talking about the refreshed homepage that is coming soon, with a different arrangement than it has now. Let's hope this will be an improvement in the right direction. I am trying to keep in mind that we have seen so far is only "Phase One," as Big Fish is calling it.

Awesome, Marian, that fixed it! You are my hero! I'm used to doing that a different way, so I didn't realize that was down there. Thank you!!

ChrisMM, thanks for the info. Glad Marian got you fixed but sure hope BF fixes the problem.

Marian, the thing in that email that has me wondering about is this "If you haven't already, bookmark your most important pages now!" Why?? What is going to happen to them?? I just hope you will be able to browse alphabetically. I don't think that's too much to ask for.

You are most welcome, ChrisMM! Very happy to help!

I know, ob, who knows what it may all mean? Bookmark it before you enter the Bermuda Triangle...or something like that! All we can do is watch and wait...

Further changes to come........

Does anyone think this might be a price hike?

Meryl, I could be wrong, but I think the price hike may already have happened - at least insofar as it pertains to non-USA customers given the exchange rate, for now anyway. But again, we will just have to wait and see.

What I am seeing today is that Big Fish is having a "double points" day for any game purchase.

Well I don't mind about the price Marian. I'm buying a US commodity and expect to pay the equivalent of that purchase price. (Providing they get over the muddle with the euro - haven't heard back yet)

I saw the special offer and as I'm near the end of my current game I decided to look for a game to purchase. And .....no alphabetical list that I can see. Where is it? Surely we don't have to swim our way through an ocean of icons, pages and pages of them, I'm not five. I don't need to look at the pictures. This is taking ages for me to check out the various game series that I like. What fruit loop thought this was an improvement or a good idea. Or am I just not looking in the right place.

Poor Marian. If you weren't busy enough before (and I expect you were) you've become everyone's guru, helping them through the BFG crisis. It's obvious how much people appreciate it though.

Meryl, I wish I had some good news for you about the lack of alphabetization, but woefully I have none. We are being told that this is "phase one" of a redo of the website and I am hoping that during the next phase we will be seeing the games listed in some reasonable order such that we will be able to find things.

When I find it easier to search for a particular game on Big Fish through an external search engine, I have to ask myself what's wrong with this picture.

We all need to sit back and hope for the best.

And thank you for your kind words.

I've bought a shocking amount of HOPA games from Big Fish over the years, and started replaying them at the beginning of the pandemic (due to family health issues, the pandemic has had a lot of isolation for me). To make that easier, I ended up copying/pasting my full purchase history into Excel and cleaning it up, so I can search alphabetically or by date. It also lets me track which ones I've replayed.

Which is also pretty ridiculous, but c'est la vie, I guess.

I have a shocking number of HOPA game too, ChrisMM. Here we can band together with people who understand our issues.

And I think the spreadsheet was a good idea. I wish now that I had done something like that.

I started playing/replaying my HOPA games when the pandemic lockdown began and also started to keep a list of what I was playing, and I am still maintaining it and adding to it. According to this list, I have played and finished 184 casual games (mostly HOPAs) since the end of March 2020 - and I have only put the tiniest dent in my backlog.

I had an exciting time buying a game yesterday. After choosing the Adventure filter I patiently acrolled through the pages of icons to M and there were only 2 Mystery Case File games listed sandwiched between Morrok and the Nancy Drews. Wondered what the rest of the MCF games were categorised as, so tried to find the other MCF games under Puzzle. There are thousands of these and pages and pages of icons to wade through. Gave up on that and remembered the name of a MCF I hadn't yet played - Crossfade. Did a general search on that and put it in my basket.

Arriving at checkout found I was being billed in Mexican dollars so changed that to british pounds. The game price converted correctly to £5.79 (game club price US$6.99)) but my basket was showing tax on top of that. Never came across that before. Thought "Aha. That's the price hike." Just thought "Oh well, the extra tax will just have to go on my credit card". Scrolled down to where it asks you if you want to use your points, in my case 699, and I did. As soon as the points were applied the tax vanished and the total was zero to pay on my card with zero showing as the tax amount on the invoice/receipt.

So it was the correct amount in the end but I find it rather worrying that the money side of the transaction appears to be glitched.

I then had a similar experience to others before me in that the game didn't recognise that I had already purchased it so had to start to play then exit then click on reactivate. (Thanks for that tip Marian)

Hi Everyone
I am on a Disability Support Pension & due to the new increased exchange rate for subscription & increased game prices (points given slightly reasonable) - But i won't resubscribing to Big Fish at this stage....I feel like i am being punished for living in Australia....

I'll be buying my games from Microsoft store or Steam...It's been a struggle enough with the cost of living continuously going up every week...so sad!

Taintedfury, I am so sorry this has affected you this way. I would feel like I was being punished, too.

Meryl, I am really glad that my tips helped you activate your game. This apparently is still an issue only if you use the checkout through the website - if you purchase through the Game Manager it is not a problem. I believe I mentioned this earlier in this thread but at this point it is a lot to wade through. For myself, I have never purchased my games through the Game Manager before but since the changes I have purchased one game through the Game Manager with no issues, and will continue to do so until I am sure that the problems purchasing via the website are gone forever.

I can only hope that the other issues you had will improve with time. I am with you 100% on the difficulty of finding games now.

OMG!

After reading what Meryl wrote: "I patiently acrolled through the pages of icons to M" - I had to go and take a look since the last time I was in there the "sort by Product Name" was not working at all. Why, why, why do you have to go through all the pages like that? Put letters down there instead of page numbers if you really want to show all the pictures. Or at the very least, a box that you can type a page number into to try to find the letter you're looking for a little faster.

Meryl - in the states here we have been paying tax on the games for a few years. Maybe (maybe) that is not a glitch, but just how it works, automatically showing a tax amount until you hit the Check Out and then it determines that you are not in the US so it takes it off. Just a thought.

Taintedfury - I hear you about the cost of living. Some things have gone up quite a lot but even the smaller increases are really adding up when you put it all together. If I am understanding it correctly, the price you pay for the membership may be different each month. Is that correct? If so, that is what would most bother me. I think I'd understand that a game's price may change from month to month, but a monthly fee should always be the same, in my opinion.

Anyway, I don't think I'll be buying any games for awhile. If I were to run into that activation problem, that would be the last time I made a purchase, so I will wait for now.

Oldbroad, I am *still* not paying taxes on my purchases. And the activation problem is not a problem if you follow my tips, but I understand if you wish to wait it out. It's not like we will run out of games to play in the meantime.

So, did you notice if a tax amount showed up before you got to the Check Out and then disappeared?

Call me lazy, but having to activate the game like that is too much work for me! It just shouldn't work that way.

I do actually like the pictures showing in the search. They bring the games more to my attention. (Maybe I shouldn't like that, huh? )

Hi, Marian!

Thanks for mentioning once again that there are no issues if games are purchased through the Game Manager instead of the website because I've always purchased them through the website. I'm holding off buying any games until the next 65% off or BOGO sale (I want to stretch my pathetic Canadian dollar as far as I can ) so I'll definitely follow your lead.

My membership renewed yesterday and I received (count 'em) 4 emails ... 1 to confirm my order (which was my membership renewal), 1 to thank me for my order (which was my membership renewal), 1 to inform me that they have processed my subscription payment, and 1 to inform me that my Rewards Points balance has been updated. I'm sure all of that could have been included in 1 email but far be it for me to to stop the wheels of progress from turning !

Hi, oldbraod!

The actual price of the games and membership fee remains the same for those of us who live outside of the U.S. It's the exchange rate that fluctuates, so what we pay for games or our membership can increase, decrease or stay the same depending on what our local currency is doing when the exchange rates are set by Big Fish. For instance, when my membership renewed yesterday, I paid $8.98 Cdn. because the U.S. exchange rate is 28.5%. I don't know how often the rates are updated, but I hope it's not on a day when the Canadian dollar takes a nosedive !

Susan

Hi Susan,

Please bear with me while I try to understand this. Yesterday you paid $8.98 Cdn. Is it possible that next month you would pay $9.98 Cdn?

I was looking through the Hidden Objects games and when I got to page 28 it says "no products to display".

Since the recent changes to the Big Fish site I can't download any of my older games. The new interface only lists the games chronologically and not alphabetically which makes it harder to find something. When I click "download from this order" the file does not download. I've been a member since 2010 and have well over 300 games and so this is very annoying. I've emailed their tech support and was told that they're very busy and would get back to me as soon as they can, but so far nothing. I know that there's nothing anybody here at Gameboomers can do, but I just wanted to rant. Thanks for the space to express myself.

Fil, if you open up your Game Manager and click on Purchase History, your whole Purchase History will show up in the Game Manager as an alphabetized list. You can also download your games from there if you haven't already - this has worked for me. I moved your post to this thread because this is where we are all posting to discuss the ongoing platform changes on Big Fish.

Please let us know how it goes. I'm glad you posted here!

Susan, I always purchased my games through the website too. As I said before, I will be purchasing any games through the Game Manager for the time being, just to be on the safe side. When I did purchase a game, I think got 3 or 4 emails as a result. It did seem a bit like overkill, but I would rather have too much communication rather than not enough.

Ob, the activation method I described takes about all of 10 seconds, but yes I still understand why you feel that way. That method has been around for years so it must have been there for a reason. I think of it as using the back door to get into the house rather than using the front door. Whatever works!