G'day Mates!
This brief Introduction for the "Reference Section" of the SuperCheats Unofficial Guide and Walkthrough for the incredibly popular Freemium-Grinder officially titled The Simpson's: Tapped Out, frequently and widely abbreviated as STO online, and unofficially (but cheerfully) called The OTHER Simpsons Game -- is meant to both explain the point to this section as well as assist you in getting the most from its contents!
So, first and foremost: The reason we've included a Reference Section in the Guide is is mostly because after you succeed in completing the core missions and quest, the bulk of your efforts are going to turn towards generating Income in the form of Cash, Donuts, and with the addition of Krustyland, Tickets!
Beyond Goals
The ease by which the wizards who created STO managed to endow it with the sort of flexibility in play and common attractiveness for free-play of a sort more common to open-world RPG and Action-Adventure gaming creates the need for strategic play and -- naturally -- the sort of information we have filled the Reference Section with.
This is all the more amazing when you pause to consider that you never actually play any specific character from the start of the game -- and there really does not appear to be an "end" or a finish to it either -- at least not the sort that naturally (or unnaturally for that matter) leads you to a screen that reads "Game Over" in the common sense of gaming!
Resource Management
It may help you to think of this section of the Guide as a combination of reference material to help better exploit the mechanics of the game and its systems, and as a primer for Resource management and the accumulation of wealth and resources.
These elements are all the more important because, in borrowing a page or ten from the grandaddy of all of the current crop of Freemium-Grinders (in fact it can even be accused of establishing the genre) by which we are speaking of Farmville of course, STO manages to easily almost effortlessly hit all of the high notes for the genre, while at the same time tapping into the sort of immediate self-gratification and story-based rewards system that have made this a raging success and first among equals!
Thanks to its significant linkage to social net and gaming via the web -- up to and including Facebook -- and its built-in system of bragging rights via the Neighborhood visitation system by which you can add a hundred or so of your closest mates, STO has managed to encapsulate the best elements of the most successful games in the genre while at the same time offering its link to the still-running Simpson's TV Show.
All of this combined grants the game incalculable value both as a game (entertainment wise) and as a pop-culture presence. Those elements easily explain what motivates its legions of fans and why a majority of players will not only desire to surpass their mates, but also easily explains why background (reference) information of the sort and scope included here are of particular value.
In closing please note that the point of this Guide -- and the hints, Tips, and tricks it contains -- has always been to succeed in the game and move it forward without spending real-world Money in the process.
You can use this Guide even when you intend to spend real-world Money on game Content and still easily come out the better for it, but you can also use this guide to avoid spending money and still remain on a competitive play level with your mates who are spending money.
Remember, this sort of game is all about having choices. And having fun!