First off I would like to say this game is awesome so great work on design and implementation.
Recently in my alliance I have had some veteran members both leave/stop playing, and others are saying they are going to do the same. When I have asked WHY? The overwhelming response (close to 100%) is that they are upset that they aren’t getting 5 star heroes and they feel it’s because they aren’t spending money on the game.
Personally I would say throw some money at the game. I do it all the time even though it hacks my wife off every time I do it. I believe that it’s worth it and I have no problem with people who spend money getting rewarded. I also have zero problem with Small Giant Games (SGG) wanting to make money off something they have spent years and tons of money developing.
That all being said I would hate to see any of my alliance members leave or worse, stop playing the game all together. I understand that SGG probably doesn’t need to worry about these players but, from a word of mouth marketing perspective, I hope SGG will consider a few ideas that might help keep these people around and talking about the game.
So that brings me to “Help A Brotha Out”
I would love it if players in the same Alliance could help other players out by “gifting” them items, gems, resources etc and even heroes. Before SGG totally dismisses this idea I would like you to consider this. These players aren’t spending money yet they are always playing your game. Therefore people are getting introduced to Empires and Puzzles by seeing it on their devices and hearing about it from current players. That’s how I heard about it and I’m a player who spends money. So SGG is not really losing money at all by allowing the sharing or resources and heroes within an Alliance.
I thought about players trying to rob other players blind because there are lots of P.O.S.s out there so here are a few things that could prevent that and I’m sure SGG could come up with more.
-allow each Alliance to decide whether they want to allow this or not.
-allow each Alliance to determine what members could share (gems but not heroes etc)
-put a restriction on the number of items that can be shared
-make it so a player has to be at a certain level or has been playing X number of days before they can give or receive gifts
-set up a rule where if someone leaves an alliance then they have to return any and all shared resources etc.
I hope you all consider my idea!
Thank you,
TimeWaister