I guess it's my turn to say goodbye

General Discussion
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I’ve been playing this game 17 months, pretty much non-stop. Logging in every hour, using every flag, optimizing every hero levelling. I end with 8 L80s, 22 L70s and countless 60s. For the first 16 months I played in a friendly non-competitive alliance (thank you to my friends in Texas Titan Killers) and for the last month I played with 7DC (thanks for having me guys, it was amazing working with others that play as hard as I do).

It’s the people that have kept me playing. I was bored long ago with the repetitiveness of it. And while I appreciate that SGG has been adding to the game, it was like a science experiment where they’d offer a new treat, and if you reached for it, they’d electrocute you with more ways for them to make money from every new thing. It’s been sitting badly with me for a long time, but habit and OCD have been overriding those feelings.

I am a tech addict, for 40+ years I have been surrounded by tech non-stop … long before the internet was what it is today, at 9 years old I had access to DEC mainframes via acoustic coupler dial-up (for those of you not old enough to know who DEC is, Digital Equipment Corp was once the largest computer company on the planet with 200K employees globally) … then it was BBS systems like FIDO. Then came the beginning ofthe internet we know today. This game played into my addiction and I would find myself staying up later to use flags, waking up later, my wife and kids would talk to me and I’d be doing auto-map levels instead of giving them my full attention.

I did something I haven’t done in years. Saturday night I shut off my phone, shut down my desktop and didnt turn either on again until this morning. I looked at my empty chests and I realized that I was dreading filling them. I thought about how it’s the people I don’t want to lose, but that I have not gotten any joy out of this game in months.

So this morning I quit 7DC, and TTK (I have two accounts like many of us addicts) and I’m done.
I will keep the TC20 tracking spreadsheet up but I won’t be recruiting for it, if anybody wants to take over, let me know.

FWIW, in the one month I’ve been in 7DC, I’ve seen many other long time 7Dx players retire over dissatisfaction with SGG and the ever increasing P2W approach. I hope like hell they start to feel this in the pocket book and decide to change their business model. I watched this same approach happen with oGame and GameForge lost 90% of their player base along with their original game developers and CEO. SGG should take a lesson from them or before they know it, their revenue stream will be too sparse to pay for their OPEX. They took in a lot of $$ from investors and are trying to pay them back ASAP by emptying our pockets instead of taking their time and building a long term dedicated, loyal player base who will help draw in more customers.

I don’t know about you guys, but when asked ‘hey, I see you play this game all the time, should I try it?’ my answer is always a resounding “NO, don’t get sucked in”. I suspect the majority of long term players feel the same. Are those really the kind of customers a business wants to cultivate?

Anyway, so long and thanks for all the fish.

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One cannot quit without hoping SGG will die.
Why?
Why the hate?

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I respect and a support a decision like that. When it isnt fun…well time to move on.
I honestly find the journey more rewarding then the end result with these games. As little money but not too quickly, lots of time and fun. I suspect when I get close to those top people I’ll hit a similar wall. Good luck and thanks for the feedback.

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I generally don’t reply to (or even read) goodbye threads, but one part stuck out to me -disconnecting.

It makes you realize how much time you’ve been wasting. It’s crazy how much you can do when not glued to a screen.

One day, I’ll try it again :joy:

Anyway, enjoy the time off, assuming you haven’t found a new addiction yet.

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good luck. Now go build a Baldur’s Gate 2 party for the 1495th time or load up a skyrim build for the 238th time. That’s what i do. :wink:

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isn’t more of a pay to play approach compared to P2W?

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I don’t know if i have to be sad because another long term player quit, happy because you finally succeed to take you out from all of this, or worried because my situation looks really similar to yours. (Apart for the tech addiction, quite the opposite there).

If you feel thats the right choice, then i just have to wish you good luck for all i guess.
Cya.

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Hahaha, yeah, there will always be something. It used to be Diablo 2. Then it was oGame for 5 years. I used to only have to worry about Windows based games… I’m sure something else will come along to fill the void, but for now, I’m going to try to spend less time on my phone playing games unless they provide me with actual joy.

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Good choice. Good luck in life, mate. Gameforge derived, but it was still worth the effort and the money only advanced and played metin2 years, it was not pure luck and the immense selfishness of SGG

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aside from being completely against the T&Cs of the game, you have to login with your game center or google play account, so what you really would have to sell is that.

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Our histories sound kind of similar…remember APRANET or using a BBS? ahh good times.

Sounds like our Journey with the game may be similar too. I’m about 8 months in and getting tired of the grind as well. S2 helps a bit, but when you come right down to it, its all just variations of the same thing and grinding for very little reward. We will see.

Good luck, enjoy the time with your family.

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Gosh I haven’t heard the name GameForge since Ikariam. I understand being done. I’m not, but I can understand someone else wanting to plug into real life.

Godspeed. :wink:

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You mean takes your account?

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Nice Writing @marlenus, I have the same feeling and experienced similar timelapses like you.
But now i’m in a alliance that feels like family too me. I can’t abandon them because of the P2W approach from SG.
I think to SG it does’t make a difference if a long time player leaves the game when every day new players are poring in and get hooked.
Btw, i never spend a dime, and i’m doing well in the game. (now i really won’t get anything after saying that, hehe)

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I actually saw some Ikariam adds on Facebook a couple of months ago. I was shocked. :sweat_smile:

I read the part of not recommending the game to friends and realized I did the same thing. I’ve been playing games with a group friends for about 10 years and I have not even mentioned E&P to them in the past year. I guess I am still playing just because I don’t want to waste a year’s effort.

Farewell sir and thank you for your contribution to the game and forum.

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Same reason ex-smokers don’t speak nicely about cigarette manufacturers?

It’s all about perspective, if you want to understand the OP. Many play this game habitually, but casually. Some play this game hardcore, like the OP. Big difference.

Hardcore gaming can have adverse effects on your life. Doesn’t have to, but it can. If you game too hard for too long you may find yourself in the OP’s shoes. Exactly there. Burnt out with a neglected social life.

And then you take a good hard look at yourself and how the $#%# you got in this sorry state and you have to conclude that at least part of that was the company that fed off and nurtured your addiction. The bitterness spills over easily from yourself to the company, and I don’t blame the OP for that, as long as they recognize their own responsibility as well. Given that he quit the game, it’s likely he does.

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I know you’re joking, but the rules compel me to burble “no trading, selling or exchanging accounts…” :wink:

I think the actual wording from the Terms of Service is “you are not entitled to … copy, store, modify, transfer, distribute, sell, rent or otherwise make publicly available
your account”…

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Please post suggestions on how SGG can improve, in your opinion, and sorry to see you go.

PS - I work in the old DEC HQ now (obviously not for DEC). Small world.

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This is why I stayed for months longer than I should have. After taking that day off it really clicked that I can easily stay in touch with these great people by FB or Discord. I don’t need the limited in game chat mechanism to do it.

Eventually you reach ‘the end of the game’. You’re loaded up with maxed 5*, you actually have plenty of ascension items where you could level up several more 5*, you have a dozen unlevelled 5*. You’ve made it way past the point where many quit due to lack of 5* or ascension items. You’re playing in one of the most competitive alliances in the game and taking down 12* titans with 12 hours left.

The only thing really left is to try to get your hands on the uber heroes you missed like Alby or Athena or Guin. That costs zillions of $$$ and if you DO get them, then what? More grinding to level them and you push yourself up a bit higher on the leaderboard. It’s a dead end, everyone that sticks with this game will eventually get there, I realized it would be a dead end a year ago but decided I’d figure out what I’d do once I got there, but still, I rushed there as quickly as I could. I stuck around at that dead end for a long time trying to find a road or pathway that continued on but never found satisfaction from any of them.

I removed the game from my phone and shutdown Bluestacks (where I played my alt account) to make it more difficult to fire up the game if habit or temptation showed up. It’s easier today than it was yesterday. Tomorrow it will be easier still.

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