Hi,
Been wanting to speak about the topic for sometime but RL things kept me busy, till I realised that I regularly found time to make content for my Youtube : dansing007 Gaming = caught my excuse - hypocrisy about not having time… so here I am 
This is the 30th month since I downloaded Empires & Puzzles, the early days of the pandemic, which thankfully is behind us.
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After the initial hesitation as I was playing another game then, I slowly started playing and started to enjoy the game’s Season-1 early provinces. As I reached 9.1… I saw that world energy amount increased after that, so I decided to return to 8.7 which has 4 levels = more monsters for the chest. I spend a week or so there and discovered that it was the best place to get everything : Recruits, and other items.
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To learn more I decided to check videos on YouTube and learnt that 8.7 was INDEED the optimal place for all items
… & I sat there for about a month as I learnt how to understand & play the game via those videos 
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During this time I was F2P & got Rare Chest twice, which gave me EHTs and got two 4* heroes = Colen & Melendor who make the play good, though I was upset that I got a slow hero in Colen
… Today, I use LB Colen to bash-up a nature titan -
Since I have written extensively on this forum, I will “Fast forward” = thru the 29 months, I became P2P, got heroes, built my teams and went thru all frustrations like any player about mats, summons quality, the heroes I wanted but didn’t have / get… blah blah blah & many more blahs !
There was period I felt extreme burnt-out / stressed due to the above situation & felt, the only way out was to delete the game… & while mulling over that, I realised that, if I deleted the game, the following will still stay:
- I will require / find something else to engage and hence, all experiences (emotions - entertainment, etc, blah,) will flow from that…
- As I asked the basic question, if I found the game to be useless… & the answer from my experience was a resounding ---- NO, No, No ! The game was super FUN !
- Hence the self inquiry revealed, there was something missing or / and being done by me, that was causing the crazy … the game was just another “External Tool” to entertain me.
- I looked honestly as every aspect of my non-game life = other engagements, people, things I do…and it was no different
Hence,
Sticking to the topic of the game I made changes (which I have shared at various times on the forum in bits & pieces):
- First thing = I slowed down chasing XP, which was a crazy daily chore & needed specific optimal farming / play and required my mind-share, which wasn’t available elsewhere.
- My daily morning chest is filled effortlessly via Season-1 : 7.4 & 8.7 combo…unless Atlantis Rising / Valhalla Forever & now UnderWild tremors are on…with their 3WE 1.1 levels, the only place I farm. Only exception I make is when filling Elemental chests…
- Challenges / Quests / Towers: After trying to get high score in few, I realised / learnt that I don’t have the style of play to top the rankings, so I decided the range I wanted and stuck to getting there, which would be as per my style of play. I STOPPED a LOT of STRESS, time & craziness !
- This same style flowed into my tournaments, wars, alliance quests…where I am now more consistent & enjoy, instead of pressure to achieve… while I feel happy about good wins & disappointed to miss out…It’s mainly about Fun…!
- I ended up seeing & concentrating on possibilities with new introductions to the game like : Limit Breakers, Alliance quests, Tower events, Mythic Titans…decide how much I wanted to engage & for what ?!
Friends, as I took charge of MY association with the game, I also chilled out about the SUMMONs topic, which is a cause of HUGE pain and found my balance there…
In my 28th month with the game, I re-activated my Youtube channel : dansing007 Gaming … that I had stopped few days after starting, as I felt shy, low confidence & not worthy to show my play, style, game associations.
- I have learnt many things as I started this channel : Recording, commentary, descriptions, editing, making thumbnails… though play style & script flow from the way I am…
- Yesterday I crossed 100 subscribers ! Thanks to each one of them
- I share my fun engagement with E&P, how I play without the chase, drama, stress…
I found my balance with the game & thought of sharing… coz, we don’t know why we are all here & where we will go…BUT, for whatever reason, we are here…
- Something within us has brought us here & is enjoying it here…
- Something within us stop having fun & wants to leave…
- All that is fine…but the key is to find our way within… for all aspects … blaming outside is a NEVER ending trap - pit !
I thought to share my story of association with Empires & Puzzles, journey, where I am now… which has NOT be any smooth ride, coz, in reality, there is NO permanent smooth ride… and how I found my balance, way and decided to come out and show myself …to myself !
Thanks for reading !
Good day !
- Please excuse all typos.
