A few Thousand over 3 years. I’m not ashamed of it so I have no requirement to hide anything.
But whether you view something as lost depends entirely on your view of the world. A F2P friend of mine who has played about the same time I have loves Red wine. He will spend up to £100 on a bottle to drink in Restaurant. The only investment he has made is having an enjoyable evening. That £100 bottle of wine quite literally goes down the toilet.
Is E&P any different?? I don’t think so. My money buys pixels and at the end of the day they will become nothing but I’m enjoying the experience with my rented pixels.
This is an entertainment product and like any such thing you can enjoy it too much and fall down the rabbit hole of addiction. Only today on the BBC there’s an article about people who have become addicted to working out and exercise so there’s many rabbit holes out there.
But if we can enjoy something without ruining our lives where is the issue there??
As always I do strongly wish the game had a safety net to catch those who need it. That’s the one thing I would change. People need to be protected from themselves sadly.
Yeah… one day (hopefully a distant one) we all become nothing… is a few thousand much? Is it little? Depends on your financial situation of course… but that’s beside the point. Thing is, you’re paying good money to enjoy… a free game. There are lots of long time players that proved beyond any doubt that this is a game that can be very much enjoied for free, there’s no denying that. If free play wouldn’t be fun, the game wouldn’t have ever made it trough season 1.
Taking a step back and a look at the greater picture, you can’t help but notice a few things, one of them being that the direction the developers choose for the game’s evolution is dictated by the amount that players are willing to pay up. As long as the money flows, the unballance between the old and the new heroes will become ever more acerb, this being the main factor that makes your (and anyone else’s) investment in this game go down the drain. The heroes that you payed for a couple of years back have now become neglectable quantity and so will those you’re buying today, somewhere down the line, sooner than later. It is my strong belief, the game would be much more ballanced if the #no spend campains were more than just another useless hashtag… as it is, this game is flawlessly designed to get your money out of your wallet. Every little detail, carefully thought to induce a spending spree throughout the player base, with every new release. People don’t seem to be able to see that it is within their power to temper down the devs greed. The more they spend, the more the company will tighten the grip and the only way to get a message through would be to stop the cash flow for a while, because that’s the only language the corporates understand.
Damn, I have lots of free time on my hands today . Rant ends here!
I mean why buy a car when you can walk there for free? Sure it might take a bit longer but you will get to your destination eventually.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the sentiment and I’m not blind to the game being what it is. It’s just I view it as wishing well. My enjoyment will last as long as I want it to.
Interesting point on the heroes we bought 2 years ago not being as good as the current ones. That’s not a phenomenon unique to this game. In real life I have to replace my PC components every 2 years because they aren’t as good as they are now. I don’t get annoyed by that either.
And if that brought joy and entertainment to your life, I’m happy for you. However, I’m not happy for E&P, as I think that this model is one of the most profitable for SG/Zynga/whatever, but one of the worst for the players.
Because contrarily to what @Shunt believes, slot machines and gambling works this way, games are more “fair”, meaning that the strongest usually wins against the weakest, not the richest against poor.
Hmmm… perhaps not the best analogy… you replace your PC parts or your car or other belongins for two main reasons. One being that they get old and don’t perform as well as they used to and the other, they become absolete due to technological advancements. Meanwhile, the heroes in this game don’t really age, they perform just as fine as they did the day you get them, and the only reason they’re becoming absolete is that the company purposely designs better, unballanced ones with the only goal of selling them to you. In real life, thechnological advancement limits the speed of your PC or car becoming absolete. Inside E&P, there’s nothing to limit the new hero desing, their evolution being fueled only by the devs need to make you spend. Did the game need a hero that heals, adds 20% instant mana to all allies and alters on board tiles? No, definitely not. Stil, there it is, screaming out loud “Buy me! Buy me!” And the only reason for his birth is that the devs knew players will throw insane amounts of money at them, in order to get him. If that wasn’t the case, tentacle face freak would be a lot closer to the average S1 hero and the game would be way better ballanced and a lot more fun. There’s no comparing Xnolphod to any S1 healer, is there? Stil, they’re all 5*… what a joke. Next to Vivica, Xnolphod is a 7*, at least. Next step? Will see shortly, with the S5 releases…
I’m not all against spending on a video game, but I’m all against the wreckless spending that ruins the game for most players.
Depends on how much time and brainpower the ptp is investing into the game.
I have seen quite a few stupidly constructed teams with 2-3 “super heros”!
Money first of all gives you a developement boost in this game. You can shave off maybe 50% of game time if you invest enough money and since last year you will beat almost all ftp in 5* tournaments if you invest enough money.
Luckyly in 3* and 4* tournaments ftp can still make top 5 to 1 % for the modest investment of 75 gems if necessary.
First of all, I bet teams with only 2 super heroes are most probably super lucky f2p.
Most P2P don’t have super heroes but every Hotm and maybe some event hero.
You are probabely right but not all hotm are “super heros”.
Just to clarify a little. Assune you see a team with Mother and AlberichC. in the wing positions…then you note it is a reversed V formation and there are no blue heros in the team.
You can now fill in 3 quite strong heros and it is still not a good team!
I am by no means a big spender and am able to compete in challenge events every month, so it isn’t entirely accurate.
You do make some good points though. The alliance quest reward structure is absolutely ridiculous, making the towers P2P is insulting, odds are stupidly low, non-S1 costumes or limit breakers were a terrible idea and the power creep is out of control.
Ahem… I think you answered your own question there. The loot should improve because it’s bad. Not sure what’s confusing.
I mean why in the world did anyone invent cars when people had been traveling on foot or horses for years? Perhaps because it made traveling better, but what do I know?
for the record, i don’t have a number, but it is for sure 4 figures. i don’t track it by itself because it gets all lumped in with the rest of my entertainment spending–of which there hasn’t been much else since i started playing around the onset of the pandemic and the lockdown orders.
i have no doubt that some people who play the game have been irresponsible with their cash. i also have no doubt that some significant number of players have their financial affairs in order and are spending what they haven’t already allocated to their other priorities. they can have the nice car, the paid off tuition, the paid off house/ mortgage, AND a healthy roster of Elizabeths and Xnolphods and Milenas and Franzes and Treevils and the like. “what gets measured gets managed.”
also, charity should be encouraged and commended, but humanity as a whole will never end hunger.
why do they need to? the threads linked above are people voluntarily offering this information, but what’s it to you that they need to admit something like that?
money in the game buys two things: time and opportunities. i’ve spent a fair bit just to speed up progress. i scraped some off the top for summons, but i spent gems to speed up some of my buildings (farms and mines, since they don’t produce while they’re being upgraded), pulled tons and tons of troops, bought WE refills to compete in events, bought some alliance offers so some of my mates could have some fun too (especially the F2P in my alliance), and so on.
does that sound like i’m admitting to a gambling problem to you?
I responded to the posters opinion that the loot has become worse over time and should be improved.
Of course it would be nice if they improved loot but why should they?
Overall they improved rewards for PoV ( which did not exist 4 years ago ) and they have a lot more events which give extra loot compared to 4 years ago, which in itself seems to be an improvement.
The big problem I see is that once you start paying money for better heros that is only the beginning since you will get more heros and then you will need more materials to max. them which will cost you money again.
So this is a very clever designed sytem to get more and more money from the players who start paying!
I with you here. I’m still kind of new, but I haven’t noticed any change loot wise since I started playing.
Once again, you answered your own question. Because it would be nice and improve everyone’s gaming experience. I understand that valuable items need to be somewhat rare, but we’re at an absurd level of rarity right now.
Keep in mind that “should” isn’t synonymous with “must.” Must they improve the loot rate? Of course not, it’s their game and they do whatever they want. Should they improve it? Sure, in a lot of cases the rewards just don’t justify the time and items spent to obtain them.
