Is it fun, or is it a chore?

Feature Requests and Game feedback
1

I have been in the game for about 6 months now. I suppose that still makes me kind of new-ish in the scope of things, but I have been fairly aggressive during this time. I often spend as much as 6 or 8 hours a day, grinding levels and earning kingdom power/stars, watching all the streams, reading the lore, trying to do the best for my guild, and all of that. I am VIP level 5, and don’t regret a penny spent. I am a long-time fan of the puzzle quest series, and RPGs in general. I hope for more puzzle quest in the future, and long life for gems of war.

That being said, clearly I am a fan, but I am wondering if I am still having fun, or if I am just doing chores. It was fun to grind my way up to level 1150, and start seeing some good rewards coming from kingdom power levels. Now that I am mostly “there” (still need a ton of mythics of course), it feels like all I am doing is delve after delve, raid boss after raid boss, tower after tower, and I’m starting to wonder what I am accomplishing.

Our guild just cleared stage 10 of invasion, and drumroll please, orb of growth. hmmm. I don’t have a single troop that I can use it on. All leveled up. So what have I accomplished? I am not sure what I can do to make myself feel like all of those hours of battling was worth my time. I guess I just want to feel like my work achieved something, saved a village, rescued a princess, or made me a hero or something. But hey, now I have a shiny green orb to add to my collection.

Sorry, I don’t mean to whine or anything, but I guess I am just wondering if there is anything more to accomplish now, story wise, or hero wise. It’s starting to feel kind of repetitive…buy a troop with gems, level it up with gems, fight a bazillion battles, and I get some loot. Next week, do it all over again. Maybe I should just play less.

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2

For me, team building is the fun that never ends. The rest can feel grind-y for sure after a while, but for me at least, building and testing out new teams never gets old. With so many potential combinations now, it’s pretty endless.

I wish I had a hundred team slots, but they’d already all be full anyway.

Find your fun, whether or not it feels like what you are “supposed to do.” Otherwise, burnout is inevitable.

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Me too :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:.

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Are you wanting others to tell you how to have fun? :grinning:
Basically… If you aren’t having fun… Then take a break until it’s fun again. Or focus on the game events that make it fun.
Personally, raids for me are a chore. But it’s only once a month and I do the minimum requirement if the Raid troop sucks. Do a bit more if it’s kinda fun.
On Wednesdays, I try not to play that much to allow myself a break from the game. Maybe you should try that.
Otherwise, Guild Requirements should never be a reason for someone to play. Requiring someone to play a game definitely takes the fun away. So you should be in a guild where you meet Requirements by just normally playing as much as you personally want to.

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In a certain way you already consumed all the fun you could have making progress, some Mythics and maybe ascending some troops are things that’ll take time accounted in months and trying to reduce such time even slightly would demand an unhealthy amount of personal investment day after day…

As others pointed out look for what you have fun doing, maybe playing certain gamemodes or simply building new teams. Sometimes i create low rarity teams just using specific themes and challenge myself in hard battles without any urge to min/max resource generation.

Regarding new addtions to the game Arena could really have an expansion and even an exclusive event, but the devs still need to realize they can do a lot of things in this game.

6

QFT

Team building has always kept me interested in the game. I’ve been a fan of RPGs and match-3 games for a long time. This game gives me a bit of both worlds. Playing a team with perfect synergy still makes me giddy.

I’m not interested in the vast majority of events. Although, I had a lot of fun with the Tower of Doom because of the guild coordination involved and guild-wide leaderboard excitement. Plus, I love delving in general. To make a long story short, I just don’t play the events I dislike as much as the ones I like. That has struck a good balance for me.

Every game like this has a grind element. I suppose I’m used to it because I’ve played a lot of MMORPG games. They are all extremely grindy if you want to make significant progression.

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Thanks for the comments everyone :slight_smile: I appreciate the insight.

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wait…this game is supposed to be fun?..

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(Look all I want to do today is post gifs just let me live my best life.)

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To the OP:

Honestly, I feel you, man. How it worked for me is: I was playing this game for a little over a year… And then they introduced things like Raids and Invasions. That is when I really started to feel like this game was a chore.

I mean, I’m not going to say, that, pre-Sigil events, it was a picnic, every day. Nah, there were times I just didn’t want to grind Explore for stones I needed and was sick of the Treasure Map events, every few weeks, and things like that. But, but, those were momentary feelings.

Now, though? With the “Daily Whip” cracking harder than ever before? “Hey, do these Delves, every day, because you can’t ‘keep’ the scrolls. Hey, do your Dungeons, every day, or you lose out on Diamonds and such, you need them Mythics. And, hey, don’t forget those Daily Tasks, you need those Gems, and such, for all the other modes. Hey, don’t forget, you gotta kill 750 troops in PvP, this week. Hey, don’t forget that Faction Event today, you gotta do that. And, hey, don’t forget those Raid Sigils, you don’t want them to build up until you’re stuck doing 50 battles, or more, on Sunday, before the new week starts… Oh, look, a Pet Rescue!”

AHHHHHHHHHHH! Just leave me alone!

… … … … …

Yeah… Too many days, now, come up, where I feel like that. And I hate it. And it never used to feel that way, for me. Yes, there were times I felt a bit bored and tired of the grind. But, in the old days, I never wanted to yell at my TV, because, at times, I felt overwhelmed by the sheer amount of “content” that was being shoved in my face, on a daily basis.

Now, if I’m having days like that, why do I still play, you might ask? Well, there are still some things I enjoy about this game. Some. Plus, I help run/co-run, a guild. So, I play just as much for them, as I do for myself, maybe even more so, these days.

Oddly enough, though, I have heard of a new guild trying to break this cycle of insanity. I guess a bunch of old Vets, on Xbox, made a guild where they just do tasks/throw in gold and get trophies and such, like the old days. Not gonna lie, after 2+ years in this game (and one of them being filled with all these Sigil based, Gem Sinks), getting “back to basics” does sound like a cool idea. It sounds like a nice break… At least for awhile. I don’t know, may be that’s just me.

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11

I know of a couple of guilds on PC/Mobile that have this setup. I think it’s a brilliant idea. It’s a great solution for people that don’t want to play the guild events.

In my humble opinion, some people make themselves miserable by staying in guilds that no longer match their playstyle. They force themselves to play modes that they literally hate until they lose all enjoyment in the game.

This game, like every other viable F2P, will continue to grow and change. That means that at times a player needs to adapt. Sometimes, that means considering moving on to a different guild of like-minded players or saying goodbye to the game altogether.

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Well, that’s cool. The one I mentioned in my comment (though, not by name, as I don’t know how that works with the rules on here. I’m not looking to get in trouble. Haha), is the first Guild of this type ive heard about, on Xbox (where I play).

I agree. And, while I’m not saying I would never want to do a Sigil event ever again, after a year of them, I’ve kind of “had my fill”, for awhile.

You want to know what’s funny though? My guild hasn’t (and will never) require those Guild Events. But, I still find myself playing them. Why? Because, even though it’s not required, almost every one plays them. So, I play them as well to “help out”. Do I enjoy it though? Not really. Some weeks are definitely better than others, but, overall, I haven’t really enjoyed any of the “new” events. Even GW, from before the “Sigil era” of Gems, was still only “Meh”, for me.

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I think your complain is viable, and reflects many thread that pops from time to time.
A « chore » is usually something that takes too much time and effort for very little reward.
Like washing dishes. Oh cool, i got clean dishes :roll_eyes:.

As many have said, the draw of Gems of War is team building and fighting opponents.
So the game is at it’s best (maximum fun) when you can create a team and face various opponent. Such a game, in addition to fun and satisfaction , gives you gold, ingots, etc…

Currently, many events feel less fun, because they are repetitive (fight similar team 20 times but harder and longer), and involve a lot less team building. Like this week. Raksha, really?

So, how should playing a bad team in repetitive battle be motivated? Well, with better rewards of course.
Enters Keys and Orbs.
We indulge in lesser fun to get better loot.
But it’s a huge fail, because all the rewards are in fact fake rewards. Keys and Chaos Orbs are not end rewards, they are a « chance » to get a reward, and fail most of the time.

The only exception is Pet Rescue. If you win all fights, you get a pet. Not another basket. You. Get. The. Pet.

That’s what they need to do. Don’t give me 20 keys, just give me 1 copy of the week’s legendary. Give me crafting material. Give me pre-selected Orbs.

This week, the fights are boring, both for Invasion, Class event, and even the delves.
My last 5 Orbs were 4 growth and 1 clan.

That is the issue. It feels like a chores, because the fun was lessened by forcing us to use bad troops in repetitive battle and giving us a rotten onion for our troubles.

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14

Eh, the honest truth is the entire game is chores, and part of sticking with it is being comfy with that. The reality is terrible and it only works if you decide it’s OK.

Everything in GoW takes longer than it would if you asked a random gamer how long it should take. This is exacerbated by everything powerful in GoW being decided by an RNG roll, so even if you fight really hard to win an event there is a very high % chance you don’t get the reward you need.

Seriously. Imagine if your boss told you this week, you’re going to roll a dice, and if you roll a 1-2 you get 30% of your paycheck, 3-5 is 80% of your paycheck, and 6 is 130%. Would you like to work in those conditions? That’s an 83% chance you get a pay cut. You should quit if your boss makes this offer.

The main reason we do it for GoW is we’re not planning on spending the time any other way. So in our reckoning, the time wasn’t wasted. You get a thread like this when somebody has a busy week, and some of those GoW hours were hours that could’ve been better spent.

We don’t like “chores” because we want to spend that time doing something else. We do chores because the chore usually accomplishes something. You wash dishes so you don’t have filthy dishes. You clean the bathroom so you don’t get sick from the nasty bathroom. But GoW is never, ever going to “pay you back” with a tangible benefit like that. It can only provide “entertainment” in return for time.

At the start, everything is novel and you unlock new modes and keep getting new experiences. That’s a lot of fun, and is the intangible way GoW pays you back. Eventually, you’ve got most of what the game has to offer. It’s out of ways to pay you back. That’s when we start to see it as “chores”, because well, there’s probably 50 games in your backlog with new experiences and you could spend your GoW time playing those.

GoW doesn’t have a lot of options to change and keep you hooked if you’re endgame. If a new troop releases you’ve tired of it in 2-3 days. When a new mode comes out the community’s cracked it in 2-3 iterations. The devs are kind of stuck there, they’d have to implement a whole different game to hold your interest.

It’s OK to say “I’ve done everything” and move on to a new game. It’s been the natural way things have happened for as long as games have existed. Sometimes a person really likes one game a whole lot and plays it forever, but it’s more common that people tire of a game and move on after an intense period of enjoyment.

F2P games try to fight that by making you form social bonds you feel like you’ll lose if you quit. That’s why they have in-game chat instead of telling you to use Discord. If you can talk to your GoW friends while you play a different game, you might think you can quit GoW and keep your friends. They need your friends to believe GoW chat is superior so they only hang out there, so you can only talk to them there, so you are less likely to leave. Don’t fall into the trap. Find a way to talk to your GoW friends outside of GoW. If you can’t, or they don’t want to, they aren’t really friends and you’re not going to lose a lot by cutting that contact.

There’s also the “sunken cost” fallacy. You see all the things you got in GoW, and feel like if you start a new game you’ll lose all of that. Or, you have a lot of social clout here and don’t want to be a nobody elsewhere.

With respect to the “things” you “have” in GoW, I’ll make that easy: you don’t legally own any of your GoW property. The moment 505 decides the game is over, it all goes away. The only lasting record you might have is your last gowdb profile and some screenshots. If you truly care about sunken costs, video games are a terrible time investment.

With respect to the social clout: that’s tougher, but see the last paragraph. One day the game will end and the community will collapse. Or, some event will cause an exodus and you’ll be alone. Honestly, it’s not really healthy to thrive on one’s social status though it’s a natural tendency. The best thing here is be friends with people both in and out of the GoW community. If the only way you talk to humans is GoW chat, you’re not as socially stable as you think. If you can’t talk to your friends outside of GoW, you’re in danger of losing all of your friends on someone else’s whim.

In short:

  • Yes, it’s a chore.
  • Everyone gets to a point where it’s not fun anymore. It’s natural.
  • It’s not a bad thing to quit.
  • You should talk to your GoW buddies in the same place you talk to buddies who don’t play GoW.
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I’d add that if you do quit, don’t start another F2P game! Choose a totally free game with nothing for sale, or pay up front for a game.

The F2P model gives the publisher/developer an incentive to keep you addicted while a paid game incents the game makers to make sure you have fun.

GoW is a fantastic game and I’m still having fun, but I have come to question the ethics of the F2P model and what it means. People talk about how Facebook is designed to keep you using it, even to the point that it’s bad for you. Maybe F2P games are the same. Look at the tribute system in this game that encourages you to click on it every hour all day long.

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Yeah this is worth saying.

F2P games are designed to make you feel bad about quitting even when you’re not having fun with the game. That’s why people almost always ragequit: they are mad at the game and mad because the game makes them feel like they are losing something by going away.

It’s also what drives a constant feeling that everyone is dissatisfied. Because the game is never “done”, something can always change, and since radical changes can happen to bring in new players, there’s always a shred of hope that the game will finally change in a way that “makes it fun again”. So everyone’s always opinionating about how they want the game to change. Then it changes, and the people who were happy have to complain that they want it different. Then it changes again, and a different group of people chimes in, etc.

It’s just… a toxic model, even ignoring the side where you spend money.

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This sounds good, in theory. But, here’s the problem: you can’t even escape that in most Premium games, these days. There are a crap ton of $60 “Triple A” games that employ the micro-transactions and psychological bombardment found in most F2P titles. Heck, some $60 titles even make the Game extra grindy in order to “incentivize” you to buy currency, loot boxes, XP boosts, etc. You don’t have to look much further than the latest EA, Ubisoft, or Activation-Blizzard game, to know what I’m talking about.

Honestly, unless you play Indie titles, or the few “Triple A” ones without MTX (Nintendo’s First Party titles, PS4’s Spider-Man, etc), you will have to deal with F2P bs, even when that game isn’t actually free to play.

Welcome to the modern gaming industry. Ain’t it grand? Pfft.

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I quit and returned to help guild with empty spot. I only pvp for seals and helped a little with event.

Daily log is enough for me now.

Try taking a break but still keep account around just in case you want to return.

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Yeah, the game is a huge chore. The worst of it is the guild stuff, though. Like, I can choose to miss delves or pet quests because only I lose out from non-participation. But being obligated to earn the seals cap, and participate in BS event battles is exhausting. When I was newer to the game, I didn’t understand why people loved guild wars so much, given that the rewards for guild wars are utter garbage, but I’ve since come to realize guild wars are amazing because I DON’T HAVE TO PLAY THE OTHER EVENTS on guild war weeks.

When the best feature of a part of the game is that I don’t have to play the game, something has gone horribly, horribly wrong in the design. I think the events really need to be reworked to be less tedious. It’s just not fun to fight cheapshotmcautokill 50+ times in a row with increasingly inflated stats every time. I had high hopes for the tower of doom, but it just turned out to be delves only worse, and with “rewards” that are less rewards and more blatant attempts to rip off players who are compelled to complete everything.

Sorry, but weapons already have ingots for upgrades. Making the tower of doom weapons require something other than ingots in order to be upgraded, just so you can offer those as a reward does not make the mode more rewarding. And making it impossible to actually get enough of this new arbitrary currency to fully upgrade without paying absurd amounts of money is just asinine. It could not be more obvious the devs are just whale hunting with this new mode.

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Thanks for the warning, I usually buy games a few years late so haven’t seen this yet.

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