Why is it you play GoW?

Gameplay Chat (PC/Mobile)
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Honest question: why are you playing Gems of War? Is it because…

  • you like the battle mechanics?
  • you find it competitive to play PvP and enjoy beating other players (although in reality you just play against AI)?
  • you want to have all troops/pets/weapons/factions/kingdoms/… (aka 100 percenting the collection)?
  • you like the diversity? (which diversity?)
  • you’re just a casual player, just playing it for a few hours per week as a distraction?
  • you already got too deep into it and don’t want to give up all the progression like that?
  • you just don’t know what else to play, so why not?
  • you …?

For me, the answer is i already got too deep into it and it’s hard for me to give up 4 years of “work” + I’m a completionist. I gave this some serious thoughts this week though and considering that nobody will ever be able to 100% complete the game because of obvious reasons, the completionist part just falls away. Secondly, giving up 4 years will still be easier than 4 years + each day extra.

I really came to the point that I don’t enjoy the game itself anymore and it just became a chore to keep up with the progression, nothing more. Just using those 3 same old teams to blast through everything and I don’t even care about losing a match. It shouldn’t be the reason to spend 70+ hours EVERY week on it if I’m being honest with myself.

For me, a game must trigger my interests and have some variations (i prefer roguelikes or games like Minecraft and Terraria) and/or offer a great competitive multiplayer experience like Call of Duty. GoW doesn’t have any of those things and funny enough I’m already playing it for more than 4 years, for 70+ Hours EVERY week. That’s a whopping 14.560 hours or 606 days or 1,66 years. Wtf, i spent 41.5% of life in this game the past 4 years.

I give it until the end of the year to see some interesting, refreshing changes to the game but unfortunately we all know already that won’t happen. In that case, I’ll quit the game 1st of January, simple.

I’m really curious about your reasons for playing the game and how many hours you spend on it per week.

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I started playing because of the puzzle, crafting, upgrading, rpg aspects.

From there I had my wife and brother in law start playing. We had a small guild and just played for fun. As I got deeper into it I realized that without being in a larger guild we were working backwards unless we bought the “not pay to win” deals.

Currently I am playing because my wife still enjoys it, my guildmates are cool people and I don’t want to leave them hanging and I am close to finishing a couple of things. I missed out on the Doomed Club and I am a couple of power orbs away from Zuul.

The Doomed club is scheduled to be in the soulforge in Feb. By that time if things don’t change i’ll get it and probably stop playing altogether.

These devs are incompetent, unethical, lazy, and liars.

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Truly, it is more simple than that. I play because there are times when I have nothing better to do. I really got used to this game as a time killer and I cannot simply quit because I have to manage a guild of very nice people. If I quit, I would simply play some other similar short attention-span game, which will probably be much worse based on the available alternatives. All other confounding factors may be relevant but not really important.

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I also am a bit of a completionist but I’ve long since realised that there is no true end game here. A couple months ago I was missing only 2 troops but campaign has put an end to that pipe dream. I simply will not spend money on a company who don’t care about the ever increasing bugs in their game. I used to like the good old days when LBs had some meaning. Potions and empowerment burnt that principle to the ground. I stuck around cos I liked doom but that has also gone despite the fact that the resources it provided have not been catered for in other areas of the game. The arena revamp is a ludicrous waste of time because those of us with limited time need to do other stuff like classes rather than waste numerous hours for a handful of writs. Why am I still playing? Habit/addiction is the answer; its certainly not an enjoyable pursuit anymore. I’ve now reduced my gem time by 2/3rds and by the time Xbox x is released I doubt I will bother with it at all. Next gen consoles offer exciting gaming possibilities, gems offers only further frustration and despair. Many of us have varying stages of gaming addiction, I am just glad I realised it before it became something I would need professional help to deal with. That’s my honest answer. A company that exploits addiction and the pandemic in such a lucrative manner is beyond redemption, and many gaming studios are doing exactly that. Its time many of us took a long look in the mirror and recognised the reality of what is staring right back at us.

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I was a big fan of Puzzle Quest and randomly discovered GOW when looking up the creators several years ago. I thought I’d play it for a bit and then move one, but here we are 5+ years later and I’m still going. This is the only mobile game to ever grab me and keep me playing.

I think my favorite part is just the ability to grab it and go. I can play a couple battles here or a couple battles there, or if I feel like it spend several hours grinding through different game types.
I’m the rare player who absolutely LOVES maps so I spend a lot of time playing those. I have also been working more and more on my delves, and I like the challenge of it (even if it seems impossible sometimes). I play PVP and Explore as well, but def get how those can feel very grindy after awhile by using the same teams over and over. One of the reasons I really enjoy the weekly guild events (minus GW) is the challenge of having to create new teams. I really enjoy that aspect.

I don’t personally see myself quitting the game any time soon as I’m still very much enjoying it, BUT if it ever got to the point I wasn’t enjoying it I would def leave. I am a completionist myself but came to the conclusion many, many years ago that this is one of those games I would never truly be able to complete. It’s a great game for me to play while slow at work and I def put several hours into it every week, but I give myself a nice balance between my outside real life and the game. It’s one of the reasons I have always run a guild that is active but understands that people have lives outside of the game.

Honestly, I have no idea how the players in the Top 50 guilds do it. Kudos to them because I am sure they have to dedicate a TON of time to constantly playing the game and keep going and going and going. I wouldn’t ever be able to do that.

Just know @MarioDaems that I have absolutely loved having you in the guild and I am excited to have the rest of the year with you. If you do decided to stop playing the game know that you will always have a place in Guardians of Terra if you ever decide to return :smiley:

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Today marks 7 months since I started playing the game. I started because I like match-3s and the idea of an rpg-like progression seemed interesting. While I consider myself a completionist, I don’t mind “playing catch-up” forever. In fact, I look forward to the new troops that are released, checking the artwork and all that.

Obviously, I haven’t been playing as long as many of you, so I don’t know how things were in the “good” old days. But I mostly stay because I enjoy my guildmates, enjoy the challenge of delves and have accepted that I’m never going to place 1st on the leaderboards. Recently, out guild fully completed its first event, our first epic task and all the normal tasks. That felt great. We also schedule pet hunts to help each other out.

In short, while I play it a lot, I feel like it’s a casual game. I am addicted, I’ll admit that, but it’s not a stressful addiction like other games I played. Maybe that’ll change, maybe not. But for now, I’m enjoying it. The key thing that I keep telling myself (whether a lie or not) is that the majority of time I put into the game is of my own choosing (grinding explore or pvp and faction weekends). Everything else I accomplish in a short time. My guild has no gold requirement, and even if it did, I would probably get enough just by playing whatever needed to be done that day.

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Delves are a challenge for sure and for those of us that didn’t complete new factions upon release from day 1, that challenge has adopted a whole new meaning. For example, I missed the warrens release and its next Tuesdays event. Its not an easy faction and every level requires a minimum of 5 battles to progress. That’s a daunting prospect for a 24 hour event. It is this kind of unreasonable commitment that causes game fatigue and burn out. And quitting.

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i like how the game is complex, and we get new toy to play every week (new troop) i like creating team and playing them against other people in pvp.

and as they also get those new troops, the defence changed slightly over time ( before string fiddler the defence wss majority life and death, then there’s zuul defence as more people has zuul, etc etc)

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You mean Gems of War isn’t my job? I need a reason to play?

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This is my situation with Lyrazra’s. Maybe I’ll never complete it because a weekend faction event is already a daunting and tiresome prospect. Doing it in 24 is ridiculous, but might be something I’ll do if I even have that many gems/time available and really want to punish myself on a given Tuesday. But, and this is the kicker, maybe they’ll listen to us and allow us to pick starting faction events from current level.

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Because Candy Crush became too easy for me. And this game (despite it’s immense flaws) is super deep.

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Not sure if sarcasm or not, but basically this.

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No sarcasm.
I was pro level at candy crush, people would buy me drinks at bars to beat levels for them back when strangers/friends could interact.
On a podcast 4 years ago, Gems of War was recommended for fans of Candy Crush but wanted a deeper game. I’ve been hooked ever since.

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I too was a Candy Crush fiend, always waiting for new levels to come out. But I started playing Gems of War actually when I quit playing Heroes of the Storm, a MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena), and I was quite high ranked on there (Grand Master being the highest rank, I placed in Master every ladder season, which was above Diamond, then Platinum, then Gold, then Silver, then Bronze). Unfortunately, I just wasn’t enjoying playing with other players anymore, they frustrated me, and I turned to more single player games, and that’s how I ended up at Gems of War.

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I stopped playing Candy Crush at level 1737. And mostly because of GoW consuming all my mobile gaming time. I’ll maybe pick it up again soon…

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Talk about a loaded question lol. Before I answer I think this is a phenomenal question and while I personally disagree with some players perceptions of the game, I really like hearing the responses and believe everyone has their own truths and it’s interesting to hear the opinions from all sides why they feel the way they do.

I started with Gems on the Xbox in Dec 2015 as a way to pick up some easy achievements on the side. After a few months I would burnout and then come back again. I probably did this 3 times before becoming a fully active player in 2018. Once my brother picked up the game I went over to the mobile version (Dec 2018). I joined a discord network for the very first time and everything changed after that. Playing on Mobile/PC alone was a HUGE game changer but having a large network that had multiple guilds, great atmosphere, and a large amount of game resources was an even bigger plus.

There is no single reason why I play gems now.

I play:

-To help our network community grow by monitoring and maintaining our trove or resources and stats
-To help our guilds/players stay engaged no matter what level of play they are at
-To help answer players questions about the game and continue to learn more about it. After all this time, I’m still learning things.
-Because the game is still fun for me. There is no energy system and I can play for as little or as long as I want. The stronger I get in game, the faster the game becomes, which means the quicker i can get things done. For me faster = more fun.
-To progress. I set personal goals in the past to keep me motivated. I understand the game can only be played and never won, but that doesn’t mean I can’t try to maximize my account as efficiently as possible without ever spending a dime.
-Because I’ve played hundreds of games, and dozens in the gacha genre, and this by far has the most F2P to Depth ratio of any game out there that I’ve played. That is subjective of course, but I can compete with most high level players and I didn’t have to play 40 hours a week or spend thousands of dollars to do it.
-Because it’s mindless and I can play while watching other things. I usually play with youtube, podcast, movie, or show in the background or even in the corner of my phone while the game is playing. I’ve never felt like the game is a chore since I’m done with reqs and events well before the weekend. Sure new faction weekends are grind at times, but it’s rewarding to finish it out.

I know I come across as a dev apologist but that’s completely wrong. The game is still fun and I enjoy helping other players progress and enjoy the game as it is. The devs have not made the game any more or less enjoyable. They just haven’t messed with my F2P progress. I don’t set my expectations high for gems because that sets people up for massive disappointment. FOMO def sucks sometimes with being a VIP 0, but It’s something I came to accept a long time ago. I don’t worry about the minor issues with the game. Unless they paywall something permanently or create a mode that only money can get you through (not just gems, I got more than enough there), I’ll continue to play and enjoy the endless burn until I eventually do burnout.

Burnout is natural and healthy. The only thing I can advise to those who are extremely disgruntled with the devs and the game itself is to acknowledge when you view this game for more than it is, a game. You are in control of your wallet and your game time. Don’t set those extremely high FOMO bars for yourself that only cause you resentment. Gems will never reinvent the wheel to a degree that will change the core loop or gameplay. It’s a match 3, it will always be a match 3, just with slightly different variables.

I also suggest playing other games, especially those in the same genre. It should give you a better perspective on gems. This genre is predatory, but accepting that early and not letting these games reel you in is important. It’s ok to spend money, just know your limits. This is a casino after all, #playresponsibly.

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Gems of War is the only Match3 game I play right now. Other games I play/have played in the past year or two:

Divinity Original Sin 2 (played this one a lot, currently waiting for Balder’s Gate 3 now)
Star Renegades (currently playing a lot)
Frostpunk (city building/surviving)
Islanders (VERY chill puzzle sort of game)
Doom (2016) (haven’t finished this, and I have Doom Eternal still to play!)
Iratus: Lord of the Dead
Grim Dawn
Earth Defense Force 5
Stardew Valley
Overdungeon
Disco Elysium
Tesla vs Lovercraft

So… what are some things about all of these games that are in common with Gems of War? Hrm… most of them are single player or co-op. A lot of them are puzzle oriented or turn-based, where you can think about things ahead of time. A lot of them are fantasy based, and the ones that aren’t are almost all dystopian futures. A lot of them have inventories/collections of things, stats you build up over time, etc.

Gems of War scratches all those itches. It’s a game that is calm, something I can think out, something I can chill to, something I play when I’m watching TV. But it’s also something that I can need to focus on when I want to put the energy into.

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Think you misinterpreted why I said to look into other games of the gacha genre. I don’t mean to put down gems, in fact you made my point very well in your response that gems covers a lot points that other games don’t. Gacha is not limited to match 3’s. Gems is an rpg, deck building, match 3 gacha. Games like raid shadow legends, AFK arena, or MSF check all the boxes but aren’t match 3. Candy crush and best fiends cover the match 3 aspect but aren’t as rpg or deck building although best fiends has some collecting aspects.

What they all have in common is predatory microtransactions. Most if not all of the others like these games are way more in your face. Requiring ad viewing to gain energy, energy limits, and offers as soon as you login.

The reason a player should look into other games like this is to gain a better understanding of how truly terrible microtransactions and casino like games can get. If you only play gems and thats all you know of this genre or just mobile games in general, you lack an understanding how things work.

I believe after seeing other games, participating in their game forums and discords gems does some things way better and they do some things worse. Purely from a gameplay standpoint they were much better. You can disagree with update choices and modes, but overall its hard to deny why its successful.

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I first played Puzzle Quest, then Puzzle Forge, then Puzzle Quest 2, before finding GoW.

I liked it because there was more stuff to do, troops to gather, classes to collect and upgrade etc.

Now, it’s partly the “in too deep”, but also it’s force of habit, plus a bit of “can’t be bothered to go looking for another game to play right now”!

There’s also a bit of pressure to keep playing because I’m in a Guild and (deliberately, I have no doubt) a sense that you’d be letting others down if you didn’t play.

Not to mention a bit of stubborness that I don’t want to stop playing, even though I have thought about it a few times.

Oh, and recently I became Guild Leader because our existing Leader did get burned out and is thinking of quitting entirely, so I’d like to do the job for a while and see how I get on.

I probably will still quit at some point when I find something better (and less RNG prone and buggy and annoyingly frustrating), but I don’t know when that will be…

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I already replied but there’s another thing. As I mentioned before, I like the mindlessness so I can play and work as a community towards a goal. And, like @ButtStallion said, I can play as much or as little as I want since there isn’t an energy system to the overall game.

But a big issue I have is the FOMO, particularly of the faction weekends. Do I need to grind them? No. Can they be achieved elsewhere? Maybe. So if I take a break and miss one of these, I still have the nagging feeling that I’ve wasted my best chance to finish it. If I ever want to stop, that’s the barrier I need to overcome in deciding if the break is permanent or temporary

Yet enjoying it now so I’ll think about that when it happens. Most likely, I’ll have gradually decreased by then, or burned out, so it’ll be a non-issue.

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