Wow, this thread blew up in no time at all. Looks like it struck a few nerves, and considering the tone of the OP, I guess that’s not surprising. The thing is, the exact team doesn’t matter. I imagine all of people who regularly place near the top of the leaderboards have a similarly powerful team. The important thing is that the strategic depth of the game falls apart if you can safely ignore everything about the other side of the board. That is a problem if the developers want to attract and retain players who aren’t just in it for the slot machine element.
Games communicate to the player how they should be played. That’s fundamentally what a game is – a set of rules that result in different outcomes for different actions, some of which are rewards, or “winning”, and others are penalties, or “losing”. Telling someone that they should deliberately perform worse in order to have more fun is telling them they should be playing a different game instead. There’s no problem with imposing your own rules in order to maximize your own fun, but you’re fundamentally playing a different game, even if it’s played using the same equipment, pieces, or software. Some people just find their time is better spent playing a different game entirely, rather than try to shape an existing one into something they enjoy by ignoring its reward structure. It’s the developer’s job to make the game fun – if the player has to limit themselves to enjoy the game, then either the game isn’t suited to them, or the developers are failing at their job.
The forums are mostly populated by people who are committed to Gems of War, and want it to continue being a game they enjoy. Whether they’re looking for strategies to maximize their fun, or making suggestions to the developers, they’re trying to avoid the outcome where they decide that their time is better spent playing a different game entirely. @Kurokazna made it clear that she’d reached that point. She realized that GoW wasn’t the game she thought it was. Playing a different team wouldn’t make the situation any better. It’s the fact that such a team is possible, and that the majority of the playerbase purportedly likes it that way, suggests that the developers aren’t likely to really address the core problem, because from their perspective, it’s not really a problem – it’s the nature of the game. Battles are puzzles, and high victory rates are expected. Though apparently Puzzle Quest was different enough for her to still enjoy. The difference may be that it wasn’t built on a micro-transaction, constant flow of new content sort of model.
The opening post is far too long, meandering, and patronizing for the point I think she wanted to make. But I don’t think it was a bad point. The game has hundreds of troops, billions of possible teams, and yet most of them don’t matter and don’t see much, if any, use. The game needs strategic depth if it’s going to have any lasting appeal beyond the mindless grinding for power and progression. That’s enough for some people, but not necessarily enough for lots of people who are attracted to the game for other reasons. If they play, feel dissatisfied, and leave without either attracting other new players, or investing money into the game, then they’ve consumed valuable server resources without helping to keep the game alive. It’s in the best interest of the developers, and the other players, for the game to clearly communicate what it is, so that potential players can determine whether it’s something they’ll enjoy for the long term.