Evony: Age II is that most curious of beasts; a leopard that tries to change its spots. The highly addicting game represented by the original Evony has been dramatically updated, with an eye towards capturing the Facebook market and appealing to an audience larger than its extremely geeky cult following.
Evony:Age II is a PvP game involving building castles, raising armies and battling your fellow man. Or woman. Evony tends to have a comparatively high percentage of females in its player base. The basic dynamics are simple. You build cities that allow you to get bigger and field bigger and tougher armies. You then need to deal with all those pesky neighbors and, in the process, form alliances that help you accomplish that.
Evony Age I is a math geek's dream and the epitome of the strong Pwning the weak. The mechanics involved in Evony are so involved and so examined that there is literally thousands of formulae for efficiently building, attacking and generally doing everything but chatting. One of the "charms" of Evony, both I and II, is that none of this is explained by the developers and much cannot be deduced by common sense. Instead, like initiation in a secret society, players have to learn the secrets of Evony by listening to learned players and scouring guides and forums for clues on how to play.
That type of obscurity doesn't necessarily translate into a natural with a Facebook crowd. Indeed, the time commitments required and the level of understanding needed ensure this game will never translate into the success of a Mafia Wars or other Facebook games. Similarly, it lacks dynamic features and interaction that make games like WoW hugely popular. It may be played in 167 countries but not by many in each and its claim to 18 million players is obviously using some very generous terminology. Not unusual in the gaming world, of course.
Age I Overview
In Age I, a new player would have a basic city and seven days of ?Beginner?s Protection? to become strong enough to defend it. At the end of this period, a larger neighbor would usually visit them and either take all their resources. If they had two or more cities ? you can have up to 10 ? the bigger player might conquer all but one of those cities and keep them or abandon them. This, of course, would make a person who had spent a week building the city or cities very sad. The type of sadness that either gives you the fire to overcome but more often the urge to find another game.
Those who decide to overcome usually do so on a new server. The game opens new servers periodically and there is a fairly insurmountable hurdle to succeeding if you ?start late? on a server. The hearty souls who remain are treated to an endless opportunity to ?click and wait? as they try to efficiently build aspects of their city, grow an army and become strong enough to, you guessed it, begin conquering other cities and/or stealing all their resources.
Historically, Age I is fairly accurate. If you were a city prince in times when indoor plumbing was a forgotten luxury, the world was very cruel, even if you were a king of your little realm. Be powerful and you thrive. Get behind in the arms race and you simply stopped existing. Unfortunately, that type of realism is a bit too real for players who lack a love or an ?all or nothing? in the gaming life.
Age I has many type of players but a simplified version boils down to two classes, arbitrarily titled ?prestige farmers? and ?honor hounds.? The farmer is committed to building his cities in such a way to gain the maximum prestige points, the benchmark by which you compare the strength of a player or an alliance of players. He or she cares less about attacking and conquering other players than he or she does about building a nice, safe and, preferably, ?bigger than yours? little empire of ten cities. They do things like attack and pwning of other players but it?s secondary.
On the other hand, the honor hound looks at a city as a necessary evil for the real goal; building armies and imposing one?s will on all you survey. This can be upsetting to the prestige farmer and virtually ensure the quick death of most new players. These two groups, and all their shades, do not get along and the see the game very differently. In fact, one could fairly say that the honor hounds made the game so brutal that the developers began seeking measures to limit the Pwning. And here we come to Age II
"No more bullies, no more farming. Improved graphics. More fun!"
As covered, Age I was filled with ?bullies? who make the game ?difficult? for all but the most committed and knowledgeable players. In terms of commitment, spending less than a few hours every day ?clicking and waiting? would cause one to fall off the pace enough to become someone else?s target. Followed quickly by no more cities, no more resources to rebuild and a whole bunch of ?not fun.? Age I also demanded ?farming? of NPC cities that were filled with resources to feed the gigantic armies needed to survive in such a world. That was just a bit too much clicking, apparently, and the developers promised to make NPC farming a thing of the past.
In Age II, you cannot conquer another player?s city. You cannot steal their resources. Since this describes the two main reasons for attacking another player, this obviously changes the game dynamics, its appeal and its audience. You can ?colonize? a city which allows you to drain a percentage of its production and troops daily. In effect, you are no longer a warlord but a Mafioso collecting your protection money. In fact, you are expected to defend colonized cities so the comparison actually fits nicely (except the mob may not have actually been providing protection for its services, of course).
Conceptually, it is an interesting idea for limiting the carnage inflicted by the weak on the strong. By limiting the gain and allowing players the ability to continue building ? if under a fairly usurious tax ? the game would be more broadly appealing. It?s highly questionable whether this was accomplished. Quests for colonies virtually ensure that all but the strongest players get colonized as soon as they exit ?beginner?s protection.? There?s also some fairly strong anecdotal evidence that players drop out just as often as Age I. So, in all likelihood, it?s a fairly small win for ?the little guy.? The prestige farmers, of course, are happier. They can protect themselves but now there is even less reason and benefit to attacking. The same cannot be said for the honor hounds. They, of course, are livid.
By taking away the attack button, the developers effectively killed the reason for the game?s appeal. The mechanics involved in colonizing are cumbersome. The rewards are comparatively negligible. Plus, once colonized, there is absolutely nothing one player can do to another even if they are neighbors and in warring alliances. It makes for some very silly wars, of course.
Evony?s gamble is that the game will succeed because the prestige farmers will be a now growing base that more than offsets the disaffected honor hounds. That?s a pretty dubious gamble. It?s a territorial war game with castles and you just undermined attacking to make it safe. Safe? Are you kidding? Safe is Farmville. Safe is Starfleet Commander where you can be perpetually in diplomacy mode. This game succeeded because of its absolutely brutal Darwinian ethos. Despite all the new bells and whistles, that?s too great a leap from its origins.
No bullies doesn?t work. The weak are pwned just as often and quit just as often. The difference is that the strong are less satisfied. That?s like trying to date two people and ending up alone on prom night. They also promised less farming. Wrong again. Farming NPCs is actually more important and cumbersome because they made it harder to mine the resources. You could reduce or eliminate the food and gold you get from mindlessly mining NPC cities. Instead, Evony opted to make it harder to have a huge army, not impossible, and thus ensured that big armies will still exist (and you need one too!).
This kind of decision making will have you wondering whether the developers are executing some huge cosmic joke or are really just na?ve. On the flip side, Age II is an incredible improvement over the fairly rustic Age I. The interface and design is several evolutions better. It is, unfortunately buggy as all heck. Even with a long beta and months of actual play, there are huge issues that are not cosmetic. Colonization fails often due to things like the ?dread hanging blue bar.? Resources, rewards, troop building times and awards are all prone to error. The impact of heroes is a sometimes thing. For a game that relies on math (and math geeks), this is a ?not good thing.? They solve a problem like the ?lost patrols? where whole armies disappear and problems like food not generating crop up. Some problems get solved. Others are claimed to be solved and aren?t. Most are completely avoided in discussion. Age II is an act of faith in so many ways. One wonders if the developers truly appreciate how thin that faith has become.
Will it Succeed?
Sure. Age II will be a ?success.? Match overhead to expenses and I am sure the game is a winner. Will it ever be wildly popular? No way. Too much math. Too much tribal knowledge. Too big of a time commitment. Evony operates on a churn like most games and they will capture, retain and replace enough players with enough frequency to always find their level. If they don?t make changes, they?ll be relying more on prestige farmers and less on honor hounds. Is that a good thing? Who knows? What is clear is that its advertising of no bullies and no farming is about as accurate as, say, saving a princess in Age I. In the end, it?s a game you like for really dumb reasons, play because you become addicted and usually leave with fairly mixed feelings.




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