Quote Originally Posted by chinothepony View Post
In Conclusion: In not seeing Evony's business model serving them, I actually worry about more then if it was more self serving. The game design does not give a longevity to the gameplay that will ensure customers to stay and play. It's destroy, or be destroyed, and move on. That is the biggest difference I see from this and an MMO. MMOs have internal game rules and regulations to protect the player from being squashed out of existence. This does not. That alone in the game design strikes out the whole idea of continued moneymaking.
I agree that every online game like Evony is destroy or be destroyed, but every game as some mesaure of defense against that. Evony keeps you last village from being taken, but not it's loyalty to reach 0 (thanks, no longevity). Tribal Wars lets you restart at the furthest point from the center, placing you next to players that have also had to restart (better, but still not there). Finally, Ikariam (my fav) adds a completly different system to ensure continued game play; REBELLION. Basically, when one of you villages is "occupied", the occupying player gets complete control of the village. However, the original player still retains some control over the village. They can increase the corruption level, which drives off citizens and reduces resource gathering abilities; gain resources from the occupying player's raids; train secret armies in the towns barracks; and eventually, rebel and regain control of the city. So, even if all your cities are taken over, the game doesn't end. It just changes from expansion and domination, to rebellion. Ikariam has the best long term potential for all players, as you can not lose. Evony is kill or be killed, which cuts into their profits. No system is perfect, but other systems are more profitable than Evony's.