First a little background on me. I’ve been playing various online games like Evony for years. I started playing Evony when server 2 first started, went through the entire BETA testing and got my (worthless) testing gift. The graphics (which have been changed multiple times to avoid lawsuits) were what first grabbed my attention, and the game play was similar to other games. I quit playing a week ago when the super fortifications update came out, making attacking players of equal strength pointless, and attacking weaker villages is just boring. However, there is one major difference that Evony has that no other online game I’ve played has; how the devs make money! That difference is what drives everything in not only Evony, but other games as well.

The other two online games I play are Tribal Wars and Ikariam. Both earn money the same way. Players purchase a premium account that costs less than $3 a month (very cheap). This account gives the players greater management abilities over their villages, by allowing things to be built, researched, and trained without having to go into each village. It gives you an overview of everything going on in your cities. This is important, because both games allow you to have as many villages as you want. They both have hard caps on troop numbers, but as you can continue to expand into more cities, there is no end to the game as expansion is ALWAYS possible. In fact, TW’s largest player (Big_N_Rich) currently has 1265 villages. Without a premium account, it becomes very difficult to keep up with your forever expanding empire. This system favors the dedicated player, as smaller players will not get any real benefits to having the account.

Evony, on the other hand, earns money by selling items that enhance the speed of which villages grow. There is a hard cap on the number of villages you can own (10) and with food upkeep, a hard(ish) cap on troop numbers is also present. In order to continue building troops, you will end up spending most of the time gathering food from NPC villages, which turns the game into a boring resource gathering game. Even then, you will hit the troop cap. It will just be higher for you. This means that eventually you will reach the maximum level the game allows and will find no point to continuing playing. Dedicated players reach this level very quickly, within 2 months or less depending on your play style. This system REQUIRES constant growth in new players, thus the rapid addition of new servers, in order to continue to turn a profit. Dedicated players quickly find no point in purchasing game coins, as they will get diminishing returns, while the new player will have every reason to spend money as the system favors new player purchases.

So, you tell me. Does this system cause a stable long term gaming experience, or just a way for Evony devs to make a quick buck instead of a long term investment?


*The previous thread dealing with this was locked due to trollers. Every response MUST deal with the business model. NO TROLLING!!!!!