Changes to Grepolis game play.. money making schemes?

[DeletedUser48332]

I didn't see anything about this so wanted to start this discussion..

Of late I and many of my friends are very disappointed at some of the things Grepo is doing to the game..

The Persian Conquest was in many of our eyes nothing more than a money (gold) grabbing scheme.. but that's over so on to the latest..

The newest game play changes.. and rebalancing of troops.. initially on the surface without really delving into this it seems to be heavy in favor of the defender.. More on this will come out later I'm sure..

The big problem we all have with this latest of Grepolis forces (meaning it is forced upon us with no say at all in the matter.. there were no survey's asked of me or my friends.. no contact from admin asking us if we were ok with this)

These changes are to me and mine not unlike changing the rules of the poker game after the cards are dealt and picked up.. People were shot across the card table for less than this.

There is quite a bit of unrest over this.. and especially since the unrest over the Persian Conquest is not totally over with.

 

[DeletedUser48332]

I for one have a lot of time.. (almost 11 months) and money.. (sure I bought gold, who hasn't. But I've seriously curtailed that.. ) and long term friends invested in this game.. it's really terrible what's going on to change the game. A few have already quit the game as a result of the Persian conquest.. is this admin's goal? to force people to stay in the game based soley on time, money and friendship? Shouldn't the real reason to stay be because we really enjoy the game!? with all this going on I can say that my gameplay enjoyment is at an all time low.. and most of my displeasure has been fueled by Grepo!!!!! not my so called game enemies..

 

[DeletedUser]

Sure, understandably the Persian conquest was a bust for you. A server glitch brought into question another alliances victory which you and your alliance strongly dispute. From your post it sounds like negativity from that event is colouring your perspective of the recent update.

Imo your analogy of cards is poor. I'm sure Innogames went into this knowing they wouldn't appease everyone. The bottom line from my perspective: Grepolis isn't a charity, it's a business - so long as changes don't negatively affect my gameplay I don't care how they encourage more gold spending. Some of the myth units I favour are now more valuable... so I'm happy.

 

[DeletedUser]

its not just the persian conquest debacle-look at the recent gold adjustments for the EURO- a reduction in value of 25%.Inno are built on profit of course but there was no discussion,no surveys -just an announcement.Its loyal players being punished by this,and while i loath to buy gold,its essential if you join a server late.The progression seems to quite clearly be to open a server,flood it with players(they will often direct new players to which worlds they choose too),Make profit,close a server after it drops to 300-not because its expensive to maintain-that is an outright lie-its because a world. is no longer profitable and they can direct those players to a new server and repeat the process.
Grep for me was ruined with the introduction of the second gen worlds and its truely a shame,i can name literally 100 fantastic players who have left grep never to return over innos blatant greed.This issue has been brought up in the ACROPOLIS under the thread 'the great british gold scam'instead of giving UK players more gold for their money they decided to give everyone else less.

 

[DeletedUser48332]

Sure, understandably the Persian conquest was a bust for you. A server glitch brought into question another alliances victory which you and your alliance strongly dispute. From your post it sounds like negativity from that event is colouring your perspective of the recent update. That adds to an already Dissatisfied feeling of gameplay but not what totally soured me.. Before we even started the PC I saw it for what it was.. a way to milk more gold out of those willing to spend it

Imo your analogy of cards is poor. I beg to differ.. the game is being played, I signed on and invested my time and money based on the game as presented to me (I ante'd up).. the changes are without my say or the say of anyone involved. So I stand by my analogy. I'm sure Innogames went into this knowing they wouldn't appease everyone. I'm of the opinion they don't care.. and as a businessman myself I believe you can't lose sight of your customer base and how you affect them.. it might be good for the short term. But is it good for the long term The bottom line from my perspective: Grepolis isn't a charity, it's a business - so long as changes don't negatively affect my gameplay I don't care how they encourage more gold spending. Some of the myth units I favour are now more valuable... so I'm happy. Without the actual fact to base this on I am just shooting from the hip, but on the surface it seems to favor the defender.. if you are attack oriented this is not in your best interest.. (again I admit here to not having done any real research this is just a quick judgement)

Words in bold are my replies to Sir Codfish!! I find it a more direct way of responding.. Thanks.
Cheers, Gondriga.

 

[DeletedUser48332]

again as a business man I can understand costs of good or maintenance going up that have to be passed on to the consumer.. This is a fact of life and every business is always trying to think of ways to make more profit.. but it is a fine line between maintaining a loyal customer base and pissing people off.. I'm of a mind that Grepo is crossing the "pissing people off line a bit much lately"..

These are just my opinions.. (and the opinions of some of my friends, but we'll leave that to them to weigh in on).. and of course I respect anyone else's opinion and their input even if it is opposite of mine.. I appreciate the alternate view points. this is why we talk in a public forum!

Thanks.

 

[DeletedUser]

@ Gondriga - You should probably edit that so it's clear the bits in bold are your words, not mine. It's easy to break up quotes...
I liked the changes to cerbs & Harpies myself, they're the only two myth units I tend to use.

@ jamovic1 - I just read the "The Great British Gold Scam" thread you mentioned, we were totally being shafted. *Puts on David Camerons accent* "I want a rebate!"

Captain Awesomeness on that thread started to give me a headache, that was until I realised he is surely a magnificent flamer.

 

[DeletedUser]

I just noticed someone -repped me on the Gold-scam thread today. For the cheating girlfriend comment. I wonder why that would bother them.

 

[DeletedUser48332]

Sir Codfish I edited my post to state that letters in bold were my responses to you.. thanks for pointing out that it might not be clear to some.. hope that helps..

 

[DeletedUser46851]

It's even the little things Gondriga,

Did you notice that they moved the location of EQ with call of the ocean? They also did it with City Protection and Patroness I think. But they left Zues, Hera, & Hades alone. What could possibly have been the benefit of that?

Now people are losing all that favor, or unable to get a new city going properly (as is my case) for the next 12 hrs, unless of course we want to use some gold to cut recruitment time in half.

I was really into this game when I first started, and I will agree with Gondriga it is becoming less and less enjoyable and no one seems to give a hoot. I'm in this world now primarily because of the friends

 

[DeletedUser48332]

I was really into this game when I first started, and I will agree with Gondriga it is becoming less and less enjoyable and no one seems to give a hoot. I'm in this world now primarily because of the friends

That statement says it all.. if it weren't for the friends and relationships.. the brotherhood (and the gals too!) I'd leave.. and not bragging about my size but if another large player or two like me leaves.. where does that leave the balance of this world..

My main hope is that the admin of grep sees this thread and thinks hard about the consequences of their actions.. and if all they care about is a turnover.. meaning suck in some poor fool, get him to spend his money on gold.. so they bleed him dry and then let him get disgruntled and go.. just to do it all over again to the next fool then they really are greedy bastards that have wasted their game designing talents and traded them for money changing..

 

[DeletedUser]

My main hope is that the admin of grep sees this thread and thinks hard about the consequences of their actions..

Understandable of you to want that.

It's not going to happen, though. Pretty sure about that.

 

[DeletedUser48332]

Understandable of you to want that.

It's not going to happen, though. Pretty sure about that.

Hope.. is all we can do.. we the people cannot remain silent.. our voices need to be heard even if they fall on deaf ears.. no one can fault us for trying.. viva la revolution!

 

[DeletedUser]

I just noticed someone -repped me on the Gold-scam thread today. For the cheating girlfriend comment. I wonder why that would bother them.

Brandr the acroplis is full of absolute morons -i got bad rep for suggesting people dont buy gold..the comment i recieved was'come back when you have a clue'..they moan about anything or anyone they basically don tknow,its an old boys club,they dont want members on their making coments that they dont know.Pathetic-if they left it anno as well,it says alot more about their nature.

 

[DeletedUser]

The sad fact of the situation is Innogames relies on new players to keep the money coming in. There is a honeymoon period for new players where everything is new and exciting and they want to put time and money in to be the best. Then a dip in interest hits, wars end, people no longer have a viable target, people get rimmed and the server starts to lose players fast. Innogames know this and do everything they can to pull in new players, things like the new interface, graphics, flashing lights and TV adverts.

To actually play a world from beginning to end is a huge commitment considering the amount of time involved and the fact that we are all vulnerable 24/7. I admit I go through periods where it feels more like work than play but I continue because I have responsibilities and after being part of a team for so long I don't want to let people down, at these times I tend to build slowly and keep an eye on support requests. After a little while I find the enjoyment again and start being more aggressive and attacking more.

What I'm trying to say is, after the first few months when all the trash talking pro Grepo players have moved on to another world and achieved nothing yet again, the game becomes a challenge of commitment rather than just good strategy and tactics. It is at times exhilarating and exciting and at others hard work and tedious. If you're committed to seeing the end of the world and winning with your team you need to learn how to handle the latter.

My thoughts on the update are that although it doesn't affect me too much because I don't tend to build myth units, it should have been applied to new worlds only rather than those already in progress. I can only imagine how annoying it is to spend a lot of time and favour building a myth nuke to find it's suddenly been made a whole lot easier. As for the Persian Conquest, it was a perfect example of how not to deal with a mistake. At the very least they should have messaged all the players on the server and returned all the support when they gave us the city. Both situations are huge curve balls that will challenge our commitment.

I'm disappointed to see anyone going inactive, ZT or coalition. I would much rather fight it out with you than see a rival disappear and everyone scrambling to take their cities, It feels anti-climactic after fighting someone for months.

Oh, and I wouldn't worry about things being tipped slightly in favour of defenders, I've seen how you attack Gondriga and you'll be fine.

 

[DeletedUser]

Understandable of you to want that.

It's not going to happen, though. Pretty sure about that.

arshark will read this but he's pretty powerless to even pass on comments an suggestions from players,its a voluntary position and a thankless task.The developers dont really give a damn what we think,as long as new players join and buy gold.Even some of the community managers are closed books i recently posted that to make triemes further relevant they should be allowed to carry 6 units with bunks-i got alot of positive feedback(cancelled out by negative feedback for my cvarious rants)-the forum admin replied'the unit has already been rebalanced-thread closed'.Whats the point...?

 

[DeletedUser48332]

Kingbeef thank you for your post. It was well thought out and well said.. as a rule I stay away from these forums, but I had to get it off my chest so to speak. I agree with everything you say, especially about commitment to friends and an obligation to your alliance. I guess I'm at that 7 year itch phase.. the honeymoon is long over.. I'm sure in a short amount of time I'll be back to feeling good again despite what "The Man" does to mess with my enjoyment of this game! It is a well designed game, I just feel it could be so much more.

And thank you for the compliment..

Cheers!
Pat

 

[Baudin Toolan]

The rebalance update has been in the works for well over a year and we've asked the community for opinions on it for months and months and months. It has been live on the Beta for quite some time and the proposed changes have been known for far longer. We asked for feedback over a year and a half ago. So this update shouldn't be a surprise to anyone except fairly new players.

 

[DeletedUser29066]

The sad fact of the situation is Innogames relies on new players to keep the money coming in. There is a honeymoon period for new players where everything is new and exciting and they want to put time and money in to be the best. Then a dip in interest hits, wars end, people no longer have a viable target, people get rimmed and the server starts to lose players fast. Innogames know this and do everything they can to pull in new players, things like the new interface, graphics, flashing lights and TV adverts.

This may well be true but it's not at all uncommon. Cellular phone providers and cable/satellite tv companies do this all the time, offering introductory offers to entice new customers.

The rebalance update has been in the works for well over a year and we've asked the community for opinions on it for months and months and months. It has been live on the Beta for quite some time and the proposed changes have been known for far longer. We asked for feedback over a year and a half ago. So this update shouldn't be a surprise to anyone except fairly new players.

Yes, it has been a while since first announced, and I'm glad it finally happened.

 

[DeletedUser48332]

The rebalance update has been in the works for well over a year and we've asked the community for opinions on it for months and months and months. It has been live on the Beta for quite some time and the proposed changes have been known for far longer. We asked for feedback over a year and a half ago. So this update shouldn't be a surprise to anyone except fairly new players.

Sorry I never got that memo! and why is it a surprise to almost my whole alliance and other alliances in Hermonassa?