Is this game "Pay to Win"?

[Richard]

Welcome to the game.

I guess it depends on what you define as winning? If you want to be rank one, no, you really can not achieve this for a prolonged period without the use of gold. The top 10 or so of every world has a mixture of super active, super aggressive, super skilled players, and people who invest a lot of real life money. Not all high ranking players spend money, not all people who spend money are high ranking. Having said that, I don't genuinely believe you can maintain a high rank on a server with gold alone. Even people spamming gold have to have the skill to utilise the benefits gained with premium usage.

If you want to have fun, make friends and this be a hobby, then you don't have to invest a penny. If you want to be competitive, and maintain a high rank, then yes, you will likely have to invest in this game on a regular basis. How much you spend is of course down to you. Do players who invest have an edge? Yes, rightly so. Do players who invest always win? In my honest opinion, no. If you have the time, the skill, and the patience, you don't need premium to beat a premium user.

Lastly, this game is very much centralised around team work. I guarantee to you that good teamwork can always trump a wallet warrior in Grepolis.

Richard

 

[DeletedUser]

well said.

 

[DeletedUser14397]

Try the game without gold first then have a dab using it then make your'e mind up

gold helps tho

well said as well Richard

 

[DeletedUser31552]

What a scripted response,

Gold definitely increases the win ratio on a non gold user, just the premiums alone give you an instant increase of kill power, to me thats a win.

A noob who has a big wallet and a few cities will get the +10% boosts. If you know how to play efficiently then your nukes will likely be bigger therefore levelling the playing field. Those boosts barely do anything anyway so it's barely an advantage in the first place.

 

[DeletedUser]

I've been playing or in some way involved with this community for 3 years. I can say that in recent time, there are more features being added that increase the ability of gold users. However, I can also say that dumping unreal sums of money into gold is not a "win" button. You still need to have a large amount of game knowledge, activity, and skill to utlize such gold. The only two real premiums I would strongly reccomend buying at minimum is Administrator and Captain. This comes out to 400 gold a month which isn't even $5 a month.

I know a guy who managed to top ABP and BP in two seperate worlds, Gamma and Sigma, without the use of premium, even after the 2.0 update. His name is dyames, some of the old farts around here may remember him.

 

[DeletedUser36146]

But to counterbalance that I know players of extremely limited ability who are ranked no 2 in a world
40 cities ahead of 3rd spot - purely because they spend $250 a month

Yes there are degrees of winning - I have the most DBP of any player on island 207294 in ocean 137
Does that make me a winner - seems it does if I say it does.

add to that the continual "dumbing down" of anything vaguely resembling a skill such as anti-timing
and the game is now hugely biased towards pay to win.

 

[DeletedUser]

As I am sure others above me have said I dont think gold is neccesary to be a top ranking player. I know many high ranking players on servers who use no gold at all.

I would personally reccomend having the admin and captain. I think they are the only really "neccesary" characters. Do other characters give nice boost, sure but you can be incredibly competitive without them. I have been in the top 40 or so abp players on everey server I have played and ranked as high as #2 abp on servers only using gold on the admin and captain.

 

[DeletedUser39031]

I forgot to mention this in my last post,

Anyone can win or be successful it just depends on the alliance around them and their leadership. Even the most gold spending and active player couldn't defend against an alliance.

 

[DeletedUser]

But to counterbalance that I know players of extremely limited ability who are ranked no 2 in a world
40 cities ahead of 3rd spot - purely because they spend $250 a month

Yes there are degrees of winning - I have the most DBP of any player on island 207294 in ocean 137
Does that make me a winner - seems it does if I say it does.

add to that the continual "dumbing down" of anything vaguely resembling a skill such as anti-timing
and the game is now hugely biased towards pay to win.

Are they actually doing something or just simming? Because there is a big difference between being top in points and being top in bp.

 

[DeletedUser]

It really depends on how you play

 

[DeletedUser36146]

The original question is whether Grepo is a pay to win game and the answer is yes (sadly)

Of course you can use one of the 500 parameters to define a winner
Of course skill level can make a difference

However the more you spend the greater your chance of being a winner (by whatever definition)

That doesnt mean to say you cant enjoy the game without spending vast amounts
but that wasnt the question

 

[DeletedUser32498]

You know what you do to win? Get on an alliance with heavy gold users and don't use gold yourself. Works like a charm.

 

[DeletedUser39849]

I would say spending like 200-500 gold in 2 weeks instead of 0 would give you a huge boost.
The game consists of: activity, strategic knowledge, being able to fit into/lead an good alliance,luck and yes also spending gold.

i would say being in the right alliance is more benneficial than spending $250 on gold, but since it's one of the parameters it will help

 

[DeletedUser]

Example: Thebes - super competitive world. Top player was an obvious gold whore with 60 cities (+20 ahead of the pack) and ranked 1st in ABP. He thought he could take on alliance by himself, but yesterday he ghosted. Nobody can snipe/dodge 24/7. Timing, planning and common sense will get you farther in game than gold. I personally use all 5 premium features and I'm top 15 in everything.

Wanna give a shout to my friend Bend. Where did u disappear to bro?

 

[DeletedUser39849]

gold is required for a place in the top 30 i guess, 30% more resources+easy demanding, 10% stronger troops, cutting long queue's. will have such a big impact, but gold alone won't do it

 

[DeletedUser31552]

You would be surprised... In fact it's not even required for top 10 like most people believe. Perhaps in the first 2.5 months of a world it is. But still, if you pay for being just that much ahead for a limited amount of time before the rest of the world catches up, then you're not really "Paying to win" Are you?

 

[DeletedUser19042]

gold is required for a place in the top 30 i guess, 30% more resources+easy demanding, 10% stronger troops, cutting long queue's. will have such a big impact, but gold alone won't do it

Not true.

I know a lot of players in the top 20 that never spent a penny.
It just takes more time.

 

[DeletedUser23986]

Not true.

I know a lot of players in the top 20 that never spent a penny.
It just takes more time.

I did reach top 20 but it took ages without gold. It is tough to get there when the world is most active, during first 4-6months.

anyways, the game is not 'pay to win'. You need a good alliance with active players. The game is more about team work than individual effort, so as long as you have a nice team, you will win. Ofcourse gold will give boosts, but often activity can help you more.

 

[DeletedUser39849]

ofcourse you can compensate that boost by being more active ,
I think that with using a some gold (using premium features and cutting really long queue's) you could get a decent advantage over the players with the same strategic knowlege/activity etc. since your troops are 20% stronger, you'll get about 30% more resources.

and if you really spend A LOT of gold into the game you could really outmatch other players, by upgrading buildings with reduced resources and cutting a lot of queues, extending a lot of spells etc. but i don't think this would be a problem since you can easily team up wih other players (alliances)

 

[DeletedUser]

A wild Saska appears

Remember it is not a quick sprint it is a marathon.

I agree with all of your post but this. It depends on your goal. Some people just stick through startup, some through midgame. Not everyone, like me and you stuck through a world for multiple years.