Been playing 5 days and something disturbs me greatly
I'm someone who in the past has played games like starcraft/AOE/LoL/WoW/runescape, you name it I played it. Not only did I play them but I was always top 5% except in runescape of course because that game didn't have any competitive aspects. Now some of my cousins introduced me to clash of clans a few days ago and I was blown away at how fun and satisfying it is. I thought to myself "this is what age of empires online wanted to be except this is way more accessible. I bought a few builders homes because it was pretty obvious this was the only real investment i could justify making without ruining my gameplay experience. I got excited when after an hour i could build archers, then after a day I could train wizards. I constantly fought to get gold to upgrade my walls to all dark iron or w\e and one little gold wall in front of my wizard tower. So naturally I went to look up youtube videos of CoC gameplay to see if there were any viable strategies where people just mass trained wizard. This is where i saw something very dark and almost disgusting.
I watched a video where a guy spent hundreds of dollars in a matter of minutes training troops and making spells. Upgrading everything in a matter of an hour while spending thousands. On the forums top players posting that you either pay or you won't be competitive. At first i thought "surely there must be a daily limit you can spend on this game", then when i found out that there was no limit I began to realize the game was one giant scheme for the people who buy gems constantly. When you buy gems to upgrade something there is always something else to spend cash on. Their is no end to it. I felt sick looking at what i was watching. Not because I was "jealous", but because i had never seen people throw away the chance to upgrade over time with buddies and try getting the top 5 spots or so in your clan just for fun. It was something much darker i was witnessing. I checked the timeline for CoC and i realized its relatively new so I think the company has a chance to fix this issue by putting a harsh cap on the amount of cash people can spend on the game per month.This will increase the longevity of the game, attract people looking for a legit AOE style moba without scaring them away, and help a lot of people who have put on different forums that the game ruined their lives because they spent so much cash only to realize that there was no end to it. Sure i could spend 200-300 dollars a week buying gems, but what am I gaining except skipping out on the satisfaction you get from leveling stuff up like in most games.
If the company doesn't change its policy soon I'm almost tempted to ask a few friends of mine or my step mother whom are lawyers to see if their is anyway to clarify this game as being a ponzi scheme that is accessible by children. Just because the game tells these poor souls over spending that "pay money and you can skip the most satisfying part of the game only to realize that you will never stop paying because we have you addicted", when it's also "pay money to get to a point that you think is the finish line, only to realize you can only stay there if you keep giving us your money, but instead of 500 gems its now 2000 gems, and now its 5000 gems". This is the very definition of a ponzi scheme.
I know it seems silly to write this after 5 days but when i play a game i like to watch youtube vids/read the forums/the reddit. The rate at which i was always to find out how dark this game was for a lot of people and very quickly.
Edit: The reason I say this is a ponzi scheme is because their is always a higher prices to be payed around the corner. They get you to spend 600 gems so your town hall can upgrade, then the next time its 900, the next time its 1500 ect ect. Except apply this to everything in the game. It's the idea of "just one more investment and you can get to the next level only to realize there is a level beyond and then you realize you wasted all your money because their is no end and your paycheck is gone. This is what ponzi schemers do to their victims. They take their money and say we will double it, then they double it and ask for more, eventually they run off with your money and call it a day.
Edit#2: I know I can enjoy the game without paying (This is the same rhetoric you hear from a lot of pay to win games). Im simply stating some worries I have about the games ethical values. When you have the option to push a button that will drink your bank account while furthering your account with no effort and the price gets higher and higher every time you do....it just seems very wrong (for those people who can't control themselves, for the kids who steal their parents credit cards, for the gambling addicts, for the regular kid who saved up for a bit and figured he could spare a few only to empty his saving in a few weeks). I'm not these people but this just seems unethical.
