The unintended effects of a well meaning update
I am a software product manager and I realize how difficult it is to implement changes with mass appeal and utility to customers. So while I commend you on the effort and thought that went behind this update, I regret that it did not have the desired outcome.
This update is the equivalent of adding a circular piece in Tetris. It just didn’t work.
To me, one of the most smartly designed, clever games ever with an appeal to everyone in all age groups has been devastatingly changed after the TH 11 update. Here’s why
1) Your existing customers feel betrayed and you’re probably not going to add too many new customers. You fundamentally altered a product that older customers paid for and invested time in. While I’ve purchased gems, I did not pay money for gems for the product in its current state. I paid because of the flexibility your game offered me pre-update. I feel like you sold out the essence of the game. I played with my kids and was working with them through their own base. No more is that possible.
2) CoC used to be a game which allowed every user to infuse their personal touch into their bases– both for farming and war. A war base was personal. A farming base was personal. I stared at it for hours trying to get that one giant bomb placed perfectly and discussed it countless times with my clannies to get that just right. Not anymore. The massive changes now have caused farming bases to be a generic ‘war-like’ open bases. For defense - Put TH in center, surround by infernos/teslas/xbows. Isolate storages in groups so you can’t hit everything together and you’re done. For offense – brew pekkas, dragons, golems, wizards, spells . Put in repeat mode and repeat again.
YUCK!!!
3) CoC used to be a game with 2 DISTINCT types of players – The first; farmers, who played for loot and worked their way up the food chain and occasionally but most definitely would end up buying gems to progress. Fair enough for both CoC AND for its players. Maybe 80% of your base fell into this group. This includes KIDS relying on their parents generosity to allow gem purchases occasionally.
The second group was the trophy pushers. These were people who either played for bragging rights OR were originally maxed out farmers who waited for the TH11 upgrade with nothing else to do. Probably spend more money on gems than the ‘farmers’. Again – fair enough for both CoC and this group.
Post update – CoC in my opinion grossly miscalculated the effect of their changes. No more distinction between farming and trophy pushing. The intent to introduce ‘trophy pushing’ and nix farming means that 80% of your base now has a different and unfavorable opinion of the upgrade. Kids – Sorry your parents have to pay up. No more freebies (unless you like the 1 gem boosts).
YUCK!!
4) Contrary to what you think Supercell, trophy pushing DOES NOT yield higher loot. Lower trophy levels means lower loot but you can get away with cheaper troops. Higher trophy levels means higher loot (and bonuses) but you spend more brewing spells, higher level troops. Net result – Fair and balanced loot for everyone.
With the older system, I HAD TO move up to higher trophy levels to make my TIME (yes TIME) worthwhile. Not any more.
Post-update : This is a completely lopsided game. I have dropped from 3200 trophies and I see maxed out TH11 bases at the 1200 trophy level. No longer can I brew cheap troops at lower levels and expect a net-gain. True for ALL trophy levels since all I see are unimaginative open bases with maxed defenses at all levels. There is no incentive for me to spend any more time or money on this product.
YUCK!!
Finally – I wanted to say, in order to prevent misuse of your product using those ‘unmentionable’ means to progress, all you had to do is to limit the number of attacks possible in a single season. No player can get 300 attacks in a season. Unfair means meant resorting to ‘volume’ attacks, not ‘quality’ attacks. Need I say more?
Here’s hoping for some common sense to prevail and for some inevitable changes in the coming month.
Cheers!!
