Keeping on track, based on previous posts.
Are we playing a social game or a gambling game?
The player base is different, hence many of the root issues within the game.
In hindsight, gambling machines are at the core the same, new graphics, lights and sounds, and you have new machine players flock to. Based mainly on entertainment shifts and trends. Ie:, new shows, movies.
So Plariums model was, at the core, the same thing, one core operation with many skins.
Part of the difference (IMHO), is in gambling (what i know of it), they seem to always leave some of the older machines in place for dedicated players in the corners, to keep them coming back also. While the new machines are always front and center in greater numbers. And sometimes at a greater cost to play.
Plarium has failed in the second effort, cramming new content across the board of time, but unilaterally. Facebook does not have the same player base as .com. I still still like the term "flash in the pan" style player, jumping to the newest games and or newest game content. Players who rarely stay with a game 1-3 years.
In some of our styles, from talking to others who post in forum and in game,are more dedicated to the games we enjoy. 3-5, even 10 years is not unheard of. But with those games the fundamentals do not change, the fundementals here have been long abandoned,in hopes of the 'flash in the pan" style would take hold.
Gamblers expect to spend a certain amount of money each time they play, social players do not. But they are willing to spend on things they like...
Including gambling aspects in other types of games has become popular in the last few years, as it's usually very profitable. Stormfall definitely wouldn't count as primarily a gambling game. Although there are certain aspects of it that are based on chance, the majority of the game requires strategy in order to do well (or just buying a ton of troops, but that's not gambling either it's just buying stuff).