You are right to a degree but when it starts to effect the modest coiners and they stop it will have an effect. Over time the reality will get out and people will stop coming. I am by no means a non-coiner as I have said in many of my posts and the silliness of the game is coming to the forefront. after all it is a game.

most of the moaning coming from players is that they enjoy the game and would like to keep playing and progress but they have no chance to do so.

Hi BBB, and thank you for taking the time to reply.

Indeed, you are correct, it is only a game, however from the Plarium point of view, it is a game worth billions of dollars.

Admittedly, I am personally anti-corporation, for it has been my experience that corporations generally follow the same basic methodology in securing their positions. In the Plarium model, "free to play" is entrapment to say the least. 

Nowhere does Plarium warn you, that after months of invested time, you will reach a competative ceiling, which can only be penetrated by your credit card. It is now too late for many players, for to a greater or lesser degree, addiction has set in. The relatively new field of gaming psychology  discusses this phenomenon in any number of peer reviewed papers, freely available for perusal. A rather unpleasant parallel may be those "free" samples given out by drug dealers, which do not remain free for too long.

My frustration here, is not with Plarium, but rather with players, too short sighted to recognize the concept of strength in numbers.

Super coalitions of moderate and non-coiners are the only way to combat the heavy hitters, and to get Plarium to sit up and take notice.

solomon the grin said:

Hi BBB, and thank you for taking the time to reply.

Indeed, you are correct, it is only a game, however from the Plarium point of view, it is a game worth billions of dollars.

Admittedly, I am personally anti-corporation, for it has been my experience that corporations generally follow the same basic methodology in securing their positions. In the Plarium model, "free to play" is entrapment to say the least. 

Nowhere does Plarium warn you, that after months of invested time, you will reach a competative ceiling, which can only be penetrated by your credit card. It is now too late for many players, for to a greater or lesser degree, addiction has set in. The relatively new field of gaming psychology  discusses this phenomenon in any number of peer reviewed papers, freely available for perusal. A rather unpleasant parallel may be those "free" samples given out by drug dealers, which do not remain free for too long.

My frustration here, is not with Plarium, but rather with players, too short sighted to recognize the concept of strength in numbers.

Super coalitions of moderate and non-coiners are the only way to combat the heavy hitters, and to get Plarium to sit up and take notice.

 

Again you are correct in principle but what is happening on server 2 shows how 4 super coiners are trashing all the coals there and not allowing them to mature to be able to have strength in numbers, they are spending 10 times what some coals are spending as group and pretending to have a strategy. While you cannot pin the blame on them plarium fosters this environment. pay to win. server 1 matured over a period of time and for a while had the grain limit which was ceiling to the size of the army everyone could shoot for the same place now with unlimited armies running negative grain the balance is out the window, its one thing to lose troops and pay to bring them back is another thing that there is no force limit.

this gives you an indication of what I am saying, 4 players from one coalition and the distance between them and all the others which include coiners http://prntscr.com/eih1f5   I haven bothered to remove the cords as its not against the rules I have read and everyone knows who these guys are and where to find them if they really are that stupid to attack them.

solomon the grin said:

My frustration here, is not with Plarium, but rather with players, too short sighted to recognize the concept of strength in numbers.

Super coalitions of moderate and non-coiners are the only way to combat the heavy hitters, and to get Plarium to sit up and take notice.

 

One of the most "correct" statements I have ever read on this subject here on the forums!

As a "former" coiner-I fell into the hole. Then came the "Drachma Boycott". I was ahead of that by a little over 2 weeks. It never made sense why I was getting the "Low Priced" packages and then ending up with packages that were 98, 198 and 330 dollars.

Just another algorithm that tracked my purchases (your so called "corporations generally follow the same basic methodology in securing their positions" statement.

To me, that was, for lack of better terms: insidious and treacherous on all levels.

Now, with real life finally taking hold again, I find myself a player of the game, but certainly not a customer.

I do quests and raid bot farms, and build. The battles I have are all staged with cooperating allies. There is an exchange of force information (truthfully of course) and troops are exchanged and PVP is gained (drachmas won).

Each one of us try and operate within a certain gain/loss ratio thru PVP weekends. It has worked for me.

Xerxes-I don't play-all to often I have seen people lose their entire army. It never made any sense to begin with. Throw 10,000 lights or heavies to get a few hundred or maybe a few thousand higher troops? Your army is then short by several thousand troops..no? What do you do with the troops you threw at Xerxes..revive them? Yea..sure...like that's going to happen.

I have written to Plarium-the owners, the developers, the managers-all information gleaned from LinkedIn on this company 

I made mention of the fact of smaller priced consistent packages, as well as coalition packages (for a member to buy troops for other players who did not want to coin) cutting build times significantly so that players could get back into the game, changing revival times and cost etc..

Sounds crazy doesn't it? My letters were respectful.

My response from Plarium? Nothing! Zero!

No responses from anyone for that matter.

 (I chose not to contact any CM but rather, go right to the source. CM's are, I believe, paid in drachmas-they devote their time to answering forum questions and the like. It is not my intention to diminish what they do)

 Out of a dozen persons emailed at the Plarium company-I received "zero responses".

The sound of Plarium's silence was deafeaning!

 So now, I am a player, not a customer. I personally believe there is a huge difference in my statement.

Solomon The Grin and Blah Blah Blah-thank you for your posts-each was correct, thoughtfull and most lucid.

 I wish it was different here, but trying to change things here in Sparta...is like a chasing a morning dream as the sun rises, only to see it vanish.

Respect to you both

M

this gives you an indication of what I am saying, 4 players from one coalition and the distance between them and all the others which include coiners http://prntscr.com/eih1f5   I haven bothered to remove the cords as its not against the rules I have read and everyone knows who these guys are and where to find them if they really are that stupid to attack them.

I have written to Plarium-the owners, the developers, the managers-all information gleaned from LinkedIn on this company 

My response from Plarium? Nothing! Zero!

blah blah blah said:

this gives you an indication of what I am saying, 4 players from one coalition and the distance between them and all the others which include coiners http://prntscr.com/eih1f5   I haven bothered to remove the cords as its not against the rules I have read and everyone knows who these guys are and where to find them if they really are that stupid to attack them.

Wow, they form a Coalition of just 4 men and take first 4 places in Rankings! Even if they use in-app purchases to reach this position, it's still a great achievement!

You miss the point, they pay to win. but you know that and if you are really not aware what is going on in the game you should find out that way your posts will sound, lets say more informed and the players will respect you more, right now they all think you are blowing smoke

Alyona Kolomiitseva said:

blah blah blah said:

You miss the point, they pay to win. but you know that and if you are really not aware what is going on in the game you should find out that way your posts will sound, lets say more informed and the players will respect you more, right now they all think you are blowing smoke

Using in-app purchases is not illegal. Even if they do use them, they're still doing a great work! It's not that easy to be in TOP Rankings for the whole Coalition. And it's not easy to be a Coa of just 4 players!

no one said it was illegal, but those that make the rules - that probably be your bosses are  killing the game for everyone that else, my dear your answers shows how out of touch you are with your players, or you are just pretending. If I spent the same amount of money I would be there too so what kind of good job or not easy is it.

I suggest you play the game for real so you understand it, but who am I kidding you all know exactly what I am saying and by pretending you don't understand you have no credibility with the players

no one said it was illegal, but those that make the rules - that probably be your bosses are  killing the game for everyone that else, my dear your answers shows how out of touch you are with your players, or you are just pretending. If I spent the same amount of money I would be there too so what kind of good job or not easy is it.

I suggest you play the game for real so you understand it, but who am I kidding you all know exactly what I am saying and by pretending you don't understand you have no credibility with the players

Alyona Kolomiitseva said:

blah blah blah said:

no one said it was illegal, but those that make the rules - that probably be your bosses are  killing the game for everyone that else, my dear your answers shows how out of touch you are with your players, or you are just pretending. If I spent the same amount of money I would be there too so what kind of good job or not easy is it.

I suggest you play the game for real so you understand it, but who am I kidding you all know exactly what I am saying and by pretending you don't understand you have no credibility with the players

At Plarium we treat all players equally. It doesn't matter if they're using in-app purchases or not. 

again I never said that you don't treat them equally.  Plarium who runs the game changed the rules and the balance of the game so that people can now buy the game. I am not getting into the mentality of people that spend to buy the game or blaming them. this game is pay to win that is a simple fact. Plarium can change that if they wish.