Rating: 1/5 stars
So. There’s this game called Goodgame Empire I’ve been playing for quite a while, but I’ve practically stopped playing it now because it is SO bad.
In short, it shouldn’t be called Goodgame Empire, it should be called RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY RUBY Fake Empire.
In case you don’t know what the whole thing is about, it’s about players building their own castles, training soldiers to attack other castles, and using tools and commanders as “strategy” to win battles against other players’ castles.
You start the game at level 1 and they talk you through the first 5 or so levels. You build some buildings: resource-producing woodcutters and stone quarries, storehouse to store them, barracks to recruit soldiers, a castle keep for building time bonuses, dwellings to collect taxes, and so on.
At level 1, do you know how long it takes to build a woodcutter? Something like 5 seconds. Do you have a problem with that? I don’t.
At level 46, the highest level I got to before I quit in frustration, I had to upgrade 10 dwellings to level 10 to get enough XP to level up.
Do you know how long that took in total?
91 hours.
No, I am NOT kidding.
So, do you want to know how this came to be?
The answer is one word. Rubies.
Many “free-to-play” games (like this one) have a “regular currency” which is very common in the game. Coins. They also have a “premium currency” which is VERY rare and takes a long time to earn it. Rubies. I think you can see where this is going.
I earned about 2000 rubies without paying after playing for ages.
But there’s a solution to that! An absolutely WONDERFUL opportunity! How incredibly delightful...
Step 1. Click on the “add rubies” button next to your ruby counter.
Step 2. Select the “Add 112,000 rubies” button.
Step 3. Pull out your debit card.
Step 4. Pay £49.99.
Step 5. There you are. 112,000 shiny rubies in your account! You’re rich! Now to go buy some great tools and units, not to mention your big bonus!
...how incredibly delightful FOR the RIPPING-OFF company Goodgame Studios. Not for your wallet.
When you want to finish a building at a high level, let’s say a castle keep upgrade for 144 hours, you’ve got 2 options:
Wait the 6 days. (Why is waiting “playing”?)
Or, dig into your wallet, buy 112,000 rubies for £50, then use 43,200 of them to skip the time.
Similarly, there is research you can do to increase the production of your resources and to unlock stronger troops, and, in addition to costing a ridiculous amount of resources, they take something like 3 days to 14 days to complete. Unless you pay a ridiculous amount of rubies to complete it immediately.
There are tools you can buy that decrease your opponent’s castle wall, moat and gate protection, and increase the strength of your troops. The costs are approximations, not exact.
Scaling Ladder
Reduces the wall protection of your opponent
40 wood, 40 stone
Siege Tower
Significantly reduces the wall protection of your opponent
31 rubies
31 might not seem much compared to 112,000 but if you want to attack regularly and efficiently you need to use about 30 ladders/towers per opponent. About 900 rubies each time.
GGE are always giving me these offers:
(Again, the values are approximations not exact values.)
Buy 24,000 rubies now and get these rewards worth 50,000 rubies!
100 Demon Horrors (twice the strength of ordinary troops)
100 Deathly Horrors (same but ranged not melee)
Really strong decorative item
Flame bearer troops
Legendary tools
5 lucky pennies
You get why ruby buyers have such significant advantages?
Finally (please excuse me if I’m starting to rant) just to top it all, they added this new “autofill” option which you can use while rushing an attack. Click “autofill” and it will fill all waves with troops and tools for you.
They always pick ruby tools, even if your opponent only has 10% wall protection. If it’s 10% wall protection, why would the game want to use 20 belfry (worth about 1000 rubies)?
They pick troops that cost rubies to be healed. (There’s a military hospital where you can heal injured troops. Most troops cost coins to heal, but the strongest cost rubies to heal.)
You know why?
They want your money.
They want you to pay.
Yet some people pay out about £1000 a month to buy rubies. Really?
Don’t play the game. It’s run by a greedy company that have no idea of what gaming is. Playing. Not waiting almost a week doing nothing.