potatoskunk
Master Corporal
I am planning to mostly leave the game within a few days. It's been fun and I've met some interesting people, but I just don't have time for it.
The main reason is that the game is a time sink, by Inno's intentional design. Every feature is designed to get you to spend more time in-game. And I get that - they want you to spend time in their game. But some of it is excessive and unnecessary.
The worst example of this is aiding and visiting taverns. You have to click, click, click, mindlessly and repeatedly. I understand spending time on an interesting task, such as rearranging my city. But this isn't an interesting task. It's a mindless boring chore that takes several minutes - and it's a lot worse if you have multiple cities. An Aid All button has been requested repeatedly for years, but Inno has refused to implement it. They could even make it cost 5 diamonds like the Collect All button, but they refuse to do so.
Also, almost every single action you take is followed by a 1-2 second pause before you can do anything else, no matter how simple it is. Aid a friend? Wait a second before you can aid the next one. Fight a battle in GbG? Wait a second before you can fight another. Complete or abort a quest? Wait 1-2 seconds before you can do anything else. This just makes any repeated task (aiding, fighting, etc.) extremely painful. And this is not a problem on my end; I've played on multiple devices and multiple internet connections, including some pretty high-powered laptops, and it's the same on all of them.
I could be wrong, but this appears to me to be an intentional feature. I see a lot of actions that appear to be fully processed immediately; for example, GbG attrition goes up immediately, sectors change hands immediately, and diamond rewards from GbG show up immediately, all indicating that it's an intentional feature rather than waiting for the database to process the action. However, I am still forced to wait 1-2 seconds before doing anything else. I see absolutely no good reason for this pause. Removing it would instantly make all the mindless boring chores such as aiding and fighting much less painful.
I understand that Inno wants us to spend time in-game. But surely they can find ways to accomplish that goal with things other than mindless boring tasks. Eliminate that pause after Every Single Action. Add an Aid All button, and a Visit All Taverns button. And then, if you want us to spend more time in-game, add additional minigames that are optional but that give rewards that are good enough to create an incentive to participate.
The concept of PVP Arena is good (poorly implemented in my opinion, but that's another question, and it could be done better while preserving the basic idea). It's an optional thing, so someone who wants to spend a few minutes per day in-game can skip it. But if you want to spend time there, there are rewards to be gained that can help your city advance. But it's not forced on you, and the rewards are not so great that anyone who decides to sit out is completely crippled.
GbG is similar - and much better implemented than PvP Arena, I think, although there are things that could be improved. If you want to sit out of GbG you can, although you're missing out on some rewards that can potentially be very significant, and some guilds may not want you. But if you want to cut down on the time spend in-game, you can stay out of GbG without harming your city. There are good reasons to want to get involved, but it's not forced on you if you don't have the time.
Eliminate the mindless boring chores, eliminate that ridiculous pause after every single action, and give us more features like GbG and the PvP Arena. That will make the game much more workable for people like me who don't have time to spend hours in game but still like the city building and a bit of competition.
Otherwise, people like me are just going to keep dropping out over time.
The main reason is that the game is a time sink, by Inno's intentional design. Every feature is designed to get you to spend more time in-game. And I get that - they want you to spend time in their game. But some of it is excessive and unnecessary.
The worst example of this is aiding and visiting taverns. You have to click, click, click, mindlessly and repeatedly. I understand spending time on an interesting task, such as rearranging my city. But this isn't an interesting task. It's a mindless boring chore that takes several minutes - and it's a lot worse if you have multiple cities. An Aid All button has been requested repeatedly for years, but Inno has refused to implement it. They could even make it cost 5 diamonds like the Collect All button, but they refuse to do so.
Also, almost every single action you take is followed by a 1-2 second pause before you can do anything else, no matter how simple it is. Aid a friend? Wait a second before you can aid the next one. Fight a battle in GbG? Wait a second before you can fight another. Complete or abort a quest? Wait 1-2 seconds before you can do anything else. This just makes any repeated task (aiding, fighting, etc.) extremely painful. And this is not a problem on my end; I've played on multiple devices and multiple internet connections, including some pretty high-powered laptops, and it's the same on all of them.
I could be wrong, but this appears to me to be an intentional feature. I see a lot of actions that appear to be fully processed immediately; for example, GbG attrition goes up immediately, sectors change hands immediately, and diamond rewards from GbG show up immediately, all indicating that it's an intentional feature rather than waiting for the database to process the action. However, I am still forced to wait 1-2 seconds before doing anything else. I see absolutely no good reason for this pause. Removing it would instantly make all the mindless boring chores such as aiding and fighting much less painful.
I understand that Inno wants us to spend time in-game. But surely they can find ways to accomplish that goal with things other than mindless boring tasks. Eliminate that pause after Every Single Action. Add an Aid All button, and a Visit All Taverns button. And then, if you want us to spend more time in-game, add additional minigames that are optional but that give rewards that are good enough to create an incentive to participate.
The concept of PVP Arena is good (poorly implemented in my opinion, but that's another question, and it could be done better while preserving the basic idea). It's an optional thing, so someone who wants to spend a few minutes per day in-game can skip it. But if you want to spend time there, there are rewards to be gained that can help your city advance. But it's not forced on you, and the rewards are not so great that anyone who decides to sit out is completely crippled.
GbG is similar - and much better implemented than PvP Arena, I think, although there are things that could be improved. If you want to sit out of GbG you can, although you're missing out on some rewards that can potentially be very significant, and some guilds may not want you. But if you want to cut down on the time spend in-game, you can stay out of GbG without harming your city. There are good reasons to want to get involved, but it's not forced on you if you don't have the time.
Eliminate the mindless boring chores, eliminate that ridiculous pause after every single action, and give us more features like GbG and the PvP Arena. That will make the game much more workable for people like me who don't have time to spend hours in game but still like the city building and a bit of competition.
Otherwise, people like me are just going to keep dropping out over time.