Do Not Suggest: Gifting

[M1ghtyBu1lder]

Hi,
the guild that I am in is very supportive of its members and we build a strong sense of community and support.
On occasion I get really frustrated about two things.
1/ not knowing whether other members of the guild are active without throwing a message out and seeing who responds
2/ not being able to gift some items to players other than FP's in GB's.
I appreciate that you need to keep an eye on income generation, but is there a way that we could look to provide that blueprint, or gift a building.
Thanks

 

[Paladiac the Pure]

Hi,
the guild that I am in is very supportive of its members and we build a strong sense of community and support.
On occasion I get really frustrated about two things.
1/ not knowing whether other members of the guild are active without throwing a message out and seeing who responds
2/ not being able to gift some items to players other than FP's in GB's.
I appreciate that you need to keep an eye on income generation, but is there a way that we could look to provide that blueprint, or gift a building.
Thanks

No, would not want to be able to provide BPs or gift buildings, as that would quite easily and quickly turn into abuse. Already have some players ignoring the TOS by playing with more than 1 account, so to further allow them an ability to 'gift' items to another account would be wrong - and sadly, far too many players have no qualms about abusing the systems currently, and would look quickly at anything new, as a way to further abuse it all.

 

[RETIRED Dr. Horace]

It is not just about abuse by 'cheaters' either.
Making it possible to gift BP or buildings would not only remove any of the obstacles and challenges we all face when setting up an account, it would create a full-on 'black market'. Goods are already being 'sold' for FP, and while this may not necessarily be a harmful practice, it does most certainly affect the dynamics of the game.
If you now add BP and even buildings to that mix, what is left for people to really try for?

Imagine:
I move from one of my existing worlds to a world where I join a guild with players I already know from my existing worlds.
- Start of day one: My friends are sufficiently advanced that they have several older event buildings and, for example, Face of the Ancients + lvl 2 upgrades piling up in their inventories. But my city is new and doesn't have any military boost or FP producing buildings yet.
- End of day one: My city is piling over with slightly older event buildings generating FP and any other unused space contains upgrade FotA and GotSG to boost my army.
- Start of day two: My Arc has been built and because my friends are helping me get started they've also seen fit to boost my Zeus, CoA, CdM and Traz to level 10, which only cost them a fraction of their FP banks and one set of BP each for GB they have literally hundreds of spare sets for.
- Middle of day two: I start raking in hundreds of FP per day and finish GE 4 on my first go.

Meanwhile, my friend joined me in one of my worlds just over a year ago, after 14 months he is now at the point where I would be by the middle of day 2.
Do you think he will continue playing after seeing this change take effect and all his hard work for the past 14 months has essentially been a waste of time?