Having begun playing FoE when the original Beta game was released, and being one of the original members of our guild, ultimately gaining founder status, I have quit the game. My reasons for this are my disgust at the intransigence of the developers and support on the topic of ghost guilds, or more specifically, demolition guilds. In East Nagach a demolition guild called The Elite had been set up with the sole aim of spoiling the game in an attempt to have GvG restructured. They complain about stagnation on the maps, and use hit and run tactics to free up sectors across the map. A fair enough complaint, but a very unfair approach. Many players have invested a great deal of time and money in the form of diamonds, in building up their territories. What they have, can be destroyed in minutes by powerful and relatively low cost attacks by The Elite, who in the interim are gathering PvP points, but not holding on to newly won sectors in order that their attacks remain low cost. OK, its a war game, but its Guild v Guild, and it is very noticeable that they do not attack the guilds that they originated from in their quest to enforce their point. Their original guilds are undeniably suffering at the defection of their top players, but it seems hypocritical that the demolition guild is attacking those guilds who stand to gain from their original guild's demise, and are not offering up their territories as free sectors. I contacted support regarding this issue, and was told to post here, apparently there is no breach of rules where a rule does not exist, and so contacting support is invalid. Posting here seems a pointless exercise, since many valid points become lost in argument and abuse in this forum, and relatively few are taken notice of and actioned unless it is a programming issue. This is my final input to FoE, since I have followed my own advice to those who complained about unpopular changes in the structure and gameplay of FoE; if you don't like it don't play. To the instigators of spoiling tactics I give the same advice, and to the developers I say it is your responsibility to ensure that your production meets the needs of your customers, you should ensure that it is played fairly, and provides enjoyment and entertainment. If you don't meet the basic needs of your customer base, you will lose them. Take note.
It sucks, I can tell you that from plenty of experience being on the receiving end of these sort of guilds. However, it seems that the idea I had with The Elite is doing a pretty good job, you're not the first to complain about us and I'm pretty sure that you won't be the last.
The goal is to get the changes needed by proving a point. Yes others suffer from it, even our own guilds suffer from it as they're losing their top fighters and are less able to defend themselves. However the problem has gone on too long. I'm tired of spending weeks on end gathering goods to take a sector with a cost of 1000+ of each good from the age, only to have it taken a couple days later by another guild at a cost of 100 of each good of the age. What we're doing with the demolition guilds isn't fair, it's not meant to be fair, the idea is to give proof that GvG in it's current form isn't fair. Whether ghost guilds, demolition guilds or any other foul play guild tactics are used is completely irrelevant, the game still isn't fair whether they exist or not.
You mentioned that we are only hitting guilds which our former guilds were enemies with, this is not the case. We are a guild who hit any guild on any map at any time, if players want to hit a guild they can do so. Currently the majority of members are from guilds which were enemies of your own guilds, so of course the main targets are your guild line. If members of your guilds came over and joined us then our former guilds would undoubtedly be attacked too.
I've stated on other threads to other complaints that the long term goal is getting enough players in the demolition guild to be able to clear an entire map of all guilds. We're edging closer and closer to that stage, when it comes, it doesn't matter what guild you are in, if you're on the map we attack, you'll get hit.
It has been months and still no change has come, despite the fact that change is obviously needed. The goal for us is to force the hand of developers. Stop wasting time with meaningless stuff like soccer event and a terrible gift which likely took longer to fix than it did to create in the first place (referring to HoF), start doing what matters and listening to customers, as said in the above quote, you will lose them, this is becoming all the more clear as more and more are now leaving due to the outbreak of demolition guilds. These guilds aren't going anywhere until change is made.
Hello guys
So I wanted to drop in here as there are developments going on behind the scenes, there has been a very large amount of player concern in regards to the ghost guilds, and now demolition guilds. We have received a huge amount of feedback from you both here in the forum and via the support system, which we are taking notice of.
I realise at this point it may seem as though we are telling you yes we understand, yet there are no changes so it feels as though maybe it is falling on deaf ears - I assure you this is not the case.
There has been a lot of discussion in regards to this with the various team members on different forge of empires servers not just our own, so I can say at this point the issue is well known, and as such it is being reviewed. You will never see an immediate change of this type as planning needs to go into how a change can be made. Do we alter the game so that certain things can or cannot be done, or do we introduce a rule to prevent this, for example.
So please do rest assured, this is well known at all levels, and a lot of discussion and planning is taking place, but at this point I cannot say yes or no a change will be made as this would be subject to change.
It's been months, from the time GvG was released in beta server, ghosting has been complained about. GvG shouldn't have even been released into live servers in the state it was in. It was pushed out early to steer players minds away from the fact that their hard earned GB levels had just been nerfed. It wasn't ready for release when it came and it still isn't ready now. I don't blame yourself or any other mods, the blame is solely for the terrible design of the feature and the lack of customer recognition where complaints have been concerned.
You mentioned that there are things going on behind the scenes... Why behind the scenes? More and more players leave while they are left in the dark, why not let them know that change is on the way, keep them here until that change has arrived at least. If they don't think change will happen then there's no reason for them to stay.
There are a lot of ideas on these forums for how to fix GvG and make it a fair feature for everybody. I post the link to my own idea a lot of the time cause it's my own idea and of course will be my favourite of the selection available, but there are a lot more than just my own which would all achieve the same goals. There's nothing that even needs thinking about when it comes to ideas of how to sort the problem out. The ideas have already been given.