I've never spent any money on an online game. I've spent it on BP's for attack GB's and during events to get multiple special buildings that give an attack boost. My dream strategy is to plunder my neighbours. Then Inno came with the Galata Tower. Come on.......
I realize this was sarcastic, but since it has to do with the current change, I'll respond.
"Luckily," I've never had neighbors worth plundering. In IA, I thought they were just abandoned cities—their owner tried the game, didn't like it, moved on. Here in LMA, one would think players have already put some effort into their cities. And they probably have, I'm just usually not sure what that effort is. When their entire defense is two spearfighters, then I think they deserve to be plundered. I'm a peaceful player, I rarely plunder, but when I come across two spearfighters, then yeah... Of course, these players will never have a Galata Tower, so all is well.
Yet... and here's where we circle back to the current change: why was the Galata Tower introduced in the first place? Was it needed? No. By the time you allow other players to attack you, you can have a city that has nothing that can be plundered. Players who don't want to fight, can very easily build a city where they won't lose anything, even if attacked. So who cares if anyone attacks? But newcomers don't want to read how the game works, they don't want to learn the tricks of the game. They cry that they are plundered, until Inno makes a GB for them. Pissing off people who know how to read and have learned to play the game. Same as now. I don't know who cried enough now that Inno made this change, but based on the reactions on the forum, the only people who say yeah, this change is needed and boo those who exploit the game, are newbies, who, instead of wanting to learn how to play, want others to fail instead. Psychologically, this behavior speaks for itself.
And when I realize that Inno is not making money from players who know how to play the game, but from players who have no idea what they are doing, then I come to the conclusion that from a business point of view, Inno needs to make the game appeal to newcomers, and they really don't need to focus on players who have been around for years. Changes like nerfing the CF are ways to slow down the gameplay, so newcomers don't feel like there's no chance for them to ever reach a good placement. They
could make sure the players learn how to play the game, but it's a lot easier to just piss off existing players, making it look like newcomers without any knowledge can win the game within a month if they pay enough.
And that's what Galata Tower is about, that's what nerfing existing GBs is about. Seriously, the Arc should be nerfed as well, since people can make tens of thousands of FPs a day with that. Once that's nerfed, newcomers can really feel that they have a chance without having to read any of the lengthy strategy guides, and they can start giving their money to Inno. As for existing players... yeah, this business model does not build on them. We've outgrown our usefulness.
