Addictive in a bad way. Think crackhead. Designed to drain your wallet dry $1,000+/yr & rob time
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By Padunkie
WARNING: Quit before you start. I was a low level player for only 6 months. The grind to get ahead is endless. I wasn’t even a big spender, and I blew over $500 and hundreds of hours of productive time, family time, even at-work time. It is purposeful designed to drain your wallet. Addictive in a bad way the same way as if you found a crack pipe and decided to try it. I knew guys spending $1-2k per month, and I just felt sorry for their families who looked like they could use that $15-20k/year to cover living expenses. Addictive enough to literally rob your families of money and quality time.
TIME SUCK: To get daily in-game rewards you need to initially spend at least an hour per day, but that quickly goes up to 4+ hours per day once you join a clan and start doing group raids. I finally stopped after I realized I had spend $500 and neglected some work projects in truly negligent ways. It wasn’t easy to quit. It literally felt like I was quitting a drug. “Addictive” in a bad sense. Avoid like it’s crystal meth.
And yes, they will respond that the game is free, but also somewhat manipulative having a rote answer they _always_ respond with, when the fact of the matter is there are thousands of players better than you and to do basically anything fun in the game, you have to pay money for upgrades, resources, and time saving. The game is designed for “pay to win” whether they respond it is free or not.
Bottom Line: Though they “offer” free play, you are bombarded with ads and upgrades non-stop, and frankly there is no way you can be productive for your clan by playing for free, or you will be grinding until 2035 to make a dent. The peer pressure to pay for upgrades is substantial, and will. drain. your. wallet.
Personally I feel these manipulative game developers should be banned or sued by class action like Blizzard Entertainment was years ago, but of course “commerce is king” over morality on the Apple App Store. People are free to choose their demise, and this will be yours if you start.