FoE is like an "all you can eat buffet". Play as much, or as little, as you want. There is no rule saying that a player has to eat everything.
This seems to be a common response to those who voice displeasure at certain parts of the game. Perhaps ‘only play the parts you want’ was valid before the new and improved FoE, but since the META change, or power leap, that advice is no longer valid. It is alright though, other must do advice from the game has changed also. Perhaps those giving the ‘only play the parts you like’ advice have not taken the time to go back and see how the overall game play/META has changed. It seems like good advice when you are a very active player with an end game city sitting in a top Guild, but how about someone in less than that position?
Let’s go visit Mr. Peabody…
Remember when upgrade houses, goods and production buildings from the menu was solid advice for new players aging up? You needed to replace those lower age buildings to increase your productions to keep up with quests and research tasks as well as stockpile inventory to prepare for aging up!!
There was a time Build Innovation Tower and Hagia Sophia was valid and wise advice for new players. You would need the population, and Inno gave a lot of population AND FP in a small area. Then, you would need happiness for all that population and HS gave you all that AND FP to boot! You get HS to 10 and Inno to level 5 (or maybe it was 4?) and you were getting 9 FP/day! Then you drop St Marks to cover the loss of coins from no houses and you were bringing in goods to boot!!! You had lots of population to put in Military, more goods, productions… You had a fat city… city!
How about the Trilogy to level 10? That was the best advice for new players, grab prints and put all 3 in right off! I do not believe I have heard that advice on any forum now for well over a year. I have started hearing that perhaps a few of those old ‘must have’ GB are no longer even worth putting in. We travel onward from this no longer valid must have advice…
What is the current sage advice? Get Main event buildings!!! But, for that, you need to play the events. What if the user does not enjoy events? Well, there are quests and the new Rush events to gain event buildings! But, as per the recent discussions about Finish all Production items, you need many of them and to get them you need an event building. The new META makes the rewards from one part, benefit playing another part. You need to play more than one aspect of the game.
It is specifically designed this way, and for just that reason. Say a user just enjoys the battle aspects of the game. They only way to be an active participant is to gain the new and improved military bonuses. And they come from event buildings. So the user NEEDS to participate in events to help them participate in a part of the game they enjoy. The new QI needs building bonuses from GE to help users enjoy QI. And no, it is not a specific requirement, they would be able to participate in QI without the GE buildings, but at what enjoyment? To be able to do some battles towards the end of the season?? Where if they participated in GE for those buildings, they would be able to battle, which they enjoy, right from the beginning. And to participate in GE they need the bonuses from event buildings! They NEED the new and improved military bonuses. So they would NEED to participate in events to get those buildings to provide those bonuses.
So as the game META changes, so does the advice from the old pro’s. The “Play only the parts you like’ is no longer valid advice as the game is too intertwined now, too many parts depending on participating in other parts. You need the bonuses/benefits from one part to help in another part. If, indeed, a user was to only ‘play the parts they enjoy’, there might be very little for that user to do. Some parts they did enjoy, require them to play parts they might not particularly enjoy. To leave the part they did enjoy out, leaves them with that much less to enjoy each day. Eventually it gets to the point they log in, collect, and what next? Play parts they do not enjoy or simply log out? At that point, you might as well go all out Jimmy Buffet.