I should have cooked up a big batch of popcorn before starting this thread.
It's a good thing I don't have a liquor cabinet. I'd have to lock it up tight to make it harder to do a drinking game over the usual complaints...FoE is dying, GvG was true socializing, GvG was the only good part of the game, GvG had the only strategy, GvG was the only true measure of skill, GbG sucks, bots, cheating, etc. Because by the time I got to the end of the thread a drinking game over GvG would have lead to liver failure.
It's like I said a few weeks ago:
*BLAM!*
We all know what the real long term problems with GvG are:
- A lack of mobile support in a game that has an overwhelming number of mobile players.
- No use for guild goods above FE
- No new maps above FE where the 8 highest ages are all dumped on one AA map
- No incentive to play, even the benefits for the guild are irrelevant when guilds can be leveled through GbG and GE
- Balancing features in GvG never worked right and some were outright removed
- Emergent gameplay has lead to most GvG play happening within an hour or two of recalc
- Only guild members trusted or higher have any freedom to act in GvG
- New players can contribute almost nothing meaningful to GvG
- The landing zones restrict gameplay and make it harder for guilds to establish themselves on a map
- Powerful guilds can carve out areas on a map where they can safely farm the map with little risk
- Army defenses are so low with current combat boosts as to be irrelevant
- It's possible that Inno's current design team doesn't even understand how GvG works
That's just off the top of my head. These problems far outweigh the positive aspects of GvG.
Guild level benefits aren't really a big deal here. The only things that need to change or be removed are the support pool and prestige. The bonus FP, reduced unit recruitment time, and reduced building costs all still benefit the guild without GvG.
The Observatory will need to be tweaked since the support pool bonus will be irrelevant without GvG. And the tiny amount of guild goods it produces is almost meaningless when the Arc, Atomium, AI Core, and Hydra Gate all produce guild goods too. That's not counting the special buildings that produce guild goods as well.
People complain about how GbG does not have a recalc time like GvG.
This is a net positive. There are plenty of players who don't do GvG because of the inconvenience of the 8 PM Eastern Time of recalc. For people who are not on the East Coast, recalc occurs earlier in the evening which cuts into supper, or commuting home from work or other such things. (For the record, I am in EST but am at least mindful of how the time zones affect people who live west of me.) And most action occurs at recalc. Once guilds are done with their nightly fights, there's not much else that can be done for the rest of the 24 hour period. If all the landing zones are locked down, that map is more or less done until the next recalc unless the guilds already on the map want to take available sectors later in the day. If you can't play at recalc and you aren't at least a trusted guild member, you can't do anything on the map, except maybe throw away spare units to refill defense armies. Some guilds have just never successfully adapted to GbG. Because provinces unlock every 4 hours a guild needs to remain more vigilant during the day. Reset is at midnight, but that's 8 PM for the West Coast so they have a bit of advantage there.
People who praise GvG probably are all trusted or higher guild members who actually get something out of GvG. It's meaningless for other players unless they like being drones.
People who say GbG has no strategy either doesn't play it or is no good at it. There is definitely strategy involved in choosing which provinces to take. And it's no more constantly replacing attack units than GvG is. GbG actually requires switching armies around in some ages unless your bonuses are sky high.
The biggest questions are exactly what raids are going to entail. They're going to need to replace GvG's gameplay while providing a game feature that's reasonably accessible to all guild members, balanced, and not subject to being dominated by the top 20 guilds on a world.
