I just can't take it anymore.
I'm done with Clash Royale. Every time I make an inkling of progress, the goal-posts just keep moving further and further away. Why does a competitive multiplayer game have such an emphasis on spending time and resources levelling up your cards so they can be on an even playing field, instead of giving us an even playing field just straight up? And this process is absurdly long. I've been playing this game for over five years, but I have yet been able to max a single deck, so I can compete on an equal playing field. Yes, I have taken many long breaks, but even then, this is the single game that I have poured the most amount of hours into, more than any other game I've played. With all this time and effort, I at least expect to be able to play on an even playing field.
Not only that, but this levelling system makes it so you have to stick with one deck. Spreading out your resources to many different cards is simply unfeasible, because then none of them will be competitive. This limits the scope of the game to everyone that hasn't been playing non-stop for 5+ years or spent thousands of dollars, as you are locked into using 8 of the 109 cards available. Much of the fun in Clash Royale is how you can be creative in deckbuilding and with different strategies, but this is only limited to the most of the most dedicated players, everyone else just gets the trickle down decks that those people come up with. I was personally stuck playing X-Bow cycle, one of the most soul-draining, mind numbing decks.
This limiting deck building also lessens the competitiveness of the game. I was lucky that I stuck with meta decks that have stood the test of time, but other people get stuck levelling up shitty mid-ladder cards like Mega-knight and Wizard that are in stupid decks they came up with years ago because they were bad at the game. I cannot imagine the pain and frustration these players have to go through, forever doomed to one-trick a shitty, non-viable deck using the most annoying cards imaginable. This also has a greater effect on the game as a whole, because it just becomes infested with these types of decks, none of them which are fun or interesting to go against, unlike more known decks where you can learn the matchup and learn the counterplay.
And all of this is just the shitty game design, something you could excuse, considering Supercell's previous games like Clash of Clans were built on this model of incredibly slow progress. It's just that those games were built up from that model of slow progression, it's fun to see the fruits of your labour as you get that new town-hall upgrade. Yet, Clash-Royale is a completely different type of game. It's a competitive, rank climbing game, one where you want to get the progression over with as soon as possible so you can actually play. But what can't be excused are the shady business practices and blatant disregard for the playerbase.
Let me give you just one example. One time, Supercell ran an event, called Slash Royale. It was one of the most generous events, seemingly giving out gold for free and lowering the cost of upgrading cards so players could level up many of their cards. It looked like Supercell was listening to the complaints, that there wasn't enough gold, and so giving players what they wanted. Then the announcement dropped. LEVEL 14 CARDS. No one wanted this. This was literally setting the progress of every player back months, even years if you had every card maxed. And the worst part, was that the amounts of cards and gold you needed to upgrade your cards would be reduced. This sounds reasonable, until you realise that people would be losing resources that they would never get back upgrading their cards previously. IT WAS LITERALLY WORSE TO BE UPGRADING YOUR CARDS DURING THIS "GENEROUS" EVENT, THEN JUST NOT DOING ANYTHING. Why would Supercell do this? Was it perhaps to trick people into draining all of their cards, money and magic items that they had been frugally saving up all this time, so they'd be set back further, and more inclined to spend money? With how scummy this event was, I really don't think this evil genius plan is out of the question. When you ask Supercell why they did this, they'll say "ooh it's just to give more content to endgame players we care about our playerbase". But that's just not the case. This is not giving more content to endgame players, this is setting everyone back MONTHS, EVEN YEARS OF THEIR HARD WORK AND DEDICATION. The other excuse was that they were introducing a new gamebreaking mechanic, so they were adding this new level to I guess ease us into it. First, why couldn't you have just add this mechanic without nuking everyone's progress? Second, it was literally just some new cards with a unique mechanic, they didn't really change anything. The one fact they did change though is the meta, which now revolved around these new, powerful cards. Cards that were basically impossible to max without spending money. Fantastic.
This is just the biggest case, there have been many other cases of them running the game horribly, from new features that actively make the game worse, to new ways to monetize the game, as well as having every new card being released being inexplicably overpowered, like they were trying to get people to hop on the train and spend money to upgrade that card, before nerfing it so to clear up the completely centralized meta it created. I specifically remember the Goblin Drill, where upon it's release you had to either have a Bomber, Valkyrie or Dark Prince in your deck to counter it or you would just lose. Not only that, but Valkyrie and Bomber were soft counters, Dark Prince was literally the single hard counter this card had. This meta was horrible and the opposite of fun. Maybe the game testers are just really incompetent (which I don't buy), but either way, if this is malicious or just an accident, the game is being run horribly. And all of this while not fixing or barely fixing the game's problems.
Lvl 14 was when I quit the game. It just felt like a huge middle finger to literally everyone. I know many people quit at around this time to. It really just felt like Supercell was trying to squeeze as much money out of a dying game, a game that was dying because it was impossible to get into as a new player with the extremely daunting, slow progression. I thought I was gone for good.
Then, I found that the game was actually persisting to this day. I decided to reinstall it to see what was up and to go on a brief nostalgia trip, but I ended up sticking around because I was having a lot of fun. This is because buried under everything, the gameplay of Clash Royale is incredible, I'd say the best out of any mobile game I've played. It feels like a creative blend between a card game, a MOBA and chess. It perfects the philosophy of easy to learn and hard to master, with it's simple and easy to understand mechanics leading to incredible depth between card interactions and strategy. Yet, none of this is able to shine because of all it's flaws, flaws that just feel like they're there so Supercell can get more money.
And then it happened. The announcement of Lvl 15 cards. I'm not even joking. With how lvl 14 sent the entire community into Armageddon, people thought it was a meme at first. But no. This was an announcement so bad that people literally thought it was a meme. I guess at least they gave us a few months warning in advance, to let the criticism and anger cool down before it's released. So when it does come, everyone has just accepted their fate, and the money just keeps rolling in. But I won't be one of those people.
Supercell, I'm addressing this to you. With your horrible, greedy decisions, you have just lost a dedicated player that used to love your game, and you've lost the 8AUD a month that player was willing to spend on occasion for the new pass-royale. But what do you care, I'm just a drop in the pond filled with whales willing to spend thousands on your dying game, a game that is dying because of your actions.
I honestly intended for this to be like a two line shitpost, but it somehow turned into a 1500 word shitpost lmao.
Also, anyone got suggestions for a new mobile game that I could play to fill the void? Maybe it's finally time to play Genshin.
I'm done with Clash Royale. Every time I make an inkling of progress, the goal-posts just keep moving further and further away. Why does a competitive multiplayer game have such an emphasis on spending time and resources levelling up your cards so they can be on an even playing field, instead of giving us an even playing field just straight up? And this process is absurdly long. I've been playing this game for over five years, but I have yet been able to max a single deck, so I can compete on an equal playing field. Yes, I have taken many long breaks, but even then, this is the single game that I have poured the most amount of hours into, more than any other game I've played. With all this time and effort, I at least expect to be able to play on an even playing field.
Not only that, but this levelling system makes it so you have to stick with one deck. Spreading out your resources to many different cards is simply unfeasible, because then none of them will be competitive. This limits the scope of the game to everyone that hasn't been playing non-stop for 5+ years or spent thousands of dollars, as you are locked into using 8 of the 109 cards available. Much of the fun in Clash Royale is how you can be creative in deckbuilding and with different strategies, but this is only limited to the most of the most dedicated players, everyone else just gets the trickle down decks that those people come up with. I was personally stuck playing X-Bow cycle, one of the most soul-draining, mind numbing decks.
This limiting deck building also lessens the competitiveness of the game. I was lucky that I stuck with meta decks that have stood the test of time, but other people get stuck levelling up shitty mid-ladder cards like Mega-knight and Wizard that are in stupid decks they came up with years ago because they were bad at the game. I cannot imagine the pain and frustration these players have to go through, forever doomed to one-trick a shitty, non-viable deck using the most annoying cards imaginable. This also has a greater effect on the game as a whole, because it just becomes infested with these types of decks, none of them which are fun or interesting to go against, unlike more known decks where you can learn the matchup and learn the counterplay.
And all of this is just the shitty game design, something you could excuse, considering Supercell's previous games like Clash of Clans were built on this model of incredibly slow progress. It's just that those games were built up from that model of slow progression, it's fun to see the fruits of your labour as you get that new town-hall upgrade. Yet, Clash-Royale is a completely different type of game. It's a competitive, rank climbing game, one where you want to get the progression over with as soon as possible so you can actually play. But what can't be excused are the shady business practices and blatant disregard for the playerbase.
Let me give you just one example. One time, Supercell ran an event, called Slash Royale. It was one of the most generous events, seemingly giving out gold for free and lowering the cost of upgrading cards so players could level up many of their cards. It looked like Supercell was listening to the complaints, that there wasn't enough gold, and so giving players what they wanted. Then the announcement dropped. LEVEL 14 CARDS. No one wanted this. This was literally setting the progress of every player back months, even years if you had every card maxed. And the worst part, was that the amounts of cards and gold you needed to upgrade your cards would be reduced. This sounds reasonable, until you realise that people would be losing resources that they would never get back upgrading their cards previously. IT WAS LITERALLY WORSE TO BE UPGRADING YOUR CARDS DURING THIS "GENEROUS" EVENT, THEN JUST NOT DOING ANYTHING. Why would Supercell do this? Was it perhaps to trick people into draining all of their cards, money and magic items that they had been frugally saving up all this time, so they'd be set back further, and more inclined to spend money? With how scummy this event was, I really don't think this evil genius plan is out of the question. When you ask Supercell why they did this, they'll say "ooh it's just to give more content to endgame players we care about our playerbase". But that's just not the case. This is not giving more content to endgame players, this is setting everyone back MONTHS, EVEN YEARS OF THEIR HARD WORK AND DEDICATION. The other excuse was that they were introducing a new gamebreaking mechanic, so they were adding this new level to I guess ease us into it. First, why couldn't you have just add this mechanic without nuking everyone's progress? Second, it was literally just some new cards with a unique mechanic, they didn't really change anything. The one fact they did change though is the meta, which now revolved around these new, powerful cards. Cards that were basically impossible to max without spending money. Fantastic.
This is just the biggest case, there have been many other cases of them running the game horribly, from new features that actively make the game worse, to new ways to monetize the game, as well as having every new card being released being inexplicably overpowered, like they were trying to get people to hop on the train and spend money to upgrade that card, before nerfing it so to clear up the completely centralized meta it created. I specifically remember the Goblin Drill, where upon it's release you had to either have a Bomber, Valkyrie or Dark Prince in your deck to counter it or you would just lose. Not only that, but Valkyrie and Bomber were soft counters, Dark Prince was literally the single hard counter this card had. This meta was horrible and the opposite of fun. Maybe the game testers are just really incompetent (which I don't buy), but either way, if this is malicious or just an accident, the game is being run horribly. And all of this while not fixing or barely fixing the game's problems.
Lvl 14 was when I quit the game. It just felt like a huge middle finger to literally everyone. I know many people quit at around this time to. It really just felt like Supercell was trying to squeeze as much money out of a dying game, a game that was dying because it was impossible to get into as a new player with the extremely daunting, slow progression. I thought I was gone for good.
Then, I found that the game was actually persisting to this day. I decided to reinstall it to see what was up and to go on a brief nostalgia trip, but I ended up sticking around because I was having a lot of fun. This is because buried under everything, the gameplay of Clash Royale is incredible, I'd say the best out of any mobile game I've played. It feels like a creative blend between a card game, a MOBA and chess. It perfects the philosophy of easy to learn and hard to master, with it's simple and easy to understand mechanics leading to incredible depth between card interactions and strategy. Yet, none of this is able to shine because of all it's flaws, flaws that just feel like they're there so Supercell can get more money.
And then it happened. The announcement of Lvl 15 cards. I'm not even joking. With how lvl 14 sent the entire community into Armageddon, people thought it was a meme at first. But no. This was an announcement so bad that people literally thought it was a meme. I guess at least they gave us a few months warning in advance, to let the criticism and anger cool down before it's released. So when it does come, everyone has just accepted their fate, and the money just keeps rolling in. But I won't be one of those people.
Supercell, I'm addressing this to you. With your horrible, greedy decisions, you have just lost a dedicated player that used to love your game, and you've lost the 8AUD a month that player was willing to spend on occasion for the new pass-royale. But what do you care, I'm just a drop in the pond filled with whales willing to spend thousands on your dying game, a game that is dying because of your actions.
I honestly intended for this to be like a two line shitpost, but it somehow turned into a 1500 word shitpost lmao.
Also, anyone got suggestions for a new mobile game that I could play to fill the void? Maybe it's finally time to play Genshin.
