Good morning folks,
-slurp-
Normally I don't around to writing on the weekends but today I thought I would put out a special musing dedicated to a game I've been playing for awhile, called Evony.
-slurp-
What is Evony you ask? Well some of you may know the game by its original name Civony. Evony is a real-time strategy based game similar to Age of Empires and Civilizations. The thing that sets Evony above the rest is completely free to play also the fact that it is Massive Multiplayer in a persistent world. What does that mean exactly? Basically, when you log out of the game at the end of the day, the world continues to grow and change while thousands of others are playing at the same time on the same server.
-slurp-
Evony, like most Massive Multiplayer games, is broken up into servers. I play on Server 18 and I go by the nickname Rale(Lord). Why the (Lord) at the end of my name? Basically, when I created my character in the game I highlighted the box where my name goes and typed in my usual handle for most games, Rale. For some reason the (Lord) part of my name remained and when I created the character I had this (Lord) at the end of it. I see it quite often in the game actually where others seems to have had the same issue. If you try it out, watch for that one it gets quite a few people. Regardless, I am the Lord of my city and those who try to oppose me will suffer a fate worse than death! Or they'll plunder me to pieces.
-slurp-
Over the past few months since I quit playing WoW I've played quite a few of these MMORTS (Massive Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy) games but none have hooked me like Evony. The game hooks you from the beginning with how easy it is to begin your city. You follow a simple guide of quests which tell you what to build to begin your city and then they reward you with resources (Gold, Lumber, Stone, Iron and Food) as well as some items that help speed up building/research and other various things. One thing I look forward to every day is the Amulet. The Amulet is a special item which can be used to spin the roulette wheel. You have a chance every day of winning some amazing prizes.
-slurp-
So now that I've got you hooked and you want to try it, there is one more question floating around in your head, "If the game is free, how are these people making money?" The answer is fairly simple. For starters, they have some clever advertising; in fact I would be VERY surprised if you haven't seen their adds on other websites already. Secondly, the game is F2P (Free 2 Play) but there are coins (in-game currency) that can be bought with real world money. For example, someone can spend $30 and get 300 game cents. The cents can be used to buy the same items you can win on the roulette wheel. Really, the only reason you would want to buy coins would be to help advance yourself faster or to buy that one item you need that you can't seem to get from the wheel. Also, every spin of the wheel costs you 1 Amulet or 5 game cents. That means for $30 you can take a chance and spin that wheel 60 times! I'll admit that I bought game coin, but when you consider the thousands of dollars I spent on World of Warcraft in the 4+ years I played, $30 is nothing to drop on a game.
-slurp-
The basic flow of the game is simple. You build up your city, train some troops and hopefully get in with a good alliance. You start with a 7 day immunity which means for the first week of play, nobody can touch you. After that 7 days though, you become attackable and other players can send their troops at you pillage your resources. You can even take a player's city from them if they have more than 1. If you're not a Player vs. Player kind of person, Evony may not be for you since the entire game is mostly based around PvP. There are "NPC" (non-Player Character) cities out there but they are mostly used for attacking over and over for resources.
-slurp-
Well folks, that is basically Evony in a musing. The game is very addictive and a lot of fun. If you're looking to join up or want to check it out, drop me an email or post a comment below and I can send you an invite to the email address provided. They have this system in place called iEvony which allows players to gain points which can be redeemed for in-game coin if they refer other people. It is a great system and I've referred most of my immediate family through it giving me a couple free spins on the wheel. So if you're looking to give the game a try, help a guy out buy letting me refer you. :) Also, don't forget, it isn't the size of your army that matters, it's how you use it!
-slurp-
Cheers,
Al
Enjoy your coffee... hehe
ReplyDelete