I was introduced to Ogame by a group of friends 10 years ago. It brings back a lot of fond memories. I was a total noob back then, couldn't care less about ranks, and I had a ton of fun playing it. Still ended up being a decent-but-not-great player.
A few months ago I discovered that it still existed, so out of nostalgia I signed up. First impression was great, it was everything I remembered. Second impression was that the game was incredibly easy compared to what I remembered : people leave tons of ships on their planets, don't FS, just free recycling targets in unis with 80% DF.
So I made it to the top50 of the first uni I played in (Himalia). Then I deleted my account for RL reasons. Started again a few weeks later on US Zibal. Made it to about the same rank there. Then on Janice, made it to the top25...before deciding to quit for good.
Why? Because I started growing more and more dissatisfied with the game. How was it fair that I had no moon on my Zibal account (uni was 30% DF so moonshots were just not viable at this stage), but many players had 3 or 4 moons thanks to a blatant use of premium items? How was it fair that half the players in the top100 had +3 to espionage from commanding staff? How was it fair that they had planets relocated to pos 15's which gave them over +50% to their deut production? How was it fair that instadef even exists in this game? What's the counterplay to instadef? Even if you slow down your fleet with ACS they'll still instadef just before it hits so you still have no way to see it coming. Instadef is the literal equivalent of entering a cheat code to destroy an attacking fleet.
I can say with confidence that on the 3 universes I played on, over 80% of the top50 players are wallet warriors. I often see threads ranting about one specific player who bought his way to the top, but it's ALL players who do that. I think it's really sad that these people think they can brag about their rank. Unless you got there without paying a single dollar (like I did), YOU BOUGHT CHEAT CODES TO GET THERE SO YOUR RANK IS COMPLETELY MEANINGLESS.
And don't give me that "developers need to eat" BS. You can make money by selling cosmetics only, there's absolutely no need to sell cheat codes. Mobas like Dota and League of Legends make millions with that model, and Ogame could use some nice skins and graphics.
Since I still thought that Ogame was a great concept before GF killed it, I looked for alternatives. And was the best I found by far. It has a steep learning curve, but IMO it's a strictly better game. Same thing, it's about building up your economy, alliances and raiding players through big fleet battles. But the main differences are all positive :
- Equal strength combat. In , you can't attack with a bigger fleet than your target. So the combat is all about tactics, fleet compositions and targeting choices. While in Ogame it's just "bigger fleet wins" with very little tactics.
- Instant attacks. No travel time, your target can't react. Why is it impossible to attack online players in Ogame? Why is resource saving a thing? Why should you get any advantage for being online? In , you don't.
- Graphic battles. It's simple 2D animation, but I think it looks pretty cool.
- It's completely free. Although I'll be giving them money since they deserve it.
- ZERO pay2win whatsoever. They even make fun of it with a pay to win button that says "you win" when you click it.
filled my need for a space MMO completely, check it out. But if you still want to stick with Ogame despite agreeing with me, seriously, make an alliance dedicated to crushing wallet warriors. That's your only way to survive and keep the game healthy.
..::Edit by NoMoreAngel|Censored the other games name, Advertisments aren't allowed|16.9.2019|22:51:23::..