Why do you play this game? - Empires and Puzzles

I first encountered Empires and Puzzles off an ad from Words with Friends. (Zynga games advertising on other Zynga games.) I remember Sha Ji and Melendor being two of the heroes in the sample map stage against a dragon. I would only play if I could make matches on my own as opposed to being forced to make matches. 

I didn't fully grasp the mechanics from playing that little sample, but it was enough to intrigue me. I didn't want to spend more time playing games though, so I didn't look into it. 

The ad kept coming. I kept enjoying the little samples these ads were giving me. I don't know what finally prompted me to do so, but I finally downloaded it just to see what it was all about. 

Honestly, I almost quit the game before the end of the tutorial. So. Many. Forced. Moves. 

But I stuck with it and eventually got some freedom from the arrows pointing to the only thing I could click on the screen. I was enthralled. Base building. Resource management. Hero art. Map stages. Raids were tough for a while, but I was getting better pretty quickly. 

Then I quit. 

What? Why? 

I was spending too much time on the game. I didn't tie my account to Game Center, so all that data was lost. I honestly also thought I broke the game because I stuck a bunch of resources into whatever training camp level gives you 1* or 2* heroes in three hours. I put two days worth of heroes. Two days! Simpler times. 

I don't know what prompted me to pick the game back up again. The first time I tried it, it must have been January of 2020, and I quit for something like six weeks or so. I really missed it, but again, I don't know what the catalyst was that made me re-download the game and want to pick it back up again. Yes, I had to start over from the tutorial, and yes, it was still frustrating to have to go through all that again. 

But here I am now. Sixty-six levels later, several seasons of map stages, many new heroes, and new link to Game Center, and what does the future have in store? 

I'm really close to finishing the base. That was one of my favorite parts of the game early on when buildings were finished pretty quickly. Trying to decide what building to upgrade next was a fun exercise, and it became even more fun when I first got VIP about six months or so in. 

I really enjoy playing the game with my alliance. I don't know how I ended up where I did in the first place, but they accepted me, welcomed me, offered me a bunch of help. I went with a bunch of them to a new alliance, and we basically merged together, and now a bunch of us are in Ace Nation. We're currently full as of this writing, but if you think you'd like to join, drop me a comment below or hit me up on Line (see my Line ID in the blog header). 

I do understand the fatigue some players feel at the sheer number and scale of events in the game. I like the events though. Challenge Events, Ninja Tower, Mythic Titan. I talked about how the Mythic Titan is my favorite event in the game now. The game does sometimes feel like a chore, but everything I've ever enjoyed in life reached that point for me. There are still things I enjoy about it, and there are a lot more days when it doesn't feel like a chore than not. 

I haven't gotten any of the new Season 4 or League of Villains or other recently released heroes yet, but I just love using some of the heroes I have on my roster. They're just so much fun to play around with, experiment with, and see come to life after summoning and leveling them up. 

I enjoy the strategy of the resource management. Like I said, I'm so close to finishing building the base—which really means that I'm super far away from that point because it takes forever to finish advanced buildings—but I've cheated a bit by siphoning some iron away to craft weapons for the Challenge Events and Ninja Tower. I've placed top 5000 in the last two Ninja Towers, and I hope I can at least get that high again because this might be the last or second-to-last Ninja Tower I'll be going into underpowered in terms of items. I've managed though because I've discovered just how powerful using Wu Kong can be when combining him with the Titan Banner. I've crafted a bunch of those, so even though my Hunter's Lodge isn't maxed yet, I have my way of getting around not having a bunch of Hurricanes and Scrolls of Alteration. Having Norns in my roster is a HUGE help. 

I'm enjoying being a part of the online community. I've met some great players who've joined Ace Nation from Reddit and Discord. I talk every day with wonderful people on the Discord where we share a bunch of stuff related to the game. Leilow has graciously opened a channel in that Discord server where I can just post the Daily Diamond Challenge posts. I'm especially enjoying getting to meet all the top players that Empires and Puzzles Books on Youtube has been interviewing for that series. 

I'm probably spending too much time on this game, but it's so much fun, and it's not getting in the way of other things in my life, so why not keep going?

Why do you play this game?