I just started Grepolis.
I like their approach to money - it's the one I would implement if I was developing a game.
There are a couple of items that are hygiene factors to the game. If you buy them your game will be a lot less grindy. You can be just as effective without buying the items but you probably want to spend the money so your game is a lot less clicks.
Those items are priced at what amounts to a reasonable subscription price (approx £5 a month).
It's still possible to buy an advantage by speed boosting your city building completion but that is extremely expensive. There is NO simply buying end game via instant purchase of infinite troops, like this horrible game.
What you get is A LOT of people paying A SMALL AMOUNT to play the game (ultimately A LOT of revenue)
There is still the opportunity for the walking brain dead to pump thousands in the game, so they can still clean up from the uber spenders. But the uber spender won't become an instant hero, if they are bad at the game they will still fail.
There is also considerably more complexity to the game which allows for a lot more strategy - again, pushes the game balance back towards the good not the coiners.
I hope it stays fairly balanced. I've played too many pay optional games that start good like that then devolve into unbalanced cash grab messes. Sometimes I think they do it on purpose; the balanced start gets you invested in the game, then they start adding more and more to spend on in hopes players will shell out more and more to stay competitive. The scary thing is it works. I never realized so many people had thousands of dollars to throw into pay to win games every week.
Maybe I'll just stick to the PS4. I'd miss the social aspect, but at least I don't have to watch games I used to love turn to unbalanced messes and die. Its a bad feeling when something you used to enjoy turns into a chore that you do more out of obligation than because you derive enjoyment from it.
