What kind of game is a good game? Everyone has a different answer to this question. It isn't easy for me to come up with a definite standard because I am an omnivore. If I have to say, any good game, such as gameplay, plot, graphics, growth elements, and control feel, is a good game. But the “good” is time-sensitive in my view. Even if a game is fascinating at the moment, if it remains unchanged for a long time, when a new “era” comes, it can no longer be called “good”. As Benjamin Gifford, vice president of Top Games Inc., said, a great game needs to provide players with an ever-evolving world. He said that Evony is maintaining the freshness and appeal of the game by giving priority to providing updated ideas. This strategy drives Evony's “good” to evolve with the development of the times.
“The ever-evolving content, dynamic environments, and varied challenges are key to sustaining my player interest. At TGI, we're striving to imbue our games like Evony with these qualities, ensuring a vibrant, ever-changing world that encourages continuous engagement and interaction among players.” Benjamin Gifford shares.
Evony's Battlefield Evolution
Since I started playing this game, the most impressive part is Evony's battlefield. Regardless of my own preferences, they dig deep into the PVP mechanism. This is also the key factor in my evaluation of Evony as a good game.
According to old players, they only had the Battle of Gaugamela (BOG) battlefield at first. Later, to enrich the game content and enhance the player experience, the Battle of Constantinople (BOC), All-Star, and Battle of Chalons came online.
With the advancement of technology, real-time strategy games can accommodate more people online. Meanwhile, players have higher requirements for battlefield diversity. In the past two years, Evony's Alliance Duel and Clash of Civilizations came into being.
Unlike the previous four battlefields, Alliance Duel is not fought in a separate copy. It is a battlefield similar to arranging troops on a sand table. Different alliances fight each other by arranging lineups on three lines.
Clash of Civilizations is more complicated. It is not only the largest battlefield but also the battlefield with the most complex gameplay. When 8 servers are fighting together, you need to pay attention to the movements of players from the other 7 servers at the same time. Also, you also need to pay attention to the reasonable distribution of buffs and the skillful use of unit restraint.
Ever-changing Activities in Evony
Except for fixed festivals, Evony also has some different festivals every year.
-
Fixed festivals: Christmas, Spring Festival, Easter, Mother's Day, Children's Day, Midsummer Festival, Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, etc.
-
Special festivals: Water Festival in 2021, The Tale of Princess Kaguya Event in 2022, St. Martin's Day in 2023, and the Maple Syrup Festival this year, etc.
During festival events, new generals and skins, ideal land ornaments, castle skins, avatar frames, holiday decorations, march effects, etc. are often released. There will be general skins, champions and skins, scenes, monarch images, or spiritual beasts sometimes.
Before and after festival events, there will sometimes be version updates, new features, or gameplay. During the events, they will open the Limited Recruit Event, Historic City Event, or Cultural Subordinate City Event. Moreover, routine events will be online between every two festival events to help players develop their cities.
Besides, to further enrich the content of the event, Evony has also co-branded with many IPs and created many collaboration events. From Kong: Skull Island I and Godzilla to Napoleon Movie, their cooperation style is ever-changing. It can be seen that Evony is working hard to become a good game.
The question of what kind of game is a good game is very subjective. But the answer needs to be separated from the player's own likes and dislikes and the judgment of the game. From the perspective of the times, Evony is a good game because of its ever-evolving content. The reason why a game can survive in the game market is that it must have gained a certain audience. Things are not all black and white, and it is unfair to define a game with subjective “good or bad”.
______
REVIEW PROVIDED BY
Lance Windsor
Jun 5, 2024
