DeletedUser17455
Guest
Hello, I started playing Elvenar in March of 2018. It is not roughly March of 2019
I played Elvenar for roughly 1 year and it is possible/likely that I will continue playing it. It is a good game for the bus, unless you are in chapter 8. I have much to say that is somewhat negative, but please remember that I have also chosen to continue playing Elvenar.
Overview:
Here is my Elvenstats.
As you can see from the Elvenstats account, my score has increased roughly 5,000 points per month. By December (after about 9 months) I reached the Orcs chapter. I began the chapter optimistically, building 70 or so orc buildings, and by the end of January my spirits had been so crushed that I barely played, left my fellowship, and uninstalled the app.
On March 24th (two months after abandoning the game) I received an email about the Phoenix event, which is the event that I enjoyed during my first month in the game. I reinstalled the app and have enjoyed the Phoenix event (alone ToT; ). I also managed to push through the Orcs chapter and am now breathing a sigh of relief as my city is being reborn as a beautiful green forest.
Who knows what the future holds. I have started a fellowship of 1 so that I can continue to benefit from tournaments but I am not confident yet that I will play actively enough to want to be part of a fellowship.
My tournament average was, at it's peek, close to 1500 per week. I think that is a good number.
My fellowship participated in several fellowship adventures. I found playing the role of fellowship organizer to be fun (maintaining spreadsheets, keeping moral high, recording data for next time). I think everyone probably agrees that the fellowship adventures are a slog, and that the rewards are barely worth the effort.
Oh also: I have paid for this game. Thank you Inno for making this game, I think I paid like $20 bucks? It is not often that you pay $20 bucks for a game and then play it for a year. So... Inno is doing something right something that appeals to a part of my brain that I am maybe ashamed of D:
Thoughts:
I think that Elvenar is not a "fun" game, but it does a good job of hooking a player. It does not "spark joy" and if I was Mari Kondo I would cut it out of my life. It is the equivalent of a rash that is satisfying to scratch. It brings me about as much real joy as facebook notifications. Seeing the tiny red icon that says "you have a message" feels good. I think that videogames, even idle games and clickers, can be more fun than notifications. Try playing "Universal Paperclips" and tell me that it isn't 100x more fun that Elvenar despite being pretty similar.
I enjoy Elvenar when it is asking me to be an active participant. Every chapter so far has begun with a lot of interesting decisions, moving buildings around, doing research, etc... but inevitably becomes nothing more than a repetitive slog. Queuing up the same builds every day, sometimes for months, is not fun. I think that it could be possible for a game like Elvenar to have a rhythm, with periods of busy action and peaceful stretches of idilic calm. I don't think that's what Elvenar accomplishes. In each chapter you build a machine, and then are invited to power it by hand for a month.
I enjoy the tournaments, events, and fellowship adventures for the same reasons: they invite me to be an active player. I enjoy thinking about Ancient Wonders, or planning out how many barracks make sense. Elvenar has this habit of encouraging active participation at the beginning of some "event" and then just asking you to turn a winch for one week. One week of turning a winch is not fun.
Ludonarrative:
I find the art and whimsical themes of the events and event buildings to be very fun. At first I enjoyed decorating my city with thematically unified sets of event building. Later I realized that, if you do the math, there are clearly better and worse building... and this kind of ruined it for me. My city currently has 20 of the same mana producing building because I calculated that it's mana/hour/tile is the highest available to me. I'm sure that the game's goal is to appeal to the aesthetic folk who want to decorate, as well as the power gamers who want to win... but it fails to appeal to the aesthetic power games. I think the game would be improved for me if it felt more like there were multiple "right answers".
Imagine, for example, if the chapters had multiple "paths" that encouraged different styles of play. I know: typical player just wants the devs to work harder. "Moar contents! Opener world!". Sorry!
The writing has never succeeded in bringing me into the narrative. Each chapter feels like a guest shows up and tries to teach me something new, but in the end they leave nothing behind. I don't have an Dwarf buildings, or Orc buildings, these peoples arrive, boss me around with quests that do not interest me, and then leave no mark. The "orcs" and "mana" feel a little bit like something has been left behind, and I know that mana will continue to be a mechanic... so maybe this ludonarrative dissonance is something that the team is aware of and is correcting?
Orcs:
The Orcs chapter should be discarded or re-implemented. I have mixed feelings on this one (hmm no, no I don't). Let me try this again. The orcs chapter was so awful that it took me from enthusiastic player with a tournament score of 1500 and a fellowship that loved him, to the guy getting the emails that say "come back, we will give you diamonds". You hurt me Inno, you did me wrong. The Orcs chapter should be discarded or re-implemented.
However, it is worth saying that: I think it is OK for a videogame to hurt a player, or do them wrong, in service of the narrative. I think it could be fine to have a long, painful, destructive chapter to introduce the evil orcs. I think it could be interesting to have the familiar game mechanics suddenly be flipped and become a form of violence against the player. I think it _could_ be interesting, but the orcs chapter does not accomplish the subtle dance of game design that such an experience would require. The writing is not there, the game design is not there. The Orcs chapter should be discarded and or re-implemented.
Thank you! This has been my 1 year retrospective.
I played Elvenar for roughly 1 year and it is possible/likely that I will continue playing it. It is a good game for the bus, unless you are in chapter 8. I have much to say that is somewhat negative, but please remember that I have also chosen to continue playing Elvenar.
Overview:
Here is my Elvenstats.
As you can see from the Elvenstats account, my score has increased roughly 5,000 points per month. By December (after about 9 months) I reached the Orcs chapter. I began the chapter optimistically, building 70 or so orc buildings, and by the end of January my spirits had been so crushed that I barely played, left my fellowship, and uninstalled the app.
On March 24th (two months after abandoning the game) I received an email about the Phoenix event, which is the event that I enjoyed during my first month in the game. I reinstalled the app and have enjoyed the Phoenix event (alone ToT; ). I also managed to push through the Orcs chapter and am now breathing a sigh of relief as my city is being reborn as a beautiful green forest.
Who knows what the future holds. I have started a fellowship of 1 so that I can continue to benefit from tournaments but I am not confident yet that I will play actively enough to want to be part of a fellowship.
My tournament average was, at it's peek, close to 1500 per week. I think that is a good number.
My fellowship participated in several fellowship adventures. I found playing the role of fellowship organizer to be fun (maintaining spreadsheets, keeping moral high, recording data for next time). I think everyone probably agrees that the fellowship adventures are a slog, and that the rewards are barely worth the effort.
Oh also: I have paid for this game. Thank you Inno for making this game, I think I paid like $20 bucks? It is not often that you pay $20 bucks for a game and then play it for a year. So... Inno is doing something right something that appeals to a part of my brain that I am maybe ashamed of D:
Thoughts:
I think that Elvenar is not a "fun" game, but it does a good job of hooking a player. It does not "spark joy" and if I was Mari Kondo I would cut it out of my life. It is the equivalent of a rash that is satisfying to scratch. It brings me about as much real joy as facebook notifications. Seeing the tiny red icon that says "you have a message" feels good. I think that videogames, even idle games and clickers, can be more fun than notifications. Try playing "Universal Paperclips" and tell me that it isn't 100x more fun that Elvenar despite being pretty similar.
I enjoy Elvenar when it is asking me to be an active participant. Every chapter so far has begun with a lot of interesting decisions, moving buildings around, doing research, etc... but inevitably becomes nothing more than a repetitive slog. Queuing up the same builds every day, sometimes for months, is not fun. I think that it could be possible for a game like Elvenar to have a rhythm, with periods of busy action and peaceful stretches of idilic calm. I don't think that's what Elvenar accomplishes. In each chapter you build a machine, and then are invited to power it by hand for a month.
I enjoy the tournaments, events, and fellowship adventures for the same reasons: they invite me to be an active player. I enjoy thinking about Ancient Wonders, or planning out how many barracks make sense. Elvenar has this habit of encouraging active participation at the beginning of some "event" and then just asking you to turn a winch for one week. One week of turning a winch is not fun.
Ludonarrative:
I find the art and whimsical themes of the events and event buildings to be very fun. At first I enjoyed decorating my city with thematically unified sets of event building. Later I realized that, if you do the math, there are clearly better and worse building... and this kind of ruined it for me. My city currently has 20 of the same mana producing building because I calculated that it's mana/hour/tile is the highest available to me. I'm sure that the game's goal is to appeal to the aesthetic folk who want to decorate, as well as the power gamers who want to win... but it fails to appeal to the aesthetic power games. I think the game would be improved for me if it felt more like there were multiple "right answers".
Imagine, for example, if the chapters had multiple "paths" that encouraged different styles of play. I know: typical player just wants the devs to work harder. "Moar contents! Opener world!". Sorry!
The writing has never succeeded in bringing me into the narrative. Each chapter feels like a guest shows up and tries to teach me something new, but in the end they leave nothing behind. I don't have an Dwarf buildings, or Orc buildings, these peoples arrive, boss me around with quests that do not interest me, and then leave no mark. The "orcs" and "mana" feel a little bit like something has been left behind, and I know that mana will continue to be a mechanic... so maybe this ludonarrative dissonance is something that the team is aware of and is correcting?
Orcs:
The Orcs chapter should be discarded or re-implemented. I have mixed feelings on this one (hmm no, no I don't). Let me try this again. The orcs chapter was so awful that it took me from enthusiastic player with a tournament score of 1500 and a fellowship that loved him, to the guy getting the emails that say "come back, we will give you diamonds". You hurt me Inno, you did me wrong. The Orcs chapter should be discarded or re-implemented.
However, it is worth saying that: I think it is OK for a videogame to hurt a player, or do them wrong, in service of the narrative. I think it could be fine to have a long, painful, destructive chapter to introduce the evil orcs. I think it could be interesting to have the familiar game mechanics suddenly be flipped and become a form of violence against the player. I think it _could_ be interesting, but the orcs chapter does not accomplish the subtle dance of game design that such an experience would require. The writing is not there, the game design is not there. The Orcs chapter should be discarded and or re-implemented.
Thank you! This has been my 1 year retrospective.