Game of War: Fire Age

Last updated
Game of War: Fire Age
Game of War - Fire Age title screen.jpg
Title screen
Developer(s) Machine Zone
Platform(s) Android, iOS, iPadOS
ReleaseJuly 25, 2013
Genre(s) Strategy
Mode(s) Multiplayer

Game of War: Fire Age is a 2013 freemium mobile massively multiplayer online strategy video game developed and published by Machine Zone. The game had a high-profile advertising campaign and was one of the top-grossing apps in 2014 and 2015.

Contents

Gameplay

Game of War: Fire Age includes player vs. player battles, player vs. environment modes (monster killing and dungeons), and city building and event quests. [1] Gathering or farming of resources is required to create buildings, produce troops, and research advancements. Similar to other mobile games, [2] much of the gameplay consists of selecting an action and then either waiting a preset amount of time for completion or expediting the task by making a payment. [3] Gameplay in Game of War has no defined end; long-term players continue to grow indefinitely, attacking other players and avoiding significant losses. [4]

The title places an emphasis on each player joining an alliance. [1] Alliances are each limited to 100 players, and are situated within kingdoms measuring 512 by 512 tiles, plotted on a 512 × 1024 staggered isometric map. Alliances provide a team structure to conflicts within each kingdom. After a kingdom has been active for several months, the kingdom emerges from a protected status and players begin to engage in kingdom vs. kingdom combat events, which are periodically scheduled by the developer.

Players are encouraged to engage with one another through alliance chat and kingdom chat. [1] The game's chat system includes translation services that allow players from all over the world to play together. [5] The game's translation of player-to-player chat and email messages is powered by services from Microsoft and Google. [5] The automated translator supports 30 or more languages, and includes user-supported suggestions for translation corrections. Messages that cannot be automatically translated are reviewed by players who volunteer to correct spelling and grammar, or approve corrections made by others, after which the automatic translation is attempted again.

Business and marketing

Kate Upton in 2014, promoting the game dressed as Athena Kate Upton at G-Star 2014.jpg
Kate Upton in 2014, promoting the game dressed as Athena

Machine Zone, the game's developer, was described by its CEO as "probably the world's largest direct response marketer and largest single product marketer on mobile," with 200 employees in marketing, [6] out of about 550 employees worldwide as of October  2015. [7]

Approximately $40 million was spent on marketing Game of War: Fire Age in 2014. [8] Along with advertisements in digital and social media, highly produced television commercials featuring model Kate Upton were created. The ads made use of Upton's sex appeal to promote the game as she leads battles in fantasy settings loosely comparable to those in Game of Thrones . The spots were introduced in the United States during an NFL Thursday Night Football game and have since been prominent during Super Bowl XLIX and other sporting events. [9] [10] Upton was replaced in 2015 by singer Mariah Carey as the face of the game's advertising campaign, [11] and the first commercial with Carey was revealed on September 14, 2015. [12]

Reception

Game of War: Fire Age was the third-grossing game app through Apple in 2014, and it was reported that Machine Zone projected $600 million in revenues that year. [5] In March 2015, it was in the top 10 most downloaded free apps on both the iOS Appstore and Google Play. [15] As of August 2018, the game has grossed $2.8 billion in total. [16]

The game and its user interface have been criticized for an aggressive style that "heavily pushes" in-app purchases, "littering the screen with ads and upgrade buttons" for gold packs priced from $5 to $100. [1] A reviewer in Forbes wrote, "From its overall design to how it handles cash purchases, Game of War is the most over-the-top cash grab I've ever seen." [17] Similarly, Macworld 's reviewer stated that "Game of War may be the most aggressively monetized free-to-play game I've ever played." [3]

Reviewers have also been highly critical of the title's "mundane" gameplay, [18] which Common Sense Media called "light on both action and strategy." [1] For example, unless a player's alliance is actively at war, "the core gameplay revolves around waiting for your task timers to finish and then queuing up new ones. Even the daily and Alliance quests just ask you to tap something and come back later to collect your reward." [18] Macworld wrote that the game "doesn't bother with interesting gameplay or any semblance of storyline – it's all 'build this' and 'train them,' but the reward is simply more and more busywork." [3]

Pocket Gamer reviewed the gameplay as "basically Busywork the Video Game," adding that "the spam-filled world chat is likely poisonous to your health" due to some players' "false sense of self-importance – a self-importance that is bought, incidentally, and not earned." [14] Nevertheless, the reviewer found it "a highly competitive, highly engaging game in which the human players supply huge amount of competition, drama, and frustration, and pleasure." [14]

A positive review in Paste called Game of War "addictive," especially in the social dynamics of in-game conflicts. [19] The reviewer, Paste's 43-year-old editor-in-chief, found the "internal politics" within his alliance to be "as fascinating as the kingdom-wide ones," particularly for alliance leaders: "We have our own chat room with the leader discussing the urgent matters of the day, and the responsibilities can feel strangely important – keep the store stocked, negotiate prison releases, secure diplomatic relations, organize relocations, protect friends and recruit new members. But it’s fun to collaboratively plan strategy when you can be attacked or attack at any time. My alliance has become a little online band of brothers and sisters – Felicia Day's The Guild with 90 people – and I love it." [19]

Player spending

In August 2015, a former employee of Machine Zone was arrested and charged with stealing proprietary data that included "player spending habits broken down by time, location, age and other characteristics" which showed, for example, which of Game of War's "in-game items generate the most revenue and where in the game players often quit." [20] The monetary value of the data was linked by the Wall Street Journal to the fact that "about 3% of mobile-game players buy virtual goodies, such as extra turns and special powers. Most spend only a few dollars a month, while a tiny fraction known as whales – a name derived from casinos – plunk down $50 or more a month." [20]

Analytics by Slice Intelligence indicated that Game of War's paying players each spent an average of $550 in 2015 on its in-app purchases, compared to $87 spent by the average player of mobile free-to-play games. [21] [22] As an example of a "whale," Businessweek described a 15-year-old Game of War player in Belgium who had used his mother's credit card to spend over $41,000 on in-game purchases in the free-to-play game. [23] In December 2016, a 45-year-old California man admitted in federal court to having spent $1 million of embezzled funds on online purchases in Game of War, [24] and in August 2018, a library director in Logan, Utah was convicted after pleading guilty to felony theft and forgery for spending $89,000 on the game using the city's credit cards. [25] [26] [27]

Related Research Articles

<i>Day of Defeat</i> 2003 video game

Day of Defeat is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter video game set in the European theatre of World War II on the Western front. Originally a modification of the 1998 game Half-Life, the rights of the modification were purchased by Valve and released as a full retail title in 2003.

Free-to-play video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which requires a payment before using the game or service. It is also separate from freeware games, which are entirely costless. Free-to-play's model is sometimes derisively referred to as free-to-start due to not being entirely free. Free-to-play games have also been widely criticized as "pay-to-win"—that is, that players can generally pay to obtain competitive or power advantages over other players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hitcents</span>

Hitcents is a video game publisher and mobile app and games studio, headquartered in Bowling Green, Kentucky. They are the creators of the cross-platform gaming series Draw A Stickman. In 2014, Hitcents partnered with actor Tom Hanks to develop the Hanx Writer. Founded in 1999 as a software company by twin brothers Chris and Clinton Mills, the company has offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The Sims Stories is a series of video games from The Sims series released between 2007 and 2008, based on a modified version of The Sims 2 game engine. The modified game engine is optimized for play on systems with weaker specifications, such as laptops. As such, its system requirements are lower than that of The Sims 2, but it can still be played on desktops. The series was aimed to cater to three groups of players: players who wish to play The Sims 2 on their laptops ; players who wish to engage in other activities such as instant messaging while playing the game; and players who are new to the franchise. Titles in this series are categorized as "laptop-friendly" since they do not require a dedicated graphic card.

<i>I Love Katamari</i> 2008 puzzle-action video game published by Namco Bandai Games

I Love Katamari was a third-person puzzle-action video game developed by Namco Bandai Games for iOS. It is a continuation of the Katamari Damacy series of games. It was released worldwide in the App Store on December 14, 2008. A Windows Phone 7 version of the game was released in 2010. The version for Android was released in 2012 exclusively for Samsung Android devices. In this game, the King of All Cosmos instructs the game's protagonist – the Prince – to gather as many objects as possible to grow a highly adhesive ball called a Katamari large enough so that he can pick up special objects to bring to the King so that he can regain his memory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kate Upton</span> American model and actress (born 1992)

Katherine Elizabeth Upton is an American model and actress. She first appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2011, and was the cover model for the 2012, 2013 and 2017 issues. In addition, she was the subject of the 100th-anniversary Vanity Fair cover.

<i>Parallel Kingdom</i> 2008 video game

Parallel Kingdom was a mobile location-based massively multiplayer game that placed a player in a virtual world on top of the real world, based on the player's GPS location. Parallel Kingdom was the first location-based RPG for the iOS and Android platforms. The game was developed by PerBlue, a privately held mobile and social gaming software company founded in 2008 and based in Madison, Wisconsin. In 2011, the game's user base surpassed 1,000,000 players worldwide. The game closed on November 1, 2016.

<i>Kingdom Rush</i> 2011 video game

Kingdom Rush is a 2011 tower defense game developed by Ironhide Game Studio and published by Armor Games. In the game's medieval fantasy setting, players take control of a general serving under King Denas of Linirea, who must defend the land from an onslaught of evil monsters. Each level is composed of a number of pre-set roads, which the player can place defensive towers around to fight off the approaching monsters. Slaying enemies gives the player gold, which they can use to buy new towers or upgrade existing ones to improve their capabilities.

<i>Tetris</i> (Electronic Arts) 2006 video game

Tetris was a puzzle video game developed by EA Mobile and published by Electronic Arts for iOS, Android, BlackBerry OS, and Windows Phone. The game featured gameplay like other Tetris titles, with a new soundtrack.

<i>Clash of Clans</i> 2012 mobile strategy game

Clash of Clans is a 2012 free-to-play mobile strategy video game developed and published by Finnish game developer Supercell. The game was released for iOS platforms on August 2, 2012, and on Google Play for Android on October 7, 2013.

<i>Altos Adventure</i> 2015 video game

Alto's Adventure is a 2015 endless runner snowboarding video game developed by Team Alto and published by Snowman (iOS) and Noodlecake Studios (Android). The player-character automatically moves to the right of the screen through procedurally generated landscapes. The player taps the screen to jump and perform tricks (backflips), and works towards goals, competitive high scores, and upgrades. Snowman, a Toronto-based, three-person indie development team, previously worked on productivity apps before Alto's Adventure. The game was made to emulate the ethereal atmosphere of snowboarding, and was inspired by Ski Safari (2012), Tiny Wings (2012), Jetpack Joyride (2011), Journey (2012), Monument Valley (2014), Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 (2000), and Windosill (2009).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Machine Zone</span> American video game company

Machine Zone, Inc. (MZ) is an American privately held technology company, founded in 2008 and based in Palo Alto, California. The company is best known for its widely advertised freemium mobile MMO strategy games Game of War: Fire Age and Mobile Strike, which have both simultaneously been ranked among the top ten highest-grossing mobile games.

<i>Summoners War: Sky Arena</i> 2014 strategy video game developed by Com2us

Summoners War: Sky Arena is a mobile turn-based strategy massively multiplayer online game created by South Korean game developer, Com2uS. The game was announced and released at the Electronic Entertainment Expo on June 12, 2014 for iOS and Android devices. Summoners War has performed successfully, with 200,000,000 downloads worldwide, and $2.100 billion in earnings. In 2020, the game had a crossover with the Street Fighter series, adding characters Ryu, Chun-Li, Ken Masters, M. Bison, and Dhalsim as monsters to the game.

<i>Super Mario Run</i> 2016 mobile game

Super Mario Run is a 2016 platform game developed and published by Nintendo for iOS and later Android. It is Nintendo's first mobile game that is part of one of the company's long-running and major franchises.

<i>Mobile Strike</i> 2015 video game

Mobile Strike is a freemium mobile massively multiplayer online strategy video game developed and published in 2015 by Machine Zone. The game had a high-profile advertising campaign and became one of the top-grossing apps in 2015 and 2016.

<i>Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire</i> 2017 massively multiplayer online strategy game

Final Fantasy XV: A New Empire is a freemium massively multiplayer online strategy game developed by Epic Action and published by MZ.

<i>Animal Jam Classic</i> Online educational game

Animal Jam Classic, formerly known as Animal Jam, is a massively multiplayer online game that is developed by WildWorks and recommended for kids up to the age of 12. It was launched in 2010, in collaboration with the National Geographic Society. As of late 2020, there were 3.3 million monthly active users and a lifetime total of 130 million registered players in 200 countries across both Animal Jam Classic and Animal Jam.

<i>SimCity: BuildIt</i> 2014 mobile game

SimCity: BuildIt is a city-building mobile game. Developed by TrackTwenty and published by Electronic Arts, it was launched in late 2014. The game is part of the SimCity franchise, and is available to download from the Google Play Store, Amazon Appstore and the Apple App Store.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nintendo mobile games</span> Overview of mobile games by and the relationship with mobile games of Nintendo

Nintendo, a Japanese home and handheld video game console manufacturer and game developer, has traditionally focused on games that utilize unique elements of its consoles. However, the growth of the mobile gaming market in the early 2010s led to several successive fiscal quarters where they were running at a loss, partially due to the failure of the Wii U. Nintendo, led by president Satoru Iwata at the time, developed a strategy for entering into the mobile games market with development partner DeNA, as a means of introducing their franchise properties to mobile players with a goal of bringing them to buy Nintendo's consoles later. From 2015 to 2020 Nintendo has internally developed a number of mobile games, while also publishing games with other developers, including games outside of the initial DeNA partnership. Several of them have entered the top-downloaded games list on the iOS App Store and Google Play stores, earning over US$100 million in revenue in total. However, as Nintendo's next console, the Nintendo Switch, proved a financial success for the company, coupled with dwindling numbers on its mobile games during the COVID-19 pandemic, Nintendo quietly backed off its mobile strategy starting in 2020, though continued to back Pokémon Go and future Pokémon games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of mobile games</span>

The popularisation of mobile games began as early as 1997 with the introduction of Snake preloaded on Nokia feature phones, demonstrating the practicality of games on these devices. Several mobile device manufacturers included preloaded games in the wake of Snake's success. In 1999, the introduction of the i-mode service in Japan allowed a wide variety of more advanced mobile games to be downloaded onto smartphones, though the service was largely limited to Japan. By the early 2000s, the technical specifications of Western handsets had also matured to the point where downloadable applications could be supported, but mainstream adoption continued to be hampered by market fragmentation between different devices, operating environments, and distributors.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Morris, Chris (15 May 2015). "Game of War: Fire Age". Common Sense Media . Archived from the original on 2015-10-24. Retrieved February 8, 2016.
  2. DiChristopher, Tom (May 3, 2014). "On mobile, more challenging games mean more money". CNBC . Archived from the original on 2016-04-19. Retrieved February 21, 2015.
  3. 1 2 3 Hayward, Andrew (February 9, 2015). "Freemium Field Test: Game of War Fire Age is even less exciting than its generic Kate Upton commercials". Macworld. Archived from the original on 2015-09-09.
  4. "Game of War: Fire Age – How to Survive the End Game". Appsorium. May 8, 2014. Archived from the original on 2016-04-28.
  5. 1 2 3 MacMillan, Douglas; Demos, Telis (July 16, 2014). "Newest Hit-Game Maker Machine Zone Nears $3 Billion Valuation". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2016-03-16.
  6. Rogers, Charlotte (November 15, 2016). "Find your edge and diversify: What marketers can learn from gaming". Marketing Week. U.K. Archived from the original on 2016-12-13.
  7. Takahashi, Dean (October 16, 2015). "An interview with Gabe Leydon, Machine Zone's man on the Iron Throne". VentureBeat . Archived from the original on 2015-11-20.
  8. Tassi, Paul (November 14, 2014). "A $40M Ad Budget Buys 'Game of War: Fire Age' Kate Upton". Forbes. Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  9. Monllos. Kristina (November 13, 2014). "Game of War: Fire Age Launches First Global Campaign, Starring Kate Upton". Adweek . Archived from the original on February 10, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  10. Trinh, Brian Vinh Tien (February 1, 2015). "Game of War's Super Bowl Ad Is Pretty Much Kate Upton In 'Game of Thrones'". The Huffington Post Canada. Archived from the original on February 7, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  11. Cox, Jamieson (12 June 2015). "Mariah Carey is replacing Kate Upton as the new public face of Game of War: Fire Age". The Verge . Archived from the original on 13 June 2015. Retrieved 13 June 2015.
  12. "Game Of War with Mariah Carey on tmz.com". 14 September 2015. Archived from the original on 2017-08-07. Retrieved 2015-09-14.
  13. "Game of War - Fire Age for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic. Archived from the original on February 9, 2015. Retrieved February 20, 2015.
  14. 1 2 3 Willington, Peter (February 14, 2014). "Game of War – Fire Age". Pocket Gamer . Archived from the original on 2015-09-08.
  15. Seitz, Patrick (March 6, 2015). "King Digital continues to 'crush' mobile game competition". Investor's Business Daily . Archived from the original on 2015-05-08.
  16. "Game of War's spoils surpass $2.8 billion revenue worldwide". Pocket Gamer . August 23, 2018. Archived from the original on December 8, 2018. Retrieved October 25, 2018.
  17. Tassi, Paul (February 2, 2015). "Clash of Clans vs. Game of War – Which Is Better?". Forbes . Archived from the original on 2016-03-03.
  18. 1 2 Tylwalk, Nick (August 2, 2013). "Game of War – Fire Age Review". Gamezebo. Archived from the original on 2015-10-24.
  19. 1 2 Jackson, Josh (December 17, 2014). "Getting Sucked Into Game of War: Fire Age". Paste . Archived from the original on 2015-12-26.
  20. 1 2 Needleman, Sarah E. (August 26, 2015). "Why 'Game of War' User Data Is So Valuable". Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 2015-12-25.
  21. Grubb, Jeff (April 1, 2016). "Game of War's paying players spent an average of $550 on its in-app purchases in 2015". VentureBeat. Archived from the original on 2016-05-06.
  22. Stanton, Taylor (March 31, 2016). "Hardly pocket change: mobile gamers spend an average of $87 dollars on in-app purchases". Slice Intelligence. Archived from the original on March 31, 2016. Retrieved May 27, 2016.
  23. Kolker, Robert (March 5, 2015). "One Nerd to Rule Them All". Bloomberg Businessweek . Archived from the original on 2016-03-25.
  24. Kravets, David (December 9, 2016). "California man spent $1 million playing Game of War". Ars Technica . Archived from the original on 2016-12-13.
  25. Macavinta, Amy (August 13, 2018). "Former library director to serve 30 days in jail on felony theft, forgery charges". The Herald Journal. Logan, Utah. Archived from the original on 2018-08-14.
  26. Choudhury, Saheli Roy (August 16, 2018). "A former librarian blew $89,000 of public money on a mobile game". CNBC . Archived from the original on 2018-08-16.
  27. Kaser, Rachel (August 17, 2018). "Librarian blew $89k in city money on free mobile game". The Next Web. Archived from the original on 2018-08-19.