This video was recorded 2-3 weeks ok just in case people wondered why I mentioned the Vault event! I left it in my unreleased videos section until there was a gap in my release schedule 🙂 Check out my NEW channel!: Honest Rob RAID Shadow Legends www.youtube.com/@HonestRobRaidShadowLegends
😢Sadly, I agree Rob. They just have to come up with something to keep mid/end game players interested. I have a long way to go to get all of the mythic troops, etc but it is getting a bit boring or repetitive. I do blame it al lot on this bloody PVP system. I get bored easily when I’m not challenged and I hate grinding so I’m looking forward to the new Guild Wars to see if that sparks interest for a lot of people. I’m glad you’re hanging in there for a bit anyway. One of the main reasons I’m continuing on is the community. I’m in a fantastic guild with people who are active in chat, sharing teams, advice and sometimes nonsense 😂. They welcome new players and try to help them with learning the game, etc. and I’m at the point now where I can participate in that. Anyway……..Thanks for the great video Rob. You are a godsend to new and mid game players struggling to understand what the hell is going on with this game that takes up so much of our time.
Cheers K-K! Hunting the remaining Mythics was still good fun to me so you are still in the EXCITING phase of the game 😂🤭 Maybe Guild Wars will inject some spark back into it - only time will tell!
I agree totally with you Rob...The Devs have really messed up...I Gave my guild away because they haven't fixed my game since I got onto them over half my game missing..They don't care...they told me they can't see anything wrong with my game and gave me 200 gems...Every day I log in there's something different or missing...Even my guild gaurdians took a hit and the level..So I left the game but my guild mates asked me to stay so I came back just to help them with the Guild events...But I'm really gonna leave the game Now over it...I've a pain in my nuts sending in videos clips and pictures of stuff..so it's not worth the headache anymore...Only 4 you Rob ide never have got to where I was..your Videos helped me alot..Best of luck on your new adventures Rob..You Are The Best 💯👊🍺
I'm level 1213 so I'm by far a high-level player but I still find it rather boring. What kept me going in the beginning was hunting those books and troops needed to progress. Resources and troops were plentiful so it kept me interested, I felt a reward almost daily. Now, I need to do boring activities like PvP to get dragonite. I need difficult-to-get resources to craft troops and weapons. The RnG is killing it for me because the next steps for me is getting Wand of Stars which is RnG. I need Dragons which I can buy for 2k dragonite that requires A LOT of grinding. I can also just buy eggs but that is also RnG. I feel less and less rewarded the further I reach into the game. I can only imagine what you are going through Rob because what you get on a daily basis is duplicates. On another note I have to give you kudos for all the videos you have provided. You carried me through the game from around level 200 so thank you for all the time you have put into helping us.
Thanks Mike! I'll still be making Gems of War videos, but the Devs really need to think about what players find ENJOYABLE in a game. I get the grind for some stuff is standard in these types of game, but battling with disappearing PVP teams, making PVP teams EEEEVERY week, Cliffy Errors, Adventure lock ups, terrible RNG etc etc ETC is not the way forward!
You're right. Playing at a higher level becomes boring and the effort put into getting what you need is still too high in relation to the reward. Moreover, if you want to get something, the game requires you to play/grind and that's not fun. I would like to play because I want to, because the game sets challenges for me that can be achieved when I have the time and desire and not out of "obligation" because if I don't play, for example, the pvp season, I won't get the rewards in any other way - why not give them for treasure maps that are wasted for most? :)), when the reward is adequate to the time invested and that's very bad. I think I won't have enough patience to check what the new Guild Wars look like, and they will probably have bugs because that's the standard lately when they introduce something new. And the lack of notifications about tributes and animal rescue, which they haven't done anything about for over 3 months, is completely incomprehensible to me. Or maybe there is - if you don't pick it up, maybe you'll buy it. Thanks for all the videos Rob, I used them very willingly and they helped me a lot.
I was literally thinking this same thing last night when I was forced to do PvP in order to get my daily rewards (get glory in any battle is BS unless it's PvP). I've definitely slowed down considerably with over 2000 real PC hours in the game.
I hit level 1411 yesterday and i still love this game. Been at it 7 years. Still lots to do. Get all kingdoms to 20/30, get all immortals to 30, finish my pure faction 500s, finish getting my classes to level 100. I just do my daily 1 hour session with maybe a 2 hour session twice a week to shoot for top 3 pvp. Just pacing myself and taking it easy.
I started playing in Oct. of 2019, I still enjoy it for the most part. I am currently trying to max the classes, I still have to max out the underworld. I currently do not play PvP because of the very reasons you mentioned. Enjoyed the video as always, thanks Rob!!
It's not an equally good fit for all players and guilds, but fwiw, having guild goals helps to keep my level of interest up. While I know that quite a few guilds aim to complete all events, I don't see many that set other goals even though there are various possibilities; e.g. a gold dump week of at least N LTs, set a new dump week record for your guild, top your guild's highest 2024 trophy week, etc.
Everything you said, was everything ive been feeling. I loved pvp when it was released in its broken state. I really did. Ive completely ignored pvp for the last two weeks due to eating up precious gaming time. Id much rather concentrate on aspects of this game that i enjoy, but im finding fewer and fewer aspects nowadays. Its a pity cos at one point in time, i loved this game; even as an end gamer. My wallet has been closed to this game for some time, and this is probably the only game in history that ive dreaded whats gonna be in the next update. Certainly,in my pc guild, the only thing that keeps me there is the constant ridiculous banter...
I had a guild member that owns their own guild start losing renown, troops, kingdom levels, and pet levels. When that happened I was doing gems daily pushing for so long I took a break, because it was a bad taste in my mouth and I needed a break somewhere. Multiple people left the guild I was in and it's very sad stuff.
I am not quite an Endgame player yet but close (still have mythics to collect, kingdoms to level beyond Power 17, and a few delves to get to 2500), but I honestly have lost interest in the game overall - knowing that there are now paywall troops/weapons or near impossible ones to obtain (Guardians) are a slap in the face. For example, Kuklacan was introduced in PvP season 1 and has still not been made available in soulforge or chests. And I agree on repetitiousness - PvP is now a job with nearly unobtainable goals vs the old weekly tiers and you were done. And drop rates from various modes are laughable for the amount of work you need to do to collect (keys, marks, etc.) My guild has lost many players and we're not attracting new ones - and our weekly requirements are quite reasonable. All the devs do is create new modes that require more work and grinding and not fix older modes that needed it (Treasure maps, journey). I am spending less time each day on this. Sad really.
I'm lvl 1143, been playing for about 8 months...my level comes from pvp, my criticisms as a relatively new player are; 1. The overwhelming time needed to fully level up; Kingdoms, The Underworld and Classes...as a former MMO player, it's a ridiculous amount of time in comparison... 2. The insultingly overpriced economy! this game coulda nickel and dimed me to death...but their nonsensical economy is just confusing...if it was a $20 and under economy with most microtransactions under $5...they coulda got me...but their, "500USD Value" deals for $60 are just embarrassing and it's why I haven't spent a dime... 3. I've chatted with some long time players who will defend, "tooth and nail" the developers intergrity...but, "free to play" games, very often cheat with hidden changes in updates, not EVERYTHING makes patch notes. The A.I.'s RNG in matches is not equal among all modes. And I am not convinced the Mythic drop rate is accurately reflected in their stated stats. 4. as a midgamer if I casually play the next few years and level up to end game stats, and CONTINUE playing...it really would be as a result of the, "sunk cost fallacy"...I'd have to justify my time spent by just endlessly destroying in PVP...and that doesn't sound fun to me....
Rob, I still watch your content, and I still appreciate your advice on a couple of things you helped me with back about a year or so ago🤗 but, yeah, I quit when the changes to pvp started. I tried to stick with it, but all the changes they made to it, made it extremely more time-consuming than I really had the time for, between that and wanting to do other stuff in the game. it just wasn't fun anymore. I still enjoyed a couple other aspects of the game, like dungeons, etc. .... but, (to me) the game has just gotten so unnecessarily bloated with so much VERY unnecessary things, the game is just too cluttered with trash graphics that make the game literally freeze so much of the time, makes the game crash (usually during a battle!), the homescreen (map) of the game has changed so much (wayyyyyy too many icons), I see more of all that nonsense than I do the actual screen (map). I still love the game, but unless they revert everything back (pre-pvp) changes, they've lost me as a fairly longtime player. when I quit and uninstalled the game, I broke out the better version (Ps2) Puzzle Quest Challange of the Warlords. I do miss plaing Gems of War, but my phone (new phone for about a year now) just can't handle the constant crashing of the game, and again, what all I truly enjoyed from the game, all of it is gone.
Thanks DarkMetal! The PVP overall is a huge downgrade from what is was before to most players, and the worst think is the Devs tried to FORCE it upon players as the only reliable way to get free Gold Marks to turn into Books of Deeds etc. REALLY bad design for me.
@honestrob you're very welcome☺️ you'd think they'd listen to player feedback about some of these issues (at least), like some from the comments on your video; it's almost like the devs are right, don't want to hear it, and don't really care. GoW is such a good game, it's a shame that it's fallen so far.... 😰
You're spot on, friend. For me, at this point, what GoW does is scratch the "match 3" itch in a way nothing else does. It's not like there are new shiny competitors doing what this game does. (Which is wild... in ten years? Nobody?!?) That meta has long since sailed, and the few other viable gem-match games are timed (which I hate) or have really weird mechanics, that sort of thing. So I'll probably keep opening GoW daily to putter around, but am I invested? Goodness no. Having to do PVP to get the Immortals, which are their most powerful form in... PVP. Which I don't like. And there's nothing else new going on that's interesting. They'd better hit it out of the park on Guild War or the player base is going to absolutely melt, I think.
Had the same problem i quit at the start of 2025 i quit my Guild. Was playing because i didnt want to miss anything not because i had fun. Its like like a job its still kinda weird and i only stopped playing for two weeks so far and its fine. Rob was fun looking at your video's but i want to move on from Gems of War and start to enjoy games again. I started Astrobot and remembered that games are should be fun to play instead of just
I agree with everything you said here. As much as I love the game, everything lately feels like a massive grind. I don't have the time or passion to do the weekly PVP to the levels where you'd be able to purchase all the goodies you'd want, let alone get to the top ranks. And the whole way the Alliances are implemented is just so unbalanced. I'm hoping Guild Wars will bring a bit of spark back - I always looked forward to that week the most, and these last few months without it has been brutal. It feels like you'd just finished one, and you'll have another Journey or Tower event (and with the portal gems, those have become even more of a grind). Still, I have a few goals remaining (I'm working through the tail end of your excellent Faction 500 series), and I still have some 40 or so mythics to get. Once that's done... we'll see. Thanks for all the great content you've put out over the years. I hope this scaling back on Gems content will do you good as well, and I'm looking forward to seeing what new things will come from this.
I was feeling the same way. I decided to make a new account and tried to see how high i could get it in 30 days. I got to level 1000. I enjoyed it with the added bonus of appreciation for the strength of my main account. It was refreshing. As an end game player I like to do my own challenges like hoard level in underworld, collecting troops, treasure maps.
I was mainly playing for achievements (and am only missing a handful), but the game requires way too much grinding for what you get. I quit at the beginning of this year.
I definitely didn't feel bored with the game... if anything I felt a little overwhelmed by the grind against the machine (the machine being the devs and their pay2win system). And therein lies the crux of the issue, and I think you're right about forced "pvp" activity. Everything just felt like it was making me miserable lol. And that's not a person I am. I love to sing, dance like no-ones watching, and just generally tell (and listen to) bad dad jokes! I do miss you guys at North Star, but I don't miss the game right now... I quit on the ipad about 12 months ago, and genuinely think I kept playing because of guildies... It's such a shame too because the game and it's design overall is really really good... but the cash grab is unpleasant at best, and insatiably greedy at worst... microtransactions became megatransactions lol.
I remember when I first started playing in 2018, I was obsessed with the game, blitzed my way to lvl1000, was in a solid guild, just got bored with the game and didn’t touch it for 3yrs, pretty much forgot about it, decided to fire it up middle of last year just to have some fun with it, a lot of the teams I used before are still good, maybe not meta but still viable, I’m not “committed” to the game so to speak but I do enjoy playing for a bit and then doing something else or if I’m just bored and want to do something while I have some free time and listening to some music
over level 1400 here. Honestly, the only reason I still care and play is meeting the regs of my guild. If it wasn't for that, I don't see a reason to play I don't care to get another mythic and nothing really excites me anymore.
Just like you said in video. Early game like 200h for me was A LOT of fun, chasing new things leveling up and getting new weapons. After level 1100 game became another work for me. If you want to keep up you have to buy a lot of things with real money, but also you need to grind like madman when Vault weekends are here. I am not against buying anything in games I like to support devs, but if I invest like 1000$~ in game i expect devs to do they work well. All they did in 2024 is releasing new things for real money and as you said in video super borring, frustrating PVP with dissapearing teams, a lot of bugs and new "daily" page that freeze game :D.
Yes, the game is no longer as exciting as it was at first, but that is how all games are if you play them long enough. I don't know what they could do to make it exciting again. Everything comes to an end at some point. I have all classes done, All pure factions done (except for 5-6 I have been putting off), All Kingdoms up to power level 26 or whatever their max level is for newer ones. I still need around 40 Mythics, so that is still exciting to see what is available each Monday to craft, but none of the ones I am missing are that great.
One issue is that too many resources become useless at end game. Souls, Glory, Chaos Shards, War Coins, Gold, Cursed Runes, Treasure Maps, Gold Keys, Orbs of Growth and Wisdom and Ingots are all mostly useless to me because I have so many. It's no longer exciting to collect them. Even my Dragonite doesn't have any purpose until they come out with more dragons. And I have over 10,000 Gems, so no shortage of those either, but I do still need and use those. Diamonds and Books of Deeds are the only thing exciting to still get.
Unfortunately it is not a new player accessible game anymore. Having played for almost since the start I have a lot of capability to play every event but there are so many new cards to get that it is a turn off to new players.
They refuse to implement small quality of life changes that would make the slogging through 1000 times better. The drawn out battles need to change and change a long time ago
Level 1500+, have all classes maxed and 2 of the magic kingdoms at max. Once I get to max level with the other 3 magic kingdoms I will most likely lessen my play time but hopefully things will stay interesting until then.
I've played since 2015. I love monotony, repetitive, and simplistic untimed games. But I stopped playing in 2023 as I became frustrated with the constant changes. They didn't give any time to get used to a new addition before they threw a new one at you. AND they are still at it! Ugh. The biggest reason was they made it impossible to enjoy the game without spending money. It didn't and still doesn't matter how much time I play the game. They have now made it where if you don't spend cash you'll get nowhere. Honestly I don't mind throwing money at a game from time to time but REALLY? My 2 biggest gripes with all the changrs... 1- with the push to make you doend cash, why don't they give more options to customize your avatar? Avatar customization is a big money maker. Seriously. How about an earring or nose ring to go with the pirate outfit?? 2 - why for the love of God do they not have a "thumbs up" emoji ? (Or have they added one and I missed it?) Thanks for your videos and mainly creating teams everyone typically has the troops/weapons to build.
Goblin thumbs up emoji. It was from an old event and was locked until recently. Like you, I couldn't believe there wasn't one as standard. Anyway, 50 gems and you've got it.
To be Honest, Rob the moment a game feels like a chore/extra job, that's a sign... If the game respected my time a bit more (like you said, the effort/time taken for the rewards is.. horrible) it'd have at least kept me from feeling frustrated doing repetitious tasks. In particular; the events feel like a grind. Every single one of them. I have spent hours of time when I should be able to, I dunno, increase the difficulty by investing an equal amount of sigils before a fight to propel my score. It should reward me for taking bigger risks because I'm more confident in my troop powers/setup. I don't want to spend hours upon hours to get minimal rewards in the same content forever. It's just not fun. And what's a game when it's not fun?
Almost level 1100 here. I played every day until very recently. I’m just tired of the grind. This happens with every game I’ve ever played. Human nature I figure.
Yeah, imo, we really don't NEED to do EVERYTHING in the game. There's a lot of stuff to do and many players just don't have the time, including myself. I'm a mid game player that still needs to get my kingdoms maxed, factions done and what not. I run a guild on Xbox and a pq3 kingdom so responsibilities are a priority for me as well. And an alt account for GoW on PC mobile. I just do what I can, that's all we can do.
i quit last year due to the pvp changes and scoring to events, was lvl 1557 Popped back on recently and the Daemonic Portal Gems killed it for me again devs don't ever listen
I've been playing this game for over a year and I still have so much to do. Sometimes though, I do feel like I invest too much time in it. I figure Lent is a good excuse to take a break from this game.
I used to own gaming companies and software companies. I used to love this game. I already quit it twice. It is dead. I can tell you that this game is OVERLY complicated. I already quit it twice. And the new game they have created is not it. Too many “Worlds”. The UX/UI is unnecessarily broken and over complicated. And content is stale. Same content again and again. The new PvP is, again, overly complicated. The story of this game. The game director is mostly a programmer and either not experienced or had game design or director experience.
I came back to the game after a very long hiatus (I don't remember why I stopped playing before) and feel very far behind. I don't know how to get half the troops you and others routinely mention in your videos. I'm still barely over level 250 so maybe I'm thinking wrong about it. But it seems that unlocking certain kingdoms takes troop levels I don't have while I grind through repetitive battles to "clear" a kingdom. I still like the game and want to investigate other types of troops since right now I'm in love with Dragons but see how many dragons I don't have and don't know how to get access to. I'd also like to lean into other type of troop teams but again lack all the "good" troops to make those teams viable.
Ive been playing long enough to remember when we were glad to see updates. Now I just wonder what new way did they find to fleece money from us?. I used to have all the troops, but a bunch of the new ones are almost impossible to get and you can't craft them. Where's the fun in that? I still play because it's a way to spend the 10 minutes or so when I step out for a smoke. I tried other games but haven't found one that doesn't screech to halt unless you pay real money to progress.
sad but true mhero,,be bloody awesome if pvp was actually pvp,,10sec turns like other platforms where ya actually playing against someone in real time,,,I'm borderline sober 😢
Rob, I hope you will stick with it and with the videos. The other content guys are ok to cool, but none of them infuse the great humor quite like you do. 😅
The game certainly feels more like 'work' and not like 'fun' anymore. Resources are scarce and crafting anything is extremely expensive. Plus, their AI seems to be turned up a few notches and cheating much more than usual. PVP just needs to go away.
I guess you could do a series of videos, and each one would be showing off teams with a different mythic. I have some troops that look really cool, but I suck at creating effective teams. While not a mythic, I got that Dark Smith Drenza, and created a team, but it sucks lol In fact, I depend on your videos to use good teams lol
Certainly PVP makes this game become boring and boring. It becomes mandatory and most of the season goals are repetively grinding. I kinda hope for the new type of event. I think this would make the game become more interesting.
when I got Zuul.. then Ctharrasque... all clases maxed 100, all underworld 2500 factions, my Kingdoms are 18 and I've 6 on level 20.. there is nothing challenge in the game, even pvp with Stellarix, Diamantina and Wand you can beat any opponent in most of the battles... a bit boring... my level is1588 & I feel that I've less and less to do... I still don't have some mythics but looks like i don't need them the same for Inmortals...
I will state my reasons Greedy developers Not rewarding Very low mythic drop rate Boring new mythics (dmg to all based on .....) Very slow progress PvP is really bad Nothig to give to players that makes the game interesting in the future And finally Greedy developers
Game has descended into PVP pay to win and the illusion of choice , you know when the game is going to kick your arse even though you were clearly winning, only reason l continue play is to keep supporting my guild.
Boring AF. Rob... they won't do some of the most basic QOL updates. Why can't I select how many chests I want to open? Super grindy tasks. PvP/team making
This video was recorded 2-3 weeks ok just in case people wondered why I mentioned the Vault event! I left it in my unreleased videos section until there was a gap in my release schedule 🙂
Check out my NEW channel!: Honest Rob RAID Shadow Legends www.youtube.com/@HonestRobRaidShadowLegends
😢Sadly, I agree Rob. They just have to come up with something to keep mid/end game players interested. I have a long way to go to get all of the mythic troops, etc but it is getting a bit boring or repetitive. I do blame it al lot on this bloody PVP system. I get bored easily when I’m not challenged and I hate grinding so I’m looking forward to the new Guild Wars to see if that sparks interest for a lot of people. I’m glad you’re hanging in there for a bit anyway. One of the main reasons I’m continuing on is the community. I’m in a fantastic guild with people who are active in chat, sharing teams, advice and sometimes nonsense 😂. They welcome new players and try to help them with learning the game, etc. and I’m at the point now where I can participate in that. Anyway……..Thanks for the great video Rob. You are a godsend to new and mid game players struggling to understand what the hell is going on with this game that takes up so much of our time.
Cheers K-K! Hunting the remaining Mythics was still good fun to me so you are still in the EXCITING phase of the game 😂🤭 Maybe Guild Wars will inject some spark back into it - only time will tell!
I agree totally with you Rob...The Devs have really messed up...I Gave my guild away because they haven't fixed my game since I got onto them over half my game missing..They don't care...they told me they can't see anything wrong with my game and gave me 200 gems...Every day I log in there's something different or missing...Even my guild gaurdians took a hit and the level..So I left the game but my guild mates asked me to stay so I came back just to help them with the Guild events...But I'm really gonna leave the game Now over it...I've a pain in my nuts sending in videos clips and pictures of stuff..so it's not worth the headache anymore...Only 4 you Rob ide never have got to where I was..your Videos helped me alot..Best of luck on your new adventures Rob..You Are The Best 💯👊🍺
Thanks Danny! I'll still do the Gems of War videos, but yea the Devs sure do know how to put people off playing!!
I quit a year ago. It was quite liberating! Not having to play it every day, and having so much extra time for other things was so nice.
I'm level 1213 so I'm by far a high-level player but I still find it rather boring.
What kept me going in the beginning was hunting those books and troops needed to progress. Resources and troops were plentiful so it kept me interested, I felt a reward almost daily.
Now, I need to do boring activities like PvP to get dragonite. I need difficult-to-get resources to craft troops and weapons.
The RnG is killing it for me because the next steps for me is getting Wand of Stars which is RnG. I need Dragons which I can buy for 2k dragonite that requires A LOT of grinding. I can also just buy eggs but that is also RnG.
I feel less and less rewarded the further I reach into the game.
I can only imagine what you are going through Rob because what you get on a daily basis is duplicates.
On another note I have to give you kudos for all the videos you have provided. You carried me through the game from around level 200 so thank you for all the time you have put into helping us.
Thanks Mike! I'll still be making Gems of War videos, but the Devs really need to think about what players find ENJOYABLE in a game. I get the grind for some stuff is standard in these types of game, but battling with disappearing PVP teams, making PVP teams EEEEVERY week, Cliffy Errors, Adventure lock ups, terrible RNG etc etc ETC is not the way forward!
You're right. Playing at a higher level becomes boring and the effort put into getting what you need is still too high in relation to the reward. Moreover, if you want to get something, the game requires you to play/grind and that's not fun. I would like to play because I want to, because the game sets challenges for me that can be achieved when I have the time and desire and not out of "obligation" because if I don't play, for example, the pvp season, I won't get the rewards in any other way - why not give them for treasure maps that are wasted for most? :)), when the reward is adequate to the time invested and that's very bad. I think I won't have enough patience to check what the new Guild Wars look like, and they will probably have bugs because that's the standard lately when they introduce something new. And the lack of notifications about tributes and animal rescue, which they haven't done anything about for over 3 months, is completely incomprehensible to me. Or maybe there is - if you don't pick it up, maybe you'll buy it. Thanks for all the videos Rob, I used them very willingly and they helped me a lot.
I was literally thinking this same thing last night when I was forced to do PvP in order to get my daily rewards (get glory in any battle is BS unless it's PvP). I've definitely slowed down considerably with over 2000 real PC hours in the game.
Just FYI, underspire gives glory toward the weekly goal, and for me is a bit less monotonous than a straight PVP grind.
I hit level 1411 yesterday and i still love this game. Been at it 7 years. Still lots to do. Get all kingdoms to 20/30, get all immortals to 30, finish my pure faction 500s, finish getting my classes to level 100. I just do my daily 1 hour session with maybe a 2 hour session twice a week to shoot for top 3 pvp. Just pacing myself and taking it easy.
I started playing in Oct. of 2019, I still enjoy it for the most part. I am currently trying to max the classes, I still have to max out the underworld. I currently do not play PvP because of the very reasons you mentioned. Enjoyed the video as always, thanks Rob!!
It's not an equally good fit for all players and guilds, but fwiw, having guild goals helps to keep my level of interest up. While I know that quite a few guilds aim to complete all events, I don't see many that set other goals even though there are various possibilities; e.g. a gold dump week of at least N LTs, set a new dump week record for your guild, top your guild's highest 2024 trophy week, etc.
Everything you said, was everything ive been feeling.
I loved pvp when it was released in its broken state. I really did.
Ive completely ignored pvp for the last two weeks due to eating up precious gaming time. Id much rather concentrate on aspects of this game that i enjoy, but im finding fewer and fewer aspects nowadays. Its a pity cos at one point in time, i loved this game; even as an end gamer.
My wallet has been closed to this game for some time, and this is probably the only game in history that ive dreaded whats gonna be in the next update.
Certainly,in my pc guild, the only thing that keeps me there is the constant ridiculous banter...
I had a guild member that owns their own guild start losing renown, troops, kingdom levels, and pet levels. When that happened I was doing gems daily pushing for so long I took a break, because it was a bad taste in my mouth and I needed a break somewhere. Multiple people left the guild I was in and it's very sad stuff.
I am not quite an Endgame player yet but close (still have mythics to collect, kingdoms to level beyond Power 17, and a few delves to get to 2500), but I honestly have lost interest in the game overall - knowing that there are now paywall troops/weapons or near impossible ones to obtain (Guardians) are a slap in the face. For example, Kuklacan was introduced in PvP season 1 and has still not been made available in soulforge or chests. And I agree on repetitiousness - PvP is now a job with nearly unobtainable goals vs the old weekly tiers and you were done. And drop rates from various modes are laughable for the amount of work you need to do to collect (keys, marks, etc.) My guild has lost many players and we're not attracting new ones - and our weekly requirements are quite reasonable. All the devs do is create new modes that require more work and grinding and not fix older modes that needed it (Treasure maps, journey). I am spending less time each day on this. Sad really.
I'm lvl 1143, been playing for about 8 months...my level comes from pvp, my criticisms as a relatively new player are;
1. The overwhelming time needed to fully level up; Kingdoms, The Underworld and Classes...as a former MMO player, it's a ridiculous amount of time in comparison...
2. The insultingly overpriced economy! this game coulda nickel and dimed me to death...but their nonsensical economy is just confusing...if it was a $20 and under economy with most microtransactions under $5...they coulda got me...but their, "500USD Value" deals for $60 are just embarrassing and it's why I haven't spent a dime...
3. I've chatted with some long time players who will defend, "tooth and nail" the developers intergrity...but, "free to play" games, very often cheat with hidden changes in updates, not EVERYTHING makes patch notes. The A.I.'s RNG in matches is not equal among all modes. And I am not convinced the Mythic drop rate is accurately reflected in their stated stats.
4. as a midgamer if I casually play the next few years and level up to end game stats, and CONTINUE playing...it really would be as a result of the, "sunk cost fallacy"...I'd have to justify my time spent by just endlessly destroying in PVP...and that doesn't sound fun to me....
Yes. Getting bored too often, nearly everyday, just doing guild and daily tasks, maybe something for nice reward (if any) then quit till next day.
Rob, I still watch your content, and I still appreciate your advice on a couple of things you helped me with back about a year or so ago🤗 but, yeah, I quit when the changes to pvp started. I tried to stick with it, but all the changes they made to it, made it extremely more time-consuming than I really had the time for, between that and wanting to do other stuff in the game. it just wasn't fun anymore. I still enjoyed a couple other aspects of the game, like dungeons, etc. .... but, (to me) the game has just gotten so unnecessarily bloated with so much VERY unnecessary things, the game is just too cluttered with trash graphics that make the game literally freeze so much of the time, makes the game crash (usually during a battle!), the homescreen (map) of the game has changed so much (wayyyyyy too many icons), I see more of all that nonsense than I do the actual screen (map). I still love the game, but unless they revert everything back (pre-pvp) changes, they've lost me as a fairly longtime player. when I quit and uninstalled the game, I broke out the better version (Ps2) Puzzle Quest Challange of the Warlords. I do miss plaing Gems of War, but my phone (new phone for about a year now) just can't handle the constant crashing of the game, and again, what all I truly enjoyed from the game, all of it is gone.
Thanks DarkMetal! The PVP overall is a huge downgrade from what is was before to most players, and the worst think is the Devs tried to FORCE it upon players as the only reliable way to get free Gold Marks to turn into Books of Deeds etc. REALLY bad design for me.
@honestrob you're very welcome☺️ you'd think they'd listen to player feedback about some of these issues (at least), like some from the comments on your video; it's almost like the devs are right, don't want to hear it, and don't really care. GoW is such a good game, it's a shame that it's fallen so far.... 😰
You're spot on, friend. For me, at this point, what GoW does is scratch the "match 3" itch in a way nothing else does. It's not like there are new shiny competitors doing what this game does. (Which is wild... in ten years? Nobody?!?) That meta has long since sailed, and the few other viable gem-match games are timed (which I hate) or have really weird mechanics, that sort of thing. So I'll probably keep opening GoW daily to putter around, but am I invested? Goodness no. Having to do PVP to get the Immortals, which are their most powerful form in... PVP. Which I don't like. And there's nothing else new going on that's interesting. They'd better hit it out of the park on Guild War or the player base is going to absolutely melt, I think.
Had the same problem i quit at the start of 2025 i quit my Guild. Was playing because i didnt want to miss anything not because i had fun. Its like like a job its still kinda weird and i only stopped playing for two weeks so far and its fine.
Rob was fun looking at your video's but i want to move on from Gems of War and start to enjoy games again.
I started Astrobot and remembered that games are should be fun to play instead of just
I agree with everything you said here. As much as I love the game, everything lately feels like a massive grind. I don't have the time or passion to do the weekly PVP to the levels where you'd be able to purchase all the goodies you'd want, let alone get to the top ranks. And the whole way the Alliances are implemented is just so unbalanced.
I'm hoping Guild Wars will bring a bit of spark back - I always looked forward to that week the most, and these last few months without it has been brutal. It feels like you'd just finished one, and you'll have another Journey or Tower event (and with the portal gems, those have become even more of a grind).
Still, I have a few goals remaining (I'm working through the tail end of your excellent Faction 500 series), and I still have some 40 or so mythics to get. Once that's done... we'll see.
Thanks for all the great content you've put out over the years. I hope this scaling back on Gems content will do you good as well, and I'm looking forward to seeing what new things will come from this.
Crazy timing on this video. Took a break over Christmas and haven't played since. Was a fun 4+ years tho
I was feeling the same way. I decided to make a new account and tried to see how high i could get it in 30 days. I got to level 1000. I enjoyed it with the added bonus of appreciation for the strength of my main account. It was refreshing.
As an end game player I like to do my own challenges like hoard level in underworld, collecting troops, treasure maps.
I was mainly playing for achievements (and am only missing a handful), but the game requires way too much grinding for what you get. I quit at the beginning of this year.
I definitely didn't feel bored with the game... if anything I felt a little overwhelmed by the grind against the machine (the machine being the devs and their pay2win system). And therein lies the crux of the issue, and I think you're right about forced "pvp" activity. Everything just felt like it was making me miserable lol. And that's not a person I am. I love to sing, dance like no-ones watching, and just generally tell (and listen to) bad dad jokes!
I do miss you guys at North Star, but I don't miss the game right now... I quit on the ipad about 12 months ago, and genuinely think I kept playing because of guildies... It's such a shame too because the game and it's design overall is really really good... but the cash grab is unpleasant at best, and insatiably greedy at worst... microtransactions became megatransactions lol.
I remember when I first started playing in 2018, I was obsessed with the game, blitzed my way to lvl1000, was in a solid guild, just got bored with the game and didn’t touch it for 3yrs, pretty much forgot about it, decided to fire it up middle of last year just to have some fun with it, a lot of the teams I used before are still good, maybe not meta but still viable, I’m not “committed” to the game so to speak but I do enjoy playing for a bit and then doing something else or if I’m just bored and want to do something while I have some free time and listening to some music
How do the devs listen to folks like you who have helped so much. Do you have contact with them?
over level 1400 here. Honestly, the only reason I still care and play is meeting the regs of my guild. If it wasn't for that, I don't see a reason to play I don't care to get another mythic and nothing really excites me anymore.
Just like you said in video. Early game like 200h for me was A LOT of fun, chasing new things leveling up and getting new weapons. After level 1100 game became another work for me. If you want to keep up you have to buy a lot of things with real money, but also you need to grind like madman when Vault weekends are here. I am not against buying anything in games I like to support devs, but if I invest like 1000$~ in game i expect devs to do they work well. All they did in 2024 is releasing new things for real money and as you said in video super borring, frustrating PVP with dissapearing teams, a lot of bugs and new "daily" page that freeze game :D.
Yes, the game is no longer as exciting as it was at first, but that is how all games are if you play them long enough. I don't know what they could do to make it exciting again. Everything comes to an end at some point. I have all classes done, All pure factions done (except for 5-6 I have been putting off), All Kingdoms up to power level 26 or whatever their max level is for newer ones. I still need around 40 Mythics, so that is still exciting to see what is available each Monday to craft, but none of the ones I am missing are that great.
One issue is that too many resources become useless at end game. Souls, Glory, Chaos Shards, War Coins, Gold, Cursed Runes, Treasure Maps, Gold Keys, Orbs of Growth and Wisdom and Ingots are all mostly useless to me because I have so many. It's no longer exciting to collect them. Even my Dragonite doesn't have any purpose until they come out with more dragons. And I have over 10,000 Gems, so no shortage of those either, but I do still need and use those. Diamonds and Books of Deeds are the only thing exciting to still get.
Unfortunately it is not a new player accessible game anymore. Having played for almost since the start I have a lot of capability to play every event but there are so many new cards to get that it is a turn off to new players.
They refuse to implement small quality of life changes that would make the slogging through 1000 times better. The drawn out battles need to change and change a long time ago
Level 1500+, have all classes maxed and 2 of the magic kingdoms at max. Once I get to max level with the other 3 magic kingdoms I will most likely lessen my play time but hopefully things will stay interesting until then.
I've played since 2015. I love monotony, repetitive, and simplistic untimed games. But I stopped playing in 2023 as I became frustrated with the constant changes. They didn't give any time to get used to a new addition before they threw a new one at you. AND they are still at it! Ugh.
The biggest reason was they made it impossible to enjoy the game without spending money. It didn't and still doesn't matter how much time I play the game. They have now made it where if you don't spend cash you'll get nowhere. Honestly I don't mind throwing money at a game from time to time but REALLY?
My 2 biggest gripes with all the changrs... 1- with the push to make you doend cash, why don't they give more options to customize your avatar? Avatar customization is a big money maker. Seriously. How about an earring or nose ring to go with the pirate outfit??
2 - why for the love of God do they not have a "thumbs up" emoji ? (Or have they added one and I missed it?)
Thanks for your videos and mainly creating teams everyone typically has the troops/weapons to build.
Goblin thumbs up emoji. It was from an old event and was locked until recently. Like you, I couldn't believe there wasn't one as standard. Anyway, 50 gems and you've got it.
To be Honest, Rob the moment a game feels like a chore/extra job, that's a sign... If the game respected my time a bit more (like you said, the effort/time taken for the rewards is.. horrible) it'd have at least kept me from feeling frustrated doing repetitious tasks.
In particular; the events feel like a grind. Every single one of them. I have spent hours of time when I should be able to, I dunno, increase the difficulty by investing an equal amount of sigils before a fight to propel my score. It should reward me for taking bigger risks because I'm more confident in my troop powers/setup.
I don't want to spend hours upon hours to get minimal rewards in the same content forever. It's just not fun. And what's a game when it's not fun?
Almost level 1100 here. I played every day until very recently. I’m just tired of the grind. This happens with every game I’ve ever played. Human nature I figure.
Yeah, imo, we really don't NEED to do EVERYTHING in the game. There's a lot of stuff to do and many players just don't have the time, including myself. I'm a mid game player that still needs to get my kingdoms maxed, factions done and what not. I run a guild on Xbox and a pq3 kingdom so responsibilities are a priority for me as well. And an alt account for GoW on PC mobile. I just do what I can, that's all we can do.
i quit last year due to the pvp changes and scoring to events, was lvl 1557 Popped back on recently and the Daemonic Portal Gems killed it for me again devs don't ever listen
Ghost Gems : "I am the worst gem the devs ever created" Daemonic Portal Gems : "Hold my beer while I break the game"
I've been playing this game for over a year and I still have so much to do. Sometimes though, I do feel like I invest too much time in it. I figure Lent is a good excuse to take a break from this game.
I used to own gaming companies and software companies. I used to love this game. I already quit it twice. It is dead.
I can tell you that this game is OVERLY complicated. I already quit it twice. And the new game they have created is not it. Too many “Worlds”. The UX/UI is unnecessarily broken and over complicated. And content is stale. Same content again and again. The new PvP is, again, overly complicated. The story of this game. The game director is mostly a programmer and either not experienced or had game design or director experience.
I came back to the game after a very long hiatus (I don't remember why I stopped playing before) and feel very far behind. I don't know how to get half the troops you and others routinely mention in your videos. I'm still barely over level 250 so maybe I'm thinking wrong about it. But it seems that unlocking certain kingdoms takes troop levels I don't have while I grind through repetitive battles to "clear" a kingdom. I still like the game and want to investigate other types of troops since right now I'm in love with Dragons but see how many dragons I don't have and don't know how to get access to. I'd also like to lean into other type of troop teams but again lack all the "good" troops to make those teams viable.
Gems has been going stale for such a long time , it's like going round in circles . Yet we still play it..........
Ive been playing long enough to remember when we were glad to see updates. Now I just wonder what new way did they find to fleece money from us?. I used to have all the troops, but a bunch of the new ones are almost impossible to get and you can't craft them. Where's the fun in that? I still play because it's a way to spend the 10 minutes or so when I step out for a smoke. I tried other games but haven't found one that doesn't screech to halt unless you pay real money to progress.
sad but true mhero,,be bloody awesome if pvp was actually pvp,,10sec turns like other platforms where ya actually playing against someone in real time,,,I'm borderline sober 😢
if I wasn't addicted I would have quit by now. Maybe this will be my year. maybe if I can find the last couple underspire sentinels...
I'm level 1500, it's very repetitive, PVP is awful, end game content is lacking. So I'm not surprised people are leaving.
Rob, I hope you will stick with it and with the videos. The other content guys are ok to cool, but none of them infuse the great humor quite like you do. 😅
yeah just left my guild, game is too much work for FA rewards im done
The game certainly feels more like 'work' and not like 'fun' anymore. Resources are scarce and crafting anything is extremely expensive. Plus, their AI seems to be turned up a few notches and cheating much more than usual. PVP just needs to go away.
I guess you could do a series of videos, and each one would be showing off teams with a different mythic. I have some troops that look really cool, but I suck at creating effective teams. While not a mythic, I got that Dark Smith Drenza, and created a team, but it sucks lol In fact, I depend on your videos to use good teams lol
Sorry about repeating the word 'teams' so much lol
Just went on vacation and probably will not be logging back in.
Certainly PVP makes this game become boring and boring. It becomes mandatory and most of the season goals are repetively grinding. I kinda hope for the new type of event. I think this would make the game become more interesting.
when I got Zuul.. then Ctharrasque... all clases maxed 100, all underworld 2500 factions, my Kingdoms are 18 and I've 6 on level 20.. there is nothing challenge in the game, even pvp with Stellarix, Diamantina and Wand you can beat any opponent in most of the battles... a bit boring... my level is1588 & I feel that I've less and less to do... I still don't have some mythics but looks like i don't need them the same for Inmortals...
It’s what it always was, a great game to play while you watch something on another screen.
I will state my reasons
Greedy developers
Not rewarding
Very low mythic drop rate
Boring new mythics (dmg to all based on .....)
Very slow progress
PvP is really bad
Nothig to give to players that makes the game interesting in the future
And finally
Greedy developers
Game has descended into PVP pay to win and the illusion of choice , you know when the game is going to kick your arse even though you were clearly winning, only reason l continue play is to keep supporting my guild.
Boring AF. Rob... they won't do some of the most basic QOL updates. Why can't I select how many chests I want to open? Super grindy tasks. PvP/team making