I’m pretty much done with Castle Age over on Facebook. The game ended up being a nice distraction for a month or so, but eventually the lack of variance (grinding) and overwhelming advertising overcame my interest in the game. In the last week or so, I was just playing for the sake of playing the game.

So, I gave up on the game.

There is a limit of how much grind I like in a game. Kingdom of Loathing ended up being one of my favorite multi-player game, but it suffered from the same problem. After a while, you are just killing yet another creature, or saving the world yet again. Castle Age ended up being much of the same thing.

The game only gives you a point of energy every five minutes. Which is pretty much a good clip when you only need 2, 5, or even 10 energy to do a “quest”. But, in the later stages you need over a hundred to complete something which means basically you are clicking five times… then coming back in twelve hours. And doing a “quest” doesn’t really give you anything. No new messages, very rarely a random item, nothing besides clicking on a button 20-30 times over time (hours at the beginning, days at the end) and moving to the next step.

Oh… exciting.

Naturally, like most commercial games, they offer ways of getting that energy faster than once per five minutes. Mainly give them money and they’ll let you play more. I never really felt the need to give Castle Age money, really, the game doesn’t have enough depth.

I also like games that are cooperative. I like working with people instead of fighting against them. They have that with the “call to arms” and the big boss fights. But, there is no way of escaping the player verses player stuff, so if you aren’t carefully, you get assholes attacking you 5-10 times in a row, draining your coffers.

Which isn’t really fun, to be honest.

I would have kept playing, but there is this constant hum for attention in the game. Banner ads to suggest you add the game to your profile, repeated requests to give them complete control over your profile so they don’t have to ask. I don’t like a messy wall in Facebook, I want it to be about me, not the games I play. So, I say no. And they keep asking.

Remember, no means no.

I also decided to do an experiment. There is a strict advantage of having “friends” in the game. You get attacked less and you do some quests faster. I decided to do a mass friend request solely for the purposes of game advantage. Likewise, I very explicitly didn’t invited my “real” friends on Facebook to the game (see the non-messy wall). That was a very strange experience. Facebook doesn’t have the concept of “associates” or “not really friends”. So, I created a list of “Games” which basically is “no clue who they are”.

I do use the gift features of any Facebook game I do play. Every day, I burned through the entire list, giving the maximum gifts possible to everyone on my list. In the month I played, I got a few gifts. Most of them were from friends and family, but for the associates, maybe only 7 out of 163 actually returned the favor. It is interesting that there is a strict advantage of gifting, but very few people do it.

Probably won’t do the mass inviting again though. I didn’t quite get the benefit I hoped for, since most of those people are simply obsessed with playing the game. Over time, I’ll shed them off as I move on to other things.

I don’t regret what I did, it was a fun experiment and I enjoyed the game. But… I’m wandering off to find a new game to play.