Editorial | Follow Up Review: Clash of Clans

Many months ago, I reviewed a little mobile game called Clash of Clans, by Supercell.  Since then, the game has completely exploded across mobile devices (it’s the top money making game on both iOS and Android right now) and has been imitated by many other games since its 2012 debut, including The Simpsons: Tapped Out and even the upcoming Call of Duty: Heroes.

Unlike most of the mobile games I review, I stuck with Clash for quite a bit longer than the few weeks of play that it usually takes me to get a reviewable feel for the game.  In fact, my Town Hall is now level eight, and I’m in Gold League III with 1500 trophies.

My fortress in February, when I reviewed this game

When I first reviewed Clash, I was at XP level 19, and starting to get disillusioned with the game.  However, the game allows players to decide how much time they want to dedicate, which makes it pretty much perfect for a college student with an erratic schedule, like me.  Over time I continued to gather gold and elixir and upgrade defenses, slowly building my village and eventually starting to actually win some fights.

The first thing that I did right was to try several different clans until I found one that was a good fit for me.  The first few clans I got involved with were primarily high ranking members that didn’t care to help an up-and-coming player learn how to play the game.  Finally I fell in with a group of players from all over the world called Remainders.  Most of the players were kids, but a few confessed on the chat feature to having incredibly diverse backgrounds:  players with kids, a couple in the military, and a museum employee.  I hung out with them for four and a half months, and life was pretty good.

My current village at Town Hall level 8

After the Supercell update that rolled out the ability to actually make war on other clans, there was a large division in our clan.  We weren’t a particularly strong or active group, so some players were tempted by the generous clan war bonuses and really wanted to have lots of wars.  Others noted that our clan usually lost wars and ended up wasting resources by creating armies, only to get nothing in return. At the same time, the clan seemed to be filling up with teenagers from the same high school. Suddenly the game became less about players helping each other out and more about squabbles and high school drama.  One of my favorite players broke off to form his own clan, so after a couple more weeks of getting nothing done in my clan, I opted to head for a much quieter clan comprised of the older, more relaxed game-players.

Another really good decision, and my recommendation to other players, was to find Clash of Clans forums with strong village layouts, and YouTube videos depicting successful raids.  While this may be intuitive to some game players, I didn’t realize what a vast resource the internet could be for what was at the time a fairly low-impact game, at least so I thought.  Through forums such as the Clash of Clans subreddit I learned game etiquette, such as leaving a town hall outside of the village barrier wall to indicate to other players that I was “farming” resources and didn’t want to be disturbed (sniping the town hall gave them some trophies, a crucial part of game play, but was supposed to give opponents the incentive to leave my valuable resources intact).  At the same time, watching videos and learning to build a better base and raid more effectively allowed me to move past the point where I was merely being picked on by stronger players, and actually made the game much more fun.

It actually IS possible to gain achievements in this game. Who knew?

The main purpose of this update is to point out that Clash of Clans is the type of mobile game that is best played in the long term, rather than for a few short weeks.  I was recently asked if there was still opportunity to “break into” the game now, or if the fact that it has been out for two years means that everyone who plays is at very high levels.  This is absolutely incorrect.  Players old and new start new villages all the time, whether they are new to the game, bored with the higher levels and want to start over, or have purchased a new device and had not backed up their game progress.  This is definitely a game I recommend.  I’m changing my rating from three and a half Death Stars to four and a half Death Stars.