Forge of Empires: Per Aspera ad Astra*

Or: The Importance of Having a Church

The awesome things in life never come easy. What goes without saying for our day-by-day reality should also apply to a well-made browser game. Of course, players should not get frustrated too much, especially in the beginning of a game, otherwise no one but the most masochistic individuals would continue playing. And even regular players require constant feelings of achievement, as they make progress and invest time and effort into a game.

But sometimes, there should still be requirements that are a little higher, goals that are a little harder to achieve, even if that means that not every player will take up the challenge. Those efforts should, upon completion, lead to a reward that, without being too much of an advantage, gives the challengers a feeling of accomplishment.

This is exactly what happened to me when I came across the church! The church is a cultural building found in the High Middle Age. The requirements to unlock the building on the research tree are not astronomically high – this part can be easily achieved. What makes the church so special is that, similar to its real-life counterparts, it costs insane amounts of coins and resources to build! So many in fact, that I would have to stop to invest into anything else for several days, in order to pile up that many riches. It’s not that I had to have a church – as a cultural building it is way above average, providing a lot more happiness than most buildings of equal size, but it’s far from being essential to my progress. As you might have guessed, I put those facts aside, and started focusing all my in-game efforts on the single goal of building the church as soon as possible. Today, I finally succeeded, and it felt fantastic. Why is that?

Well, what still made me want the church more than any other building in Forge of Empires before, were two things: first of all, the building simply looks amazing. Most buildings in the game are beautifully crafted, with lots of attention to detail; but the church still stands out in my opinion, looking more like a miniature of a real building, than something from a game. If you don’t believe me, check out the details above. A building like this boosts the look of my entire city. The second factor is purely psychological: As the church is hard to get and takes a little extra effort, I can be sure that I am one of the few that actually went through with it and got one. Therefore, my achievement gains more value. If it were easier for me to build a church, it would feel less of an accomplishment. And now, to the envy of all of you – Check out my prrrrecious in the picture below:

*through hardship to the stars