Losing what you invested at the end of an era

[RONGIL]

Before you read and make an assessment of my statement, I do realize that some of what I am going to say might offend. My hope is that you read it and become informed about things regarding this game. I recently found out that when you buy diamonds that the money you invested in your kingdom is wiped out at the end of an era. I was told this by one of my alliance members that noticed my rapid growth rate and asked me how. When I found out that I will lose everything I spent my money on, I started going to the FAQ and trying to find out about this. After wading through a few hundred questions, I came upon an explanation of it stating that at the end of an empire your kingdom starts off at zero. I then posted my own question about this to find out if this was true. It was confirmed that I would lose all of my monetary investment at the end of the era and that it was clear of that being stated in the "How to Play" section of the game. So I went to that section and could not find that it ever states that you lose everything as this person claimed. I then responded by calling this as it was, outright theft. Apparently this was not well received because I had another person from this game state that I was spreading propaganda and the first person that I spoke to stated that I should accept it because this was the same rule for everyone. First, propaganda is the taking of information and twisting it and hiding truth to make it more acceptable to the masses. How is revealing something as being bad propaganda? Second, just because this rule applies to all should never make stealing acceptable. After having spoken my piece, another gamer came in and praised the 2 from this site stating that they had no problem with how things were done. Well, I do. I do not believe that it is clear when you make a purchase of diamonds, which is not cheap, that you will lose that investment. When you make that investment, in the explanation of how diamond purchases are made, there is nothing there to state anything about the end of an era. When you go into how to play, there is nothing in there about the end of an era (if there is, I could not find it). The two places you will find it are in the clock at the top center of the screen and after wading through the FAQ. I was given logic of why would I play a game that had no end as if this justifies outright theft ( I play several games that have no end where you build your cities and armies daily - Forge of Empire, Castlelot, Facebook games, ect...). I was given logic of my needing to read things before I made a purchase (refer back to my findings on this particular subject). And I was given logic of no one forced me to make this purchase (as if it makes it ok to steal from people). If the how to play section was absolute and correct, then why does it also contain an area of talking about being able to move your buildings and your decorations in your towns? It states that there is an icon at the bottom center of the screen that allows you to do decorations and it also states that by holding the left mouse button down over a building that you can place that building in other areas of the town. With that being untrue in my case and also in the cases of those that are in my alliance, is it possible that even though they believed themselves to be clear on the subject of loss of investment that they actually were not? To all of this I responded that I would spread the word about warning people away from making any monetary investments into this company. This was also not well received and was probably what initiated the response from one of the administrators to falsely claim this as being propaganda ( I got the distinct impression that this struck a cord of fear due to the possibility of their losing revenue and he wanted to cover up what the truth of this scheme was about). One thing that really intrigued me was there was a response by another person who claimed to be a gamer (but was more than likely another administrator trying to pose as a gamer to continue to keep people from seeing this as it is - theft) and how he stated that he purchased diamonds and had no problem just handing money over to people without any ability to keep what he paid for.  . He expressed loyalty to them as well. This was puzzling to me because of all of the times through out the history of this planet, those that are being bamboozled usually have a tendency to refuse to believe it and will defend those that they believe are helping them when those that are supposed to help them are the ones that are screwing them (this is typical of union mentality in the US).

[RONGIL]

p.s. I believe a good compromise would be to reduce the cost of diamond purchases so that it will not seem like such a loss. For example, they could offer 100 diamonds at 5 Euro, 250 at 10 Euro... and also put an alert into the purchase section making people aware of what happens at the end of an era. Or they could take the diamond purchases that a person spent and give them gold at the end of the era to compensate for the reduction of their buildings back to zero. Of course none of this was even close to being suggested by the administrators as they gave me excuses as to why I should have no problem with their taking of my money and giving me nothing in return or that it was my fault because I had not read everything about the game before I made a purchase. One of them gave me a link to their support so I went there. Trouble was it was all in Russian and I speak English and French. There was nothing there that helped me to understand how to contact them at all.

[Muwe]

Hi Rongil,

First of all and before i start with anything, I understand your disappointment and I understand your point.
When the era restarts, it will restart from zero. There would be no point in fighting over 9 castles spread around the map if this would go on forever and the victors would have no medal from it, or no achievement. When you develop past a certain point the game becomes very fast paced. You would not be able to keep up with it. But my last sentence does not make the point of this.
What i do find interesting is: even if you state that this is not a propaganda, instead of asking for your money back you claim to have cheaper diamonds to purchase.. so am I given to understand that you would still invest in the game if it was easier to purchase ? (money wise of course). And it is not a theft, as the remaining diamonds are being transferred to you in the next era, to use them, as you have used them before. Maybe even better. And I can assure you that no administrator would make another "gamer" account just to be able to keep players playing this game. They use other tools.. Marketing mostly..
Therefore, I do understand what you mean, but if this game would have no end, many players would stop playing it.. more than the players that would come here for the same reason ( a continuous struggle to fight for some castles over and over again without having a clear winner).
As a parallel example, people in F1 invest a lot of money in their cars. They race for 1 hour or two or however the length may be and they reach the finish line. Point in which they take the experience they have gathered (if they did no win) and start a new race.. and they do not start at 200 miles per hour now, do they ?
They start in the same place with everyone else.
My point is: it is fair.
Have a good day.


PS: I have closed your other topic. Please report your problem in a single thread and it can be either talked about or fixed depending on the case.

[RONGIL]

Again, I understand the rationale of why they end an era. That has never been my issue (it seems that point of why you end an era has been the focus of the last 2 administrators that discussed this with me as well). I believe I have made my issue clear in that by spending money and having that investment taken away is what I consider to be theft. Finding out about this in the way that I did after having spent over $170 does not sit well with me. Asking for my money back is not what I am requesting as well. Keeping what I paid for is what I want. This is not food that we are talking about where you consume it never to see it again. I have been playing those games I listed for over 2 years now and the majority of those I joined up with are still playing them. The object of these games by those that make them is to make money off of advertising and through purchases of extra items in the game. If people see that they lose what they purchase, that money stops coming in. This is basic consumer logic. Your explanation of the game F1 is also not viable in this case. You are talking about apples and oranges. You rationalize things as being fair in that everyone starts off equal while I am talking about spending money to further what I do have and being able to keep it.

[Muwe]

But you did make use of the money you have invested, you have earned resources/army which otherwise would have taken a lot longer to obtain, which then you have used to develop your empire, assuming you are playing a game for its ultimate goal: Conquer the castle and win the era. And everyone is focusing on why the era ends, as this is the logic of this game. You know theres and end point.

Or lets try it another way:

It is similar to food you consume. You have purchased diamonds. You turned those diamonds in something else (just like food is not for looking at it but for eating). You have then made use further of that product you have turned the diamonds into. Any remaining UNUSED diamonds are being transferred to the next era. And that is the logic of this game.

[RONGIL]

You can explain this again and again. Unless the general rules are clear that this happens (which no matter how much you claim this as being true, it does not clearly define this and is the whole reason this started in the first place) you are not giving someone the proper information to make an informed decision. There is nowhere in the purchasing of the diamonds that states that you lose everything you spent when that era ends. There is absolutely nothing in the help guide that states you lose everything you spent when that era ends (at least I could not find it when I read and re-read the whole thing). There is nothing to indicate that I am supposed to click on the clock in the middle top of the screen to find this out. The way that I found this out, again, was through another player. I confirmed this by wading through quite a few questions on your FAQ. By continuing to explain your rationale of why you do it does not ever change these things. It merely looks as if you are justifying them through your explanations. It is a little too late for that now. The damage has been done.

[Muwe]

And mate,

Since you claim you have not seen this anywhere, you have not looked everywhere.. click on the small sun in your account, where the Server time is displayed.. (Top Center of your screen) You will see this information (which is visible starting with day one of your account, before even you have the option to purchase ANY kind of diamonds):

Realm’s eras in Imperia Online aren’t everlasting.
The current era of your realm started on 10.01.2014
The maximum duration of the era is 8 months.

The era may end before expected, when after the "Lords of the realm" competition has been activated (approximately 20 weeks after the beginning of the era) an alliance manages to maintain at least 60% influence range for minimum 84 hours. The moment one alliance manages to accomplish that, the era ends and a new one will start in a working day within 24 hours after the end of the old one.

What happens when a realm is restarted?
- Accounts are transferred to the new era but with different location on the Global map.
- Empires’ development starts from 0.
- Diamonds and premium memberships are also transferred.
- Alliances automatically start the new era with the same member composition they have finished the last era with without having to be created all over again or manually invite all members.

[RONGIL]

And "mate" would you please refer back to my statement where I said exactly that there is nowhere to indicate that I can click on the clock in the top middle of the screen to indicate that this is where I find that information from?

[Muwe]

We are talking about the duration of an era. The time should be under where you should find this piece of information. It is not in How to play, because it is not a way of playing..
I will suggest moving it into a more visible place for everyones convenience

[RONGIL]

You first. You made the assumption that I never looked and then you pasted and copied what I had already stated about the clock in the top middle. In the How To Play section of your game, there is nothing to indicate that I can click on that part of the screen to tell me about the end of an era. I was informed about that by another player which is how I came to find out about this whole ordeal in the first place. The point is, you are trying to instruct me on something that I already stated I found out about. That section of the game is nowhere in the how to guide.

[Muwe]

You are correct. I have modified my post and i will post it again:

We are talking about the duration of an era. The "time" should be under where you should find this piece of information. It is not in How to play, because it is not a way of playing..
I will suggest moving it into a more visible place for everyones convenience

[Madzoism]

Dear Sir.
Please tell me where did you read that this game can be played forever and where did you get the information that you MUST buy diamonds so we can correct the game info.

[RONGIL]

From the very first day that I played this game, I saw the time clock in the top center of the screen. The location is perfect. The problem is that there is nowhere to indicate that by clicking on a particular part of the screen that it will bring up information. As another example of this, I never knew until one of my alliance members told me that you could click on the picture of your soldiers and your building in your build screens to tell you what their attributes were. I had to ask and was told. Much of this game is vague and I get the impression that many of your administrators believe that it is not. Most of the explanations I have received have been done in a way that conveys the impression that I should have known these things and they act as if they do not understand why. They tell me to read things that are not there. For example, in your how to play guide it states that I can move buildings and create decorations. It states that there is an icon at the bottom of the screen that I can do decorations from. There is nothing of any sort in my realm that allows this. It states that by holding down on the left mouse button while holding it over a building that I can move said building. It does not work in my realm. Not one of my guys has ever been able to do this. It may be that in my particular realm on your gaming site that this option was overlooked or removed. Either way, it is this type of thing that causes confusion. My whole issue of not being able to keep what I paid for has been one where something was not made clear from the beginning and I would hope that you guys will make that clear to everyone playing. Yes, there are those that understood this or had been told prior to making purchases of diamonds. I was not one of those.

[Muwe]

I have made the suggestion to make users somehow aware of the existence of that information and if you consider necessary I will ask you also to send your thoughts to support@imperialsupport.org. I will now close this topic.

Please post any kind of concerns and one of the knowledgeable users will reply.

Thank you and have a good day.

[RONGIL]

B_Mad, please tell me where I ever said that I must purchase diamonds to play this game. You were the one that stated for me to read the How to Play guide and that it was there in full view for me to read about the end of an era. You were the one that told me to go to your support page and inform them about this. Just because you have the support of Back1 and Abomination does not mean you are right in your stance here. Please tell me where you ever stated that your support page was in Russian and that I, and English speaking person, would be able to understand how to navigate that site. Please tell me where in the purchasing of diamonds it ever states that you can lose what you paid for at the end of an era. Please tell me where it ever states in your how to guide about clicking on the clock in the top middle of the screen that it tells me about the end of an era? Please tell me again how you continue to act indignant to my claims instead of trying to come to an understanding that no matter how you justify this, you will never be right.