Dragon City (Facebook game)

[Sivert3]

This game is evil. It's mechanics and functions are made for two purposes only. To make you recruit everyone you know, and to make you pay $ to them. But mostly to make you recruit everyone you know. Which is probably why it has 10 million "active" players. Not quite sure what the definiton of an active player is, but they have about 10 million of them.

The mechanics are simple. You buy dragon eggs, wait until the hatch, and then feed the hatched dragons. And then you wait for them to produce gold, out of nothing. Yes nothing. A level 5 Terra Dragon produces 55 gold per minute. Exactly where this gold comes from is not explained (maybe they're hoarding innocent villages). You feed the dragon to upgrade it. The process is instant. Which brings us to food.

To get food in the game you build a food farm. Then click on grow crops. When the crops have grown you have to click to harvest them. You can then feed your dragons with the food. The number of farms you can have is limited to the level you're in and you may not upgrade the farms before you reach level 8. Which brings us to Xp.

To inhibit any decent player from being able to think for them self the game follows a very restricted linear path in the beginning. You are limited to building and raising dragons based upon how much "experience" you have gained. You gain Xp for doing most things, such as farming, hatching eggs, and combat. And pretty much everything except for the most basic things require you to be in level x.

Of course to "encourage" "sharing" your "experience" the game will every so often slap a screen with one big button that sends a "mystery egg" to a random subset of your friends (you're given the option to dissallow the game from sending it should you be so unfortunate to hit it), but this is more or less a unsolicited spam which I refuse to send.

The second currency of this game is gems. You get them from things such as buying them with real money, sharing the game with your friends, and a few other rare occasions. You start with a few of them and the tutorial will teach you how to mindlessly spend them on nothing if don't pay enough attention (when it asks you to press "speed up" on a process that takes seconds to finish, just wait).

There are a lot of things in this game that reeks horrible. The dragons in this game doesn't have much to say, they might as well have been Pokemon and it would not make any difference in the actual game play at all. In fact the combat system is more or less a clone of the Pokemon combat system (which might be a clone of something else).

Back to the evil bit, if you'd want to exchange gifts and what not in this game with me you can send me a pm and we'll add each other on Facebook. And if you're even more generous you can let me invite/recruit you.

[BeneathTheStarlight36]

i, in general, try to avoid Facebook games.

people are so addicted to these things, it's creepy. i'm sure if i played one, i'd get addicted too, but that's why i don't play them.

[Sivert3]

I have noticed that people tend to get addicted to Facebook games. But given that I've not exactly been playing any game for any amount of time for quite a long time I don't really think it will be much of a trouble for me.

The only thing I hate about this game is that it requires you to find someone who plays it to progress. I mean really? I get that you want me to infest my friends with it (which I refuse), but require it. Thats ridicules and evil.

It might just be that I've chosen a too evil game to play. Oh well.

[asdf]

Mainstream social media is evil. That is one inevitable truth. Another is that most, especially ones with games, fail when i trythem on my laptop. Theyall either frezze up and gray out, or if i tryto play the games, half the time it gives me the Blue Screen Of Death. But yez,i hav facebook and you can add me if u like. Also, count thisfor the 7th instead of the 8th, i gothome late. Mego sleep now

[Corva]

It's not by Zynga by any chance? They're like little Nicky...

Such games are designed to make us into labrats, obsessively pressing buttons to receive a shot of dopamine. Give me Mass Effect, Spyro, X-game... any time, instead.

[asdf]

Yay for Spyro! Boo for my evil sister who is somehow better than me at it!
seriously, how has she beat the game five times and I can't get past level three? Then again, she's using a different emulator, so her cheat codes might actually work...
Curse you ePSXe, y u no let me use cheats?

[Sivert3]

Ah, yes, Spyro The Dragon for the original PlayStation. Now that's a game. I have a real PlayStation, and I've beat the game on in quite a few times. Beat it as in hunted down every egg, found every gem, and set free every dragon. The bonus level you get once you've completed everything is epic.

I've played that game a bit too much. It kind of isn't fun anymore. When I play it, I pretty much just walk through the game. Collecting all the gems, eggs and dragons in one straight path. Completing everything in the current world before going to next one. Without entering a level twice, usually without dying more than a few times throughout the game, and before lunch I'm already halfway.

[Corva]

There *are* games after it, you know...

Hmmm, I wonder if we can piggyback a small MMORPG off Facebook?

[Sivert3]

@DragonRider: Piggyback an MMORPG off facebook? What?

Dragon City is made by Socialpoint S.L. They have a few other games, which is probably much of the same. The reason I started to play Dragon City was because it featured dragons! But apparently it is too evil to the point of unplayable. So I'll probably find a game from this list and start playing that instead.

I'm fully aware of the sequels to Spyro the Dragon, but they kind of don't manage to beat the nostalgia and novelty of the original. The games after the first three just sucks. That's all I have to say about them.

[Corva]

When I say piggybacking a small MMORPG, I mean creating an MMOPG that can be accessed through Facebook, much like Zynga's games are.

If you want a good social game, search for Cow Clicker :p