I've been playing several web browser games, mostly strategy games because that's my favorite genre,
Few examples of my favorites are goodgame empire, forge of empires, travian, grepolis, imperia online but there are many more genres and games out there including non strategy games such as farming.
Web browser games aka. pay2win are very much different than PC games, that is, games which you buy once and play without restrictions.
All web browser games have the following in common:
1. When you start you get plenty of free resources (e.g. stone, wood, iron, wheat etc.) by the game to develop your castle, empire, military or what ever you're controlling in the game, however as the game progresses it demands more and more resources, soon enough this are ridiculous amounts of resources to upgrade just 1 more level of a building.
2. Also, when you start, in-game development is fast, completing tasks is quick, but as the game progresses, to level up your holdings such as buildings it takes almost exponentially more time to level it, e.g. 5 seconds when you start, and over a week in late game for 1 more level for just 1 building alone.
3. Since development of your holdings soon enough takes ridiculous amounts of time and resources the game ofc. offers you to buy resources and speedup items for real money to progress faster.
4. Usually game UI is fully usable to you at the start of game, but after some time you figure out that was so because it was "free" or a gift for you as a newcomer, soon enough game will ask you for payment to unlock various UI features such as attack planner or various assignable advisors or heroes that increase bonuses vs other players. (all of which is only for a limited time)
You can continue to play with limited UI and without paid features for free of course but this is such a disadvantage to you compared to players who sink their money into the game.
5. In these types of games the game owns your life literary because shall you dare to be offline for too much and not come back to check your account, other players will spy on you and attack your empire, burn your buildings, kill all of your military and loot all of your accumulated resources all of which is such a huge set back it usually takes days to recover.
Of course you can pay to recover faster but be ready to pull out up to 100 bucks if not more, depends on how much you lost, to replenish your combat loses.
So even if you're paying player that doesn't save you from other players, it only makes you pay even more if you're defeated.
Philosophy from game company stand point is that not everybody has enough time to constantly play, so they offer paid features to catch up with players who don't spend money but instead all their time on game.
However this is nonsense because paying players will have major advantage even if playing only for few hours, and normally they face other paying players rather than free players due to score restrictions.
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I've been wondering how much money top players spend on such games, and you won't believe it but figures go to several hundreds or even thousands bucks a week!
Many of them quit after some time for obvious reasons, it's not hard to calculate their scores and turn it into cash required to get to that point. (I know also because I've been reading reviews and also heard from other players in-game). This model of spending and risk feels very similar to gambling mechanics. I once compared it with casino platforms while browsing
https://casinosanalyzer.com/casino-games/live-poker where the structure of constant engagement and fast decisions is clearly explained.
My conclusion is that web browser games are addictive in same way as casino if not worse, one has to control himself to play these games.
Many players play for free and don't pay anything, however even if not sinking your money into game be ready to spend hours every day to play, you'll need plenty of time and according to some people they don't even sleep in full because these games are PvP, you can't save and continue like with PC games. others will attack you while you sleep and then you wake up really unhappy.
I've spent not more than cca 300€ in total over the years (didn't count) and I'm grateful I didn't, however many of them were deceived and spent their fortune, just like dice addicts.
I hope after reading this you'll not fall into a trap to play pay2win games and loose all you have, even if you're not spending you'll lose a lot of your valueable time in life that could be better spent elsewhere.
Of course PC games, no matter how expensive, even if 100 bucks is much better than pay2win, at least you keep the game for ever and don't face any restrictions on your gameplay. and you can go to sleep and wake up when ever you want, not when game tells you to.
