Reality check

68-Reality-check

Though Game of Thrones has finally ended after eight seasons, fans of the show continue to be ripe for cross-promotional marketing. With video games now a necessary part of the release cycle for any popular franchise, HBO turned to China-based developer YooZoo to build a GoT game that the millions of fans of the series could play without needing expensive hardware.

The result is Game of Thrones: Winter is Coming, the official browser-based real-time strategy game, which requires nothing more than a computer, an internet connection and a browser like Google Chrome. For fans of the franchise, it has been difficult to escape ads for this game, which have enveloped social media, targeting anyone with an interest in GoT.

The game does not so much hold your hand as it handcuffs it. You play as an “ambitious lord” tasked with ending the wars of Westeros. Much of the initial gameplay has you being forced to do things by Melisandre, the Red Priestess. Upgrade a castle, train some spearmen, kill these bandits—you perform these tasks robotically, with each one taking a set amount of time to complete—while the game reminds you that you can spend real money to speed things up.

Like all good casinos, the game lets you spend your first few “speed-things-up-a-bit” points for free. After that, you need to buy “Black Diamonds” for $0.1 apiece. These microtransactions can be used in a variety of ways to improve your odds of in-game success.

Over time, you can build great armies, join large alliances of players from across the world, and participate in weekly “siege events” that let you capture major cities. Taking King’s Landing, the city with the Iron Throne, will require time, coordination, numbers and (most likely) real money.

The problem with pay-to-win games is that they remind one of being in the real world, where money can buy time, power, and occasionally, happiness. People do not play video games to be in the real world.

The gameplay seldom rewards you with actual fun, but if you enjoy games like Clash of Clans you might like what YooZoo has to offer. But, remember, when you play the browser-based Game of Thrones, you pay or you die (of boredom).