How Clash of Clans represents Supercell’s gaming success

I just recently got back into playing one of my favorite games, Clash of Clans. Instantly, after taking a break from the game because it was taking too much time away from school and other activities, I was hooked. At first, I tried to tell myself to restrict my usage to only half an hour a day, but the game almost instantaneously got me addicted again. Now, with new updates to the game and a clan with my friends, I am 
even more addicted than before, allowing me to realize how powerful video games can be on one’s daily life and the techniques utilized by video game designers in order to attract the largest and most devoted audience possible.

Clash of Clans is a strategy game which involves building a “base” with defenses, resource buildings, and other buildings such as the town hall, which is the heart of the village, and the army camps, which house the trained troops in the village. The main goal of the game is to gain as many trophies and resources as possible, to be promoted to higher leagues, and upgrade defenses to more successively defend attackers. Unlike many iPhone games, such as Temple Run, Subway Surfers, Word Games, or Minion Rush, these games are much simpler in their design and purpose, with many of these “arcade games” involving a character running as far as possible and avoiding obstacles. Supercell, the creator of Clash of Clans, has strayed far away from these cliched game types, creating a game that allows players to gradually progress

over long periods of time, putting many different “activities” into the game. These activities allow players to stay in the game for extended periods of time, and continue to return to the game because of its delayed rewards.

Some of the activities include attacking other bases to gain loot and trophies, attacking in clan wars, upgrading defenses, altering a base layout, or even messaging friends within one’s clan. In addition, Supercell has actually created an entirely new village that players can build on and attack. This new addition came out about 2 years ago, quickly adding more opportunity to stay on the app. In this village called the Builder Base, players can build an entirely new base layout different from the home village, attack, gain loot, and gain trophies, in slightly different ways from the home village. One technique Supercell excels at is constantly adding new additions to the game to keep players continuously engaged for as long as possible. Supercell goes into the minds of the players and creates the game revolved around the common habits of players--to constantly go back into the game to check if an upgrade finished, if one’s base was destroyed while one was offline, if the troops are finished training, or if the clan war was won. This constant gnawing feeling to go back into the game is exactly what Supercell has done to gain the largest amount of devoted players possible.

Just recently, a new update was introduced to the game that ultimately drew me right back into the trap of Clash of Clans. One complaint Supercell knew about was the fact that upgrades in the village were far too expensive and took significantly too much time to complete. Supercell knew that this could be causing players to become less interested in the game, as progressing forward and unlocking new troops and defences was becoming much too difficult. This is another strong characteristic of this gaming company--Supercell is loyal and devoted to its customers, allowing it to become one of the most successful gaming companies in the media.

Another successful aspect Supercell has integrated into the game is the social connection players have to the game. For me, I joined a clan with several of my friends, allowing me to be connected to the game on a different media than most of the other games I play. On Clash of Clans, I’m not just playing with computerized players in a world completely excluded from my reality, rather, I can donate troops to people I physically know, chat with friends in my clan, have “friendly attacks” with other bases in my own clan, and join my friends in clan wars--almost like a team. This social aspect of the game has made Clash of Clans enormously successful, along with the constant updates to the game that appeal to players.

As with most video games, Clash of Clans is extremely addicting, but this game in particular is even more addictive. This has definitely entailed very negative consequences on my daily life, causing me to be distracted at almost any moment in the day, especially during school. Now, everyday before class and in between class, as well as at lunch or while I’m doing homework, I have to check the game for any updates to my village. Even after I eventually close the app, I’m still left thinking about the game, my upgrading defenses, my troops training in the barracks, and how much more gold I will need before “maxing out” my base. I’ve spent hours watching Youtube videos on better attacking strategies as well as more effective base layouts for the specific town hall I have. I think this problem is common with anyone who has played Clash of Clans, and we must all be careful of the game taking over our life. Even though the game is enormously fun and entertaining, we must remember that it is only a game. I am definitely striving to control my time on this game to not take away from other important aspects of my life.