Clash of Clans
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Contents
Gameplay
Players can build a community, train troops, and attack other players to earn gold and elixir. The object of the game is to build defenses that protect the player from other players' attacks, and to train and upgrade troops. Players must earn and store resources in order to build and upgrade buildings, which can be used for a variety of purposes such as storage, training new troops, carrying out research in the laboratory, and defending a player's village. Once they reach a certain level, players can join clans, which are groups of players that pool their resources in order to compete with and fight against other clans in battles. The game also features a single player campaign mode in which the player battles against a number of goblin villages.
Clan Wars
Clans are groups of players who join together to support each other and fight against other clans. Players can join clans once they rebuild the special Clan Castle building. Clans have four different ranks within them: leader, co-leader, elder, and member. Clan leads and co-leaders can begin wars against other clans, change clan settings, and kick lower tier members. During a war against another clan, each clan is given a "preparation day" and a "war day." Each player is limited to two attacks per war, and can earn up to three stars based on the amount of destruction caused to the opposinf player's village in each attack. At the end of the war, the clan with the higher amount of stars wins, with players receiving bonus war loot and the clan receiving one more war win in their record.
Publicity
Supercell has released countless advertisements for the game, including an advertisement for the Super Bowl XLIX, featuring Liam Neeson parodying his character from Taken. This ad, titled Revenge, has over 100 million views on Youtube, and was the most viewed Super Bowl Ad in 2015. Clash of Clans also has a Youtube channel with over 4 million subscribers and over 650 million total views on their channel.
Related Games
In 2014, Supercell released Boom Beach on iOS and Android worldwide. Boom Beach is also a freemium strategy video game for mobile devices in which players can build and upgrade their base to attack other players's bases or computer-generated bases. The game has received generally positive ratings. Similar to Clash of Clans, the game offers premium purchasable currency in the form of diamonds. It is often noted as a modern version of Clash of Clans.
Ethical Concerns
Violence
While there is no graphic violence, Clash of Clans contains frequent battles with cartoon-style weapons, explosions, and cries of defeated soldiers. The game's core component is attacking and raiding other villages in order to pillage the resources of other players. Thus, there are some ethical concerns with young children playing the game and being exposed to such violence. Commonsense Media, a website that provides education and information for safe technology and media, states that Clash of Clans is appropriate for those 13+. Both the violence rating and the inappropriate language rating of the game are 2/5. There is no explicit language or sexual references in the game. [2]
Bullying & Cyberbullying
In 2014, a group of students at Ogden International School in Chicago created a clan called the "Jew Incinerator Clan" to bully another student because he was Jewish, using the video game as a vehicle for bullying online and in real life. [3] New York Times released an article in 2015 on how Clash of Clans is taking bullying to the playground because of its cliquish and exclusionary nature. A ten year-old boy named Luca felt the full effects of exclusion and abandonment after he demoted a classmate from a clan that a few students belonged to. Luca’s classmates subsequently created a new clan, and the members refused to let him join. Luca asked repeatedly to be allowed in to play, but was ignored, revealing the negative consequences of allowing players of the video game to form and enforce hierarchical bullying both online and in real life. [4]
Freemium
Clash of Clans is a free-to-play game, with microtransactions available to buy gems for faster progression. While it is entirely possible to succeed in the game without paying a single cent, the game makes it significantly more difficult to progress further, especially in the later stages of the game. [5] Aside from gold and elixir, the game also uses gems as a type of currency, which can be earned through certain achievements or milestones. The main way to acquire gems is through in-app purchases using real world money. Players can usually speed up the construction time of a building or boost other resources for only a small amount of gems, creating low-cost yet addictive in-app purchasing behavior. As they become more and more addicted to the game, many players pour considerable amounts of money into the game in order to get an edge over other players.
Video Game Addiction
Because of its addictive nature, Clash of Clans raises ethical issues concerning time-wasting and distraction. The game hooks you in early with lots of available resources and low-cost rewards, which starkly contrasts with the much slower sense of progress later on in the game. The game also gives players an incentive to play by promising protection from attacks from other players while logged in and playing the game. There are even stories of marriages and relationships suffering from Clash of Clans addiction, such as an unfortunate woman's desperate forum post on her husband's marriage-threatening addiction. [6]
External Links
See Also
References
- ↑ http://www.businessinsider.com/clash-of-clans-earns-15-million-a-day-as-top-grossing-app-2015-6
- ↑ https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/clash-of-clans
- ↑ http://www.jewishpress.com/news/breaking-news/jew-incinerator-clan-played-to-taunt-chicago-jewish-8th-grader/2014/05/25/
- ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/28/fashion/clash-of-clans-makes-playground-battles-digital.html?_r=1
- ↑ http://gamerant.com/clash-of-clans-addiction/
- ↑ http://www.olganon.org/forum/i-need-help-spousessignificant-others-open-forum/my-husband-addicted-clash-clans
