History VideoGame / GameOfWarFireAge

* BreakableWeapons: "Core" Equipment can be equipped on the player's Hero, but immediately begins decaying; most of them won't last longer than an hour. In compensation, their bonuses are often cranked UpToEleven.

** At some point, the game also introduced secondary resources, which are produced by converting one of your existing resource buildings (say, a Farm) from producing its old resource to producing a new one.

** Played straight when Creator/MariahCarey replaced Upton as the game's celebrity spokeswoman. The in-game art was not altered to reflect Carey's introduction -- though, to be fair, said art could easily be mistaken for Carey if you didn't know it was originally Upton.

** Like many MMOs, the game also places a cap on the highest level your Stronghold (main building) can achieve; like many MMOs, this Cap is periodically raised. Originally Lv.21, it has now exceeeded Lv.1100.

* LevelGrinding: This game is ridiculous at higher levels of research and building time. The traps and defenses for your walls can take upwards of 10-20 days for just a few to be built. Some of the top elite research projects for level 21 stronghold users can be 3000 literal days or more... would the game even be around then?

** ReadingsAreOffTheScale: once again, played straight. Reaching a million Power requires you to get to Lv.10 or so. Since the maximum level is now 200, you can run into people whose Power value is in the ''trillions''.

* TranslatorMicrobes: The game does not advertise this very aggressively, but it was the first mobile game to feature real-time translation of all chat and e-mail functions. This facilitates international guild-building, since, even if I live in Germany, I can call for help in my native language, and have you (living in Brazil or Sweden or America or Japan) get the message in ''your'' native language without any meaningful delay. Translation corrections are also crowd-sourced in case something goes wrong.

* LadyNotAppearingInThisGame:
** Zigzagged. Kate Upton is the face of ''Game of War'' and is prominently featured in all the commercials for the game; however she only shows up as the Goddess Athena to deliver chest rewards or to sell you 'awesome' packs that you buy with your hard-earned gold. She serves little purpose otherwise in the game itself.
** Played straight when Creator/MariahCarey replaced Upton as the game's celebrity spokeswoman. The in-game art was not altered to reflect Carey's introduction -- though, to be fair, said art could easily be mistaken for a rendering of Carey if you didn't know its history.

* UpToEleven: Your resource tiles and buildings can be upgraded to level 21. Your hero can be upgraded to level 50 but this has since been raised to level 60 recently.
* YouRequireMoreVespeneGas: Two iterations. The first is resources, you need a good smattering of stone, wood, ore, food and silver to construct buildings, train troops or do research. The second is specific to the buildings, once they reach level 20, to upgrade them to their final forms at level 21, you will need special Master Hammers that can only be purchased for 2000 gold each; and you will need one for EACH building project you want at 21.

* LadyNotAppearingInThisGame: Zigzagged. Kate Upton is the face of ''Game of War'' and is prominently featured in all the commercials for the game; however she only shows up as the Goddess Athena to deliver chest rewards or to sell you 'awesome' packs that you buy with your hard-earned gold. She serves little purpose otherwise in the game itself.
** This was played straighter when Creator/MariahCarey replaced Upton as the game's celebrity spokeswoman. The in-game art was not altered to reflect Carey's introduction -- though, to be fair, said art could easily be mistaken for a rendering of Carey if you didn't know its history.

* TranslatorMicrobes: the game does not advertise this very aggressively, but it was the first mobile game to feature real-time translation of all chat and e-mail functions. This facilitates international guild-building, since, even if I live in Germany, I can call for help in my native language, and have you (living in Brazil or Sweden or America or Japan) get the message in ''your'' native language without any meaningful delay. Translation corrections are also crowd-sourced in case something goes wrong.
** TechnologyMarchesOn: other video games now feature a real-time universal translator, since ''Game of War'' showed that it could be done.

* FollowTheLeader: like any successful mobile game, ''Game of War'' has been copied relentlessly, including by two pseudo-sequels from the same company: ''Mobile Strike'' (the one with Creator/ArnoldSchwarzenegger in the commercials) and ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV: A New Empire''.

* CrackIsCheaper: The game's continued revenues speak for themselves. One notable player, [=StayAlive77=], estimated at one point that he had ''personally'' spent [[https://www.gameofwarrealtips.com/interview-with-stayalive77-a-wonderful-adorable-loveable-killer/ half a million dollars]] on the game. (At a later interview he claimed that the value could easily have doubled.)

* LadyNotAppearingInThisGame: Zigzagged, Kate Upton is the face of Game of War and is prominently featured in all the commercials for the game however she only shows up as the Goddess Athena to deliver chest rewards or to sell you 'awesome' packs that you buy with your hard earned gold. She serves little purpose otherwise in the game itself.

* LevelGrinding: This game is ridiculous at higher levels of research and building time. The traps and defenses for your walls can take upwards of 10-20 days for just a few to be built. Some of the top elite research projects for level 21 stronghold users can be 3000 literal days or more...would the game even be around then?

* BribingYourWayToVictory: The currency of the game is gold, which can be used to buy multitudes of items from the game store but is ultimately used for speed-ups which decrease the time spent waiting for research, buildings or training of troops. You can sometimes get free gold from the daily chests or alliance monster chests but its quicker to just buy the gold with real money.

* ZergRush: A known tactic is to unleash a bunch of cheap tier 1 troops on an enemy stronghold. Sometimes its effective and other times it is not. At best it'll serve to weaken the opponent enough to send in the real cash cow tier 3 or 4 troops to wipe the floor clean and potentially capture their hero.

'''Game of War: Fire Age''' is a 2013 freemium mobile MMO strategy video game developed and published by Machine Zone, a privately held game company based in Palo Alto, California. The game has a high-profile advertising campaign and was one of the top-grossing apps in 2014.

The game consists of both city building through mechanics likened to ''Age of Empires'' and the earliest games from the ''Warcraft'' series. Gathering resources is required to create buildings, produce troops, and research advancements. Similar to other mobile games, much of the gameplay consists of selecting an action and then either waiting a preset amount of time for completion or expediting the task by making a payment. The title places an emphasis on players joining alliances. The game's chat system uses a Microsoft-based translator, as well as several others, including Google Translate. The translations allow players from all over the world to play together.

''Game of War: Fire Age'' has sold well and was the third-grossing game app through Apple in 2014, and it was reported that Machine Zone projected $600 million in revenues that year. In March 2015, it was in the top 10 most downloaded free apps on both the iOS Appstore and Google Play. The game has been compared to ''Clash of Clans''. While both games use microtransactions, ''Game of War: Fire Age'' was criticized for the user interface's aggressive style in seeking payments.

The game consists of both city building through mechanics likened to Age of Empires and the earliest games from the Warcraft series.Gathering resources is required to create buildings, produce troops, and research advancements. Similar to other mobile games, much of the gameplay consists of selecting an action and then either waiting a preset amount of time for completion or expediting the task by making a payment. The title places an emphasis on players joining alliances. The game's chat system uses a Microsoft-based translator, as well as several others, including Google Translate. The translations allow players from all over the world to play together.

Game of War: Fire Age has sold well and was the third-grossing game app through Apple in 2014, and it was reported that Machine Zone projected $600 million in revenues that year. In March 2015, it was in the top 10 most downloaded free apps on both the iOS Appstore and Google Play. The game has been compared to Clash of Clans. While both games use microtransactions, Game of War: Fire Age was criticized for the user interface's aggressive style in seeking payments.

!!Game of War: Fire Age contains examples of: