If it’s cheap to get stars, I’m definitely having Dolph Lundgren at my next birthday party. Dude doesn’t have to do anything, just hang out.
Mobile games like these are designed with the help of addiction experts, each phase of the game is designed to trigger different emotions which builds up to constant frustration in the end.
The key is then manage that frustration by constantly showing the player that they could easily remove the source of the frustration by simply buying more resources.
This has to be done in way to keep the player feeling justly treated according to the rules of the game.
The game can’t outright just steal your resources, but it can spawn in enemies to waste them and then limit how many resources you get in a specific time, that makes sure you don’t blame the game itself but rather individual parts of the game.
Even better if another human stole the resources, like in clash of clans.
Clash of Clans is kinda safe in this, nobody cares anymore if they get attacked as there are now so many ways to farm resources that got added after the game started dwelling in the player count.
