Lately, a certain segment of the WarEra community has been increasingly vocal about its dissatisfaction with the pace of the game and how peaceful it has seemingly become over the past few weeks. The reasons? As many as there are players. But the discontent is real.
Now, is it justified? In my opinion, not entirely. In the age of doomscrolling, instant gratification, and everything at our fingertips, it is only natural that players of a real-time war strategy and simulation game will eventually feel frustrated. And it is quite likely that this frustration will be more pronounced among younger players, as they are the ones who have grown up in such a fast-paced environment.
That is why I believe expressions of this frustration will become increasingly common, manifesting themselves in short-lived efforts—more self-destructive than destructive—to speed up something that, in their minds, should be moving faster: pointless but epic battles in terms of damage, where players destroy in minutes what took them months to build; disregarding the most basic principles of a war simulation game simply for the sake of lore and “fun”; all while constantly thinking about leaving and shutting everything down because they are simply bored.
We saw a similar debate emerge with the rise of online chess and the birth of formats such as bullet chess. In contrast to the classic time control of 90 minutes plus an increment per move, bullet chess became the preferred format for younger generations who play exclusively online, with each player having just one minute on the clock and no increment.
That is why, as players, we need to be honest with ourselves and adjust our expectations to the pace inherent to each game. You cannot expect WarEra to deliver the adrenaline rush of a first-person shooter, simply because that is not what it is.