[2023] Big news for Forge!

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Today, we're bringing you two important announcements.

First, after careful analysis and consideration, we decided to shut down the Guild vs. Guild feature. And second, we are happy to introduce its immediate successor — the brand-new Guild Raids!

As always, you as beta testers, will have the chance to test everything first. And due to this being such big news, we also wanted to notify you as early as possible. We aim to bring both updates to Beta within the next 1-2 months, so you have time to prepare and ask questions.

Now that we have the timeline out of the way, let us share the reasons that brought us to this decision.

Q: Why are we shutting down the Guild vs. Guild?
A: We recognize that the GvG has become an integral part of the game for some of you, especially those who have been playing Forge for many years. The decision to shut the feature down did not come to us lightly. But here are the main reasons why we decided to make it:

• Participation vs. maintenance. By now, only a very small percentage of our player population actively plays GvG. Being a legacy feature, which makes it slow and bulky, GvG requires considerable effort to maintain. In addition, GvG requires constant updates with every Age increase and, overall, doesn't live up to today's standards in terms of feature design. As a result, often it doesn't perform up to your and our expectations. Overhauling GvG would require many of our resources and would not be feasible and future-proof. Instead, in line with the market and our vision for Forge of Empires, we decided to create a new feature to bring all the different players and Guilds together and make a new long-standing addition to your game experience.
• Inaccessibility. GvG cannot be accessible on mobile without a significant technical overhaul. While it has been the case for a while, we believe it is no longer sustainable for a cross-platform game like Forge. We aim to eliminate this divide and ensure the key features are equally accessible regardless of the platform. The introduction of Guild Battlegrounds in the past had already addressed this, but with Guild Raids, we want to improve even further. Please mind, that during the testing phase, we're likely to release the feature on browser first, with the mobile update coming later.
• Ranking. GvG still holds an important place in the global rankings. With the recent GBG update, we introduced a new ranking focusing on the Guilds' performance in GBG rather than prestige. For us, it was the first step in decreasing the weight of GvG in the competition and making rankings fairer and accessible to as many active Guilds as possible, while including both mobile and browser players. We want to finish what we started and unite all Guilds in a new quest of Guild Raids.

Q: When is GvG going to be shut down?
A: We don't have the exact date, but we expect to finish all the necessary preparations during the next 1-2 months. As soon as we know, we will give you another heads-up. By making this announcement early, we wanted to give you time to share your feedback and prepare despite not having the exact date yet.

Q: What will happen to the GvG rankings?
A: They will be frozen in time in their state at the shutdown to commemorate all the impressive achievements by Guilds. Other areas in the game that use prestige and Guild Power will be rebalanced accordingly.

Q: What are the Guild Raids?
A: We designed this feature to bring all Guilds together to compete with each other, while also creating a new way collaborate within the Guilds by bringing your forces together for a common goal. We intend the Guild Raids to be a successor to GvG, but they are not necessarily alike. With Guild Raids, we want to introduce a new concept of a Guild quest in which the participants move together from one point of the quest to another, winning rewards on the way. One might say that Guild Raids are somewhat of a parallel world, with its order, resources, and units.

Q: When are the Guild Raids going to start?
A: We don't want to leave you without the GvG for too long. Upon the GvG shutdown, we want to allow ourselves time to address potential issues and hope to launch Guild Raids soon after. As always, we will keep you posted on the progress.

Stay tuned for the next update about GvG and Guild Raids! In the meantime, feel free to discuss the changes, ask questions, and share your thoughts on what the Guild Raids might look like in this thread.

Sincerely,
Your Forge of Empires Team  

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Dear Kings and Queens,

Not long ago, we announced the shutdown of GvG and introduced the Guild Raids. Please read our first announcement to learn about the reasons for this decision.

In the spirit of transparency, we want to give you an approximate date for the GvG shutdow:

Monday, December 11th, 2023

Let us emphasize that the date may still be changed! We may not be able to warn you in advance about the changes due to beta being the test environment, but we hope the approximation will be helpful nevertheless.

Most importantly, we would like to announce a commemorative gift to all of you to mark the end of the GvG legendary run.

When GvG is disabled, all players will find a unique new building in their Inventory -- the Last Province!

This building is our token of gratitude to everybody who played GvG over the years. Its first visual version was introduced in 2015 as the Speaker's Corner and served as an exclusive reward of the memorial "Hero's Tale" questline to honor the memory of Anwar Dalati, our colleague who was integral to the development of GvG.

To create the Last Province, we significantly increased the effects of the original Speaker's Corner and gave it new colours, while keeping the unique look, especially recognizable to our long-time players. Keep in mind, that it is a separate building from the original Speaker's Corner.

We hope the Last Province will serve all of you well, both as a historical token in Forge's life and as a useful tool in increasing your power for your next Forge adventures!

Stay tuned for the final heads-up ONE WEEK before the shutdown!  

Dear Kings and Queens,

We would like to inform you that we had to postpone the release of Guild Raids and, consequently, the deactivation of Guild vs. Guild. It is unlikely that the feature will be ready by the end of this year. At this moment, we do not have a definite date for you yet.

With Guild Raids, we want to create a new functionality that is rich and competitive. So we're taking the time and effort to continue development and ready the feature for the testing phase here on beta.

We're sorry for any confusion we might've caused with this change. We assure you the previous announcement where we outlined the date of the GvG deactivation was made with the best intentions to help you and your guild make plans in the game.

We hope for your understanding, and we will continue keeping you posted on the topic.

Sincerely,
Your Forge of Empires Team