If you are predisposed to having an addictive nature and download Clash of Clans (iOS/Android), you're bound to get sucked in. Hopefully you won't spend too much money on in-app purchases buying gems or upgrading your town, but it's hard to resist the temptation especially when going for that third builder!
I'll admit that I was really into it and still dabble from time to time but I've seen friends and family glued to their screens for hours every night trying to stay on top of their town. Heck, even one Christmas mass involved some Clash of Clans gaming though I'll admit I wasn't the guilty one. Hell, even my barber boasts about his clan and shows me his town EVERY time I come in. When he's not cutting hair, he's clashing and clanning it with the other three chairs.
The NY Times posted a great insight on North44's George Yao and how he was able to maintain being the top player for 6 months in the Clash of Clan Universe.
There was a price, however, for being the world’s premier Clasher. Part of it was measurable. To stay on top, Mr. Yao was spending at least $250 a week on the gems. By the time he had dominated the leader board for three months, he told me, he had sunk as much as $3,000 into Clash and was running out of money. He feared that he couldn’t keep up with wealthier rivals and threatened to quit.
To grasp the extent of Mr. Yao’s immersion in the game, you have to understand a little more about the strategy of Clash. In order to keep your trophy count high, a premier player has to avoid being attacked by other top contenders. You can do this either by staying constantly online or by the protection of a “shield” that usually lasts for 12 hours. You automatically get a shield when an attacker destroys 40 percent of your village or your town hall.
In time, he found another, simpler way to shield himself. When a member of North 44 would quit the game, Mr. Yao would take over his account. Then Mr. Yao would use one of his multiple accounts to attack himself when he needed a shield. In order to pull this off, though, he had to keep all of these other accounts highly ranked, which meant playing as many as five accounts at the same time, around the clock. Another wealthy clan member in the United Arab Emirates bought Mr. Yao three iPads to make this feasible — but even then, it was feasible only in the technical sense. At one point, he was bringing five iPads into the shower with him, each wrapped in a plastic bag, so that none of his accounts would go inactive.
Of course, he's retired since then and can't stand the site of the game.
