I have been playing for about 7 months now and am reaching for level VII. I have to say that it seems the game has problems. I just earned a expansion slot but the game didn't register it and I didn't get it. I think that was the turning point for me.

It requires far more patients (in my opinion) than it should and I think the way the goals to reach in the games chapters are not thought out well enough. It's more of a struggle than it is enjoyment. And yes, I have bought diamonds a few times to get things a little more active.

The other negative is in trying to activate any of the Ancient Wonders you have to get runes. Once you get a rune you then have to see if it is going to accept it and most of the time it doesn't so you continue playing to get more runes. I stopped bothering with Ancient Wonders all together.

At this point I am going to cut my losses and play something a little more enjoyable. That not getting an earned expansion slot did it. You need the metabolism of a tortoise to play this game.

This game is rough from the start. Within 20 minutes or so you will already hit the wall and be forced to wait on something to progress. This is maybe after three or four buildings... The big bottle neck is the premium currency of diamonds.

As you expect from a f2p game various task can be sped up with diamonds and I accept that, however in Elvenar there is both no way to earn diamonds in game but also several items that require it. So no magic branch and no more than two builders, ever.

I find that I have to run 3 or 4 cities at a time because it takes so long for anything to happen. I saw right away that diamond points were key to success, but I refuse to whip out my credit card for this. Forge of Empires is jus the same. All Inno products are based upon the premise that people will pay money to continue playing. I'd prefer to put money down to purchase a game outright rather than set up a procedure in which my bank account is bled dry for this stupidity.

Tanks a Lot for alle the helpfull rewievs. Know that Because of them i Will never play this game.

The game is a pure disgrace for an awarded company that is practically monopolizing the browser game market for over a decade.

The lag is atrocious, which is a real issue when you take in account the severe lack of action confirmation which in turn brings up the issue of the blatant and nearly inevitable pay-to-play. The queue mechanics are less of an issue but still greatly reduct from the enjoyability of the game and make it look like a chore.

As if all these weren't enough of a hassle accounts get deleted for a single month of inactivity and sometimes (as in my occation) the game deletes all your progress and forces you back in the tutorial which lead me to assume that the servers are in an inexcusable state for a company of popularity.

The art is nice and the gameplay's concept is something I've been looking for BUT all the other issues make the game literally unplayable so I can't give anything more than 1-star.

The game sucks it might as well be Farm Ville..... You cant't chat with the community at large there are no real battles its just building your city.. What a pathetic eccuse for a game. This one BLOWS. Don't waste your time

This game is a good concept, however, it really is like watching the paint dry. The creators make you wait an eternity to manufacture items you need to level up, but of course you have the option to pay REAL MONEY to advance faster in the game. Is it a free game? Yes. But unless you don't mind waiting 2 years to get to level 3, don't waste your time. I've paid a lot of MMORPG games, but I'm telling you, this one was created for the sole purpose of making money. You can't even drop buildings into a storage area and every time you place a new building, you have to rearrange your current buildings but guess what? There's not enough space so you have to sell off buildings (that you NEED) because they refuse to allow players a storage area where you can drop buildings in order to rearrange your city. This is nothing but a money maker. On a scale of 10, I'd give this game a -2 for player satisfaction. This is truly the most horrible game I've EVER played - and I've played A LOT!! Shame on these developers. Players write in that they want a storage area to ease the pain (and loss of real money you spent buying the diamonds to buy those buildings you're being forced to sell) when they're trying to rearrange their city, but the developers may as well post a giant F U sign on the splash page because after several years, we STILL don't have it. And they keep raking in the money. Share my post. Make others aware this Innogames is definitely NOT the place you want to play at.

I had been playing this game for about two months and really enjoyed it. But then during the middle of a tournament there was a glitch in the game and neither the badges you worked your can off for OR the packages you PAID for registered in the game. I sent two reports to Customer service during the problem. Their answer. Send replacement product AFTER the tournament was over with items that could only be used in the tournament. So basically sent worthless online items that cant't be used for anything else. I have spent almost a month going back and forth with customer service and they will still not credit me back the 3 packages I bought. I was buying ten packages a week or so, so you would think they would care about their money stream. I even asked them to just replace the sets with the three sets of something now that would be worth it, but they have done nothing. Guess they would rather lose a customer who pays than fixing one of their mistakes. LONG STORY SHORT. THEY WILL SCREW YOU OVER TO PAY FOR THIS GAME....DONT PLAY You have been warned

To anyone considering this game, don't. They don't care about smaller players, only those who are willing to spend a ton of money to get big fast (as are most games like this).

I have been playing for about two months and I liked it at first being about strategy and planning. However, I got stuck with the game, can't do more researches till I finish more provinces and can't finish provinces because I get defeated in battles and negotiating option takes lots of resources that need forever to be replaced. can't do more upgrades because i am out of culture and can't have more culture without new province expansions. It's so frustrating. The fellowship adventure is so silly. The helping enchantment is not flashing clearly and can be missed easily. Even buying options are so expensive; not much you can do with few hundred diamonds.

I disagree with some of the above negative comments. I have been playing Elvenar for 1 and half year and it remains great fun. It is true that you can progress, although a bit slower, without spending money on diamonds or other items. I buy occasionally diamonds to be used for special events like fellowship adventures.
For me one of the most interesting aspects of the game is strategy and planning ahead for for restructuring and re-arranging your city when building upgrades require more space than before.
All in all a game worthwhile playing.

I recently had an issue with getting a sold building restored. It was indeed my error that when attempting to sell a plant next to my level 17 residence, that I too quickly clicked sell and ended up selling my residence instead of the plant. I immediately brought this to the development teams attention and surely thought it would be no problem to restore. I myself am a former mmo game coder, so I know this is not an impossible task to complete, but their response was a generic, better luck next time, and don't click so quickly. I put in serious time, and money, trying to build a beautiful city. With this response, know that this company does not care if you have an easy to resolve issue. I do not recommend anything made by this Innogame's company. They want to be paid, and do as little for the consumer as possible at the same time.

I have been playing for three months and I'm addicted. I love these slow paced games, but the I particularly love the graphics of this game. I manage fine without paying. I feel that all previously stated qualms are invalid. The ancient wonders aren't a problem. The rune shards are easily collected by contributing your knowledge points to others' ancient wonders. Even then, you don't have to work towards the construction of ancient wonders. Its all up to the player. Its completely absurd to suggest that growth is only possible through spending money. Obviously Innogames is a business and that business wants your money, but they just dangle it there tantalizingly. I've developed my city fine without spending a penny on anything related to elvenar.

Really the only way to "evolve" is to spend lot's of your hard earned cash (the real stuff not the coins you earn in the game),

I responded to an ad that said it was "designed for women". NOT. The graphics are messy and the idea of having battles is lame. I'll stick to Royal Story because I'm a Princess and I just did my nails. >^;^

Elvenar started off a wonderfully pleasant, benign, slow paced game where you could build your city gradually and at your own pace. Bit, by bit, inno introduced (by now) 14 (!!) of special buildings ("ancient wonders"), and collection of "rune shards" (gained by successful conquering of territory) has turned from a delight (when there were just two such buildings) into a real con. Even with one or two buildings (each requiring 9 complete shards to build), not every run shard counted, but up to ten were "lost" as "fragments" (10 of which finally yielded a complete shard - you can spend real money to buy diamonds to top this up).
The next problem now (only just introduced: battles. Battles are not PvP (yet!) but just to "gain territory". A certain number of conquered lands yield a city extension square (so quite desirable), as your city grows. The battles were not always easy but winnable. Now, inno have reduced the size of troops ("squads") to 1/5 of the original trained ones AND removed much of the power. So battles are mostly only winnable by trading in expensive goods and resources.
Finally, the dwarven age was designed that you needed new production buildings and a storage hall. The technology tree could only be unlocked by having a GREATER amount of goods than the storage hall could collect. A friend of mine spent 3 months trying to get there and eventually did. Again, buying diamonds (with real money) was encouraged.

Summary: What started off as a nice, pleasant game has turned into a CON.