WHAT IS PRESTIGE?
Prestige
is the ingame currency that you can spend on both instant effects as
well as bonuses over time that provide benefits to your playing
experience and your town's growth.
WHAT
PRESTIGE CAN DO FOR YOU
You can see all the available spend options by clicking on the Prestige
crown icon on the top right of your game screen.
HOW TO GET PRESTIGE
You
are given 25 free Prestige when
you start playing Illyriad, and you may spend this as you wish.
You
can earn Prestige by referring players to Illyriad via our Buddy
Programme - and you can find details about this ingame, on the
"Prestige / About" page.
You can also buy Prestige via PayPal, Credit/Debit card or mobile phone payment.
OUR
PHILOSOPHY REGARDING PRESTIGE
Illyriad is going to be
around for a long time.
We have a very substantial development
and expansion list, much of which is shared in these forums (so you can
view, comment, and even influence what we're working on).
We
believe that the most valuable players in Illyriad are not those
who spend (or don't spend) their cash on buying Prestige.
The
most valuable players are active players who
participate both inside the game (active and growing their
Empire/Alliance) and
outside the game (active in the forums, helping new players, setting up
fansites and wikis, etc).
We don't believe in
trying to fleece players for a quick buck. We believe that if the game
is good, rewarding to play and has a strong playerbase then
the rewards for the company and our shareholders will follow naturally.
Don't
get us wrong - at its core, Illyriad Games Limited earns money to pay
for the servers, advertising, staff, graphic design, development costs,
and everything else that keeps this game both running and developing
further - by selling Prestige to players.
However, unlike some
other games, we don't believe that the game should be unbalanced - or
the game interface crippled - for players who do not choose to buy
Prestige. We know that there are games out there that allow you to
spend money on the equivalent of an "I win" button, and there are
games out there that (eg) do not allow you to queue building orders
unless you spend money with them. We found these games as frustrating
as you did.
Sure, if we added a Prestige Spend option to (eg)
instantly complete Research queues, or instantly build Settlers then
we'd make some short-term money off of it. But it would be at the
expense of the long term game, and you: our core playerbase.
And
we're not going to do that.
We have chosen what we allow Prestige to be spent on (and how much it costs) very carefully
indeed, and we hope that you think we've achieved a good balance.
We
also believe that you should be able to earn Prestige by helping
Illyriad to grow, which is why we have the Buddy Programme -
where you earn Prestige by referring players to Illyriad.
Edited by GM Luna - 08 Mar 2012 at 19:24