Within 12 hours of the time I made that post, they shut my account down. They think very carefully about how to extract the most real money from players. So I finally spoke my mind in the game's forum, and criticized how expensive it is, and how InnoGames makes anything that is fun in the game cost diamonds (aka, real money). I got super tired of the repetitive tasks and nature of the game (each level is just a repeat of the prior level.you 'farm' goods, but just different (and more costly) goods each level, and you build fighting troops each level. $2,000 got me only about 60% through the game. I spent about US$2,000 playing the game, mainly as research to see what it takes, and to get an idea of the game play for a potential competing game that will not cost so much money. And, if you don't have lots of diamonds, you can't progress, and you can't do many of the essential things to progress. With using diamonds, it can take you YEARS to get through to the final levels of the game, because every time you pass a level, things take longer and cost more and more. Getting premium items costs 500 to 900 diamonds. It often costs between 45 and 200 diamonds to heal your troops (or you lose them) after a single fight. To give you an example of costs, one building costs about 6,000 diamonds.

And, diamonds are EXPENSIVE, with packages costing from US$10 to $80.

However, unless you want to wait literally YEARS to get anywhere in the game, you have to buy the in-game currency, called diamonds, for real money. However, unless you want to wait literally YEARS to get anywhere in the game, Forge of Empires, by InnoGames, is advertised as a 'free' game. Forge of Empires, by InnoGames, is advertised as a 'free' game.

Review forge of empires