The Great Buildings “Evolution” – or How to Monetise a Spreadsheet

Every few years, like clockwork, a grand announcement arrives from the distant towers of InnoGames.

The language is always majestic.

A bold new era. A revolutionary system. A fundamental evolution.

And every time the community gathers around the fire, squints at the patch notes, and slowly realises:

“Oh… it’s the same thing again. But with three currencies instead of one.”

Welcome, dear readers, to the Great Buildings Update — the latest chapter in what scholars are beginning to refer to as The Monetisation Renaissance.

A Stunning Breakthrough in Creative Recycling

The concept behind the update is breathtaking in its originality.

Take the current system. Stretch it. Add colours.

And call them Copper, Silver, and Gold prestige tiers.

Genius.

For centuries philosophers have asked the question:“How can we make something feel new without actually inventing anything?” InnoGames has finally answered.

The Prestige Illusion

You see, in the old system you had Great Buildings.

In the new system you still have Great Buildings.

But now they come with extra blueprint layers, extra unlocking requirements, and more reasons to reconsider your life choices while staring at a progress bar.

Players once asked:

“How can I improve my buildings?”

The new system answers:

“First collect another set of blueprints. Then another. Then another.”

And if that sounds suspiciously like infinite progression mechanics designed to encourage spending, that’s only because you’re thinking about it too much.

The Classic Inno Formula

Veteran players recognise the pattern.

Step one: Introduce a problem.

Step two: Sell the solution.

Step three: Release an event building that makes both irrelevant six months later.

It’s a delicate ecosystem.

Much like nature — except nature does not charge diamonds.

The Spreadsheet Economy

What fascinates me most is the developer confidence.

Somewhere in an office, someone genuinely said:

“You know what players love?”

And the answer, apparently, was:

More blueprint management.

Not exploration.Not storylines.Not diplomacy.

Blueprints.

To be fair, the Forge of Empires community is uniquely suited for this.

We are, after all, a population capable of turning a medieval city builder into a financial derivatives market.

The moment the update hits Beta, thousands of players will open Excel and begin modelling Copper-Silver-Gold optimisation curves like economists studying inflation.

And Inno knows this.

They rely on it.

The Fear of Deletion

But the most elegant piece of design is psychological.

For years, players have freely deleted Great Buildings and rebuilt them when strategies changed.

This was chaos. Freedom. Anarchy.

The new system fixes that beautifully.

Once you’ve invested months collecting Silver and Gold blueprints, the idea of deleting that building becomes emotionally comparable to deleting your tax returns.

Congratulations.

You’re now financially and psychologically locked in.

Meanwhile, in the Battlegrounds

The combat discussion is equally entertaining.

Players are already asking whether the new prestige bonuses will push combat boosts even higher.

One veteran recently confessed:

“I already run thousands of fights, because I can.”

Imagine the relief of developers when they realised the solution wasn’t to rebalance the system.

It was to add another layer of progression so players can run even more fights.

Progress.

The Real Masterstroke

But perhaps the most impressive aspect of the update is how it manages to feel both complicated and predictable at the same time.

Players immediately began asking the correct questions:

Will rankings change?Will resources be refunded?Will the bonuses actually matter?

And somewhere, deep inside the developer documentation, the answer quietly waits:

“It depends.”

A Final Thought

Now, to be clear, none of this means the update will fail.

In fact, it will likely succeed spectacularly.

Because despite our complaints, calculations, suspicions, and conspiracy theories…

We will still log in.

We will still optimise.

And we will still chase the next level of a building that was already level 200 yesterday.

Inno understands something profound about the human condition.

Give people a number.

Then give them a bigger number.

And they will spend years trying to reach it.