There aren’t many people who can say that they’ve ruled over an entire kingdom. Given how exclusive the club is, it’s nearly impossible to rule a kingdom or even know someone who is currently ruling one. That’s where ngmoco comes in with their kingdom ruling simulator, We Rule.
We Rule starts off with you inheriting a kingdom with nothing going for it. It’s your job… nay, your civic duty to build up your kingdom with farms, homes, and various buildings of commerce. The game does a good job of holding your hand through its tutorial as it introduces you to the process of building and harvesting. As you harvest your crops from your farm, you’ll gain gold and experience which is used to unlock new buildings, produce to harvest, and expand the size of your kingdom. Buildings are then used to produce goods or services that will gather more experience and gold.
Anything you build or harvest in We Rule takes time to produce. Players don’t necessarily have to sit there for 12 hours for their carrots to be ready for harvest, instead everything is handled by the We Rule servers which allows you to play the game in sporadic bursts. This play style is perfect for a game on a mobile platform. If you lack the patience, We Rule allows players to hasten the building or harvesting time nearly instantly with ‘Mojo’. Mojo can be applied to nearly anything and is earned in two ways: Leveling up or paying for it. Since We Rule is a freemium game, this seems to be the only way the game makes any money.
The biggest driving force behind We Rule is its social experience. Players can add friends through ngmoco’s Plus+ service to their kingdom map to become neighboring kingdoms. Your friends’ neighboring kingdoms play an important role as you can visit their kingdom and purchase various goods and services from their buildings to then be delivered to your kingdom and vice versa. Push notifications also enhance the experience as players can be notified when a purchase is made or produce is ready for harvest.
The only downside I’ve experienced with We Rule is its reliance on its servers. When it was first released worldwide, it was nearly impossible to get anything done within the game. It seems that’s a thing of the past as there haven’t been many times where I couldn’t connect to We Rule, but it’s still something that can actually work against it if ngmoco can’t keep up with the demand.
FINAL THOUGHT: We Rule is a game that will have you playing for hours without even playing it. Building your kingdom gradually over time becomes a satisfying experience once you start producing a large amount of experience and gold with very little effort. The social experience will keep players coming back to We Rule on a regular basis to trade commerce between friends, and even browse their friends’ kingdoms from time to time. Being offered as a freemium game means the majority of players will never spend a dime to get a full, enriching experience.