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Picky as it may be, I cannot stand artificial limitations imposed upon a gameplay feature, particularly when no easy alterntative exists. Take for example the spying system in Norron, which is really less about spying and more about thieving. For my town, I opted to focus heavily on thievery, and so would gain substantial resources by stealing them from other towns. Sadly, one cannot steal or spy on towns smaller than 2/3 your size, or those greater than 3/2 your size. Though odd, it wouldn’t be so bad if towns fitting that criteria didn’t show up on the target list for your spies. Unfortunately, they do, which means one spends a good portion of time doing the trial-and-error thing until a properly sized town is selected.

What makes this whole thing ridiculous is that there shouldn’t be a restriction on towns larger than yours, since they ought to be better protected anyway. Secondly, if the system tells you a selected city is not the right size to spy on, then there’s no reason to display improper targets in the first place. All this requires is a simple SQL query, and players would save a ton of time.

Games like Norron are great because they can be addicting and yet require only five minutes a day to play. Unfortunately, unecessary clicking takes away from this second factor, and only adds to make such games frustrating and therefore less addictive.

The ridiculous amount of unecessary trial-and-error, combined with the lack of focus Norron has (what’s up with linear quests, and the uselessness of the hero, anyway?) has made me drop another game in the bucket. At least there’s always Castle Smasher.

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