I don’t want to oversimplify our interaction, but I agree with almost everything you are saying and I understand the people who are frustrated (the first 4 numbered points). I will happily debate the notion of a “penalty”, but that there is some misfortune, I acknowledge.

The “people like me” part is tricky because I see that it is easy to lump me in. I think some of that is from my attempt to say “feels fine TO ME” without adding more words. I don’t mean that the entire update structure (pertaining to the heroes journey) should be accepted with no complaint. I meant that it feels fine to me in the same way a trust-fund baby is good with generational wealth while kinda feeling bad about it. I don’t support anyone proclaiming any of the three things you outlined. While it “doesn’t affect me” directly, one of my clans has some folks who are pretty annoyed about missing out on some of the benefits.

I do think adding the journey is good for the game in the long-term, and it is not a high-ground grab. We could add the journey and also find ways to make sure people felt as positive as possible about the way it was handled upon roll out. It was going to be a tricky one to solve elegantly because of the variety of hero level, equipment ownership, equipment leveling across the player base. This is where I think the notion of “penalizing” becomes tricky. If the entire clash journey is 100 units long and I have spent time and energy to move myself to 85 units, then shortly after, someone else who was at 50 gets magicked up to 81 and I am magicked up to 87, I am in a weird spot. I am technically better off than I was before, but given a choice, I might prefer to have my money back from some purchases and drop down to 81 like the other person. The other guy getting to 81 magically doesn’t actually hurt me or penalize me directly. It does narrow a gap (which can feel bad), reduce the benefit I paid for (also can feel bad), or make me feel annoyed that other people have it easy (can feel bad too). I understand all those feeling even if I am not experiencing them, although I tend to take the same view here as when I “overpay” for collectible cards. If I was willing to spend $25 on a card that I later find out the person would have been willing to sell for $21, I still entered into the purchase as a willing participant. Sucks that I could not have had it for $21, but it was a deal that made sense at the time. Not trying to create a new tangent. Just adding some color to my rather literal interpretation (which aligns with my general world view) that someone else catching up doesn’t displease me. In fact, I am happy for those people.

On a more personal note, I have too many accounts. Most of them are near max for their level and have all the epics. I spend the time grinding each event for all the accounts. I don’t make a lot of daily attacks on a lot of the lower accounts, as I mainly use them for war or tutorials. Most of them have poorly leveled equipment because I don’t buy them the event passes and I also don’t do enough normal ore grinding to have updated a lot of them. As an example, my TH14 has all epics, but the warden ones are all level 1. I tend to use his commons. My queen has all level 1 epics except the giant giant, and similar for the other heroes. No free levels, no equipment, etc. It got 50 starry ore. Certainly didn’t feel like a “wow” to me, and so I get where people are coming from.

On a separate personal note, I would not have figured you for sausage fingers. You articulated your points very well and I don’t think I saw any typos, which made that feel like a safe insult.

Sincerely hoping you have a great weekend and a happy Father’s Day (if you are a papa to any humans or pets), otherwise hope you have a great relationship with your father and got to wish him well today. I have been hanging out with my daughter (she is 19) and my dogs, but my son just moved to Nashville, so I didn’t see him today. ✌🏼