Shattered Kingdoms

I'm pretty sure SK already is the simple repetitive task of pushing buttons.

Crappily designed games tend to do better than well designed games. I watched my nephew play Modern Warfare 2 during the time that the hackers had complete control of the game's servers with hacks, and I just couldn't believe that these games sell over 10 million copies. Mafia wars probably shares the same thing in common with the Call of Duty series, though. They're easy to pick up, a guy with a pistol in FPS games can be just as threatening as a guy with a sniper rifle. Unless you're playing Halo, then the sniper rifle defeats everything (at least in the most recent incarnation). The same can't be said of Shattered Kingdoms. Or most games based on systems like SK. I concurrently play D&D games on Saturdays with my friends, and playing a cleric I can do everything. I can't even see how someone playing a fighter or barbarian can even match the power I have as a cleric. People cry about paladins and bolt of glory here, but the D&D paladin is just a crazy [REDACTED] that is so badass I don't even think a lich would be a challenge to the character. I was so giddy with delight the time I flanked my friend's paladin with a rogue and a fighter that I thought I might kill his character. But no, he managed to kill both of his attackers and still have over half of his hps left. I can't even describe how infuriating it is when a sorcerer/wizard drops Evard's black tentacles into a group of enemies that now become helpless victims.

On the flip side though, I've put a lot of hours into Halo 3 and have managed to kill a guy with a sniper rifle at long range with a magnum, there are weapons that can take down vehicles and even the odds, and there's even the greatest newb weapon in it, the needler (I will admit that this weapon has killed me more than any other weapon in the game). There's almost no counter to Evard's black tentacles. Paladins will save against every spell thrown at them unless they roll a 1, and will do some obscene damage to evil enemies, also they're just about immune to everything. Clerics can go apeshit and kill anything. Seriously, I cannot wait to cast blade barrier and righteous might and then just grapple an enemy to death. It's just a problem of balance that games like SK and D&D share. Class makes all the difference in the world.

I may have chosen a wrong word when I said challenging, it's more like aggravating and time consuming (mostly at lower levels). High level characters will mostly deflect the damage thrown at them. It would definitely be a great help if the lower level NPCs did less damage and threw stuff with less frequency.

That said, I'm sure players would welcome a feature like a new spell or a new skill or a new race much better than they would something like this. Food for thought.