Fairness and Unfairness in Clash of Clans

Gender Equality in Games and Sports
Did you ever consider why men and women are usually separated in sports? Short answer is that men is better than women. Playing against each other (men vs women) or playing in the same league or system are considered as unfair as both gender not equally strong or weak. Probably the same reason why men get paid more than women in term of prize money.

Polgar Paradigm
Can you think one sport that women is better than men? There is none! In general men intended to be more superior than women in sports. Even if you able to think that sport, you still cant deny the essence of gender separation in sport which is because both genders are not equally strong or weak. In chess, Judith Polgar is undisputed women chess player. Ironically, she herself is not world chess champion or women's world chess champion. She was considered as one because she able to defeat many world champion that happen to be a men. There is no men's world chess champion as world chess champion simply means you are the best chess player. Women's Chess Championship is created to allow women to compete to determine who is better women chess player. Polgar herself did not compete in women tournament.

The same goes to games like Clash of Clans. Although it seem that there is no obvious reason why men should be better than women, men are still better. If you look at clan that join or won international tournament, men obviously dominating women in term of number participation or tournament result. The same happen to any esport like DotA and Starcraft where men are dominating despite computer games is not primary base on strength which women lack. Naturally, men is better than women in games or sports.

Equality in Clash of Clans
If we take out gender equation from Clash of Clash, unfairness still can happen. This is because the game itself base on money. If you can by gems for most things, can you consider this is a fair game? Isn't that obvious that richer player will gain more success than poorer? Can you consider top player in the world is the strongest if he use money to buy gems? If you don't use money, can you consider better than this top player? You cant.

Lets just assume we cant use money to buy gems. Do you think this game is fair if somebody else can play it with better devices such as Ipad and Iphone while you playing with other devices. I don't think so either. Everyone should play with the same device if you want everything should be fair. How about people who having more devices and more accounts. Do you think this is fair? How about people who have no job and can play longer time than you can. Are you consider this as fair or unfair?

Point here, there is no equality in Clash of Clans. You should use every possible ways to win the game. You should not be judging by the way you playing it. This is why we have rules in tournament. With rules, you need to limit your ways that should not violate those rules. If you violate the rules, the organizer can disqualify you because organizer make tournament to see who is better in playing the game under certain rules. This is also the main reason why men and women are separated in most sport. Because the organizer want to see certain aspect and require participants to follow. In women football for example, organizer want to see which women team is better. As simple as that.

Back to Clash of Clans, as long you can play the game without being penalized by Supercell or any organizer, you are clean and play fairly. This include playing with "cheat tools" like XMOD. XMOD is a tool that enable additional features to assist players. XMOD enable you the search base automatically until you find bases that meet your preferences or requirement. Plus, it also enable you to have mock or practice attack on village you like. Unlike money, XMOD is not approve by Supercell. However, so far they cant penalized player that used XMOD. So, can we consider XMOD as fair or unfair? If they set the rules but unable to execute penalties to player who violate it, can you consider that as rules at first place?

I think money and XMOD are unfair. Money is unfair because not everyone have money and any games should not put money as the main pillar. If you put money as main pillar, then, this game should be called gambling. Of course most games or sports is about money. Poor team cant be a world champion in most sport like Formula One. Although poor team can do well in football World Cup, money increase the chance of winning by a lot. If you don't have money to invest in expensive sport like equestrian, how can you be a champion? But if you think in one direction, with gems you can do most everything in Clash of Clash. Point here, since we can buy gems with money, Clash of Clan will never be a fair game. As for XMOD, this clearly not the way this game intended to be. XMOD cant enter tournament obviously. You can play with XMOD if you want to but at the end of the day, you should follow what creator or organizer decisions. Since this is not the way it intended to be, you probably not going to utilize XMOD freely.

Devices and time are not unfair. Poor people should not play this game so do busy people. If we say this game is unfair because poor people or busy people said so, all games or sports in this world will fall into the same category. Malaysia will file summon to International Court of Justice because FIFA organizing unfair sport. Malaysian is shorter or physically weak compare to other nations hence make football as unfair sport. Swimming is not fair sport as we are not good swimmer. These complaints will goes on and on as people will oppose anything that disadvantage to them or give advantage to others.

If Supercell and organizer does not give  preference about devices and time, we cant say it is unfair. So do money and XMOD. As long we can play it, we should continue to play as we find fits.