I was waiting to see how far down Clash would be. I put in somewhere between $50-75 of real world cash and survey rewards into gems the first two years I played. I know it was paying for time but I figured I was spending so much time playing it that I'd have bought multiple games on a console for the same time investment so who cares?

I still play but exclusively F2P. Mostly because back in the day it was worth it to boost baracks and farm dead and th out bases but it's ridiculously easy to get loot now it's not worth it. As far as skipping upgrade time, everything is about 2w anymore and it would get expensive quick. Plus I actually work at work Reddit at work so doing other things is no biggie.