Marketing-wise this game was a great decision. The books and television show are so monumentally popular, I’m sure the developers gained thousands of players simply from people google searching their favorite scene and stumbling upon to game — not to mention all the folks who went out actively searching for an expansion on the GoT experience.
The remarkable bit though, is how interesting and self-contained they made the game feel. I’ve watched the show quite actively, but never read the books — for me the draw of GoT has always been the community aspect of gathering with my best friends every sunday and watching a beautifully shot, intricate and gruesome show. However, I did enjoy playing the game (that was until it started chewing up all my battery and I got bored of waiting for buildings to be built and battles to be fought). And I was impressed that folks in our class who are not fans of the books or show but still enjoyed the game.
The visuals and sounds of the game were great, but I’m not one for click adventures — or as it developed click and wait adventures. I also didn’t encounter any familiar characters from the series during my short stay in online Westeros.
The briefest of game reviews: I enjoyed the game for a time, but the constant waiting became too long too quickly and I lost interest.