'Marvel Puzzle Quest' 1-Year Anniversary Celebration!

_RiO_

HailMary wrote:

Ice posted a list of in-game stats several months ago. IIRC, one of those was that the most frequently purchased cover was for IM35.

Oh, like that wasn't some kind of self-fullfilling prophecy...

The ingame tutorial sets beginning players up to expect that boosting character covers with HP is a normal thing to do. At that early point in the game, a lot of people are going to be suckered into spending HP on IM35 as it's their only decent hitter at that point. It won't be until slightly further into the prologue, where the cover rewards become more frequent and the HP will turn out scarce, that they realize their mistake.

The leg up we as forumites have, is that we have been forewarned to ignore the ingame tutorial's yappings and even to turn it off to prevent ourselves from being funneled into 'demonstrations' of cover purchases, costing you initial starting HP.

The fact that metrics show most bought covers are for IM35 demonstrates nothing of the rational thought of the playerbase at large. If anything, it demonstrates that the game is succesfully geared towards intentionally starting players off on the wrong foot by selling them false promises.

HailMary

itstime1234 wrote:

So now your position is that the individual has rage trigger as oppose to a good point. So if it was a good point, the devs would have taken it into consideration

The two (rage trigger vs. good point) aren't mutually exclusive. But, that doesn't make them equivalent. And yes, the devs consider many points that forumites bring up. Whether or not their considerations agree with forum opinion is a different matter. There's a notable difference between "the devs considered (and addressed) the issue" and "the devs did exactly what I wanted them to do." The CMags nerf and the Spidey nerf are prime examples.

Now you are fundamentally stereotyping ppl on here saying they go overboard with comments like shield purchase etc etc.

Declaring that health-pack sales and shield sales drive major changes in MPQ gameplay mechanics is self-aggrandizing nonsense. The numbers simply do not support it in the slightest. So, if your terribly vague "ppl on here" group is somehow limited to complaints like that, then sure, feel free to think I'm "fundamentally stereotyping" certain people.

In case you missed it the first several times I mentioned it, forumites provide a lot of good suggestions and bring up a number of real issues. That doesn't excuse or lend any credibility to the large volume of nonsensical forum rage.

itstime1234 wrote:

You want to slurp everything D3 does go nuts,

itstime1234 wrote:

I think its disrespectful and demeaning to downplay [a comment]. Just because you don't agree doesn't make them or their comments any less valuable to this forum.

What adorable hypocrisy.

_RiO_ wrote:

Oh, like that wasn't some kind of self-fullfilling prophecy...

And regarding 2* Cap's popularity?

P.S. - I didn't discover the forum until a couple weeks after I started MPQ. I think I bought an MBW cover right off the bat? I thought MBW & CHawk were the initial options, but I only vaguely remember that.

itstime1234

HailMary wrote:

itstime1234 wrote:

So now your position is that the individual has rage trigger as oppose to a good point. So if it was a good point, the devs would have taken it into consideration

The two (rage trigger vs. good point) aren't mutually exclusive. But, that doesn't make them equivalent. And yes, the devs consider many points that forumites bring up. Whether or not their considerations agree with forum opinion is a different matter. There's a notable difference between "the devs considered (and addressed) the issue" and "the devs did exactly what I wanted them to do." The CMags nerf and the Spidey nerf are prime examples.

Now you are fundamentally stereotyping ppl on here saying they go overboard with comments like shield purchase etc etc.

Declaring that health-pack sales and shield sales drive major changes in MPQ gameplay mechanics is self-aggrandizing nonsense. The numbers simply do not support it in the slightest. So, if your terribly vague "ppl on here" group is somehow limited to complaints like that, then sure, feel free to think I'm "fundamentally stereotyping" certain people.

In case you missed it the first several times I mentioned it, forumites provide a lot of good suggestions and bring up a number of real issues. That doesn't excuse or lend any credibility to the large volume of nonsensical forum rage.

itstime1234 wrote:

You want to slurp everything D3 does go nuts,

itstime1234 wrote:

I think its disrespectful and demeaning to downplay [a comment]. Just because you don't agree doesn't make them or their comments any less valuable to this forum.

What adorable hypocrisy.

_RiO_ wrote:

Oh, like that wasn't some kind of self-fullfilling prophecy...

And regarding 2* Cap's popularity?

P.S. - I didn't discover the forum until a couple weeks after I started MPQ. I think I bought an MBW cover right off the bat? I thought MBW & CHawk were the initial options, but I only vaguely remember that.

So now its a good point but rage trigger. Quite a stark contrast from your initial assessment of nothing more than rage trigger.

You are fundamentally stereotyping the forum with your comments about anyone complaining believes its some grand scheme for more shields and health packs. You want to dismiss everyone using that paint brush go ahead, but don't say they fall into that category. I don't care what D3s revenues are in that category, you might be right but you are missing my underlying point that this forum isn't infested with only people thinking that is a major revenue stream.

Oh yes, the large volume of garbage, yet you seem to frequent the boards quite frequently. Guess I should extend the same advice you so kindly provided to the other individual who you believe was not enjoying MPQ and that's to try something else.

HailMary

itstime1234 wrote:

So now its a good point but rage trigger. Quite a stark contrast from your initial assessment of nothing more than rage trigger.

You are fundamentally stereotyping the forum with your comments about anyone complaining believes its some grand scheme for more shields and health packs. You want to dismiss everyone using that paint brush go ahead, but don't say they fall into that category. I don't care what D3s revenues are in that category, you might be right

If you'd actually read my comments, including ones that you yourself quoted, you'll see where I stated multiple times that the forum does generate good suggestions about actual issues. I even provided examples, repeatedly. I'd rehash them yet again, but you'll likely just ignore them as you've consistently done so far, preferring to tilt at windmills instead.

itstime1234 wrote:

you are missing my underlying point that this forum isn't infested with only people thinking that is a major revenue stream.

O the irony.

itstime1234 wrote:

Oh yes, the large volume of garbage, yet you seem to frequent the boards quite frequently. Guess I should extend the same advice you so kindly provided to the other individual who you believe was not enjoying MPQ and that's to try something else.

Eh, I still enjoy some aspects of the forum, which you might've picked up on if, again, you actually read the comments you quoted.

Unknown

@HailMary

You can't use your own personal F2P experience to support the claim that MPQ in its current state is "shockingly F2P-friendly." You started playing when this game was indeed F2P-friendly, and it was infinitely easier to build up a 3* roster.

If we can agree that time ~= money, then this revised statement seems closer to the truth: "Once you have spent as much time playing this game as I have, then the game becomes a bit more F2P-friendly."

Unknown

_RiO_ wrote:

arktos1971 wrote:

Have you tried other Marvel Heroes games ?

Have you tried the actual Marvel Heroes game?

A nice example of a free-to-play game that:

• puts out a ton more new content more regularly than MPQ
• listens to and engages its playerbase, an area where Demiurge has a lot left to learn
• rakes in enough dough to keep a full development staff full-time employed and keep an MMO-capacity infrastructure up and running (in contrast to Demiurge's **** servers...)
• does not penny-pinch players for roster building. (Entire new characters with full complement of 20+ skills/abilities and multiple new builds to play for 10 USD?)
• does not punish players for playing well, like MPQ does with out-of-whack PvE scaling and PvP MMR
• let's players decide when and how long they want to play
• offered actual kick-**** anniversary gifts with their 1 year anniversary to everyone (and even extended the period to obtain those gifts for newly joining players...)
• runs special events with massive loot drop boosts and free giveaways every week. Always something nice to grab.

Also; stop white-knighting Demiurge/D3P.
The fact that their monetization model is broken to the point that making the game more accommodating would kill their profit, does not excuse them from critique. (The exact opposite, actually...)

I actually tried Marvel Heroes.

I thought the characters were ugly and did not want to play. I'm very old school when it comes to comics. One of MPQ strong point is the characters' design. They look great for the most part. I'm sure many of the recurring players are appealed by MPQ's esthetics.

_RiO_ wrote:

The fact that their monetization model is broken to the point that making the game more accommodating would kill their profit, does not excuse them from critique. (The exact opposite, actually...)

You must have read my criticism about the game. It's been fierce and even outrageous at times.

BUT, lately, there has been more positive than negative aspects. We've had several bad months in a row, but since September things have improved.

So, I think the devs deserve some "insisting" suggestions more than continuous bashing.

Ok, we pay them.

But if you bash people no matter what they do (and even if they do what you tell them to do : ie all the team-up changes came from us), they will either stop listening to you or not take you seriously.

You lose credibility.

The Dino thing was funny indeed, though expensive. I liked it. The anniversary week is fun EXCEPT the Heroic PvE. But we grind a lot of Iso. That's something positive.

At last, if some F2P players can enter the Top 10 (they deserve a medal for that, honestly), then it is possible to improve your roster more quickly. You just have to invest a lot of time, improve your skills and keep on learning the mechanics of the game.

Unknown

And I want to add one more thing.

Paying players are already spending their money in the game and they will continue doing it because they are OK with it. So, they have already "won" these clients.

F2P players are the ones that like to play the game, but they are not sure if spending their money will provide them value or satisfaction in the game. Being an F2P myself, I was at the edge of paying money twice this month. That was because of roster slots and the new characters coming in. However, I thought better and I halted myself. The reason is that a self-declared F2P game should give you enough satisfaction and free content that will make you want to pay and make you feel good abou it. In this game, the only time you think of paying money is when you are so frustrated and you feel like you hit a wall that only money can ease at that moment.

While in many games both these phenomenons exist, in MPQ there is no paying money because you feel good about the game and want to support the developers. You only pay money when you feel "cornered" here. While that is OK with people that are used to paying money often in games, this will stop many players that think well before they give their money for a service.

It is not a surprise that you see so many people asking about how to sustain themselves by being F2P. While I agree there is a way to do it (I do it), it is not a walk in the park (And it shouldn't be). What I personally think is the reason for having so many F2P people, is because the prices are very unfair for the value that you get. They are not balanced in between them. An example would be roster slots increasing value reaches a point where slots are more expensive than a single 3* cover. At this point, what is the real reward? Getting a cover or having enough HP to recruit it?

Maybe, in my opinion, if there was a better balance between price and value across the game we would have more people paying and less people complaining.

yogi_

Still bummed. Every token I've had for the past week has been a 2* except for a Purple Dino whose sole function right now is to take up a roster slot that otherwise could be of use.

Unknown

OK, I have a question that I haven't seen a clear answer yet. Is Devil Dino going to disappear from our rosters after the anniversary is over? What will happen to his covers after the events are over? I don't really understand the "Playable only during anniversary week" part (Even though he is not playable anywhere in the events so far).

Unknown

Okin107 wrote:

OK, I have a question that I haven't seen a clear answer yet. Is Devil Dino going to disappear from our rosters after the anniversary is over? What will happen to his covers after the events are over? I don't really understand the "Playable only during anniversary week" part (Even though he is not playable anywhere in the events so far).

Of course not. Some people have invested several hundreds of $ for him.

Kiamodo

Yeah that is never gonna happen.

atomzed

arktos1971 wrote:

BUT, lately, there has been more positive than negative aspects. We've had several bad months in a row, but since September things have improved.

So, I think the devs deserve some "insisting" suggestions more than continuous bashing.

Ok, we pay them.

But if you bash people no matter what they do (and even if they do what you tell them to do : ie all the team-up changes came from us), they will either stop listening to you or not take you seriously.

You lose credibility.

The Dino thing was funny indeed, though expensive. I liked it. The anniversary week is fun EXCEPT the Heroic PvE. But we grind a lot of Iso. That's something positive.

At last, if some F2P players can enter the Top 10 (they deserve a medal for that, honestly), then it is possible to improve your roster more quickly. You just have to invest a lot of time, improve your skills and keep on learning the mechanics of the game.

Well, I am pleasantly surprised by this comment! And when this comes from arktos, who has given very harsh comments before, it is a reflection of the positive changes in the last few months.

Imho, last 2 months were great. The anniversary was great too until the combined arm error.

I think when d3 deserve strong words,we shd do so. When d3 deserve a pat on the back, we should do so too.

Unknown

RE: 2* Cap's popularity:

You have to remember that 2* Cap has been a playable character in most Heroic events.... you know the ones with limited rosters. Also, 2* Cap has a higher percentage of dropping in packs and has been around since the beginning so of course the numbers are going to tilt in his direction. Just looking at numbers without looking at the context or other variables and saying "Look, 2* Cap is our 2nd most popular character because he is used more" is misleading, IMHO.

Unknown

atomzed wrote:

arktos1971 wrote:

BUT, lately, there has been more positive than negative aspects. We've had several bad months in a row, but since September things have improved.

So, I think the devs deserve some "insisting" suggestions more than continuous bashing.

Ok, we pay them.

But if you bash people no matter what they do (and even if they do what you tell them to do : ie all the team-up changes came from us), they will either stop listening to you or not take you seriously.

You lose credibility.

The Dino thing was funny indeed, though expensive. I liked it. The anniversary week is fun EXCEPT the Heroic PvE. But we grind a lot of Iso. That's something positive.

At last, if some F2P players can enter the Top 10 (they deserve a medal for that, honestly), then it is possible to improve your roster more quickly. You just have to invest a lot of time, improve your skills and keep on learning the mechanics of the game.

Well, I am pleasantly surprised by this comment! And when this comes from arktos, who has given very harsh comments before, it is a reflection of the positive changes in the last few months.

Imho, last 2 months were great. The anniversary was great too until the combined arm error.

I think when d3 deserve strong words,we shd do so. When d3 deserve a pat on the back, we should do so too.

In August, the atmosphere was doomed, but I was expecting (and said so) September would be better. Had it not been, the game would have been dead by the end of the year. But they were just preparing a lot of (good) changes. They just communicated badly. They still have improvements to make as there are lots of questions to be addressed. (By the way, when do we get the answers to the monthly Q&A marathon ?)

Hawkeye is really cool (in pve he can be a good help)
CMag nerf is not so bad. It's not the same character, but in PvE he saved my ****. Not sure I would use him in PvP anymore.
XForce Buff was cool really. It changed the metagame.
Daken 3rd ability is cool and not-cool. Cool for those who play him. Not cool : now in PvE he can make a lot more damage...
Team Ups have been improved greatly. Now that we can choose to keep or not, I really like Team Ups. And with Combined Arms and BoP, I'd like to get more Team Ups. (no, this is not a joke, though it WILL sound funny).
Dino was really entertaining and pushed our limits up (I broke my personal records for the Anniversary season)
If Lady Thor is really good, I'm sure most of the past will be forgotten and forgiven.

Yet, MPQ is still too expensive. But I'm sure they will improve that once their servers are able to host a lot more players. Shall we take bets ?

Unknown

hard to win much of this celebration when with a half an hour to go in an event, can't log in to the app. I had just purchased 5 health packs to use for pvp combined arms event to try and get enough points to be eligible to win the anniversary 10 pack following the last event, and due to app crash i am unable to do so. what are the chances i am reimbursed my HP i spent?!?!?!

HailMary

Okin107 wrote:

F2P players are the ones that like to play the game, but they are not sure if spending their money will provide them value or satisfaction in the game. Being an F2P myself, I was at the edge of paying money twice this month. That was because of roster slots and the new characters coming in. However, I thought better and I halted myself. The reason is that a self-declared F2P game should give you enough satisfaction and free content that will make you want to pay and make you feel good abou it. In this game, the only time you think of paying money is when you are so frustrated and you feel like you hit a wall that only money can ease at that moment.

Is that a fair assumption, though? It seems that a F2P game without any revenue streams outside of in-game currency which can only be used to buy useful things would naturally impede F2P progress. I would like to see useless purchasable items, though, like alt. character skins or ability animations (imagine Hulk Anger exploding in confetti, or alt.-timeline covers). That's probably a big hassle on the Marvel creative-content approval side, though.

Oh, and knowing the experiences of my alliancemates and people in several other alliances, "bang head against wall" is not even remotely the only situation in which people spend money.

Okin107 wrote:

While in many games both these phenomenons exist, in MPQ there is no paying money because you feel good about the game and want to support the developers. You only pay money when you feel "cornered" here. While that is OK with people that are used to paying money often in games, this will stop many players that think well before they give their money for a service.

It certainly doesn't happen often, but I actually know a couple of near-F2P people who literally bought some HP (during a sale, naturally ) as a thank-you to the devs. Making things cheaper would make a lot of people happier, but I don't know if it'd increase the P2W aspect of MPQ.

Okin107 wrote:

An example would be roster slots increasing value reaches a point where slots are more expensive than a single 3* cover. At this point, what is the real reward? Getting a cover or having enough HP to recruit it?

There is an argument to be made against current roster slot costs. IIRC, Ice mentioned a long time ago that the devs were considering pricing changes because the current price scaling pattern gets completely ridiculous once the current 100-slot cap is increased. I haven't seen any murmurs about it for a quite a while, though. I also think the slot-bundling change was bad. I don't think there was a good reason to switch only to bundles, as opposed to providing slot bundles as a secondary option.

However, let's try to stay grounded in reality: a 3* cover costs 1250 HP. My next roster slot, #54, costs 700 HP, and I have multiple duplicate characters. If your next roster slot costs anywhere near 1250 HP with your roster strength, you're seriously doing it wrong.

Okin107 wrote:

OK, I have a question that I haven't seen a clear answer yet. Is Devil Dino going to disappear from our rosters after the anniversary is over? What will happen to his covers after the events are over? I don't really understand the "Playable only during anniversary week" part (Even though he is not playable anywhere in the events so far).

Dino is not going to disappear after Anniversary Week, and I haven't seen anything that says "Playable only during anniversary week."

A Dino cover will be the daily reward for day 365.

MikeHock wrote:

RE: 2* Cap's popularity:

You have to remember that 2* Cap has been a playable character in most Heroic events.... you know the ones with limited rosters. Also, 2* Cap has a higher percentage of dropping in packs and has been around since the beginning so of course the numbers are going to tilt in his direction. Just looking at numbers without looking at the context or other variables and saying "Look, 2* Cap is our 2nd most popular character because he is used more" is misleading, IMHO.

2* Cap is roundly considered on the forum to be completely outclassed by Thor, CStorm, AWolv, and OBW (and Ares, but he's far less relevant due to late release and past rarity).

The fact that Cap is used significantly more than any of those characters tells you something about the difference between the forum and the playerbase at large.

GothicKratos

Small Note: Dino is only being given away in Anniversary Tokens and as a Daily Reward.

Unknown

GothicKratos wrote:

Small Note: Dino is only being given away in Anniversary Tokens and as a Daily Reward.

And as a season progression award, and as a progression award in the current PVP, and as the featured prize two PVPs ago. And as the season alliance award.

cg2912

HailMary wrote:

Okin107 wrote:

2* Cap is roundly considered on the forum to be completely outclassed by Thor, CStorm, AWolv, and OBW (and Ares, but he's far less relevant due to late release and past rarity).

The fact that Cap is used significantly more than any of those characters tells you something about the difference between the forum and the playerbase at large.

Is this the stat your referring to about how Cap is used "significanlty more"?

Ice on 3/18/14:

- Stripping out 1 stars the top 5 used in order are: Thor (Marvel NOW!), Storm (Classic), Black Widow (Original), Wolverine (Astonishing), Captain America. So Iron Man (Model 40) fell off and Black Widow (Original) stepped up.

HailMary

cg2912 wrote:

Is this the stat your referring to about how Cap is used "significanlty more"?

Ice on 3/18/14:

- Stripping out 1 stars the top 5 used in order are: Thor (Marvel NOW!), Storm (Classic), Black Widow (Original), Wolverine (Astonishing), Captain America. So Iron Man (Model 40) fell off and Black Widow (Original) stepped up.

Oh, interesting.

Do you have a link for that?

I may indeed have completely misremembered the stats he gave us.