Is it time for me to stop playing?

erakbgg

I'm over 250 days in and it's slowly dawning on me that the game is getting less and less rewarding for me as I go on. Here are the major factors:

1. Events ending at inconvenient times. Most PVP events end at 1pm or 1am. My favorite time to play is in the hour after waking up and before going to work. There are too many other things I'd rather do in the evening, but I feel pressured to play just to sustain a top 100 ranking for that sweet, sweet 3-star. Otherwise, I need to invest in shields, which leads me too...

2. Scarce HP. - I've put $65 into MPQ over the months, all on HP so I can open up roster slots. I have no problem having spent this since I have probably put more time into MPQ than any other game in my life. But it's frustrating to have the HP trickle in so slowly when I need shields and more roster spots, especially at 600 a pop and especially because of...

3. Too Many New Characters. Seriously, slow down! I can't make any real progress with characters when more and more keep popping up and I need to level those guys up as best as I can for the edge in PVP. I'm feeling overwhelmed.

4. Mandatory PvE Characters. Especially when they first became available in the previous PvE event. Look, to even get that high up in the rankings of a PvE event, you have to log back in every 2-3 hours for 24 hours a day. Judging by the scores, there are tons of people who actually have time for this. Sure, there's rubber-banding to help us catch up on cumulative rewards, but it does nothing for final ranking. With the mandatory characters, it makes it even more difficult for those of us without that character to stay competitive.

5. Massive PvP Point Losses. God I hate spending a good amount of time getting up to 600 points, calling it a night, and finding the next morning I got tagged for 250 points. It's not like I can afford the multiple shields per event the top players can. (See point #2.) Don't even get me started on when I think I hit the next reward tier after a victory, only to have lost 20-30 points when someone else beat my team in the background. (Repeat 3-4 consecutive battles.)



When the original Puzzle Quest (not Marvel) came out on DS, my wife and I became obsessed with it. After months of play, we finally were able to put it away. Then PQ2 came out. My wife refused a copy jokingly stating "I just got my life back!" I feel that's the case for me. I'm feeling more frustration and pressure from this game than enjoyment. I think it's time I take a break, even a permanent one.

Unknown

Yes. Try some of the hundreds of thousands of other games out there. Or just live life otherwise. Then if you come back, you'll know what's great and what sucks about MPQ as opposed to being driven by some mindless obsession and having your time off feel like work.

Plus if you quit for a week or two, when you come back your MMR is amazing.

Unknown

erakbgg wrote:

I'm over 250 days in and it's slowly dawning on me that the game is getting less and less rewarding for me as I go on. Here are the major factors:

1. Events ending at inconvenient times. Most PVP events end at 1pm or 1am. My favorite time to play is in the hour after waking up and before going to work. There are too many other things I'd rather do in the evening, but I feel pressured to play just to sustain a top 100 ranking for that sweet, sweet 3-star. Otherwise, I need to invest in shields, which leads me too...

2. Scarce HP. - I've put $65 into MPQ over the months, all on HP so I can open up roster slots. I have no problem having spent this since I have probably put more time into MPQ than any other game in my life. But it's frustrating to have the HP trickle in so slowly when I need shields and more roster spots, especially at 600 a pop and especially because of...

3. Too Many New Characters. Seriously, slow down! I can't make any real progress with characters when more and more keep popping up and I need to level those guys up as best as I can for the edge in PVP. I'm feeling overwhelmed.

4. Mandatory PvE Characters. Especially when they first became available in the previous PvE event. Look, to even get that high up in the rankings of a PvE event, you have to log back in every 2-3 hours for 24 hours a day. Judging by the scores, there are tons of people who actually have time for this. Sure, there's rubber-banding to help us catch up on cumulative rewards, but it does nothing for final ranking. With the mandatory characters, it makes it even more difficult for those of us without that character to stay competitive.

5. Massive PvP Point Losses. God I hate spending a good amount of time getting up to 600 points, calling it a night, and finding the next morning I got tagged for 250 points. It's not like I can afford the multiple shields per event the top players can. (See point #2.) Don't even get me started on when I think I hit the next reward tier after a victory, only to have lost 20-30 points when someone else beat my team in the background. (Repeat 3-4 consecutive battles.)



When the original Puzzle Quest (not Marvel) came out on DS, my wife and I became obsessed with it. After months of play, we finally were able to put it away. Then PQ2 came out. My wife refused a copy jokingly stating "I just got my life back!" I feel that's the case for me. I'm feeling more frustration and pressure from this game than enjoyment. I think it's time I take a break, even a permanent one.

I agree with everything you've said 1000%. Im on Day 350+ and I stopped playing for 2-3 months over the summer, only logging in once a day for the daily bonus. I stopped playing because of everything you mentioned. Progressing is slow as F@!ck unless you devote you life and $$$$$$$ into this game. I came back when Captain Marvel was released to see that very little has changed and you just have to recognize that your time, money and efforts are just not worth it. Play casually and try to make the best of it.

Unknown

I've had the same issues, and honestly, I think you have to rip the Band-Aid off and just drop the game for a few days, a few weeks, whatever. Because let's not kid ourselves - the game IS addictive. Any game with random elements like new characters from cover packs and what-not will trigger a pretty huge dopamine rush. Remember when you first started playing? Remember when you got your first few gold covers, and you were able to start rocking some of the PVE events and even place high enough in PVP to get another gold cover?

That's all waning. It'll continue to wane. You're on maintenance now and it'll probably be maintenance for the rest of your life.

I gave the game about three days off and felt better about it. I'll do the same coming up here - just need to take a few weeks off and play other things (like daibar mentioned).

_RiO_

daibar wrote:

Plus if you quit for a week or two, when you come back your MMR is amazing.

I can vouch for this.
A few months back I was out on a business trip for a week, without means to play MPQ; my otherwise murderous MMR had sunk back to a very comfy partially-leveled-2* level and seemed to stick there for a right bit longer than is the case with tanking. (It seems just going cold for a season might be the better cure for MMR...)

Unknown

_RiO_ wrote:

daibar wrote:

Plus if you quit for a week or two, when you come back your MMR is amazing.

I can vouch for this.
A few months back I was out on a business trip for a week, without means to play MPQ; my otherwise murderous MMR had sunk back to a very comfy partially-leveled-2* level and seemed to stick there for a right bit longer than is the case with tanking. (It seems just going cold for a season might be the better cure for MMR...)

may I ask what roster level are you at? and did you also stop logging in for daily rewards?

IamTheDanger

As i recently stated to an alliance mate; "with Dragon Age Inquisition, The new Assassin's Creed, and Metal Gear 5 coming soon, my MPQ play time may sufer a bit. Playing MPQ, and only MPQ, means you would miss out on so many other games you enjoy. Question is though, do you take a complete break and quit cold turkey, or just not play as much?

_RiO_

silverrex wrote:

_RiO_ wrote:

daibar wrote:

Plus if you quit for a week or two, when you come back your MMR is amazing.

I can vouch for this.
A few months back I was out on a business trip for a week, without means to play MPQ; my otherwise murderous MMR had sunk back to a very comfy partially-leveled-2* level and seemed to stick there for a right bit longer than is the case with tanking. (It seems just going cold for a season might be the better cure for MMR...)

may I ask what roster level are you at? and did you also stop logging in for daily rewards?

At the time I had two 3* breaking level 110 and one 3* breaking level 100. Everything else was either maxed 2*, maxed 1* or unbuilt, incomplete 3*.
And as I had no means on me to play MPQ at all; yes, that includes not logging in for dailies.

Unknown

_RiO_ wrote:

daibar wrote:

Plus if you quit for a week or two, when you come back your MMR is amazing.

I can vouch for this.
A few months back I was out on a business trip for a week, without means to play MPQ; my otherwise murderous MMR had sunk back to a very comfy partially-leveled-2* level and seemed to stick there for a right bit longer than is the case with tanking. (It seems just going cold for a season might be the better cure for MMR...)

I can NOT vouch for this.

I open new PvP events and see high level enemies across the board just about all the time. I have 10 or 11 3*s above level 100 although only 3 are maxed: Spidey, Punisher & Black Widow Grey Suit.

GuntherBlobel

MikeHock wrote:

_RiO_ wrote:

daibar wrote:

Plus if you quit for a week or two, when you come back your MMR is amazing.

I can vouch for this.
A few months back I was out on a business trip for a week, without means to play MPQ; my otherwise murderous MMR had sunk back to a very comfy partially-leveled-2* level and seemed to stick there for a right bit longer than is the case with tanking. (It seems just going cold for a season might be the better cure for MMR...)

I can NOT vouch for this.

I open new PvP events and see high level enemies across the board just about all the time. I have 10 or 11 3*s above level 100 although only 3 are maxed: Spidey, Punisher & Black Widow Grey Suit.

I think the previous comment is correct. I'm not in a competitive alliance, so I take a break at the beginning of each Season, skipping the first few PvPs. When I start again, I see nothing but under-covered 2* until I hit 600. Then, it's 166/270, like we all have come to expect. The 166 wall is definitely an anti-tanking measure. Unfortunately, it also means that no 2* will ever get progression awards over 800. Ever.

Lystrata

I think you're probably the only one who can decide if it's time for you to stop playing or not. People can give you typical advice such as 'stop when it's no longer fun!' and 'when it becomes nothing more than a grind, give it a break!', but really... s'up to you, no?

For some actual input though, maybe consider what requirements the game should meet for you to keep playing / to stop playing? In my case, I've made it veeery clear to my partner that if this game ever overtook real life, we'd be deleting it (such as setting alarms in the middle of the night, avoiding catching up with people on weekends / leaving gatherings early just to be available for the 'final push' of whatever event, etc).

Also think about what your version of 'winning' here is? E.g. my version of 'winning' the game is enjoying the playtime, rather than grinding endlessly for rewards. For instance, I didn't remotely care about winning She-Hulk, so didn't put much effort into that. (Which then leads into what alliance you're in, if you're in one that demands results every 2 days, etc etc etc.)

In terms of 'slowness of progression', I don't mind the game taking a long time to progress, because... eh, it's a game. Something to pass away the time now and then. Once it stops being enjoyable, and feels like more of a 'chore' than a game, I'd stop.

Unknown

GuntherBlobel wrote:

MikeHock wrote:

_RiO_ wrote:

daibar wrote:

Plus if you quit for a week or two, when you come back your MMR is amazing.

I can vouch for this.
A few months back I was out on a business trip for a week, without means to play MPQ; my otherwise murderous MMR had sunk back to a very comfy partially-leveled-2* level and seemed to stick there for a right bit longer than is the case with tanking. (It seems just going cold for a season might be the better cure for MMR...)

I can NOT vouch for this.

I open new PvP events and see high level enemies across the board just about all the time. I have 10 or 11 3*s above level 100 although only 3 are maxed: Spidey, Punisher & Black Widow Grey Suit.

I think the previous comment is correct. I'm not in a competitive alliance, so I take a break at the beginning of each Season, skipping the first few PvPs. When I start again, I see nothing but under-covered 2* until I hit 600. Then, it's 166/270, like we all have come to expect. The 166 wall is definitely an anti-tanking measure. Unfortunately, it also means that no 2* will ever get progression awards over 800. Ever.

I completely quit for 12 days summer vacation with a full 2* roster. (eg 7-8 2* maxed). Instead of facing max 2* from the get go and hitting max 3* quickly, for the first 2 PVPs I had tons of 1-2* transitioners in the bracket, and even 2-3* transitioners. Of course I did hit max 3* at the end of PVPs, but that's no different than any other.
I think I once hit 900 or 1000, but that was around season 2 and I was chewing health packs like crazy on 7-8 point matches.
You can hit really high scores by grinding 10 point matches at a time; it's just absurdly tedious and not worth the effort.

Unknown

After ~300 days of almost daily playing and couple hundred dollars spent I've reached a point where MPQ has become quite stagnant for me. Don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining. I just feel I've gone beyond the point of feeling frustrated about this game's shortcomings or happy about it's small successes. Probably because I have a dozen "best" 3*s cover-maxed and almost all of them also in lvl166. My best 4* (XForce) is lvl220 with full covers. Very few events anymore hold a prize that make me feel I really need them for my roster.

For me, there is no more exciting achievements or any big goal worth going for. I'm more than happy to log in once a day and do few battles, that's it. And it feels GREAT. My MPQ addiction is waning down and soon I can move on. Which is all good and proper. Time to find other challenges and addictions.

Unknown

Ariakos wrote:

After ~300 days of almost daily playing and couple hundred dollars spent I've reached a point where MPQ has become quite stagnant for me. Don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining. I just feel I've gone beyond the point of feeling frustrated about this game's shortcomings or happy about it's small successes. Probably because I have a dozen "best" 3*s cover-maxed and almost all of them also in lvl166. My best 4* (XForce) is lvl220 with full covers. Very few events anymore hold a prize that make me feel I really need them for my roster.

For me, there is no more exciting achievements or any big goal worth going for. I'm more than happy to log in once a day and do few battles, that's it. And it feels GREAT. My MPQ addiction is waning down and soon I can move on. Which is all good and proper. Time to find other challenges and addictions.

Perhaps you'll be fiending for MPQ when they release a character you love

Wonko33

MikeHock wrote:

Ariakos wrote:

After ~300 days of almost daily playing and couple hundred dollars spent I've reached a point where MPQ has become quite stagnant for me. Don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining. I just feel I've gone beyond the point of feeling frustrated about this game's shortcomings or happy about it's small successes. Probably because I have a dozen "best" 3*s cover-maxed and almost all of them also in lvl166. My best 4* (XForce) is lvl220 with full covers. Very few events anymore hold a prize that make me feel I really need them for my roster.

For me, there is no more exciting achievements or any big goal worth going for. I'm more than happy to log in once a day and do few battles, that's it. And it feels GREAT. My MPQ addiction is waning down and soon I can move on. Which is all good and proper. Time to find other challenges and addictions.

Perhaps you'll be fiending for MPQ when they release a character you love

Except that he won't be able to get him because the PvE will require a character that he doesn't have because it was released while he was on break--- I speak from experience. Not a good idea to be on break during the time Sentry and LDaken came out

Spoit

Wonko33 wrote:

MikeHock wrote:

Ariakos wrote:

After ~300 days of almost daily playing and couple hundred dollars spent I've reached a point where MPQ has become quite stagnant for me. Don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining. I just feel I've gone beyond the point of feeling frustrated about this game's shortcomings or happy about it's small successes. Probably because I have a dozen "best" 3*s cover-maxed and almost all of them also in lvl166. My best 4* (XForce) is lvl220 with full covers. Very few events anymore hold a prize that make me feel I really need them for my roster.

For me, there is no more exciting achievements or any big goal worth going for. I'm more than happy to log in once a day and do few battles, that's it. And it feels GREAT. My MPQ addiction is waning down and soon I can move on. Which is all good and proper. Time to find other challenges and addictions.

Perhaps you'll be fiending for MPQ when they release a character you love

Except that he won't be able to get him because the PvE will require a character that he doesn't have because it was released while he was on break--- I speak from experience. Not a good idea to be on break during the time Sentry and LDaken came out

Yeah, I'm lucky that my quiting period was DD and psylocke, but it was definitely hell trying to get LT without the chain of required characters.

Unknown

I took a break for August and September, only recently coming back for Doc Ock and the Anniversary event, and even then I haven't been playing with the same zeal as I used to.

I've found that the break was well worth it. Although I don't have Beast or Colossus, it's not the end of the world. I'm playing PVE much more casually and I still find that I can rank top 100 in it with much less effort. Because I only have one max 3*, I still have a lot of leveling to do and with the large amount of ISO it takes to level characters up, I don't feel like I need every character.

Blade looks good and I'm finding the game to be a lot of fun. I just don't let it affect my schedule as much as I used to.

Unknown

Wonko33 wrote:

MikeHock wrote:

Ariakos wrote:

After ~300 days of almost daily playing and couple hundred dollars spent I've reached a point where MPQ has become quite stagnant for me. Don't get me wrong: I'm not complaining. I just feel I've gone beyond the point of feeling frustrated about this game's shortcomings or happy about it's small successes. Probably because I have a dozen "best" 3*s cover-maxed and almost all of them also in lvl166. My best 4* (XForce) is lvl220 with full covers. Very few events anymore hold a prize that make me feel I really need them for my roster.

For me, there is no more exciting achievements or any big goal worth going for. I'm more than happy to log in once a day and do few battles, that's it. And it feels GREAT. My MPQ addiction is waning down and soon I can move on. Which is all good and proper. Time to find other challenges and addictions.

Perhaps you'll be fiending for MPQ when they release a character you love

Except that he won't be able to get him because the PvE will require a character that he doesn't have because it was released while he was on break--- I speak from experience. Not a good idea to be on break during the time Sentry and LDaken came out

Oh, I know all about it! I used to play for a few hours a day and was able to score new characters in each PvE until Lazy Daken. I missed out on Lazy Daken and was totally fed up with the game so I took 2-3 months off. I came back around Captain Marvel and got lucky, winniner her and She-Hulk, but I've not been able to come close to winning other new characters in any recent PvE. I don't even try to score high in PvE anymore; I consider it a huge clusterf@ck and I just use PvE to score some ISO.