I got back my sanity! (Edited)

Unknown

Note: Topic was restarted as requested from Riggy. Text below is edited to avoid some comments that mentioned cheating.

Lately I have been feeling a sudden pressure and anxiety and I was unable to locate the source of it. It was present almost every day and honestly, I thought I was becoming sick for no reason.

I have been playing this game for more than 5 months and I have it installed for even more. The last 3 months I took it way more seriously than before due to my advancement in the 2* land. I saw myself becoming competitive in PVP and doing well in PVE. I thought that was the right moment to find an alliance and start being serious in order to become one of the big whales. So I did it. It felt good at the beginning. But it was not long until I realised that covers would come way too slow and the rotation of the rewards in PVP and PVE would not be enough for me to have at least one 3* maxed very soon. With that in mind I fooled myself to continue and be patient as covers came slower than a turtle mounted on another turtle.

3 months later I have one LCap at 10 covers lvl 127 and all the rest of the 3* are not worth leveling. 32 roster slots with 7 maxed 2* and full of useless 3* waiting and staring at me. Now call me insane, but I think patience has a limit. For me this was it. 3 months of every day grinding and fighting my MMR to never go past 600 points in PVP and never finish T5 in PVE. End times are just exhausting and 8hr shields mixed with limited but expensive roster slots is just like the game is screaming at you "Throw some money into it you cheap idiot!".

Long story short, while I loved many of the features that this game offered (Mainly the fact that there are Marvel Heroes in it), I grew overly tired of repeating everything day after day for 3 months straight only to find out that the more I push the more trouble I put myself into. I have heard that once you have 2 3* maxed then it gets easier. I sincerely don't think so. I think that is when you go full crazy on spending HP to go higher and higher in the ranks. That is when money starts to be wasted and then you realize that it is a bit too late for you to quit the game because you have already invested in it enough for it to just be forgotten.

Few days after the anniversary, after we got back to the old routine of punching our MMR with tanking and pushing enemies that where so randomly put in front of us, I played the game on a friend's phone that has played the game so long and he has a maxed roster, just to see what it feels like. After playing around a bit and asked his opinion too, I realized two things:

1. There is just not enough material to play for at the so called "End game". Having a maxed roster is just not worth it. The way to go there is what this game has and they are trying to extend it to an almost nerve breaking slow pace. Personally, it is just insane to play a game for 5+ months and still be called a transitioning guy. I have played MMOs for half a year and the only thing I was missing was the high class legendary items of the game. Sure you can throw money in it and progress faster, but after I saw what the end game is like, I'd rather have my good night sleep.

2. After playing the end game, I found it just not worth it to go back to my "normal" progress on my phone and start the slow process of leveling and winning covers. I just felt so demotivated that I wanted to actually watch a movie or do an activity that would take more than 2.5 hours. And I say that because that is the interval that this game gives you to come back and farm some more nodes in PVE and have full health packs. I went out and enjoyed a good meal with my wife and then went out to the movies. She was surprised that I was not checking my phone every 30 mins to see if I was attacked or not. And I felt good to keep my phone in my pocket and look at it as a normal device again and not the spawn of Satan that it was before.

PS: I am still waiting for future patches and fixes for new game modes and end times. But I am glad to say that I can finally live a healthy life without stress and anxiety created by a 5" screen.

GuntherBlobel

That sucks. It's a shame that progress is so slow. I feel like I'm doing fine because I joined a long time ago, so each new character doesn't set my progress toward the end game back too far. But in a way, I too have been static in my progress. Since I level all characters evenly, I've been hovering around Lvl 120 for a very long time (Patch, for example, hasn't gained a lvl in at least 6 months).

Demiurge spent too much time last year chasing moving targets (like scaling and rubberband optimization just to perpetuate the hated end-time format). In doing so, they've put off the ultimate problem: the end game. Veteran players are greatly stunting the progress of new players, simply because that is the only game they've been given to play. But, if there was a viable end game, then they could separate 2* -> 3* players from 3* -> 4* players with an "Elite league," which could solve the problem.

Unfortunately, Match-3 ain't exactly Chess in terms of strategy. At the same time, they didn't build enough strategy and balance into character abilities. So I'm not yet convinced there is a compelling end game to be made with what was built last year. Maybe it's time for "MPQ2: For reals this time."

Unknown

GuntherBlobel wrote:

Unfortunately, Match-3 ain't exactly Chess in terms of strategy. At the same time, they didn't build enough strategy and balance into character abilities. So I'm not yet convinced there is a compelling end game to be made with what was built last year. Maybe it's time for "MPQ2: For reals this time."

So, let's have everyone scrap all the time, effort and (maybe) money that they put into MPQ and start over on MPQ2. And this time, there will be an end game. Just put in another 6 months re-developing your roster and (hopefully) a little money to speed up the transition and in 6 months, we will have end game material waiting at the end of your transition, we promise. Well, in 9 months tops, trust us. Pinkie swear.

Sorry but I wouldn't trust these guys to design a hole in a sandbox, much less endgame material. I am enjoying the journey, not worrying about the destination. If I get to that point, then it's time to go.

GuntherBlobel

papa07 wrote:

GuntherBlobel wrote:

Unfortunately, Match-3 ain't exactly Chess in terms of strategy. At the same time, they didn't build enough strategy and balance into character abilities. So I'm not yet convinced there is a compelling end game to be made with what was built last year. Maybe it's time for "MPQ2: For reals this time."

So, let's have everyone scrap all the time, effort and (maybe) money that they put into MPQ and start over on MPQ2. And this time, there will be an end game. Just put in another 6 months re-developing your roster and (hopefully) a little money to speed up the transition and in 6 months, we will have end game material waiting at the end of your transition, we promise. Well, in 9 months tops, trust us. Pinkie swear.

Sorry but I wouldn't trust these guys to design a hole in a sandbox, much less endgame material. I am enjoying the journey, not worrying about the destination. If I get to that point, then it's time to go.

Yeah, I agree. Let's see where this train goes. And to be fair, they don't seem to know what they are doing, because this hasn't exactly been done before. At least there isn't some clear standard like M:TG for them to copy.

Like you, I don't want them to make MPQ2 now. If they can hack things as they go for another year, that would be best. But there are already a decent number of people at the end game. If those people quit now, they might also see their MPQ journey as a "waste" of effort and money.

mohio

For where I am in the the "end game" scenario (which for those interested is ~6 maxed 3*, fully covered almost everyone except Fury and the newest 3-4 chars) the issue is starting to become the people pushing up behind me and next to me, etc. I don't mean this to sound entitled to being in the top x% cause I was here early, but with so many more people getting max sentry, max hood, max daken (and let's face it, for pvp you don't really need more than that) it's getting really crowded here near the end game, and there is just no way to differentiate yourself and nothing else to spend your in-game time on.

So it becomes who can spend the most time on pve and who is willing to spend the most hp in pvp. That might not even be so bad in and of itself, but it's all the game has to offer and it repeats itself over and over ad nauseum. The gauntlet was a great break from the usual 'pvp disguised as pve', now if we could just get something different to give the endless pvp slog a break (the between season pvps are nice, but they're still the same ol pvps, just with different boosted chars and requirements).

dr tinykittylove

mohio wrote:

For where I am in the the "end game" scenario (which for those interested is ~6 maxed 3*, fully covered almost everyone except Fury and the newest 3-4 chars) the issue is starting to become the people pushing up behind me and next to me, etc. I don't mean this to sound entitled to being in the top x% cause I was here early, but with so many more people getting max sentry, max hood, max daken (and let's face it, for pvp you don't really need more than that) it's getting really crowded here near the end game, and there is just no way to differentiate yourself and nothing else to spend your in-game time on.

So it becomes who can spend the most time on pve and who is willing to spend the most hp in pvp. That might not even be so bad in and of itself, but it's all the game has to offer and it repeats itself over and over ad nauseum. The gauntlet was a great break from the usual 'pvp disguised as pve', now if we could just get something different to give the endless pvp slog a break (the between season pvps are nice, but they're still the same ol pvps, just with different boosted chars and requirements).

I think it would be nice to have a regularly refreshed Gauntlet-type event that sticks around like the prologue missions. No pressure, moderate value rewards like maybe the vaulted characters that people can take their time picking up if they don't feel like grinding pve or pvp.

I still haven't managed to fully cover my bagman and I've been working on it for months now.

Unknown

There are plenty of competitive games where people have identical strength characters and they still keep on playing for the sake of competition. You don't need to constantly increase the level cap like MMORPGs to have an enjoyable and competitive world.

That said, with PvP evolving into nearly pure P2W and PvE winner determined by whoever sleep less, the future doesn't seem to be particularly good at the moment.

Unknown

From what I read, I see that my concerns about the end game are true. There is just not enough end game to hang on in there. Without throwing away all the good stuff that this game offers, I think the 3* transition and upwards is just not enjoyable after a point. That point depends from one person to the other, but the sure thing is that we all reach it sooner or later.

I wish I could wipe out my memory of MPQ and start from scratch. From the beginning up to the moment you finish 4-5 2* characters and get several 3* midway there, this game offers you a good feeling of achievement. I have been staring at my roster just admiring what I've achieved over the past months.

However, after that point everything starts to become a chore. And it is not that what makes me sick, it is the fact that the progress I had before is slowed down by whole months. So, if it took me 2 months to get 2-3 2* going, it will take me more than a year to have my first two 3* (Considering casual and F2P game style). Not only that is slow, but I don't really know if it is worth the time and effort. Sure, 3* are the next tier, but are they so great that I need to go through all this to get them? Many of them are completely broken and useless even some of the recently released ones (Beast, Doc Ock, Spiderman, Loki, Ragnarok, Doom etc). I understand that they have their uses, but they are not worthy to face Sentry/Hood/Daken, thus, not giving me any advantage in being more competitive whatsoever.

I loved this game, I really did. But, I am really sceptic about the direction the devs are taking it. I really hope there will be a change that will bring back some of the excitement for me.

mohio

You should read colognoisseur's post about what the end game is like for him. There is definitely still fun in the game, but like you said, it might not be worth it to you for the amount of fun you think will be there. For me I've taken things pretty easy for the past two months cause the rewards haven't been anything I've really needed, but it's still been fun to take my guys out for a spin every now and then and make a big push when I really need to. I've found a fun group to play and chat with and that's kept me going and interested. I'm looking forward to blade and the new Thor and hopefully can collect some covers so I can try them out before too long.

Anyway, not trying to convince you that this game is for you. It's certainly not for everyone. Hope you find some fun, whether in this game or another .

atomzed

As someone who said in this forum somewhere,its not the destination but the journey that matters.

You are right that there is no end game content. If someone start from scratch now, and decided to pay a million dollars on the packs to get all the characters covers and iso necessary to max them, he would have all the max characters. Great roster, but no fun.

In fact I think someone did that and said he reregretted it as he had nothing else to play for.

I am still hoping they will have some endless dungeon or raid (not much hope though). In the mean time I am setting myself the challenge of making do with my current hp and playing as little possible, to get the max number of covers. That include not grinding pve, hitting 800 points for some pvp to gain max hp and not shielding.... the resources management becomes part of the fun.

Unknown

mohio wrote:

You should read colognoisseur's post about what the end game is like for him. There is definitely still fun in the game, but like you said, it might not be worth it to you for the amount of fun you think will be there. For me I've taken things pretty easy for the past two months cause the rewards haven't been anything I've really needed, but it's still been fun to take my guys out for a spin every now and then and make a big push when I really need to. I've found a fun group to play and chat with and that's kept me going and interested. I'm looking forward to blade and the new Thor and hopefully can collect some covers so I can try them out before too long.

Anyway, not trying to convince you that this game is for you. It's certainly not for everyone. Hope you find some fun, whether in this game or another .

Fun can't be 100% imposed. Maybe for some people playing blindfolded is fun but that can hardly be considered a global criteria for fun. In general to have fun you have to not care about how well you place in an event, and while placement should not be everything, it's also not very fun if you always placed very poorly. While nobody expects all characters to be viable, right now most characters are nowhere viable in PvP or PvE at the high end. If you want to mess around with some weaker characters it just means you take a huge beating on your ranking in PvP, and in PvE it'll usually be even worse because PvE teams are even more unfair in general.

Unknown

I kinda wish you could play multiple accounts on the same device. I don't want to give up my current progress but would be fun to be a 1* player again. Or maybe it would not be fun and remind me how good it is being a 3* player.

Truthfully, I'll probably hang up MPQ by the end of the year. Competition is getting worse and I don't want to put in the time to keep up. 4* Thor seems awesome, but unavailable to a player of my level. Gauntlet was new and fun but has yet to be seen again. I love my alliance but still finding myself wishing I were spending my time elsewhere instead of making sure we place well.

Maybe this is just the post Anniversary low where we had lots of fun there, and now it is back to the everyday grind and by contrast the grind seems that much more bleak than usual, combined with lots of rewards I really don't care about. Hard to even get excited about Blade as I am on track to maybe have him playable by January or February, maybe?

Unknown

Or you, like me, realized how little this game offers in return to the time and effort you put in it. Like you, I grew tired of spending so much time in the game trying to progress. Especially when that progress backfired on me and put me up in stronger brackets and scaled my PVE to the heavens. How do you compete against 5 X-Men in your bracket that are 1800+ points from day 1 in PVP? Why am I eligible to go against them with ONLY LCap leveled to 127 and 7 maxed 2*? Did I really progress or I became easy food for bigger sharks here? So tired of it.