Collector's Edition

ErikPeter

I should preface this by saying I am a big fan of MPQ:DR. It's one of the best mobile/casual games I've encountered and I have been playing constantly for a while now. In particular, I appreciate how typical "freemium" features are handled: daily rewards are great and don't punish you for going on vacation, pay-to-play elements are available but not shoved down your throat all the time, etc.

However, I'm certain there's a large group of players like me who will never spend money on the current business model. I spend all my Hero Points on recruitment slots and am skeptical of paying real money for temporary boosts or random packs, when I'll just have to sell covers I don't have room for anyway.

This is why I'm suggesting a "Collector's Edition" of Marvel Puzzle Quest. This version would cost $10-15 and offer unlimited roster slots and come with 500 Hero Points. Middle-core players like me are happy because they don't have to burn as many covers. And since they no longer need to hoard for roster space, they might spend the included Hero Points on some packs and realize, "Whoa, this is cool, maybe I can afford to spend a few bucks a month on this game. And I'm sure the hardcore players would buy it too.

I realize, right now, I could simply buy some Hero Points and spend them all on roster slots, but I don't, because of my natural inclination to shun in-app purchases, or sentiments like "Keeping Juggernaut around just ain't worth $2.50 to me..." or "the best coins deal is $100, and that's just too much to spend on ANY game, let alone a mobile app". A paid version would be easier to justify spending money on and appease the part of me that abhors the typical "freemium" model.

Just the idea that this could possibly exist makes me excited. Seriously, take my money.

Unknown

An interesting idea. I would have paid 20 bucks at launch for that, no problem.

mischiefmaker

ErikPeter wrote:

This is why I'm suggesting a "Collector's Edition" of Marvel Puzzle Quest. This version would cost $10-15 and offer unlimited roster slots and come with 500 Hero Points.

Currently roster slots are capped at 40. So let's pretend unlimited roster slots just means all 40 are unlocked.

At current prices, you're suggesting you get 11450 hero points of value (cost to unlock 40 slots plus 500 left over), about $70 at current in-game prices, for $10-15. I mean, some discount is reasonable since you're paying it all up front, but a 78%-85% discount doesn't really seem fair.

Here's a thought, though: what if the collector's edition came with 20 slots and 500 hp, cost $9.99, and remaining slots require hero points at normal prices? That's still a pretty steep discount (3350 hp of value, about $23 worth, so a 56% discount), it gets you enough slots to unlock every 1*, every 2*, and a couple of 3*s, and still leaves you some HP to spend on cover packs or leveling up powers, as you see fit.

Would that be compelling to you, or would you still be turned off by having to buy/earn those additional roster slots?

Unknown

I like this idea as well. One of the reviews I've seen for this game (TotalBiscuit's) had similar thoughts (I believe he said something along the lines of "Why can't I just pay $20-30 and call it a day?" but don't take my word on that. There are quite a few ways that D3P can make money without making players too powerful.

ErikPeter

Yes, if it was clearly a one-time deal, I'd pay for a bonus pack of extra slots at a flat rate.

Right now I need to spend 8000 Hero Points to get to 40 slots. Until then (or maybe 30 or so) I won't be experimenting with hero packs. 10 or 20 "bonus slots" (effectively raising the cap, and progression costing the same) for a flat rate would make it much easier to justify purchase and would add to my enjoyment of the game.

Unknown

I loved the original Puzzle Quest and Galactrix. This is a great riff on the theme. I've played at least a few dozen hours on my phone, and wound up in the top ten in the latest The Hunt series. I've had a good time, and the point where I'd love to spend money on the game, but the monetization scheme puts me off.

I would happily spend $20 (what I spent on those older PQ games) for a version of this game that had no roster limits and a flatter rarity/level curve.

Specifically, I think that all characters should have the same level minimum and cap, say, from 1 to 100. That would go a long way to making each character interesting and create a more diverse metagame than roaming nerf parties. (I'll concede that Thor and **Wolverine had it coming, though.) I'd flatten out the rarity of covers as well. Four tiers is OK, but I'd peg the probabilities around 40%/30%/20%/10% for the tiers, at the most diverse.

I could even live with making such a beastie an offline single player game if that's part of the balance.

Perhaps the team will consider such an option when the F2Pness wears off and they enter the long tail of the game's life. I'll happily pick it up then.

ErikPeter

I've been thinking more about this and a retail edition would need more than slots. What it needs is some sort of permanence. The root of my reluctance to pay for mobile games is that at any time, D3 could just reset our accounts or go under and all of the time spent and progress we have accumulated wouldn't exist anymore. In 10 years, I want to be able to pull my Android out of a dusty box or wherever and load up Marvel Puzzle Quest and play around for it a little, just like I could with Puzzle Quest on my GBA.

So, a retail edition would need an extended, challenging single player campaign that doesn't require a constant connection (which would be nice for long plane trips as well). It doesn't need to have any plot. Call it a 'challenge series' or something, but what I'm thinking is a series of 10 'challenge missions'. Allow me to describe this, totally on spec.

Each mission is essentially its own event minisode, with 4 battles with 4 random rewards, (mostly ISO-8 since you probably can't redeem any tokens offline), and an even tougher boss battle that could reward a cover or three; for a total of 50 battles. The missions could get progressively harder with tricky composition so that even halfway through you need a lot of luck and skill to complete them (like, here's three level 200 Devil Dinosaurs. Go nuts.) Different characters could be powered up in different missions, encouraging players to have a diverse roster and try new things. Most importantly, it wouldn't be a replacement for the core of the game, the multiplayer events, but just an extended prologue for players to try in their downtime, and eventually maybe serve as a way to unlock a few more covers or at the very least level up some heroes and get some extra boosts and health packs.

Unknown

Ah, good point. Yes, a single purchase version would need to be an offline version. Maybe offer the PvP access, for which a connection makes sense, but there's no need to connect to the mother ship if you're just playing a single player game.

Maybe someday they will offer such a thing via Steam, and I'll pick it up again and really dive in. In the meantime, I still have the original PQ and Galactrix.