What is the end game?

morph3us

Just wanted to raise the question as to what the end game actually is, in MPQ?

With the release of Star Lord, there's been a lot of discussion about the 3* to 4* transition as the end game. While I understand that having a pair of maxed 4*s (namely X-Force and TGT) enables a player to be as successful as one might possible be able to be in PvP, I was wondering what else that enabled. It certainly doesn't change your PvE experience, beyond having level 395 opponents, which hardly seems to be a worthy end point, in and of itself.

It seems to be that the premise of MPQ, when the devs first released the game, was all of the content should be accessible to all the players, through PvE, and arguably PvP (excluding the 166 wall, which is a topic for another thread). Having transitioned from 2* to 3* territory, I can certainly make a case that the breadth of 3* characters available does in fact change the PvE experience, depending on whom you field (and the variety does make it very interesting, at least in my opinion). I'm not convinced that having 4* characters sufficiently alters this beyond the 3* territory.

Although I'd applaud the devs' aim in making all the content accessible to all the players, I also do think that there's worth in having endgame content directed specifically at players with a developed 4* roster, in a similar way that, for instance, WoW has endgame raids, or that a mobile game like Marvel: Contest of Champions has specific 4* events. I appreciate that some players don't like the thought of having content that they can't access (and indeed, I wouldn't be able to access it with my roster being as it is currently), but I also like the thought of having an aspirational gameplay goal, not just an aspirational character development goal. The aspirational character goal just seems a bit directionless to me, without some accompanying content.

I'd be interested to hear everyone else's thoughts.

Unknown

There really isn't one. Arbitary collection goals is not the same as end game, which is what people seems to think what the end game is. If there was some kind of reverse survival mode then collection is a valid endgame even if it's something fairly contrived like "I need 10 more copies of maxed out X Forces for backup to beat this node". Right now, all we're doing is accumulating stuff and watch some number go up whether it's iso or the level of your character but none of that translates to anything related to progressing in the game itself. That's why I've always been skeptical about the long term viability of this game. I don't believe you need a strong endgame to do well, but currently there is nothing at all.

GothicKratos

There's no endgame in MPQ, anymore than a fighting game does or a TCG does.

rednailz

My personal "end game" was to have the usual 2 maxed for PvP purposes and have any charecters completed that I really liked.

I was orignially hanging on forever to the hope that the prologue 1 player story and levels would continue. That was it's own fun in a way.

As time is going on I'm less and less concerned with having a dynamic 4 * duo, and not sure what I'd be playing for after that.

As it stands, there's no end game for me...just playing until it's not as much fun or the effort takes for unfun things outweights the fun. If D3 released a breakdown of who they would be releasing over the next 6 months and how many * they are I would make a decision that day if I was going to semi-retire or not. Part of the goal for me was to max out a couple of my faves....who aren't in the game yet.

I really don't think there is an end game or intended really to be one. I can see the game dying before an end game point comes. It's a match 3 phone / tablet game...there are millions, and D3 is an angry birds away from having to pack it in, I think.

morph3us

That's pretty much what I'm worried about. What I'm hearing is that once the 4* transition is complete, there's not a lot left to do and people will start leaving the game. I don't think introducing a hypothetical 5* character is anything but a stopgap measure at best, either, since it's the same carrot, just further away.

Which leads me back to my question, which I should rephrase, "Does MPQ need an end game?"

GothicKratos

Personally, I don't think it does. Even if you look at something like Angry Birds, there's no traditional endgame. You either play to the end of the content or you achieve max stars in each level - the latter kind of being an endgame, but not really.

Unknown

morph3us wrote:

That's pretty much what I'm worried about. What I'm hearing is that once the 4* transition is complete, there's not a lot left to do and people will start leaving the game. I don't think introducing a hypothetical 5* character is anything but a stopgap measure at best, either, since it's the same carrot, just further away.

Which leads me back to my question, which I should rephrase, "Does MPQ need an end game?"

It does but what is an endgame? The ultimate endgame of MTG is to be able to compete at the Pro Tour level so competition itself can be the endgame. Now MPQ's PvP doesn't suffice because there aren't any huge prizes for it and that it's a general mess where doing well generally has very little to do with how good you're at making match 3s so it's not regarded with the same prestiege as MTG where we usually don't question whoever is #1 at the end of year of MTG is the most skilled guy at MTG since you can't just buy your way to a top ranking or call up enough friends to lose to you.

So PvP itself can be an endgame if it's ever cleaned up so that doing well can be considered as prestigious.

Now let's look at the other end of the spectrum, the PvE. At a glance making match 3s don't seem like it like it'll ever be some kind of amazing accomplishment, but in Tetris there's apparently an official body that recognizes extraordinary feats and they have some unique stages you've to do that has certain time/# of tetris requirements including a final stretch where you can't see the blocks you're using once they land (so you got to know what the board looks like entirely in your head). Anyone who can clear this is recognized as a grandmaster in Tetris. Again, beating stuff in PvE isn't recognized because the quality control is not as tight. For all everyone knows you could've just used mega whales to beat some challenge node if the enemy doesn't have Deadpool. If we had some kind of challenge stage where say you got 5 seconds to make a move each turn with a preset team/TU chosen for you and you've to win five in a row to prove it's not just a fluke you got some really nice board, maybe that can be considered as an adequate end game.

For there to be a meaningful endgame the game needs to do a better job at tighting up its legitmacy. Whenever you hear someone doing well in this game the usual reaction is generally 'he must had a lot of time' or 'he must have great characters' or 'he must bought a lot of health packs' or 'his alliance must coordinate very well'. It's almost never 'this guy must be really good at making match 3s' and until that happens you can't expect there to be an endgame either.

Unknown

When your credit card is maxed.

Unknown

The way some people are wasting life away on this game (including me). The end game is the day we die.