Was "Operation Vet Purge" a success?

Punisher5784

onimus wrote:

Nobody wants 10 minute games. This game is a poop break game. No one is going to go to the bathroom for 20 to 30 minutes to get a hand full of games in. Your co-workers will think you died in there…

I completely agree! My wife use to get mad at me for my quick 10 minute bathroom sessions but I cannot justify a 20 to 30 minute one just to play only a couple of matches. The health increase across 90% of the characters was probably the worst thing they could do since it affects all players. It's a cellphone game, it's supposed to be a quick game not an actual console RPG.

Unknown

I'm around Day 550 and although I'm not quitting, I barely play MPQ anymore. PvE has been a joke, for me, for about 10 months. PvP has turned into an even worse grind than it was so...... I pop in for the Deadpool Daily, grab my tacos and 3* cover and I'm off to better things.

Unknown

esilipo36 wrote:

I went from a hardcore, daily player, scoring 1000+ in PVPs, participating in LRs, and PVEs to only playing DDQ. The time and money spent building up characters aren't worth anything, knowing that the devs can easily destroy them with the almighty nerf bat.

It feels like a slap in the face and a punch to the gut when you build up a Sentry, TGT, XForce, etc, then see them get hacked to shreds with the latest and greatest update promising fun-balancing.

-enz

'Nuff said!

Ludaa

I think we'll know for certain in a week or two. A lot is riding on the success of R75 and the new PvE event. Even it's a huge hit, what then? No new content for another 6 months? PvP is boringly slow now without a high level useful featured character. I've decided not to give any more money until things get better, only thing left is my time.

tanis3303

Ive been here over 500 days now, and while I'm not quitting, I'm also not playing much anymore, just like it seems a large portion of the player base is doing. I joined slice 2 on a fresh bracket for PvE yesterday...it was the 1st fresh bracket after the pre-register bracket, and over 24 hours later there is 323 players in my bracket. That's...sad.

They are going all in on an influx of new players from the upcoming Marvel movies, but whether or not its a successful gamble? Only time will tell...

Vankysher

Here is the Gamasutra article referencing the 2015 numbers.

Here's the 2015 Swrve report

evil panda

day 470 here.

i've resolved to stop ranting on the forums, but i'll provide my thoughts occasionally in threads that are in more of the spirit of 'data collection'.

i am still playing, but need a reason to stay. a show of good faith, if you will, to disprove the perception of the vet purge. i am still spending - i bought a stark salary in between the GT and XF nerfs.

to be honest, the thing that really, really hurt me was the GT and XF nerf. a huge part of my motivation for playing the game was character collection and progression (always been this way - when i played RPG it was more fun leveling my character to god status, questing for the most desirable weapons and equipments; than it was actually finishing the game). the nerfs really shook my commitment to this game, and to be honest i felt personally offended.

the rest of the stuff i can adapt to - the MMR is frustrating, but it seems to be in the process of tweaking. health buff, shield dynamic changes, etc - all these things can be adapted to. i don't mind when they release a sucky character - you can't win em all, and there are some really good characters out there.

just please don't take away my progression. and maybe tighten up your somewhat, ahem, cavalier approach to quality control

i don't believe for a second that D3 doesn't listen to us - whether they give us what they want or not, i do see them listening. to be honest, that's the only reason i bother typing out posts like this.

Loftus

Ever since stepping onto this forums (and liking the page on facebook etc.) i've been quite shocked by the amount of negativity i've seen about the game.

I was baffled for quite a while, but after reading more posts i realised, the difference between why i enjoy the game and others get angry might well be the fact that i don't pay anything. I've had a complete refusal to ever pay for anything in games (other than worthwhile DLC) partly because of the fact i have very little money and partly because of the fact that no player should have advantage over another player within a game due to an advantage they have in real life.

Realising the above, i think many people almost lose sight of the fact that this is a free game. I've been playing for a bit over five months now and it is definitely my favorite game on my phone. But it's exactly that to me. A phone game that i play most days when i get the chance either walking to the train station, in the bathroom or waiting for dinner to cook. I don't care about roster changes as i just enjoy using marvel characters and trying to come up with different team compositions. I don't care about ranking or PVP changes because i don't pay for shields and therefore can't even compete 9 times out of 10 anyway.

This isn't knocking anybody that does pay, everyone is entitled to do what they want with their money and i get the viewpoint that people want to pay the devs for the game that they play so often. That said, i think it's important to not lose sight of the fact that the game isn't a retail/AAA title and isn't made from a $50mil budget. I enjoy the constant changes to gameplay because it keeps things fresh for me. I don't think any game in which you're paying for the character you use with real cash should ever be taken too seriously to the point of fighting for top 10 finishes on a constant basis. The game is built around grinding at higher levels and you're just going to burn yourself out and piss yourself off.

The funny thing is i'd say i'm a really good player. I'm often fighting teams way above mine, but when the key factor is time rather than skill, it's dangerous to get too caught up in trying to constantly be competitive imo.

Just my two cents... Happy gaming!

Unknown

Loftus wrote:

Ever since stepping onto this forums (and liking the page on facebook etc.) i've been quite shocked by the amount of negativity i've seen about the game.

I was baffled for quite a while, but after reading more posts i realised, the difference between why i enjoy the game and others get angry might well be the fact that i don't pay anything. I've had a complete refusal to ever pay for anything in games (other than worthwhile DLC) partly because of the fact i have very little money and partly because of the fact that no player should have advantage over another player within a game due to an advantage they have in real life.

not quite. vets are angry not necessarily because of money spent. we are pissed because of the time and effort spent into chasing after prizes, covering hard to get 4*s and then leveling them...has been rendered all but pointless. i cant speak for whales or uber whales...but for myself and vets like me who didn't buy our xforces but earned every cover the hard and old fashioned way...we are angry because what we played so hard for, and it seems everything we've played hard for, eventually gets nerfed or changed, and this brings us to an eventual breaking point because we can only tolerate so much of this ****.

Unknown

Why, it's just the long-standing tradition that goes on for over a year now non-stop. The new stuff hardly compare to the old "features" like sharding, true healing, PVE scaling (that even carries over). The saying was MPQ is really a psychology experiment to test how much pain and frustration people are "happy" to endure and come back for more kicks in the groin.

Unknown

Loftus wrote:

Ever since stepping onto this forums (and liking the page on facebook etc.) i've been quite shocked by the amount of negativity i've seen about the game.

I was baffled for quite a while, but after reading more posts i realised, the difference between why i enjoy the game and others get angry might well be the fact that i don't pay anything. I've had a complete refusal to ever pay for anything in games (other than worthwhile DLC) partly because of the fact i have very little money and partly because of the fact that no player should have advantage over another player within a game due to an advantage they have in real life.

Realising the above, i think many people almost lose sight of the fact that this is a free game. I've been playing for a bit over five months now and it is definitely my favorite game on my phone. But it's exactly that to me. A phone game that i play most days when i get the chance either walking to the train station, in the bathroom or waiting for dinner to cook. I don't care about roster changes as i just enjoy using marvel characters and trying to come up with different team compositions. I don't care about ranking or PVP changes because i don't pay for shields and therefore can't even compete 9 times out of 10 anyway.

This isn't knocking anybody that does pay, everyone is entitled to do what they want with their money and i get the viewpoint that people want to pay the devs for the game that they play so often. That said, i think it's important to not lose sight of the fact that the game isn't a retail/AAA title and isn't made from a $50mil budget. I enjoy the constant changes to gameplay because it keeps things fresh for me. I don't think any game in which you're paying for the character you use with real cash should ever be taken too seriously to the point of fighting for top 10 finishes on a constant basis. The game is built around grinding at higher levels and you're just going to burn yourself out and piss yourself off.

The funny thing is i'd say i'm a really good player. I'm often fighting teams way above mine, but when the key factor is time rather than skill, it's dangerous to get too caught up in trying to constantly be competitive imo.

Just my two cents... Happy gaming!

I never really understand these "Guys, stop being competitive about this competitive game. I don't care if I lose all the time so neither should you." posts. You're not playing at the same level or dealing with the same issues and that's fine if that works for you, but the people you're specifically addressing very obviously do not play for the same reasons or share the same idea of enjoyment that you do, so these speeches tend to come off as rather condescending, whether you meant it that way or not. You didn't spend a year or more working your way to a powerful 4 star character and don't care about that stuff? Great. Everyone else here already did and does. Little bit late for not worrying about it. People like to vent about this stuff. Just let them.

and I have to say, buddy, if you're 5 months in and still can't even afford 3 hour shields in pvp, even as a free player? You're not "really good".

Unknown

I'm a day 475 player. I've never been a whale but I've spent around $60-$80 on the game in that time. I have mixed feelings about the changes. I like seeing the new diversity in my opponents. It's so boring when you reach the point in PVP that you know every team you face will be "Thoress/XF", "Sentry/Hood", or whatever the current gold team is. I also think that by increasing the health it opens a lot of different play styles. Defense and healing might start to be valid strategies. It was boring that the only thing that mattered was who could do fast damage. All that said, I am disappointed that 4*s no longer seem like a worth while goal and this game without goals is just pointless. I have a decent 3* roster; why am I going to put the time in to just level more 3*s or 4*s that don't seem worth the effort?

I'm happy for the changes that will bring diversity to rosters and playstyles in PVP, but let down by no longer having a goal I want to strive for. So I'm taking it pretty easy this season. I can't bring myself to grind in PVE anymore even for a new character. I'm going to keep playing in DPDQ and PVP. I'm curious to see if they can introduce anymore elements to the game that will revive my passion.

I'm not bitter. I've always thought it was "pay more to win more" and they can change the rules at anytime. Frankly, I'm amazed I've gotten this amount of entertainment out of a match-3. I hope D3 has another trick up their sleeve to keep me entertained, but if not I'll move on and not regret having dropped a few dollars and lots of time.

Raffoon

evil panda wrote:

day 470 here.

i am still spending - i bought a stark salary in between the GT and XF nerfs.

to be honest, the thing that really, really hurt me was the GT and XF nerf.

WHHHHYYYYYY.......

If they're making terrible changes, vote with your wallet and don't support them.

Loftus

Ralstonator wrote:

Loftus wrote:

Ever since stepping onto this forums (and liking the page on facebook etc.) i've been quite shocked by the amount of negativity i've seen about the game.

I was baffled for quite a while, but after reading more posts i realised, the difference between why i enjoy the game and others get angry might well be the fact that i don't pay anything. I've had a complete refusal to ever pay for anything in games (other than worthwhile DLC) partly because of the fact i have very little money and partly because of the fact that no player should have advantage over another player within a game due to an advantage they have in real life.

Realising the above, i think many people almost lose sight of the fact that this is a free game. I've been playing for a bit over five months now and it is definitely my favorite game on my phone. But it's exactly that to me. A phone game that i play most days when i get the chance either walking to the train station, in the bathroom or waiting for dinner to cook. I don't care about roster changes as i just enjoy using marvel characters and trying to come up with different team compositions. I don't care about ranking or PVP changes because i don't pay for shields and therefore can't even compete 9 times out of 10 anyway.

This isn't knocking anybody that does pay, everyone is entitled to do what they want with their money and i get the viewpoint that people want to pay the devs for the game that they play so often. That said, i think it's important to not lose sight of the fact that the game isn't a retail/AAA title and isn't made from a $50mil budget. I enjoy the constant changes to gameplay because it keeps things fresh for me. I don't think any game in which you're paying for the character you use with real cash should ever be taken too seriously to the point of fighting for top 10 finishes on a constant basis. The game is built around grinding at higher levels and you're just going to burn yourself out and piss yourself off.

The funny thing is i'd say i'm a really good player. I'm often fighting teams way above mine, but when the key factor is time rather than skill, it's dangerous to get too caught up in trying to constantly be competitive imo.

Just my two cents... Happy gaming!

I never really understand these "Guys, stop being competitive about this competitive game. I don't care if I lose all the time so neither should you." posts. You're not playing at the same level or dealing with the same issues and that's fine if that works for you, but the people you're specifically addressing very obviously do not play for the same reasons or share the same idea of enjoyment that you do, so these speeches tend to come off as rather condescending, whether you meant it that way or not. You didn't spend a year or more working your way to a powerful 4 star character and don't care about that stuff? Great. Everyone else here already did and does. Little bit late for not worrying about it. People like to vent about this stuff. Just let them.

and I have to say, buddy, if you're 5 months in and still can't even afford 3 hour shields in pvp, even as a free player? You're not "really good".

You missed the point of my post entirely. I wasn't talking about people that put time in and play often, i'm talking about people spending money on a free game and forgetting that it is, in essence, still a free game.

Am i missing something with the shields? a 3 hour shield is 75 HP and you get at most 100 for finishing in the top of events. I'm a good player in the sense that i'm constantly beating 166's with my 94's. Even if you win 40 point matches you're looking at a minimum of 20 per event to get anywhere near top placings. I'm at the point where roster slots are 350 HP a pop and using 75 for a shield really isn't viable.

I wish people would realise that skill while playing and time available to play are not the same thing.

Also for what it's worth, i've been incredibly competitive in many online games over the years and never bemoan changes or nerfs. If you're a competitive player, you roll with it. The changes affect every player on the game, after all.

Raffoon

Kudos to anyone still trying to offer constructive criticism. I used to do that. I've even made threads thanking the devs for changes, back in the day.

The thing is, after a while the mistakes from the devs stop being a one-off thing and you begin to see a pattern. Personally, I've reached the end of my patience. We offer solutions, we offer feedback, they say that they're listening, and then they go and bollocks everything up.

Someone dug up a quote from either the developers or the president of the company the other day. They had said that they tried to follow the Blizzard philosophy of making everyone feel a bit OP. It looks like they've strayed FAAAAARRRR from that path at this point.

There were reasonable changes that could have been made. Small balances to Thor and Xforce, coupled with small to moderate buffs to the other 4* characters, buffs to underused 3*s, and maybe even keeping these new health changes as well would have promoted diversity without completely invalidating the previous time/money/effort commitments of the players.

Instead, they gut the top tier in an effort to make everyone buy new covers to replace them. This just keeps happening. They nerf characters into oblivion when they could simply balance them instead. Well, this time they nerfed characters where each cover costs the equivalent of 12 dollars, and people have finally had enough of this stupidity.

So, I'll say it again. We offer feedback and suggestions, they say they're listening, then they essentially spit in our faces by doing things that the majority of players hate for the thinly veiled purpose of causing people the spend money on respecs and new characters.

I'll keep playing and tying up their bandwidth, but I sure as hell will not ever be spending another penny on this game, and I'll advise anyone else that will listen not to as well.

evil panda

Raffoon wrote:

evil panda wrote:

day 470 here.

i am still spending - i bought a stark salary in between the GT and XF nerfs.

to be honest, the thing that really, really hurt me was the GT and XF nerf.

WHHHHYYYYYY.......

If they're making terrible changes, vote with your wallet and don't support them.

to be honest, i needed to replace her by completing a few characters that are extraordinarily useful in this new world - iron fist, cyclops and kamala (i had already maxed cage). so it keeps me competitive and i have a nice bank of hp to see what the future holds. i just can't continue to play this game without meeting my own expectations for performance, or not having the shiniest most powerful character. if and when i choose to quit, i'll do so completely. i can't just go F2P.

which brings me exactly to my point - i'd like a show of good faith for continuing to support the game after back to back sucker punches. how D3 does it is up to them, in the context of whatever plans they have for this game

morph3us

I've also cut down on my playtime. I used to play competitively in PvE for top ten, and have played PvP to 1300 pre-shield cooldown, plus PvP to 1000 post cooldown. There are a couple of reasons why I've cut down, and unfortunately most have to do with the ongoing changes. PvE has always been a time sink, whether that be with 3-4 hour node refreshes, or 8 hour refreshes (given the grind down at the end of a sub), so PvP was my outlet for playing at my own pace. The shield cooldowns have taken away my ability to pick and choose my own time for playing this game, so I started backing off from PvP at that point, and playing periodically to an equilibrium point. The MMR, boost, and health changes have slowed down play enough now, that it's just too time consuming to really commit to even PvP anymore, so like simonsez, I'm playing to 400-500 and calling it quits most of the time now.

I'd also agree, that I'm not certain what goal I'm aiming for now. Most of the four stars don't really seem worth the effort, apart from Prof X (I already have a mostly fully covered Fury). I'm definitely in the "hang around until after the Avengers event and reassess" camp as well.

Unknown

Loftus wrote:

You missed the point of my post entirely. I wasn't talking about people that put time in and play often, i'm talking about people spending money on a free game and forgetting that it is, in essence, still a free game.

Ohhhhh...gosh. My bad. Here let me rephrase that so it is a more accurate representation of the message I was trying to convey to you.

Ralstonator wrote:

I never really understand these "Guys, stop being competitive about this competitive game. I don't SPEND MONEY or care if I lose all the time so neither should you." posts. You're not playing at the same level or dealing with the same issues and that's fine if that works for you, but the people you're specifically addressing very obviously do not play for the same reasons or share the same idea of enjoyment that you do, so these speeches tend to come off as rather condescending, whether you meant it that way or not. You didn't spend a year or more OR MONEY working your way to a powerful 4 star character and don't care about that stuff? Great. Everyone else here already did and does. Little bit late for not worrying about it. People like to vent about this stuff. Just let them.

There. Totally different now.

Loftus wrote:

Also for what it's worth, i've been incredibly competitive in many online games over the years and never bemoan changes or nerfs. If you're a competitive player, you roll with it. The changes affect every player on the game, after all.

Rolling with a change doesn't mean you aren't allowed to talk about it or vent your frustrations about it and a game being "free" doesn't mean no one is allowed to have expectations or standards. I mean I can't imagine that you've been "incredibly competitive in many online games" and never seen a whole lot of people express their opinions about changes either just because the game had a different payment plan or because you personally didn't express yours, right? Again, let people vent how they want to. Telling people how much more fun you're having and how great you are at the Dark Reign campaign isn't going to make them stop or make them feel any better.

Square

Yeah, agree with Rals here. This thread is titled 'vet', but the word is vague. Maybe 'hardcore player' would have been more appropriate. Certainly casual players aren't going to care much about the changes, since they aren't trying hard to score 1000 every PVP.

Unknown

morph3us wrote:

I've also cut down on my playtime. I used to play competitively in PvE for top ten, and have played PvP to 1300 pre-shield cooldown, plus PvP to 1000 post cooldown. There are a couple of reasons why I've cut down, and unfortunately most have to do with the ongoing changes. PvE has always been a time sink, whether that be with 3-4 hour node refreshes, or 8 hour refreshes (given the grind down at the end of a sub), so PvP was my outlet for playing at my own pace. The shield cooldowns have taken away my ability to pick and choose my own time for playing this game, so I started backing off from PvP at that point, and playing periodically to an equilibrium point. The MMR, boost, and health changes have slowed down play enough now, that it's just too time consuming to really commit to even PvP anymore, so like simonsez, I'm playing to 400-500 and calling it quits most of the time now.

I'm pretty much on the same boat.
If I disregard the ton of money I've spent on this game (pretty much 1k) the current situation feels kinda ambiguous to me : on one hand the PvP which I used to love is really discouraging (shielding at 600 ? What for, really) and the PvE is beginning to look ridiculous altogether (looking at you my ex-love Simulator), there's zero incentive to chase 4* and all matches are way too long/too risky but on the other hand it's kinda fun now to have to take care of all the lame ones in my 3* herd and to try all kinds of teams out.

I've decided (or rather it was imposed on me as pretty much the only sane course of action) to stick to the DDP and to only play PvE and PvP as long as they are fun-ish to me, which is not that long. The flip side is more free time, less bathroom pauses and all in all a definitive improvement in quality of life. Should I say thank you ?