Overall play / engagement down?

wiz_biz

so i've been on vacation for a few weeks and this is my first time back on the forums since late april...just came to see if there was any bracket size info for weapons tex mex and am surprised to see no activity at all in the threads for that event (and what seems to be a lot less discussion that i'm used to seeing in other event threads).

i also just played a quick PVP simulator match so i could check in on alliance progress for season XIV - it was my first time playing a PVP match this season, and was shocked to see that my season rank is 336 after just one match?!

i've noticed my own alliance has become far less active lately, it seemed to almost grind to a halt after the first ultron event last month and hasn't picked up much since. it's a bit disappointing when you're trying to manage an alliance. i personally haven't been playing because i've been out of the country, but will admit i was getting really burned out by the time the 2nd ultron event rolled around and was glad to take a break on vacation, so i don't really blame anyone...lately there have been soooo many complaints on the forums, but to me it really does look like it's translating to players being far less active or completely giving up. are others seeing the same trends?

Unknown

More and more people are leaving the game everyday. I have noticed that the top players in my slices are not the guys I am used to seeing. All of the veterans are tired of the **** from D3/Demiurge and the transition players can't transition anymore due to scaling... The rating (at least in the app store has gone down significantly (now its below 3 stars). Unless the company gets their act together the game only has 6 months left before enough players bail and the app store boots them for bad rating(Apple made change to their store this year that stops selling apps rated under 2 stars).

wiz_biz

dang wang, i really do hope that isn't the case! things have definitely been frustrating the last couple of months with the slew of new characters, the wonky PVP issues, and although i haven't played any PVP this season yet i'm assuming that having the weekly powered up characters turns every match into a hella grind...i guess i soon shall see...

regardless, i can be patient and understand that the devs surely have a lot of competing interests and priorities, but if there is truly as big of a drop off in play at it seems, i just hope they take some corrective action before it all goes down the tubes.

dkffiv

wiz_biz wrote:

dang wang, i really do hope that isn't the case! things have definitely been frustrating the last couple of months with the slew of new characters, the wonky PVP issues, and although i haven't played any PVP this season yet i'm assuming that having the weekly powered up characters turns every match into a hella grind...i guess i soon shall see...

regardless, i can be patient and understand that the devs surely have a lot of competing interests and priorities, but if there is truly as big of a drop off in play at it seems, i just hope they take some corrective action before it all goes down the tubes.

Regardless of how good your roster is you will end up needing to use at least one kit after every other PvP match. If you're starting matches at around 50% life you will lose maybe 20% of the time. Matches will be worth 17-21 points unless you spend tons of ISO skipping to find someone shield hopping (generally from 400 points+ but sometimes as low as the 200's). Because people are playing so erratically you can only PvP with your strongest team (right from the start) or you will randomly get hit by someone with less than 200 points and lose 20-30 depending on how much you got. All this is assuming you have the best characters maxed for the week, if you don't you're going to get slammed because its so much easier to beat 166s than 240s.

High powered fast characters are mostly gone and everyone has tons of health - this means eventually the AI will fall into a huge cascade and you're going to eat a ton of damage. Team Ups are also getting more brutal, I lost a match because a Nick Fury Escape Plan got stuck in a corner and eventually died to the buffed 600 strength strike tile. Also took tons of damage from countless Whales/Wind Storm/Supernova TUs and CapAm red/blue shields instantly juicing one of the AI's abilities.

PvP isn't fun anymore and most people already hate PvE (lol scaling) so its not hard to imagine why the player base is shrinking.

Zen808

Game has been going for 1-1/2 years. Burn out is inevitable, especially given that the board is mostly vets. I have no major complaints about the game - I never liked PVP as a personal choice, so the changes there have had 0 impact on me; my PVE scaling is actually more or less manageable; I never relied on my X-force to the point where his nerf made my life harder. But still, every PVE, I think to myself: "maybe I'll sit this one out."

Unknown

I sometimes feel the burn out. I can't play PVE for very long and PVP was good because you can sometimes skip a day of playing if you were good. But now with all these buffed characters, anyone can be good and it kinda irks me as a player that spent time and ISO getting my characters maxed so I can stay competitive. I realize that my leveled buffed characters should help me but it's still a grind having to fight through these buffed teams and I don't care for the grind which is why I don't play PVE that often.

Unknown

They've taken a bunch of steps lately to limit play, and the result has been people are playing less. As people play less they tend to care less. There really hasn't been anything exciting since Ultron, and that was compromised by the numerous bugs, crashes, and errors associated with it.

One thing I think they need to seriously look at it giving us something we can just jump in and play without having to worry about the bigger picture.

DFiPL

I've had a couple of friends tell me they started playing in recent days, so I suspect some of it is normal churn.

I know my engagement depends on how much it feels like the game is trying to beat me over the head. A challenge is fine as long as it feels like I can progress. It's when I don't feel like progress is possible that my engagement wanes. See: PvP.

wiz_biz

Ben Grimm wrote:

They've taken a bunch of steps lately to limit play, and the result has been people are playing less. As people play less they tend to care less. There really hasn't been anything exciting since Ultron, and that was compromised by the numerous bugs, crashes, and errors associated with it.

One thing I think they need to seriously look at it giving us something we can just jump in and play without having to worry about the bigger picture.

agree 100% with the latter statement, and have noticed for a while now that my friends who also play seem to just jump in for DDQ and not much else. regarding the former though, was limiting play actually an intentional goal? or just a bi-product of all the recent changes?

wiz_biz

DFiPL wrote:

I've had a couple of friends tell me they started playing in recent days, so I suspect some of it is normal churn.

I know my engagement depends on how much it feels like the game is trying to beat me over the head. A challenge is fine as long as it feels like I can progress. It's when I don't feel like progress is possible that my engagement wanes. See: PvP.

preach. PVP is just one crushing defeat after another until you finally just wish flanders was dead.

DrStrange-616

I have found myself getting bored faster these days. Even before I finish a clear in PVE it starts to feel a little ugh. PVP I barely have the patience for. I find myself looking for ways to play less - join late, just get enough for top 100. I'm not striving like I was. At all. Sadly.

MarvelMan

DrStrange-616 wrote:

I have found myself getting bored faster these days. Even before I finish a clear in PVE it starts to feel a little ugh. PVP I barely have the patience for. I find myself looking for ways to play less - join late, just get enough for top 100. I'm not striving like I was. At all. Sadly.

I find myself in this boat as well. I think it is in large part because there is very little clear progression. We dont know what the goal is, and dont seem to be going anywhere. XF/Thor (and now kind of IMHB) were the goals....til the Devs clearly indicated they shouldnt be. What now?

Unknown

On day 489 with a solid alliance and 3* roster and my play has slowly evolved to meet the changes in the game in a way that keeps it engaging and fun. Instead of trying for Top 5 in every PVP, I just play the ones where there's a cover or two I want and hit Top 25 playing for 75 minutes at most - I don't care about the Season 10-pack so scoring 350 per PVP is just fine. The changes have made a deep roster a much bigger benefit than it used to be - just late-started the Simulator and cleared the second sub with no losses and no health packs or boosts used. My alliance has had very little churn since Ultron so, while some are apparently seeing people leave, our casual approach to the game is keeping everyone happy and we're still flirting with Top 100 on every PVE (maybe because there's so much burnout in other alliances?).

TL:DR - total play time is down but engagement (eg., enjoyment and desire to continue playing) is about the same.

rixmith

Just out of curiosity I looked at the Steam stats for the game (since I'm a PC player), and the number of players has been remarkably consistent since July 2014. Of course, Steam is a drop in the bucket compared to mobile players, but it is at least one data point that MPQ continues to do a good job of bringing new players into the fold even as more experienced players move on.

Certainly there does come a point where it is kind of hard to figure out what the motivation for continuing is. I've got pages of maxed 3* heroes and no real way to get 4* heroes (at least no way within the play style that is fun for me). But it is fun to try out different mechanisms in some of the new characters. Or maybe playing just becomes a habit... hard to say.

Unknown

All the revenue/playtime estimator I have seen indicates the game is doing fairly consistent, which is kind of surprising given virtually nothing new has happened in the game outside of the Ultron event. While people are always talking about how the sky is falling, in the case of MPQ it is indeed curious why the sky hasn't fallen yet. I'd think just the utter neglect of any new content alone should cause people to lose interest before considering anything other gripes people might have toward the game.

Ludaa

I'm playing less for sure. They've taken away any advantage you might have had with a strong roster, so that everyone is punished equally for playing. Have all the buffed characters? So do 90% of your pvp match ups! Have a 4* roster? Your PvE scaling will now cut through it like butter! They must think it's a privilege to play their game and figure out how to keep opening up roster slots.

Unknown

Ludaa wrote:

I'm playing less for sure. They've taken away any advantage you might have had with a strong roster, so that everyone is punished equally for playing. Have all the buffed characters? So do 90% of your pvp match ups! Have a 4* roster? Your PvE scaling will now cut through it like butter! They must think it's a privilege to play their game and figure out how to keep opening up roster slots.

It's said that the only thing worse than having a college degree is not having a college degree and you can say the same thing about buffed characters in PvP. Sure the game has no problem finding a whole mess of 240 guys against your 240s, but if you didn't have them the game still wouldn't have any problem finding a whole mess of 240s that will slaughter you, so there's at least that going for PvP. Can't even say that for PvE where all your enemies immediately level up to make up for any possible advantage you can have.

Unknown

considering I can't find more guild members/merc I'd say yeah, overall play is down

babinro

https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/ ... zle-quest/

According to this site the game has been doing quite well recently (or at least maintaining what it's held in the last quarter). This is surprising given the seemingly devastating impacts of the nerfs on the community. Of course, we only make up a small percentage of the game as a whole over here.

Seems clear to me we've had a lot of vets retiring, going casual or moving on to other games entirely. But that doesn't take into account newer players which the game has gradually become a bit more forgiving towards. So yeah, to sum it up I'd say overall play and engagement is down from a forum perspective but overall there's been no meaningful change.

Unknown

babinro wrote:

https://thinkgaming.com/app-sales-data/6200/marvel-puzzle-quest/

According to this site the game has been doing quite well recently (or at least maintaining what it's held in the last quarter). This is surprising given the seemingly devastating impacts of the nerfs on the community. Of course, we only make up a small percentage of the game as a whole over here.

Seems clear to me we've had a lot of vets retiring, going casual or moving on to other games entirely. But that doesn't take into account newer players which the game has gradually become a bit more forgiving towards. So yeah, to sum it up I'd say overall play and engagement is down from a forum perspective but overall there's been no meaningful change.

its pretty obvious the community isn't impacted that much...not like I can get easy 1st place in anything

Bowgentle

The top-end (T50 alliances and up) certainly isn't playing less, the top-top-top end of T10 alliances is still the same.

For every person going casual, there's two ready to take their spot on the top teams.

No idea how it looks below, since MMR makes sure I only get matched with the other maxed roster guys - those have been the same for the last 5 seasons at least.