"A Sense of Community".

DFiPL

Tredo wrote:

Honestly, more communication from the devs would be the biggest draw. As it is, they drop some cryptic or incomplete information in a news post, then flee. The main reason I come here is to check for new information on characters, game modes (ha!), or updates. Plus, their style of dropping a bomb and running generates a ton of anxiety and hostility.

Yeah. Official input is why I started coming. Why I've stuck around has been a helpful community and just a sense of solidarity with some of the issues.

But having increased communication from the devs would probably make the forums more attractive than the Facebook page.

Heartburn

they need to figure out what side of the fence they want to be on working on their vision of the game or talking with the players and making a game we would love to play. if they are content with isolation and going with their vision of this game, them i think my time here is done. if their current changes are any indication of the directions they are going then this is simply not the game for me. save my time and yours and good luck with this game.

lets face it when we started this game it was pretty addicting, however they need to feed the addiction. my main complaint is that i can't play this game on my terms... for more then 20-30 mins every 2 hours. caused i'm forced to use my top teams only or risk losing more then the progress made. There is no going back once you get higher level teams online.

scaling is another hot topic, i am not even sure why it is in the game at all. you level up your characters to make the fights easier so you can minimize loses and continue to play more the deeper your roster goes.
this goes horribly wrong in PVE, instead the meta becomes to hold off leveling your characters and out perform at this level. WHY?! make it progressive rewards against set level opponents(challenge mode for maxed rosters with some better rewards and access to more points) once and done with alliance scores to round out the rewards.Can be scaled for smaller alliances @ 5,10,15 and 20 player alliances with more bonuses for 15 and 20 player alliances.

the current PVP, this form seems like more like a lightening round format, where every one is fighting for points from each other( 3* featured character progressive reward @ 500pts). For PVP it should be how high can you get, continue to build your points by taking out high level teams your points come from how hard the team is and possibly how much greater they are from yours. not fun beating max level opponents to be worth only 20 points because they just started climbing, when there is a choice to fight a 2* team for 30 points or 3* team for 40. points should come from ranking of characters 5 points for each star. This would also pressure them to stop making mediocre characters or reevaluating how much points each character should be worth.

hp and iso need to be increased or given out more liberally maybe 1 for every season or pve match you didn't retreat from. 50iso per match as well or bigger bonuses based on a daily board ie 5 matches 250 , 10 matches 500 iso, 25 matches 1250 iso... in addition to the normal rewards

daily iso and/or hp rewards that require a certain level to complete 1v1, 1 v goons and a team fight with waves. With the condition that once a hero is used to complete an event and you get reward(if you lose you can try again with same or different hero) they are unavailable to be used for the others.

Stax the Foyer

Pylgrim wrote:

Maybe a Reddit AMA? Its mechanics guarantee that questions valued by the community and their answers float to the top while irrelevant content sinks away.

The resorting and nested conversations would be helpful, and an improvement over the purely chronological threads on this board. It's an option, but I think an offline conversation would work better. Doing it publicly invites analysis of every single answer, when it often takes a few questions and answers until everyone is on the same page. Look at the (very welcome) updates that they've been making to their announcement posts. It's hard to get your point across as clearly as you'd like on the first pass.

Plus, there are advantages to limiting the questioners. There's a lot of noise in announcement threads, and many of the posts are based on incorrect information. If developers don't need to spend time correcting questions, it's probably a better use of developer time.

ArkPrime wrote:

Maybe a talk using some kind of commonly used app?

I'm biased, but that would be a pretty nice way to do it. Email or PM might feel more asynchronous, though, which could be more convenient for the developers.

Unknown

Well, do they even know where they are going to ?

I'm not so sure.

Looks like they are running after a wild dream.

I played rather casually during season XIV, and realized that I was not spending anything in the game meanwhile (used to be on an average of 2-3 stark salaries a month).

You can be T25 for free (except for roster slots) and if you are good at tactics, you can be T10 for free too.

So I started to realize how hard it could be to get money from the playerbase.

Scaling is not the answer, **** 10/42 packs is not the answer either.

Those are just "easy" ways of getting money, but will lead nowhere in the long run.

Thing is, they don't think their game can keep the players long enough so that they could build a long term strategy. Otherwise, they would have been devastated to lose truckloads of vets in the last months.

They just have a quick cash strategy "get money while we can", hence the **** packs, incredible pace of character releases...

ronin_san

saintsomebody wrote:

Speaking as a 2* transitioner, sometimes I feel a sense of hostility towards my 'class' of players.

I get it. Vets have more money and time invested. I've invested a fair bit of both myself.

I just want a cool place for information and discussion on my tablet gaming addiction. And anything I can do to help with restoring the vibe I saw when I first came here in March. Someplace anyone at any level can come to for MPQ related tips, news and humor.

I most certainly have time in the game. I'm coming up on day 590. I spent $5 this week because I had google rewards bucks to spend. Otherwise, I've spent $5, once, to get a roster slot before they were given away. Time and or Money are the things you pay with. That's for sure.

Regarding the 2* transitional phase. It's actually a good time to be a user. Bullseye's green is going to shake it up. Have a look at dusksmpq channel on youtube and see what he sandboxed with Bullseye.
Parallels can be drawn. Bullseye, Daken, and OBW are an extremely viable group in 2* land. You get heals, protect tiles, strike tiles, cascades, AP steals, and more. And while I have say, 17 maxed characters with 49 roster slots, I'm strongly considering adding to the company of Wolverine, Ares, and OBW. He's fun.



Onto the big steaming pile of elephant dung in the room, "The Devs". IceIX is a shade of his former self, and HiFi is a glorified News announcer; the weekend weatherman of newscasters. He's not ready for prime time. He's not being taken seriously by viewers (that'd be us). He's just accepted enough to keep doing his job. And I think, more than anything, we despise the role he's been given. We were well happy with IceIX.


Kabir has responded to me on Reddit, when I was making fun of their poor econometrics decisions. They're keen to let US know they're nerfing now, while they get paid for covers through the end of next week. And that's a shiiitty business model. Here it is. When you've eeked out all the money you're going to get from a clearly favored / overpowered / commonly used character, then there's not much money left to be gained. But here is my big problem. Announcements, forum and in-game, should be instantaneous.. They're not. I've mentioned (in-game to alliance mates) Carnage, Bullseye, Cyclops, Hulkbuster, Mystique, etc.. or upcoming nerfs. Many of them are dumbfounded. Communication. Communication. Communication.


I'm about 60 days through Infinite Crisis (because I don't like League and really love DC animated movies) and those devs have the same freaking problem! They don't communicate about upcoming champions. They just stream on Twitch and act like free costumes for an already dying MOBA is going to save their tail. Maybe it's not dying, but you know what'd really, REALLY get the game going and set it apart? Letting the fans, the forumers, and the redditors choose the next champion. We knew Deathstroke, Solomon Grundy, Dex Starr, Arcane Zatanna, and Nightmare Catwoman were in the immediate pipe. Know what they didn't do? ASK THE PEOPLE WHO ARE PAYING THEIR SALARIES WHO THEY WANT AND HONOR THAT.

Don't be so pompous, Devs, that you forget what keeps you afloat. The game will die if you stop respecting your fans. You'll never hit your metrics. And while we'll be upset, we'll be onto a new game. And our money will follow.

shatland

GothicKratos wrote:

snip
What would you like to see around the forums that we can all do?
slash
I'm going to start poking some heads, once the con is over, to see if I can get permission to do some "official" contests and things of that nature, and hopefully be able to give out some shiny prizes along the way.
poof!
What can we all do to make it so it's "worth" visiting the forums more often?

may i suggest a drawing/fan art contest? generally speaking, i would say a good chunk of people that are into comics have an eye for art and i know i would love to see what sort of talented people you would draw out from hiding with something like that. i've been known to doodle every now and then and think something like this would bring me to dust off the right side of my brain.

topics or themes could be: draw your favorite team, draw a villian, draw a hero, draw the newest character, etc...

;dr: for a site about comic book puzzles, it's a little lacking in the art department...

Raffoon

Well then..... Good thing they hired a community manager. Where has HiFi been for the last ever, again?

ronin_san

Raffoon wrote:

Well then..... Good thing they hired a community manager. Where has HiFi been for the last ever, again?

He gets shoved in front of the camera to deliver haphazard news we would sooner learn and discover from other sources.

Celestrata is the community manager for Infinite Crisis. And Celes is responsible for official forums, patch release notes, /r/infinitecrisis moderation, twitch streams, and more.

Hi-Fi has no identity outside of here. And if we were polled, we wouldn't be able to identify his role. He should be showing off character combos in a sandbox environment on YouTube. Nope. Nowhere to be found. No incentive to play MPQ on twitch.

Open your eyes, devs.

Colognoisseur

Raffoon wrote:

Well then..... Good thing they hired a community manager. Where has HiFi been for the last ever, again?

I can tell you from personal experience Hi-Fi and Ice IX are on our side. They understand our frustrations and have tried to communicate them to the dev team.

This next part is conjecture. I think much of the communication problem starts and ends with Will. The other red name devs have all contacted me via PM and asked for my opinion. I know other players have been contacted too. The fact that nothing changes leads me to believe that Will does not think having a tier of high-level functioning players is good for the game in the long run. From a lead developer who keeps trashing his account so he can empathize with the noobs I can expect nothing less. It is where his game play and his developmental mind is parked.
Maybe the next Q&A will prove me wrong. I would be thrilled to have it prove me wrong. I don't expect it to happen.

Unknown

Colognoisseur wrote:

From a lead developer who keeps trashing his account so he can empathize with the noobs I can expect nothing less. It is where his game play and his developmental mind is parked.
Maybe the next Q&A will prove me wrong. I would be thrilled to have it prove me wrong. I don't expect it to happen.

I always thought Will was psychorigid. The sort of autistic nerd that can produce code or has math skills that you could never suspect be real.

What you've just told us is just... so annoying.

I hope he is not the one promoting the crazy 4*s release pace. It would then be schyzophrenia more than psychorigidness...

Just probably because some analysts said once that the Freemium gamers were spending the most money in the X first days, he must be obsessed with that. That's sad for him... (and for us).

GothicKratos

@arktos: Please don't use serious disabilities as insults. Referring to someone as an "autist nerd" is unnecessary. Thanks for understanding.

====

Overarching: The general consensus is what I knew it would be; public-facing developer interaction. However, I can't make that happen. I'm hoping to garner some ideas to bring some pizazz back to the forums.

Stax/Pylgrim: I really like the idea of an AMA/questionnaire. I'll try and see if maybe we can get something like that rolling. They mentioned that awhile back before they started the videos. I'll try and push on this after their current QnA comes out.

I like the idea of having an art contest, but I don't know how many users here have an artist touch? I've seen a few folks on Line. I'll make a separate thread and poll interest later today.

Thanks for all the communication and input so far. There's some very well thought out posts so far and I appreciate it.

Unknown

It's kind of funny how much hostility there is to new player catering because without new players the game dries up. I don't think it's reasonable to have all the devs focused on mid-level play so it sort of makes sense that someone who knows the game well reset so they can look at it through a new set of eyes.

With regard to the puzzling community. The nerfing and randomization of MNMags Polarity Shift cut down on some puzzles, but I'm hoping Bullseye 2* can make his way into puzzles now with his new green, and his black intact. Sure, GSBW is still out there, but 3*s are numerous enough, (and she's low rated enough) that not many people are going to have her purple decked out, particularly new players who love those sorts of puzzles.

The biggest killer to this community is the F2P model. Roster slots are the highest rated question, and I think most of those aren't troll votes. The answer is obvious and unpleasant for some. The question turns this into a seller/consumer relationship as opposed to a player/designer community. Why would devs come onto the forums if they're treated like greasy salesmen?

Finally, the game is in decline. New content isn't as exciting. New character releases are expected, and are more optional. There was some buzz with the Ultron event (which was aimed at higher level players), but as consumers we're pretty demanding. I doubt most people will be satisfied any more.

Unknown

daibar wrote:

It's kind of funny how much hostility there is to new player catering because without new players the game dries up. I don't think it's reasonable to have all the devs focused on mid-level play so it sort of makes sense that someone who knows the game well reset so they can look at it through a new set of eyes.

Oh people aren't asking for all the devs to focus on vet content. We're asking for one.

And I don't understand how the hostility would confuse you. Picture a closed room where people keep coming in, and only the people who just came in get food. Don't you think the hungry people in the back would get pissed off at the only people who are getting food?

Unknown

daibar wrote:

It's kind of funny how much hostility there is to new player catering because without new players the game dries up. I don't think it's reasonable to have all the devs focused on mid-level play so it sort of makes sense that someone who knows the game well reset so they can look at it through a new set of eyes.

With regard to the puzzling community. The nerfing and randomization of MNMags Polarity Shift cut down on some puzzles, but I'm hoping Bullseye 2* can make his way into puzzles now with his new green, and his black intact. Sure, GSBW is still out there, but 3*s are numerous enough, (and she's low rated enough) that not many people are going to have her purple decked out, particularly new players who love those sorts of puzzles.

The biggest killer to this community is the F2P model. Roster slots are the highest rated question, and I think most of those aren't troll votes. The answer is obvious and unpleasant for some. The question turns this into a seller/consumer relationship as opposed to a player/designer community. Why would devs come onto the forums if they're treated like greasy salesmen?

Finally, the game is in decline. New content isn't as exciting. New character releases are expected, and are more optional. There was some buzz with the Ultron event (which was aimed at higher level players), but as consumers we're pretty demanding. I doubt most people will be satisfied any more.

I wonder if they'll do anything about it tho, they're making ATPQ and just got bought by sega. It means they're doing things "right" and according to someone usage is still high

aesthetocyst

GothicKratos wrote:

@arktos: Please don't use serious disabilities as insults. Referring to someone as an "autist nerd" is unnecessary. Thanks for understanding.

====

Overarching: The general consensus is what I knew it would be; public-facing developer interaction. However, I can't make that happen. I'm hoping to garner some ideas to bring some pizazz back to the forums.

Stax/Pylgrim: I really like the idea of an AMA/questionnaire. I'll try and see if maybe we can get something like that rolling. They mentioned that awhile back before they started the videos. I'll try and push on this after their current QnA comes out.

I like the idea of having an art contest, but I don't know how many users here have an artist touch? I've seen a few folks on Line. I'll make a separate thread and poll interest later today.

Thanks for all the communication and input so far. There's some very well thought out posts so far and I appreciate it.

Gothic, guilty as charged about venting about dev communication, you did ask what the mods could do.

If D3 doesn't have a community manager that has time for the forum, I guess it's on you, if you want to keep the forum lively, engaging and useful.

Art contest is a great idea. Yes, many users have at least digital, if not traditional, artistic talent and resources. Just look at some of the signatures around here. And the satirical magazine covers. I myself have posted some screenshots/covers for characters forumites would like to see. At least a few forumites should be able to render characters. What comic fan hasn't given penciling/inking a try? I bet there's some manga artists out there with some material.

Meme contest was fun, make it a season event? Season are getting pretty bland and repetitive, contest and polls surrounding new characters may help to highlight what IS new to that season.

MPQ world records thread should be a highlighted forum feature!

Perhaps when new characters are announced, as a corollary to the obligatory discussion of how the character will play in the game, have an open thread on that character, for players to discuss the character's history in comics/TV/movies, their fondest memories, favorite stories, cosplay pics, whatever. Tie the game into the larger world of comics and related events.

What would be REALLY awesome, and surely this is in the dev's secret hopes, would be for new Marvel material to break here. A new story, never published anywhere, don't just read it, play through it today! Whoops, back on ideas not within the mods' realm of possibility ...

BIG FAT FREAKIN' TRIPLE-BOLDED POSTSCRIPT: GET THE DEVS TO FOLLOW THRU WHEN THEY PROMISE/IMPLY IN-GAME REWARDS FOR FORUM CONTESTS!

*ahem*

Unknown

My idea is community designed achievements, of course, D3 would actually have to put achievements in game for that to work

Unknown

GothicKratos wrote:

@arktos: Please don't use serious disabilities as insults. Referring to someone as an "autist nerd" is unnecessary. Thanks for understanding.

In my mind, it was not a serious disability, it was an overgift intellectual capacity that was leading to an incapacity of human relationships.

Some "way above" intelligent people are autistic. Besides, to me, a nerd is the one capable of huge tasks in the computing industry.

So, overall the comment was negative, but was not using a disability, it was rather using an intellectual gift.

I would not mock anyone with a disability... That's just not me. But I understand it could have been interpreted otherwise. Thanks for giving me a chance to clear this out.

Unknown

What "sense of community"? The community is long gone. I was looking through my old posts finding my old quit thread, since I'm seriously thinking of leaving again, and what struck me is that the tone has changed. Yeah, there's a lot of snark from some quarters, but the pervading sense I get from the forums is numbness. No one cares anymore. The people who actually enjoyed the game and cared enough to give solid feedback have mostly left, and anytime the devs implement feedback or communicate, they always ignore the underlying issues.

But maybe this is just frustration after having wiped to that HB / IF / Hood node in the Gauntlet something like 15+ times now talking. That and the fact that they ignore when we ask to make 4*'s more obtainable by making events with 4*'s but keeping them as restrictive as ever. There's no point, and given the negative turn PvP's have taken, there's very little point to still be playing this "game" if we want to even call it that. More like a chore that you pay to do.

Heartburn

theHappyDance wrote:

What "sense of community"? The community is long gone. I was looking through my old posts finding my old quit thread, since I'm seriously thinking of leaving again, and what struck me is that the tone has changed. Yeah, there's a lot of snark from some quarters, but the pervading sense I get from the forums is numbness. No one cares anymore. The people who actually enjoyed the game and cared enough to give solid feedback have mostly left, and anytime the devs implement feedback or communicate, they always ignore the underlying issues.

But maybe this is just frustration after having wiped to that HB / IF / Hood node in the Gauntlet something like 15+ times now talking. That and the fact that they ignore when we ask to make 4*'s more obtainable by making events with 4*'s but keeping them as restrictive as ever. There's no point, and given the negative turn PvP's have taken, there's very little point to still be playing this "game" if we want to even call it that. More like a chore that you pay to do.

what do you expect from this team? they can't even get the AP displayed correctly in mobile... one of the most basic components of the game too hard for them.

Unknown

arktos1971 wrote:

GothicKratos wrote:

@arktos: Please don't use serious disabilities as insults. Referring to someone as an "autist nerd" is unnecessary. Thanks for understanding.

In my mind, it was not a serious disability, it was an overgift intellectual capacity that was leading to an incapacity of human relationships.

Some "way above" intelligent people are autistic. Besides, to me, a nerd is the one capable of huge tasks in the computing industry.

So, overall the comment was negative, but was not using a disability, it was rather using an intellectual gift.

I would not mock anyone with a disability... That's just not me. But I understand it could have been interpreted otherwise. Thanks for giving me a chance to clear this out.

That's exactly the problem, it's in your mind. You don't actually have it. You don't actually deal with it. You don't get to assume what disabled people can and can't do or have to deal with. Just as you can't assume what women/POC can and cannot do or have to deal with unless you're in their shoes.

Yes, some disabled people can function as "normal humans" because guess what happens if they don't? They're ostracized or killed!