Why are we adjusting our day to accommodate a video game?

Unknown

I've never been happy with these unnecessary competitive elements of an otherwise fun match-3, and I find I have less and less patience for needing to start an event / play at the exact right times with perfect or near perfect clears to continue progressing at anything more than a snail's pace.

A game should accommodate the schedule of its players, not the other way around. There's not any good reason why PvE and PvP can't just have progression rewards, and no hokey timetables, shield hopping required, defensive losses, or any of the other gimmicks that force you into adjusting your schedule to fit the dev's idea of how / when we should be playing, instead of just letting us play, and progress at our own pace through events.

Change the PvE format to ALL rewards being progression rewards, and do away with needing to wait for points to refresh, permanently disable out of control community / personal scaling, and suddenly the vast majority of problems people have with PvE are solved.

Get rid of defensive losses in PvP and move the cover rewards to ALL being progression rewards, and the rest of the format's problems that they keep tweaking to try to fix take care of themselves.

I started the Hunt late (yes had to actually do things like sleeping etc.. that normal people do) and now I'm way behind. I've never enjoyed this - having to play on the dev's timetable of what they think we should be playing instead of just letting us play at our own pace. PvP I've actually stopped playing completely.

Of course, they've consistently proven they want the game to be 1000x more grindy than any sane person would want, so maybe that's a bad idea, but that's a separate issue.

It's a bit disappointing that after all this time, they haven't gotten their act together and fixed the most basic parts of the game that would make it 1000x more enjoyable to everyone except professional MPQ'ers.

IlDuderino

When I realised I was planning my day around it was when I realised I had an addiction

Malcrof

IlDuderino wrote:

When I realised I was planning my day around it was when I realised I had an addiction

thinking crack may be cheaper.

Kidding aside, we just had a thread on this.. many people plan their days around strange things.. a game is the least strange, think about all those WoW and CoD and the like players.. groups of friends planning their days around being able to play a game..

it is becoming more the norm.

Unknown

It's not changing because, despite people's moaning, they accept it rather than go play a less demanding game. Like when people say there are too many events, then promptly participate in every single one of them.

It's the reason I miss pretty much three of every four pve's. I just don't want to have a videogame impact on my day-to-day routine. At that point, for me, it becomes "I must play now" rather than "I want to play now" and I don't find that fun at all.

But as said, I seem to be in a minority. Most in my alliance are hitting pve every 8 hours or whatever like clockwork. Just hope they are actually enjoying themselves.

Punisher5784

I hate to use the say what many players have used as a response before: You are not obligated to play every single event. By all means, go ahead and take a break, don't work your schedule around the game.

I recently reduced my play time dramatically since the Time Slice changes, didn't play PVP the last season as a result. As long as I am getting a 3* everyday from Deadpool Daily, I feel accomplished.

I do agree with many your points but the game is not going to change that drastically overnight, if at all. I would love a permanent Gauntlet-type event that replaces the Prologue when we complete it. I do wonder what this game would had been like if it was let's say an Xbox downloadable game for $25 with downloadable content. I loved the original Puzzle Quest and kinda wish this didn't have the F2P model.

Unknown

This is actually why I preferred 2.5 hour refreshes. With 2.5 hours refreshes there was no way I was going to forgo sleep to optimize play, so I just played when I could/wanted, not worrying too much about being perfectly optimal. I didn't have to play perfectly, and could still end up top 10 or 25, just by semi-consistent play throughout the event. Now with more people able to clear near perfectly due to relaxed constraints, I have to specifically schedule my play if I want to be top 10.

If you are adjusting your day to accommodate a video game and not liking it, you've hit the first step: being aware there is a problem. Considering the game state the way it is now, I agree it's unlikely that it will change. Best you can do is be resigned to it or change the way you play.

Unknown

... or play another game. The Thing does look interesting, but I'm just so damn tired of the game dictating how we play and trying to force things down our throats. If it were a game that took 40hrs to complete, then fine, but for an MMO, that's not acceptable. The game needs to have sustainable play. They're losing money they could be making by basically just being stubborn.

Malcrof

theHappyDance wrote:

... I'm just so damn tired of the game dictating how we play and trying to force things down our throats.

They do neither. You allow it to, that is on you, not them. They set the game up for everyone to play.

My wife plays extremely casually now (maybe 3 hours a week because of all the connection issues over the past few weeks) and yet because of her low play time, she usually ends up in brackets that never have over 150 players.. she has more carnage covers than i do, in 1/100 of the play time.

I play because i enjoy the game, the competition, the rewards.. if they change the rules, i change my playstyle. This is how it has always been with every online game ever.

Way back when playing Everquest, i helped run raids for my guild, my wife was in a casual chat guild. Guess what, she got what she wanted out of the game, not playing anywhere near as much as i did, and we both had a great time.. yes, i would play for 24 hours straight to clear a Plane etc.. but that was MY DECISION, not the games, not the game makers, not my wife's, MINE ALONE.

Don't blame anyone else because you are playing something that is obviously making you unhappy.

Unknown

D3 is not being stubborn, but trying to cater to different player types. The idea to move all rewards, even PVP, to progression is too uncompetitive. Most of the top players thrive on competition. Whales are generally more competitive too.

I've been cutting back MPQ time, and realizing I have an enormous amount of potential in my gaming backlog. Summer is always busy too.

I'm a little confused as to what you mean by sustainable play. Do you mean when you're shielded in PVP, and you've done your clear in PVE, to have something to do other than simulator? More content (not another character) would be amazing, but I doubt it pays off as well short term.

mr_X

So miss the original puzzle quest. "Four of a kind have another go" The skull tiles were cool also. Got hooked back then.

Something about the constant serotonin kick from matching tiles and pulling of good moves does seem to make it addictive on a physiological level.

But as long as it still fun and does not get to much in the way of life on real world, I'll keep playing.

Going on holiday soon so dead pool only that week.

Worse things to be hooked on than a game.

Unknown

Right, it's unfathomable that people might want the devs to accommodate more than just Malcrof's play style.

Daibar - by sustainable play, I mean progression without dedicating your entire life to a video game. Really is just common sense, and IMO not so unreasonable. Of course more PVP and PVE modes would help (like two versions of each event - a competitive mode and a noncompetitive mode)

Unknown

It's not unfathomable at all that some people would "want" it. People want to be able to trade covers with alliance members etc etc. But the game isn't changing so the decision is yours, not the developers. Roll with it, or play less/play another game.

Malcrof

theHappyDance wrote:

Right, it's unfathomable that people might want the devs to accommodate more than just Malcrof's play style.

Daibar - by sustainable play, I mean progression without dedicating your entire life to a video game. Really is just common sense, and IMO not so unreasonable. Of course more PVP and PVE modes would help (like two versions of each event - a competitive mode and a noncompetitive mode)

Everyone's playstyle is supported.. i play more than others.. because i have a job that allows it when we are slow.. others in my alliance (and home) play casually.. and both ways can get you rewards. You completely missed the point of my post, this game allows for all types of players, in all time zones, to play at much or as little as they want and still be able to get rewards.

Addicts like myself, i go all out in PVE's for new players and am getting much better in PVP... players who only play for a little bit a day, have things like DDQ, small slice pve's etc to enhance theirs..

I find nothing wrong with anyone's playstyle, it is a game after all. But when you start throwing around things like "dictate" and "force things down our throats" .. it is a clear sign that this is no longer a game to you..

I have always enjoyed your tools, and your posts, so please do not think i am attacking you personally.. i had my moments back when i was hardcore a MMO player and running a guild.. looking back at some of the things i said when changes were made, to players in my guild who skipped important raids, etc.. i had completely lost sight of the one important thing. Games should be fun.

As soon as it feels like work, or no longer makes me happy, then there is no point. If it ever starts to happen to me here, i plan on taking a break. This is my escape from stress, not a cause of it.

simonsez

Aren't there about 8,000 other match3 games in the app store? I've got to believe that many of them have the level of casualness some people crave. I've heard kwazy cupcakes is pretty awesome. Knock yourself out.

Unknown

The OP could play kwazy cupcakes with a comic open and their phone placed in a frame. Then its a causal match 3 game with a marvel theme.

Unknown

theHappyDance wrote:

Right, it's unfathomable that people might want the devs to accommodate more than just Malcrof's play style.

But yet, it's perfectly reasonable they change the existing format to accommodate yours, specifically?

You're also ignoring what Malcrof mentioned about there being some system to accommodate casual play. I've been party to it myself, it's how I got 2nd in the first carnage brotherhood iso event. (Well, that, and I suspect the IOS bug)

scottee

Then ignore the leaderboards and just play for progressions. Done.

Linkster79

daibar wrote:

D3 is not being stubborn, but trying to cater to different player types. The idea to move all rewards, even PVP, to progression is too uncompetitive. Most of the top players thrive on competition. Whales are generally more competitive too.

I've been cutting back MPQ time, and realizing I have an enormous amount of potential in my gaming backlog. Summer is always busy too.

I'm a little confused as to what you mean by sustainable play. Do you mean when you're shielded in PVP, and you've done your clear in PVE, to have something to do other than simulator? More content (not another character) would be amazing, but I doubt it pays off as well short term.

PvP should be progression only as let's be honest it is actually player vs AI. Point losses for defensive losses are complete **** as we do not have any control other than what characters we last used, as for PvE why the need for leaderboards or scaling at all? Story events should be about competing in story based missions not against other players and scaling should only go insofar as if you beat a node then the opposition levels should rise on a gradual increment, not jump 30 or 40 levels until those characters reach their Max ie level 50 for 1*.

Going back to the OPs post I gave up any hopes of ever attaining top of the leaderboards, went casual and decided to play for fun and grab whatever rewards I could. I haven't actually logged in for 4 days due to work and family commitments and believe it or not I haven't had trouble sleeping at day because of it.

The whole scoring system either needs a complete overhaul from the ground up or players need to stop obsessing over the whole meta game and just play for fun and if they are unable to do this realise that this is the way it is and always will be. Obviously rebuilding the scoring system would not be an easy task and it will take away the valuable time that is put into creating all these new story and PvP events so I doubt it will happen.

TxMoose

Linkster79 wrote:

...will take away the valuable time that is put into creating all these new story and PvP events so I doubt it will happen.

that made me chuckle. well played.

Unknown

Linkster79 wrote:

PvP should be progression only as let's be honest it is actually player vs AI.

To say this completely ignores the metagame of choosing targets and choosing different rosters based on your targets and relative boosted characters. PVP is pvp because is there is that extra dynamic of fight/shield timing, boosting, shield-hopping off of shields, and sniping, especially at higher levels with teams.

The radical statements that the scoring system should be done away with and replaced with what seems to amount to a grind based progression system seems over-reactionary. One of the main reasons I play MPQ is that there is a system which rewards for you playing smarter, not just grinding harder. Dumbing the game down to the point where there is no metagame is not the answer.

I understand that not everyone plays the metagame or at least not all parts of it. It seems that the complaints arise around being aware of it, but not wanting to put in the time or resources to take part in it. If this is HP based (shields), then I can sympathize. Otherwise, why complain about it? It reminds me of people who make fun of or criticize you for being into comics; you just have to say, "Ok, so you're not into comics. Good for you," ignore them, and continue on.

I think it's perfectly valid to play only for progression, ignoring rank rewards. Back in the early days, you could get easy or hard brackets. With the same effort, someone in an easy bracket would not hit top progression but get rank rewards, while another person in a harder bracket hit top progression but not rank rewards. Now, getting a rank reward without progression is impossible (unless you jump in last bracket). Somehow, we've become entitled.

If I am misunderstanding, then correct me.

san

I'm not sure what everyone else does, but since I reduced my playing time to PvP+Deadpool Daily only, I am not playing more than 2-3h per event. Daily, I generally only play the DPD, sometimes PVE out of boredom and only for the iso (I don't contend for any covers, and frankly, don't care).

I have a roster with 13 characters at 166 and 2x 4* above that, and a whole lot of other characters that I don't care to take past 94-120, though most of my 3*s are fully covered (exceptions include those I kept selling over and over, like beast, shulk, and doc ock). Generally score about 700-1000, depending on if I want the cover at the 1K mark (got my yellow 4* Thor!), and compete with a top 100 (sometimes top 50) alliance...

I have no secret to my play style, I play at the end of events in the last 8 hours only, and only choose time slices that fit my life, rather than the other way around.