Open Letter to D3

TheWerebison

If I may, what would uninstalling the game do? It's a free to play game, all you would be doing is freeing up server resources. The rest of the game is still fun, IMHO, it's the anniversary that is lacking in all departments. Best thing to do is express the dissatisfaction and resolve never to put money into their game again.

Unknown

TheWerebison wrote:

If I may, what would uninstalling the game do? It's a free to play game, all you would be doing is freeing up server resources. The rest of the game is still fun, IMHO, it's the anniversary that is lacking in all departments. Best thing to do is express the dissatisfaction and resolve never to put money into their game again.

Uninstalling would mean a smaller active user base which makes it harder to justify continued resources, time and money spent into developing the game further if at all.

Playing the game and not spending money is still giving a positive effect overall compared to uninstalling it.

DrStrange-616

Is there any coming back from this? Truly?

I really hope Marvel is watching. I don't want anyone out on the street, but I don't want this company in control of this property anymore.

Lemminkäinen

deiXide wrote:

I am not aware of any 3* transitioners in my alliance that have been able to kill (or really even scratch) Galactus past round 3.

I agree but wish to note that I killed round 5 Galactus twice with a severely undercovered MoStorm, a pretty well covered Doc Ock and OBW. Now round 6 is utterly ludicrous.

Jasonzakibe

M C K wrote:

The rockett wrote:

Dear D3....

• Solution: So in my real life/career supposed to find out solutions for problems. In the case here, there are only 2 at this point.
1. Change of management at D3 including the dev’s/people with red names. We, the MPQ players, are losing a lot of faith in you and your product. While most of us love the Marvel Universe, this cannot and SHOULD not go on. We are spending a lot of money on this product to have the same issues time and time and time and time and time and time and time again. Other business would be out of business or a huge shake up would happen.
2. Marvel gets involved and threatens to pull the contract from D3. If that would happen, please see #1.

Disclaimer - Look...I really don't want to be this guy. I don't. I hate being this guy. I really really hate it.

And I do sympathize! Truthfully! I'm frustrated by the event and the anniversary too. The difficulty is unrealistically high, and maybe that's actually the point. The communication is lacking compared to last anniversary, and that's unfortunate. The server issues are annoying and, aside from being a hindrance, we have no guarantee that the company will "make whole" in a wholly satisfying way.

However...your list of solutions is missing a critical entry, and it actually should be the very first solution.

• Uninstall the game and stop playing it

Listen...I used to buy Skittles. I enjoyed them quite a bit! My favorite was the green Skittle...a delectable lime flavor. I was a green Skittle fiend...combined with cherry or lemon it was awesome. Unfortunately for me, last year they changed the flavor of the green Skittle from the delicious lime to a horrendous green apple. It was devastating to me (well, as devastating as bad candy can be).

I didn't call for the heads of the company executives. I didn't petition Wrigley or Mars to surrender the licensing/patent/whatever they have for the Skittles brand, or demand they sell off Skittles production to another candy maker. These weren't even close to my first options.

I stopped buying Skittles.

Realistically, the company won't fold because I stopped buying Skittles. I'm sure they'll be fine. I did write the company on social media to let them know, and to be honest I do miss the lime Skittle. But I've learned to cope...now I buy Reese's Pieces.

Point being, if you're looking outside yourself for a solution, you will likely be disappointed.

But what if Mars broke into your house, stole all of your lime Skittles you already paid for, and left a big back of the apple Skittles? Because that's a closer analogy.

Also to the Op, if the first Ultron event has become an example of D3 communicating well, we're all doomed. Have things sunk so low that Ultron looks good in hindsight?

The rockett

Wow! Thank You for the overwhelming positive response. I have been at work all day and very busy so I have not been able to respond. Since I am new to the forums, I am not 100% sure how to respond. I have only been on here for a couple of weeks even though I am on day 493. I will clear something up I should of wrote a little different.

• MCK
You had some points that I wanted to address
1. Uninstall the game: While this is a solution, this is not where I would want it to go. Yes this could/has happened with players, but I am not looking at doing this. We all have a choice to play or not. While there are times I hate this game (like now or a cascade 5 times in a row) I think it is a good product overall. The reason I started to play this is because I LOVE the Marvel universe and I like the strategy that you have to play with.
2. Skittles/Reese’s Pieces: They are both good and I was upset with the green flavor changing as well.
3. I should be been a little more clear on Solution point. I DO NOT want people to lose their job. I should of stated my point a little better and clearer. After this, I am going to go back a put an edit in if I can figure that out. But my overall point is that if issues happen time and time again with larger roll out, doesn’t matter what company it is, somebody will be held accountable. Some of these issue may not be in there control, but some are. And that is the point. You can only control what you can control, but is it the prep and the clear communication that would help when issues occur.
4. Our alliance name: It does not matter if the name is NOOBS ONLY and have all maxed 270 and working on 5* or it could be HARDCORE MPQER, and just started the game. Name of the alliance does not bring anything to this conversion.

•Wiz
Thanks for having my back

• Warbringa
Exactly. Deleting the game is an option but is the very last one.

• Pylgrim, cyinessdsn
I should have been clearer on this point. I am not “calling for a head”. I do not think anybody should be fired over this at all. If these type of situations keep on happening all the time, then D3 will have to make a business decision. I mean, this is a game. Why on God’s green earth would I want somebody to lose their job over this. I don’t and will edit my original post.

Thank You
The Rockett

thedarkphoenix

This was a bad event, sorry D3. It just isn't good.... Being one shot isn't fun, especially when you feel almost helpless against it. Its ok to for it to happen but not at such an quick rate where its as if you have no chance.


That a side, thie event compares to last year event feels like a cash grab before shutting up shop. Last year I felt like a kid in a candy shop around this time. This go around its more like a sweat shop.

wiz_biz

The rockett wrote:

• MCK
You had some points that I wanted to address
1. Uninstall the game: While this is a solution, this is not where I would want it to go. Yes this could/has happened with players, but I am not looking at doing this. We all have a choice to play or not. While there are times I hate this game (like now or a cascade 5 times in a row) I think it is a good product overall. The reason I started to play this is because I LOVE the Marvel universe and I like the strategy that you have to play with.

agree rockett, and no offense intended to MCK but being told that quitting/uninstalling is an option is one of the most frustrating things to hear in these kinds of situations. sure there are going to be players who have had it and will end up doing that, but most of us are here because we continue to want to be here - long term, competitive players in committed alliances do not see this as any kind of first option because we do actually love the game. we simply want to hear our concerns validated and understand if this is really all going according to plan.

ultimately, i think all many of us want is information and communication, and so much can be forgiven when you feel you're concerns are being heard, even if they aren't fully addressed. a heads up on how the event would run and how the locks would work so we could plan out our approach better. or, at all, really. some general information on how each round would scale so we could make sure lower level rosters are getting in early enough. understanding if the things that are behaving differently than the way ultron ran are intended or inadvertent, and acknowledgement of the known defects, even if there isn't an immediate fix planned. in my mind, these are the biggest failures here.

i kind of liken the whole thing to when a guy makes a really bold, elephantine promise to his ladyfriend, get's her hopes up ENTIRELY too high, and fails miserably. yes, the poor planning and ineptitude at understanding why your lady might be upset with you is infuriating to the fairer sex, but all you gotta do is sit her down, gaze into those eyes, and tell her you're sorry and everything will be okay. she may still be a little pissed, but at least you're still getting laid.

The rockett wrote:

4. Our alliance name: It does not matter if the name is NOOBS ONLY and have all maxed 270 and working on 5* or it could be HARDCORE MPQER, and just started the game. Name of the alliance does not bring anything to this conversion.

while i am proud to say that today is my one month anniversary in the pff family (!!!!!), to be fair...it's a really horrible name the first time i merc'd for 2 and saw the way brick brought the hammer down, i was pretty tickled. the ironing was delicious.

OneLastGambit

I don't think quitting and uninstalling is the answer more to the point you shouldn't have to. To borrow a sports analogy (as a hockey fan) if your favourite team suddenly plays like complete tinykitty would you stop going to the games and stop watching them on tv? Nope. If you're favourite director makes bad films will you stop watching them? Nope. Favourite anything? it's the same answer. We should voice our concerns but play for free instead, this will use up resources and force them to ask the question... why is nobody paying anymore? Quitting will simply make things easier for them as there is always new players that will take your place.

Kaazz

I heartily concur that the Galactus event is one of the most poorly executed I've ever seen in any game!
1. Server issues - didn't they learn anything from ultron? Terrible preparation on their part
2. Timed lockouts -
A. not only is this different than expected behavior, we weren't told beforehand, so we were all caught unawares. Very poor game design!
B. With timed lockouts, this ensures massive player login at the same time, causing connectivity issues. (See #1) Absolutely stupid planning
C. The lockouts make it so you play LESS! Who designs a game like that?!?
3. Difficulty level - absolutely, utterly, completely ridiculous. Look, I get that the Big G is supposed to be tough to beat, but when the chances of success (and I do mean CHANCES - it's all down to luck) are about 1%, this doesn't encourage me to spend HP/ISO (which means $$) because I know I don't have a chance anyways so why try? Again, really poor game design! Basic psychology proves that occasional rewards (above a certain level) are necessary to continue the desired behavior. Every game designer knows this. But for this event, apparently, they've forgotten everything they learned in game design school.

Overall, I am appalled at the amateur mistakes being made, and agree with OP that SOMETHING has to be done, and I'm not talking compensation - I mean real, substantial changes as to how this game continues. Communication would be the very first step. Where is it?

slidecage

funny thing is wasnt they all out of the office for another meeting during the first run of ultron.. Think something fishy is up.

Dragon_Nexus

Bottom line, we complain because we want things to improve. Simple as that.
If we didn't want things to improve, or simply didn't care, we WOULD leave in droves. What good does simply leaving do me if D3 then changes things for the better? I've already left. I don't benefit from that at all. I've moved on and don't care any more.

I'd actually like D3 to notice this disappointment and apathy towards what is either an event that was barely play tested, if at all; or an event that was absolutely play tested and designed to make money rather than actually being fun. And if they notice I'd like them to come out and say "You know what? We bodged this up. We didn't realise just how over powered and borderline broken Galactus was. We're postponing the next round to get it right!" Or something, you know?

Or hey, maybe this was a massive over reaction to people complaining the Ultron event was too much of a huge grind (which it is), so they made an event that's similar but you can complete a single run in half an hour, wiping out a significant chunk of your characters.

guib

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

Or hey, maybe this was a massive over reaction to people complaining the Ultron event was too much of a huge grind (which it is), so they made an event that's similar but you can complete a single run in half an hour, wiping out a significant chunk of your characters.

what exactly was different with ultron regarding the grinding ?
the boss battle lasted more than 30s and you didnt wipe your whole roster , that , I understand
but the timers and locks were exactly the same, weren't they ? they're not the real problem... or do I remember incorrectly ?

DrStrange-616

guib wrote:

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

Or hey, maybe this was a massive over reaction to people complaining the Ultron event was too much of a huge grind (which it is), so they made an event that's similar but you can complete a single run in half an hour, wiping out a significant chunk of your characters.

what exactly was different with ultron regarding the grinding ?
the boss battle lasted more than 30s and you didnt wipe your whole roster , that , I understand
but the timers and locks were exactly the same, weren't they ? they're not the real problem... or do I remember incorrectly ?

You were locked out by essential pins that had an 8 hour refresh. However, in addition to the 8 hour reset, they reset with each new round and 3 times a day at I don't remember. 9am Pacific, 5pm and 1am? Something like that. So you got a lot more cracks at it.

eta: And you didn't blow through health packs so quickly, so you *could* take more turns at him.

guib

DrStrange-616 wrote:

guib wrote:

Dragon_Nexus wrote:

Or hey, maybe this was a massive over reaction to people complaining the Ultron event was too much of a huge grind (which it is), so they made an event that's similar but you can complete a single run in half an hour, wiping out a significant chunk of your characters.

what exactly was different with ultron regarding the grinding ?
the boss battle lasted more than 30s and you didnt wipe your whole roster , that , I understand
but the timers and locks were exactly the same, weren't they ? they're not the real problem... or do I remember incorrectly ?

You were locked out by essential pins that had an 8 hour refresh. However, in addition to the 8 hour reset, they reset with each new round and 3 times a day at I don't remember. 9am Pacific, 5pm and 1am? Something like that. So you got a lot more cracks at it.

eta: And you didn't blow through health packs so quickly, so you *could* take more turns at him.

yes, I agree the reset wich new round gave useful more shots, but the reset 3 times a day was exactly the same with galactus and ultron , wasn't it ?
it's also something I didn't understand in ICeX post, when he says top alliances blew through it in 12 hours and sit the rest of the 3 days as if there were no locks, timers and reset back then. looks like not only they didnot playtest galactus, but they still haven't looked what ultron was like

Ctenko

There were locks on Ultron. Functionally the events work the same, except Galactus makes no story sense, and does not unlock Sub nodes or the Main node when a new round starts. Also Even if you don't play in a round of Galactus you do get an advancement prize for beating the round. A rare thing done right.

I want to talk about the 'You can just uninstall'. I know like six people have since but I'm arrogant enough to think my opinion matters.

I hate hearing something like that. It's the quintessential way of saying it's all your fault. When someone brings up the most extreme option, in this case; uninstalling and never playing again. As compared to say, skipping the second run and not paying for any of the anniversary it's always given in the sense of... Well if you don't like it you can leave. That's the issue; we do like it. We are upset because something we liked, upset us. That isn't our fault. We didn't like what happened. So like anyone else it's our privilege to complain about that. Ask for it to be fixed.

My house gets burgled, I don't want the police saying, well you shouldn't live in a house if you don't want to get robbed.

I enjoy this game. But I did not like this part of it.
Well you should not play the game.

Kinda nuts when you think about it.

AtlasAxe

The difference on the Ultron locks was that when you went up a level, everything including Ultron unlocked, so you could immediately hit him at the new level. In Galactus only the supporting nodes unlock.

M C K

The rockett, wiz_biz, OneLastGambit, Ctenko, et al wrote:

<paraphrasing>shouldn't have to uninstall</paraphrasing>

Sorry, just got back to reading some of these responses. Of course no one wants to uninstall and no one should have to resort to it, but that doesn't remove it from the bag of tactics. I think my original point to uninstalling as a matter of first resort rather than last was not to insinuate that the customer base is at fault of anything, rather that the other options presented were very unlikely to come to pass:

1. Management isn't changing because of this event, as I'm sure there's been heavy participation thus far
2. Marvel isn't pulling licensing based on this event, because honestly, small potatoes for them...their "fry list" likely has bigger fish on it

Admittedly, there are subdivisions of uninstalling that I didn't list. They would include obvious things like "Don't pay for anything in-game" and "Don't participate whatsoever in the next Galactus event". That second one is important because it's a direct response to the publisher for creating a game mode that no one likes. If the participation between the first and second runs is decidedly down (and I mean significantly...5% simply won't do, it would likely have to be 50% or more), that sends the absolute clearest message possible to the team. So apologies for not breaking it down. Uninstalling is the nuclear option, yes, but like most nuclear options it is the most effective overall. They can't make money if no one is playing their game.

I knew my post wouldn't win me any popularity contests (and again, trust that I despise being that guy), and I came to peace with that when I submitted it. I also don't necessarily like it when someone tells me to uninstall either, especially if I'm enjoying the game, but I always have to remember that trump in my back pocket if/when the time comes. Sincerely I enjoyed the challenge and thought the play mode was interesting and engaging, although perhaps not implemented or scaled appropriately. At the very least being downed after two turns is frustrating, but we said similar things about the 4* DDQ (too soon?) and yet based on the forum posts we still try every five days, even with undercovered, underleved characters.

tl;dr - Coordinate a mass non-participation in the next Galactus event to send a strong message. Coordinate a mass uninstall (or at the very least a long hiatus) to send the strongest, most immediate message possible.

Cheers and good luck, folks.

The rockett

MCK,
Your right about the second run of this event. If it is that bad, then don't do it. The problem with that is if you don't do it, you are not only putting yourself in a bad spot, but your allaince mates as well. Also, you know the 4* Red Hulk will be an essential right after this. So you will be at a disadvantage for events in the future. And that's how they hook you in. Don't grind, no reward. No reward, no essential for future events. No essentials, no rewards. Just a viscous cycle.