You're not a part of Demiurge's plan for Year 3

Mawtful

I'm on a Marvel mailing list, and I noticed an interesting mail from them last week. It's advertising a special bonus for new subscribers to Marvel Unlimited - 4 "free" "gifts". One of those really grabbed my attention, and the small print really sealed the deal. You can take a look here:

http://imgur.com/a/1LDPB

If you don't feel like clicking, here's the rundown.
They're giving away "1 of 3 Marvel Puzzle Quest Special Characters". Those characters are your choice of 2* Wolverine, 2* Captain America, or 2* Black Widow. That seems fine - did not expect a 4 or 5* to be given away for free, but what's this? The fine print? What does it say?

***Offer valid for new users of Marvel Puzzle Quest only. Requires download of Marvel Puzzle Quest, available for download on the App Store and Google Play for free with in-app purchases.

New Users Only

Time to face the facts. We're all yesterday's rubes and we're wise to what they are doing and we're not spending enough money and we're actively encouraging others to not spend money. We're bad for business and that means we've got to go. Why on earth would you try to retain 10,000 odd players who piss and moan about fairness and balance, when there's another 7 billion potential customers out there who'll just roll over and accept it? There's only one person on the forum who's spent anywhere near enough money for Demiurge to retain, and in his own words he just likes to play the game to relax. Even after buying Silver Surfer, he's not really invested in the game. In a way, I almost feel sorry for Demiurge - their dedicated players don't pay and their paying players are fickle. They don't really have any other choice than to churn the playerbase as hard and fast as they can.

At this rate, they can still make it to the next anniversary - it would truly require a colossal tinykitty-up to destroy the game in a year. But D3 has other irons in the Puzzle Quest fire - in particular, Magic the Gathering, which has an existing fanbase that is much more accustomed to continually paying week on week for their hobby and also already understands that RNGsus can be cruel. If MtGPQ takes off then MPQ won't be able to keep up, and D3 will be less likely to keep supporting it, so they're living on borrowed time.

puppychow

I'm sorry to break this to ya, but is this REALLY NEWS? When I see D3 attend all these conventions across the country this year, and seeing how AvU broke down b/c of a failure to invest in more servers/bandwidth, it seems quite obvious that their focus is on bringing in new players rather than retaining the old ones. Why do you think they made pvp "easier" by giving more points on hits? This way, the newbies can feel some measure of satisfaction in reaching 200, 300, 400, etc. points with fewer matches.

So, no I am not surprised to see that sort of email newsletter offering new players some freebies. Remember, D3 gets a good portion of revenue from sale of character slots. You'll get more newbies buying slots than veterans, who will more likely delete/sell an unwanted character to free up slots. This certainly isn't news.

otrigorin

I am confused, why would those rewards matter for anyone who has played past day 5? And why are new players bad, exactly?

wirius

Scratching my head here. Those rewards are equivalent to a 2** token. 1. You really don't think that's a smart incentive for new players to get into the game? Don't you want more new players? If you're mad about the anniversary, be mad about that. Don't take it out on random things like incentives for new players to join.

Unknown

BW 2* is very useful today. Wolverine 2 * serves to DDQ, off-season and team-up adamantium slash, especially when he's bonuses. But Captain America 2* is rubbish. Should be better only than Bagman and Yelena.

TheWerebison

Yeah, I'm gonna go ahead and say, as much as they are not in my favor right now, this is not a big deal. All companies offer incentives to get people to use their product. Switch to this mobile company and get a new phone! Open this credit card and get 10% off your first purchase! Start a subscription with X and get a discount for the first year!

Nothing to see here.

Unknown

vinicius18 wrote:

BW 2* is very useful today. Wolverine 2 * serves to DDQ, off-season and team-up adamantium slash, especially when he's bonuses. But Captain America 2* is rubbish. Should be better only than Bagman and Yelena.

I think Ice commented that 2* Cap is one of the most rostered characters in the game. Like, top ten or top 5 or something.

He has issues, but (probably casual as heck) players sure as heck like him at least.

And he's still pretty darn good in PVE regardless.

Mawtful

I guess maybe I overthought it.

I'm still not entirely convinced that giving nothing to existing players seems a bit odd. I guess it's the same as the new character reading lists being tailored to encourage MPQ players to start subscriptions in Unlimited - nothing done for people who already had a subscription.

Anyway, go about your business.

Unknown

Mawtful wrote:

I guess maybe I overthought it.

I'm still not entirely convinced that giving nothing to existing players seems a bit odd. I guess it's the same as the new character reading lists being tailored to encourage MPQ players to start subscriptions in Unlimited - nothing done for people who already had a subscription.

Anyway, go about your business.

Imagine how mad people would be if they opened up the game right now and saw a "Thanks for playing! Reward: OBW Blue"

Considering how mad everyone is, and how compensation is expected and announced, to see that pop up on the screen right now...

...it'd be more gas on the fire. For giving something.

Unknown

colwag wrote:

vinicius18 wrote:

BW 2* is very useful today. Wolverine 2 * serves to DDQ, off-season and team-up adamantium slash, especially when he's bonuses. But Captain America 2* is rubbish. Should be better only than Bagman and Yelena.

I think Ice commented that 2* Cap is one of the most rostered characters in the game. Like, top ten or top 5 or something.

He has issues, but (probably casual as heck) players sure as heck like him at least.

And he's still pretty darn good in PVE regardless.

If the Cap 3 * I agree that it is excellent in pve but the 2 * is useless. Version 2 * I sold to free up slots and regretted to have it maximized.

Unknown

vinicius18 wrote:

If the Cap 3 * I agree that it is excellent in pve but the 2 * is useless. Version 2 * I sold to free up slots and regretted to have it maximized.

Eh, I disagree. My 2* team had him front and center, and a stunlock is still a really good stunlock even without a protect tile. (Honestly, at first I wished it didn't leave one because I liked setting up matches with the elimination, wasn't that useful all in all)

And while Area/OBW is a much better overall team, when I wanted to go against somebody's 166 with unboosted 94s, using Cap n Mags to get a ton of blue to make sure they never did anything was key.

Upgrading to 3* Cap was pretty big, but all it really did for me was make things faster with how deadly his Red is in comparison.

Unknown

colwag wrote:

vinicius18 wrote:

If the Cap 3 * I agree that it is excellent in pve but the 2 * is useless. Version 2 * I sold to free up slots and regretted to have it maximized.

Eh, I disagree. My 2* team had him front and center, and a stunlock is still a really good stunlock even without a protect tile. (Honestly, at first I wished it didn't leave one because I liked setting up matches with the elimination, wasn't that useful all in all)

And while Area/OBW is a much better overall team, when I wanted to go against somebody's 166 with unboosted 94s, using Cap n Mags to get a ton of blue to make sure they never did anything was key.

Upgrading to 3* Cap was pretty big, but all it really did for me was make things faster with how deadly his Red is in comparison.

By your words you should somebody from 2-3 stars transition. Experience a Juggernaut with blood 25k with Hood to see if Cap 2 * do something. Moreover, not trivial matches pve it serves because it is very slow and very low damage. I reserve one slot for pve 2 * unnecessary. When it's your turn the other two characters do all the work. It makes no difference it with one cover or maximized. Not to DDQ it serves. It would be nice to team up to generate red or blue AP but everyone prefers the 3 *. Ie useless. I respect your opinion but disagree completely hers.

Unknown

vinicius18 wrote:

By your words you should somebody from 2-3 stars transition. Experience a Juggernaut with blood 25k with Hood to see if Cap 2 * do something. Moreover, not trivial matches pve it serves because it is very slow and very low damage. I reserve one slot for pve 2 * unnecessary. When it's your turn the other two characters do all the work. It makes no difference it with one cover or maximized. Not to DDQ it serves. It would be nice to team up to generate red or blue AP but everyone prefers the 3 *. Ie useless. I respect your opinion but disagree completely hers.

Yeah, obviously the 3* version of him is an upgrade. That goes the same for Torch, but Torch's 2* is usually considered pretty darn useful still.

And as for what Cap. does against a Hood and Juggs?

Easy.

He stunlocks Hood so he can't drain AP until he's down. Nobody else in 2* land can shut somebody down like that, closest being 1* Widow doing 5 turns of stun for 9, non-renewable blue. But like Cap, don't want to exactly bring him up into the 3* territory too often against anything but mooks.

(But obviously yeah of course he doesn't stand up in 3* land, especially compared to himself... but until you got LCap, BabyCap still serves some practical, tile destroying and stunlocking purposes)

Unknown

colwag wrote:

vinicius18 wrote:

By your words you should somebody from 2-3 stars transition. Experience a Juggernaut with blood 25k with Hood to see if Cap 2 * do something. Moreover, not trivial matches pve it serves because it is very slow and very low damage. I reserve one slot for pve 2 * unnecessary. When it's your turn the other two characters do all the work. It makes no difference it with one cover or maximized. Not to DDQ it serves. It would be nice to team up to generate red or blue AP but everyone prefers the 3 *. Ie useless. I respect your opinion but disagree completely hers.

Yeah, obviously the 3* version of him is an upgrade. That goes the same for Torch, but Torch's 2* is usually considered pretty darn useful still.

And as for what Cap. does against a Hood and Juggs?

Easy.

He stunlocks Hood so he can't drain AP until he's down. Nobody else in 2* land can shut somebody down like that, closest being 1* Widow doing 5 turns of stun for 9, non-renewable blue. But like Cap, don't want to exactly bring him up into the 3* territory too often against anything but mooks.

(But obviously yeah of course he doesn't stand up in 3* land, especially compared to himself... but until you got LCap, BabyCap still serves some practical, tile destroying and stunlocking purposes)

Human torch 2 * I also sold to release slot. This version is even useful in DDQ but not worth the 1000HP slot and I have your version 3 *. Just do not change my Thor 2 * by CM 2* because of ISO.

Council for the 2 *: BW / MA / ST / WO / CM / MO
For 1 *: JU / SM / BW / IM

For you say that the Juggernaut and Hood node is easy it is because you have never played. This node is one of the toughest in pve. There are few characters that I have that I can bring him down. First, 12AP Blue you will not get because Hood will not leave. Second, if you have incredibly lucky to get these 12 AP, your CAP will be downed with headbutts the Juggernaut. It is useless ISO expenditure to duplicate characters.

squirrel1120

2* cap is slow, no doubt.

Mine had taken down 395 goons with muscles in the mix when I was out of other options. He's under rated in his proper role of board control.

Yes... that did take forever btw.

OneLastGambit

There is no business on earth which values old customers over new. Because every business is focussed on growth not stability so this news is nothing new. I'm also not offended by it because 90 days ago I was a new player, we all were at some point and we can't moan because circumstances are better for new players it's the equivalent of complaining because you were born in a time which is harder than the current one.

As for the giveaways, they are good characters for a new player and very useful. The offer does not state they will be optimally cover maxed and until they are they are not that useful really, so the new player will have to collect a lot of moonstones before those characters become useful anyway.

I agree on wolverine being useful, he's a staple of my teams (I'm a 2-3* transitioner) due to his ability to rack up attack tiles fast and adamatium slash being decent damage for a 2*. He also gets boosted fairly often. 2* cap I never found that useful and traded him for 3* as soon as I could. OBW is very useful and when paired with CStorm and MNMags is probably the best 2* team around.

Linkster79

Giving new customers a good deal or something for nothing is standard. In the UK all the best deals are for brand new customers no matter what the industry is. Take for instance car insurance. Here it is a legal requirement to drive on the roads. My quote last year went from just over £200 to well over £800 without me having any accidents, points on my license, keeping the same car at the same address! I go to a comparison site and see my insurance company offering the same level of cover for just over £200 if I were to be a new customer. All I did was switch companies to get a price I was happy with. Same applies to phone, broadband, internet, gas and electricity.

I really don't know why this would be a shock to anybody.

mr_X

Linkster79 wrote:

Giving new customers likeod deal or something for nothing is standard. In the UK all the best deals are for brand new customers no matter what the industry is. Take for instance car insurance. Here it is a legal requirement to drive on the roads. My quote last year went from just over £200 to well over £800 without me having any accidents, points on my license, keeping the same car at the same address! I go to a comparison site and see my insurance company offering the same level of cover for just over £200 if I were to be a new customer. All I did was switch companies to get a price I was happy with. Same applies to phone, broadband, internet, gas and electricity.

I really don't know why this would be a shock to anybody.

Yeah, they definitely don't seem to kick much freebies to existing customers in the UK. The logic is most people can't be bothered changing providers etc so why worry about retention. Once they have enticed you and got your money they don't bother with you no more. It's all about getting new customers.

Cymmina

Mawtful wrote:

I'm on a Marvel mailing list, and I noticed an interesting mail from them last week. It's advertising a special bonus for new subscribers to Marvel Unlimited - 4 "free" "gifts". One of those really grabbed my attention, and the small print really sealed the deal. You can take a look here:

http://imgur.com/a/1LDPB

If you don't feel like clicking, here's the rundown.
They're giving away "1 of 3 Marvel Puzzle Quest Special Characters". Those characters are your choice of 2* Wolverine, 2* Captain America, or 2* Black Widow. That seems fine - did not expect a 4 or 5* to be given away for free, but what's this? The fine print? What does it say?

***Offer valid for new users of Marvel Puzzle Quest only. Requires download of Marvel Puzzle Quest, available for download on the App Store and Google Play for free with in-app purchases.

New Users Only

Time to face the facts. We're all yesterday's rubes and we're wise to what they are doing and we're not spending enough money and we're actively encouraging others to not spend money. We're bad for business and that means we've got to go. Why on earth would you try to retain 10,000 odd players who piss and moan about fairness and balance, when there's another 7 billion potential customers out there who'll just roll over and accept it? There's only one person on the forum who's spent anywhere near enough money for Demiurge to retain, and in his own words he just likes to play the game to relax. Even after buying Silver Surfer, he's not really invested in the game. In a way, I almost feel sorry for Demiurge - their dedicated players don't pay and their paying players are fickle. They don't really have any other choice than to churn the playerbase as hard and fast as they can.

At this rate, they can still make it to the next anniversary - it would truly require a colossal tinykitty-up to destroy the game in a year. But D3 has other irons in the Puzzle Quest fire - in particular, Magic the Gathering, which has an existing fanbase that is much more accustomed to continually paying week on week for their hobby and also already understands that RNGsus can be cruel. If MtGPQ takes off then MPQ won't be able to keep up, and D3 will be less likely to keep supporting it, so they're living on borrowed time.

I don't understand the problem here. You're complaining because someone else is getting something for free that you don't even need? Have you seriously never played a game where new players have it vastly easier than you did back when you started?

IlDuderino

They have a plan?