MPQ is more than a mobile game. [a musings thread]

san

I'd like to preface this thread with the notion that this is NOT in any way, shape, or form, a quitting thread. That said, I am slowing down. I didn't come to this idea lightly, nor quickly. And I wish to share my musings with the community, should others have anything to add.

I am on day 500 some odd. No real idea exactly when I began, but it was last summer, at some point. I had the chance to experience everything the game offered. The original (briefly), the new and improved, , and the new and nerfed (for reference, in terms of time). I struggled through the 2-3* transition, and I think I've paid my dues, as well as real money, of course.

In recent weeks, and perhaps months, I have been struggling with the 3-4* transition. While easier than the 2-3* was back in the day, I find that less and less of the rewards I am able to achieve day to day really interest me. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm able to get to 1000pts in PVP, and able to compete in PVE, but these tasks do take time. In fact, they take much more time than they ever did. We now have multiple game types that we can "engage" in, such as DDQ, DDQ4* (sort of a separate entity), PVE, PVP, holiday/special events, and the dreaded 4* release PVEs (again, sort of separate things, as it brings a different level of competition). These events are, for the most part, awesome. I have a lot of fun playing them. These reward various things, and it's great for most players. I say most. Not for me. I only seek 4*s now. My 3*s are maxed and optimized, and anyone decent is level 120 or better.

So, how do I get 4*s? Here's the list:

Compete for top 10 PVE? Too much work. Too involved. Impossible, in fact, if you have a job and a child (AND decide to spend time with said child - so please, no "I play while my child is watching TV replies").

Get 1000 in PVP? It's harder and harder each time. With the amount of whaling that's recently occurring, and some folks skipping the 2-3* transition altogether (I know a couple), many folks have "caught up" to my level of play, despite me having played for so long. I can no longer to do T-minus 3 hour entrance and still make it to 1k which I was able to do this summer, despite my roster being MUCH better now than it was before. And even if I can, it takes almost the full 3 hours! That's not mobile game time, that's a almost-completed-the-story-in-this-xbox-game-time!

4* DDQ? Not lately. I may have spent money in the past, but I'm no whale. My 3 has no chance. Neither will my Miles, nor Venom. I have many of the 4*s well covered, but leaving DDQ 4* as a "whale only" mode, doesn't really help the average Joe.

Command points? Sure, but this requires a SUBSTANTIAL investment. If I buy $130 (CAD) of credits, I would get 1/4 of the points I need for a token which may end up as a token for something I already have. No thanks. Getting these through PVE is tedious as well, particularly when the node decides to award 20iso over and over and over again.

Basically, what I'm saying is that players like me are required to put in a great deal of time for, what amounts to, a very small (and randomly generated) reward. To gain that reward, MPQ has become more than a mobile game for me - it was a time investment. And the returns are poor. Therefore, I'm selling my stock, so to speak, and going to chill out for a bit. I still enjoy the puzzle aspect, but new feature, or no new feature (whose name shall not be mentioned) I doubt I'll be as engaged as I have been in the past. I have come to the realization that this game takes up as much time as many better games do, and that I'd rather play such games for the time being. When MPQ is a MOBILE game again, I can certainly look to be a bit more engaged. In other words, thanks for a great time, and a great game. It's just too much for me.

TL;DR: The time investment required for the transition is too high for a mobile game, and I think players like me are less engaged as a result.

CNash

I agree with you. I'm going for CP as my primary 3*-4* transition vehicle, with the Legendary Token PVE progression reward as my secondary (and randomly-pulled 4*s and Legendary Tokens from DDQ, once in a blue moon), and it's slow. Far slower than the 3* progression was before DDQ.

My problem with the slowness of the 4* transition process is that the developers have been creating new 4* and 5* characters exclusively for a while now, and - according to reports - this isn't going to change any time soon. No more 1, 2 or 3*s, even though I would wager that the vast majority of players are in the 1, 2 or 3* stages of the game. 4*s are still the end goal for a huge number of people, and this means that they're not being catered to at their current level, making the 4* transition experience feel stale.

To put it another way, the devs are investing all of their time into making new content (character content, I should say) exclusively for people who are either veteran players or have bought their way to the top, and are ignoring the needs of the players who are either wholly F2P or don't regularly spend money on the game. Worse yet, in order to fully experience the new content that is being created and promoted, you need to already be at the 4* level. The constant "Look at the new character you can play with!" announcement banners do nothing for me, because even if I do win a cover through their PVE debut event, there's no way I can actually play with it until I get lucky enough to pull - at random - twelve more covers for that same character (or even more if I don't pull its covers in the right order).

To keep my interest in this game going, I've set myself a side goal of maxing and completing every 3* character. I know that many people save their ISO and divert it into their 4*s instead, but I'm some time away from having a usable 4* team and even further from having the roster depth I currently enjoy at the 3* level. To that end, I'm focusing on improving my current position as much as I can, and having as many 3* characters as possible will let me sidestep the health pack drain that top PVE placement imposes.

My final point: I'm not saying that the developers need to make 3* (or lower) characters regularly, but once in a while, break up the constant barrage of new 4*s and throw their lower-tier player base a bone. Even just rebalancing some of the old 3* characters would be greatly appreciated.

morph3us

It's the classic trap of the Freemium game, in the end.

The initial stages of the game are relatively quick, to get you engaged, without spending any money (as anyone who's slipped back into a newbie bracket will attest to). Progress then slows the higher up you get. Your options now are to invest even more time in the game for the same rewards (because you're now in a vet bracket), spend money to maintain your rate of progression, or invest the same amount of time you did before at the expense of slower progression.

This is desirable for the developers, because their metrics from their masters are based on (a) monetary income (and they need to make a buck, so fair is fair), or (b) user engagement (measured in daily logins, and amount of time spent playing each day).

So, like most freemium games, it's a Skinner box. In MPQ's case, it's a very well designed and fun to play Skinner box. But, you're absolutely right, San, it's the big problem in the mobile space for games at the moment, and it's not just confined to MPQ. Games companies will go where the market moves. Freemium games gross way more than their "pay once" premium counterparts, and we eventually end up in a very strange place where a mobile game demands more time, or more money than a fully fledged console or PC game.

san

morph3us wrote:

It's the classic trap of the Freemium game, in the end.

The initial stages of the game are relatively quick, to get you engaged, without spending any money (as anyone who's slipped back into a newbie bracket will attest to). Progress then slows the higher up you get. Your options now are to invest even more time in the game for the same rewards (because you're now in a vet bracket), spend money to maintain your rate of progression, or invest the same amount of time you did before at the expense of slower progression.

This is desirable for the developers, because their metrics from their masters are based on (a) monetary income (and they need to make a buck, so fair is fair), or (b) user engagement (measured in daily logins, and amount of time spent playing each day).

So, like most freemium games, it's a Skinner box. In MPQ's case, it's a very well designed and fun to play Skinner box. But, you're absolutely right, San, it's the big problem in the mobile space for games at the moment, and it's not just confined to MPQ. Games companies will go where the market moves. Freemium games gross way more than their "pay once" premium counterparts, and we eventually end up in a very strange place where a mobile game demands more time, or more money than a fully fledged console or PC game.

This is an excellent assessment. I think that it is unfortunate that this is the case, because this sort of thing can turn a lot of people off, and give the game a bad name. Sure, the developers make a few quick bucks, but loyalty is worth more - at least my loyalty is. When you think of a brand that endures, in the toy department, it's got to be LEGO - they almost always go with quality over quantity, and maintain their loyal fan base, which gives them profits again and again. When we're talking games, you have Halo, or Tomb Raider, or the like, the latter of which I have taken to playing again with great pleasure. I am disappointed, although I suppose not too surprised that they would stick with this model, although I understand the concept of making a quick buck while you can.

udonomefoo

When my 4 year-old said "put down your tablet and play with me daddy" on a Saturday I knew that was it for me. I still do the DDQ and peek in here to see if they've made the new announcement yet, but that's it for me and I don't miss it.

There was a 1k reward in pvp I saw this week and I thought I'd go ahead and get it. Got to 300+ and decided it wasn't worth my time. It's so nice not having the obligation to play. I've been playing Lego Marvel Superheroes with my kid instead, way more fun.

Todzilla

I was just talking about this yesterday. The time you would need to spend if you just wanted 1 cover of a new release character or even the pve leg token rivals that of call of duty and warcraft players.