MPQ Fun and Pve playing on my schedule, FAIL

TheOncomingStorm

I spent time with the family this weekend. I knew there would be no point joining right away because I had no control over the time I could play. So joined this morning when I finally had control over my schedule. Very stale bracket I joined at 800+. Only in mpq, having a life precludes being able to successfully play a video game.

You do realize, in pretty much every other game, the game is a hobby that you can play when you get spare time. You plan your game play around your life. Only in this game (afaik), you have to plan your life around the game.

Unbelievably, other games find success and customer satisfaction using this formula.

I'm going to say this. The development team is awesome when it comes to game design. From character mechanics to different types of event, I really could not ask for more.

Conversely, mpq sucks at knowing what is fun and what players find to be fun. Case in point, galactus was awesome concept and brilliant game design. However, it was not initially fun for several reasons.

This Duck Season has just been a big middle finger to the playerbase. So has the insanely stale 3* placement rewards and pves that are actually pvp without a real progressive placement structure.

From a game design, maybe mpq thinks all these things are pure genius, and maybe the are. But you know what? They are not fun. Great game design and a high level of fun should not be mutually exclusive. It's my belief that if you did exit interviews when players left, you would have the data that empirically proves this point.

I just find it really hard to believe that this is news to you. Y'all play other games. Y'all know what fun is. I just do not understand why you feel your playerbase does not deserve the same thing.

You get to play your other games on your schedule. Why can't we have a progressive pve so we can do the same?

nate461

I agree with the previous posts that state if your real objective was to allow playing on your schedule & more fun the recent two tests were abysmal failures. In fact it is impossible to believe those were the actual objectives.First, I have supervised technical people and computer departments, and it never fails to amaze me that people who can't solve simple problems, always try to solve bigger more difficult problems. I posted after the the first test, but don't think any of the concerns I mentioned were even considered. Now that this test has been run twice and their is a stated intent to run a 3rd test, I will again restate the problems and what I think are simple solutions.
First, The game has real scaling problems. and imbalanced characters where a few characters have far more power than other characters with the same star rating.
Two, you are forced to play the game on the games schedule, because you have to wait for your health to be restored.
Third, You have to grind on nodes to get any of the top rewards, because for your first node wins all you get is the lowest level awards. Also you have to grind nodes to get enough points to get the top rewards in an event and you have to grind, especially when a new character comes out because so many players are trying for the top rank. The spread of the rank awards should be widened no that there are more players. For instance in the current PVE players in the 100-200 rank should also get a duck character.
Forth, Even if you can get higher character covers, there is no way to get enough ISo to upgrade them. Despite how much you like the Game theory, evidently you have to quit.their is no win.
Finallyhat would make the game more fun is new story lines rather than rehashing the same events.

Partyof5

nate461 wrote:

Third, You have to grind on nodes to get any of the top rewards, because for your first node wins all you get is the lowest level awards. Also you have to grind nodes to get enough points to get the top rewards in an event and you have to grind, especially when a new character comes out because so many players are trying for the top rank. The spread of the rank awards should be widened no that there are more players. For instance in the current PVE players in the 100-200 rank should also get a duck character.

This is where I think adding bonuses for "how" you win could make the game a lot more fun. Win without any team members being downed, or without using any boosts, or winning while retaining a certain percentage of health. Give some sort of reward for that instead of forcing us to play the same matches over and over and over.

ammenell

you don't have to grind everything to dust.
this game is actually fun if you lower your expectation and treat it like the game it is

Crowl

Partyof5 wrote:

This is where I think adding bonuses for "how" you win could make the game a lot more fun. Win without any team members being downed, or without using any boosts, or winning while retaining a certain percentage of health. Give some sort of reward for that instead of forcing us to play the same matches over and over and over.

While some of those bonuses sound good in theory, but are just too dependent on how lucky the computer gets on their turns, narrowly defeating a tough node that will cost you health packs also paying out a lesser reward seems harsh.

Partyof5

You wouldn't get a lesser reward than you do now. Instead, you'd get a bonus of some sort for achieving certain things. It would help reduce the grind of just winning against the same opponents under the same conditions repeatedly. I just want some variety added to the game in place of grinding out the same thing a million times. With a game like this it wouldn't be hard to do.

TheOncomingStorm

ammenell wrote:

you don't have to grind everything to dust.
this game is actually fun if you lower your expectation and treat it like the game it is

You said it yourself. If I lowered my expectations. And if I treat it like the game it is.

My expectation is the game be fun and that I should be able to play it as successfully as possible without having to arrange my life around it. This expectation has been set by every other game I have played for the past 34 or so years. So either my expectation is correct, or all those greatly successful games were erroneous.

Hence, my belief that it is not my expectation that should be lowered. MPQ should make a tweak in the pve reward structure. And by the way, to consider a pve to be a pve with placement rewards instead of progressive ones, well that would require everyone to lower their expectations of every dictionary.

As far as take the game as it is, that was my philosophy for two years. The problem is that mpq is so much better today than two years ago. There are really only two glaring changes that are needed at this point. Change placement rewards to reflect that we are past the 3* meta thanks largely to the brilliant 4* tier of characters mpq developed. The other is pve needs to be able to be played on a player's schedule, and to be honest there needs to be less repetitiveness.

I mention repetitiveness because in their new pve tests, it requires playing the same node too many times. Pves aren't like new characters, there are usually only one new pve about every 3 months. So a player is going to play the same pves a lot. Therfore, if you know your pve rotation is pretty finite, the only way to further aid in keeping players from getting sick of playing the same pve over and over and over, is to limit how much they play each pve each time it is presented.

TL;DR: I believe my expectations are in line with the vast majority of players and game developers; therefore, I do not see the need to lower them.

I believe MPQ continues to improve by leaps and bounds. Hence, I believe there is no reason the last two biggest problems (imo) should just be left as is. In fact, since MPQ is testing new pve features, I feel this proves they agree with my point. The difference between us is what direction we feel best improves pve. I do not have access to their data or their goals for the changes, but from my one time hardcore playing of mpq, my current causal playing, and the playing of current and past players that I communicate about mpq on an hourly basis, what I am suggesting is far more in line with what would make players happy and mpq fun than the new system we see right now.