The tipping point

NewMcG

Well, it finally happened. The devs finally figured out exactly how to push me beyond the point of wanting to play anymore. It's like a greatest hits of everything that the decision makers seem tone-deaf about, when it comes to the game.

- multiple new characters requiring slots in a ridiculously short span of time? Check.
- 7-day event for the first new character release? Check.
- refusal to increase Iso rates, despite the constant influx of new characters requiring more and more of it? Check.
- looming threat of the "improved" PVE system on the horizon? Check.

Combine that with a personal Iso shortage somewhere close to the 8 million range to get "caught up" on my current roster (and before factoring in whatever the handful of incoming releases would add), and it's just beyond the point I have any interest in playing. It's been a game that I've enjoyed for over two years, I've been in a great alliance for a long time, but the big picture for the game just keeps moving in a direction that's making it less and less appealing. It hit home the most when I realized hitting that "uninstall" button felt liberating, and not disappointing.

I took one long, extended break before, so I guess I'll never say never when it comes to returning at some point. But, there's many things out there I can spend money on that aren't actively working to make the experience less pleasant to their players. Those games will get my money until this game gets itself sorted out. As someone who had affection for the game for a long time, I do hope that happens eventually.

mpqr7

I have been teetering on the edge for a long time. I'm still playing for some reason, and I'll probably go as nutz as possible during these new events, but I'm hoping to chill out on pvps soon so that I don't have to spend three times a week locked in the climb for 1300+ points.. I can get some of my mornings and nights back to myself! Hopefully soon...

All of the new changes you mentioned make me sad... I just lower my standards of what remaining happiness I can expect to get from the game...

madsalad

I've just resigned myself to being limited to maxing/championing a single 4* once a month, if I'm lucky. I've given up hope on getting any more iso than we are already getting. I just plan out way in advance who I want to work on. I have 5 4*s that are maxed covered that need to be championed. I've now started hoarding all CP and LTs (300 cp / 7 LTs and counting) and I will continue to do so until I have any 4*s which are maxed covered also championed.

Caveat: I may open classic LTs with my CP now that we are getting more 5*s which will make the chance of getting OML even worse. I may try to use the CP to get another cover or two for him before more 5*s are pushed into the classic LTs.

KingDon

I think for me, what is pushing me towards the tipping point is the requirement for the next 4* to be the essential in the new Civil War event.

This is not the 1st time that they have done this (I think the last time was the nova release and then he was one of the essential chars In the Galactus re-run) however they seem to want to push token packs sales rather than have an event where all the players can experience the event and have a chance for all of the rewards.

Lets not forget that this will be 7 day grind fest to ensure that you get a cover to then be able to compete for the top rewards, however there will be a lot of players that won't get top 100 so they will be limited to how much they can play the new event (I probably will be one that does not finish top 100 as I do not have 4* Miles so am already at a disadvantage to a lot of other players)

Its the same ole story and yet there seems to be no light at the end of the tunnel on this and a host of other issues (iso shortage, quick release of new chars v.s. cost of roster slots)

laughingMAN

Just to play devil's advocate in all the doom and gloom a bit: the best games are all about making interesting choices. In this one, I'd argue it's about who to roster / not roster, who to put iso in / skip, etc. Maybe the mindset shouldn't be "collect and power up everything in sight" but rather to pick and choose one's roster to fit one's liking. If you don't have an essential to compete at the top level of an event, then just use that event for generating iso. If it means you have to miss out on a potential next character, then those are consequences of choices you make (and in the grand scheme of your LIFE, not getting a character in a match-3 mobile game is hardly the end of the world anyway).

This game has problems, I'll be the first to admit that (for instance, I'm the club that thinks OML is a terribly designed character that warps the meta way too much). But I actually like the way the essential rotation + iso crunch forces players to make hard roster decisions rather than just let them juice up everyone to their heart's content. Maybe the iso could flow just a tad more freely, but for the most part I don't think it's a huge deal unless you absolutely feel the need to gobble up everything in sight as soon as it releases.

CyberVenom2001

laughingMAN wrote:

Just to play devil's advocate in all the doom and gloom a bit: the best games are all about making interesting choices. In this one, I'd argue it's about who to roster / not roster, who to put iso in / skip, etc. Maybe the mindset shouldn't be "collect and power up everything in sight" but rather to pick and choose one's roster to fit one's liking. If you don't have an essential to compete at the top level of an event, then just use that event for generating iso. If it means you have to miss out on a potential next character, then those are consequences of choices you make (and in the grand scheme of your LIFE, not getting a character in a match-3 mobile game is hardly the end of the world anyway).

This game has problems, I'll be the first to admit that (for instance, I'm the club that thinks OML is a terribly designed character that warps the meta way too much). But I actually like the way the essential rotation + iso crunch forces players to make hard roster decisions rather than just let them juice up everyone to their heart's content. Maybe the iso could flow just a tad more freely, but for the most part I don't think it's a huge deal unless you absolutely feel the need to gobble up everything in sight as soon as it releases.

The problem there is that on multiple occasions, the developers have said they didn't want to leave out people who play to collect the characters. That's why the roster slots capped at 1000. Personally, that is how I play. Eventually, they are going to have to address the iso issue or this game will go the route of Marvel: War of Heroes where a mass exodus occurred to the point that only the top tier stayed and they couldn't get any new players. Then it folded.

SnowcaTT

I'm certainly getting wary of how things are going.

I really enjoyed having the 3* and 4* roster both being useful - and I'm sad that the 3*'s are just so pointless now, after all the time/resources put into them.

It's a bummer to see 4* after 4* released - knowing that it will take forever for me to cover any of the new ones (way to many covers with way to few ways to get them), and even if/when I do there isn't any reason for me to sink ISO into them since I have half a dozen 4*'s maxed already. And even if I wanted to sink ISO into them, I have so many languishing from ISO thirst already....

Further, the game is quickly getting dominated by the 5*'s - and if you get unlucky (like I have) about pulling OML covers specifically you are the target in PVP and you don't have the health packs to successfully run PVE. The RNG nature of 5*'s is just a bugger, and I've found it basically impossible to hit 1300 without "outside communication" to try to up my chances for that RNG.

You know what I've -really- enjoyed recently? All the game time I spend outside of MPQ. That's a bad sign for me in this game.

tanis3303

SnowcaTT wrote:

You know what I've -really- enjoyed recently? All the game time I spend outside of MPQ. That's a bad sign for me in this game.

Yuuuupppppppp. I've stepped away for the last few weeks, playing PvP to 1300 & DDQ and that's about it. That takes me ~2 hours per PvP event and about 10 minutes for DDQ. I spent my extra time playing Dark Souls 3, hitting the gym, checked out a few local auctions and spent more time with friends/family. Then I decided that Drax looked kinda interesting, and DPvsMPQ is one of the most tolerable PvEs with only 2 grinds, so I went full bore in that event. And I flat out hated every single second of it. I took t10 and our alliance got t100, so I ended up with 4 Drax covers. Hurray? He's worthless, and will be for MONTHS. Why did I put myself thru that again? Since I have no good answer, I'm just not gonna do it again. I'd actually like to play the Civil War event, so I will attempt the classic bracket snipe to get a cover for Winter Soldier I guess, but my heart just isn't in it anymore. Oddly enough, the game became stale and borderline unplayable for me when I got my OML to a usable state. He's 5/1/1, lvl 360, and he completely obsoletes every other character on my roster. Taking anyone but him into an overscaled PvE fight is suicide, and taking anyone other than him into a PvP battle seems silly. I'm BORED. I have like 90 characters on my roster, and all but one of them are completely useless. I just drag him and Iron Fist into EVERY. SINGLE. BATTLE. in PvE. For PvP, it's OML and whatever 4* happens to be boosted that week, but the other 4* doesn't often do jack, I just match black tiles for the match damage, put out absurdly overpowered strike tiles and match gems until everything dies. It's so freaking boring, but using other characters just becomes a frustrating resource drain, so why bother? I had a pretty good idea that 5*s would ruin the game for me when I played that Surfer test node back when they released him, but I never would have guessed that it would be actually GETTING one that would drive me away...

Monged4life

laughingMAN wrote:

Just to play devil's advocate in all the doom and gloom a bit: the best games are all about making interesting choices. In this one, I'd argue it's about who to roster / not roster, who to put iso in / skip, etc. Maybe the mindset shouldn't be "collect and power up everything in sight" but rather to pick and choose one's roster to fit one's liking. If you don't have an essential to compete at the top level of an event, then just use that event for generating iso. If it means you have to miss out on a potential next character, then those are consequences of choices you make (and in the grand scheme of your LIFE, not getting a character in a match-3 mobile game is hardly the end of the world anyway).

This game has problems, I'll be the first to admit that (for instance, I'm the club that thinks OML is a terribly designed character that warps the meta way too much). But I actually like the way the essential rotation + iso crunch forces players to make hard roster decisions rather than just let them juice up everyone to their heart's content. Maybe the iso could flow just a tad more freely, but for the most part I don't think it's a huge deal unless you absolutely feel the need to gobble up everything in sight as soon as it releases.

All of that would make a lot more sense if you were actually given a choice of 4* characters you get. As it is it's either "whichever is the one guy available as a top 10 / 1000 progression" or "randomly generated out of a token guy".

Where is the strategic tactical sense in that? If every prize was a choice of three 4*s and you had to pick which suits you best then yes, that would be interesting, but that isn't what the game deals you.

jimstarooney

thank you for using the standard copy/paste quit form, i will see you next week in pve/pvp

Warbringa

For the OP I quit trying to play competitively a couple of months ago because the grind is ridiculous in this game. I still play DP dailies and strive to hit 4000 in PvP for season heroic pack but other than that, I simply play for the fun of it when I feel like it. Some weeks I will play a few PvPs or PvEs just for fun, not for placement or progression and the game is so much more enjoyable now. Other times I will go weeks without playing a PvE or PvP (other than areas mentioned before).

Honestly if you are on the fence with this game, jump off of it, because your quality of life will be way better without the time this game requires to be competitive. If you are on the fence then you are already not enjoying the game....took me a while to come to terms with this too. I wasn't playing the game out of enjoyment but because I felt I "had to play the game". Simply play the game for what it is when you want since this game really is just a puzzle matching game. There is no winning this game, so why waste so much time trying to do so when you are missing the enjoyment of the game itself? I am not joking when I say this: your quality of life will be way better for it.

Lopan15

jimstarooney wrote:

thank you for using the standard copy/paste quit form, i will see you next week in pve/pvp

He quit our alliance and uninstalled. So you will see him when???

Warbringa

Lopan15 wrote:

jimstarooney wrote:

thank you for using the standard copy/paste quit form, i will see you next week in pve/pvp

He quit our alliance and uninstalled. So you will see him when???

I love how forum posters like jimstarooney love to act like people leaving the game isn't an issue, especially long-time active veterans leaving. I really do like this game but I am think its future is questionable and I believe it has been mismanaged over the past year plus. Let me explain why it tangibly matters when you see more and more people leave the game or decide to stop spending $:

Looking at iphone data only (probably good indicator for overall mobile app data which accounts for 90% of the players and most likely revenue), it has been downhill since the end of 2014 for MPQ. Now the chart I linked only compares it to gross revenue rank vs. other game apps but that likely indicates it has flat to falling revenue (likely from a falling # of players spending $). The spikes probably correspond with sales that they run on iso and HP if I had to guess. There could be other factors that account for its decline in revenue ranking vs. other games but it is highly unlikely that this trend is not primarily due to stagnant or declining overall revenues. You can get specific data but it is expensive to pay for through several services. This chart alone though is enough to tell me things are probably not going well for the game since 2014. I admit this is not conclusive data but I do believe that highly probable the game is on a downward trend.

https://sensortower.com/ios/us/d3pa/app/marvel-puzzle-quest/618349779#category-rankings?category=6014&hourly=false&chart_type=grossing&device_type=iphone&countries%5B%5D=US&start_date=2014-01-01&end_date=2016-04-28

scottee

PVP to 1300 and DDQ is what I've been doing for a long time. It's the best rewards for playtime ratio. Try to bracket snipe for new characters. And if I have extra time, lightning rounds or playing PVE just for the CP nodes.

I'm still progressing just fine, but had a solid base to start with when I made the switch. You only kill yourself in this game as much as you're willing to. Get over trying to keep up with the Joneses and life is normal. Good luck OP.

jimstarooney

Warbringa wrote:

Lopan15 wrote:

jimstarooney wrote:

thank you for using the standard copy/paste quit form, i will see you next week in pve/pvp

He quit our alliance and uninstalled. So you will see him when???

I love how forum posters like jimstarooney love to act like people leaving the game isn't an issue, especially long-time active veterans leaving. I really do like this game but I am think its future is questionable and I believe it has been mismanaged over the past year plus. Let me explain why it tangibly matters when you see more and more people leave the game or decide to stop spending $:

Looking at iphone data only (probably good indicator for overall mobile app data which accounts for 90% of the players and most likely revenue), it has been downhill since the end of 2014 for MPQ. Now the chart I linked only compares it to gross revenue rank vs. other game apps but that likely indicates it has flat to falling revenue (likely from a falling # of players spending $). The spikes probably correspond with sales that they run on iso and HP if I had to guess. There could be other factors that account for its decline in revenue ranking vs. other games but it is highly unlikely that this trend is not primarily due to stagnant or declining overall revenues. You can get specific data but it is expensive to pay for through several services. This chart alone though is enough to tell me things are probably not going well for the game since 2014. I admit this is not conclusive data but I do believe that highly probable the game is on a downward trend.

https://sensortower.com/ios/us/d3pa/app/marvel-puzzle-quest/618349779#category-rankings?category=6014&hourly=false&chart_type=grossing&device_type=iphone&countries%5B%5D=US&start_date=2014-01-01&end_date=2016-04-28

So he should just quit then,and stop tryin to create a dark cloud for people that still enjoy playin this game

Calnexin

Warbringa wrote:

I love how forum posters like jimstarooney love to act like people leaving the game isn't an issue, especially long-time active veterans leaving. I really do like this game but I am think its future is questionable and I believe it has been mismanaged over the past year plus. Let me explain why it tangibly matters when you see more and more people leave the game or decide to stop spending $:

That last part is the kicker. It's not necessarily that people are leaving (this instance notwithstanding). It's that people aren't paying as much. Your linked graph points to gross revenue, not hours spent or total daily users.

That's problematic for us, as players. The development team will parse those numbers, and depending on whatever other data they've got, will come to one of two conclusions.

1) The game has lost its lustre. We need to make things more user-friendly to retain the audience and attract as many new players as possible - new, interesting content, lower barriers to entry, but continued dominance for the paying elite.
2) The game isn't challenging enough. Our whales are bored and aren't buying as much as they used to, so we need to amp up the FTP model. Aggressive character releases that practically require monetary expenditure to keep up with the highest competitive tier.

Those are two very different conclusions, both possible based on that graph and recent content.

GrumpySmurf1002

scottee wrote:

PVP to 1300 and DDQ is what I've been doing for a long time. It's the best rewards for playtime ratio. Try to bracket snipe for new characters. And if I have extra time, lightning rounds or playing PVE just for the CP nodes.

I'm still progressing just fine, but had a solid base to start with when I made the switch. You only kill yourself in this game as much as you're willing to. Get over trying to keep up with the Joneses and life is normal. Good luck OP.

Pretty much this. I have my stable for PvP, have a decent range available for what limited PvE I play. The new characters don't mean much of anything when you can't level them anyway.

I'm excited for Civil War. Of course, it sure reads like Galactus with some new lipstick, but hey, can't expect new gameplay content more than once every year or two.

The 2M iso worth of characters in April/May though probably won't make the devs many friends.

dsds

jimstarooney wrote:

Warbringa wrote:

Lopan15 wrote:

jimstarooney wrote:

thank you for using the standard copy/paste quit form, i will see you next week in pve/pvp

He quit our alliance and uninstalled. So you will see him when???

I love how forum posters like jimstarooney love to act like people leaving the game isn't an issue, especially long-time active veterans leaving. I really do like this game but I am think its future is questionable and I believe it has been mismanaged over the past year plus. Let me explain why it tangibly matters when you see more and more people leave the game or decide to stop spending $:

Looking at iphone data only (probably good indicator for overall mobile app data which accounts for 90% of the players and most likely revenue), it has been downhill since the end of 2014 for MPQ. Now the chart I linked only compares it to gross revenue rank vs. other game apps but that likely indicates it has flat to falling revenue (likely from a falling # of players spending $). The spikes probably correspond with sales that they run on iso and HP if I had to guess. There could be other factors that account for its decline in revenue ranking vs. other games but it is highly unlikely that this trend is not primarily due to stagnant or declining overall revenues. You can get specific data but it is expensive to pay for through several services. This chart alone though is enough to tell me things are probably not going well for the game since 2014. I admit this is not conclusive data but I do believe that highly probable the game is on a downward trend.

https://sensortower.com/ios/us/d3pa/app/marvel-puzzle-quest/618349779#category-rankings?category=6014&hourly=false&chart_type=grossing&device_type=iphone&countries%5B%5D=US&start_date=2014-01-01&end_date=2016-04-28

So he should just quit then,and stop tryin to create a dark cloud for people that still enjoy playin this game

He's trying to express his opinion on the game. People do that here and sometimes the developers listen. Stop trying to silence people who have complaints. People complained about all the excess covers they got after they got 13 covers of the character and that resulted in the championing feature which is hugely popular and to be honest probably gotten more sales of iso for the developer.

jimstarooney

m not tryin to silence any1,if hes quit and it makes him happy good for him.All these quittin posts are startin to get a bit tedious though.wanna quit?just do it and leave i say.plenty of ppl still enjoy this game so why try and spoil it for everyone else its not perfect but its impossible to please everyone at the same time

Smudge

jimstarooney wrote:

So he should just quit then,and stop tryin to create a dark cloud for people that still enjoy playin this game

Giving constructive feedback in the only forum to provide it to the developers makes sense. The OP is not casting some "dark cloud" but is instead giving useful critical information that people clearly agree with and support.

NewMcG

jimstarooney wrote:

m not tryin to silence any1,if hes quit and it makes him happy good for him.All these quittin posts are startin to get a bit tedious though.wanna quit?just do it and leave i say.plenty of ppl still enjoy this game so why try and spoil it for everyone else its not perfect but its impossible to please everyone at the same time

As the "quitter" who prompted this response, a couple things:

1.) If the posts are getting tedious, they must happen a lot. Perhaps that implies there's noteworthy issues if it's happening with such frequency?

2.) I am/was a huge fan of this game. I've played every Puzzle Quest game back to the original. I love the series. I've spent more money on this particular game than any game not named World of Warcraft. (Several hundred, but not quite thousands of dollars.) Specifically because of the latter part, I would think that kind of customer is one whose voice would be at least mildly important to those behind the game.

I want it to be the same fun game I've played and paid for all this time, and it's moving the opposite direction. Here's a bad metaphor for how the game works now:

Say your parents give you a car. They tell you "if you do your chores, you get a daily allotment of fuel". Let's call it 1/4 of a gallon. (About .9 liters for our metric friends.) Then, every two weeks, they give you another car with a tiny amount of fuel in it. Now you have to pick and choose what car to put your daily amount of fuel in. You ask to get more fuel for the steady stream of cars, because actually driving them is the fun part, but they just silently scowl at you for being unappreciative of all the cars they keep giving you. Sure, they offer to let you buy extra fuel, but it's $5000 a gallon, so realistically it's insane to pay such a premium for it.

Dear devs: Up the amount of fuel, and let your players enjoy their cars. When that happens, I might come back and drive them again. (Hopefully most can follow the idea.)