The Future of MPQ

Unknown

I see the future of the game, and it looks like this :

1) 3 star characters are now being given out like candy…
2) Soon everybody will have one
3) Then at least 50% of all players will have 141 teams..
4) Once everybody becomes evenly matched – PVP events would just be based on luck. There is no edge you can have
5) Revenue for the developers would spike in the short term (everyone tries to max their boosts for every event and buy a gajillion shields)
6) Hardcore Players soon realize there is nothing worth fighting for. Getting a new 3 star character won’t mean anything – you can spend your effort or cash to max them out, but there are so many 141 teams out there it doesn’t make a difference if you had a spanking new lazy Cap America or a lazy Moonstone.
7) New players (the unfortunate have-nots) will struggle and be frustrated. There are so many 141 teams out there – that they will be totally outclassed
8) Developers tries to handicap the new players so that they will win (e.g. bracketing). Those who succeed will soon join the majority population who have 141 teams
9) Players realize they are stuck in mediocrity and there is no way to rise above the pack – which is important, for why play when you cannot improve your team and have an edge?
10) Players begin to leave and it is dark times of the Empire
11) Developers realize this and start making 4 star characters and giving them out like candy
12) The second golden age for MPQ begins – with a gold rush for X-Force, IW, and Lazy Lazy 4 star Thor
13) Players get excited, it is all good
14) Until everyone starts having 4 star characters……………….and then we get into the same problem. History repeats like Battlestar Galactica
15) 5 star characters are launched
16) I begin to wonder why I am still here?

Twysta

That's why they're rolling out so many chars to prevent this from happening.
That and different characters are always buffed for different events.
And maybe somepoint in the future there will be an episode expansion pack which you can play to your hearts desire like the prologue... maybe.

KaioShinDE

This is the nature of MMO style progression. Eventually people have maxed out gear and then they'll want greater challenges and new gear to earn. There is not much that can be done about it, deal with it? It'll take a while at least.

Unknown

I think this future is coming at us too rapidly.

Giving out 3 star characters like candy is not a good idea.

KaioShinDE

To me the problem was always ISO, not covers. If the cover progression rate was slower I don't think people would feel participating in events and tournaments would be worth it anymore. People are already unhappy (with good reason IMO) about random chance tokens for hero lightning rounds.

Honestly, if anything I would prefer it if the 4* cover distribution rate was increased a bit. Maybe give a 4* cover to Top3 instead of just the winner. The biggest hurdle would still be ISO and not covers, even then.

Unknown

1) 3 star characters are now being given out like candy…
2) Soon everybody will have one
3) Then at least 50% of all players will have 141 teams..

I don't think these premises are true -- I'm trying to transition from a maxed 2* team to one with 3*s, and it's very slow going. There have been several moves that slow progress, including the increased number of 3*s (so it gets harder to max any one character from 3* rewards), and newer iterations of events often have a more restricted set of top rewards than earlier versions, some of which (like lightning rounds and global PvE rankings) will be restricted further by a growing userbase.

Unknown

All these games are ostensibly just treadmills. You just have to come to the conclusion that you've had enough and 'jump off'.

That will probably happen when you find a new treadmill to jump on and it swallows all your time instead.

Unknown

Toxicadam wrote:

All these games are ostensibly just treadmills. You just have to come to the conclusion that you've had enough and 'jump off'.

That will probably happen when you find a new treadmill to jump on and it swallows all your time instead.

I agree. Since MPQ is a F2P game people will stick around to play it as long as there's some stuff they covet. Be it a new character, getting all covers for a character, maxing out a character or trying out brand new (read: re-skinned) PvE event. Once they feel there's not enough to chase after, they split. I know I will. Or maybe my wife will beat me to it and declare it her or MPQ...

GumisK

Ariakos wrote:

Or maybe my wife will beat me to it and declare it her or MPQ...

Heh, you there, too? I still wonder what to answer if such an ultimatum is finally thrown in my face

Twysta

That's the thing with match 3 games as well... they're meant to be more casual.

I don't think it'd be a problem to hop off for a month or few and come back later when you're feeling a bit fresher and weened off your MPQ addiction ...only to refind it again with numerous new characters and new events.

Unknown

I see in the Future of MPQ an endless amount of whining because that never stops.

Unknown

jozier wrote:

I see in the Future of MPQ an endless amount of whining because that never stops.

Not sure what the point of your comment is. His complaints are valid. Those of us that spend money on this game and support it financially want to make sure our investment is not destroyed and this game is around in the future. Even the free-to-play gang needs an active community otherwise they might as well be playing bejeweled or candy crush or some other match three game.

I too am concerned for the future of this game because I see some good decision and some horrible decisions going on. That tells me that there is a conflict in leadership at D3 and someone over there doesn't get gaming but he gets money and recouping costs. I've worked in 3 game development shops so I can confidently state from first hand experience that this business is ruthless (and that ruthlessness is the reason why I'm not a game developer anymore.) I definitely understand their need to make money. However, some questions beg answers.

1) If Income is the priority, why not open a cover slot? (when I needed a red cover to keep leveling I would have paid 2500 HP for it, no question.)

2) Why not allow monetization through non-gameplay enhancing features? Give me a way to customize my profile and characters. Listen up D3, it's real simple. Make customes for every character and sell them. OMG, a black custome for Spider-man for 400 HP? Sold. Red Hulk? Sold. Maestro Hulk for 1000 HP? Sold! But this allows people to invest their money without breaking the game.

3) How about DLC? More single player content that's sold separately.

Anyway, if you guys are understaffed that's fine, outsource to Poland or hire people from the forums as interns.

akboyce

morphy wrote:

I see the future of the game, and it looks like this :
6) Hardcore Players soon realize there is nothing worth fighting for. Getting a new 3 star character won’t mean anything – you can spend your effort or cash to max them out, but there are so many 141 teams out there it doesn’t make a difference if you had a spanking new lazy Cap America or a lazy Moonstone.
7) New players (the unfortunate have-nots) will struggle and be frustrated. There are so many 141 teams out there – that they will be totally outclassed

I feel these two are the most flawed arguments.

Even with every character max leveled you will always have an incentive to get the new shiny character because they create a need for it. Just look at Lazy Thor. He is required for missions in the Jug event, was needed for his event (which will likely be repeated), and is buffed in another event. If (like me) you did not score one when they first gave it out you are at a SIGNIFICANT disadvantage for multiple events. As long as they keep requiring the new character there will always be an incentive to win or buy the new shiny even if it is a lazy design. This of course ignores the fact that some things they put out will just have inherent desirability. When they eventually launch Deadpool I am sure MANY people will want him regardless of power level.

Say what you will about the broken MMR system, but it does generally protect the new players. They will not be seeing a lot of 141s. I will not say none because tanking does exist but (and I am sure IceIX could pop in and give a figure on the exact percentage) only a small percent of the overall base uses this to a degree that impacts new players. Even if it got so bad that newbies were suffering 141 opponents the devs could add more seed teams or put a cap on how low you can tank your MMR. MMR is far from perfect but it does stop new players from suffering round after round of 141s at least until they have raised their MMR significantly.

Unknown

Hey developers ! Here is an idea - "MAKE EVERY CHARACTER GOLD!"

You want OBW to be 3 star ? Pay 20,000 hp to unlock.

You like classic Hawkeye? Pay 40,000 hp to unlock him as an awesome 4 star!!!

Unknown

akboyce wrote:

morphy wrote:

I see the future of the game, and it looks like this :
6) Hardcore Players soon realize there is nothing worth fighting for. Getting a new 3 star character won’t mean anything – you can spend your effort or cash to max them out, but there are so many 141 teams out there it doesn’t make a difference if you had a spanking new lazy Cap America or a lazy Moonstone.
7) New players (the unfortunate have-nots) will struggle and be frustrated. There are so many 141 teams out there – that they will be totally outclassed

I feel these two are the most flawed arguments.

Even with every character max leveled you will always have an incentive to get the new shiny character because they create a need for it. Just look at Lazy Thor. He is required for missions in the Jug event, was needed for his event (which will likely be repeated), and is buffed in another event. If (like me) you did not score one when they first gave it out you are at a SIGNIFICANT disadvantage for multiple events. As long as they keep requiring the new character there will always be an incentive to win or buy the new shiny even if it is a lazy design. This of course ignores the fact that some things they put out will just have inherent desirability. When they eventually launch Deadpool I am sure MANY people will want him regardless of power level.

Say what you will about the broken MMR system, but it does generally protect the new players. They will not be seeing a lot of 141s. I will not say none because tanking does exist but (and I am sure IceIX could pop in and give a figure on the exact percentage) only a small percent of the overall base uses this to a degree that impacts new players. Even if it got so bad that newbies were suffering 141 opponents the devs could add more seed teams or put a cap on how low you can tank your MMR. MMR is far from perfect but it does stop new players from suffering round after round of 141s at least until they have raised their MMR significantly.

I have every 3 star character that I care about and I don't covet any of the top prizes.... So why should oi bother playing?

That's what mpq will run into soon enough. Everybody will have 141 teams that having a lazy thor wont matter.

Unknown

klingsor wrote:

2) Why not allow monetization through non-gameplay enhancing features? Give me a way to customize my profile and characters. Listen up D3, is real simple. Make customes for every character and sell them. OMG, a black custome for Spider-man for 400 HP? Sold. Red Hulk? Sold. Maestro Hulk for 1000 HP? Sold! But this allows people to invest their money without breaking the game.

3) How about DLC? More single player content that's sold separately.

I've posted a number of suggestions in that sub-forum asking for diversity in gameplay akin to the original PQ. Multiple game types offering alternative types of rewards. I'd easily drop another $50+ if I could get a hideout/lair for my superheroes or a crafting gameplay offering alternative outfits.

The original PQ's runes for crafting were fun to find and I was constantly upgrading items. If they offered a similar system where the crafting components were drops similar to boosts (or node rewards), then they could allow us to craft purely cosmetic outfits (if they're worried about gameplay balance) or preferably make them offer slight combat bonuses.

Unknown

It's pretty standard. D3 needs to look at the gold standard of free to play, ie, League of Legends for ideas. The problem is I don't think they have the cash in hand to make it happen. They probably have 3-5 developers already working 60 hour weeks, so they aren't receptive to new ideas. Also, they probably have an **** boss somewhere...

Eddiemon

I hope they get enough characters out there so thy can run team events. But if you were going to try to run something with just X Men at the moment you would struggle. It would add something to PvE if you had to choose from Astonishing Xmen instead of just 7 random s the Devs picked.

Unknown

klingsor wrote:

2) Why not allow monetization through non-gameplay enhancing features? Give me a way to customize my profile and characters. Listen up D3, is real simple. Make customes for every character and sell them. OMG, a black custome for Spider-man for 400 HP? Sold. Red Hulk? Sold. Maestro Hulk for 1000 HP? Sold! But this allows people to invest their money without breaking the game.

Costumes are kinda covered by the different variations on most characters, but totally agree that more customization options would be welcome, and at this stage I'd much rather support the game by getting some bling over HP/ISO purchases. An idea I'm in love with is allowing customized character quotes or custom victory/defeat quotes that pop-up on your opponents screen at the end of a match ala Street Fighter 2.

As you said, these operations run very lean, and as they continue to become more profitable hopefully we'll see their headcount ramp up and more of these types of ideas given priority on their roadmap.

LordWill

I think the real future is determined by what the goal in MPQ is.

Ragnarok was a goal for a lot of people, myself included. I wanted that guy big time. I wanted to feel the power and crush my enemies. I wanted to see the look on their faces when they saw my name and quaked with fear as they hit the skip button thinking to themselves "I want to live another day....".

Many people spent money on him because he was the epitome of power. Once you had him maxed, you were a serious threat.

Now, with so many characters released and everything diluted down\nerfed, they are trying hard to make everything and everyone equal. I'm all for having roster diversity, but if in the end, if we don't have enough carrots and goals, its going to end up just like that 1* tournament with everyone essentially the same.

Maybe our hope lies with the 4* characters. Who knows.

Coming from a MMORPG perspective, they need to look at the end game now and not paint themselves into a corner.

Personal Rewards\Achievements
Customization
Character Perks-Sort of a EQ AA system (Alternate Advancement)
4 and 5 Star characters that actually are powerful.
Add items to the game that can be used to buff characters or used in matches. Similar to boosts but they don't disappear after the match.
Add equipment slots to characters so items can be used to buff the characters (like a utility belt for punisher or spiderman etc)

There are ways to keep the gamers interested as long as they can make their time\cash investment worth it.

Unknown

Not to be a wet blanket, but I have to wonder just how much time they have to devote to these small things (many of which I would enjoy).

We're 5-6 months in post-launch and they still don't even have any achievements set up. Which is a staple of 99% of F2P games. Not that I pine for achievements or even care if they ever show up, but it's just one of those 'small touches' you expect in most mobile games you play. Especially one's that are heavy on grinding.

My hope is that all these 'lazy' characters are a way to allow them to free up some more man hours to devote to these kinds of (small) things that help the experience. There is still a lot of untapped potential in this game.