Character Pack Value Reduction

Unknown

So I have been enjoying MPQ for about 3 months now and I have always been a huge Captain America fan IRL but I have been resistant to purchase the character packs because lets be honest... they are $$$.

Anyhow I love Cap so I am buying it... funny enough April 1st I decided the Unstable ISO-8 event looked like a blast so why not get Cap to enjoy it... Well turns out I am the fool.

I went to the store and dropped some cash and my coins summarily filled up...funny how you need to spend $50 to get enough

Went to the add heroes and bought the 3X CHANCE! Steve Rogers Pack.

Little did I know there was a little question mark box that actually explained the reality of 3X only being 14.8%.

Is it me or is this another horrible grab at taking even more of my money? I mean every other 3800 coin pack I have purchased always had the featured hero guaranteed.

I thought hey 3X chances! I'll probably snag two or three covers... hell yeah!

No I got 5x 2* Storm, 4x 2* Black Widow, and hooray! 1x 3* Hulk Black cover which I already have maxed out.

The questions I'd like to hear back from the community are:

1 - Is this another lowering of the bar for what we get for our money to test the pain point of the community?

2 - Did this happen to you?

3 - Does this silly little question mark equate to a sleazy high-speed fine print car commercial that seems too good to be true?

4 - Has this question mark shown up in the past or is this the first time?


Sadly still no Cap ,
Grenosh

Unknown

Others just got 10 ** things... How many times did we say not to buy those packs? And in general use your money in some WISE way?

At the least, make sure an investment is good *before* you do it.

In the case at hand the devs actually posted the details (unlike for many other tokens), so blaming them is not really fair IMNSHO.

It may be part of the "gold" stuff you can't get them as easy as usual rares.

Unknown

Grenosh wrote:

So I have been enjoying MPQ for about 3 months now and I have always been a huge Captain America fan IRL but I have been resistant to purchase the character packs because lets be honest... they are $$$.

Anyhow I love Cap so I am buying it... funny enough April 1st I decided the Unstable ISO-8 event looked like a blast so why not get Cap to enjoy it... Well turns out I am the fool.

I went to the store and dropped some cash and my coins summarily filled up...funny how you need to spend $50 to get enough

Went to the add heroes and bought the 3X CHANCE! Steve Rogers Pack.

Little did I know there was a little question mark box that actually explained the reality of 3X only being 14.8%.

Is it me or is this another horrible grab at taking even more of my money? I mean every other 3800 coin pack I have purchased always had the featured hero guaranteed.

I thought hey 3X chances! I'll probably snag two or three covers... hell yeah!

No I got 5x 2* Storm, 4x 2* Black Widow, and hooray! 1x 3* Hulk Black cover which I already have maxed out.

The questions I'd like to hear back from the community are:

1 - Is this another lowering of the bar for what we get for our money to test the pain point of the community?

2 - Did this happen to you?

3 - Does this silly little question mark equate to a sleazy high-speed fine print car commercial that seems too good to be true?

4 - Has this question mark shown up in the past or is this the first time?


Sadly still no Cap ,
Grenosh

I've never had that many hero points before and wouldn't ever spend that much money on this game, but that question mark wasn't always there. I believe they added that about a month ago.

And yes, this is an awful waste of Hero Points to only have a 15% chance to pull a Mr. Rogers cover, which is pretty bad.

Not only that, but you have LESS THAN A 25% CHANCE TO SCORE A 3* COVER!

Again, I wouldn't waste 3800 Hero Points on such awful percentages.

JamieMadrox

Yeah don't buy packs. I got Caps off of random pulls and then used the HP to level up his abilities without covers.

Unknown

When Lazy Thor was first offered in a pack it was the same setup. It also included the "?" button that showed the odds.

This is not the first time, i am sorry for your terrible luck on that pack.

OnesOwnGrief

I'd take that black Hulk off your hands if I could.

Unknown

it's a gamble. Same as buying Magic the Gathering booster packs or anything that is based off of chance. When you win and win big its the best thing ever. I pulled an Xforce wolvie from a basic pack for 200iso. then i pulled a bagman from the heroic pack. It should be similar to when you go to a casino and gamble...only bet what you are willing to lose and if you win...rejoice. In these packs it's not the same as some card games where you have a small amount of control. Packs are all random...buyer beware but hey...if you win. you win!

Unknown

The only reason to buy these 10 pack things is if you don't have a certain cover of a hero, because in that case you really don't have a choice anyway.

I calculated the chance of pulling 4 3*s of the 'triple chance' hero is about 3%. It's even less for the standard '1 guaranteed'. For those odds, you can simply buy 3 covers of that hero, and then spend another 200 HP and hope that the token pulls that hero. It's even got a slightly higher chance (about 4%), and if your luck didn't hold you at least still have 3 3* covers. Yes this calculation doesn't include other 3* you could've gotten but I assume you'd only buy them if you need a specific hero.

Now if you don't have covers of a lot of the hero featured that might be worthwhile since you can't easily put a HP value on a cover you do not have.

Unknown

If you could just drop $$$ to get the signature hero for an event, and the TREMENDOUS advantage that comes with it, then the game would just be p2w, some might even say p2p. But now that the extraordinarily expensive cover pack only gives you a % chance at that TREMENDOUS advantage, clearly that's not p2w.

Unknown

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isnt it a 15% chance for every one of those 10 pulls? If that's the case then it sounds like you just got unlucky and of course the gambler's fallacy applies.

Unknown

Saint Matthew wrote:

Same as buying Magic the Gathering booster packs or anything that is based off of chance. When you win and win big its the best thing ever.

Many people use this analogy, and here's why you never should. When you buy MtG, or even MTGO, you end up with a tradable commodity whose value is tied to external factors. There is also a vibrant secondary market one can avail themselves of to buy or sell any given card. MPQ, on the other hand, gives you a non-transferrable, arbitrarily priced non-commodity/non-good. Any form of MPQ cover pack is nothing like buying a Magic the Gathering booster.

NorthernPolarity

Dunkelgrau wrote:

If you could just drop $$$ to get the signature hero for an event, and the TREMENDOUS advantage that comes with it, then the game would just be p2w, some might even say p2p. But now that the extraordinarily expensive cover pack only gives you a % chance at that TREMENDOUS advantage, clearly that's not p2w.

I think the game would be p2w if it was actually difficult to get the featured 3* cover from the previous event, but it looks like anyone with a semi-developed roster can do this fairly easily.

mischiefmaker

MikeHock wrote:

And yes, this is an awful waste of Hero Points to only have a 15% chance to pull a Mr. Rogers cover, which is pretty bad.

Not only that, but you have LESS THAN A 25% CHANCE TO SCORE A 3* COVER!

Again, I wouldn't waste 3800 Hero Points on such awful percentages.

That's per token, though. You get 10 tokens for your 3800 hero points, which means:

Chance of pulling at least one 3* Captain America: 78.6%
Chance of pulling at least one of any 3*: 93.5%

I haven't done the math myself but I believe Phantron has, and calculated that you have a better chance of getting 2 or more of the featured hero under this setup than you did with the old "1 guaranteed" setup. Not very comforting if you happen to fall into the 21.4% that gets 0, obviously, but this isn't a sleazy cash-grab or anything.

Unknown

Is it 15% per token? Those odds aren't too bad. On average you're getting more than one per 10pack pull, but if you are one of the unlucky ones that didn't get any then it's going to hurt. I'd still prefer the guarantee. Don't event tokens usually have an elevated chance of a 3* anyway?

Unknown

The '1 guaranteed' model has 0% chance of getting 0 but your chance of getting 2 or 3 is pretty low.

The triple chance model has a nonzero chance of getting 0 but your chance of getting 2 or 3 is better. They also average out to be exactly the same.

If you don't have a certain cover, you're already gambling. Getting a guaranteed Cap is still gambling because it is certainly not guaranteed to be the color you're missing, and in that respect taking a gamble for a chance of 2 or 3 Caps (so that there's a higher chance they'd be the color you don't have) is no more risky than anything else.

Now if you're not missing any cover you're wasting your HP. Just save that HP and upgrade Captain 3 times, and buy an extra token if you're feeling especially lucky.

Unknown

UncleSam wrote:

Is it 15% per token? Those odds aren't too bad. On average you're getting more than one per 10pack pull, but if you are one of the unlucky ones that didn't get any then it's going to hurt. I'd still prefer the guarantee. Don't event tokens usually have an elevated chance of a 3* anyway?

They do not have an elevated chance of 3* but because the number of 3*s in these tokens are limited, it gives you a better chance of getting who you need. For example Totally Corrupt tokens can only be The Hood for 3*, so it's obviously a lot easier to get The Hood from those tokens than the generic heroic tokens.

Unknown

mischiefmaker wrote:

MikeHock wrote:

And yes, this is an awful waste of Hero Points to only have a 15% chance to pull a Mr. Rogers cover, which is pretty bad.

Not only that, but you have LESS THAN A 25% CHANCE TO SCORE A 3* COVER!

Again, I wouldn't waste 3800 Hero Points on such awful percentages.

That's per token, though. You get 10 tokens for your 3800 hero points, which means:

Chance of pulling at least one 3* Captain America: 78.6%
Chance of pulling at least one of any 3*: 93.5%

I haven't done the math myself but I believe Phantron has, and calculated that you have a better chance of getting 2 or more of the featured hero under this setup than you did with the old "1 guaranteed" setup. Not very comforting if you happen to fall into the 21.4% that gets 0, obviously, but this isn't a sleazy cash-grab or anything.

It's still a less than 25% chance of getting a 3* cover (never mind getting Mr. Rogers) , except that it's 10 times in a row. I don't see how there is a 78.6% chance of pulling Mr Rogers in the 10 pack based on the percentages. Then again, I'm just speculating.

Either way, this is still a waste of Hero Points or $$$. They used to offer a guaranteed "featured hero" in those 10 packs. I guess they did away with that to try and maximize their sales.

Unknown

Guaranteed cover doesn't mean guaranteed color. It's always a gamble to spend 4000 HP for a 1/3 chance that it'd be the color you need. The triple chance packs is no more risky than the guaranteed 1 pack in this respect. And if you're buying these when you're not missing a color, you're wasting your HP in either case. Just upgrade Captain 3 times instead.

Unknown

My opinion on these 10 packs is they're only 'worth getting' if you need nearly everything from that level and above. And by 'worth getting' I'm also suggesting that getting a few covers this week instead of next week may be worth your cash equivalent of ~4k HP

If you're aiming for covers of one particular character and you already have 1 of that color, it's probably more worth your while to just buy the cover upgrades directly.

mohio

MikeHock wrote:

mischiefmaker wrote:

MikeHock wrote:

And yes, this is an awful waste of Hero Points to only have a 15% chance to pull a Mr. Rogers cover, which is pretty bad.

Not only that, but you have LESS THAN A 25% CHANCE TO SCORE A 3* COVER!

Again, I wouldn't waste 3800 Hero Points on such awful percentages.

That's per token, though. You get 10 tokens for your 3800 hero points, which means:

Chance of pulling at least one 3* Captain America: 78.6%
Chance of pulling at least one of any 3*: 93.5%

I haven't done the math myself but I believe Phantron has, and calculated that you have a better chance of getting 2 or more of the featured hero under this setup than you did with the old "1 guaranteed" setup. Not very comforting if you happen to fall into the 21.4% that gets 0, obviously, but this isn't a sleazy cash-grab or anything.

Not that it's THAT different, but if the chance of Lazy Cap is exactly 15%, then in 10 tokens you would have a 80.3% chance to get at least 1. It's 1 minus the chance you get none which would be 0.85^10.

I still don't think it's a wise way to spend your HP or money, but if the guy really wanted Cap there isn't another option available to him (besides ya know, putting his roster to good use and placing highly in the Wolvie tourney that is currently handing out Cap covers - the rubberbanding in the PvE might make it so missing out on Cap for half the days won't even matter)

mischiefmaker

MikeHock wrote:

I don't see how there is a 78.6% chance of pulling Mr Rogers in the 10 pack based on the percentages. Then again, I'm just speculating.

Yay math!

Chance you open 1 token and don't get Mr. Rogers: 85.7% (since there is a 14.3% chance you get him, there is a 1-14.3%= 85.7% chance you don't get him)
Chance you open 2 tokens and don't get Mr. Rogers: This is the chance that you opened 1 token and didn't get him (85.7%) and then opened a second token and didn't get him (85.7% again). 85.7% * 85.7% = 73.4%. Therefore, if you buy two tokens there is a 1 - 73.4% = 26.6% chance you get at least one Mr. Rogers.

Chance you open 3 tokens and don't get Mr. Rogers: Using the same logic as for 2 tokens, this is the chance that you opened two tokens and didn't get him (73.4%) times the chance you didn't get him in the third token (85.7%).

If we proceed in this way, the chance that you open 10 tokens and get 0 Mr. Rogers is (0.857)^10 = 21.37%, so the chance you get at least one is 78.6%.

MikeHock wrote:

Either way, this is still a waste of Hero Points or $$$. They used to offer a guaranteed "featured hero" in those 10 packs. I guess they did away with that to try and maximize their sales.

I disagree that this is a waste of hero points. If you have no Cap at all, as the OP does, this is a pretty good chance to get one and make yourself much more competitive in the PvE event, which snowballs (because you're much more likely to get a Human Torch cover, who will almost certainly be required in the next event to get the next new character, and so on).

As for whether this maximizes sales, you can assign motivation however you like, but for this to have an impact on sales it would mean that the 21.4% of people who are buying a 10-pack and do not get a Cap cover are buying so many more tokens as a result of not getting one that they're overcoming the loss of sales due to people who buy a 10-pack and get more covers than they would have in the old scheme.

I tend to think this change is just to increase randomness and decrease the P2W-ness, which is in line with the design philosophy of the game so far.