Token purchases - the new, the bad, and the ugly [LR Nerf]

Unknown

jozier wrote:

"I'm quitting. No really this time. I'm quitting. But first I need advice on this character for this game I'm quitting."

I suspect that's the joke.

Unknown

jozier wrote:

mechgouki wrote:

I just want to say this. I'm done. Seriously done.

I've been masochistic enough to endure all the ****, but this is enough. There's no point in even complaining about this.

This is where I get off.

Good luck with the game, guys!

I just have one more thing to say though. I would advice against spending any money on this game at all, if this is the direction that they're headed. If you really want to send the devs a message, DON'T spend money.

Edit: I have to go ask for Psylocke advice first. Then I'll be really done.

"I'm quitting. No really this time. I'm quitting. But first I need advice on this character for this game I'm quitting."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xECUrlnXCqk

kalex716

UncleSam wrote:

If they're going to go this direction with tokens then they should make LR bracketed or expand the tokens to a wider range of winners.

Funny I was going to agree with you, but then i got to thinking.... Perhaps that was the problem?

The LR rewards were far too advantageous to the small percentage of users (hardcores, like some of the people here on the forums) who could realistically get them that its not fair to everyone else?

That being said, theirs without a doubt two solutions if thats the real issue at hand.... Either nerf the rewards, or give out more prizes by bracketing etc.

We now know which direction they chose. Either way it exposes some serious progression problems to the health of the game long term.

Unknown

I'm just bummed because I was hoping to go for two more magneto blue next week. I should have done it when I had the chance.

This reward Nerf makes me think of that other thread and laugh, though. Still think tanking is making a mockery of the lightning rounds?

Unknown

It's always disconcerting when they give you something then take it away. There used to not be hero LR and then there was, but with random 3*. A lot of people complained about the randomness of the 3* reward, but at least you could sell it back for some iso and 25hp. Then they took away the hp from the sell back. Well guess what? Now you're not even guaranteed a 3*. Are we having fun yet?

GumisK

Right, so now the Heroic Lightning Rounds become nothing more than an Iso farm for me. Never ever gonna push for to placement, if I'm not rewarded properly. Ironic, that the most demanding and brutal of all events in the game is now the least worthwhile. I sincerely hope they leave the villain LR alone, but I've got bad feeling about them too.

Unknown

This is all about increasing their ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User) All gameplay changes are focused with keeping the ARPDAU at $1 or higher. This is the gold standard for F2P games. The only way you can make a change is by voting with your wallet. The token packs are a bad deal, but they get the majority of their revenue from them (rosters are second.) So it's naturally for them to A) tinker with the odds of rewards of the tokens and b) to release characters as fast as they can test them. Nerfing Mags will not increase their ARPDAU, but releasing Lazy Daken might. So people. don't buy token packs, don't buy roster slots past 40, and if an event has **** rewards, don't participate in it. When they see a 20% drop in participation, they will take notice of that more than some random dude pretending to quit.

Unknown

Did anybody happen to notice how low the top score was in the GSBW round? It'll be kind of fun to watch scores drop in this event as people realize that the rewards have turned to dust.

KaioShinDE

I never participated in hero LRs anyway since I considered the random tokens a waste of time to begin with. This still concerns me greatly though because it once again shows the direction the devs want to take the game in.

I think if the next villian LRs still work as usual I'll try to max my Doom and Loki while I can, even if I didn't plan to do so before. They WILL take them away sooner rather than later, that much is abundantly clear now.

Unknown

I really don't understand why people ever thought LR was supposed to be a source of major character advancement. It was good while it lasted but I always thought LR is just some kind of crazy brawl that you do on the side. It's probably meant to be some kind of bonus supplement to your character progression, not the main way of doing so. The fact that it worked well as your primary character advancement method was likely an accident.

over_clocked

^ My 400ish pts were only good enough for top 50 and 2 heroics, not that I am complaining. I think tops had >500 points, as usual. Some of them even shielded for these tokens, god. Like Davecazz.

Unknown

locked wrote:

^ My 400ish pts were only good enough for top 50 and 2 heroics, not that I am complaining. I think tops had >500 points, as usual. Some of them even shielded for these tokens, god. Like Davecazz.

They must not realize yet.

Bowgentle

wathombe wrote:

Did anybody happen to notice how low the top score was in the GSBW round? It'll be kind of fun to watch scores drop in this event as people realize that the rewards have turned to dust.

Low? It was over 600, which was pretty high.

KaioShinDE

Phantron wrote:

I really don't understand why people ever thought LR was supposed to be a source of major character advancement.

Because THEY WERE. Really great hindsight now calling them a mistake all along. Are you this guy by chance?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esXJN_OTkmU

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

I really don't understand why people ever thought LR was supposed to be a source of major character advancement. It was good while it lasted but I always thought LR is just some kind of crazy brawl that you do on the side. It's probably meant to be some kind of bonus supplement to your character progression, not the main way of doing so. The fact that it worked well as your primary character advancement method was likely an accident.

Prior to the constant PVEs, it was probably the major source of ISO for most players. You can get nearly as much ISO in a single LR as you sometimes do during a complete PVP, and that ISO is available to starting players who can't hit the top rewards in PVP. A good PVE will provide much more ISO now, generally, but LRs were when I did most of my leveling up for a while.

over_clocked

Phantron wrote:

I really don't understand why people ever thought LR was supposed to be a source of major character advancement. It was good while it lasted but I always thought LR is just some kind of crazy brawl that you do on the side. It's probably meant to be some kind of bonus supplement to your character progression, not the main way of doing so. The fact that it worked well as your primary character advancement method was likely an accident.

I did think of them as of a good source of covers, I got my first Patches in LRs, having missed on TaT and the Ares tourney. Ditto IM 40 covers. A bunch of Hulks and even 2 blue Spideys just after I got the blue maxed.

NorthernPolarity

klingsor wrote:

This is all about increasing their ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User) All gameplay changes are focused with keeping the ARPDAU at $1 or higher. This is the gold standard for F2P games. The only way you can make a change is by voting with your wallet. The token packs are a bad deal, but they get the majority of their revenue from them (rosters are second.) So it's naturally for them to A) tinker with the odds of rewards of the tokens and b) to release characters as fast as they can test them. Nerfing Mags will not increase their ARPDAU, but releasing Lazy Daken might. So people. don't buy token packs, don't buy roster slots past 40, and if an event has **** rewards, don't participate in it. When they see a 20% drop in participation, they will take notice of that more than some random dude pretending to quit.

The majority of people that are their main source of income do not go on this forum. How many people on this forum have actually bought a 10x token pack? It's common knowledge that it's terrible value if you already own the character, and almost everyone that is committed enough to go on the forum will have already earned covers for the character through the events. These recent changes to the token packs are targeted at the general population who actually buy cover packs, and optimizing for them makes perfect sense when trying to increase ARPDAU. It's unfortunate that the LR tokens are a victim of these recent changes as that will actually affect forum people trying to transition into 2->3, but not spending hp on the 10x packs isn't do anything because so few people here bought them in the first place. I don't believe that we can actually affect what the devs do from a macro standpoint: we consist of such a small minority of the playerbase that any changes that the devs will enact to their pricing scheme can only be brought upon by the silent majority.

Just some quick numbers: there are 3.8k registered forum people, and 90k activeish players based off of hulk event. That means that even if every single registered user on the forum was still active, we'd still consist of under 5% of the overall playerbase.

Unknown

NorthernPolarity wrote:

klingsor wrote:

This is all about increasing their ARPDAU (Average Revenue Per Daily Active User) All gameplay changes are focused with keeping the ARPDAU at $1 or higher. This is the gold standard for F2P games. The only way you can make a change is by voting with your wallet. The token packs are a bad deal, but they get the majority of their revenue from them (rosters are second.) So it's naturally for them to A) tinker with the odds of rewards of the tokens and b) to release characters as fast as they can test them. Nerfing Mags will not increase their ARPDAU, but releasing Lazy Daken might. So people. don't buy token packs, don't buy roster slots past 40, and if an event has **** rewards, don't participate in it. When they see a 20% drop in participation, they will take notice of that more than some random dude pretending to quit.

The majority of people that are their main source of income do not go on this forum. How many people on this forum have actually bought a 10x token pack? It's common knowledge that it's terrible value if you already own the character, and almost everyone that is committed enough to go on the forum will have already earned covers for the character through the events. These recent changes to the token packs are targeted at the general population who actually buy cover packs, and optimizing for them makes perfect sense when trying to increase ARPDAU. It's unfortunate that the LR tokens are a victim of these recent changes as that will actually affect forum people trying to transition into 2->3, but not spending hp on the 10x packs isn't do anything because so few people here bought them in the first place. I don't believe that we can actually affect what the devs do from a macro standpoint: we consist of such a small minority of the playerbase that any changes that the devs will enact to their pricing scheme can only be brought upon by the silent majority.

That's probably true, but the people that earn the majority of these tokens playing are here on this forum. I don't know of many forum-less alliances that are competing for top rewards. Also, I think they do care about what the vocal majority things. If we don't like it, the silent majority probably doesn't like it either, even if they can't communicate it verbally. So while they might not listen to my pleas to sabotage an event, they might simply stop playing. If this results in them spending more money, then that's that. I expect the devs to do what they can to make their money, and I can't blame them for it. I just don't like changes that affect gameplay. This one in particular doesn't affect me. I have all the covers for all the characters featured in the heroic LR. I still think people need to behave in a manner consistent with their beliefs. If the devs introduce a **** feature, don't use it!

Edit: I will add that if they haven't changed the rules for Villains LR then it's safe to assume that that's where they will adjust things next.

Unknown

The LR tokens are way too good of a deal. You usually have to pay 3800 for a 10 pack for a guaranteed 3* that usually isn't even very good. Courageous you have 4 out of 6 3* that are high end. Villianous used to contain the two most powerful characters in the game, and even now The Hood and Magneto are well worth it and the other 3 are at least serviceable.

I realize people don't ever think dev simply messed something up when something is too good of a deal for them but LRs have been way too generous for far too long. I'm surprised we don't have villian LRs reward being villianous tokens, which should have happened the moment hero LRs went in.

aussiemac

locked wrote:

Phantron wrote:

I really don't understand why people ever thought LR was supposed to be a source of major character advancement. It was good while it lasted but I always thought LR is just some kind of crazy brawl that you do on the side. It's probably meant to be some kind of bonus supplement to your character progression, not the main way of doing so. The fact that it worked well as your primary character advancement method was likely an accident.

I did think of them as of a good source of covers, I got my first Patches in LRs, having missed on TaT and the Ares tourney. Ditto IM 40 covers. A bunch of Hulks and even 2 blue Spideys just after I got the blue maxed.

Seeing as how I have 5 blue C.Mags, I found LRs to be extremely valuable in character advancement. That's what helped me bridge the gap to get to a 3* roster. It's going to make that progression much slower for newer players. I may give LRs a crack to see what the tokens are. If 2*s become the new norm, I see LRs becoming even more of a tankbath than what they are already.