Time for me to hit the road.

firethorne

It’s your friendly neighborhood Firethorne.  After around three years of this game, I have decided it is time for me to part ways, or at the very least take an indefinite hiatus.  

I want to post my postmortem.  Now, I know the changes to Old Man Logan have set things on fire.  I am absolutely no fan of them either.  And, suppose while it acted as the final catalyst in this decision, it was far from the only reason at play.  Most of the things the development team has done this year just seem wrong.  

First, and probably foremost, there was the vaulting of old characters.  Advancing my favorite champions has slowed to a near standstill.  The need for ISO for championing the newest twelve has risen sharply.  I have a character perpetually dying on the vine.  And while there was a brief uptick in getting covers that were usable, I’ve now just returned to getting unusable covers for my 5/5/2 Agent Venom and Gwenpool.  It is a ham-fisted solution to the issue of dilution.  This represented the end of my financial relationship with the game.  I stopped my VIP, and didn’t purchase any HP from here on out, though they still had the chance then to turn it around.

But then, there was the response to our 50 pages of vaulting complaints, the Vintage heroics.  Brigby had posted that they didn’t want to split the 4*’s up between Latest Legends and Classics, because  there was still a lot of dilution.  Yet, their ultimate solution that they went with has far more dilution, with not only the same pack of 4*’s than our proposal, but 3*s and 2*s as well?  That is just insulting.

Then there are the constant bugs. Easily replicable, and in theory easily traceable things, like the countdowns that do damage for no reason.  Big ones, like the board drop of death.  And an ongoing flood of other minor issues that keep cropping up out of nowhere for no explicable reason, like  Cap Marvel getting free energy absorption on wave nodes or Nova’s rocket man ignoring his own strike tiles for months.  

It just feels shoddy.  I think a bit of this is tied to their continual two week release schedule.  They’re continually in crunch time, and it shows.  Things are rushed to try to fit them into their windows, instead of taking their time to be done correctly.  I think some of this is probably tied to the overuse of Agile and Scrum in places they really don’t belong.  I definitely see elements of the end result that appear rushed and lacking the polish we deserve.  

There is the issue of the unending flood of new characters that eventually grows pointless.  Sure, that first and second 4* champion open up a whole new game.  But, by the time you’re working on the twentieth or thirtieth one, it, like PvE itself, becomes overly monotonous.  There is a lack of upward mobility.  I’ve been working towards 5*’s for over a year, and haven’t finished a one.  OML was my second furthest along, behind Surfer, so having that rug pulled out from under me is horrible.  I have no reason anymore to trust that the things I’m working toward will be there when I’m done.  To work on a goal for a year, and have it disappear as I approach the finish line is unacceptable.  I don't want to go on when there's no guarantee what I’m doing isn’t all in vain.  That isn’t good for the long term health of the game.  It just makes everyone second guess long term goals.

Following the end of cupcakes, I also previously posted my treatise on the state of PvP (see here). How, even then the system of PvP was against the goal of diversity.  It forces people to focus on quick teams, rather than many good, but slower options.  Winning one match, but getting hit by a dozen because it was too slow won't get you anywhere.

Sitting around on Discord, something Demiurge_Anthony said stood out.  He said it in passing, and I think he meant it more as joke than anything of substance.  But, for me, it put something into perspective.  

So, parts of the team weren’t around for the old days of Rags and Stunlock Spidey.  Things that were, truly broken, far beyond OML.  But, I was there for those.  A lot of the vets around here were.  Now, I know Brigby is relatively green, but am coming to realize that this isn’t unique.  At this point, a lot of the vets around here actually do have more experience with the game than at least a small number of the people making it.  The dev team says they’re doing things for the long term health of the game, but a lot of players who have already been with the game for the long term already disagree that the vaulting changes and nerfs are the correct steps.  That is very troubling and I feel like communication has broken down here.  Whenever there is something, they’re talking at us, not with us.  And while I can understand some of the problems they’re chasing, while I can agree that dilution is a problem, I can’t say the route they’ve chosen is the correct one.  Meanwhile, the things that we’ve been telling you to do for a long time now, like colorless covers and more meaningful rewards for higher clearance levels are perpetually ignored.

Thanks to my alliances from over the years, Stark Industry and the S.S.S.  You guys and gals are the best!  And I'll raise a glass to all the others who I've chatted with here, on Discord, Reddit, and all those names I keep seeing over and over on PvP brackets.  You are truly the best part of this experience.

Excelsior!

Jonny1Punch

Agree 100% and you made the right choice.

Punisher5784

Very well written reasons to retire. I wish you the best of luck on your next journey.

Word of advice from someone who has previously retired, the best way to stop playing is to uninstall the game and don't view the forums. Not viewing the forums should be easier now that they've even been nerfed lol. Take care firethorne.

fmftint

Wow, this got thrown to the weeds fast

Punisher5784

fmftint said:

Wow, this got thrown to the weeds fast

Are you surprised? At least it didn't get moved to the dreaded "Off Topic" subforum.

firethorne

Heh, I must have ruffled since feathers.  I'll take that as a badge of honor. 

darkestcurse

I fully agree and am debating my own way out after 1265 days.  OML was my 2nd championed 5* and I'm fearful of devoting time and effort to ANY other 5* that seems too good to be true (Thanos, BB) because they too could be nerfed into oblivion.