recommend the game to a friend?

Crnch73

So, as we probably all have seen, those "review the game" pop-ups keep coming up. One usually asks us how likely we are to recommend the game to a friend. A while back, I was at an 8. The game had its issues, sure. But the biggest problem I had, thus stopping me from giving it a 9 or 10, was that there were just too many characters. I love variation of the rosters, but I was hesitant to recommend the game to everyone because starting from scratch was daunting. In the face of this, I did recommend it and got a handful of new people to join, even if just to talk about it socially. Championing was a thing, SCL was doing great things, DDQ was a nice way to build your 3's.

As time progressed and they kept asking, my number kept dropping. It first went to 5, because the above problem was getting worse and nothing was being done to help it. Also, some bugs were popping up.

Then it was a 4. I was frustrated by how hard the 3* to 4* transition had become, and the bugs were getting more frequent and worse. Plus all we were getting was new variations of the same characters. Plus, the dilution was getting worse, still.

Now? I am down to 0. The bugs are out of control. The dilution problem was "fixed" by vaulting, infuriating countless people. The new releases have not slowed down, which actually would be a good thing if they had properly addressed the dilution without vaulting. The changes to DDQ were insignificant. Bonus heroes were, and still are, a joke (still waiting on a bonus 4 or 5*, well over 100 pulls!). The vintage heroic token was a joke, since it had the same odds as a regular heroic, which means you were probably never going to get that vaulted 4*. Now this heroes for hire store, where people have varying costs and the rewards aren't great... and both costs are still way too high for a tier littered with well over 40 characters. Though it didn't affect me, nerfing a popular 5* should also never be done.

Of all the people that I got to play this game through recommendation, only one still plays. I actually am responsible for getting the others to quit, because they are not on the forums so I wanted to let them know what was going on. I told them all that the only reason I was not going to quit was because I had dedicated way too much time (and money, unfortunately) to walk away, and I still had hope. But since they were not yet addicted like me, they should run while they could. I feel better knowing I could save them from what feels like a sinking ship. If the developers actually made it fun again, I would let them know and hopefully they would come back. But right now, I have very low hopes that will ever happen. Does anyone still answer that question with a number higher than 2 out of 10?

veny

Well, since champion system, shield levels and PvE changes, my reccomending were around 8. Last time game offered me a poll was few months ago and now... i would say like 5, mainly because of vaulting, daily "special offers" for 3600HP and lack of new features (not counting new covers, they wont make game more entertaining... more like the opposite.

Daredevil217

I think they got me up to a 9 just before vaulting.  Once they introduced that, and all of the other "quality of life changes" the OP mentioned (great synopsis, btw) I rated it a zero, as well as 1* on the Apple Store.  I got a "response from the developer" concerning my review.

DalekGAF

I had previously entered a 7 or 8 for this score.  But since Vaulting/Bonus Heroes/OML nerf/and the 3600 HP store-my recommendation would be a 1 or 2.  I've tried to get my friends into this before, but now in good consciousness I couldn't.  I'm almost 3 years into the game so I have well developer roster.  Someone coming into this now would be screwed with vaulting.

snlf25

No. It gets a 1 from me because vaulting absolutely is a barrier new players have no chance or method to overcome. Before vaulting it was a 6 due to dilution making it very difficult for new players to catch up.

revskip

It always gets a 7 or 8 for me.  Most of my friends who began playing are still playing although most of them are far more casual.  

Despite the frequent histrionics on the forum the game has made plenty of QOL improvements since I've been playing.  Champions, Shield Clearance levels, better system (imo) for PVE.  Even the recent vaulting although not perfect was still aimed at fixing a frequently complained about issue, dilution.  And although it created other issues it definitely made it much easier to cover the new shiny 4*s.  These changes plus a fun group in my alliance keep me pretty engrossed in the game after a year and a half. 

Ayasugi-san

I left a review yesterday warning newcomers away. With vaulting in place a new player will never catch up to the pre-vaulting veterans and with most rewards tied to competitive placement newbies will just keep falling further behind.

snlf25

Ayasugi-san said:

I left a review yesterday warning newcomers away. With vaulting in place a new player will never catch up to the pre-vaulting veterans and with most rewards tied to competitive placement newbies will just keep falling further behind.

Quoted for truth. With every facet of this game being PvP in actuality a newb is perpetually hosed. If PvE were actually PvE my opinion would be different.

Lystrata

I feel this question often gets mixed up with 'how much do you like the game?'.

If I were to just rate the game, I'd give it an 8. I've been playing for years, so clearly there's something that keeps me returning. And despite the never-ending saga of bugs and poor initial decisions whenever a change is made, looking back overall, I think the game has evolved in a good direction. And really, with a well-established enough roster, changes just wash over me. Sure, some characters are made far worse in my mind, some characters are made better, some features are worse, some are better... but ultimately, nothing that changes really stops me playing for what I want. So I'm happy enough.

But to recommend it to a friend? 0. Absolutely not. If you didn't get on board in the early days, god help you now.

I actually have a 'newbie' account on Steam that I dabble with once in a blue moon, and I don't envy new players at all anymore.

Main issues as I see them:

* The roster slot cost is absurd considering the number of characters to pull from these days
* Tokens are useless as opening them almost always guarantees you'll need another roster slot (and believe me, HP is for new players what ISO is for more established players)
* DDQ is basically meaningless, due to lacking most of the essentials 
* CP is irrelevant and useless at best, or game-destroying at worst if you don't know about the forums, or have a friend to tell you about roster builds and scaling
* The reward structure is horrendous - at level 3, only the top 5 in PvE get a 3*. For most people, that's going to equate to 4 days of grinding for a 2 star. Who in their tinykitty mind thinks that's worth it? Who in the world would tell their friend to spend hours a day grinding PvE nodes to potentially just get a 2* Daken?

Not a chance in hell would I suggest to someone I like and wish to maintain a friendship with that this is a worthwhile investment of time anymore, as a starting player.

GigDgee

@Lystrata, I'd just like to say that I completely agree with all of your points, as I've also got a newbie account on steam. I couldn't believe how much Shield Clearance Levels nerfed the new player experience (despite improving things for vets). There's just no incentive to grind whatsoever.

Ayasugi-san

GigDgee said:

@Lystrata, I'd just like to say that I completely agree with all of your points, as I've also got a newbie account on steam. I couldn't believe how much Shield Clearance Levels nerfed the new player experience (despite improving things for vets). There's just no incentive to grind whatsoever.

Huh. I would've thought Shield Clearance Levels made things easier for newbies, because fewer undercovered 4* (and 3*) characters from event rewards cluttering up their rosters while they still need to champ the 2* all-stars.

AlluAllu

I surely would recommend this game. Especially to a Marvel fan. Gameplay is simply fun and rostering and leveling characters even more fun. 

Vaulting in 3- and 4-star tiers has been controversial, but I don't see why newbies would care about that. 

veny

AlluAllu said:

Vaulting in 3- and 4-star tiers has been controversial, but I don't see why newbies would care about that. 

Not before they ran into a node where old 4*s are mandatory - which is PvE, Titan DDQ... and trust me, powered 4*s are extremely valuable in PvP too. As a veteran with 12 champed 4*s i am losing PvP only when enemy has powered 4*s i have not champed yet.

whycantwesyncpc

AlluAllu said:

I surely would recommend this game. Especially to a Marvel fan. Gameplay is simply fun and rostering and leveling characters even more fun. 

Vaulting in 3- and 4-star tiers has been controversial, but I don't see why newbies would care about that. 

I would think the vaulting would be worse for people that are fans of the license.  I know when I think Marvel I don't think of being stuck players as characters like *Riri's version of* Iron Man and that guy that was in the Avengers movie for 5 minutes.

-Removed inappropriate language - Ducky

AlluAllu

veny said:

Not before they ran into a node where old 4*s are mandatory - which is PvE, Titan DDQ... and trust me, powered 4*s are extremely valuable in PvP too. As a veteran with 12 champed 4*s i am losing PvP only when enemy has powered 4*s i have not champed yet.

I think that newbies can accept it that they don't every time have access to all possible nodes. It makes sense that older players would have some advantages, both in PVP and PVE. You don't need to rank highly to enjoy the game, especially at the beginning. It is very easy to make progress in 1-star and 2-star land. Fun that comes from those two tiers is easily worth a recommendation.

 whycantwesyncpc said:

I would think the vaulting would be worse for people that are fans of the license.  I know when I think Marvel I don't think of being stuck players as characters like *Riri's version of* Iron Man and that guy that was in the Avengers movie for 5 minutes.

True. Most of the current 12 four stars are pretty obscure Marvel characters. But majority of the most popular characters can be found from 1-, 2- and 3-star tiers. And if they really want to eventually roster Reed Richards for example, bonus heroes is a great help in that. 

Edit: sorry for flagging and unflagging you. I noticed that someone had flagged you and I wanted to make sure that it wasn't accidentally done by me, when I quoted you. 

GurlBYE

Lystrata said:

Main issues as I see them:

* The roster slot cost is absurd considering the number of characters to pull from these days
* Tokens are useless as opening them almost always guarantees you'll need another roster slot (and believe me, HP is for new players what ISO is for more established players)
* DDQ is basically meaningless, due to lacking most of the essentials 
* CP is irrelevant and useless at best, or game-destroying at worst if you don't know about the forums, or have a friend to tell you about roster builds and scaling
* The reward structure is horrendous - at level 3, only the top 5 in PvE get a 3*. For most people, that's going to equate to 4 days of grinding for a 2 star. Who in their tinykitty mind thinks that's worth it? Who in the world would tell their friend to spend hours a day grinding PvE nodes to potentially just get a 2* Daken?

Not a chance in tinykitty would I suggest to someone I like and wish to maintain a friendship with that this is a worthwhile investment of time anymore, as a starting player.

Nailed it. I don't understand how upper leveled players haven't scrolled back to see what other scls offer. Do they even require the same 2-3-4 essential set up?? If so that's even more laughable.

halirin

Presumably the competition is much lower at the lower scls. Also, progressing to better and better rewards through leveling up is probably part of the fun. Since most of us have the scl 8 perspective it's pretty hard to get into a new player mindset. 

NewMcG

I give low scores for recommendations to new folks, because I cannot fathom how overwhelming it would be to jump into a game with this many characters, see you would need to buy spots for them if you planned on ever catching up, and then wrapping your mind around exactly how many of the various in-game resources that would require. 

whycantwesyncpc

In it's current state I wouldn't recommend the game to my worse enemy let alone a friend

beyonderbub

10 out of 10 each and every time. If I play it, why wouldn't I recommend it? Everything else one can adapt to and get over it. Still progressing and having fun. 

NewMcG

beyonderbub said:

10 out of 10 each and every time. If I play it, why wouldn't I recommend it? Everything else one can adapt to and get over it. Still progressing and having fun. 

I'm not sure how long you've been playing, but I think if you started a brand new account right now, you'd be startled by how behind you'd be.