Is the game dying?
Comments
-
Easy to get frustrated. I used to get frustrated with every change, especially if it impacted my roster or style of play, but now I welcome it. When you get so good at the game and play so much, it's nice to change it up. But then again, I know I'm in the minority here0
-
I keep seeind this $100m number thrown around but no one ever says if that's net or gross, Google and Apple keep 30% on all ap sales, the remainder is split between publisher and developer3
-
fmftint said:I keep seeind this $100m number thrown around but no one ever says if that's net or gross, Google and Apple keep 30% on all ap sales, the remainder is split between publisher and developer2
-
a lot of recent developers decisions have left players feeling like Demiurge no longer cares about anything but transparent cash grab attempts
I'm in a casual public alliance that had only 11/20 players play for almost a week (back up to 13-15 now)1 -
therightwaye said:Looks to me like the forums are less active. I have a few daily players who haven't played in a couple of weeks. And the competition seems lacking.
Is this game slowly dying? Having not been on the forums for longer than five months, does this come and go?
2 -
Of course it comes up a lot...people always hope there is an end to the grinding.
I think there is less play in the events overall right now, but it is too early to predict anything yet. I know placing T100 in Lightning Rounds is easier than ever. And my (young, all under 283) 4* champ roster recently hit T5 in a PVP, first ever, at just about 930 points. It was surprising.
The devs aren't helping spur interest, though.1 -
therightwaye said:Looks to me like the forums are less active. I have a few daily players who haven't played in a couple of weeks. And the competition seems lacking.
Is this game slowly dying? Having not been on the forums for longer than five months, does this come and go?
As for the game, it's been easier to place higher in events. Idk if it's due to OML nerf (among other changes) or if it's due to the elimination of repeatedly hitting nodes for 1pt. The last time I felt placement was this easy was when XFW/4hor got nerfed and they did the major health buffs to 90% of chsracters. Alot of vets quit and new players (like myself) were able to finally rise up. Perhaps it's happening again.8 -
I hope not because I enjoy this game, but I also loved marvel avengers alliance and I do notice many similarities happening that happened when that game shut down.
Too many characters- when the game started Maa had like 20 characters, by the end it was about 120 characters and the amount of time/ money you would have to put in to unlock them as a new player was crazy.
Not new player friendly -Vets dominated pvp, it was brutal for new players to try and catch up. I recommended the game to friends but they quickly gave up when they saw the steep uphill climb.
Nerfs- several strong characters were nerfed, characters that were extremely hard to aquire and that players didn't feel needed a nerf. Many proclaimed they would quit the game if the characters they worked so hard to unlock would be nerfed into uselessness.
Burn out- having to keep up with pvp, story mode, and daily mission to keep up.
Bugs- when Maa first started there were few bugs and they were fixed quickly when they popped up. Towards the end there were so many bugs and they rarely got fixed. Players would say constantly on their forums "we don't need new characters, fix all these bugs first so the ones we already have are playable"
More ads- more ads added to the game but you get a chance at a small amount of in game currency if you sit through the whole vid.
We never did get a VIP mode though.
10 -
If I must say, the never-ending influx of new characters is really becoming a burden. I realize I'm never to champ everyone, but even getting the occasional side character champed like Kate or Quake is becoming harder and harder under this release slate. I have Coulson, Medusa and Hawkeye waiting for some iso love with new characters like Iron Fist and Cloak and Dagger up and coming. I'm really starting to feel the burn and the temptation to throw in the towel is greater than ever. A double iso event is needed now more than ever, if not only as a sign of good faith.
2 -
dying? Absolutely. It takes a lot of work and a bit of luck to reach 2 years, and then everything after that is really just gravy. Every decision from the development team since the last anniversary has confirmed a paradigm shift focusing on bringing MPQ to a point of termination.
However, you don't just kill the goose that lays the golden egg. There's still money to be made, and by tightening the screws on monetization you can start to deliver a "pay or quit" ultimatum.
The worst thing for Demiurge is free players. These represent a drain on resources with no income to offset those costs. So the goal is to squeeze them out of that position - either into paying customers or quitting, so as to free up those resources. If people pay, that's more profit and more reason to leave the wheels turning for a little while longer. If people quit, then you can afford to start consolidating resources since there's less requirement for resources.
There will be some threshold on daily revenue which represents the final tipping point - probably not as low as a 1:1 ratio against daily running costs, but you get the idea. Breaching that threshold is early warning signal, they'll cease development on new characters, finish up what they have in the pipeline and see where they go.
I'd say that switching the team over to a kind of "MPQ2" is certainly a possibility; as is keeping MPQ running on skeleton crew with no new content and minimal update support for as long as possible.
But people have been saying this game is dying for years, so I guess we'll just see.
6 -
I don't care anymore really. I agree with most on the poor gaming decisions, but it has been done. They rarely reverse their calls; it's like complaining to a ref in a game.
I still play. I'm not bored of the game, yet. I just find ways to make it work. Fewer people playing then better placements for the rest. Lucky for me, my clan just has 1 revolving door.
Every game eventually hits its peak.1 -
The game is definitely less fun for long time players but I have no idea if that translates to the game 'dying'. We have a 5* tier of play that's frankly AWESOME but it's so inaccessible to the player base that it can't be appreciated.
The design of the end game is also such that elevating yourself to the final tier of play typically means discarding all tiers before. Now that's always been the case but you might not appreciate it as much when the tier you moved to means adding new characters to it maybe twice a year with hardcore play.
Vets are left with three options...
1) Have the patience of a saint and accept very little progress yearly for 20+ hours of gameplay each week.
2) Spend literally thousands of dollars to keep up with 5* tier
3) Burn out due to boredom, lack of progress or just frustration regarding the realities of this endgame.
So back to the main question...is MPQ dying?
I have no idea. I can say that historically speaking its the vets that tend to support F2P games far more than any other group. Forcing what is probably your biggest supporter in the above 3 categories does make some of them spend but it does so at the cost of a lot of morale and negativity at the upper tiers of play. This doesn't strike me as a sustainable way of doing business.
For all I know MPQ's vets only make up a small portion of the pie. The early game is very well put together these days and there's very much the beginners trap of ISO purchases while also juggling the more legitimate decision of HP for roster slots. If most of the money is being made by newer players then this game should have a lot of life left in it.
3 -
babinro said:The game is definitely less fun for long time players but I have no idea if that translates to the game 'dying'. We have a 5* tier of play that's frankly AWESOME but it's so inaccessible to the player base that it can't be appreciated.
The design of the end game is also such that elevating yourself to the final tier of play typically means discarding all tiers before. Now that's always been the case but you might not appreciate it as much when the tier you moved to means adding new characters to it maybe twice a year with hardcore play.
Vets are left with three options...
1) Have the patience of a saint and accept very little progress yearly for 20+ hours of gameplay each week.
2) Spend literally thousands of dollars to keep up with 5* tier
3) Burn out due to boredom, lack of progress or just frustration regarding the realities of this endgame.
2 -
Maybe the should look at the model that Marvel Future Fight uses. That game also has a lot of characters. And they are very generous how often you get characters. No roster slots so you can keep expending. The more you play characters the more they level. The reason why you should ever pay in that game is for extra's. New costumes on characters. And I pay sometimes because I think they have a very good and more important FAIR model.7
-
I'd say the game was doing quite fine, before recent changes. Sure there were some bugs and major problems present (CLs, 5* tier, scaling), but at least people had hope that eventually everything will get fixed.
Then we had a whole bunch of bad decissions, attempts to money-grab, while ignoring everything else, including bugs and players' feedback.
I sure feel like somebody's trying to kill MPQ.
Based on recent actions, I'm simply worried. Owners of OML got a hit in the face, when their character was nerfed. Vaulting rendered most of the covers I earned for 4* characters useless. You could implement some masssive, weird changes and make an argument, why they are good, but the moment devs take away something from players, it get's really bad. People got punished for collecting OML covers and using him, I got punished for not hoarding all of my cp. Add to that lack of communication, ignoring feedback, ignoring bugs and it doesn't take much more to make people quit.
I would expect that many players right now are waiting to see what's the next move going to be. Will it be a ray of hope, or a final nail to the coffin?
8 -
The game has always been terrible. If it wasn't for the Marvel license and these were made up heroes like every other collectible game it would be nowhere near as successful. It's the perfect freemium game. Get license of a successful franchise. Create a constant source of new content, monetize everything. Do just enough to keep the player base intrigued. Balance when you either need to appease the masses or make more money under the guise of long term health of game.
Yup they will continue to make money as long as people continue to believe they are getting value
4 -
El Satanno said:babinro said:The game is definitely less fun for long time players but I have no idea if that translates to the game 'dying'. We have a 5* tier of play that's frankly AWESOME but it's so inaccessible to the player base that it can't be appreciated.
The design of the end game is also such that elevating yourself to the final tier of play typically means discarding all tiers before. Now that's always been the case but you might not appreciate it as much when the tier you moved to means adding new characters to it maybe twice a year with hardcore play.
Vets are left with three options...
1) Have the patience of a saint and accept very little progress yearly for 20+ hours of gameplay each week.
2) Spend literally thousands of dollars to keep up with 5* tier
3) Burn out due to boredom, lack of progress or just frustration regarding the realities of this endgame.
My gripes were entirely with the accessibility of 5* tier to players and snails pace progression of it all leading to people quitting.
4 -
I don't know if it is dying, I guess the answer is, it depends. I think the game is probably awesome for new players, but for veterans it is a completely different thing. This game has been antiveteran (not anti whale) for quite a bit of time.
The only thing I know, is that every single day I care less and less. Last PvP I didn't even get to 575, and I didnt care. The game is general is in a terrible state in the high end:
- Still no scl9 or scl10
- Scaling is still awful (Kaecilius level 550 against Patch and Loki and one 5 as shield)
- 5s still require a lot of luck or a lot of money
and now we add
- Vaulting
- Bugs (match4 doesnt do damage to K)
- 5 nerfs
The game is a joke.
Next season I wont buy the VIP. Hopefully this will mean that I will go fully casual or I will stop playing after three years3 -
Honestly, I don't think it's dying. Much like as has been said before, you don't just burn down a mansion for no reason. They are still making money.
However, I do understand where the question comes from. There have been many questionable/bad/terrible decisions lately. I believe these decisions were made as attempts to fix or alleviate some problems, but they only seem to have either done nothing at all, or even made it worse. The lack of attention to detail and the lack of forethought can lead anyone to start questioning the developers. They sure seem to be phoning it in, from a creative idea standpoint. Some may say they are just getting lazy and riding out the wave for all it's worth. Some may say they have lost sight of what the customer base wants. Some may say that the business side of the game and the development side of the game are not seeing eye-to-eye, which results in "fixes" that require the customers to pay more.
Regardless of the reasoning, I do not believe they are just going to bury the game and move on... not yet at least. But they do need to remove their heads from their anuses and start making changes that actually mean something good. It feels like forever when Shield Rankings and SCL's were introduced. I honestly can't remember a good development since then.
2 -
RtW said:Maybe the should look at the model that Marvel Future Fight uses. That game also has a lot of characters. And they are very generous how often you get characters. No roster slots so you can keep expending. The more you play characters the more they level. The reason why you should ever pay in that game is for extra's. New costumes on characters. And I pay sometimes because I think they have a very good and more important FAIR model.
MPQ's root problem is that it's outlived its original design parameters (2* and 3* as the main tiers with 4* as a trophy tier). Moving to 4* and 5* as the main tiers without really altering the core design just keeps exposing problems; but they make enough $$$ from whales on the 4* and 5* tiers so they feel no incentive to address said problems. And when the whales stop feeding the $$$ train on 4* & 5* characters, they'll either pull the 6* card or just start shutting the game down. So, I don't expect much for player-friendly changes at this point in the game's lifecycle.
3
Categories
- All Categories
- 45.3K Marvel Puzzle Quest
- 1.6K MPQ News and Announcements
- 20.5K MPQ General Discussion
- 6.3K MPQ Bugs and Technical Issues
- 3K MPQ Tips and Guides
- 2.1K MPQ Character Discussion
- 173 MPQ Supports Discussion
- 2.5K MPQ Events, Tournaments, and Missions
- 2.8K MPQ Alliances
- 6.4K MPQ Suggestions and Feedback
- 13.9K Magic: The Gathering - Puzzle Quest
- 529 MtGPQ News & Announcements
- 5.5K MtGPQ General Discussion
- 99 MtGPQ Tips & Guides
- 441 MtGPQ Deck Strategy & Planeswalker Discussion
- 306 MtGPQ Events
- 60 MtGPQ Coalitions
- 1.2K MtGPQ Suggestions & Feedback
- 5.8K MtGPQ Bugs & Technical Issues
- 548 Other 505 Go Inc. Games
- 21 Puzzle Quest: The Legend Returns
- 5 Adventure Gnome
- 6 Word Designer: Country Home
- 401 Other Games
- 160 General Discussion
- 241 Off Topic
- 7 505 Go Inc. Forum Rules
- 7 Forum Rules and Site Announcements