Discontinuing S.H.I.E.L.D. Signal Intercepts *Updated (5/18/17)

Crowl

Bowgentle said:

And again people are comparing a one-and-done purchase of "normal" games with the F2P business model.

Maybe this is something we need to be doing more often, the balance seems like it has shifted to far towards dlc and f2p stuff a lot of the time.

Warbringa

$2/mo. is not an unreasonable cost to play a game for an entire year. If you are on these forums posting, there is a good chance you are playing this game over an hour a day.  Now if they said you had to a VIP every month to get intercept rewards, that would be different.  For all of those complaining about paying $2/mo ($24 per year) vs. a $60 game purchase, that buys you about 2 1/2 years of game play in MPQ with intercepts rewards. Almost can guarantee you probably wouldn't be playing that $60 game you bought for nearly 2 1/2 years straight on an almost daily basis.  There are always extreme exceptions but over 99% of all games out there that aren't F2P like this one provide a very different experience and thus, have more of an upfront pay model.  As mentioned before, even those are trending towards pay DLC models and in my experience,most DLC for those games don't tend to be worth the $5-$10 for each DLC.    

In addition, you can still play this game F2P, just with less potential rewards.  They want to get you to pay, that is their job.  I think they set a very reasonable incentive to add paying players at a very low entry price point ($2/mo.)  They also fixed several issues with the game and didn't tick off their premium paying customers (VIP members) with the policy change.  In fact, those people received a slight free increase in resources due to DDQ upgrades.  

All of this assumes of course that the new rewards will be similar to the intercept awards and/or be balanced out fairly similar.  If the execution fails for some reason, then I believe they will be open to more fair criticism.  The outline of what they are trying to do and how they are doing it though makes total sense to me from both a business and game play point of view.

Jaedenkaal

Crowl said:

Bowgentle said:

And again people are comparing a one-and-done purchase of "normal" games with the F2P business model.

Maybe this is something we need to be doing more often, the balance seems like it has shifted to far towards dlc and f2p stuff a lot of the time.

ftp, internet-required games have always been, and will always be, a service, not a product.

MissChinch

@Brigby Is it possible to get quantitative information on this current system vs the intercept system?

Specifically:

Intercepts

- could happen X times per day

- rewards were: 500 / 1000 / 2000 ISO, Heroic Token, Elite Token, 2CP, 10, 50, 100 HP 

- distribution among the rewards was (uniform?)

New DDQ

- 5,000 more ISO per day

- 10 more HP per day

New intermittent node bonuses

- can happen Y times per day? or happens Z percent of the time a node is played?

- rewards are: ?500 / 1000 / 2000 ISO, Heroic Token, Elite Token, 2CP, 10, 50, 100 HP ? 

- distribution among the rewards is: ?

Without that information I don't think we can do much better than to say that free players that watched intercepts appear to be getting less now, but free players that didn't watch intercepts get a very substantial bonus.

Magic

I agree with the freemium perspective some try to show. Sure 2$ a month is not a lot for the time spent with the game. I just don't want to justify the current course the game has taken with my money. I am not sure if it can avoid the iceberg. If it will improve I won't mind spending that.

MissChinch

Magic said:

I agree with the freemium perspective some try to show. Sure 2$ a month is not a lot for the time spent with the game. I just don't want to justify the current course the game has taken with my money. I am not sure if it can avoid the iceberg. If it will improve I won't mind spending that.

good points, I'll probably toss em $2 and hope its not taken as approval of the current direction...  I'm still playing, and even if I think its going down in flames its hard not to justify it being worth $2...  I'm only rationalizing my situation, how other people value the game is none of my business...

Realstuff_NameChange

Update: Steam and Amazon users will unfortunately not be able to see Bonus Rewards until R127 is released early next week. Apologies for the inconvenience.

How about giving those of us who bought it expecting the changes to already be in as implied by the original post an extra week of VIP?

Ducky

Magic said:

I agree with the freemium perspective some try to show. Sure 2$ a month is not a lot for the time spent with the game. I just don't want to justify the current course the game has taken with my money. I am not sure if it can avoid the iceberg. If it will improve I won't mind spending that.

The fact that you still play shows them that the direction they're going must not be that bad. Paying or not, you're giving them the metrics they need to justify their course of action. 

maltyo9

broll said:

Wonko33 said:

WEBGAS said:

I am happy for Steam users but defenitely UNHAPPY for me because due to intercepts I was able to collect  4-6000 iso per day plus elite and heroic tokens, HP and even cp....now only 3000iso 

and for only 2$ a month you still can.....

That sounds like the start of one of the feed a starving child commercials.

Cue the Sarah McLachlan...

Crowl

Ducky said:

Magic said:

I agree with the freemium perspective some try to show. Sure 2$ a month is not a lot for the time spent with the game. I just don't want to justify the current course the game has taken with my money. I am not sure if it can avoid the iceberg. If it will improve I won't mind spending that.

The fact that you still play shows them that the direction they're going must not be that bad. Paying or not, you're giving them the metrics they need to justify their course of action. 

It depends, if somebody is still playing, but has gone fully or practically f2p after having previously spent money on the game then maybe they need to recheck the direction a tad.

Crowl

mexus said:

MissChinch said:

@Brigby Is it possible to get quantitative information on this current system vs the intercept system?

Specifically:

Intercepts

- could happen X times per day

- rewards were: 500 / 1000 / 2000 ISO, Heroic Token, Elite Token, 2CP, 10, 50, 100 HP 

- distribution among the rewards was (uniform?)

New DDQ

- 5,000 more ISO per day

- 10 more HP per day

New intermittent node bonuses

- can happen Y times per day? or happens Z percent of the time a node is played?

- rewards are: ?500 / 1000 / 2000 ISO, Heroic Token, Elite Token, 2CP, 10, 50, 100 HP ? 

- distribution among the rewards is: ?

Without that information I don't think we can do much better than to say that free players that watched intercepts appear to be getting less now, but free players that didn't watch intercepts get a very substantial bonus.

I definitely so far feel like these bonus rewards come much more seldom than the old intercepts. Maybe it's meant that way, and the updated story rewards will cover up for the  resources gone missing from intercepts.

I'm not sure if they come less often overall, but they definitely don't all show up in a clump like they tended to do with intercepts and maybe that is just giving a different impression of them.

I am sure that knowing this forum, somebody will already be tracking their frequency of intercepts v2.0 and we will get a clearer picture soon most likely.

granne

I've had 2 or 3 fewer the last couple of days than I was getting previously, but with the wave missions on HoD, there are 6 fewer opportunities than usual. I'll try to report back after a couple of days of the Hunt.

Got to love purely anecdotal evidence, eh?

Dragon_Nexus

Crowl said:

Ducky said:

Magic said:

I agree with the freemium perspective some try to show. Sure 2$ a month is not a lot for the time spent with the game. I just don't want to justify the current course the game has taken with my money. I am not sure if it can avoid the iceberg. If it will improve I won't mind spending that.

The fact that you still play shows them that the direction they're going must not be that bad. Paying or not, you're giving them the metrics they need to justify their course of action. 

It depends, if somebody is still playing, but has gone fully or practically f2p after having previously spent money on the game then maybe they need to recheck the direction a tad.

I think that was his point, though it was worded quite bluntly.

"Paying or not" is the key phrase there. They'll be monitoring who stopped paying and suddenly starts...and who starts paying and suddenly stops.

I mean, when intercepts came in and it was known that Steam users would get no benefit, with VIP becomming a demonstrably inferior product on my platform of choice, I stopped renewing VIP. But now that I'll gain a benefit from it, I'll totally buy it again once the patch hits. I don't imagine I'm the only one.

Nightglider1

Crowl said:

Ducky said:

Magic said:

I agree with the freemium perspective some try to show. Sure 2$ a month is not a lot for the time spent with the game. I just don't want to justify the current course the game has taken with my money. I am not sure if it can avoid the iceberg. If it will improve I won't mind spending that.

The fact that you still play shows them that the direction they're going must not be that bad. Paying or not, you're giving them the metrics they need to justify their course of action. 

It depends, if somebody is still playing, but has gone fully or practically f2p after having previously spent money on the game then maybe they need to recheck the direction a tad.

This. I am one of those "gone fully f2p after having previously spent money." Nobody would confuse me with a whale, but I spent a few hundred bucks on IAP over the last few years.

Hotnfresh

I've been a VIP member since induction and can say with certainty that intercepts are dropping WAY LESS frequently since the change. And the rewards are far more chintzy.

Dev's--- This is highly irriating. You should tip the scales to the players when you make changes like this. We're accustomed to a certain amount of rewards with a system you implemented to give us more rewards. You have cut the intercept rewards in half, at least. Higher rewards are not dropping. In fact, you've only trimmed the fat of the players lately, leaving all the meat on the bone for yourselves. 

No sooner have I come to terms with one change, you change something else. And it's never good! For once I'd like to say, "Now this is exciting!"... rather than "How did they screw it up this time?" You make some great changes, but always revert back to the wrong mindset-- me first. How about players first and the money will follow?

I get it, it's a business. May be different in a f2p model, but in my business I take a hit to give the customer a better product. And they come back because of that with nothing but praise. There are no repercussions for you to keep offering us the same (or better) rewards...  certainly don't decrease them. 

Edit: Discontinued intercept rewards I'm referring to are the bonus rewards for paying players... aka still intercepts.

Moon Roach

My Steam game was updated with R127, the first match in Daily Deadpool I got an Intercept, or whatever we call them now.

I is content.

smkspy

I'm still getting a fair amount. A lot of elite tokens, 500 iso, 10 HP,etc.

I've managed three of the 4 top rewards of 100 hp, 1 cp, and 1000 iso. No 2000 iso yet, so has anyone gotten that one since the change?

Starfury

Definitely feels like the rewards have been reduced in value. I got 1 1000 iso reward and 0 2000 iso rewards since the change, while before I usually got 2-4 of them each day.

Not saying that anecdotal evidence from a few users is proof of a change, but as usual, it's all we get. We have no official information about whether or not the amount and value of bonus rewards have changed.

Now you might argue that we never got any official information about the distribution of the rewards when they first came out or when they were first changed, but this is not the same thing anymore. Bonus rewards are now directly tied to a purchase. "Buy it and you'll see" just doesn't cut it...

This stuff is what keeps people getting (or staying) frustrated with this company...

MissChinch

Starfury said:

Definitely feels like the rewards have been reduced in value. I got 1 1000 iso reward and 0 2000 iso rewards since the change, while before I usually got 2-4 of them each day.

Not saying that anecdotal evidence from a few users is proof of a change, but as usual, it's all we get. We have no official information about whether or not the amount and value of bonus rewards have changed.

Now you might argue that we never got any official information about the distribution of the rewards when they first came out or when they were first changed, but this is not the same thing anymore. Bonus rewards are now directly tied to a purchase. "Buy it and you'll see" just doesn't cut it...

This stuff is what keeps people getting (or staying) frustrated with this company...

I don't think its unreasonable to ask for the information...  I asked for the specifics @Brigby a few posts earlier in the thread...  I actually don't expect an answer (a reflection on D3/Demi not on Brigby) though I don't see how obfuscating it is in any way helpful to them, and could only serve to better explain things to us...

Till then, its exactly as you say, all anecdotal...  and too much of a PITA to try to consolidate enough data to work out the actuals... 

Brigby

Hi Everyone. The resources that players are able to receive from Bonus Rewards are the same as the ones from S.H.I.E.L.D. Intercepts:

1 Command Point, 100 Hero Points, 2,000 Iso-8, 1 Heroic token, 1 Elite Token, 25 Hero Points, 1,000 Iso-8, 10 Hero Points, or 500 Iso-8.

//Updated with correct Iso-8