Idea for avoiding burnout.

Clintman

I think D3 should make fewer events count toward Season totals, ideally I would like to see only new character events count toward season standings, or events that have new character rewards count toward season standings.

Make Falcon events crazy competitive and have them count toward season standings. Make a Daken event count toward season standings, that is cool, lets go nuts over new covers.

It is driving me crazy to have to compete at such a high level for Ragnarok and Loki covers which are desirable to "Almost" no one. (There is a crazy SOB in another thread that lied and said he likes Loki... but I digress). Having to push this hard in order to maintain our season score is making no one happy.

New and intermediate players are finding themselves unable to get new 3* covers... the very people that could imagine a use for Loki or Ragnarok are the ones who have no chance of getting them. Not when the veteran hardcore players are forced to play hard to maintain their season scores. My friends who are not in S.H.I.E.L.D are not enjoying the fact that you have to have 1150 points to come in to top 10. And every one of the top 10, have the covers in the first place.

Veteran players are having to spend resources in a soulless grind in order to maintain placement for a 25 day event. I feel bad every time I have to grind to 1st ahead of some guy that could use the 4* cover. I feel even worse that I have to spend HP shield hopping because myself and every other poor bastard out there is trying to preserve their season ranking.

The worst thing is the burnout, It is terrible to have to play hard on events you don't care about. It makes you start to get sick of a very fun game. Couple that with the feeling that I am doing harm to the intermediate players and you have a recipe for resignation.

The other though that I am having on this is that they probably did not change placement in brackets, more that what we are experiencing is the change in motivation of people to play hard and place in order to maintain their season ranking.

Unknown

Totally agree. Almost every cover they have reward during season 1 is **** I've had maxed forever. I'm to the point I can barely take competing without the thrill of winning new covers and getting cool rewards. If it once maybe once a month they gave people a shot to win an old cover or a pack featuring a few old covers. I can't take it happening every frkn tourney. Lol

Obviously it's an increase on pack purchases when they don't let us win all the newest covers through effort. But really? It's been a bit extreme as of late.

Clintman

Psykopathic wrote:

Totally agree. Almost every cover they have reward during season 1 is **** I've had maxed forever. I'm to the point I can barely take competing without the thrill of winning new covers and getting cool rewards. If it once maybe once a month they gave people a shot to win an old cover or a pack featuring a few old covers. I can't take it happening every frkn tourney. Lol

Obviously it's an increase on pack purchases when they don't let us win all the newest covers through effort. But really? It's been a bit extreme as of late.

I just hate the fact that I feel like I am taking away someone else's chance at getting a cover they actually want.

I totally would have just farmed the Rag tournament for ISO and finished wherever if it weren't for season standings.

DecoyDuck

Even if you made every third or fourth PVP a non-alliance, non-Season event with 10 standard tokens as the top prize, that would go some way toward:
1. Giving the veteran players a break (if they're really bored, they can grind that Seasons' SHIELD Simulator)
2. Giving newer players some place to compete without being hounded by veterans
3. Giving folks who are adamantly against alliances something to do
4. Giving yet another place to tank/farm ISO

Wait, this sounds like Lightning Rounds. Yet... not the same.

Trying to kill a couple birds with one stone here.

Unknown

Clintman wrote:

Psykopathic wrote:

Totally agree. Almost every cover they have reward during season 1 is **** I've had maxed forever. I'm to the point I can barely take competing without the thrill of winning new covers and getting cool rewards. If it once maybe once a month they gave people a shot to win an old cover or a pack featuring a few old covers. I can't take it happening every frkn tourney. Lol

Obviously it's an increase on pack purchases when they don't let us win all the newest covers through effort. But really? It's been a bit extreme as of late.

I just hate the fact that I feel like I am taking away someone else's chance at getting a cover they actually want.

I totally would have just farmed the Rag tournament for ISO and finished wherever if it weren't for season standings.

I don't know if you seen in the event thread , I can't remember his name, but that 1 guy got mad at me for driving the score he needed for 1st place up. Of course I was going for alliance score. I didn't need the 4* or even the 3*. Just playing an event I had no interest in for alliance score. Usually I woulda put up way less points or skipped the event and focused on Pve or something. As has been mentioned it's created a very hostile environment rather than before alliances when the community was pretty tight knit.

Unknown

I don't get why the guys who take the game too seriously are always posting about how D3 should make them take the game less seriously. This is purely your own problem. All it'd take is for one of the top 3 alliances to walk away and accept that they will have 150 less HP per person. Wait, you can't just give up because you're too competitive? Then don't cry about the pressure of being hyper competitive.

DecoyDuck

Psykopathic wrote:

I don't know if you seen in the event thread , I can't remember his name, but that 1 guy got mad at me for driving the score he needed for 1st place up. Of course I was going for alliance score. I didn't need the 4* or even the 3*. Just playing an event I had no interest in for alliance score. Usually I woulda put up way less points or skipped the event and focused on Pve or something. As has been mentioned it's created a very hostile environment rather than before alliances when the community was pretty tight knit.

Actually, you're right. The solution was right there all along. Get rid of Seasons.

Unknown

I know it won't happen since the monotonous grind consumes resources, and resources = revenue, but I wouldn't mind seeing maybe only your highest 5 out of 10 events counting for the season standings. You'll still push for that high placing on some of the events, namely the ones you actually value the rewards for, and you may shoot for top 10 to help your alliance mates get the alliance reward cover on others. But if season points were your SHIELD training + your 5 best PVP finish totals, you could skip ones in which you have no interest.

People will still probably grind the ones at the end of the season just to best their previous ones, but if I'm content with say... 6500 as a season score with 5 900 finishes and 2k in SHIELD, I could take it easy on Rags, or Loki.
But I can't. I want to make sure my alliance gets the Fury cover, and I'd like to try and stay top 25 in my bracket so I can have a 20 deep bag-party.

Clintman

Phantron wrote:

I don't get why the guys who take the game too seriously are always posting about how D3 should make them take the game less seriously. This is purely your own problem. All it'd take is for one of the top 3 alliances to walk away and accept that they will have 150 less HP per person. Wait, you can't just give up because you're too competitive? Then don't cry about the pressure of being hyper competitive.

I am speaking from the perspective of what I see happening in the community. The direction of the design feels overall destructive to a game that I very much enjoy. I cannot control the changes that happen in the community. I do not influence the drama and fighting that goes on between X-Men and 5DV/P/whatever. What I do notice though is that these changes drive the stress level through the roof. We see ugliness come to the surface in our player population that never showed before because this stressor was not there.

Unknown

Clintman wrote:

Psykopathic wrote:

Totally agree. Almost every cover they have reward during season 1 is **** I've had maxed forever. I'm to the point I can barely take competing without the thrill of winning new covers and getting cool rewards. If it once maybe once a month they gave people a shot to win an old cover or a pack featuring a few old covers. I can't take it happening every frkn tourney. Lol

Obviously it's an increase on pack purchases when they don't let us win all the newest covers through effort. But really? It's been a bit extreme as of late.

I just hate the fact that I feel like I am taking away someone else's chance at getting a cover they actually want.

I totally would have just farmed the Rag tournament for ISO and finished wherever if it weren't for season standings.

And incurred the wrath of Nemek and his party whip? Lol

Unknown

I wonder if this is one of the reasons they **** up the bracket making. I will gladly get rid of seasons instead of this **** new bracket of death system where 900 points is out of top 50!!

Unknown

Clintman wrote:

Phantron wrote:

I don't get why the guys who take the game too seriously are always posting about how D3 should make them take the game less seriously. This is purely your own problem. All it'd take is for one of the top 3 alliances to walk away and accept that they will have 150 less HP per person. Wait, you can't just give up because you're too competitive? Then don't cry about the pressure of being hyper competitive.

I am speaking from the perspective of what I see happening in the community. The direction of the design feels overall destructive to a game that I very much enjoy. I cannot control the changes that happen in the community. I do not influence the drama and fighting that goes on between X-Men and 5DV/P/whatever. What I do notice though is that these changes drive the stress level through the roof. We see ugliness come to the surface in our player population that never showed before because this stressor was not there.

Of course the stress level is pretty crazy but it's all player induced. D3 even went back and made the alliance reward pretty weak. Back when it was 500 HP you can argue that the #2 alliance might feel they really just need to get the #1 to even up the odds. Now, at 250 HP, it hardly matters since looking at the crazy scores in the last couple of rounds I'm sure people spend considerably more than the maximum alliance prize for that rating. And what is it you're fighting for? I think the alliance reward is the same for 1-5 in season 1? And if not, does it really matter you have 100 less HP when it takes thousands of HP to move up one rank? Likewise at the personal level, looking at the given odds I'd expect Nick Fury cover to show up 0.8% of the time (if he's available from tokens at all), so getting 40 heroic tokens get you 0.32 of a Nick Fury, or a value of about 750 HP. Is that really worth all that stress? I'm assuming anyone who can compete for the top season prizes shouldn't have to worry about never getting the first cover for anybody but I think that's a safe assumption.

It's pretty clear that right now there's a lot of playing is just personal, but if it's personal then there's nothing D3 can do about it. For whatever reason people on the top really hate each other. Why should D3 come out and stop it when it's making them good money, and they're not doing anything to encourage this? If they put up Elite level prizes (1 cover of every hero, for example) you can make an argument about how D3 is encouraging people to be cutthroat. But 4X10 heroic pack is nothing for a guy who can actually compete for that.

For the 'winning cover when you don't need it' issue, I thought people are talking about something different going on with PvP brackets that's supposed to address that? Until Nick Fury covers are offered as #1 award, it hardly matters since 4*s are mostly collectible items at this point, and when/if Nick Fury is offered a prize everyone needs it too so there's nothing unfair about winning that either for a pretty long time.

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

I don't get why the guys who take the game too seriously are always posting about how D3 should make them take the game less seriously. This is purely your own problem. All it'd take is for one of the top 3 alliances to walk away and accept that they will have 150 less HP per person. Wait, you can't just give up because you're too competitive? Then don't cry about the pressure of being hyper competitive.

It's not that I have to be competitive. It's that I like being competitive. They give me an awesome competitive platform- season 1.

A span of events across a few weeks times to see how you hold up. Awesome. Then right when we start fighting it out for the season reward and the prestige of being a top alliance, they also start making new covers extremely rare and putting old covers for rewards that most of the people at the top who are receiving them all just don't need.

In turn the people who do need them can't get them. They aren't happy. We get them but just sell them and don't get interested by any of it. We aren't happy. It's making people all pissy and making other people crazy.

For me it's just a matter of boredom. I want my shiny prize when I'm done kicking ****. But it really trickles down throughout a lot of the community.

Unknown

Psykopathic wrote:

Phantron wrote:

I don't get why the guys who take the game too seriously are always posting about how D3 should make them take the game less seriously. This is purely your own problem. All it'd take is for one of the top 3 alliances to walk away and accept that they will have 150 less HP per person. Wait, you can't just give up because you're too competitive? Then don't cry about the pressure of being hyper competitive.

It's not that I have to be competitive. It's that I like being competitive. They give me an awesome competitive platform- season 1.

A span of events across a few weeks times to see how you hold up. Awesome. Then right when we start fighting it out for the season reward and the prestige of being a top alliance, they also start making new covers extremely rare and putting old covers for rewards that most of the people at the top who are receiving them all just don't need.

In turn the people who do need them can't get them. They aren't happy. We get them but just sell them and don't get interested by any of it. We aren't happy. It's making people all pissy and making other people crazy.

For me it's just a matter of boredom. I want my shiny prize when I'm done kicking ****. But it really trickles down throughout a lot of the community.

Not to mention the fact that on top of the **** cover rewards, this season has been made up of what? TWO doom tourneys, TWO loki tourneys and TWO falcon tourneys? I don't think we have ever had ones that close together ever. Why suddenly do it when everyone has to push as much as possible??! I think they found out those were the lowest leveled guys and wanted people to waste iso on them.

Unknown

That's not a bad idea Clint. I was looking forward to the season when it started but in practice, it's been pretty awful. It'd be worth seeing if the concept can be salvaged by having season events once a week or something. Not that I think it's likely to be tried, every change since alliance rewards has been to punish you for ever taking a break. Next patch the mobile will probably shock you if you try to close the program.

mouser

Variation on that idea: have only the Top X highest pvp scores count towards each player's season total instead of every single one.

Allows the players a little more flexibility to not feel they need to jam scores on every PVP.

HairyDave

I like Loki...

Unknown

I hate the fact that I can't win any 3* covers from PvP anymore. Today I didn't feel like starting up MPQ even but just holding out for the end of Season 1. If they don't change things, I will quit the game. Even if I don't quit, I don't think I will grind like this in Season 2. I might end up leaving my alliance because I don't want to to hold them back.

Clintman

HairyDave wrote:

I like Loki...

Unpossible!!

Unknown

Phantron wrote:

I don't get why the guys who take the game too seriously are always posting about how D3 should make them take the game less seriously. This is purely your own problem. All it'd take is for one of the top 3 alliances to walk away and accept that they will have 150 less HP per person. Wait, you can't just give up because you're too competitive? Then don't cry about the pressure of being hyper competitive.

I'm quoting Phantom here because he's not totally wrong. I think he's being a bit abrasive in how he states it, but I tend to agree with him.

I am one of those people that is being hyper-competitive for the sake of winning. I am on track to place number 2 in my bracket, I believe, behind only reckless442. I have put forth extraordinary effort to score 1100 to 1300 in every season event until the Ragnarok tourney. But I needed almost none of the covers. And when the final bell is rung, I am certain to sell 39 or possibly all of the covers I get from the tokens. So why am I doing it?

Well, I like winning and I am competitive and capable. But I am growing frustrated at the grind and I feel bad that I'm keeping covers from people who might want them. So I start to question what is my purpose in this endeavor? Nick Fury is a virtual guarantee for my alliance. The only reason I continue is because I have come this far and I feel like I ought to finish what I started.

But it may be time to forget about it and let myself drop off the Season 1 leaderboards. I don't have anything to prove to anyone. I'm not capable of beating reckless and I know myself that I could probably top the other 4998 players in my bracket. So what is the point? My alliance thinks I'm cool. Random leaderboard watchers don't need to know.

On another note, I never thought Loki was any good. But when Cmags is nerfed, Loki might seem better. If he had more health he could be viable.

Unknown

If you're not competing for the sake of competing it is really okay to do poorly once in a while or even skip an event. The season 1 prizes are made to be pretty unexciting on the individual level, and at the alliance level all but the alliances on the borderline usually know pretty well where they'll end up. Borderline alliances have it harder but that's life.

And if you're competing for the sake of competing then there's nothing D3 can do to change that. Even if they moved some events off seasons total they'll probably be the ones that feature the cover you actually want. Don't count on a Loki event that awards Ragnarok to not be part of the seasons bracket. The whole point of having a seasons bracket is to make otherwise throwaway tournaments valuable. If something offered HT or Falcon or better yet Nick Fury as a reward (even if it's just for #1) there's already going to be ample participation.

At any rate people should also ask themselves what does it mean to be competitive? Do you want to be competitive while spending no money compared to those who do? I don't really expect to keep up without spending money because if spending money doesn't offer a big advantage, why would anyone ever spend money in the first place? Likewise I've been hammered in the recent Doom/Loki/Rag events which featured my weakest heroes and it took way more effort than usual to even get a top 25 when your featured character is level 35/18/35, and that's really okay too. It's my choice to not spend my iso8 on those characters and it should be harder to do well. I generally cleaned up in the events that had a character where I have at level 100+ (and I have quite a few of those), and just because none of them were featured recently doesn't mean it's some kind of crime against humanity.