12 Days of Meh

Today I listened to my son tell me about 14 days of Fortnite and all the wonderful things players reveive. When compared to the 12 days of Marvel event, MPQ has been found wanting, once again. The 4* covers are nice, but only iso for everything else? What a wasted opportunity. There could’ve been tokens, hp or even health packs as rewards. Shame on you D3/Demiurge for thumbing your noses at the player base. Again. 
«1

Comments

  • Bowgentle
    Bowgentle Posts: 7,926 Chairperson of the Boards
    bluewolf said:
    You don’t need to look at other games, just compare this Holiday to what the devs have done in the past. 
    Today a “New Years Vault” opened. No daily deals and no tokens.

    MPQ Holiday 2016:

    Naughty or Nice tokens came from Galactus Hungers, Unstable iso-8, and a N or N PVP.

    Naughty or Nice Vault (December 22, 12:00 PM to December 31st, 11:59 PM)
    Everyone gets a free token!

    80 items in vault!
      • 1 Legendary Token • 6 4-Stars (3 Villains and 3 Heros) • 3 1000 Hero Points • 1 10 Command Points • 4 Elite Tokens • 19 3-Stars • 46 2-Stars
        The contents of the NY vault are almost the same as that vault, but much more costly. 
      That stupid vault is open for a week.
      I'm sure we'll get one free awesome token eventually.
    • MaxPowers
      MaxPowers Posts: 23 Just Dropped In
      Saw this vault earlier today and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. A player would do much better just buying a couple 40 packs. At least they would get a shot at bonus heroes.

      Don't mean to complain, but I can't help but feel like this kind of stuff hurts the game. Im sure there are those that don't mind dropping the money, and I thank them for their support, but for those newer players who might be naive enough to invest it will only be a matter of time until they feel swindled.

      I remember when the holiday season felt like the anniversary season 1.5. Didnt mind dropping some money back then. Those days seem long gone.
    • Dragon_Nexus
      Dragon_Nexus Posts: 3,701 Chairperson of the Boards
      Bit weird the vault has no daily deal. Does anyone really pay 400HP for a single token?
    • Palookaville
      Palookaville Posts: 83 Match Maker
      It's something for nothing (well, playing once a day)  I'm more than happy with it.
    • dragonreader
      dragonreader Posts: 89 Match Maker
      I rather enjoyed 12 days of marvel.  
    • rixmith
      rixmith Posts: 707 Critical Contributor
      Usually the holiday/special vaults are good enough deals that I buy them out (40 items, including two 4*'s for 3750 HP). The New Year's vault would cost 25K to get six 4*'s and an LT plus 70 other random things (assuming the 3000 HP are used to defray the cost). It seems like a really bad deal to me. 

      I know the team likes to try various things to see what works, but this sure seems like a step in the wrong direction,
    • Screen Monkey
      Screen Monkey Posts: 123 Tile Toppler
      rixmith said:
      Usually the holiday/special vaults are good enough deals that I buy them out (40 items, including two 4*'s for 3750 HP). The New Year's vault would cost 25K to get six 4*'s and an LT plus 70 other random things (assuming the 3000 HP are used to defray the cost). It seems like a really bad deal to me. 

      I know the team likes to try various things to see what works, but this sure seems like a step in the wrong direction,
      First vault of 2019? A sign of things to come? 
    • ammenell
      ammenell Posts: 817 Critical Contributor
      don't compare this game to others. 
      just.... don't. 
    • LavaManLee
      LavaManLee Posts: 1,435 Chairperson of the Boards
      ammenell said:
      don't compare this game to others. 
      just.... don't. 
      Agreed.  Actually, the game itself is awesome.  Which is why we put up with everything else, I guess.
    • bluewolf
      bluewolf Posts: 5,822 Chairperson of the Boards
      ammenell said:
      don't compare this game to others. 
      just.... don't. 
      Like I said earlier:  Comparing this game to ITSELF from 2 years ago is deeply disappointing, when it didn’t feel like they were trying to squeeze more and more money from the people still playing.

      Chain bundles.  Costumes.  Stingy Support availability.  Now this lousy vault.  I don’t like the trend.
    • AardvarkPepper
      AardvarkPepper Posts: 239 Tile Toppler
      bluewolf said:
      ammenell said:
      don't compare this game to others. 
      just.... don't. 
      Like I said earlier:  Comparing this game to ITSELF from 2 years ago is deeply disappointing, when it didn’t feel like they were trying to squeeze more and more money from the people still playing.

      Chain bundles.  Costumes.  Stingy Support availability.  Now this lousy vault.  I don’t like the trend.
      saved covers

      . . . but no more 5* swaps
    • bluewolf
      bluewolf Posts: 5,822 Chairperson of the Boards
      Saved covers are a good thing for players, but think about it.  They implemented saved covers at the same time they removed the Latest 12 weighting for 4’s.

      So:  the potential cost of opening a token and wasting a cover because you didn’t have enough iso (to champ someone) dropped to 0.  Just save it and champ whenever it makes the most sense for your play/roster. Fantastic!

      But:  if you open a token, the odds that you pull a new-to-you person in the biggest tier (4’s) went up a lot.  (Assuming you are moving into the tier and not a years-long bet.).  So if you want to roster everyone, roster slot pressure went up a lot as well since each token you open is more likely to force a spend or sell decision. 

      We all know that far more people buy HP than iso, and it has always been that way.  Saved covers was a tacit acknowledgment that an iso bottleneck to opening tokens didn’t really spur any/many sales, and that roster slots are the biggest revenue driver in the game.
    • bbigler
      bbigler Posts: 2,111 Chairperson of the Boards
      edited January 2019
      Try to look at it this way: in order to stay in business, they need players to stay engaged and hoping/shooting for something. By purposely limiting resources, they lengthen out this process of getting things and introduce new things as well. It should be obvious that they want everyone to have a carrot to chase after. 

      So, if players get smarter and work the system to progress faster, they may purposely make things harder. I don't think they are trying to be mean or stingy, just trying to stay in business. I personally don't like it though. I would like to reach my goals quickly and leave the game, but that's not good for business. I do think they are trying to make players happy, but they can't give us too much for business reasons. I guess I'm saying that their business model is to be "stingy" with rewards with periodic times of generosity. Combine this with the gambling nature of tokens and vaults, and you get a game that takes a long, long time to get to the top, but it makes you come back for more anyway.
    • Wonko33
      Wonko33 Posts: 985 Critical Contributor
      pfarewell said:
      Today I listened to my son tell me about 14 days of Fortnite and all the wonderful things players reveive. When compared to the 12 days of Marvel event, MPQ has been found wanting, once again. The 4* covers are nice, but only iso for everything else? What a wasted opportunity. There could’ve been tokens, hp or even health packs as rewards. Shame on you D3/Demiurge for thumbing your noses at the player base. Again. 
      Would you think your son is entitled if he said his friend got a better gift from his dad at Christmas?
    • AardvarkPepper
      AardvarkPepper Posts: 239 Tile Toppler
      bluewolf said:
      Saved covers are a good thing for players, but think about it.  They implemented saved covers at the same time they removed the Latest 12 weighting for 4’s.

      So:  the potential cost of opening a token and wasting a cover because you didn’t have enough iso (to champ someone) dropped to 0.  Just save it and champ whenever it makes the most sense for your play/roster. Fantastic!

      But:  if you open a token, the odds that you pull a new-to-you person in the biggest tier (4’s) went up a lot.  (Assuming you are moving into the tier and not a years-long bet.).  So if you want to roster everyone, roster slot pressure went up a lot as well since each token you open is more likely to force a spend or sell decision. 

      We all know that far more people buy HP than iso, and it has always been that way.  Saved covers was a tacit acknowledgment that an iso bottleneck to opening tokens didn’t really spur any/many sales, and that roster slots are the biggest revenue driver in the game.
      Right, so Latest 12 4*s and no-more-customer-service-5*-cover-swaps.  And I would agree this makes things worse.

      But!

      Cover saving is a separate feature.  The developers could well have NOT implemented saved covers as well.  So saved covers are an improvement.

      You could say "well but they put the bad out with the good and that's why saved covers were allowed, to distract from the issue" - but though that *might* be true or even *may well* be true, the fact is still cover saving is a distinct feature.

      I'm not saying "let's praise the overlords for their munificence".  Personally I think there are issues, like managing characters on character selection screen, loss of PC interface, mobile customers getting preferred treatment in terms of promotions available, character dilution, large rosters having not so much significance most of the time in terms of earning rewards (even rewards per time spent).  I'm just saying though the glass is half empty, it is also half full.
    • FraggleinPA
      FraggleinPA Posts: 20 Just Dropped In
      I do think that the cover saving feature is a HUGE improvement, and dramatically improves quality of life (and reduces stress in rushing to save an expiring cover).

      I do want to thank the devs for giving us another opportunity to earn a Taskmaster cover.  I hope they give us future opportunities, as he is limited and looks like he would be really fun to play as a champed character.