I'm quitting..........and this time I mean it

bbigler

Hi everyone, Sam Eagle here.  In case you didn't catch my restarting thread, I'm done with my restart experiment and honestly don't have any more reason to play the game.  I could keep building up my roster, but that won't prove anything.  I'm also tired.  I'm tired of the huge time commitment to make steady 5* progress.  I'm tired of scheduling my life around PVE end times.  I'm tired of stealing time away from more important things.  I'm not quitting in a rage.  I'm not quitting because I'm bored.  I'm mostly quitting because the time commitment hurts my real life.  Don't get me wrong......it's a fun game, but I can't keep it up.  I never could........which is why I've quit this game 4 times previously.  That's right, I've quit and come back 4 times.  This quit will be the 5th, but I promise you that this is it. 

If you're thinking of suggesting to me to "take a break" or "scale back my play time", that doesn't work for me.  When I choose to do something, I go all out.  It's a matter of personal integrity to do my very best.  Half-hearted attempts are not in my nature.  So, I can't play this game (or any game) and be satisfied with less than my best efforts.  Perhaps some of you can understand that.  Anyway, I didn't want this thread to be another thread about everyone's issues with the game.  I wanted this thread to be a reminiscent farewell.  I started playing this game in Nov 2013 and wanted to share my experiences along the way. 

2013

A friend introduced me to the game when I was getting frustrated with the super hard levels of Candy Crush.  These "levels" were much easier to play.  Then I caught on to the roster building aspect of the game and got hooked.  I had to grind out the wins to build my roster, but it was still fun.  My first regular team was IM35 + 1*Storm + 1*Widow.  I loved Storm's lightning strike because it gained AP and Widow's stun was awesome (and still is).  Soon after IM35 was replaced by 2*Thor and 1*Widow was replaced by 2*Widow.  I had the dream team: 2*Thor + 2*Widow + 1*Storm.  That team carried me through so many battles.  It was borderline winfinite once it got going (1*Storm had a cheap red power that cleared environment tiles and collected AP).  I remember doing some very hard battles against goons with like 10x my health and I eventually won after 25 minutes.  A few times I accumulated 200+ AP in environment tiles and fired off some crazy powers.  I think it was "Narrow Alley" and there was another one that flooded half the board with blue (Whiteout?).  The desert environment was broken with Storm because she alone had a winfinite in it.  Hot Dog Stand was certainly the lamest power for 50 AP (I think).  Fun times though. 

2014

I mostly played PVE in the beginning because PVP would eat health packs like crazy.  I remember a funny bug in PVP though: I would start a match and the enemy team was already half damaged.  What!?  I finished them off quickly and played another.  Same thing.  I once fought a PVP team where 2 of the enemies were already downed.  Apparently, there was a bug that didn't bring your enemies to full health at battle start, but instead showed their current health in your opponent's roster.  At first, everyone was playing 2*Thor + 2*Wolverine in PVP and I was the lone guy who played 2*Thor + 2*Widow.  Eventually, other people realized how good 2*Widow was.  2014 is when I started building my 3* roster.  It was very slow and took forever, but I had a breakthrough.  Through my diligent effort, I fully covered 3*Thor and 3*Hood and started to dominate PVP.  Add in 3*Spiderman and it could take on anything repeatedly.  ISO was so scarce back then that I didn't level them up all the way.  Around March 2014 (I think) I was consistently ranking #1 or #2 in all PVE and PVP events.  I thought to myself, "I've mastered the game, I should quit now", but I didn't.  I kept on playing until August 2014 and then simply got burned out.  During this time they introduced boost lists and adjusted all character levels.  That was strange, but a boosted Ares was a boss.

2015

During my break from the game I feverishly worked on home improvements in preparation to sell my house.  Once that was done, I started playing again in May 2015.  I discovered DDQ, which was amazing!  It made building the 3* tier so much easier.  I then went on a mission to roster all characters since it was advantageous to do so.  My 4* tier previously consisted of XFW with 2 covers.  By July 2015 I had rostered almost everyone when they introduced the 5* tier.  When I calculated how long it would take to fully cover a 5* character (years) I gave up on the effort and sold some OML covers I had gotten.  I quickly regretted that decision, but it didn't matter.  In September 2015, I quit again to renovate my new house, ending with 10 x 3*s max leveled (who were my strongest fighters).  The 4* tier was still far out of reach.  The sad truth is that when I came back to the game, I could no longer rank in the top 5.  I had fallen to the top 10. 

2016

By January 2016 I had finished some major home improvements and thought I would check out the game again.  I discovered a brand new feature: Champions!  That was so cool.........so I started champing my 3*s ASAP and getting those LTs to build my weak 4* roster.  In the space of 2 months, I had champed 17 x 3*s, 6 x 2*s and rostered nearly all missing/new characters.  My strongest 4*s were XFW and IW with 10 covers each, but I didn't use them.  My champed 3*s were still better.  I thought to myself back then that anyone who starts adding champ levels now will have an advantage over new players because it will take such a long time to max champ anyone.  You can't buy time (I thought).  This whole time I've still been playing mostly with 3*Thor + Hood + 3*Spiderman.  So, adding champ levels to my fragile Hood was great.  Unfortunately, my old dream team wasn't top notch anymore.  In most events I was ranking top 25.  Then, I quit again because of the time sink.

Later in September I got bored again and thought I would check out the game.  There was all kinds of crazy stuff going on.  I had a shield rank along with 300K ISO.  Events had SCL levels.  Then there were VIP rewards and later Bonus rewards.  So, I got sucked in again.  Resources were coming in so fast that I quickly champed all 2*s and 3*s.  My new dream team became 3*Cage + 3*Fist + Hood.  Eventually, Hood got replaced by Switch, but I ran the Hood for years because he was so defensive.  My 4* tier was building fast for the first time ever!  It was exciting.  During Boss Rush, I used XFW for the first time ever.  I discovered a winfinite combo between XFW + 3*Magneto + Loki.  It took me 30 minutes, but I was able to beat all bosses on the 5th or 6th turn.  It was so cool.  Later, I champed my first 4* ever - it was Nick Fury - and I had fun playing him.  Soon after, Star Lord joined the 4* champs and destroyed PVE.  He created so many cool combos.  I liked him with Powerman + Wasp or 3*Fist + 3*Panther.  But I discovered that SL and Switch could beat goons of any size. 

2017

This is when I started getting serious about the 5* tier.  I was champing 4*s every 10 days or so, but I wanted more.  I began hoarding for Latest and when 5*Hawkeye was announced, I feel in love with his AP generation.  He could combo with Star Lord or Coulson.  So, I set my sights to get a 5*Hawkeye and a high level Coulson.  I was lucky enough to champ Peggy before vaulting ended and full dilution was in effect again.  So, I played IM40 + Peggy + Rhulk with much success.  They carried me for months while my hoard built up to 183 pulls.  While I was literally in the middle of a battle, I lost the will to play, and quit right there and uninstalled the app.  I was burned out again and questioned my sanity for playing so much.  During this period of 2016 - 2017 I had discovered this forum too.  I quit in June before ever getting the dream team of Grocket + Medusa + Gamora.  My 4*Carol and Iceman never got champed either. 

2018 - 2019

You guys know this part of the story: I had trouble restoring my old account, decided to start over for fun, spent a lot of time and money and then reached 5* play in less than 10 months.  I stopped playing 3 days ago and sadly there's some characters and combos that I've never experienced, such as: Chavez + Champed 5*, Thorkoye, Hawkson, Panthos, Rogue, 4*Gamora, IM40 + Riri and the broken Gambit era.  Oh well.  I'm back to working on home improvements and other things.  I do want to point out that twice I was doing well getting back into good shape, but playing the game derailed that progress.  Time to start again.  Well, I hope my posts and comments have been helpful and interesting over the years.  Farewell, my forum friends.

Concave

It is the same story with every game that is around a schedule - you get tired. Going all in will do that to you.

AXP_isme

Good luck Sam Eagle. I understand your reasons and empathise. I hope you don’t get sucked back in again (unless you want to, of course). 

St_Bernadus

Thanks for sharing the story of your journey (including the other thread). Good luck with the home improvements!

fight4thedream

Best wishes to you, Sam Eagle. You provided an insightful perspective on the game and what it takes to reach the 5* tier for newer players. Thank you for taking the time to share your experiences and thoughts on the game and good luck with the home improvements and whatever else may come your way!

HobieCat76

Thanks for sharing @bbigler and for your suggestions when I needed help on which of my 5* to champ.  Now that I'm solidly in 5* land, I fully understand many of your points.  Best of luck to you!

barrok

Good luck on your other endeavors man! I am just like you, I either play to win or I don't play. Somehow though, I have been able to keep playing this game but on an extremely smaller scale. I just use it as a 'toilet' game. It helps when I have kitty and grocket maxed, so i can still do pretty much everything. 

Anyway, thanks for providing some good reading material and information through your other threads and your helpful PM's.

abenness

Best wishes dude. It’s been fun going on this journey with you.

SaltyK

Good luck and take care!

Dougfresh413

Makes me sad to see a long-time player and contributor leave, but I completely understand your decision.  I cannot scale back my play either, it is all or nothing.  Going all in requires a lot of time, and time is the most valuable commodity any of us have.  The forum will miss your insights.