I'm leaving MPQ after this season...and here's why

Brigby

Hi @Ron30

First off, I want to thank you for being a part of our community, especially for over 4+ years residence on our forum. While you may have preferred lurking over posting, the fact that you were compelled to provide your feedback before leaving speaks volumes as to how much you support this community and want to improve it for the future. For that, I want to thank you!

Compensation has always been a tricky topic to navigate. There are always challenges to overcome; everything from reward determination to the technical details surrounding mass, yet granular accreditation. Does that mean there's nothing more we can do though? I would say that's certainly not the case. 

It's moments like these where we get the opportunity to learn and grow, improving the process and subsequently the experience of players impacted by it. Feedback like yours helps us do so. While Customer Support does in fact pass along feedback to the rest of our team, I will be sure to personally pass this along as well, as I think this sheds an insightful light on the veteran perspective during situations like these.

Once again, thank you so much for being a part of our community and sharing your feedback. As with every departing player I cross paths with here, I do sincerely hope you decide to come back one day. Regardless though, I wish you the best of luck in you and your Alliance's season performance, as well as in any of your future endeavors.

whitecat31

I am not happy at all about this player @Ron30 leaving. He is a very honest and straight forward person and a Top 5 player in PVE and PVP when he wants to be. Well over a year ago, he basically stepped forward and helped keep a large top 5 alliance group (The X-men alliance) together for over half a year after there was a massive leadership fall out, and insured over 80 players had good alliance homes to go to when we fell apart. Many of those players, instead of quitting the game ended up staying and spending lots of money.  Many have become very strong players and help lead other top alliances now. Some of them went on to become big spenders and what some of you know as whales.  I would say the value this person has given to MPQ would be in the range of well over 50,000 dollars. This is underestimate.
I understand customer service has a tendency to NOT give many in the player base the benefit of the doubt. This is reflected in feedback here, on various chats, on facebook forums, and from my own anecdotal experience. 
I can see both sides of the argument here, I have worked customer service for an online gaming company in the past, when I worked for Verant interactive which later became Sony Online Entertainment.  You don't want to be taken advantage of, and feel people will interact more with customer service if you think they are trying to get a freebie, which will cost the company time and money.  At the same time, the indifference and lack of empathy you show toward people that come forward with their complaints, shows that you are not giving good customer service, but instead you are acting like company protectors.
The small bit of electronic money, you think you save by being suspicious of the customer base, even when someone comes forward with strong logical arguments, explaining why they think your compensation was inadequate, will cost you in the long run.

randomhero1090

The prior reward strategy seemed to make people happy.  Not sure why they changed.  I don't see the downside of giving people a couple extra 4s or even a 5* 

If anything, people will spend money on HP to buy roster slots  

Dogface

50.000 dollar.... Speechless.

The rockett

Dogface said:

50.000 dollar.... Speechless.

If you knew how much some of spent for a 550 roster, you might get sick.  

whitecat31

bundles87 said:

Maybe I'm being obnoxious asking this question, but I'm also tired of seeing these I'm leaving posts on the forums. Why are you waiting until the end of the season? If you're done be done, I'm sure finishing this season with the anger you clearly have from this compensation will be miserable.

@bundles87 The reason why people wait until the end of the season is because the PVP season score is cumulative for the alliance reward.  They are not staying for themselves. They are displaying integrity and following through with a commitment with their fellow players so they all have a good alliance reward at the end of the season.

DjinnBabba

This is a sad precedent.  If I say anymore... it will just become a rant.  What @whitecat31 said, covered it nicely.

MathiasTCK

DjinnBabba said:

This is a sad precedent.  If I say anymore... it will just become a rant.  What @whitecat31 said, covered it nicely.

Ditto on what whitecat31 said, and I'll say that Ron contributed similarly to Medusas before that.

monsieurmojo

@bundles87, from the perspective of somebody else who is retiring after this season is over, it's always about the alliance. You build very strong ties to your alliance mates, especially in an alliance like the one @Ron30 is in, where you're going to war together for months, even years on end (figuratively, of course).  You don't just leave those people high and dry, when alliance placement for the season is still an open question.

MgoBlue51

I feel ya Ron. I don’t have the same gripes as you, but I feel your pain. This game has been nothing other than a cash grab for so long, I’m very close to being out the door soon too. I know this game is a product, it needs to make money. I just believe the current system could be tweaked to give the player base more of what they want in terms of QoL while still maintaining profits. They just don’t really seem to notice or care

bluewolf

I keep wondering lately if the recent changes are due to trying to draw money out of a shrinking base (maybe) or just the result of trying to increase revenue overall.  Which is of course part of operating a business, finding ways to increase revenue in some fashion year over year.

Supports - some of them - can help players in certain circumstances, but just feel like a thing you're supposed to chase for a loooong time to me.  They fall under the QOL category in a way....but not enough for most players.  Now we see costumes coming more than just about anything else.  People buy them but they don't enhance your play.  I suppose if you enjoy them, then it's a product that makes you happy, but it does nothing to make the game itself more interesting.

Actual QOL changes have slowed so much lately....at least, that's how it feels.

Regardless, I fear that they have shown most of the cards they have in terms of new and fresh content that impacts the gameplay in a significant way.  They can talk about keeping the game going for years, and it may well do so, but that might just mean they churn more newer players. 

jackstar0

bluewolf said:

Which is of course part of operating a business, finding ways to increase revenue in some fashion year over year.

Can you imagine a business just being content with making the same amount of money each year and working to keep their customers happy enough to support that goal?

I do wonder if the bump in 5* releases is to prompt whales to pump more $ into the game since there's certainly a level of stagnation that's going to set in at that level of the game as well.

Pongie

Every year labour cost goes up as staff gets pay increases. Server costs would also increase if they are demanding more resources. If revenue remain constant then it’s actually eating into profits. 

Anyway, back on topic. Good bye dear friend and hope to see you around. 

bluewolf

I don't begrudge any company that is looking to increase their revenue; as stated, you can't pay people more if the money isn't coming in.

Until someone proves otherwise, I don't think the playerbase has grown much in a while.  The IP plus simple and good gameplay can probably keep it going at a baseline for a while, although true growth in the playerbase and especially at the top end may be past us.