The overwhelming drive to offend your customers -- Thanos (Endgame)

Yepyep
Yepyep Posts: 954 Critical Contributor
in MPQ General Discussion
Requiring a character this new to compete in an event as important as SHIELD Training is patently offensive. "STUPID" is a depressingly perfect word to describe such truly focused efforts at making this game unfun. There is no way normal players could have possibly covered him by now; we haven't had enough events to get them.

Supports, costumes, and increasingly, now, new characters -- they're there but you can't have them. Even if you need them. Actually, now, especially if you need them. It's like spending billions on infrastructure -- entirely to build more and better helicopter pads for the rich.

Most, if not all, of the point of this franchise is in the collecting of comic characters --  there are plenty of other matching games available that are just as good if you ruin that part of MPQ. 

Long in the tooth, stagnating, and intent on ruining what's left for most players. What a recipe for success!

But and still, I just can't wait to grind out The Hunt and Meet Rocket and Groot for... um, what now?
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Comments

  • Rod5
    Rod5 Posts: 587 Critical Contributor
    He’s gonna be featured again before shield training ends, so there is the opportunity for multiple covers from prog/placement still before ST finishes.
  • bluewolf
    bluewolf Posts: 5,852 Chairperson of the Boards
    OJSP said:
    Yepyep said:
    Requiring a character this new to compete in an event as important as SHIELD Training is patently offensive.
    Why is this event important? I know it's nice to get a few more rewards from it, but one 4* cover is not particularly game changing in the long term.

    When this event was introduced, we had back to back events where the newest character was immediately required for the next one. We then have several changes until they decided to use the most recent pattern. We've had people not being able to get the 4* cover before (including myself), but at the end of the day, it's just a cover.

    They said Magik was a mistake because she was only rewarded twice before being featured. Bluewolf looked at the rewards list here and Brigby replied too: https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/78206/ronin-magik-and-the-last-14-shield-training-essentials

    Thanos will be rewarded next week before and during the SHIELD Training, so there will be more opportunity to get some cover(s).

    So they are repeating their "mistake" in the very next Shield Training.  This is only 4nos' second time in rewards, just like Magik was.

    I agree some perspective helps in terms of what you do or don't get by having the required characters at 209.  Missing one cover is not fun but doesn't destroy the game exactly.

    However:  The game should, IMO, strive to feel fair.  This is the main feeling they need to maintain to keep players engaged and playing along.  Other games are much less fair and depend on steeper PTW requirements, while this game has depended on keeping players around for the long haul and dropping some money as they go (I assume).  Whales notwithstanding.

    This decision does not feel fair to me, regardless of the fact that all I need is T50 in WWonder and SS progression to get my Thanos to 10 covers.

    The possible explanation:

    New releases need to finish their PVP before season end to enter tokens.  Missing that deadline pushed the token update to the following season (so about 5 weeks from the first new release PVE starting).  The current 2 week release pattern is such that any new 4 in the last part of the season will miss the cut off, so moving the release date up (or back) a week is the only way to correct this problem.  So they run the release next week, which then necessitates (in their rules) running the ST with an essential that was just rewarded in PVE (WWonder).  They are on the Latest part of rewards, which means it's Magik, Talos, and Thanos (in release order).  So they could have run Talos (just run a couple events ago), Magik (repeat ST) or Thanos.

    We know what they chose.  

    I think the better course of action would have been to push back the release a week and reset their pattern that way, which would probably have synced up with Talos being the essential.

    It's a poor decision.
  • Lopan15
    Lopan15 Posts: 225 Tile Toppler
    My Thanos is 2/2/2.  I'm a pretty competitive player, but I'm not going all out to try to get him up before this event.  I'm at the point where I don't need the iso or hp or really even the cp.  I don't really care about supports or riso so, if this is how they want to do things, I'm fine with completely skipping this shield training and foregoing the rewards i might get since the actual carrot (4* cover) is out of my reach.  Imagine that, a game that sets things up to make you ok with skipping an entire event....   Im firmly in 5* land so the 4* cover is really just a drop in the ocean but making an event where I can actually play in 4* land with no penalty to placement unappealing just makes me sad. 
  • scottee
    scottee Posts: 1,610 Chairperson of the Boards
    Of course it doesn't feel as fun not being able to access all of it. But I have no problem with those who have placed/achieved more having an advantage. That's how games, and this one in particular, go.
  • SymmeTrey
    SymmeTrey Posts: 170 Tile Toppler
    I normally think these types of complaints are overblown, but, this one I see as legitimate. Thanos had his release and will be featured in one PVE before being in Shield Training.

    Heck, I got all the covers from the release event, got his ST cover, got 2 covers from PVP placement, and got the progression covers in PVE and PVP and I'm still at 8 covers.

    I will probably be fine by the time Shield Training is here, but, I thought there was some kind of standing rule that a character had to be featured in at least 2 PVE events *after* his release to be an essential in ST. Thanos will have been featured in only one.
  • crackninja
    crackninja Posts: 444 Mover and Shaker
    I feel like they wanted to get endgame thanos in this because it's the end of the endgame celebration.
    I don't see it as the end of the world...like Dormammu I have some tokens on hand for just such an occasion, and this is in essence a bonus event, but it's certainly not a way to endear themselves to the playerbase.
  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    edited May 2019
    Luck of the draw I guess. I had Magik champed last time, this time Thanos is 3/3/5 with an additional 4 covers saved. I always set my newest 4 as my only BH as soon as they enter tokens though.

    Ronin is looking less optimistic, so I may miss out next time around. Them’s the breaks.
  • St_Bernadus
    St_Bernadus Posts: 640 Critical Contributor
    I did those things, got placement on SCL 8, did the pvp, made Thanos my BH as soon as I could. I have even gotten one from a heroic, and I still have only 7. Good placement and the progression reward might get me there. I was hoping to get some from my pulls when Rescue enters tokens, but of course they moved it up a week so that won't be possible. I just feel like this is contrary to an Endgame Celebration, that they are using Endgame to push us to break our hoards non-optimally. 

    Ant-Man v Wasp with multiple runs of Growth Industry felt a lot more of a celebration than this one. 
  • Agent262
    Agent262 Posts: 17 Just Dropped In
    Can we just get it switched to what it should be (Talos) so it's just the normal level of being screwed please?  As has been said here already, it is currently IMPOSSIBLE to have 10 covers for Thanos since most of us would have the next character in the release schedule (Talos) as a BH until he has 10 covers.
  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    It wasn’t impossible as evidenced by folks who did it. Switching it after the announcement has been made, after people may have invested ISO is more “unfair” than choosing a non ideal candidate in the first place.

    Who wants to invest in Talos anyway? He is hot garbage. I’d rather miss the event than have to prioritize him and I have him fully covered.
  • Agent262
    Agent262 Posts: 17 Just Dropped In
    Yes Talos is garbage, as is Thanos for that matter, but the reason to invest in him is to get a cover of the new 4*, which tbh will probably also be garbage.  But you gotta catch 'em all!  So which is more unfair:  penalizing people who have responded to this surprise in the last day, or penalizing people that have been working under a now incorrect assumption for a few weeks?
  • KGB
    KGB Posts: 3,285 Chairperson of the Boards
    Where has it been posted that Thanos End Game is needed for the next Shield Training? Or is this just speculation?

    KGB
  • jp1
    jp1 Posts: 1,081 Chairperson of the Boards
    Agent262 said:
    Yes Talos is garbage, as is Thanos for that matter, but the reason to invest in him is to get a cover of the new 4*, which tbh will probably also be garbage.  But you gotta catch 'em all!  So which is more unfair:  penalizing people who have responded to this surprise in the last day, or penalizing people that have been working under a now incorrect assumption for a few weeks?
    Well, one action is based on an announcement they have made, the other purely on speculation. Personally I think it’s clear. Also, they haven’t penalized anyone since they never even eluded to it possibly being Talos in the first place.
  • Therealsmkspy
    Therealsmkspy Posts: 254 Mover and Shaker
    edited May 2019
    If they went back to 4x odds for a very minimum the last 6 releases, this wouldn't be a (such a large) problem. At least then, people could have a reasonable chance of gaining covers outside of events and very unreliable BHing. 

    Dilution is much fun though.
  • Bubba3210
    Bubba3210 Posts: 246 Tile Toppler
    KGB said:
    Where has it been posted that Thanos End Game is needed for the next Shield Training? Or is this just speculation?

    KGB
    S.H.I.E.L.D. Training - ??? (5/23/19) *New Update*
    Required Characters:
    4-Star: ???, Thanos (Endgame), Thor (Goddess of Thunder), Wolverine (X-Force)

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