I love the "purity" of Marvel Puzzle Quest

JSP869

Over the years I've played many match-3 games, beginning with Bejeweled, then the original Puzzle Quest game, then Candy Crush when my wife got into it, and not too long ago it was Gardenscapes. But during the past 5+ years I've also been playing Marvel Puzzle Quest (yes, 5+. I'm on day 1985 as I write this.), but while the other games have fallen by the wayside, Marvel Puzzle Quest has kept me hooked.

Several factors have helped the longevity.
I get to collect Marvel superheroes and villains. Huge appeal to me as a comic fan.
The community. Not just here, but Reddit, my Alliance, Discord, Line, etc.

But the biggest thing for me that has kept me playing for so long is the purity of the match 3 game.

Almost all of the match 3 games I've played recently at the urging of my wife started as simple match 3 games. But as you advance they add mechanics to the game, new, different tiles, hazards, vines that lock tiles, etc. and the game stops being fun and starts becoming a chore.

Fight for Wakanda is the event I loathe, and it's because it deviates so much from the purity of the match 3 game.

Yes, many characters have abilities that can affect the board state, but in spite of these abilities the game ultimately remains at its heart a match 3 game.

Fight for Wakanda changed that in one of the worst ways possible by adding tiles which didn't just pervert the purity of the match 3 game, but were horribly biased against the player in spite of being promoted as "neutral tiles".

There are a lot of match 3 games out there with gimmicks, I've played many of them, and I've quit all of them.

Marvel Puzzle Quest has kept me hooked because, for the most part, it has remained at its heart a match 3 game.

Improve the game? Absolutely! Please do fix its many bugs.

But don't ever change the game.

Borstock

Interesting take. A lot of people have voiced their opinion that new game mechanics help keep the game fresh when added. For example, a lot of people love the Apocalypse boss event for the 4-Horsemen component. Do you enjoy that event? If so, is it because it only happens infrequently? If not, is it because the integrity of the match-3 format is threatened?

How about the Thanos boss event?

TPF Alexis

The other one I still like is Bejeweled Classic, and more specifically, the Zen Mode, for when I'm tired and stressed and just want to match gems for a while. I've tried a few others, and yeah, they tweak it too far, probably because most of them are monetized off the boosts you need to deal with all those weird special tiles you add in.

I can't speak for JSP869, but for myself, the weird special tiles that show up in boss events and such are OK, yeah, because they're a bit of a change of pace. If we just had those, and not regular PvP/PvE events, they'd get annoying eventually. It also helps that they only introduce new mechanics like that maybe once or twice a year or so, and they don't pile on multiples of them at once. A lot of the others pretty quickly get to the point where it feels kinda like if I had to deal with Ultron bombs, Apocalypse Horsemen tiles, Thanos Infinity Stone tiles, AND FFW-style Hazard tiles all at once.

bluewolf

MPQ's roster-building component sounds essentially the same as chasing/buying boosts in these other games, but dressed up with Marvel characters and designed to keep you engaged.  Also, the fact that most players come into the game loving Marvel and having an built-in desire to chase these characters means the devs can mostly focus on new characters for excitement/monetization where other games have to focus on gameplay tweaks to keep players interested (adding new mechanics).

All that said, we have had the Thorkoye meta for 14 months (Thor since Nov '17), so anyone who is at that level hasn't really been playing match-3 for about a year and a half.

JSP869

I did get lucky entering the 5-star game first with Okoye, then added Jessica Jones, and I've since Championed several other 5s including Thor. And yes, I abuse the hell out of the half-Thor & Okoye combo all the time but IMO they're not the Meta. IMO it's Kitty, R4G & Bishop, although even then the real crux of that problem team is Bishop. But that's another topic that's already been discussed a lot in other threads, and so...

Yes, I do enjoy the boss events.
Partly because it's a change of pace from the "must start clears at 10:30pm every night" routine, and as the saying goes a change is as good as a holiday.
They also offer (IMO) better prizes than regular events.  And because I'm in a T50 Alliance where everyone contributes we not only get every prize, but typically do so inside 48-hours.
Compare that to my old, much more casual Alliance where not even half of us really tried and we couldn't even get the third 4* cover. And yet I stuck with that old Alliance for 3+ years because the active players were a great bunch of guys.
Being my whole point about the "community" making the game more enjoyable.
And I enjoy the boss events because half-Thor & Okoye help to reduce what I may otherwise consider annoying gimmicky mechanics.
I actually really like Strange Sights' boss fight against Kaecilius because it's still a match 3 game but there's strategy involved and I get to use characters not Thor & Okoye
But it's only that one mechanic. 
Like @TPF Alexis said, imagine having to deal with Ultron bombs, Apocalypse Horsemen tiles, Thanos Infinity Stone tiles, AND FFW-style Hazard tiles, all at the same time. That's eventually what happens with the boards in those other match 3 games. They eventually become horribly frustrating (to me) to play, and there is no way to advance the game without beating the board that is driving me nuts.
Looking at MPQ, if you are having trouble with a boss event - and once you get a few days into the event they can become very challenging - and it's becoming incredibly frustrating for you, you can just stop playing it, and in a day or two that event will be over and you can play a regular event again.
And maybe that's what I like about MPQ, too. I'm never stuck on the same, infuriating board for days if not weeks on end.
MPQs 3-4 day events mean we have constant variety, even if they are the same old events we've been playing for years

Pongie

TPF Alexis said:

The other one I still like is Bejeweled Classic, and more specifically, the Zen Mode

I played that mode for a year before jumping over to mpq. Forgot what was my score was (10s of millions) but I had like a handful of match five orbs saved up to make sure I never died from a no move board state. 

marvel075

TPF Alexis said:

The other one I still like is Bejeweled Classic, and more specifically, the Zen Mode, for when I'm tired and stressed and just want to match gems for a while. I've tried a few others, and yeah, they tweak it too far, probably because most of them are monetized off the boosts you need to deal with all those weird special tiles you add in.

I can't speak for JSP869, but for myself, the weird special tiles that show up in boss events and such are OK, yeah, because they're a bit of a change of pace. If we just had those, and not regular PvP/PvE events, they'd get annoying eventually. It also helps that they only introduce new mechanics like that maybe once or twice a year or so, and they don't pile on multiples of them at once. A lot of the others pretty quickly get to the point where it feels kinda like if I had to deal with Ultron bombs, Apocalypse Horsemen tiles, Thanos Infinity Stone tiles, AND FFW-style Hazard tiles all at once.

and lets not forget bejeweled 3 with its calming music and zen mode as well, i loved that "WELCOME" start up voice