Left this game a month ago

Laeuftbeidir

So, I've decided to leave this game a couple of weeks ago. I thought about it for a while longer, but I didn't wabt to let my group down - I mean, I led FromTheAshes for an extended period of time and orchestrated (not all by myself of course!) the merger with top groups such as Tormented and GoblinPile. I've invested a lot of time into this app - but it just isn't fun anymore. Seriously.

Instead of posting my reasons to quit, I'll be more positive.

So, what would it need to pull me back?

- loading times need to be reduced immensely. I won't log in to play a match multiple times a day if every login takes minutes, and it sometimes takes more time to start or end a game than to play it - not counting the time I need to sit through irrelevant animations (while relevant ones can be skipped) or just wait for the game to calculate what's going on

That's it. The pure minimum I'd need for casual commitment. To actually get hooked..

-involve the community. Like, seriously : whenever something good was started by official side, they forgot about it sooner or later.

Looking at you, deck building contests (where are the players names who build the winning decks?). Q and A. Etc. The current interaction is worse than none at all,really few exceptions left not to be ignored.

- at least act as if you were proud of what you're doing. The lack of commitment to details is a shame - there are lots of rules, card texts and other stuff that's really simple to change or clarify, but sitting on a bench for months or years.

-bugs. Ridiculous.

-focus on important stuff before adding new features.

-understand that this game is already incredibly complex. Additional complexity ain't equal to additional fun.

Enough of you know how to contact me. Ping me when this game becomes fun again, as I have basically finished it.

Tremayne

@Laeuftbeidir - Sorry to see you go. Thanks for all you have done trying to improve this game.

Unknown

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Theros

Game starts:
updating configuration
checking version
loading assets
loading data

Google account loads

logging in
get server date
authenticating
fetching all events
retrieving all coalition events
fetching all events
fetching player events
fetching all events
loading data
loading profile

The above is the exact sequence I remember from the top of my head. I have no idea why some of the events  above are repeated. Let assume normality since this is a startup.

Click the EVENTS tab:

retrieving coalition data
loading profile
fetching all events
fetching all players events
retrieving coalition data

Click the EVENTS tab again:

retrieving coalition data
loading profile
fetching all events
fetching all players events
retrieving coalition data

I'm no game dev but why do we keep on reloading data  we've already loaded since the game start? 
Most games I'm familiar with including puzzles similar to this do the loading/pre-loading before hand and never to be done again. The only loading in Asphalt 9 (2+GB, 60fps) for instance is loading your next map. 

Going from one round to next, you go through the same ritual of loading this, retrieving that and fetching something. Only the vault tab does not load to my knowledge.

Regardless, the most important part is to speed up or eliminate loads from one game to another. This is where the main problem is. Moreover, loading also needs to be reduced when starting and ending encounters. These 2 events are unnecessary too long.
For a given event with 10 games to progression, loading can be a pain when it adds up. It's a pain in everything actually.

In totps, loading accounts for more than 50% of time I take to finish. My actual gameplay time in totp blue is in average 20 mins and usually less. But it takes in average 45 min to 1 hr to finish or more.
I'm not exaggerating.
This loading time is not hardware dependent; even a pc emu doesn't make this game faster

To add salt to the injury, there is an occasional slow down/lag between turns. Will games be even slower when vanguards get more common?

ArielSira

I wish I could superlike Theros' comment

madwren

You're missed, sir. Thanks for all your efforts, they were certainly both noticed and appreciated. Was a pleasure playing and chatting with you. 

mayor

Occasionally I see games that are more appreciated from the player base than their developers. MtGPQ is one of these cases I believe. Currently the game feels abandoned to its state without interest to be further developed tweaking here and there. It's a pity because even if it possesses great potential, the team behind it is uninterested or not willing to put the effort to boost it for their own reasons. What's more pitiful is the fact that it's being supported by a die hard community, proven to be so during the stale condition of company transition times. I hope they can manage to see the potential here and put some more of their resources to further develop the game. Give and you shall receive (even money wise).

Fiddler

Deleted the app from all me devices a couple of months ago. I check out the forum occasionally but not (up to now) posting anything. I thought I was one of the die hard community, but they proved me wrong.

FindingHeart8

Mtgpq used to be my primary game.  6 hours a day average playing.

Now I play other games mostly these days, jump in only for the fblthp event, purple crystal events, and coalition events.  It's sad, this game has such amazing potential, if only it was given more attention.

Brigby

*Split several comments recommending other games/apps to the Other Games -> General Discussion section.

Please keep all comments on the original topic. Thank you!

Mburn7

Whelp, guess I need to repost this completely relevant post because of 2 lines of jokingly referencing other games.
Definitely not helping matters here Brigby (even if you are technically doing the correct thing)

Can't believe you're leaving @Laeuftbeidir, you've been a force here since pretty much the beginning.

Whats even sadder is that I've seen a half dozen top players completely quit too, for pretty much the exact same reasons.  Hell, I've almost quite for those reasons.

I didn't even see this kind of exodus when there was literally no dev team.  Can't believe its worse now that we have one but boy is it a close one.  The game itself is much better than it used to be, but the background stuff is so bad nobody cares anymore.

Unknown

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bk1234

I made some changes this summer and I’m having more fun with the game than I have in over a year. Playing top 25, but still finishing mostly with top 10 scores unless I don’t want to.  Completely new decks and approaches every event. Absolutely no pressure to perform.  The game is interesting for me for the first time in a long time.

I let go of all the things that bothered by me and just focused on the things I love. The community can’t make me mad. A bug is a bug — I don’t need to be perfect and I know how to report it. At the end of the day, it’s a game and I like my almost 2700 cards and the cool things they do.  Perhaps it’s your mental approach. Letting go in your head is freeing. 

You’ve been here a long time and you have a lot to give FtA. It seems a shame to just throw in the towel. 

Also for those with loading and freeze issues, I use an iPhone8 and a 6 month old Samsung tablet. Seems to work fine for me 99% of the time. 

Matthew

bken1234 said:

I made some changes this summer and I’m having more fun with the game than I have in over a year. Playing top 25, but still finishing mostly with top 10 scores unless I don’t want to.  Completely new decks and approaches every event. Absolutely no pressure to perform.  The game is interesting for me for the first time in a long time.

I let go of all the things that bothered by me and just focused on the things I love. The community can’t make me mad. A bug is a bug — I don’t need to be perfect and I know how to report it. At the end of the day, it’s a game and I like my almost 2700 cards and the cool things they do.  Perhaps it’s your mental approach. Letting go in your head is freeing. 

You’ve been here a long time and you have a lot to give FtA. It seems a shame to just throw in the towel. 

Also for those with loading and freeze issues, I use an iPhone8 and a 6 month old Samsung tablet. Seems to work fine for me 99% of the time. 

Whatever tone you were going for here fell flat. This comes across as remarkably condescending and insensitive.

bk1234

Matthew said:

bken1234 said:

I made some changes this summer and I’m having more fun with the game than I have in over a year. Playing top 25, but still finishing mostly with top 10 scores unless I don’t want to.  Completely new decks and approaches every event. Absolutely no pressure to perform.  The game is interesting for me for the first time in a long time.

I let go of all the things that bothered by me and just focused on the things I love. The community can’t make me mad. A bug is a bug — I don’t need to be perfect and I know how to report it. At the end of the day, it’s a game and I like my almost 2700 cards and the cool things they do.  Perhaps it’s your mental approach. Letting go in your head is freeing. 

You’ve been here a long time and you have a lot to give FtA. It seems a shame to just throw in the towel. 

Also for those with loading and freeze issues, I use an iPhone8 and a 6 month old Samsung tablet. Seems to work fine for me 99% of the time. 

Whatever tone you were going for here fell flat. This comes across as remarkably condescending and insensitive.

What is the point of an “I quit” message? And what reaction would you like? 

I was close to quitting this summer and I found not only reasons to stay but a literal new joy and happiness in the game. I have just as much of a right to share that as he does his misery. 

I sought a different path because there are people I care about who didn’t want to lose me. There’s still a whole alliance who he has built who needs and depends on him and he could find joy in that. 

I will not give sympathy or rally in anger. I am entitled to my own opinion just as everyone else here is. I am a player just like you, and an alliance leader just like him. You can’t understand that, Matthew — you have never given that much of yourself to this game. 

I am not not pleased Laeuf is throwing in the towel. We don’t see eye to eye, but he is my peer and my equal. He works on the level I do to engage the next generation of players in this game and now there is a hole no one will fill. He is one of the very best of all of us. Don’t expect a happy post from me. I want him to fight. 

Stormcrow

bken1234 said:

You can’t understand that, Matthew — you have never given that much of yourself to this game.

Wow. Just wow.

I'm gonna be honest, I think you might have been better off taking a break from the game than all this "rediscovering your joy" stuff, positive as it all sounds, because the lack of perspective you're demonstrating in this thread is...it just doesn't come across as "healthy" to me. I'm trying to come across as non-judgmentally as possible here but like, someone who's this deep into it that you're using how much you've given of yourself to...a free-to-play phone game....as a bludgeon to assert your superiority over other players? I mean it's not just that it's rude to them, but I worry for the size of the hole this game is going to leave in your life when it inevitably gets shut down a few years down the road. Phone games don't last forever. Having that much loyalty invested in a game which I promise you is definitely not that loyal to you is just a recipe to get hurt. Until then, maybe consider that trying to assert your superiority over other players in that way is not a good look; you're like a (small) step removed from non-ironically referring to other players as "filthy casuals".

Also, maybe consider that Laeuf quitting is not about him "giving up" but more about him taking care of his own mental health and well-being. Sometimes, "fighting" is not what's best for us.

Personally, I admire that Laeuf tried to stay positive in the "I quit" post, I'm happy he took the time to let us know, but he says right up front that he reached the decision a couple weeks ago, so I'm going to respect what is clearly not a kneejerk, unconsidered decision and wish Laeuf the best, even though I think it's a shame to see him go.

dwinn7038

Man, seeing how seriously everyone is taking this game has been enough to push me over the edge. I've noticeably felt a decline in quality for months and months, but seeing ya'll act like this more than a poorly managed mobile game is something else. I'm out.

Stalker

dwinn7038 said:

Man, seeing how seriously everyone is taking this game has been enough to push me over the edge. I've noticeably felt a decline in quality for months and months, but seeing ya'll act like this more than a poorly managed mobile game is something else. I'm out.

For the cost of mobile games, being that of time and/or money. This deep investment people will ask for a lot. Mobile games will cost people more than any AAA title ever will except that one super fantasy space game in development that people are selling their homes to buy vehicles in. The amount of good no longer outweighs the bad, so you now have the reactions to the current state of the game. 

dwinn7038

Stalker said:

The amount of good no longer outweighs the bad, so you now have the reactions to the current state of the game. 

This is definitely the case for me. It's because even the "good" is just becoming stale. Same walkers, same events, same combos. I don't have enough of the staple cards to be top of the competitive, and I'm not going to spend ridiculous amounts of money for the small, extra chance that I might pull a necessary combo card that I don't have. Some cards are always going to be better than others, sure, but I'm sick of the same decks over and over again. I'm sick of building decks that finish as quickly as possible because building creative and fun decks just eat up more time for no additional rewards.

I think something like a major balance rework and drafting events could pull me back in, but until something is fundamentally improved, this game just feels like a chore.

Quantius

I just returned to the game a few weeks ago, and I think there have been many improvements from when I left.

The VIP subscription system is great, you get a lot for the sub: this is what made me curious enough to come back when I saw it.

There are mythic cards as event rewards! I mean, I only remember rares for the top spot which slowly transitioned to adding in the Immortal Sun and certain pieces like that (though I left after Dominaria).

Non-dupe EPs!!! The exact reason I left was that I had just gotten sick of dupes (esp when spending cash). I bought Beckett Brass when she was for real money and then I got 3 more times out of packs and 2 more times out of EPs and I was livid. But this kept happening. There would be 20 mythics in a set and I would pull the same one over and over. It was too much **** for me. I've had a great time collecting stuff since I got back and haven't felt like things are as scammy since I'm able to actually get cards I'm after.

The game is definitely still buggy and has broken cards (some that used to be broken are fixed and some that were fine are now broken). I wouldn't say it's more buggy than it used to be, nor would I saw it's slower. It feels about the same as I remember. Of course, maybe that's because I've always been a complainer who griped about losing to a bug while others overlooked it. So maybe, it's finally catching up to people and they don't feel as forgiving as before? I dunno, but I complained about it then and I'm gonna complain about it now too. It just doesn't feel any different imo.

I still think Greg cheats with cascades.

But my biggest concern is really balance at this point. Legacy is a mess. And the PWs are just wildly out of balance with each other. I want to see weaker PWs brought up. There's no reason for Wrenn and Six to have such timid abilities while Sarkhan Unbroken has deploy. Even mana bonuses are skimpy on some of the mono-color PWs. Just give them +5 or +6 in their main color and that would fix a lot.

Anyway, for all its faults, I do enjoy this game and the less stingy they are with cards, the more I spend.

Tremayne

@Quantius - welcome back! Nice to hear your take on the app. It brings some perspective.