My time is up

Mburn7

I wasn't going to make a big sappy post about this, but after thinking it over I've realized that I might as well get my opinions out there while the thoughts are fresh.

I have not played a game of MTGPQ in over a month.  I haven't even logged in for a couple weeks.  I will not be logging in again, even with the eventual release of TBD, for quite some time, possibly not until I get a new phone a couple years from now.

I have been playing MTGPQ for about 4 years now.  When I started playing, there were no events, just story mode and Quick Battle (think TG but with a PvP leaderboard).  All planeswalkers were mono-colored.  No mana bonus was larger than +3.  The average creature was something between a 2/2 and a 4/4.  If you played for a couple hours a day and got a little lucky, you could open one Big Box (slightly larger than 2 PP) once every 1-2 months, and if you were lucky you would get a couple new Rare+ cards (or, like me, 5 copies of the only rare you already had).

I loved that game.  I played it in class, I played it at home, I even played it at work.

If I could tell myself 4 years ago everything that MTGPQ would have 4 years later, he would (metaphorically) weep with joy (fun fact, I though of the exact design of Vanguards back then but dismissed it because I thought it would be way too hard and powerful to ever happen).  Multi-color planeswalkers, an XP system, deck slots, several events to play every day instead of the same boring one all the time, Teams to hang out with digitally and compare notes, non-dupe mythics, crafting, and Vanguards were all things that I (and others) thought would be amazing additions to the game, and now we have them all.

And yet, I find I no longer enjoy the game like I used to.  Opening packs no longer elicits joy after the first week of a new set, since I now have 90% of the cards in them.  Opening a new mythic is met with a resounding "meh", where I used to spend hours making new decks with it to figure out how best to use it.  I don't even make new decks anymore, since it ends up taking an hour of my time to get through all the loading screens and that doesn't even count actually playing with it.  I used to clear a full 5 node round of NoP (the first recurring event) in 30 min using all Origins walkers.  Now it takes 1.5 hours if I'm lucky and don't run into any full-control decks.  Every card I play makes the game lag more.  Every card my opponent plays makes it lag more.

Every deck runs the same 4 cards, since everyone has all the mythics and rares and knows what the best combos are.  Its been 3 years since a new Mastery Tier was introduced, and we have been asking for one (or at least for a restructure of the Tier-up curve now that there are literally 4 times as many cards in the game as there were when it was introduced) for 2 years now.  If a guy who has been playing for 4 months gets matched up with someone who has been playing for 4 years, what's the point of tiers at all?

And that's not even counting the bugs!  Every single new card that comes out is bugged.  Every new event is bugged, and although that's always been the case these bugs seem worse.  It used to be a new event would just crash the game and necessitate a patch 2 days later to fix it.  Now the events run like nothing is wrong, until an errant trigger or broken objective ruins it for you, with no hope of it ever being fixed (how long has BoFT been bugged? or ToZ?).  We get an XP system that is not just stupid, but also not even working properly!  I'm at my wits end trying to navigate around which cards are bugged, which cards are "not bugged" but working very differently than they used to with no explanation, and which cards just crash the game.

Finally, one morning on my daily commute I realized something:  If this wasn't an MTG game, if I hadn't spent so much time playing it, and if I didn't have my coalition to hang out with, I would have quit years ago.  I also realized something really depressing:  I no longer enjoy this game.  My original coalition is basically gone (Deadapult, for the OGs), and most of the people I started in Extinction with have stopped playing too.  I love all the newbs too (even the ones that have been with us for well over a year now, you're all newbs to me ), but its just not the same anymore.

So I have decided to stop playing for now.  Hopefully one day I'll come back.

I'll still be hanging out here and on my various Discord chats, since I love all of you nutjobs and I love arguing on the internet just, so, so, much. 

Sorry for the ramble, I just had to get this off my chest.

Narcoticsagent

January was the first time since the month I started playing (Jan 2016) that I did not get to 21 days on daily check in. You list a lot of the things that drag me down. Most of the stuff wouldn't be that bad if it was the only problem. But taken all together they are killing the game. It's sad to see you go and I am probably close behind. 

mayor

Well, if each time a new collection is released you keep using 2-3 cards, synergy is minimal, new mechanics are developed just to be abandoned next set you can't expect much. New set is more promising, but I believe these issues will remain. Design is always lousy, not much thought and time put in it and they keep ignoring suggestions. Mr. designer... please put some love in this game darn it. Join community's effort to keep this game alive.

jtwood

“ If this wasn't an MTG game..., I would have quit years ago.”

I say those exact words on the annual survey every year

FindingHeart8

Sad to see you go @Mburn7, even though I know we'll keep chatting in our coalition "Oogabooga" on Manastrike.

Hopefully you stay active on the forums, you've contributed so much to this community!

I agree with your points.  My MTGPQ activity is pretty much limited to coalition events these days, I'll keep a spot open for you in my mtgpq coalition if you want one, I'm sure you remember the name lol.

Stormcrow

I'd say "sad to see you go" Mburn but, since you're not leaving the forums and I don't think I've ever actually run into you in the game am I really gonna be able to tell the difference?

Every game gets stale for everyone eventually, though I don't disagree that this game's not at its peak right now. I still have hope that'll get turned around someday and hopefully you and all the other old-timers who've moved on will still be at least in touch enough to know when it does.

Pantagruel

Logically, if you've been looking for an excuse to quit the game, now is the best time: if you do change your mind in the future, any STD boosters you already own will let you catch up over the next few months over the lifecycle of Theros, but no more than that.

Aeroplane

First, a shout to DimMak first for being a great coalition. AWR was my last coalition event before notifying to go solo and putting this game on the back burner. The nerf to booster crafting until the next set made VIP very unattractive. I would have taken that in stride if the game worked smoothly without all the soft locks occurring since the last update , the changes to the languages even though it didn't touch me directly and the lack of communication of the changes they make to the game. 


Instead of the changes they could add 2 or more exclusive cards per set, Make tweaks to existing PWs and cards and put them out for sale, have actual sales and engage more with special events. Story mode, daily or weekly quests and other parts of the game are not utilized at all.

 If they are thinking people would chase cards with such low rates and high chances for dupe cards they are not understanding their own game. Peace out.

ArielSira

For any fellow veterans feeling burned out; there is a coalition we created especially for this reason; retirement1. Real life matters and it's not worth it getting frustrated over a game that costs so much time; slow matches, lags, bugs and long load screens. We're three ex-Team Reckless/DimMak players (nothing but love for the people there and at TP9) and welcome anyone who still wants to casually play the game without any pressure.

Bil

Its hard to keep engaged in such a Timegrabbing game when the only message you can read beetween the lines is"we don't want you to collect our cards".

Every single move ever made to give easier access to cards has been nerfed right afterwards ... 

Besides, several decisions were taken in order to hide more cards behind "paywalls" : Vanguards, increasing number of exclusives that will Never be available in packs ... 

Cherry on the cake, the traditional ways to chase cards from ingame currencies have been discretely but signigicantly nerfed too ... By increasing the proportion of mythics and MPs in the sets but also by increasing (once again) the number of cards in EP's pools so players can hardly target the cards they are interested in.

In the meantime, we haven't Seen signigicant improvements on the game stability, on events timings, on ingame comunication or anything that could bring fun or renew the interest for the game.

One day ... Maybe ... Someone up there will realize that a loss in players quality of life will cause more players to leave than cash to enter ... 

I hardly imagine a frustrated player willing to spend more cash than he used to ... However, we've already Seen a significant amount of paying players leave the game ... maybe they were tired of playing cat and mouse with the developers in ordre to preserve a satisfying and respectful gaming environment?

Narcoticsagent

Canceled VIP. I will miss the deckslots. One more nail in the coffin.

Gunmix25

Narcoticsagent said:

Canceled VIP. I will miss the deckslots. One more nail in the coffin.

I cancelled too, today. No point in maintaining it seeing that the saved packs amount to nothing but more orbs and if one has all the cards, those orbs are only good for saving to use on exclusives when they become craftable in a couple of months.

Things that make you go "Hmmm...": For us players who have all the cards we have to cancel VIP else we just start farming orbs because we earned all the cards via VIP packs. So, in order to use those orbs for any kind of crafting (read as exclusives only) we are pretty much required to not buy any exclusive packs, thus indirectly forcing our hand to deny possible income to D3 and Oktagon.

I don't mind buying PW if they have potential.