2023: The MPQ year of wackiness

SuperCarrot

Would Swarm count as a serious or animal character or possibly a serious animal character.? Since he is made of bees…I feel like he counts as an animal character.

Theghouse

@DAZ0273 said:
I can see that is a fair point but then I think it is even more important to have viable different versions myself. I genuinely can't tell you what the 3 versions of Miles or Gwen bring to anything. I guess I don't like the gimmicky nature of this and see no reason why they can't from time to time throw in a thematically related character rather than "Symbiote" - I appreciate they want the 3* release but I don't feel every 5/3 needs to be the exact same character with a convenient tag on - they did it years ago with 5 DD/3 Elektra.

While symbiote/standard and classic/modern are the two most popular - at times, perhaps arguably lazy - version splits, we've seen some pretty good double versions. Darkchylde/Phoenix 5 Magik, 8bit/Classic Arcade, Classic/Horseman Omega Red are the few that come to mind almost immediately. I also enjoy Goose's two versions being solo/family having seen the Marvels film and the bit that goes with it.

But their whole point was, they go out on social media and promote the release of a new character (like 5★ Moon Knight for example), and there is no way for a player just starting out to effectively get or use that character. And I have to agree with them on that. Important to note that Daredevil already had a 3★ version at the time they released 3★ Elektra as the dual release. I think it would make more sense to just drop the dual release completely if they are making a 5★ that already has a 3★ in the current release pattern.

Going along with their sentiment of character accessibility as the reason for 3/5 dual release, I would argue that even the 4★ tier is out of reach for newer players. With ascension and the current dilution of the 4★ tier, I think there is an argument to be made that they can stop releasing new 4★ altogether. With two releases on a four week cycle, one could be the new 5★ and one could be a new 3★ version of the same character. The 3★ is more accessible to newer players, accessible to veteran players, and will stay relevant much longer with ascension. With the current dilution in the 4★ tier and difference in drop rates in Standard/Heroic/Mighty tokens and bonus shards, it would take a very long time, if ever, before 3★ dilution would become worse than 4★ dilution. In this pattern, if they come across a character that already has a 3★, then they could do a completely different character.

Blackstone

I'm ok with occasional ridiculousness, but prefer a more serious tone.

I get no release will be loved by everyone, but the silly seems to be picking up pace in a way I dislike.

I don't get excited about new character clues because the actual character being released is likely to be 12 jumped sharks sillier than whatever we try to joke about in guesses.

It's like someone read the joke guesses, took it to heart, and went overboard.

This is all my opinion of course.

Do I roster the cat, shark, and whatever? Yes. I do that regardless of whether or not they're powers are good because collecting everything is part of the game.

Do I play them off they're good?...I try not to. I'm sure a lot of people disagree with me, but I prefer playing characters I like based on the characters.

I won't even put Bong in the silly category. He's ridiculous, but he leans into it in a fun way. Kittens because of a side character in a bad movie that's presenting terrible versions of good characters? No thanks.

Maybe they're just out of trademarks. Maybe Disney/marvel is pushing for a dumbed down cutesy product to appeal to a younger market. (I'm certain there are those who think my favorites are lame so again, just my opinion. I don't find MPZoo fun. If you do, I'm happy for you) Maybe I'm just old and don't get it.

If they want to get silly with a Fantomex release of support that though.

MgoBlue51

I'm ok with SOME of the wackiness, but I do agree it is bordering on excessive. Initially, I thought the dino was silly, but he turned out to be pretty good (at least, better than originally perceived). The shark is bad. I haven't really done much with the kittens yet. Bong is ridiculous, but I find it funny.

I just don't want the silliness to be used as an attempt to mask poor quality. Whether that poor quality is lack of QoL upgrades, boring day after day monotony, or bad characters (looking at you, carnage Miles)... it just feels like the silly stuff is a smoke screen. Which then makes me feel like they're insulting my intelligence at times. Not enough to actually get mad over, but enough to be noticed nonetheless

Bad

I'd take 300 Dr Bongs before another animal. At least Dr Bong comes into the idea of super heroes and villains which I liked enough to the point to download the app.
Because if this app had screenshots of the cat, shark, dog, frog etc... you could be certain I'd had downloaded another game. One of actual real super heroes.

MegaBee

Jessica Jones defenestrating a cat made the weirdness even better. It brings back the feeling of using Fastball Special on Devil Dinosaur resulting in Devil Dinosaur doing his little dance upon landing. So good.

JoeHandle

@DAZ0273 said:
Would you like to see more joke characters or is it time to get all grr grr serious? And yes I know what matters is how good they are but we all like certain types of characters and as 2023 has also shown you can have too much of one thing.

Comics have changed a LOT, diversified a lot, interims of art, writing, and creative freedom, over the past 10-15yrs. Increasingly being reflected in MPQ's character releases, and occasionally in the character renderings.