My Experience

Unknown

I need to preface this post by understanding 100% this is not a casual game. The gameplay suggests it might be but the way to earn worthy rewards tells us a completely different story.

I did some maths and on average, I am getting 2 x 3 star covers a week from tournaments, story line and tokens. I now nearly always come top 50 (except for the latest Cage Match tourney which resulted in some extreme rage but that is discussion for another time). There is a total of 246 x 3 star covers I could get at any point currently. For me to get all of them free will cost me 82 weeks (1.5 years) at my current rate in playing which doesn't allow for any new characters. If we assume I have 0 x 3 star characters, I would need 307,500 hero coins if I wanted to buy them all outright which I couldn't, anyway because I need at least 1 cover before I can buy outright. But let's say that I could. The biggest lot of coins I can buy is 20,000 for $130AUD. If I was going to buy them outright buying the best value and the largest sum of coins I could, I'm spending $2000 (307,500 total Hero Coins / 20,000 Hero Coin Packs to purchase = 15.375 x $130 (for the 20,000 Hero Coin packs) = $1,998.75). Now, I ACTUALLY have 63 x 3 star covers in total in my roster from grinding away these last 6 months.
I need 183 covers = 228,750 to purchase outright.
11.4375 x 20,000 coins needed to be purchased = $1,486.88.

And if we're realistic about the situation, you would need 60 covers which gives you 1 of every colour of every 3 star character in order to start to buy each cover outright. So you were looking at purchasing them, you would still need 186 covers which would require 232,500 hero coins to buy outright. 11.625 (232,500 / 20,000 Hero Coin packs = 11.625) x $130AUD = $1,511.25. But let's say you DON'T have a particular colour of some 3 star characters roster? You can earn it through a tournament if they come through. OR you could take a stab at a heroic pack. In which you can't really put a price on something like that because it can't simply be bought.

Now if we were to do that with heroic 10 packs, it would be too hard to really quantify because if I went with what I got in my last 10 pack, I got 2 x 3 star covers but according to a different topic (which I have been watching like a hawk), 3 star characters seem intensely rare (20.1% which is quite frankly **** - less than 1% for each character since there are 21) and there is no point in 40 packs because the odds are the same. But let's say I can only buy 20,000 at a time and I have to buy cover packs to match that 20,000, I would buy 1 x 40 pack and 3 x 10 packs. So 40 x .2 + 10 x .2 + 10 x .2 + 10 x .2 = 8 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 14 covers for 20,000 coins which is WORSE than 16 covers I could have just bought outright which I know I'm definitely getting (if I was considering that route). But then you have to weigh it up too - is the gamble worth it at the sacrifice of a few covers? You COULD get more covers even though the percentages dictate that indeed you can not. Not to mention that topic I was talking about earlier at the start of this paragraph - a lot of people were getting 0 x 3 star characters in their 10 packs. AND you have to allow for duplicates too because the 10 packs do not care if you already have the cover or not. But in the Facebook group, a few have unleashed 4 and 5 x 3 star covers in their packs defying the odds.

So spending money is not option as you can clearly see, either. Unless I want to spend a couple hundred $$ to keep me in the race. Because $100 on this game is a mere splash in the kiddie pool. I'm swimming in kiddie piss which I worked really hard at getting to and to run with the big boys in the adult pool is such a huge jump, I need to be even more intense than I already am AND have a boatload of cash. Another thing to bring into the mix is in another topic, is the difficulty. When you have 1 x 3 star character maxed out, it seems to be put you in a higher bracket than a maxed 2 star roster even if the rest of your 3 star roster is absolute ****. So if you were to buy covers outright for one or two characters specifically, the game punishes you for "putting it all on black" (something which has been brought up several times and said they are working to fix but until then, I am still flagging it as a problem). Not to mention that you would need to luck into have at least 1 of every cover for every character to buy outright to do that.

Even now with a maxed 2 star team, I am either fighting maxed Original Black Widows (OBW) coupled with Thor again and again or 3 star characters I couldn't possibly beat. And even then every 15 or so fights, they throw me a bone and I fight 2 star storm and 2 star Magneto. The gameplay itself is also luck. As I can beat OBW + Thor 6...7 times in a row with no problems and then the next match all of a sudden the computer gets combo after combo (because we have no way of controlling what falls onto the board with the best being positioning ourselves in a way to defend the insane attacks of what is about to come) and no matter how much I adjust my strategy to beat them, they flog the **** out of my team and nothing had really changed between that match and the 7 matches before it. It's the game admitting it's got a fault and the only way to remedy the situation is by shuffling the odds in the computers favor because strategy says I can beat the game in my current situation.

Keep it in mind too that I am more than just a casual player. I play anywhere between 1 and 5 hours a day. I have amassed a maxed out 2 star roster and ~60,000 ISO purely from grinding and no covers to spend it on and every time I do get a cover, the most I've had to drop is 9000 ISO to next max level. I've also been playing for ~190 days and not spent a cent and it's not because I don't want to. Oh, I want to. I just haven't seen a reason to. Like most people, I wanted to dip my feet in the water and if I'm honest, I saw it was a free to play game. I see these all the time and decided I would make an example out of this game. You advertise it as a free to play game, then I am going to make it so. And if it gets to a point where I need to spend money, I cut my loses and go do something else unless I feel like the product has given me some value. Things have changed along the way - I invested my time and did pretty well and grinding was getting me only so far and then I reached a point where I couldn't get hero coins quick enough and this was well before alliances which has now helped dramatically to that situation. I had to sell of a few 3 star covers because I couldn't give them a spot in my roster during the 7 day limit. I found it a fun game but held off for awhile until I really needed to spend money. Selling a cover because I didn't have a slot hurt but I got over it. Now like most people who complain bitterly about this game, they are making the transition from 2 --> 3 star and also like a lot of people are finding the play vs reward is not...rewarding enough. I thought about remedying the situation by going, "Well, if I need to spend money, now is the time..." except that has changed, too. Again, not that I don't want to. I totally do. I have $100 right here I would drop for hero coins if they actually resulted in value. But it is so clear how money hungry the game is, you can rub deep fried chicken on a wall and watch a bird try and fly through it. The packs used to guarantee 3 star characters and now you're paying for the chance. So there is no value there. Each 3 star cover is 1250 hero coins so there is no value there (too much coin for 1 cover). PLUS, I need a bunch of slots in my roster (currently at 33 but need about another 10-12 for the 3 stars I don't have, the 1 star I don't have and any future characters that will turn up in the meantime while I save enough hero coins) and it's also my turn to spend money on getting coins for our alliance slots on top.

I also understand that a lot of effort goes into making new characters but the game fails on two fronts: the game is 3 star character eccentric (your 4 star characters are ****/push overs) and the covers are not coming fast enough and the fail might be that maybe there's not enough characters to justify a faster drop rate. Oh and the other fail is having to nerf characters after they have been released to the public. Why this is a problem is people tend to spend money on characters to specifically level them up only because they're powerful (maybe TOO powerful) only to find out that all the money was for nothing and the character goes back to being useless alongside Bagman. Or maybe it might be that D3 are so money hungry that they focus either on the hardcore who spend money on covers like its rain in London or the naive beginners who think that spending money on the game will get them ahead but it is clear to me after playing for a little over 6 months and not spending a dime, this is not the case. Unless things change, not only will I not be dropping money on this game, but I will be taking the experience I had as a free one I have no regrets on and I bid you adieu. Grinding for ISO? No problems. I could do that all day. But not enough covers? Where's the drive to keep going? Not enough tournaments or ways of getting them quicker. And even those tournaments are now getting so cut throat that I gotta keep playing every couple of hours to maintain a top 50 spot. It eats a whole in to your time worse than most hardcore games. While I do regret having to spend so much time on a single tournament, if you had multiple tournaments going, it would be easier for one person to focus on getting a spot in one and getting 3 star covers. Hoping to get another 3 star cover in a single cut throat tournament that ends in 3 days time and if I don't maintain top 50 I miss out? You gotta be kidding me.

Unknown

Now, think of this : you've been playing for 6 months. Look at what you achieved so far by playing not casually.

Now, today a newcomer is discovering the game... What do you think he is going to think ?

I'm starting to think D3P "knows/thinks" that players will get tired sooner than later. And they want to maximize profits while the player is playing.

The long term player must be quite rare, so they must not care about him.

I wish one day the game could organize live tournaments (like LoL, WoW...) and world championships. But that is not going to happen soon as long as the current business model is the one they use. That's unfortunate.

Unknown

While I agree that D3 looks for the short term profit, why are there so many 3 star characters if it takes SO LONG to get them? And I know they're not complete impossible to collect since I see rosters usually from the top lot of alliances with maxed out rosters. Must have been done before they made all these money-making changes.

I guess what it comes down to is exactly what you said: using a business model which doesn't really support people like me: those who worked hard to get here and need the next step up. Shame really. They must make TONNES from the other two camps to ignore a whole base of users like us because I see this happen a fair bit in this forum where there is no where for these people to go once they get to a certain level unless they wanna dish out boatloads of money and more time than rewards.

I would also upvote your comment except this system only allows 255 characters. So I am replying instead.

Unknown

arktos1971 wrote:

I wish one day the game could organize live tournaments (like LoL, WoW...) and world championships. But that is not going to happen soon as long as the current business model is the one they use. That's unfortunate.

Unfortunately, why would they change their business model, when they are getting hundreds and even thousands of dollars from individuals? You openly admit to your spending habits but how many more Arktos(s?) are out there that spend that kind of money? If that keeps happening, then they consider it a successful business. So it won't change.

HailMary

arktos1971 wrote:

I wish one day the game could organize live tournaments (like LoL, WoW...) and world championships. But that is not going to happen soon as long as the current business model is the one they use. That's unfortunate.

I'd love to watch ESPN/Mexican soccer commentators narrating an MPQ fight:

"Alright, looks like xJossWeedon420x has chosen a 25-point Thor & Black Widow team to face off against. He's hoping to get that progression reward at 600 points. What are your thoughts, Bob? That Classic Storm cover is so close he can taste it."

"Well, Stan, we've certainly seen this matchup countless times before: Thunder God & Ms. Fishnets fighting against their doppelgangers. The key is to get out in front and Recon the enemy team before they can pull off any big moves."

"Indeed, Bob, xJossWeedon420x is a newcomer in the MPQ arena, but has proven that he can make some mean threesomes when he's in the mood."

"Hahaha, yes, Stan. That he can. That he can. It looks like he's starting now, as usual, not using any boosts and livin' on the edge."

"Bob, I remember back in my day when I used Classic Hawkeye to endlessly crit against even 3* teams."

"Ah, yes, those were the days, Stan. We had it good, didn't we?"

"He's matching purple, ramping up for that Recon. Recon really is the key to Black Widow's power, Bob. Stealing really pays in this game."

"Hahaha, that it does, Stan. But now, he's going for an environmental match. That seems like a bad move, but wait, hold it, hoooold it, one match, two match, oh my God CASCAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADE!!!!!!!"

"That was a clutch move, Bob. I know I was excited when those tiles started bursting. You obviously were, since I've now lost all hearing in my left ear."

"Stan, let's take another look at that second-turn cascade using our Mountain Dew Tinykitty Instant Replay."

[later]

"He's CALLLIIIINNGGG the STOOOOOOOOOOOOORRMMMM!!!!!! BOOM, BABY!"

Unknown

TheUnwiseOne wrote:

arktos1971 wrote:

I wish one day the game could organize live tournaments (like LoL, WoW...) and world championships. But that is not going to happen soon as long as the current business model is the one they use. That's unfortunate.

Unfortunately, why would they change their business model, when they are getting hundreds and even thousands of dollars from individuals? You openly admit to your spending habits but how many more Arktos(s?) are out there that spend that kind of money? If that keeps happening, then they consider it a successful business. So it won't change.

So far, I've seen only 3 big rosters :

Best one : Colognoisseur. He says he did not spend much in the game
Second best is mine : we know the story already
Third is Slobofix : we don't know how much was spent.

That's not much. I haven't seen many outstanding rosters that would require that amount of money.

Well, you know when Magic the Gathering was created 21 years ago, no one thought it would become that huge success. Now they have stunning organised play, and guys are commenting a bit the way HailMary was just describing.

When the rosters will be like 100 chars (that will happen sooner than later), that will be some interested, provided they create diversity in the game and formats.