MPQ 12th Anniversary Celebrations

entrailbucket

@Read_Only said:

@entrailbucket said:
The standard line used to be "Sure, I don't spend anything, but the game needs players like me! If I wasn't around, there wouldn't be anyone for the spenders to fight, and they'd get all bored and quit."

Well, as it turns out, we just had like two months where everybody only fought the computer and not only did nobody mind, they all preferred it! So uh...what exactly are these "customers" adding?

Simply not true in the hangouts I use. Most of the people who preferred it are people like me that didn't play pvp much or at all in the first place. Grinding the free covers quickly and easy is also a bigger reason. I mean how many threads and conversations are there about wanting back the seed pvp? Yep none.

Did you miss the entire thread on here, with a poll, where 2 players out of like 60 preferred the original matchmaking system?

This is brought up constantly, on here and in other places. Everybody wants fights to end in 1 move. Almost every suggestion for how to "fix" matchmaking is "just turn PvP into PvE."

entrailbucket

@DAZ0273 said:

@entrailbucket said:

@KGB said:

@entrailbucket said:
If they were really smart they'd find a way to monetize complaints. They'd immediately become a Fortnite-style juggernaut of gaming.

Easy peasy.

Force everyone who posts on the Forum (or Discord etc) to supply their in game name with their account or they can't post (note you could still have a different screen name but you'd need the in game name in the account details). Then when a negative comment is posted, simply set that players roster to 1 health (like the bug did that's supposedly fixed). Then if you post negative stuff you'll need to buy health packs

KGB

There's zero chance their servers could handle that kind of load -- they'd need to build out a series of massive datacenters that would suck up most of the power on the west coast.

How about this? Close down the forum, Discord, etc and create a 1-900 number (remember those?), where you can speak directly to a developer and berate them any way you like, for the low, low price of $9.99 per minute. It's practically a steal at that rate!

That's how you Americans and Canadians killed Robin! So I guess, fine.

He deserved it

KGB

@Jash735 said:
And I’m not trying to knock it in any way, just genuinely curious what advantage you see in it.

It's a trade off: Longer time spent in PvE vs more diverse PvP experience.

Remember, absolute nothing is gated off as a 5 star only experience. I play in the highest CLs in PvE/PvP and get all the rewards (minus placement which I don't have time to do anyway), I can finish Puzzle Gauntlet, Boss battles in R8 etc.

The only difference in experiences between me and someone with a higher leveled roster is PvE clear time and PvP experience. I prefer my PvP experience over the same few meta teams everyone complains about in 5 star PvP.

KGB

Jash735

@KGB said:

@Jash735 said:
And I’m not trying to knock it in any way, just genuinely curious what advantage you see in it.

It's a trade off: Longer time spent in PvE vs more diverse PvP experience.

Remember, absolute nothing is gated off as a 5 star only experience. I play in the highest CLs in PvE/PvP and get all the rewards (minus placement which I don't have time to do anyway), I can finish Puzzle Gauntlet, Boss battles in R8 etc.

The only difference in experiences between me and someone with a higher leveled roster is PvE clear time and PvP experience. I prefer my PvP experience over the same few meta teams everyone complains about in 5 star PvP.

KGB

Interesting, I had a feeling that may have been why. I suppose that’s why I’ve always mostly avoided PvP because no matter how strong my team was I would always be matched against teams that could still destroy me. I finally got a decent Juggs/Sam team that can semi compete and I do play a little bit more now. I wish there was a better way to balance between having a competitive PvE team and a fun mmr in PvP. If that were the case then it would open up the rest of my roster and I could have somewhere to actually enjoy experimenting with different characters and teams rather than feeling like I have to chase the same characters as everyone else just to stay relevant and viable.

Painmonger

@entrailbucket said:

@TheXMan said:
Losing players should never be a goal

Completely insane take. Making money is the goal. Players who spend no money (and never will) contribute nothing, and in fact are taking up valuable slots from players who do, or might, spend.

I feel like that take is a little insane, though. I don't disagree the ultimate goal is to make money and the devs have every right to make changes they feel are in the best interest of the stability & longevity of their game.

I do disagree on everything but the second sentence, however. There are ways to contribute to any organization without spending directly, and claiming otherwise is simply insulting. That's really my biggest takeaway, even if the statements had been true the tone would turn everyone off to the underlying message that hopefully enough people are paying to keep the game running & healthy.

No one is arbitrarily taking a slot from anyone else, either. This isn't an airplane with limited seats, there is no queue saying I can't play until someone else logs off. There is nothing in the ToS promising a premium paid-only bracket so they don't have to compete with us filthy non-spenders. In fact, if they can't keep up maybe it's the spender's fault for not spending more!

If we gave the devs a dollar every time someone threatened to quit or called it the end of the game & kept playing this would be a moot point & probably the most successful game in history. The meta is always going to move, players are always going to quit. The fact that we're looking at a 12 year anniversary of a FTP mobile game should give all of us some reassurance that a good game has given us a lot of enjoyment while also clearly being profitable, and hopefully we'll see 12 more years!

KGB

@Painmonger said:

@entrailbucket said:

@TheXMan said:
Losing players should never be a goal

Completely insane take. Making money is the goal. Players who spend no money (and never will) contribute nothing, and in fact are taking up valuable slots from players who do, or might, spend.

No one is arbitrarily taking a slot from anyone else, either. This isn't an airplane with limited seats, there is no queue saying I can't play until someone else logs off. There is nothing in the ToS promising a premium paid-only bracket so they don't have to compete with us filthy non-spenders. In fact, if they can't keep up maybe it's the spender's fault for not spending more!

Well presumably F2P players can use customer service. They also take up server space (require more servers the more players there are). Depending on how the licensing goes with Marvel they may even pay royalties based on how many downloads/players there are (we have no idea). Thus the idea that F2P costs nothing is patently false.

KGB

Read_Only

@entrailbucket said:

Did you miss the entire thread on here, with a poll, where 2 players out of like 60 preferred the original matchmaking system?

This is brought up constantly, on here and in other places. Everybody wants fights to end in 1 move. Almost every suggestion for how to "fix" matchmaking is "just turn PvP into PvE."

That’s your mistake thinking a poll on here is representative of the player base. This place said no to supports while the player base said yes.

Painmonger

@KGB said:

@Painmonger said:

@entrailbucket said:

@TheXMan said:
Losing players should never be a goal

Completely insane take. Making money is the goal. Players who spend no money (and never will) contribute nothing, and in fact are taking up valuable slots from players who do, or might, spend.

No one is arbitrarily taking a slot from anyone else, either. This isn't an airplane with limited seats, there is no queue saying I can't play until someone else logs off. There is nothing in the ToS promising a premium paid-only bracket so they don't have to compete with us filthy non-spenders. In fact, if they can't keep up maybe it's the spender's fault for not spending more!

Well presumably F2P players can use customer service. They also take up server space (require more servers the more players there are). Depending on how the licensing goes with Marvel they may even pay royalties based on how many downloads/players there are (we have no idea). Thus the idea that F2P costs nothing is patently false.

KGB

Correct, that would be a false statement, if anyone made it.

entrailbucket

@Painmonger said:

@entrailbucket said:

@TheXMan said:
Losing players should never be a goal

Completely insane take. Making money is the goal. Players who spend no money (and never will) contribute nothing, and in fact are taking up valuable slots from players who do, or might, spend.

I feel like that take is a little insane, though. I don't disagree the ultimate goal is to make money and the devs have every right to make changes they feel are in the best interest of the stability & longevity of their game.

I do disagree on everything but the second sentence, however. There are ways to contribute to any organization without spending directly, and claiming otherwise is simply insulting. That's really my biggest takeaway, even if the statements had been true the tone would turn everyone off to the underlying message that hopefully enough people are paying to keep the game running & healthy.

No one is arbitrarily taking a slot from anyone else, either. This isn't an airplane with limited seats, there is no queue saying I can't play until someone else logs off. There is nothing in the ToS promising a premium paid-only bracket so they don't have to compete with us filthy non-spenders. In fact, if they can't keep up maybe it's the spender's fault for not spending more!

If we gave the devs a dollar every time someone threatened to quit or called it the end of the game & kept playing this would be a moot point & probably the most successful game in history. The meta is always going to move, players are always going to quit. The fact that we're looking at a 12 year anniversary of a FTP mobile game should give all of us some reassurance that a good game has given us a lot of enjoyment while also clearly being profitable, and hopefully we'll see 12 more years!

Can you explain how free to play players contribute to MPQ? Be specific.

In fact, there are limited slots in every event's leaderboard. Those slots should be filled by players who are contributing to the game's continued survival, or they're being wasted.

It is the devs' job to ensure that the things they sell have competitive value. If Galactus and the other 6* can only be obtained by spending money, that'll be a good start.

entrailbucket

I don't mean to blame free to play players. They're not doing anything wrong. The devs created the situation they're in and are solely to blame for it.

The problem is that the game's revenues are way down, and that's because the devs have given us no incentive to actually spend money. All the top players completely stopped buying 10 months ago or whatever, and they're still camped out at the top of every leaderboard (and will be forever, unless something drastically changes).

Spending has to beat strategy in a game like this. Why would anybody give the devs money when spending doesn't help you win? They need to sell something that's actually worth buying, so those folks at the top of the leaderboards are forced to either pay up or get passed by.

TheXMan

Maybe google how the F2P model works. Pretty sure you won't find anything about trying to make the free players quit. lnsane, I know.

entrailbucket

@TheXMan said:
Maybe google how the F2P model works. Pretty sure you won't find anything about trying to make the free players quit. lnsane, I know.

Agreed, it'd be far better to force them to pay. If they won't pay, then you make them quit.

I did see some Google results about how a large number of free to play players could enhance the experience of paid players. Can you explain how that's happening currently in MPQ?