New Character - Red Skull (Johann Schmidt) 5*

bluewolf · 18 October 2025, 19:29

For whatever reason (lack of resources? Wanting to not upset the game economy too much?) they skipped a 5 in December which was the same month they added the ingame cover swap function. Although we were a bit ahead of the standard pace after October with 5 characters that month.

After December revenue fell off a cliff because buy clubs stopped and now we’re getting a huge number of changes and things keep breaking. But they don’t know what else to do to try to reinvigorate the game.

Maybe won’t skip because they are worried money will go away again. Also when or if they skip a release it creates a potential jumping off point.

Although now that the slooooooooooooow crawl of G shards is here it seems like lots of people have another goal they’ll be working on for a while even if a release is skipped.

Anyway I think we all know they’ll keep adding characters at the same basic pace or even faster. 2-5 per 4 week period with no stop.

entrailbucket · 18 October 2025, 20:53

Everybody just wants this game to be something it's not.

This isn't a "buy it once and you have it forever" console game, where you get a few updates and some DLC and then it's done forever. It's not a subscription-based live service game, like an MMO. It's not even a Fortnite, that's so massive that it can make enormous amounts of cash selling hats and dances.

This is a free to play game with pay to win microtransactions. That's what it's always been. The model was hugely popular when it launched, and most of those games are dead now (for good reason -- the model itself is exploitative!).

A live service game has to keep generating revenue, because it has continuing costs. It's too late for these guys to pivot to selling hats, plus I don't think that model would work for this game anyway, and Marvel probably wouldn't like it. They certainly can't go subscription based at this point. I guess they could start showing ads, but I don't know if that's a viable choice anymore and you'd all lose your minds over it anyway.

What else are they going to do? If you want them to stop making money while they fix the chat bug or whatever, there isn't going to be a game anymore. They can't just decide to stop making money for awhile, because they have to keep paying for things.

heybub · 18 October 2025, 21:54

@entrailbucket said:
Everybody just wants this game to be something it's not.

I 100% agree with that statement. For example, I want it to not be broken.

entrailbucket · 18 October 2025, 22:33

The "we have to keep making money forever" thing is actually the best reason to never, ever do a ground-up rebuild like this.

Imagine you take a week off to remodel your own house, and when you're done it has a gas leak, none of the bathrooms work, and the roof is gone. Your wife says "hey, no problem, just take 6 months off work and fix it all!"

Well, you don't have any money saved, and you have to keep paying the mortgage and all your other bills, so now you have to go back to work on Monday and figure out how to fix everything in your spare time somehow.

That's where they're at. They can't stop making money or they'll lose the house, so they have to fix the roof in their spare time.

heybub · 18 October 2025, 23:17

@entrailbucket said:
The "we have to keep making money forever" thing is actually the best reason to never, ever do a ground-up rebuild like this.

Imagine you take a week off to remodel your own house, and when you're done it has a gas leak, none of the bathrooms work, and the roof is gone. Your wife says "hey, no problem, just take 6 months off work and fix it all!"

Well, you don't have any money saved, and you have to keep paying the mortgage and all your other bills, so now you have to go back to work on Monday and figure out how to fix everything in your spare time somehow.

That's where they're at. They can't stop making money or they'll lose the house, so they have to fix the roof in their spare time.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't be upset that the game is a **** show right now. > @entrailbucket said:

The "we have to keep making money forever" thing is actually the best reason to never, ever do a ground-up rebuild like this.

Imagine you take a week off to remodel your own house, and when you're done it has a gas leak, none of the bathrooms work, and the roof is gone. Your wife says "hey, no problem, just take 6 months off work and fix it all!"

Well, you don't have any money saved, and you have to keep paying the mortgage and all your other bills, so now you have to go back to work on Monday and figure out how to fix everything in your spare time somehow.

That's where they're at. They can't stop making money or they'll lose the house, so they have to fix the roof in their spare time.

It's more like the house is being remodeled, you come back and there is a gas leak, but instead of the the contractor fixing the leak, he's painting the walls. Your position is that hey man, he's got to paint the walls to get paid. It's ok there is leak.

I feel like your argument is that everything is ok, and we shouldn't be upset that the game has been a complete **** show for months. You may very well be accurate about their situation, but they are the ones who got themselves into it. We are the ones suffering through it.

entrailbucket · 18 October 2025, 23:37

@heybub said:

@entrailbucket said:
The "we have to keep making money forever" thing is actually the best reason to never, ever do a ground-up rebuild like this.

Imagine you take a week off to remodel your own house, and when you're done it has a gas leak, none of the bathrooms work, and the roof is gone. Your wife says "hey, no problem, just take 6 months off work and fix it all!"

Well, you don't have any money saved, and you have to keep paying the mortgage and all your other bills, so now you have to go back to work on Monday and figure out how to fix everything in your spare time somehow.

That's where they're at. They can't stop making money or they'll lose the house, so they have to fix the roof in their spare time.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't be upset that the game is a **** show right now. > @entrailbucket said:

The "we have to keep making money forever" thing is actually the best reason to never, ever do a ground-up rebuild like this.

Imagine you take a week off to remodel your own house, and when you're done it has a gas leak, none of the bathrooms work, and the roof is gone. Your wife says "hey, no problem, just take 6 months off work and fix it all!"

Well, you don't have any money saved, and you have to keep paying the mortgage and all your other bills, so now you have to go back to work on Monday and figure out how to fix everything in your spare time somehow.

That's where they're at. They can't stop making money or they'll lose the house, so they have to fix the roof in their spare time.

It's more like the house is being remodeled, you come back and there is a gas leak, but instead of the the contractor fixing the leak, he's painting the walls. Your position is that hey man, he's got to paint the walls to get paid. It's ok there is leak.

I feel like your argument is that everything is ok, and we shouldn't be upset that the game has been a complete **** show for months. You may very well be accurate about their situation, but they are the ones who got themselves into it. We are the ones suffering through it.

Just right off the bat, if you are "suffering" because a phone game has some bugs, please touch grass. There is actual legitimate suffering going on all over the world. MPQ is superhero candy crush for children, and if it's making you this upset you should immediately log off and go outside.

This game is not your house, in the metaphor. You don't own it, and neither do I, and neither does any other player (except for that one guy here who owns MPQ stock!). This game is a business that you're choosing to patronize, not something you have an actual stake in. The devs have messed up their own business. We get to decide how we react to that.

My argument is that doing Unity was a terrible idea that's broken a whole bunch of stuff. They should never have done it, but it's done and there's no going back now. You keep going "why can't they fix it all RIGHT NOW I want it I want it I want it" and I'm explaining why that is (in a way that the devs never will, btw, because it makes them look foolish).

I'm still here because I'm still having fun. The game runs fine for me, I don't care about the plus signs, and the rest of the bugs are occasionally mildly annoying but basically manageable. If the game was "broken" for me in the way it apparently is for you, I would uninstall it immediately and never think about it again. Why on earth would you voluntarily put yourself through something like that? My time is too valuable to do things I don't enjoy.

Painmonger · 19 October 2025, 02:17

@heybub said:

@entrailbucket said:
The "we have to keep making money forever" thing is actually the best reason to never, ever do a ground-up rebuild like this.

Imagine you take a week off to remodel your own house, and when you're done it has a gas leak, none of the bathrooms work, and the roof is gone. Your wife says "hey, no problem, just take 6 months off work and fix it all!"

Well, you don't have any money saved, and you have to keep paying the mortgage and all your other bills, so now you have to go back to work on Monday and figure out how to fix everything in your spare time somehow.

That's where they're at. They can't stop making money or they'll lose the house, so they have to fix the roof in their spare time.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't be upset that the game is a **** show right now. > @entrailbucket said:

The "we have to keep making money forever" thing is actually the best reason to never, ever do a ground-up rebuild like this.

Imagine you take a week off to remodel your own house, and when you're done it has a gas leak, none of the bathrooms work, and the roof is gone. Your wife says "hey, no problem, just take 6 months off work and fix it all!"

Well, you don't have any money saved, and you have to keep paying the mortgage and all your other bills, so now you have to go back to work on Monday and figure out how to fix everything in your spare time somehow.

That's where they're at. They can't stop making money or they'll lose the house, so they have to fix the roof in their spare time.

It's more like the house is being remodeled, you come back and there is a gas leak, but instead of the the contractor fixing the leak, he's painting the walls. Your position is that hey man, he's got to paint the walls to get paid. It's ok there is leak.

I feel like your argument is that everything is ok, and we shouldn't be upset that the game has been a complete **** show for months. You may very well be accurate about their situation, but they are the ones who got themselves into it. We are the ones suffering through it.

Sure, I'll play the analogy game here.

If you're having your house remodeled it won't just be one contractor, there will be a general contractor as the main decision maker (management) then several skilled trades like tilers, drywallers, plumbers, electricians, carpenters, architects, interior/exterior designers (ui/ux, graphic design, front end devs, back end devs, character designers, security/login managers, database admins, customer service, HR, etc). If there's a gas leak then I definitely don't want the painter trying to fix it. None of the rest of those trades or you would even be allowed back in the house until the plumber found & fixed it, meaning not only would they stop new releases but none of us would be allowed to play at all until all the bugs are fixed. That seems wildly unrealistic.

There are a lot of devs (individuals, not companies) that specialize in front end vs back end & don't cross over. Full stack devs still might not be experienced with database management. These are different people with different skills & responsibilities, and part of the reason for changing to Unity was the old devs built the game with their own custom engine, so a few extra hands with only tangentially related experience poking around at the same time is only going to make things worse.

What bugs are equivalent to a gas leak right now? Occasional freezes & crashes? I can only comment on my own experience & what my alliance has said, and the crashes only happen to me maybe 2-3 times a week. It's not a perfect fix for the + in chat, but much better than it was before. Character powers bugged, of course there are some, but there always have been and there's 300 other characters to use until they get them fixed.

Are these things frustrating? Yes, they definitely are sometimes! Do you have a right to express your frustration? Absolutely! Will changing/pausing the release schedule help with any of it being resolved even one minute sooner! Not even kind of! Can we just put that one to bed?

The crash I had today was a new one! I & the other team could still make moves & it did match damage, but the tiles never removed on screen & never got AP. Couldn't fire powers or retreat either. I think tiles were still moving server side, though, because eventually I just got the invalid match animation. Finally had to just force close & restart the match.

Gymp28 · 19 October 2025, 10:54

@entrailbucket said:

@heybub said:

@entrailbucket said:
The "we have to keep making money forever" thing is actually the best reason to never, ever do a ground-up rebuild like this.

Imagine you take a week off to remodel your own house, and when you're done it has a gas leak, none of the bathrooms work, and the roof is gone. Your wife says "hey, no problem, just take 6 months off work and fix it all!"

Well, you don't have any money saved, and you have to keep paying the mortgage and all your other bills, so now you have to go back to work on Monday and figure out how to fix everything in your spare time somehow.

That's where they're at. They can't stop making money or they'll lose the house, so they have to fix the roof in their spare time.

Doesn't mean we shouldn't be upset that the game is a **** show right now. > @entrailbucket said:

The "we have to keep making money forever" thing is actually the best reason to never, ever do a ground-up rebuild like this.

Imagine you take a week off to remodel your own house, and when you're done it has a gas leak, none of the bathrooms work, and the roof is gone. Your wife says "hey, no problem, just take 6 months off work and fix it all!"

Well, you don't have any money saved, and you have to keep paying the mortgage and all your other bills, so now you have to go back to work on Monday and figure out how to fix everything in your spare time somehow.

That's where they're at. They can't stop making money or they'll lose the house, so they have to fix the roof in their spare time.

It's more like the house is being remodeled, you come back and there is a gas leak, but instead of the the contractor fixing the leak, he's painting the walls. Your position is that hey man, he's got to paint the walls to get paid. It's ok there is leak.

I feel like your argument is that everything is ok, and we shouldn't be upset that the game has been a complete **** show for months. You may very well be accurate about their situation, but they are the ones who got themselves into it. We are the ones suffering through it.

Just right off the bat, if you are "suffering" because a phone game has some bugs, please touch grass. There is actual legitimate suffering going on all over the world. MPQ is superhero candy crush for children, and if it's making you this upset you should immediately log off and go outside.

This game is not your house, in the metaphor. You don't own it, and neither do I, and neither does any other player (except for that one guy here who owns MPQ stock!). This game is a business that you're choosing to patronize, not something you have an actual stake in. The devs have messed up their own business. We get to decide how we react to that.

My argument is that doing Unity was a terrible idea that's broken a whole bunch of stuff. They should never have done it, but it's done and there's no going back now. You keep going "why can't they fix it all RIGHT NOW I want it I want it I want it" and I'm explaining why that is (in a way that the devs never will, btw, because it makes them look foolish).

I'm still here because I'm still having fun. The game runs fine for me, I don't care about the plus signs, and the rest of the bugs are occasionally mildly annoying but basically manageable. If the game was "broken" for me in the way it apparently is for you, I would uninstall it immediately and never think about it again. Why on earth would you voluntarily put yourself through something like that? My time is too valuable to do things I don't enjoy.

Some very good points there EB. I don’t always agree with what you’ve got to say, but on this occasion I feel you’re very much the voice of reason!
However, I think this thread was supposed to be about Red Skull…
I don’t have any of his covers yet so can’t comment beyond my previous analysis of his kit on paper.
So in an effort to get the thread back on track: ‘Hiel Red Skull’ (Oooh, controversy, but on-topic controversy)…

DAZ0273 · 19 October 2025, 14:11

So in an effort to get the thread back on track: ‘Hiel Red Skull’ (Oooh, controversy, but on-topic controversy)…

In the interest of balance!

WilliamK1983 · 19 October 2025, 16:50

We're getting better at analogies here. Great job everyone!

JoeHandle · 19 October 2025, 17:16

@DAZ0273 said:

So in an effort to get the thread back on track: ‘Hiel Red Skull’ (Oooh, controversy, but on-topic controversy)…

In the interest of balance!

Brings to mind, Der Fuehrer's Face ... the Spike Jones classic and immediately after, an Academy Award winning Disney Short starring Donald Duck. I won't post any imagery from it here, but will say if you've never gone down that rabbit hole ... in the context of wartime propaganda, of course such things happened, it's what humans do. 80yrs in the rearview, tho, weird, weird stuff.

.............. tune and lyrics still in my head ..............

BriMan2222 · 19 October 2025, 18:47

@WilliamK1983 said:
We're getting better at analogies here. Great job everyone!

These analogies need more burgers 🍔

ThisisClemFandango · 19 October 2025, 23:44

These analogies need to stop.

Painmonger · 20 October 2025, 00:04

@ThisisClemFandango said:
These analogies need to stop.

Are analogies pushing your buttons? I thought analogy meant it had knobs?

BriMan2222 · 20 October 2025, 00:14

@ThisisClemFandango said:
These analogies need to stop.

These non stop analogies remind me of a burger shop that sometimes has banking services...

entrailbucket · 20 October 2025, 00:18

@ThisisClemFandango said:
These analogies need to stop.

A lot of them are weird but they're pretty informative even when they're wrong. The metaphor people choose can give you some great insight into what they're thinking.

Like saying the MPQ devs have come into our house and ruined it, or how we're all workers under the devs' management -- those things reflect the fact that some players have a rather unhealthy level of fan entitlement (something that's not unique to MPQ at all and is pretty common in most "fandoms" these days).

Oh, and don't forget all the times when this game is a "job" and the devs are forcing us to do "work!"

MgoBlue51 · 20 October 2025, 02:51

Can we discuss how 2 of the last three 5 stars were fed by the same (newest) 4*, thus drastically limiting our ability to acquire shards from feeders, thus limiting our ability to complete the quests before they disappear? Obviously, this is just complaining that I'm not able to get as much "free stuff" as I was before. However, who is the genius that came up with that one? I would love to hope it was just an oversight, but there is no trust remaining, so I can only assume it was intentional. Feels odd and borderline malicious/insulting

Kross · 20 October 2025, 02:52

@MgoBlue51 said:
Can we discuss how 2 of the last three 5 stars were fed by the same (newest) 4*, thus drastically limiting our ability to acquire shards from feeders, thus limiting our ability to complete the quests before they disappear? Obviously, this is just complaining that I'm not able to get as much "free stuff" as I was before. However, who is the genius that came up with that one? I would love to hope it was just an oversight, but there is no trust remaining, so I can only assume it was intentional. Feels odd and borderline malicious/insulting

I would also hope that older 4 stars become feeders before the new ones.

entrailbucket · 20 October 2025, 03:15

@MgoBlue51 said:
Can we discuss how 2 of the last three 5 stars were fed by the same (newest) 4*, thus drastically limiting our ability to acquire shards from feeders, thus limiting our ability to complete the quests before they disappear? Obviously, this is just complaining that I'm not able to get as much "free stuff" as I was before. However, who is the genius that came up with that one? I would love to hope it was just an oversight, but there is no trust remaining, so I can only assume it was intentional. Feels odd and borderline malicious/insulting

For whatever reason they care a ton about making the feeders "thematic" and the last 3 characters are all sort of a team. Hopefully this is just a weird one-off.

I wish they'd just make them random. It doesn't actually matter, would anybody really complain if Zemo was fed by Prowler?

(Oh wait, yeah, somebody would).

Bustapup · 20 October 2025, 07:39

So I tried to do two videos of his damage and came up against two frustration situations. No sound either for some reason 🫤

Clip one, a BRB flooded the battlefield with his protect tiles but red skulls damage still eventually punched through (I suspect it was his red ability ticked enough times and be boosted by blue that did it)

The second clip took a while to get going because I was trying to:
1. Match my own colours
2. Stop Mephisto getting pink to stun me
3. Ensure Avalon was lowest health for bonus protection for me

In both vids I purposely avoided teammates that would give him direct damage buffs (Zemo, May etc) so these are his damage numbers with a little buff from some strike tiles. Avalon and Hawkeye are both great for him as a "hypercarry" unit with Avalon giving him enough tiles to boost his blue and provide protection whilst Hawkeye generates AP

https://youtu.be/rYvcsV4DrBM?feature=shared

https://youtu.be/QYQwe53skcU?feature=shared

Either way I like him! Obviously perfect with Zemo but his blue can benefit any team

New Character - Red Skull (Johann Schmidt) 5*

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