My turn for a goodbye post

Malificant
Malificant Posts: 18 Just Dropped In
edited September 2015 in Off Topic
I'm going to start off by saying that this has absolutely nothing to do with SS. Yes, the 5*s look like they'll be a problem now, but I've been playing this game a long time. I've been playing over two years now and remember when a character took 50 covers to max. I've seen the spidey nerf, ragnerok, thorverine, patchneto, and countless others. They always cause short-term grief but the devs have done a good job over the last two years consistently improving the balance of the game. I think they've earned some trust that even if they screw up they'll make it right again.

No, the reason for writing this post isn't balance, it's content. Work recently got busier and then I had an accident and I found myself less and less interested in logging in. I'm personally driven by variety, and in the first year the game did great. Counting from October 2013 when unstable ISO-8 first appeared, there were 6 episodes, 4 heroics, Deadpool vs. MPQ, the simulator and the gauntlet all in the first 12 months. Not all of those events were good, but there was always something new to look forward to just around the corner.

In the almost 12 months since we've seen Meet Rocket & Groot, Enemy of the State, DDQ, Ultron, and Growth Industry (and that's charitable given that I cleared it in a day), and it's slowing down. Only Ultron and Growth Industry happened in the last 6 months. On top of that, the amount of variety in the game has been reduced to a pittance. The season structure as barely changed. Every tournament is a required featured 3*+ and two of our choice. We've now had over 200 chances to run DDQ, and the exact same strategy works every single time. The game is now the very definition of grind.

I know they wanted to stop telling Dark Reign, but they left it with Sentry joining the Dark Avengers (I'm assuming that's not how the story ended in the comics). They could have at least done something to wrap that up while they were busy with movie tie-ins. And yes, there have a been a lot of new characters over the last year, but so what? Developing new characters are fun, but I already have 3 A-teams that suit me. It's not enough to power up characters so just to keep up with the treadmill of the PVP meta to win prizes that merely let me keep up with the PVP meta. It may be cheesy but the story is what provides the meaning to do any of it.

I work in game development and I understand. The game has certainly improved in revenue and engagement as development has shifted towards an exclusive focus on characters. I'm hardly pissed. I'm just not the target market anymore. If the focus swings back to content some time in the future I may come back. But until then, for everyone sticking around, have fun.

Comments

  • snlf25
    snlf25 Posts: 947 Critical Contributor
    As least give it until the Second Anniversary in a couple weeks or come back for it. I hope we will get something special.
  • Dayv
    Dayv Posts: 4,449 Chairperson of the Boards
    Goodbye posts go in off-topic. Nothing personal, that's just where they go.
  • Malificant
    Malificant Posts: 18 Just Dropped In
    I probably will check out the anniversary since it's the best hope for new content.

    In the meantime, there's one more thing I just remembered that I wanted to share. There's always been grumbling on the forums about the attainability of rewards. Consider that in the limit everyone ends up with a maxed out roster. I know that the devs keep moving the goalposts by adding new characters, but the player base is very efficient at creating new optimal rosters, and now that MMR is gone and matchmaking is based on the levels of your top characters you're always playing against people with similar rosters and improving your roster doesn't change that. Skill and strategy matters, but given that matches are heavily weighted to the player it doesn't matter that much.

    Given that rewards are mostly distributed by percentage, tournaments boil down to an auction of time. Let's say you want a 3* cover. You need to put in more time and money than 85% of players. That's it, everything else is at the margins. Of course, unlike normal auctions, since the currency is time you pay the bid whether you win the auction or not which rationally leads to bidding wars and makes people feel trapped (pot committed). The more popular the game gets, and the more people want the top rewards, the higher the bids get and the harder it is to place and the more frustrated everyone gets. Progression rewards are a way out of that since they don't have enforced scarcity. That's why you'll probably see them used more and more as time goes on.