Yepyep said: This post comes from something I posted on another thread concerning how most new things we -- the "normal" player base -- get that is new, now, seems to be support characters.
NeonBlue said: Why would the average 4* or 5* who aren't collectors care about new releases if it doesn't compete with what they already have? What's the incentive to spend money champing other characters when one team or character does it so much better, that it becomes almost a requirement to compete?
Phumade said: NeonBlue said: Why would the average 4* or 5* who aren't collectors care about new releases if it doesn't compete with what they already have? What's the incentive to spend money champing other characters when one team or character does it so much better, that it becomes almost a requirement to compete? You've truly asked the existential whale question. But maybe you've asked the question to the wrong audience.In all likely hood, mpq is a niche market game with a limited appeal intellectual property. However, that intersection of niche game (match-3) with comic book aficionados guarantees a passionate fan base with a demonstrated history (in both similar licensed games, and in tangentially related spheres) of both spending and advocating for their view points.So for that audience, the typical mindset already that of a collector. And once you make that leap, you pretty much have to abandon common sense economics and apply "collector" psychology.
Phumade said: mobile gamers are a niche market in and of themselves. let alone discussing match3 variants.In the Realm of discretionary spending on electornic "fun" mobile gaming probably lags behind console and pc gaming. And in reality, electronic gaming overall, is probably a minor subset of the money spent on movies, television etc...It all depends on how accurately you think you can describe the actual playerbase.What you define as "casual" is actually pretty well informed compared to the avg person who plays candy crush.1. I'm pretty sure even the noobiest mpq player knows the distinction between Avengers, Mutants, and Spider verse.2. I'm also pretty sure they a more than passing interest in mcu.Those two statements aren't necessarily true about the avg candy crush player.You might think the avg mpq player is noob tier compared to the guys who can discuss the various iterations of GTOG, but really they are already way more nerdy and collector predisposed than the avg candy crusher.
NeonBlue said:The noobiest mpq player definitely has not read the comics, but likely has seen either the movies or a TV show. Those interested in comic books are a true niche. I'm not sold that these noobiest players have more than a passing interest in the MCU. It's very likely that some of them saw just the latest Avengers film and decided to play based on that.
Phumade said: mobile gamers are a niche market in and of themselves. let alone discussing match3 variants.In the Realm of discretionary spending on electornic "fun" mobile gaming probably lags behind console and pc gaming..
NeonBlue said: ... Match 3 is not that niche among mobile gamers (going all the way back to Candy Crush and Bejeweled), ...
NeonBlue said:I think mobile games WERE a niche market, but that's changed in the last six years or so. If you consider both the Candy Crush casual and the MPQ player, I think its growth and population outweighs console and PC gaming. Mobile games have activated a market that has not been catered to: Kids and older adults. Kids still play Video games, but mobile games have become far more accessible and far more plentiful for kids. Older adults generally grew up after the console age, and generally won't invest in a machine to play games, but have a phone and are much more willing to download an app. Console and PC gaming appeals mostly to younger adults who grew up in an environment where PC/Console gaming was the standard.
TPF Alexis said: Yepyep said: This post comes from something I posted on another thread concerning how most new things we -- the "normal" player base -- get that is new, now, seems to be support characters. I haven't been playing as long as many, but even in the year and change that I have been, I've noticed that these things sort of tend to go in waves. Not sure if it's really intentional on the part of the devs, but there are definitely clomps of one sort of character or another.In latest 12 right now, I see 5 Support characters of varying quality, (Nico, Kraven, Lockjaw, Jubilee, and Valkyrie), 5 offensive characters of varying quality (America, Rogue, MEHulk, Nightcrawler, Yondu), and a couple that I don't have enough experience with, but seem to form a good pair (Panther and Shuri). There are at least a couple of very good options in both the support and offense categories, but also at least a couple of mediocre to bad ones. Seems like a fairly reasonable spread to me.
Yepyep said: TPF Alexis said: Yepyep said: This post comes from something I posted on another thread concerning how most new things we -- the "normal" player base -- get that is new, now, seems to be support characters. I haven't been playing as long as many, but even in the year and change that I have been, I've noticed that these things sort of tend to go in waves. Not sure if it's really intentional on the part of the devs, but there are definitely clomps of one sort of character or another.In latest 12 right now, I see 5 Support characters of varying quality, (Nico, Kraven, Lockjaw, Jubilee, and Valkyrie), 5 offensive characters of varying quality (America, Rogue, MEHulk, Nightcrawler, Yondu), and a couple that I don't have enough experience with, but seem to form a good pair (Panther and Shuri). There are at least a couple of very good options in both the support and offense categories, but also at least a couple of mediocre to bad ones. Seems like a fairly reasonable spread to me. I've been playing about the same length of time, more or less. And I agree with you about support characters, generally. In fact, I'll just point out my line that you didn't quote (no worries, it's just important to me personally in this thread): I have no problem with a well-implemented support character, personally.
TPF Alexis said: Yepyep said: I've been playing about the same length of time, more or less. And I agree with you about support characters, generally. In fact, I'll just point out my line that you didn't quote (no worries, it's just important to me personally in this thread): I have no problem with a well-implemented support character, personally. Yeah, I get that. I was more kind of going for 1) that we've actually got a pretty good balance of support and offense characters lately, rather than "most" being support characters, and 2) the idea that they've also done some pretty poorly-implemented offense characters as well. I like MEHulk, but he and Nightcrawler are definitely dependent on the right team, not all-rounders like, say, Valkyrie can be. Then you get into characters like Sandman, or going back further, Riri as originally released or XPool.
Yepyep said: I've been playing about the same length of time, more or less. And I agree with you about support characters, generally. In fact, I'll just point out my line that you didn't quote (no worries, it's just important to me personally in this thread): I have no problem with a well-implemented support character, personally.
MysterB said: aside from the 2% of those who are dropping fat stacks and beating the rest of the 98% into submission, I think this is the beginning of the end for the game. I find myself not having as much fun as I was 2 years ago. This game sorely needs an overhaul. They can’t even be bothered to fix the in-game character ability sounds. They ask us what we think about their game and barely, if ever, listen. It’s pretty clear with this past Infinity War event 300 vault that put supports behind a Pay wall (what a joke) they only care about money. I could go on........
NeonBlue said: MysterB said: aside from the 2% of those who are dropping fat stacks and beating the rest of the 98% into submission, I think this is the beginning of the end for the game. I find myself not having as much fun as I was 2 years ago. This game sorely needs an overhaul. They can’t even be bothered to fix the in-game character ability sounds. They ask us what we think about their game and barely, if ever, listen. It’s pretty clear with this past Infinity War event 300 vault that put supports behind a Pay wall (what a joke) they only care about money. I could go on........ There is an important metric that's hard to ignore when anticipating the "end for the game," which is that according to the App Store, despite not consistently making it into "most popular," MPQ has always made it into top grossing. This means that despite people not having as much fun, there has always been consistently enough people who feel like the game's worth whaling for. When this metric declines, then you can be sure changes will come.
MysterB said: NeonBlue said: MysterB said: aside from the 2% of those who are dropping fat stacks and beating the rest of the 98% into submission, I think this is the beginning of the end for the game. I find myself not having as much fun as I was 2 years ago. This game sorely needs an overhaul. They can’t even be bothered to fix the in-game character ability sounds. They ask us what we think about their game and barely, if ever, listen. It’s pretty clear with this past Infinity War event 300 vault that put supports behind a Pay wall (what a joke) they only care about money. I could go on........ There is an important metric that's hard to ignore when anticipating the "end for the game," which is that according to the App Store, despite not consistently making it into "most popular," MPQ has always made it into top grossing. This means that despite people not having as much fun, there has always been consistently enough people who feel like the game's worth whaling for. When this metric declines, then you can be sure changes will come. Absolutely. You reinforced the first part of my rant. There is a reason why there is a job posted under the career tab for a new digital market manager. The whales will get bored eventually, it’s fast approaching.