I spend plenty of money on other games compared to MPQ. Just bought Rollers of the Realm last week off of some steam sale, it was great. Beat it already, had a good end point but only moderate re-playability. Many games have lots of replay value, but still typically have an “end”. I generally throw down $5 to $20 (and very rarely more) on games, I’m quite willing to buy them a year later, and usually play them single player only. But I’m sure I throw down $250+ every year.
This might just mean the FTP model is not for me. Things I like in games that might make me more willing to pay here:
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An endpoint. FTP doesn’t ever want to have this, so how about…
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An “overpowered” point. I love RPG’s where I can level up my characters to just annihilate the opposition with no real difficulty. Sure, it took tons of hours to get them there, and I didn’t -need- to play that much. But it’s a ton of fun to steam-roll lower levels! HOW TO MPQ: Make 4*'s nearly unbeatable by 3*'s, the way 3*'s are nearly unbeatable by 2*'s. Make MMR so you don’t -only- see the highest level characters, let the players “run the newbie levels” or “return to earlier levels” like other games - that is, fight the easiest teams for awhile (first three-hundred points in PVP, for example)
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Not constant difficulty. Some difficulty is great! But just like I enjoy getting a high powered team in games to beat the bosses, I don’t want the minions to take forever and wear me down. HOW TO MPQ: Gauntlet, PVP end are difficult: superb! Why should every PVE node be so difficult for the entirety of your gaming experience?
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Feeling of progression. Even if there is no “end”, I like to feel like I’ve gone along and have achieved something. HOW TO MPQ: like #3, make it so PVE’s start to feel -easier-, and not harder through your time in the game. Make the PVP MMR not immediately jump to higher levels as you go, play some easier teams in early points. Make all characters not only usable, but reasons (other than heroic/essential) to -actually- use a larger percentage of your roster.
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Feeling of “leveling up”. It’s nice to get that new piece of equipment, that new weapon, that new character! I really don’t like the games where you get them and you can use them; I really don’t like the games where you get the new stuff and say “how fast can I never use this again?”. HOW TO MPQ: Boosted characters are a help! DDQ (getting more covers a bit quicker) help! ISO boost helps! More drops in tokens help! Even out the bad (unused) characters faster, so they see play and don’t feel worthless. Continue to give enough ISO/HP to actually be able to level all characters: don’t force min-max. One of the biggest “let’s buy!” motivations would be some option to perhaps be able to max out a 3* (covers and ISO) for $50, and max out a 4* for like $100. ISO sale prices have always been an ongoing joke right now.
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Continued play. Many games you can “farm” health somehow. Many games you die, and re-start with full health again. HOW TO MPQ: Character dies? Starts at full health again! (remove health packs). OR: Need more health packs? Here is an area you can go fight a bit with low level characters to get more of them! Possibly the most frustrating part of this game is running out of health, and you simply have to stop playing.
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Rules explained. Many games come in with a tutorial, and have a FAQ somewhere. HOW TO MPQ: the story is sort of (intentionally) a tutorial. But a nice “?” button that brought you to a FAQ would be great. And actually ANSWERING some of the FAQ’s would be great. There are whole sections on this website that maintain numbers like “how much it costs to level to X” and so forth - there is no reason not to share things like this. I still contend MMR is -the- rule of the game, and while I understand some reasons it is not shared, I would like to see it as a player starting out.
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Consistency of characters. And here is the biggie for me. I don’t want my warrior to be the biggest, strongest guy to start out with in a game: throw most of my play-time and XP into him, only to be out-classed by my lower level rogue at the end. I don’t want my sniper rifle to have outstanding accuracy and damage (with a limited clip) to have terrible accuracy when it is found to be to strong. HOW TO MPQ: Stop with the nerfs, buff instead. I said I will never pay here again after I saw the “true healing” and CMags/Spidey nerf, and I have not. I became tempted for awhile, but then saw the 4hor nerf followed by XF nerf. If the best characters will continually be made worse, I’m not going to pay for any of the “best characters”, right? Maybe take the next best characters and make them contest the warrior and the sniper rifle, rather than taking away the warrior’s health and the sniper rifle’s accuracy.