I'm leaving MPQ after this season...and here's why

Marvel Puzzle Quest MPQ General Discussion
1

So here I am on day 1521 (over 4 years). I have my highest 5 star at level 505. I have a few 4 stars at level 370 and many more so close to that. I’ve got more than half of my 3 stars at level 266, some with duplicates at that level, and many near to. I have 3-5 max champed duplicates of every 2 star, and…well, who cares about my one stars. I have every single 5 star character in the game (except Hela) and I can get in the top5 of every pvp event that I bother to try at, as well as top 5, if not top 1, in every pve event.

So why am I leaving? Because D3 doesn’t care about it’s player base.

I wrote into Customer Support regarding their most recent outage. In a 7 day event, I was in first place at the open of every sub, and finished in first place at the grind of every sub. EVERY sub…with one exception; when the outage disabled me from entering the game at grind time. When I finally got in, I had top 200 rewards for the sub. I also had to open the following sub late and was in 6th place, and still managed to finish that sub in 1st place by grind time. Overall, I finished the Hulk event in 6th place. This meant that I received precisely zero Latest Legend tokens, instead of the 4 I was expecting, not to mention any other reward differences between the ranks. How did CS compensate it’s player base? 5000 ISO and 250 HP.

I explained to CS that this was in no way, compensation. To purchase 100 CP, the equiavelent to 4 LT, I would need to buy 14 Stark Salaries and 2 Logan’s Loonies,at a total cost of $1868.84 AUD. What they “compensated” me with, was slightly less than 2x Treasure Box iso purchases, totalling $12.98 AUD. I won’t factor in the HP since 250 is what I would have gotten in T1 anyway, though the non-T1 players got a bonus there. Most other rewards between what I got and what I would have gotten roughly the same, except I also missed out on 2 heroic tokens; not of great value, but not devoid of value either. CS made it clear that they would not compensate me any further but would “provide [my] feedback to the team for further review”. This is the same canned BS response I got last outage, and the outage before that…

Let’s talk about the last outage. They gave everyone in the top 20, 2 LT’s. Those who end up in the T20 anyway, were probably happy. Those who don’t but happened to luck into T20 because of the outage, probably also happy. But think about this. T20, of EVERY SCL. I’m interested to see how PVP MMR changed for those small SCL3 and 4 players who suddenly got themselves a 5 star. I was in the running for T5, until the outage, ended in 12th place and got 2 LT’s (which is what I would have ended at). The person in the running for T1, ended in 5th and got 2 LT’s from rank and 2 from compensation, which means he got the 4 he would’ve gotten. Now the person who finished in first place, was definitely going to finish in the T10; with no chance of reaching T5 without several players above him not finishing their grind. He SHOULD have gotten zero LT’s. What he did get was 4 LT’s from rank and an additional 2 from compensation. 6 LT’s is the equivalent of 21 Stark Salaries and an Asgard Treasure…or $2794.78 AUD…for playing less optimally.

The game gets you to spend money, and time to strategize and play optimally, and play faster, in order to compete. The rewards are to entice you to grow. The bigger and better your roster, the more optimally you can compete, and the less time you need to invest theoretically. And when you disregard the effort put in, and fail to compensate accordingly, then all the time and money invested is for naught.

Thinking back over the years, they’ve allowed high paying players to share accounts. They’ve had bugs where classic tokens were giving out 5 star characters at a 1in4 chance, with no repercussion to anyone who exploited that or no chance for those who didn’t to level the playing field. They had a bug where a $2 purchase gave the same 7 CP as a Stark Salary, with no repercussions to those who exploited it and no way for others to level the playing field. The list goes on.

And for anyone who thinks they are doing their best, read the EULA (https://d3go.com/legals/#marvel_puzzle_quest_terms_of_use). They have no warranty, no obligation to it’s players of any sort and (if I’m reading this right) can charge us for maintenance of the game?!
“SHOULD THE GAME PROVE DEFECTIVE, YOU ASSUME THE ENTIRE COST OF ALL NECESSARY SERVICING, REPAIR, OR CORRECTION.”

Over the years, I haven’t been one of their cash cows, but I’ve certainly spent well over what my first car cost me. Will my leaving affect them in any way? No, not at all. But I know that there are many who feel like me. Many on the brink of leaving. Many who are ready to tip after just one or two more instances of unwarranted punishment from D3. I, myself, persevered through several years of it. So while I have zero faith that Customer Support is really passing my opinion on for further review, I just wanted to pass it on myself. And while there will likely always be people filling the servers and paying their way through, this is a bit of knowledge on why, at least some, of the long term players have been leaving recently.

**Mod note: inappropriate language was removed - fight4thedream

2

This meant that I received precisely zero Latest Legend tokens, instead of the 4 I was expecting, not to mention any other reward differences between the ranks.

What if your phone had died? Or some idiot crashed his car into a cell tower and you didn’t have signal? Or you tripped and broke your foot and had more important things to do than play a mobile game? Or just decided to hell with it and didn’t play? Or you overslept? Or you just forgot?

From a customer service standpoint, all of those things look the same. They look like you didn’t play.

They can’t respond when you didn’t play but claim you were going to and had extenuating circumstances, because that’s an absolute nightmare to try and prove. How can you prove you were actually free and trying to play the game? How can you prove you were going to be in first again?

When the servers are down, from their end, they can see that EVERYONE was effected. They have proof. And that’s what allows them to compensate people.

They can’t compensate you for a 1st place you were “expecting” because there’s no evidence that you deserved it more than someone else. Someone else placed near you who was busy and couldn’t play could make the same claim, and there’s zero way to tell apart someone affected by the server outage from someone who would have missed playtime regardless due to other factors.

Yeah, it stinks. Yeah, I get there’s some discrepancy with a previous time they gave out compensation. But this is not the kind of thing customer service can reasonably address the way you want them to. They just can’t. Not without vastly overloading the amount of resources handed out. (which they probably won’t do, since getting people to chase those resources is how they make money in the first place, they’d just be hurting themselves in the long run).

Really, truly, deep down, I think if you’re this bent out of shape for the loss of rewards for a single event, after playing for four years, you should probably put the game down. Even if it’s just a break, that’s not a healthy way to interact with a piece of entertainment.

3

I can totally understand this and if people think this is the only reason, it’s not. There are many reasons why this is his end and the last outage was the final straw. Go read Broll’s post about why he is leaving and these are some of the same reasons except this lock out was his final straw, and the lack of caring about the people that got hit the hardest.

When you play at a high level for many years in top ally’s for a long time too, these are the issues that build up on you. This game, especially PVE, is set up that you have to play at a certain time to reap the top rewards. When things happen that prevent you from doing this, things that are not your fault, you get upset. Yes you can move on, but it just pisses you off that the lack of communication or anything from the Dev team about this. So then why keep playing at certain times to keep playing for top rewards when the game crashes and they don’t care. So I can understand where he is coming from and wish him luck. Another vet gone.

4

In this case, I’m with you. It’s a difference if you actually lose rewards due to a bug or an outage or if you perhaps would lose some. I can remember I had the strange door bug when Nicu came out, I filled a ticket since the missing points would have gotten me an additional cover… and i got it from CS, they checked and i was rewarded my 3rd cover.
its always hard to tell what would have been, still I can understand that people are upset because of the outages but seriously as long as it isn’t a release, get over it and try again

5

Yeah,toast has been t2 on every 1.9 I’ve played in - he WOULD have gotten his LTs.
It’s not even missing compensation that’s driving people away - it’s the complete lack of dev interaction.
I’ve been clean for two weeks so I wasn’t part of the Hulk shenanigans - that might very well have been the final straw for me too.

6

It’s a lazy and convenient argument to say “Oh, you could have flushed your phone down the toilet and never been able to play and CS wouldn’t have known the difference.” I am SO glad auto insurance companies don’t say “Well, had you not been driving your car today, you wouldn’t have been blind-sided by some drunk driver…”

Players aren’t owed anything. Time invested into the game doesn’t automatically equal rewards. Everyone gets that. BUT, every company has the option to step up, look at a customer’s history, and do what’s right for that customer. It means a lot, not just to them, but people they talk to. It’s the whole social aspect and why some companies have amazing reputations for customer service, and some… do not.

I have been a long time customer of a certain… rather large… company. Their website is often times unusable and cumbersome. Trying to shop for certain types of items is often akin to getting your teeth cleaned. They pack so much information into a product page that I often feel overwhelmed. But you know why I continue to shop there? Every single time I have had an issue–literally any issue–they have gone above and beyond what I felt would have been good customer service. I tell everyone about it. I keep coming back because I know I will be taken care of. And why wouldn’t they take care of me? They can see my history. They can see how long I’ve been a loyal customer, how much time I’ve spent shopping, how much I’ve bought, etc. Making one customer happy costs them very little, but they likely recoup that tiny cost in much larger ways.

Or they can say sorry, you will not receive your hypothetical rewards. Case closed. Move along.

But some people may in fact move along.

7

It’s pretty difficult to get upset about a single event’s worth of rewards. This game is a grind. It’s about consistency over a long period of time. It isn’t about one or two events. Long-term progress hasn’t been harmed in a significant way for anyone due to lackluster compensation for all of the technical glitches COMBINED.

8

This is why I don’t pay a cent for ftp mobile games. Whether I get good or bad compensation, I could really care less.

9

That’s a bummer story Ron.

Sounds like yet another PVE problem where the solution is “all progression rewards”, rather than PVP in disguise.

10

What easy brackets are you getting into to be winning them?

11

I’m wondering about that too. You have to either start as the event begins, or directly after a bracket flips. I’ve played PVE right at open and ranked T50 and I’ve played starting with few hours left on the first day and ranked T50 there too. Only difference is that it’s slightly easier to rank T50 in the latter case, but T10 is still reserved for players with 5* at very high level (in SCL7).

12

Toast is in 1.9.3 for almost every event. For those that done know 1.9.1 flips before the start, 1.9.2 flips from the start to 3 hrs after start. Then 1.9.3 and 1.9.4 opens about 10-12 hrs after the start. So he is always in an early bracket.

13

10-4, no good players join 1.9.3

14

Well at least they are consistent lately. I was in first for that last run of Prodigal Son before the glitch that caused nodes to not add in for some, but not all players. I snap-shotted everyday the subs to show that just that node of ignored points dropped me from 1st to below 6th. They gave everyone 2 LTs for that PVE fiasco, but I still feel I’m owed the 4 for first (or at least 2 more to get to the 4 I earned and expected).

Part of the issue is when you get a deaf ear even though you have the facts and evidence to show exactly what happened. These are not cases of I WOULD HAVE been 1st. When a player goes through the trouble of collecting and submitting all the evidence proving an error and how the rankings should total, it should at least be looked at.

15

Maybe I’m being obnoxious asking this question, but I’m also tired of seeing these I’m leaving posts on the forums. Why are you waiting until the end of the season? If you’re done be done, I’m sure finishing this season with the anger you clearly have from this compensation will be miserable.

16

I get where OP is coming from. Losing t5 because some people got lucky by grinding early is kind of a kick in the pants. It’s not like I wasn’t there trying to get in at the right time to do my final sub clear. I was. Customer Service telling me that they could not give me the Red Iso that I would have normally gotten because they couldn’t give me rewards for something I didn’t do. I could have asked for more, but I didn’t. I figured compensating me the red iso was fair. But they denied it. I didn’t ask for the CP I would have gotten for the t10 sub. I didn’t ask for Its that I would have gotten if I had placed t2. I didn’t ask for anything other than what I would have earned in those particular nodes that compensation did not cover.

Sure, I get that I was denied the red iso. I didn’t actually clear the nodes. Except I didn’t drop the ball. I didn’t forget to feed the hamster that runs the servers. I didn’t get the opportunity to clear those final nodes that would have easily given me the points to be at least top 2 for an entire 7 day event. That’s a lot of playing and grinding in order for it to all come down to a 6 hour server outage. My placement and my alliance’s placement were negatively affected by the outage.

Of course, we could play the would’a, should’a, could’a game all day long. But in the end, the game crashed and it negatively impacted not a small amount of players. The devs and CS should be tripping over themselves apologizing instead of just patting us on the head and giving us Iso and HP.

17

Sounds like a guy who’s going to stop smoking… after this pack of cigarettes. Why wait until end of season? Do you need end of season rewards when you’re not playing? Play if it’s fun , stop playing if it isn’t or you feel cheated. It’s just a game, the reasoning is simple.

18

@Wonko33 @bundles87

I admit I am ignorant of the OP’s alliance, but anyone who is a top player in PVE is also playing PVP hard. The season is just 6 days from being over and high end mercs are getting harder to come by as vets leave left and right.

He’s obviously staying until the season end to help avoid leaving his alliance in the lurch. It’s also a natural end point for a lot of players…finish off the season and move on.

19

Echoing Bluewolf’s comment. One of the biggest reasons behind why I keep playing is the community of people. A day doesn’t go by that I don’t laugh at something in my Line rooms. Having a common thing to bring us together is a great thing is these divisive times.

I would never throw those ladies and gentlemen under the bus by leaving before the end of a season. Nobody wants to see anyone go, but life goes on and prioritizes change and we all understand that. But friends don’t just burn bridges on the way out the door. I respect his decision to finish out the season. :slight_smile:

20

Hi @Ron30

First off, I want to thank you for being a part of our community, especially for over 4+ years residence on our forum. While you may have preferred lurking over posting, the fact that you were compelled to provide your feedback before leaving speaks volumes as to how much you support this community and want to improve it for the future. For that, I want to thank you!

Compensation has always been a tricky topic to navigate. There are always challenges to overcome; everything from reward determination to the technical details surrounding mass, yet granular accreditation. Does that mean there’s nothing more we can do though? I would say that’s certainly not the case.

It’s moments like these where we get the opportunity to learn and grow, improving the process and subsequently the experience of players impacted by it. Feedback like yours helps us do so. While Customer Support does in fact pass along feedback to the rest of our team, I will be sure to personally pass this along as well, as I think this sheds an insightful light on the veteran perspective during situations like these.

Once again, thank you so much for being a part of our community and sharing your feedback. As with every departing player I cross paths with here, I do sincerely hope you decide to come back one day. Regardless though, I wish you the best of luck in you and your Alliance’s season performance, as well as in any of your future endeavors.