Real Money vs Quality Comparison. Observation and question.

[san]

I mean no offence to D3, as they have tried to make a great mobile game, and for the most part have done fairly well. That said, here is my observation.

Console/PC games take MUCH longer to build, are of MUCH greater quality (think 3D with dynamic characters and HD graphics vs 2D “animation” or more like flashing white light over a static drawing)… Many console and PC games are cheaper, WITH add-ons than MPQ is to level a SINGLE 3* 4* character. In example, I picked up Titanfall, with all add ons ever released for $32 on XB1… If I had a single cover for a 3* character, leveling them would cost me 1250 HP x 10 (or 2 x 4 + 2 for a 5/5/3 build). Even with the best “deal” of HP/$ seen in Stark Salary, you’re looking at 200HP for every dollar spent. That means that the 12,500 HP it would cost me to level a 3*, I would need to pay $62.50. There are 31 3* characters bringing the total to max cover (not counting ISO here) all of them to $1937.50. This does not take into account the 4* characters or the 2*… or potential future releases. It does not take into account HP/$ required to obtain shields, certain boosts, roster spots, or formerly alliance slots (latter having been corrected).

If you look at the fan base for most mobile games, I don’t think most people will shell out that kind of dough. Sure, some do, but this is a relatively small minority. Personally, I look at what I get out of a game, and if I am paying big bucks (anything over $50, as I’m not Richie Rich), I want to make sure that the quality is equal to what I put in… I don’t think I am the minority here.

I understand that not everyone is expected to be able to max their characters, and we can discuss this all night. However, I think that there’s a general consensus that in order to even compete, one ought to have a “viable 3* roster” of 3-6 3* characters. The money equivalent of this would be $187.50-$375…

So, I ask everyone here, is a mobile game, any mobile game, even one as fun and addicting as MPQ, worth $187.50-$375?

I am not bitter, I enjoy this game. I’m at day 134, and will continue to play. However, due to the price prohibitive structure of this game, the P2W nature that favours whales over the casual gamer, and the relative quality in comparison to arguably most new console games, I will not pay another penny into it.

Would you?

I extend this question to developers, as I’m sure many of you are gamers yourself. Developers, no need to respond. Just ask yourselves. Be very honest with yourselves. Give the answer to a friend or a loved one. I understand that you need to keep a business, and cannot slag your own game. At the same time, I know you are human beings too, with lives, husbands and wives, children, and many other hobbies, most of which cost a whole lot less than competing in MPQ…

Cheerios, and apologies if the post is a bit long…

[FaustianDeal]

The problems here are many; and you would probably be even angrier if you knew what the game used to be like. (I’m coming up on day 400.)

A pvp 10-pack used to include 1 guaranteed copy of the featured character. I’m not saying that’s a great thing, but it beats the heck out of where we are now, where a 10-pack includes an “increased probability” of getting the featured character. That was a crummy change. How do they justify it - because after they made the change people bought more 10-packs. They spun that as “people like the risk” like the lottery. The more accurate reason - because the only way I can compete in the essential nodes of this PVE is if I get 1 cover for the dang feature, and I didn’t get one on my first 10-pack, so I guess I need to buy another. That was a hideous change.

Lightning Round tokens used to only have the featured characters from the lightning rounds in them. Get a villain token and you are guaranteed to get a 3* villain for your trouble.. not glorified heroic token with an “increased probability” of drawing a feature character. This was a crummy change. There is a separate thread about how the rewards for lightning rounds should be changed because the new tokens make it so placing higher is probably a lower quality reward for the player. That was a change in the wrong direction. (Heck, Lightning Rounds also used to work like PVP - place high enough and you just got a cover for the feature.)

There also used to be a lot fewer characters in the mix. I used to look at people with a 50-character roster and think they were fools… but nearly everyone playing as long as I have has a roster at least that big now; because that’s how many characters there are. Since I started they have added >30 characters to the mix (probably doubling the total available roster size) but they have done nothing to address the fact that roster spots get more expensive with each one you buy. It wasn’t bad when having 1-roster spot/character cost you another 250HP, but I’m staring down the barrel at a 900HP roster spot the next time they add a character… for a character that won’t have enough covers to be usable for months. And I don’t have it nearly as bad as new players. If the RNG isn’t your friend you could wind up with 31 3* characters that each only have 4-8 covers and are basically useless… or you make cuts and prioritize a favorite character to save roster spots… but then you see your favorite character vaulted.. because a heroic token has to be 85% 2* cards (why exactly?) I had the luxury of adding roster spots slowly; I would hate to be starting new and be flooded with cool 3 star cards… each one forcing me to drop $5 to keep, or I have to discard/burn them. I’ve been allowed the luxury of dribbling small investments into this game over time when I wasn’t earning HP fast enough to keep up with the demands for roster space; if I hadn’t had 300+ days worth of events awarding me HP to partially fund some of those roster spots (and tokens bought when they didn’t stink)… if I had to drop all that coin all at once, or in a short span of days, I probably would have deleted the app and moved on.

Things I would like to see happen:
Roster spots should be cheaper (1/available character should be almost free)
3* drops should be improved (2* cards are given away as fight rewards… how is getting them from a heroic token supposed to feel good?)
vaulting is crap and should be abolished

When you look at the history of changes that have been made (to reduce drop rates of 3* characters, to artificially eliminate the supply of popular 3* characters, grossly expanding the number of characters while keeping roster pricing unchanged) I’m not sure I see that trend reversing itself… and its too bad.

A lot of the changes strongly suggest that they aren’t trying to build a lasting experience. They expect people to play for 30-90 days and move on, and they need to extract their pound of flesh while they have your attention. If you get distracted and move on before they got paid then they failed. Rather than making the experience stickier to get a longer term investment, they will take their $1 now.

Some of the changes also seem to suggest that they might prefer established players quit rather than finding a way to keep it interesting for them without it being detrimental to the new players. The sharding in PVP that causes death brackets, and the runaway scaling in PVE are examples of changes that are dissatisfiers for established players. But they choose those options over transparently segregating the player base, with the consent of the players in ways that balance the risks and rewards incurred by doing so.

Its a long response to say answers are hard to come by. Keep up the fight, and maybe things will improve.