So after reading the recent updates from the devs, I noticed there is a good bit of uncertainty on the player side due to the changes we know are coming, but don’t know what they are. So I was curious if this is making anyone change their MPQ habits such as pulling tokens, spending cash, decrease in playtime?
Myself, I am hesitant to pull tokens (and I have like 2500 available pulls) because I don’t know if they are going to circle back and do anything with these low power characters. I don’t want to buy 6-star shards because it sounds like they might be nerfing them as well. I am just asking because I noticed I have decided to not buy 6-star shards twice now. So, just curious if anyone else has noticed an immediate change in their MPQ habits since all of this started last week?
I haven’t changed anything. To me it’s worthless to speculate about what may or may not get nerfed (or buffed) sometime in the future. I’ve never hoarded anything, though, and most likely never will.
Entrail you are an aberration as we know, (that is not a dig). I am curious about behavioral habits overall with the game. As we know uncertainty causes behavioral changes/different behavior strategies/coping mechanisms. In this case I’m not even just talking about hoarding, it could be play time, spending, whatever. Just curious about the changes if any in the player base.
I hoarded past the Bears and for Man-Thing. I am pulling everything again. I have only very rarely hoarded in the past (mostly only for Frankie).
The dilution is so bad I don’t see much point in hoarding for anything except 5s you want in Latests.
I am trying to remember the now is all we really have in life. You can use the past to inform your decisions in the now, but the game having a future - such as it is - has always been half an illusion, just like anything else. You can predict things with some certainty but then there are things you cannot and they happen to people all the time.
Right now people in Italy are deciding from month to month (or whatever) how long the game will continue to run. People who will never talk to us or care about our concerns. Uncertainty is a constant in a FTP mobile game despite what the devs want you to believe; they are selling us the future of the game because no one would spend on something that was ending and when it ends will leave you unsatisfied and frustrated at your unachieved, and now unachievable, goals.
In any case my spending decisions now come down to “does this seem to have any value” which is informed by my experience with the game. I am enjoying it less than before thus my spending is almost always zero, currently. Maybe if there was some insane value for very low cost I would consider it. I am not persuaded by costumes unless I am a very big fan of the character or costume. OTOH I bought the Shatterstar costume because he looks like Guy Gardner and that made me laugh…I am like all humans prone to contradiction and whim. I did buy the Man-Thing costume because Man-Thing is awesome and the comic look ones are hugely appealing.
My play motivation is lower but I am still engaging mostly. I have pulled back on Heroics for sure since the experience got worse this season and I don’t care to spend more time playing something I am enjoying less and that I am very unsure will exist for all that much longer. I still do 25 PVP matches which many consider pathetically small effort but that’s my limit.
No, I know. Being uncertain about the future of your characters is a big deal to a lot of MPQ players, and would probably prevent them from investing their resources.
I just think they should always have been uncertain!
When I started playing stuff got randomly nerfed or buffed all the time, and that’s why I decided to never go all in on good characters, or ignore bad ones. Over the last few years it’s been steadier, certainly much steadier than when I started, but I never had much confidence that guys would stay the same.
See, previously it was “Everything at the moment is mediocre, I’ll save up and spend it all when I see something good.” Now it’s more “anything good I see will cease to be good, so there’s no benefit in saving for it.”
Should I have had less hope previously? You’re absolutely correct, I probably should not have operated with any expectation of reliability or consistency in the past. But that optimism is certainly gone now.
So you did create a strategy in response to dev behavior which was to not care wholly about optimization of resources and just play. It is a healthy way to be, that is for sure.
He did look like Guy! I didn’t pay enough attention to notice that. Thank you for the post! I have stopped doing heroics and might not even engage with PvP at this point. I want to buy some 6-star shards…but not in this current environment. My safety behavior regarding what is going on is to watch and wait then decide if I want to keep my wallet even somewhat open for these guys.
Edited to add if they say what their plan is…then I might agree with them and start spending money again. It really is a ROI thing for me, basic as that (which essentially is me deciding if it brings me entertainment)
I think this is a good thing for you, then. If you can find a way to still enjoy the game without that optimism, good. If not, well, you’ll probably leave, and that’s probably also good (for you)!
I understand lots of folks weren’t around at the beginning when so many things were in flux, and that the last few sets of devs have kept everything the same all the time. That’s all some players know!
But it’s not the reality of these kinds of games. You’re investing your money or time into something that has no actual value, that you don’t really own, and that can be changed at any time. It’s something that can just evaporate if the game ends, and that can happen at any time too, for no obvious reason!
The uncertainty has always been there, and if this current situation is making it clear to folks, that’s a really good thing.
I’m along the same lines as EB, I still do all the things I’ve done for the last few years.
I hoard latest legends and CP, everything else gets opened.
I still play PvE (now all Heroic) as much as I’m able, which always gets me full progression, and normally top 50 or 100
I’ve very rarely played PvP much, and that also hasn’t changed. I will reconsider this when Heroic PvP is successfully launched
I still spend occasionally where I feel there is value. I have not been buying many 6 star offers, because I believe the value is insufficient for me. This is compounded by the rubbish store rates on Apple products £19.99 for 25 shards? Never in a million years (is the polite version of that!)
Chain offer of 1 full cover for £70 was tempting, but it was mojo, and also that’s my gaming budget for like 2 months. I’d probably buy a whole cover for £20, but that’s probably never going to happen, and that just means I’m not their target demographic for these offers.
Anyway, uncertainty be damned. I’ll just keep doing what I’ve always done. Nothing in life is certain
So for you it is just a strict value proposition in the offers? Which I think most would agree are fairly ridiculous. I guess they always have been though. I associate awful offers with these kind of games and just expect that from them. If they offered the prices you are saying I would guess they would see a profit jump. Though for me if I can’t trust the devs to be a good steward of the game…I might consider spending my 70 bucks on some other random slice of nerd life.
I typically spend my tokens and CP as soon as I get it. The lacklustre Spider themed classic legends has me hoarding CP, not the uncertainty around the game.
However, the uncertainty around upcoming nerfs has actively made me unfavourite Sam 5 and direct shards at 5s less likely to have a swift encounter with the nerf bat.
Can I clarify where the speculation about us nerfing 6-Stars came from? If it’s from a statement I have made then I need to go and correct or clarify that because that has not at all been considered.
You didn’t say it to my knowledge. It was an inference made due to a lack of information with power scaling. Just taking things to their conclusion. It was spoken about some in the…lots of posts regarding all of this. If power is going to come down then some like Galactus would naturally come down following what was said about slowing the game etc etc etc.
You saying it hasn’t been talked about is a perfect response! Probably should be its own post so it won’t get buried under the weight of the rest of this. (Just a suggestion and feel free to ignore it but don’t forget to explain the why they will stay) Edited to add, thanks again for chiming in!
Hopefully 6 star ascension has been discussed though.
Is there a plan to keep the other 400 + characters viable against 6 stars once people finally have them?
While the team is looking at what 5 star numbers are supposed to be, the should definitely look at a level 700 6star (at least the first 4), because that is mass invalidation indeed.
Well I can tell you what seems to be a certainty for me at present - every 5* I pull is Shatterstar! The effects of this? It’s making me grouchy and on the verge of forming the “I hate Shatterstar” club. Membership currently open.
