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I mean that’s a pretty damning metaphor. Either way I think the larger point is if you keep upping the potency of the product then customers will OD and stop using the product… which is the current direction that is trending

they do these events and have in the past to encourage players to participate in alliance game modes.

They are probably more people leaving competitive alliances for less demanding or “retired” ones,.or leaving alliances altogether..than there are people joining them.

Just my thinking,..(and i could be wrong),..would be interesting to see what the data says.

On the one hand, story arc content is as easy or easier. On the other hand, everything else isn’t. We no longer have choose your own adventure difficulty on monthly, and new champs show up there. AQ is pretty static but raids are a significant step up, and raids seem to be getting less optional all the time. Side quests, battlegrounds, alliance war, all seem to be getting more complex in terms of both champion complexity and mental workload.

And defenders are not the only way in which new champs create a hurdle for new players. Complex attackers can be just as off putting as complex defenders. As I said, I don’t think we’re there yet, but I think we do keep edging in that direction, and let’s face it: none of us are all that good at judging what new players will and will or tolerate. We can change gears if veterans are unhappy. But the first sign the game has become unapproachable to new players might be the day we stop retaining them, and that might be too late to do anything about it.

Even hyper complex end game can make the game less approachable to new players. No one is making Act 3 guides; the first time anyone encounters MCOC might be someone’s Eternity of Pain video or Act 8.4 video or even Elder difficulty run through. That stuff showcases the game. We certainly can’t water that stuff down just to make it look approachable, but it’s all pieces to the puzzle. If you see the end game, then you see what you have to do monthly, then you see what the latest champs look like, is this what someone is going to want to start playing? Fortunately for us, right now the answer seems to be yes. But certainly there is a limit.

What makes this complicated is in small chunks, it’s all reasonable and even logical. It’s all individually designed to address specific problems in specific ways. I can’t fault any one thing (in spite of the many people who can). But the whole, taken together, does leave me concerned.

Not even a little bit. Its just to milk you out of items and to get you to rank champs you would never rank. Nodes are out dated.

There's nothing fun about this game at the moment.

and here we are again, people are already thinking about how to throw their the money in the most efficient way at kabam.

Considering the overall state of the game and kabams willingness to “listen” to people - i do not understand this.

That is the $200 million dollar question.

The fact is the people saying the players are enabling this are basically correct. It isn’t that the players want ridiculous defenders per se, but they want awesome champs “out of the box” and we judge today’s champs based on yesterday’s champs. Yesterday’s champs are already yesterday. And it is impossible to make increasingly strong attackers without making strong defenders that need those attackers. Without defenders with unique asks, there are no good attackers that don’t just do what everything else already does.

It isn’t just the whales. The game is powered by players chasing things, and the whales are just the biggest monetization part of that. But at all levels from the most casual F2P to the biggest whale, if there isn’t something new to chase, there’s no reason to play the game beyond a certain point.

If I had a solution I’d propose one, but the truth is I’m not sure what would simultaneously work given the current game environment and be acceptable to the current player population. Which kind of tells me either one has to change or both do.

People think the day of reckoning is people will get mad at annoying defenders and quit. But I don’t think that’s as likely as some people do. Players stick with the games they play through all sorts of challenges. There’s no game in existence where the number one past time isn’t griping about it. I think the real looming problem is the approachability problem. Every game as a service ultimately needs to keep attracting new players. Players who don’t have the same investment we do. People who will walk away at the first sign of a major impediment because they have no reason to stay, and see no path forward. I personally think we aren’t there yet, but we are moving in the direction of the game not being approachable to new players. And that’s an existential threat to the long term future of the game. We can all sit around and debate what we want and need, what we think is worth it or not worth it. What’s fair to F2P and what is necessary for the whales to keep investing in this game. But those guys? The people who are the future of this game? That’s not debatable. If the game isn’t approachable the overwhelming majority of them won’t play, and there’s nothing we can do to keep them if they don’t give the game a chance.

Where's the long version?

This video is brilliant, every point spot on.

He is working as intended. They are happy where he landed in the contest, no changes incoming.

I dont think its that difficult. Trap just put out a video where chatgpt did it twice in like 20 minutes.