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Is this supposed to be a joke?
Dear Kabam Team .
I would like to express my concern and frustration regarding the recent changes to Energy Refills and other rewards.
To put it simply, the logic behind removing Energy Refills from the 4-hour crystals feels unreasonable. It is similar to saying: “Since you have money saved for emergencies and haven’t used it yet, we will take it away and put a time limit on it.” This kind of reasoning makes no sense. Energy Refills were already well-balanced supplies, and removing them only to bring them back later—after most players had already completed major content with fewer resources—feels unfair. Adding to that, they are now mainly useful only for Battlegrounds after the removal of Elder Marks.
These decisions make it seem as though the game is becoming increasingly hostile toward free-to-play players. If Kabam truly dislikes free-to-play progression, then why continue to call this a free-to-play game at all? You might as well put a price tag on the Google Play Store, and at least then players would know what to expect. Many would probably quit immediately, but at least it would be honest.
Furthermore, the rank rewards from the Realm event also feel like a joke for free-to-play players. I want to congratulate Kabam on succeeding in pushing away a large portion of the free-to-play community with these recent decisions.
Finally, I would like to point out that the official forums feel outdated and often go unanswered. The only reason many of us post there is to get official replies, so I humbly request that the team engage more with the community there.
To all readers: the main point of this post is the diabolical changes to Energy Refills.
Please stay focused on this issue instead of nitpicking other unrelated points.
My requests:
1. Bring back the old Alliance Quest rewards system.
2. Stop making decisions that punish free-to-play players.
3. Reconsider the removal and restriction of Energy Refills.
I sincerely hope Kabam will rethink these changes and listen to the player base that keeps this game alive.
Re: Let’s talk crashed
In retrospect…. That there is even a discussion about treating paying customers like adults or not says a TON. What kind of business has to debate that?
Chuck_Finley
Re: Let’s talk crashed
Think I can agree with you on the sacrifice things now to get better experience later on bit. I am ready to sacrifice my in game time to get better real life experience later on. Thanks for the insightful post.
Graves_3
1 step forward, 3 steps back
Regarding energy refills in Free crystals. While I understand you want progressing players to have this “tension” with using their energy, this “tension” has no reason to exist with relatively endgame players who’ve completed all of the Acts, the most recent Carina Challenges, etc. Most Valiant+ players use energy to play Battlegrounds for fun, competition, or to hit their alliance minimum. You are severely affecting that.
If you want to remove energy from free crystals, sure. I ask that you provide Paragon or Valiant+ players a new crystal for energy refills since we don’t use energy to progress through the game (through Act 7 for example), but rather freedom to do other things (like Battlegrounds).
Re: Here's a good idea to replace EM and energy refill issue
Removing the use of Elder marks will allow me to no longer bother with BGs. I've only ever used them. Not that it really matters to me though, I despise BGs
Re: Here's a good idea to replace EM and energy refill issue
I'd suggest Refills in the VT Milestones myself, in whatever capacity.
Re: Garbage
The energy issue so easy to solve, literally anybody can solve it in one day. Unfortunately you got clowns commenting "Nice! What type of experience do you have managing an economy for over 1m users and spending tens of millions of dollars each year?" For critizing kabam. Literally defending them for free 🤡
Re: Let’s talk crashed
All this time wasted in the last month on energy and EQ reminds me of something
How much time and resources would you estimate has been spent in this past few months on this issue. Could have just let it be and focused on more ways to keep the players engaged, not disengaging.
Penzito
Re: Let’s talk crashed
I can not speak for everyone, however, I know as an adult I prefer to have all the facts and all the information when decisions are being made. So if we are going to be treated like adults let's get down to doing just that.
- What are the financial goals set for the game? I understand you do not make the decisions, but it is clear that choices have been made and the monetization demand has increased. The amount of spending required to complete deals has more than doubled in a very short amount of time combined with the fact that we went from 2 major sales a year to a sale every month. Knowing what the expectations are can allow everyone to decide if the game is going to be something they can continue to support. Not knowing, based on the current evidence, leads me to believe it is only a short amount of time before the game is going to be too expensive to actually stay enjoyable.
- Do the powers that be actually understand that Energy = Engagement? Adults do not always have a lot of free time because of other adult responsibilities. Which means when we do have time to actually play, we want to be able to play. If I spend all my energy doing the daily quest and do not have refills at the time, then my playtime is done and I may or may not have available time when the energy refills naturally. I have never understood the restrictive energy concept in any game other than a blatant attempt to make money.
- Y'all say you value our feedback and listen to what we say, then make decisions that are exactly opposite of what we are saying. The current EQ fiasco is a prime example of this. We beta tested Valiant EQ formats and they were getting overall good reviews and then you unleash this monstrous change that is in no way what we were asking for. It feels very disingenuous to say our feedback is valued when we these choices are made.
- Finally, clear and consistent communication is the key. There are times we go days without a comment on the forums from a Kabam employee, then we will get a few messages, and then days of silence again. There are many of us who post daily, and we have full time jobs and other responsibilities. If we can find the time to post that regularly for a game we enjoy, then I do not understand how people whose job it is to interact with the community can not be posting daily. I know that we can be an unruly bunch, I have no disillusions about that at all. That said, when we do get communication, it should not be snarky sassy comments, mostly looking at Mike on this one.
Finally, a bonus challenge if you really want open and honest communication. Give us a road map for the game. Blizzard started doing year long road maps for WoW a couple years ago and it made a huge difference in the community there. You don't have to tell us what champions are coming over the next year, it doesn't have to be that specific, but more than the general vagueness in the QVC style live streams. However, if we knew Rank 5 7* materials will start here, 8* (we know it will happen) will start here, this feature is here, etc that would improve things. Right now all we can do is speculate on any such things based very loosely on past time lines, which are not the best indicator of the future anymore around here.
Zeraphan
