Is Proff Hoff’s video about Ebony Maw being a cash grab designed to counter Corv & Ghost justified?
SquishyjrThe_4TH
Member Posts: 2,767 ★★★★
Ok to understand this for players unknown to Ebony Maw’s ability. Guaranteed critics hits always miss unless specified. I’d like to emphasize the cash grab claim. Please be open minded since I am doing this since I want to know how the community overall could feel
Is Proff Hoff’s video about Ebony Maw being a cash grab designed to counter Corv & Ghost justified? 127 votes
Yes
47%
60 votes
No
52%
67 votes
0
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Comments
But while I can definitely understand that he believes that it is justified, it's really not that massive of a deal that he counters Corvus and Ghost... at least in my opinion.
Corvus and Ghost aren't too hard to fight on defence (or in questing) to begin with. And Maw doesn't have enough damage to be better for fighting them compared to existing champions.
His best use will probably be on defence. People will probably place him on the new 'completely hidden' nodes, and even then he won't guarantee kills. Compare that with... I dunno... Havok, who... well you're just dead unless you've got a Venom with an armor up or something.
So TL;DR is that I can understand why Prof is worried about how much of a money grab Maw seems to be, but I don't think he's gonna be used enough to make it too worrying...
Ebony has his own counters as well. If you scout your path in war, and see a mystic, prepare yourself. Therefore, no longer a cash grab. I don't know why anyone takes what he says to heart. He just says what the community wants him to say in terms of spouting conspiracy theories.
In this case, his argument is as follows: Ebony Maw counters crits without class advantage, that affects Corvus the most, everyone uses Corvus in alliance war, so obviously Kabam made Ebony Maw specifically to make alliance war cost more money, thus he is a cash grab.
Coming from a journalism professor, this is a line of argument that frankly goes a long way to explaining why I don't read newspapers anymore. The first counter argument goes like this: if a certain point of view concludes that if there are no counters to Corvus, then Corvus is the cash grab because everyone has to chase him, and If a counter to Corvus is introduced then the counter is a cash grab because all the people who chased Corvus must now spend to continue to use Corvus, then since both actions can be accused of being cash grabs, that implies that that point of view is to characterize everything as a cash grab, which means that point of view is invalid. I don't believe it is a stretch to attribute this general mindset to Prof Hoff and many of his supporters.
The second counter-argument goes like this: even in games where there is no way to use microtransactions to chase counters, online games with PvP will do exactly the same thing Kabam is doing: make attackers, and then counter them with counter-defenders, then counter those defenders with countering attackers. This tit-for-tat is the not just common place, it is basically how such PvP balancing is always done in games like this. Because everyone does it, either it is evidence for all of them to be cash grabs or none of them. And since it happens in games that don't allow for players to chase with cash, it can't be all of them. Ergo, that type of development doesn't support the charge of cash grab for any game on its own.
Personally, I don't have a real problem with Prof Hoff: he represents a not uncommon point of view among the playerbase, and that's all fine and good. But it is a point of view that on an objective level I find to be foundationless to the point of being conspiratorial. What makes him not completely insufferable is that I believe he's sincere. Unlike many people, I don't think he's just saying what will get him clicks. I think he believes what he's saying. I just think he's as wrong as he is sincere.
I think the worst case scenario is that he legitimately thinks that he's justified in what he's putting out. Sure it might result in lots more videos, but hey.
Also, if you are going to prosecute Prof Hoff on this, we do have to consider having to do so towards at least a few other MCOC Content Creators.
Case and point; Seatin's video on why the calendar rewards should be buffed. All of his Kabam CEO and other satirical videos. LITERALLY ANY TIME HE POSTS A STREAM HIGHLIGHT VIDEO. He legitimately thinks it's content worth making into a video, but it could also be viewed as just 'oh I want views cause I'm dirt poor
Also if you are using ghost then just use wasp for any mystics in your path or change your playstyle with ghost for just that one fight.
I definitely have some times where I see a video Prof puts out and go 'okay I don't personally understand why you wanted to make that video', but I can't think of a time where I thought 'oh he's just putting out that video to get clicks'.
Also I just wanted to make it clear that I don't mean any ill will towards you guys. I just think that this is a topic that's worthwhile discussing...
Given, I'd probably recommend that Prof tone down on monetisation of his videos, but hey it's his channel. Just chuck on an adblocker if you're so worried about him making money from supposed 'clickbait'... then he won't make any money from you watching his videos.