**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Comments
You do your best to make as many people happy as you can, but there's a difference between feedback and ultimatums. Walk into Walmart and tell them if they don't give you what you want, you'll bring them down. They'll offer you a smiley sticker on the way out the door.
If the majority was happy with the game, this thread wouldn't exist right now.
This also applies to lower tier spending, but here you also face a different problem. You say that a targeted crystal wouldn't accelerate the influx of those new champs. But that depends on how good the targeted crystal is. If the numbers are low enough that would be true, but then the crystal would also be worthless to such players. It is literally impossible to make a crystal that helps players acquire champions, but doesn't increase the influx of those champions in a noticeable way.
If you are chasing champs, how quickly you can chase them is relevant and thus the structure of the crystals that create that opportunity is relevant. If you aren't chasing champs, the crystals themselves are irrelevant and any improvement in their structure would be equally irrelevant.
So to answer the question, being able to specifically target specific champs in a meaningful way can be detrimental because for players that are spending money to get them this would reduce the advantage they are spending money to get, devaluing their spending. For players that are pursuing them more conventionally, either the crystal accelerates that, and above a certain threshold that acceleration is problematic for reasons I mentioned earlier, or it doesn't accelerate them noticeably and the crystal has no perceived benefit. The gap between those two does exist, but it is both narrow and difficult to quantify. And for players not pursuing champs, offering better ways to target champs is harmless, but also meaningless. They don't factor into the discussion at all.
Also the bulk of the players who are not at act6 yet will face the same problem when they reach act6 if nothing changes.
When I say targeting is bad, I am (or at least try to be) clear this refers to specific champion targeting. In other words, I want Doom, so I want a way to grind my way to Doom guaranteed. But the rationale for targeting specific individual champions being detrimental to the game don't apply to crystals that specifically target a wide range of situationally useful champs, all of which would benefit the progress of the player in some fashion. Maybe more or less, but some.
This would be a bit oversimplistic and hyperbolic, but it tries to communicate the right idea. If Kabam added a 5* crystal that only contained champions that were useful in Act 6, however we define useful (and I have a way in mind), and made them available for purchase to Cavalier players in limited quantities, that would be an example of broad targeting that isn't harmful to the game. Or rather, the benefits far outweigh the downside.
That said, I understand exactly what everyone else is saying, too. While you may not feel that content creators or the top players leaving won't create a void, it will. Think about it this way. Kabam has created content that, as you tend to consider it, the player grows into. This involves challenging conventional patterns/muscle memory and requires much more strategy. The same players that you were defending are the same players who NEED those people - at least the content creators. Seatin become who he was because ___ is too hard and he usually has a video on it. He tells you counters! You can watch gameplay. He makes it look simple. That encourages these players who otherwise would give up the game to keep playing. That also increases the chances that some of them keep spending.
You seem like an older gamer. I was born in the 80s, so to some I'm older and some I'm younger. I mention that you seem like an older gamer because I feel like you underrate what the content creators bring to Kabam. I grew up reading the gaming mags to find help for accomplishing game tasks (until gameFAQ became well developed) so that's the world I'm used to. But YT is a HUGE deal now, and matters. Even if you don't use YT for MCOC help, you likely have used it for help for something else in the past, so you should be able to understand how valuable that can be. If they leave, that will hurt the company, and I don't really think that's in doubt. Content creators for this video game serve as an unpaid marketing firm. That's huge and I'm not sure why you discount that aspect so much.
For the lower tiers, the more I think about it, I wonder if being unable to target champs in a meaningful way really matters. A new mid-tier champ can still produce at a high level for a lower account in a way it cannot for a veteran.
All of which confirms my belief that there’s really no way (other than for significantly increased cost) the team makes specific champ acquisition any easier.
Dr. Zola
EDIT: I just read your reply to DragonBlood above. If that operates along the lines of cruder things suggested like functionality specific crystals (power control, immunities, etc.) but determined by in-game quantitative metrics, then that’s maybe a reasonable approach. The issue that exists even for a lot of veteran players is the inability to pick up champs for niche content when at the mercy of pRNG. At least I might be fine knowing I’ve got a decent shot at a champ with X abilities months after its release (instead of potentially years later or not at all).
As for content creators, there's a difference between those that make content, and those who are members of the CCP. Anyone can make content, really. You have to discern what the quality is. Some create genuinely helpful content, others create content to fire start. Everything should be taken with a grain of salt. Sure, promotion is big. It's just self-serving to play into the issues people have and rile them up. The only thing that does is make the creator look like the savior, and the company look apathetic. I'm not going to get into names, but it's clearly apparent who stirs the pot and who genuinely creates content out of the love of the game. I am an 80's baby, and have been around for some time, which means I can see the difference. I'm not so easily swayed or triggered.
All-in-all, I do agree that it's not good to lose promotion or customers. I'm not that cut-and-dry about it. What I'm saying is people who are loyal to the game and not just to the creators, are better business in general. The game will survive if people are getting bored with it. I play because I love MCOC. Not because I blindly follow whatever Joe YouTuber says.
As its been stated multiple times throughout the forums it’s a miracle that Kabams even changing a thing and in my opinion, given the nature of their planning, I doubt a majority will actually be content with those changes so we’ll see just how many of those will actually leave the game when everything’s said and done.
If Kabam actually comes through in such short time, all of those crying just have to hope that the implemented changes aren’t just scraped together and as a result truly break the game and if they do, then well all know who is to blame for such a rushed and shoddy job.
As for youtubers leaving, I know people have their favorites, but does anyone really think that those gaps are just going to be left unfilled and that no new youtubers will pop up. Any youtuber that leaves will just give more views to the ones that are new or have been overshadowed, which is something I’ve already started to see and appreciate.
1) remove mastery costs
2) 30 min AQ timers
3) Remove map costs period (though I understand their need to make money)
Those are things that I listed off the top of my head that have been requested for years and can be done right away and would be a good start. So all of this years of planning that you're talking about is totally false. Also, we didn't make the early June deadline, they did and had to extend it.
Masteries may be possible.
Timers have been gone over ad nauseum. It's designed at 1 hour for a reason.
You know how you only get partial credit for handing in an assignment past the deadline? Well...our trust is dwindling in the same way.
The honesty is there though. Let's keep it up Kabam. I know you can deliver. Show us you can deliver.
They clearly only made the deadline because of the constant nagging and that’s obvious now and seriously, really, only a weeks delay how will anyone live. You really think itd be reasonable if you just got dumped all that workload and had to make very precise and long lasting changes in such a short amount of time with so many different moving pieces and communication between different parts of the company on top of your regular workload. I personally think they should of just said June so I won’t defend them on that, that’s all their own fault.
It doesn't mean that everyone blindly follows this or that content creator and hangs on every single word. Are there some stans? Well, yeah of course. But the people that WILL leave are the people who can no longer get through X boss or Y challenge because the content creator community isn't there. There will always be people who can beat this challenge with their own strategy and skill. There will always be a bigger populace that needs help. The ones who need the help would feel the effects of those types leaving the game.That's not to mention the segment of people who watch them for cool tips on champs, crystal openings, tier lists, etc.
I think you're inferring that the game will go on as the playerbase evolves. These content creators leave, these others step up - that sort of thing. I don't disagree. But even in that, there's a segment of those players who will be turned off by those new content creators. Without a robust community, the game does choke off because it's too hard to figure it out on your own (for most people; some people are just awesome). The only way around that would be to lessen the difficulty so that average players can pass it with a small trial-and-error phase. But making it easier could cut into potential profits. I guess they could make it easier to acquire "god tier" champs, but the long of it is that would cut into potential profits. So, long term, imo, the game COULD choke off. Now it may not, but my point is it's not so cut and dry as you portray and that I think there's a lot of validity into that school of thought. At the least, it's why Kabam has taken this thread so seriously. They obviously think there's a link to all of it, or I think this thread would have been closed long ago.
If you are happy then that's great I'm glad for you but there are a lot of people who aren't and its entirely right that they should express that.
I said all this on record in real time before we got to this point so excuse me for not having patience for an extra week. I'm speaking for people that have an issue. I have no problem personally waiting to hear the announcement before I make any spontaneous decisions but I can't control others feelings.