Agree with a lot of this,..although AQ wasn’t mentioned at all. I think there’s a problem with a game mode where the maps and bosses have virtually no change over close to a period of 1 year. Also there’s a big problem when that game mode feels more like a chore and a obligation to ally mates …then actual fun.
Kabam will say they have put off certain things to fix the input issues. But guess what? That's on them, not on us. They should not put the game on hold while they fix other issues. Rather, they should hire additional people to help fix the input problems while continuing to advance the game.
Credit where credit is due. Summer of Pain was my favorite content Kabam has ever created. The Gauntlet was very cool. But do I keep playing hoping that once a year something enjoyable comes along? I understand that this type of content cannot be released every month, but what about new Carina challenges (note: the fun ones, not "give me your units in labyrinth). I can't get new champs for months after they are released (assuming I hit the 1 in 24 chance in a featured crystal), so new champs are not exciting. AW is, and has always been, terrible. AQ is a means to an end and more of a chore than anything. Variant content used to be something to look forward to, now it's hardly worth the effort (add some objectives!).
Please just do better. The reason we are all here is because we love the game, but maybe we should just be friends?
Good post from the OP, agree with most if not all of it.
I have no idea if the game is really in trouble.
But for me at least, as a player of 6 years who’s stuck around through the ups and downs, this is the most concerned I’ve been about the state and longevity of the game and closest to finally calling it a day.
We have the never ending stream of bugged champs and content, broken game mechanics for months with no fix until early 2022. Miserly compensation for normal questing that in no way covers the item usage caused by the broken mechanics.
7.3 is meh, with a final boss that relies heavily on dex (one of the broken mechanics). The latest variant is bugged, limited to using a tiny pool of champs with a difficulty level that is well out of sync with the rewards. Latest side quest is 150-200 hits per fight against some of the most annoying champs. We had the summoner showdown scoring and bug debacle. Alliance war is stale with a new global added (high ground) which the majority hate with a passion.
These are all recent things since the parry/dex issue.
I love this game and want it to be as good as it can be. But it’s just been nowhere near good enough for months now.
I fully agree. Good Post. And yes, it is very long and it takes Time to read. But here is a Player who spent a lot of Time in Thinking, writing and Hoping for our Game we love. So yo have my respect.
I mean, I appreciate the effort and time put into writing this. I don't necessarily agree with your perspective on how things have been handled. Nor do I agree that people are leaving in droves. This game has been proclaimed as dying more times than I've used the washroom over my 6 years here. I agree with some points, but I find others to be a bit redundant. Still, thank you for sharing.
While I agree the game is definitely in a lull, I disagree with a lot of the post.
For one, the loyalty factor is a non-issue. This is a marketing exec buzz word. Customers are generally rational people that choose a product based on their personal preferences. Is the player base here playing MCOC because of “loyalty” to Kabam? Or are they here because they enjoy superhero content, favor Marvel over DC, dislike turn based games, and this happens to be the only Marvel approved game of its kind? If Kabam sold overnight, would there be a massive exodus? At the end of the day, Kabam’s goal is profit. An easy way to get that profit is to provide a good product/service that customers enjoy and want to pay for. Because people are suckers for emotion, companies use that concept and label it “customer loyalty”. And if customers leave, it’s because they no longer enjoy the product. Let’s be real here, none of you are here because of loyalty to Kabam. You’re here because it’s still the best Marvel game on the market.
To the resources, the gold shortage is a bit of recency bias from the gold offers. There still is a pinch for gold, it’s just been exaggerated. But yes, there is a shortage of mid-tier resources. But that’s because Kabam made acquiring 6-star champs much much easier. Would you rather have champs you want to level up but can’t due to easily obtainable resources, or resources expiring with nothing but mid-tier champs to use them on? Personally, I prefer to always have a champ I’m working to rank up, over always chasing crystals to find a champ worth ranking up.
Almost all of these posts always include some line where they state players are leaving, spending less, not playing a game mode, etc. Based on what data?
With the bugs, people refuse to admit it, but there is a psychological factor. People naturally make mistakes and look for excuses. The input bug is a nice big target that allows people to cope guilt-free.
At any rate, what this all comes down to is inconsistency. That’s it.
More bugs on top of the usual bugs.
7.3 not like 7.1-7.2.
Emphasis and community champion vote for Hercules, but a slap for Guillotine.
“Buffs” being a dice roll between good to no change to worse.
Side quests dropped for grinds.
Side quest difficulty extremely variable.
Yearly events changing dramatically.
Wide guidelines on when a bug is an exploit and when said exploit is a free bonus for some or a ban for others.
Of course, I predict for a rather significant portion of the player base, all of this is moot because they are addicted to the game and will play regardless.
This is an incredibly well written view of what I think the majority of the forum users are feeling. The number of agrees will hopefully let Kabam know we agree with you.
I can honestly say many of the things OP touched on I agree with.
There are a couple of things that I'd like to add.
Arena. I am one of those who routinely did arena. I barely even do milestones anymore. It's not the difficulty, it's the obvious rampant cheating that has become synonymous with that game mode. For me, seeing the bots sit atop the leaderboard every arena leads to resentment and a general malaise towards the game. I'll say this, whether kabam doesn't do anything about the bots because they artificially inflate arena scores thereby increasing player spend in arena or not, is irrelevant. The optics of it makes it look like that's the case and that's just s bad space to be in a company.
The input issues (that I'm not having becuase I'm android ,wink wink), are annoying but they are what they are. They don't help matters though.
But I think my biggest gripe is side quests. I don't remember the last monthly side quest the I had fun. Now it is not about difficulty. I enjoyed grandmasters gauntlet and summer of pain. Those side quests were special though. This month's side quest is an example of what I dislike. 100+ hit fights are boring and chasing fights requiring I end eleventy billion fights with a medium after sunrise are boring as heck too . There's nothing particularly hard about these fights... they're just designed to annoy the player. Great, I'm annoyed, mission accomplished. How about remembering it's a game and that the primary concern of the devs should be making fun content.
I know, I can hear you now, fun is relative and means different things to different people. And on that we can agree. But riddle me this batman, when's the last time ANYONE said a piece of content was fun? It's been a minute. And that's really the point.
I know, I can hear you now, fun is relative and means different things to different people. And on that we can agree. But riddle me this batman, when's the last time ANYONE said a piece of content was fun? It's been a minute. And that's really the point.
7.1-7.2 (haven’t gotten a feel for 7.3 yet myself, and others views are mixed)
Summer of Pain
Every Month EQ — people love posting those big numbers with their 10 fury charges, or love posting which champs finish fights in 10-15 hits
Any Red Magneto owner: Last weeks Side Quest
And finally, I just talked to Steve, and he is very disappointed in you.
I know, I can hear you now, fun is relative and means different things to different people. And on that we can agree. But riddle me this batman, when's the last time ANYONE said a piece of content was fun? It's been a minute. And that's really the point.
7.1-7.2 (haven’t gotten a feel for 7.3 yet myself, and others views are mixed)
Summer of Pain
Every Month EQ — people love posting those big numbers with their 10 fury charges, or love posting which champs finish fights in 10-15 hits
Any Red Magneto owner: Last weeks Side Quest
And finally, I just talked to Steve, and he is very disappointed in you.
You confuse being able to beat something as fun. That's not even remotely how I associate fun. No one would say crushing act 1 with six stars is fun lol.
But to your point about cav eq, this month is a great example. The skill path... not particularly difficult but it is a minor inconvenience to me as a suicide user. I turn them off to run the skill path. Is it the end of the world? No, but annoyances stacked on annoyance add up and I think that's what is happening here. People are filled up on their annoyance meter. So even the smallest annoyance is disproportionately affecting them. But hey, maybe it's just me
I can't speak for others but my play time has significantly decreased and I find myself playing other games more and more. I've already decided that at the end of the year if the scales haven't tipped in favor of fun vs annoying, I'm out. I don't say that as some type of threat, cause it's not. I just don't see the point of playing a game that isn't fun. That all.
Dork Lessons posted his interview with Kabam on 19th February 2020. We’re 3 months shy of that being 2 years ago. We’re still waiting for the changes to the mastery system. The original dev diary pointed towards an overhaul to AW, we’ve only had band aid changes. I really hope there’s something positive coming out soon.
Maybe it’s all the bugs over the last 3 months that has meant the majority of resources is going to towards fixing the game rather than developing it. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MIWNYfI6eos
With the bugs, people refuse to admit it, but there is a psychological factor. People naturally make mistakes and look for excuses. The input bug is a nice big target that allows people to cope guilt-free.
...This is a fact.
I definitely have sympathy for players who "Actually" are facing/faced these bugs. But I extremely despise the players who blame their impotence on the bugs which are not even there. And these individuals are countless. Disagree button here ⬇️
I know, I can hear you now, fun is relative and means different things to different people. And on that we can agree. But riddle me this batman, when's the last time ANYONE said a piece of content was fun? It's been a minute. And that's really the point.
7.1-7.2 (haven’t gotten a feel for 7.3 yet myself, and others views are mixed)
Summer of Pain
Every Month EQ — people love posting those big numbers with their 10 fury charges, or love posting which champs finish fights in 10-15 hits
Any Red Magneto owner: Last weeks Side Quest
And finally, I just talked to Steve, and he is very disappointed in you.
You confuse being able to beat something as fun. That's not even remotely how I associate fun. No one would say crushing act 1 with six stars is fun lol.
But to your point about cav eq, this month is a great example. The skill path... not particularly difficult but it is a minor inconvenience to me as a suicide user. I turn them off to run the skill path. Is it the end of the world? No, but annoyances stacked on annoyance add up and I think that's what is happening here. People are filled up on their annoyance meter. So even the smallest annoyance is disproportionately affecting them. But hey, maybe it's just me
I can't speak for others but my play time has significantly decreased and I find myself playing other games more and more. I've already decided that at the end of the year if the scales haven't tipped in favor of fun vs annoying, I'm out. I don't say that as some type of threat, cause it's not. I just don't see the point of playing a game that isn't fun. That all.
I responded to “when is the last time ANYONE said a piece of content was fun”.
I don’t mean to sound egotistical, but I do include myself in the definition of “anyone”.
It’s not fair that you qualify my idea of fun as not fun but rather that I can beat it. Then your pointless analogy of Act 1 with 6-stars. Did I list all easy content?
I enjoy every Month EQ. I look forward to it. I like using 6r1s that I never use and seeing them be very effective. That is fun to me. Not every quest is good. Some class boost nodes are worthless. But overall, I like the quests.
7.1-7.2 was fun to me because it isn’t filled with “gotcha” nodes. It’s fair and requires a modification of strategy or champs.
SoP was fun to me, as a sub-par skilled player, because after a lot of attempts, I could finally take out a some of the bosses.
I enjoyed the Summoned Symbiote and all the pre-fight juggling.
I appreciate when a certain champ can be OP in certain scenarios like Mags in last weeks Side Quest. I like using Ronan to cheese. So what? That’s fun to me.
But again, this was in response to an absolute that everyone has hated all content. And that is painfully false. You can find hundreds of posts on here and Reddit of people enjoying past content.
I know, I can hear you now, fun is relative and means different things to different people. And on that we can agree. But riddle me this batman, when's the last time ANYONE said a piece of content was fun? It's been a minute. And that's really the point.
7.1-7.2 (haven’t gotten a feel for 7.3 yet myself, and others views are mixed)
Summer of Pain
Every Month EQ — people love posting those big numbers with their 10 fury charges, or love posting which champs finish fights in 10-15 hits
Any Red Magneto owner: Last weeks Side Quest
And finally, I just talked to Steve, and he is very disappointed in you.
You confuse being able to beat something as fun. That's not even remotely how I associate fun. No one would say crushing act 1 with six stars is fun lol.
But to your point about cav eq, this month is a great example. The skill path... not particularly difficult but it is a minor inconvenience to me as a suicide user. I turn them off to run the skill path. Is it the end of the world? No, but annoyances stacked on annoyance add up and I think that's what is happening here. People are filled up on their annoyance meter. So even the smallest annoyance is disproportionately affecting them. But hey, maybe it's just me
I can't speak for others but my play time has significantly decreased and I find myself playing other games more and more. I've already decided that at the end of the year if the scales haven't tipped in favor of fun vs annoying, I'm out. I don't say that as some type of threat, cause it's not. I just don't see the point of playing a game that isn't fun. That all.
I responded to “when is the last time ANYONE said a piece of content was fun”.
I don’t mean to sound egotistical, but I do include myself in the definition of “anyone”.
It’s not fair that you qualify my idea of fun as not fun but rather that I can beat it. Then your pointless analogy of Act 1 with 6-stars. Did I list all easy content?
I enjoy every Month EQ. I look forward to it. I like using 6r1s that I never use and seeing them be very effective. That is fun to me. Not every quest is good. Some class boost nodes are worthless. But overall, I like the quests.
7.1-7.2 was fun to me because it isn’t filled with “gotcha” nodes. It’s fair and requires a modification of strategy or champs.
SoP was fun to me, as a sub-par skilled player, because after a lot of attempts, I could finally take out a some of the bosses.
I enjoyed the Summoned Symbiote and all the pre-fight juggling.
I appreciate when a certain champ can be OP in certain scenarios like Mags in last weeks Side Quest. I like using Ronan to cheese. So what? That’s fun to me.
But again, this was in response to an absolute that everyone has hated all content. And that is painfully false. You can find hundreds of posts on here and Reddit of people enjoying past content.
Fair enough. I'll take the hit for using the word anyone. I didn't mean it literally or as an absolute though.
Of course there will be aspects of things people like. I mentioned it in the original post. Which of why I chide the imprecise wording to highlight that those (who are enjoying) are in the minority.
Again, it was intentional becuase most people understand absolutes do not apply, and those who are ok with things rarely come on and say how happy they are. It happens, sure, but mostly people complain. It's all good, I apologize that the meaning was clouded by my choice of words even if intentional. I prefer to focus on the acutely points raised though.
I agree with some of what you're saying, not everything but a decent bit, I think this a good and important post. There are some things Kabam definitely has to work on, and actually talking to the community would be a great way for us to clarify to you guys (Kabam) what we really need done. Please talk to us
Kinda surprised nobody has mentioned how they also made the summoner appreciation calendar (which everyone loved no questions) into a P2W and grind side event for months on end where the games UI wouldn’t even tell you when you’d finished your missions for the day
Kinda surprised nobody has mentioned how they also made the summoner appreciation calendar (which everyone loved no questions) into a P2W and grind side event for months on end where the games UI wouldn’t even tell you when you’d finished your missions for the day
I know, I can hear you now, fun is relative and means different things to different people. And on that we can agree. But riddle me this batman, when's the last time ANYONE said a piece of content was fun? It's been a minute. And that's really the point.
7.1-7.2 (haven’t gotten a feel for 7.3 yet myself, and others views are mixed)
Summer of Pain
Every Month EQ — people love posting those big numbers with their 10 fury charges, or love posting which champs finish fights in 10-15 hits
Any Red Magneto owner: Last weeks Side Quest
And finally, I just talked to Steve, and he is very disappointed in you.
But to your point about cav eq, this month is a great example. The skill path... not particularly difficult but it is a minor inconvenience to me as a suicide user. I turn them off to run the skill path. Is it the end of the world? No, but annoyances stacked on annoyance add up and I think that's what is happening here. People are filled up on their annoyance meter. So even the smallest annoyance is disproportionately affecting them. But hey, maybe it's just me
Have you tried it recently without turning suicides off? I've never turned them off for Cavalier EQ.
Gotta agree here too here man, well said. Getting on for 6 years of playing here too. This post needs the focus and attention that Seatin’s you tube post got that time which started a dramatic change in the direction of the game, when they tuned down act 6 and made significant changes with the new content they were about to bring out for book 2/ act 7 at the time. Hope Kabam listen and acknowledge this as there’s more than several areas of the game as mentioned where there are serious pain points that people have been calling out for years now, with no change or improvements in these areas mentioned in this post.
Comments
Kabam will say they have put off certain things to fix the input issues. But guess what? That's on them, not on us. They should not put the game on hold while they fix other issues. Rather, they should hire additional people to help fix the input problems while continuing to advance the game.
Credit where credit is due. Summer of Pain was my favorite content Kabam has ever created. The Gauntlet was very cool. But do I keep playing hoping that once a year something enjoyable comes along? I understand that this type of content cannot be released every month, but what about new Carina challenges (note: the fun ones, not "give me your units in labyrinth). I can't get new champs for months after they are released (assuming I hit the 1 in 24 chance in a featured crystal), so new champs are not exciting. AW is, and has always been, terrible. AQ is a means to an end and more of a chore than anything. Variant content used to be something to look forward to, now it's hardly worth the effort (add some objectives!).
Please just do better. The reason we are all here is because we love the game, but maybe we should just be friends?
I have no idea if the game is really in trouble.
But for me at least, as a player of 6 years who’s stuck around through the ups and downs, this is the most concerned I’ve been about the state and longevity of the game and closest to finally calling it a day.
We have the never ending stream of bugged champs and content, broken game mechanics for months with no fix until early 2022. Miserly compensation for normal questing that in no way covers the item usage caused by the broken mechanics.
7.3 is meh, with a final boss that relies heavily on dex (one of the broken mechanics).
The latest variant is bugged, limited to using a tiny pool of champs with a difficulty level that is well out of sync with the rewards.
Latest side quest is 150-200 hits per fight against some of the most annoying champs.
We had the summoner showdown scoring and bug debacle.
Alliance war is stale with a new global added (high ground) which the majority hate with a passion.
These are all recent things since the parry/dex issue.
I love this game and want it to be as good as it can be.
But it’s just been nowhere near good enough for months now.
I regret doing that, nice write up, very good points👍
Too bad kabam won’t listen to any of this tho…😞
While I agree the game is definitely in a lull, I disagree with a lot of the post.
For one, the loyalty factor is a non-issue. This is a marketing exec buzz word. Customers are generally rational people that choose a product based on their personal preferences. Is the player base here playing MCOC because of “loyalty” to Kabam? Or are they here because they enjoy superhero content, favor Marvel over DC, dislike turn based games, and this happens to be the only Marvel approved game of its kind? If Kabam sold overnight, would there be a massive exodus? At the end of the day, Kabam’s goal is profit. An easy way to get that profit is to provide a good product/service that customers enjoy and want to pay for. Because people are suckers for emotion, companies use that concept and label it “customer loyalty”. And if customers leave, it’s because they no longer enjoy the product. Let’s be real here, none of you are here because of loyalty to Kabam. You’re here because it’s still the best Marvel game on the market.
To the resources, the gold shortage is a bit of recency bias from the gold offers. There still is a pinch for gold, it’s just been exaggerated. But yes, there is a shortage of mid-tier resources. But that’s because Kabam made acquiring 6-star champs much much easier. Would you rather have champs you want to level up but can’t due to easily obtainable resources, or resources expiring with nothing but mid-tier champs to use them on? Personally, I prefer to always have a champ I’m working to rank up, over always chasing crystals to find a champ worth ranking up.
Almost all of these posts always include some line where they state players are leaving, spending less, not playing a game mode, etc. Based on what data?
With the bugs, people refuse to admit it, but there is a psychological factor. People naturally make mistakes and look for excuses. The input bug is a nice big target that allows people to cope guilt-free.
At any rate, what this all comes down to is inconsistency. That’s it.
More bugs on top of the usual bugs.
7.3 not like 7.1-7.2.
Emphasis and community champion vote for Hercules, but a slap for Guillotine.
“Buffs” being a dice roll between good to no change to worse.
Side quests dropped for grinds.
Side quest difficulty extremely variable.
Yearly events changing dramatically.
Wide guidelines on when a bug is an exploit and when said exploit is a free bonus for some or a ban for others.
Of course, I predict for a rather significant portion of the player base, all of this is moot because they are addicted to the game and will play regardless.
There are a couple of things that I'd like to add.
Arena. I am one of those who routinely did arena. I barely even do milestones anymore. It's not the difficulty, it's the obvious rampant cheating that has become synonymous with that game mode. For me, seeing the bots sit atop the leaderboard every arena leads to resentment and a general malaise towards the game. I'll say this, whether kabam doesn't do anything about the bots because they artificially inflate arena scores thereby increasing player spend in arena or not, is irrelevant. The optics of it makes it look like that's the case and that's just s bad space to be in a company.
The input issues (that I'm not having becuase I'm android ,wink wink), are annoying but they are what they are. They don't help matters though.
But I think my biggest gripe is side quests. I don't remember the last monthly side quest the I had fun. Now it is not about difficulty. I enjoyed grandmasters gauntlet and summer of pain. Those side quests were special though. This month's side quest is an example of what I dislike. 100+ hit fights are boring and chasing fights requiring I end eleventy billion fights with a medium after sunrise are boring as heck too . There's nothing particularly hard about these fights... they're just designed to annoy the player. Great, I'm annoyed, mission accomplished. How about remembering it's a game and that the primary concern of the devs should be making fun content.
I know, I can hear you now, fun is relative and means different things to different people. And on that we can agree. But riddle me this batman, when's the last time ANYONE said a piece of content was fun? It's been a minute. And that's really the point.
Summer of Pain
Every Month EQ — people love posting those big numbers with their 10 fury charges, or love posting which champs finish fights in 10-15 hits
Any Red Magneto owner: Last weeks Side Quest
And finally, I just talked to Steve, and he is very disappointed in you.
But to your point about cav eq, this month is a great example. The skill path... not particularly difficult but it is a minor inconvenience to me as a suicide user. I turn them off to run the skill path. Is it the end of the world? No, but annoyances stacked on annoyance add up and I think that's what is happening here. People are filled up on their annoyance meter. So even the smallest annoyance is disproportionately affecting them. But hey, maybe it's just me
I can't speak for others but my play time has significantly decreased and I find myself playing other games more and more. I've already decided that at the end of the year if the scales haven't tipped in favor of fun vs annoying, I'm out. I don't say that as some type of threat, cause it's not. I just don't see the point of playing a game that isn't fun. That all.
Maybe it’s all the bugs over the last 3 months that has meant the majority of resources is going to towards fixing the game rather than developing it.
And I would like to add that... ...This is a fact.
I definitely have sympathy for players who "Actually" are facing/faced these bugs. But I extremely despise the players who blame their impotence on the bugs which are not even there. And these individuals are countless.
Disagree button here ⬇️
I don’t mean to sound egotistical, but I do include myself in the definition of “anyone”.
It’s not fair that you qualify my idea of fun as not fun but rather that I can beat it. Then your pointless analogy of Act 1 with 6-stars. Did I list all easy content?
I enjoy every Month EQ. I look forward to it. I like using 6r1s that I never use and seeing them be very effective. That is fun to me. Not every quest is good. Some class boost nodes are worthless. But overall, I like the quests.
7.1-7.2 was fun to me because it isn’t filled with “gotcha” nodes. It’s fair and requires a modification of strategy or champs.
SoP was fun to me, as a sub-par skilled player, because after a lot of attempts, I could finally take out a some of the bosses.
I enjoyed the Summoned Symbiote and all the pre-fight juggling.
I appreciate when a certain champ can be OP in certain scenarios like Mags in last weeks Side Quest. I like using Ronan to cheese. So what? That’s fun to me.
But again, this was in response to an absolute that everyone has hated all content. And that is painfully false. You can find hundreds of posts on here and Reddit of people enjoying past content.
Of course there will be aspects of things people like. I mentioned it in the original post. Which of why I chide the imprecise wording to highlight that those (who are enjoying) are in the minority.
Again, it was intentional becuase most people understand absolutes do not apply, and those who are ok with things rarely come on and say how happy they are. It happens, sure, but mostly people complain. It's all good, I apologize that the meaning was clouded by my choice of words even if intentional. I prefer to focus on the acutely points raised though.
I sign this open Letter too.