An Update to Balancing in MCOC!

TrapKill66

I've thought about this further.
I politely suggest canning this new rating system, reducing new EQ champs to 1 per month, and increasing the number of old champ updates/revisions.
This obsession with new + more = better is unnecessary and unbecoming.
Once old champs are brought up to spec, then revise the next step forward.

Shadowstrike

Did you come back two days in a row to comment?

Also they're probably never going to change the amount of Champions released per month because those are called tie-in characters and when you're working with Marvel and they have a new character that they want to bring out for a movie, none of us got to say if a champion is to be released or not.

MSRDLD

Shadowstrike said:

Did you come back two days in a row to comment?

Also they're probably never going to change the amount of Champions released per month because those are called tie-in characters and when you're working with Marvel and they have a new character that they want to bring out for a movie, none of us got to say if a champion is to be released or not.

With the amount of money this company makes you’d think they could hire another couple people to do more character buffs.

Drake2078

Mods have voted in members polls. So do you think the 4 agrees are mods?

Chovner

It’s been almost a month with no communication from Kabam.
Have there been any discussions internally based on the 20 pages of feedback/discussion? The majority opinion seems to be negative so I’m hoping that’s being considered.

Shadowstrike

MSRDLD said:

Shadowstrike said:

Did you come back two days in a row to comment?

Also they're probably never going to change the amount of Champions released per month because those are called tie-in characters and when you're working with Marvel and they have a new character that they want to bring out for a movie, none of us got to say if a champion is to be released or not.

With the amount of money this company makes you’d think they could hire another couple people to do more character buffs.

But that's in the assumption that they get 100% of all revenue generated. They're a subsidiary to Netmarble and parent companies usually get all the money and divide it as they see fit.

I know there community likes to see Kabam as the big evil empire but at most they're Grand Moff Tarkin.. We haven't dealt with Vader or especially the Emperor yet.

DNA3000

Shadowstrike said:

MSRDLD said:

Shadowstrike said:

Did you come back two days in a row to comment?

Also they're probably never going to change the amount of Champions released per month because those are called tie-in characters and when you're working with Marvel and they have a new character that they want to bring out for a movie, none of us got to say if a champion is to be released or not.

With the amount of money this company makes you’d think they could hire another couple people to do more character buffs.

But that's in the assumption that they get 100% of all revenue generated. They're a subsidiary to Netmarble and parent companies usually get all the money and divide it as they see fit.

The reality of it is complex, but the bottom line is that first Apple and Google take their cut and send the rest to Kabam. Then Kabam sends Disney the Marvel licensing cut, which is not insubstantial. What's left they hold for Netmarble until Netmarble tells them what to do with it.

There was a recent interview on the McMole2 MSF channel with David Brevik, who was a developer on Marvel Heroes for Gazillion. The entire interview is worth watching, but the part where he specifically talks about working on Marvel Heroes in the context of being a Marvel licensee starts at about 13:30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCh6aQiKEFE

A lot of it is stuff that would be no surprise to anyone with any contact with the games industry, but perhaps most game players would not be fully aware of. I think people who think MCOC makes massive amounts of money should note the question asked at 19:34:

McMole: What was the biggest lesson you learned from your time at Gazillion, running Marvel Heroes; what was your biggest takeaway from your time there?

David Brevik: Well, uh, working with a license is expensive.

He goes on to mention that these licenses typically have minimum guarantees, which he "hypothetically" said could be seven figures, which I'm assuming is probably what it was back then for a game like Marvel Heroes. I would not be surprised if the minimum guarantee on MCOC was in the high tens of millions of dollars, at least. The noteworthy thing is that this was the first thing to come to his mind. The implication is this is not a trivial thing for a game to manage or even survive.

He also mentions something else that matches what I've heard in related areas, that when Marvel was bought by Disney, the attitude towards licensed products shifted from "make money" to "we need to be the biggest most successful games in the world, or don't bother."

MCOC doesn't survive just because it doesn't lose money. It survives because Marvel sees it as a very successful game. But the idea that the game makes way more money than it needs to make is missing several pieces of reality. They don't get all the money they make, they have tons of gigantic expenses most people don't account for (in particular licensing) and they have a licensing partner that can shut them down at any time if they feel they just aren't quite successful enough, even if they are making millions of dollars.

Shadowstrike

DNA3000 said:

Shadowstrike said:

MSRDLD said:

Shadowstrike said:

Did you come back two days in a row to comment?

Also they're probably never going to change the amount of Champions released per month because those are called tie-in characters and when you're working with Marvel and they have a new character that they want to bring out for a movie, none of us got to say if a champion is to be released or not.

With the amount of money this company makes you’d think they could hire another couple people to do more character buffs.

But that's in the assumption that they get 100% of all revenue generated. They're a subsidiary to Netmarble and parent companies usually get all the money and divide it as they see fit.

The reality of it is complex, but the bottom line is that first Apple and Google take their cut and send the rest to Kabam. Then Kabam sends Disney the Marvel licensing cut, which is not insubstantial. What's left they hold for Netmarble until Netmarble tells them what to do with it.

There was a recent interview on the McMole2 MSF channel with David Brevik, who was a developer on Marvel Heroes for Gazillion. The entire interview is worth watching, but the part where he specifically talks about working on Marvel Heroes in the context of being a Marvel licensee starts at about 13:30.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCh6aQiKEFE

A lot of it is stuff that would be no surprise to anyone with any contact with the games industry, but perhaps most game players would not be fully aware of. I think people who think MCOC makes massive amounts of money should note the question asked at 19:34:

McMole: What was the biggest lesson you learned from your time at Gazillion, running Marvel Heroes; what was your biggest takeaway from your time there?

David Brevik: Well, uh, working with a license is expensive.

He goes on to mention that these licenses typically have minimum guarantees, which he "hypothetically" said could be seven figures, which I'm assuming is probably what it was back then for a game like Marvel Heroes. I would not be surprised if the minimum guarantee on MCOC was in the high tens of millions of dollars, at least. The noteworthy thing is that this was the first thing to come to his mind. The implication is this is not a trivial thing for a game to manage or even survive.

He also mentions something else that matches what I've heard in related areas, that when Marvel was bought by Disney, the attitude towards licensed products shifted from "make money" to "we need to be the biggest most successful games in the world, or don't bother."

MCOC doesn't survive just because it doesn't lose money. It survives because Marvel sees it as a very successful game. But the idea that the game makes way more money than it needs to make is missing several pieces of reality. They don't get all the money they make, they have tons of gigantic expenses most people don't account for (in particular licensing) and they have a licensing partner that can shut them down at any time if they feel they just aren't quite successful enough, even if they are making millions of dollars.

You're right. I haven't even considered the licensing fees and what kind of demand that Marvel themselves would put on the developers and the company as a whole. But again this revolves around the fact that so many community that have these preconceived notions as to how the game is made and how come decisions are made as they are, when in reality we are only seeing a small part of the puzzle.

We think we have all the answers but the truth is were still scratching the surface on something we don't know about and I think if we really ever got a full breakdown of how it all works, I think so many heads are going to just explode from the lack of comprehension as to what it is that this game demands of its own creators.

Griffoplay

for me it is time to stop buyng newer heroes crystals. This is what I can do in practice.
The idea of ​​rating characters is absurd.
The community of players is already thinking about doing it and on a much more solid basis than your work teams can ever do.
This is clearly a maneuver to be able to weaken or distort a characters and not to keep faith with the promise done to give rannk-down tickets

Chovner

Yeah starting this month I won't be grinding for new champs, or buying any crystals (featureds/cavs) to get them. If the champs are still good after their 6 month testing period, or whatever this is going to turn out to be then I'll actively try to get them. If I luck out and get them anyways over that time period then it's a bonus.
I think between this, and not spending money at all until the game input issues are fixed I could see a big decline in how much I play the game.