Magic Heist. Horribly Designed.

The solo event Magic Heist is horribly designed. I missed the first day yada-yada due to the 20 day timer deceiving me into believing the rest of the objectives would be added onto the prior ones (just like a lot of other people). My fault I suppose. So ever since, I would go onto the game at least once a day for 5 minutes to smash out the objectives and nothing else. I was getting rather burnt out so I just dedicated the 5 minutes a day for the objectives and left it at that.

Well, over the last few days, I started to play the game more and was overwhelmed by all the content that I could/should do. Because of that, yesterday, I was so engrossed in event quest, catching up on BGs, AW & AQ, and some of the new side events, that the Magic Heist objective completely slipped my mind until just now. And now I will not get the final objective, simply because I decided to start playing the other aspects of the game rather than purely logging on to do that one objective.

I know it's rather simple to say, 'well, it is only 5minutes so you should have just done it'. Thing is, everyone has their own lives to live with constant distractions, and then the game itself this month has been one HUGE distraction due to the countless number of events added to the game, with a new one added today and the next WOW releasing in 2 days.

I was just starting to get back into the game again, but this whole debacle has completely turned me away, and it's probably the final straw for me, not sure about yall.

Comments

Cloudddey_bro

AmaadAkira

Nah 🤣 the game ain't that deep for me anymore

Buttehrs

I mean, you were playing though. Missing a second day even while on the game anyways is totally your bad not kabams.

Cloudddey_bro

Why are we here then? Clearly was deep enough for you to go on a rant

ahmynuts

I didn't read anything in this thread beyond the title but I'm guessing op missed a day and is salty. I will now read

Edit: yup

ItsClobberinTime

College student with a job and a pretty tight schedule here, if you were so worried about the objectives you should've just set a reminder. I swear some people and time management lately lol it's like they need other people to manage their time for them.

Spiderclaws

Also college student with a job. How does that support your point over his? I've not yet missed a day either, but it is easy to see how it is fairly awful game design. It's FOMO on steroids.

ItsClobberinTime

You're in college and have a job but don't know how to set a reminder on your phone?
Anyways, OP said he has a busy life, the reason I mentioned I'm in college and I have job is because I have a busy life too. It's not an excuse, anyone can set a reminder and do it in 5 minutes, time management is a thing.

Spiderclaws

You think I go to college and have a job to be setting reminders on my phone to play a mobile game?

ItsClobberinTime

If you care enough to post it on the forums when you accidentally miss a day absolutely. If you don't care, well then you don't care and just move on 🤷‍♂️

Spiderclaws

You must've missed the part where I am not OP, nor have I missed a day.

ItsClobberinTime

Then move on? Lmao

Spiderclaws

Who are you? The forum police? Why are you so moved by all this? lmaooo.

ItsClobberinTime

Can't be the police cause I'm in jail myself 💀

Moved why? Cause I replied to someone replying to me? Isn't that how communication works?

Pikolu

You replied to them first my man. You can't be upset at them when you instigated it.

Spiderclaws

And we were having a normal discussion until he got an attitude after I corrected him 🤷‍♂️

Pikolu

You mean he got an attitude after you picked a fight with him? You can't fool the actual forums police.

captain_rogers

Why people never understand this, Op I feel sad for you, but.

Kabam already said, this content is to reward those hardcore players who play the game every damn day. If you aren't one of them, you probably won't get.

Do you use duolingo? If you maintain a high streak and lose 2 days, you will most likely lose your streak. It only takes 5 mins a day to do it. This arena is just similar to that.

EdisonLaw

OP must manage his time better lol

ItsClobberinTime

This

Totally wasn't passive aggressive right? Lol

DNA3000

Adios.

But before you go, contemplate this. Why do you think it is fair for the game to test your ability to intercept, to test your ability to parry and dodge, to test your ability to read nodes and rank champs, but it is completely unfair to test your ability to remember to do something once per day?

Do you think this is going to work anywhere else in your life? I was busy, and it is not your fault you missed something, it is the rest of the world's fault it gave you too many things to do?

DNA3000

I've been studying game design since I was eleven. Please explain to me how asking players to log in once per day, and if they manage to do this for a whole month they get one of the best rewards that currently exist in the game, is awful game design. Because I must have missed that chapter in the game design handbook.

How do you get to class every day? How do you show up for work every day? How do you turn in your homework assignments on time? Yes, MCOC is "just a game" but if it is just a game then a) it shouldn't bother people to miss a reward once in a while and b) no one should think it is so weird that the game tests a life skill most people are just supposed to have that they have to invent imaginary game design rules to describe it.

Too many people think "I don't like it" with "horrible design." Games, like all things, are designed to implement an intent. The intent of the Magic Heist rewards are to reward those with the determination to consistently complete the requirements. The fewer you complete, the fewer rewards you get. The more you complete, the more rewards you get and the more valuable those rewards get. The idea that it is okay to test player skill with something like the Abyss, but it is not okay to test player consistency with Magic Heist, is literally just making stuff up.

@ItsClobberinTime 's point seems obvious to me. The point was that a) being busy doesn't preclude someone from satisfying the Magic Heist objectives and furthermore b) being busy should even confer an actual advantage, because such a person is used to managing their time. Anyone who can juggle a very busy life but then fails to do a five minute task for a reward they really really want in the game has clearly failed because they didn't actually put any effort into it, because anyone with such a busy life has demonstrated they *can* manage time sufficiently well to get the Magic Heist rewards *if* they actually try.

The only people with an excuse, such as it is, are not the busy people. It is the people who live such a disengaged undemanding life that asking them to log in once per day is a strange, unmanageable demand they are completely unaccustomed to that life has completely failed to prepare them to satisfy. Forest nymphs and marketing executives, say.

Dirty_Dozz

I feel ya. Wife and I went on a road trip with the kids (15 hour drive done over Thursday and Friday), then I had a concert on Friday night, and we were busy Saturday, so I've missed 3 days. The FOMO is real, but it is what it is.

AmaadAkira

Honestly, I agree with what you're saying.

As I said at the start, the confusing nature of the actual event with the 20 day timer is what eventually messed me up in the end. The 1 day grace period would have been fine had the objective been laid out more intuitively. It is what it is.

klobberintyme

I play 30 minutes a day, and I graduated college in the early 90s.

Didn't confuse me, but Tic Toc does, so go figure.

Dawnbringer_1

Well apparently I missed a day at some point too cause I am now 1 day short of the gem, ahh well, less reason to play is one bright side now lol. You not the only one so don’t let it get to ya.

Spiderclaws

Sorry if it came off as passive aggresive, it genuinely wasn't intended that way.

It is not simply log in everyday. If it was log in everyday, I wouldn't have a problem. However, so far, I've already got to log in every day for the calender, AQ. AW, revive farm and the side event, and log in every 2 days for BG objectives. This isn't accounting for arena which I also run every 4-5 days to keep my unit stash high, and the dozens of objectives ticking on timers 24/7, nor the monthly event quests which are incredibly time consuming, or exploring the final chapters of the story which I have to make time for. Mind you, this is still not everything that's currently on a ticking timer today. So then it comes down to prioritizing my time or FOMO, correct? Where would I be best suited to spend my time?

This month, it would be logging in and doing arena for 5 minutes, which does not test my skill, nor my roster. People who AREN'T hardcore players are more likely to get this over the actual players who participate daily in the game, as they're less likely to slip up if their only purpose of going on the game is to play arena for 5 minutes each day.

You studied game design since you were 11, yet you think this should be normalized in games? Comeon. Even while playing deranged P2W games like Lost Ark, I had less to do per day WITH catch up mechanics lol. In MCOC, there are 0 catch up mechanics, and by missing a day, you will not only be letting yourself down but potentially letting down teammates too.

It's a wonder why people are so burnt out, and more and more threads are popping up on the forums of how players are sick of it. FYI, I am certainly not one of those people, but can't we at least have a conversations about this without people being up in arms for saying something against the game? Even the Reddit is more understanding of criticism than the forums.

DNA3000

Certain kinds of criticism, sometimes. However, once they tire of a line of criticism, they are also much less forgiving, and less moderated against being unforgiving.

I am no more "up in arms" than you are. As to your point here, the question is one that is a pretty controversial one in game theory. The question is, is it reasonable for a game to have more content than a player could possibly do? Is it the responsibility of the game developer to deliberately under fill their games so that players are basically forced to take breaks from the game?

Consider why we have quest energy in the first place. I'm sure there are lots of players who wish quest energy didn't exist, so they could just play whatever they wanted whenever they wanted however much they want. Is that a reasonable request to make? Do game developers have a responsibility to restrict things like quest energy, specifically to throttle game play? If not, why is it reasonable to allow players to play in an unlimited fashion, but dangerous to place too many things in the game to spend their time on?

You say "can't we at least have a conversation" but you "come on" me like what you're saying is so obvious I should simply agree with you by fiat, and you compare MCOC to "deranged" games in an unfavorable manner. But I'm the one that is failing to be sufficiently understanding of your clearly reasonable and objective position.

Is there a nuanced conversation to have here? Sure. But calling out the Magic Heist of all things in the game as the exemplar of this issue isn't signaling a nuanced conversation. No one is or could reasonably be complaining about the time demands of Magic Heist. They are complaining about the need to be consistent. Things like AQ and AW place far more demands on player time. Trying to frame player complaints about the Magic Heist rewards in terms of excessive time demands by the game is intellectually dishonest.

The problem is probably completists, of which I count myself as one. Most players probably aren't doing AQ and AW and BG and EQ and SQ and Incursions and arena grinding and the double track objectives and and and. Most players play casually, and do not do everything nor do they try. But the problem is it is still actually possible to try to stretch and do everything, or something close to everything. But what if the game continues to expand to the point where that becomes literally impossible. Then what? Maybe the problem is not the game, the problem is the attitude that a player *should* be able to do everything. The last time I went to Disneyland I couldn't do everything. I didn't consider that to be a failing of the park. Maybe it is up to the players to decide which things to do on which days, because it is impossible to do everything nor should they try.

I'm what most would consider a very active player. I log in multiple times a day. But I do take vacations, and when I travel I generally downshift my gameplay to a much lower level. I stop doing as much arena grinding, if at all. I only log in a few times a day, once in the morning, once in the evening, and once in the middle of the day somewhere to do AQ and or AW paths if I can, and sometimes I cannot. I choose to reduce my game play to accommodate my circumstances, and accept that I will be getting less. I prioritize alliance activities, because that's what I choose to do, in part because I am an alliance leader. I make choices, and I live with them.

The question is, does that make me a super human exemplar of homo sapiens achievement that mere mortals should aspire to but never likely reach, or should that be considered a reasonable expectation for the average person to be responsible for in their life. I tend to lean towards the latter.

Spiderclaws

It isn't about underfilling the game, it's about allowing players to complete stuff at their own time and leisuire, and not restricted to daily schedules like the current AQ, AW, BGs, Side Events, Solo Objectives, and other objectives (such as Magic Heist). Of course, 1 or 2 things having to be completed daily is fine, but let's not act like if half of the above were on weekly/biweekly/monthly timers, the game would suddenly feel 'underfilled'. You're making a strawman argument.

Even if I agree with a lot of what you said, it all inevitably boils down to time management, as I also mentioned. If the best way to spend my time in the game currently boils down to spending 5 minutes a day on arena, as this will reap the greatest rewards, then it is once again, BAD GAME DESIGN, as what is being rewarded here is not my skill, roster, or years of experience, but remembering to complete a tedious activity on a 24 hour cycle.

Snizzbar

So what you're actually saying is that the Magic Heist has a horrible design for a few people, and for most other people who play the game either casually or too much it's a perfectly good design?