I finally realized why new players quit after a week...

I've finally started a second account on Contest of Champions. In my first account, I've finally settled down in a good alliance, and I need some more catalysts before I can move on in the Story Quests, so I'm just working with my alliance in AQ and AW. Since those modes require some high caliber champs and have very large energy cooldown timer, and I don't really do Arena, so I don't really play more than 20 minutes at a time. Anyway, back to the main point.

I've had my new account for 5 days now. I'm level 19 right now. In my first day, I earned more than 5 Premium Hero Crystals, one of which contained a 4 star Hulk. Hulk isn't great, but he's a 4 star. I've also gotten a 3 star of Deadpool X-Force, Rogue, and Juggernaut over these 5 days. Another quick story...

My brother got his first account about a month ago on his recently acquired tablet, after more than a year of begging to open my crystals and do quests on my tablet. He started the account, and his first Premium gave him..... a 4 star X-23. He played the game for about a week before completely abandoning the account. I was mad that, after getting a 4 star so quickly, he just quit, so I prodded him to start playing again. He ended up restarting with a new account to get the Beginner's Login Reward Calendar. After a couple days, he acquired some Scrap and purchased a 3 star crystal, which gave him Karnak. Again, Karnak isn't great, but he's a 3 star. But sadly, my brother yet again left his account to collect dust and take up a kind of cool name in the Contest.

Here is the problem: Contest of Champions isn't fun to new players. Now I know that sounds insane, I mean, who wouldn't like this game? There's cool superheroes, and it takes a lot of skill, right? Wrong. Due to the increased availability of 3 and 4 star champions, people get them faster. When people get them at the beginning of their journey through the Contest, they can obliterate the trashy 1 and 2 stars in Act 1 that were actually a challenge for us in the good ol' days, since we had sucky champs, too. But increased odds in Premiums combined with Crystal Shards and Glory and Login Calendars and even Scrap lead to a flood of resources upon joining the Contest. It's simple, really. If people have good heroes, they will easily beat bad heroes. When people easily beat the bad heroes, which they have to beat to move on, they get bored. They don't feel challenged, so they just quit playing. They don't know that things will get harder eventually, they just know that they are facing champs that are as good as the 1 star Spidey they haven't used since they opened their first Premium. Things are super boring on my first account right now. In 5 days, I've blown through the Beginner and Medium level quests, and even Act 1. Yet I haven't faced a single enemy that makes that little meter before you start a fight be in the middle, let alone tilt towards the AI.

All in all, the new availability of these resources are not only unfair to veterans who had to work hard to earn things, but bore new players as well. On my first account, it took me about a month to get my first 3 star, and a year to get a 4 star. Now, you can get a 4 star or two before you even can compete in AW. Plus, when the new players get those first few 3 and 4 stars, and start getting 2 stars like the rest of us, they feel cheated and angry at their newfound "bad luck". Everyone feels cheated: Veterans feel cheated that the time to get a 4 star was cut into 300+ pieces. New players feel cheated that they don't get a 4 star every single crystal. Kabam feels cheated that they aren't getting new people that spend money on their products. Everyone is getting screwed over, and if you aren't getting screwed over, you at least feel like it. Kabam isn't getting a steady stream of new players anymore, and old players are boycotting things and leaving the game, so Kabam's revenue is at a steady decline by now. Long story short, the high tier champs need to be less accessible. It leads to boredom for new players and frustrations for vets. Please change things up, Kabam. For your sake and ours alike.
-CrusherOfDreams

Comments

CrusherOfDreams

Let me know if you agree or disagree.

DARKLOKI

somewhat agree with your point of view

SlySly

It's not about champs being available or not being available, it's the amount of bugs this game has. Pre 12 this game was incredibly fun and awesome, now, I feel like I play it because I'm use to playing it more than because I want to. I wanted to grind for Voodoo and got hit by the lock out, never had a response what happened and what are they gonna do to repay me for lost time. We got hit by double dash bug that caused 200% increase in potions, revives, units and never got anything back even though they admit it was a bug, but ppl forgot about that because of Voodoo now. New players now have to come in to whatever the proper name for this is now (because game it isn't) and be happy to play? Nah man, if I'm afraid to level anything in fear that Kabam will nerf it at will (like they did with my Rogue that can't prevent buffs after she steals them or power gain properly when she gets it and now with Caps not having block prof in sigs) imagine if you're a new guy and you get a shiny new Hulk 4*. He hits like a truck. After a week or two he doesn't hit anymore. So now, your only option for moving through is gone and ofc you're gonna quit. It's just going downhill nonstop since 12, they're not gonna last until 2020 this way. 2018 tops.

Noobeeus

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

Everyone is getting screwed over, and if you aren't getting screwed over, you at least feel like it. Kabam isn't getting a steady stream of new players anymore, and old players are boycotting things and leaving the game, so Kabam's revenue is at a steady decline by now. Long story short, the high tier champs need to be less accessible. It leads to boredom for new players and frustrations for vets. Please change things up, Kabam. For your sake and ours alike.
-CrusherOfDreams

Each person is different so your opinion while valid to you wont be valid to others. Also unless you are their corporate accountant how on earth would you know that their revenue 'is at a steady decline'? You can only be speculating and with the amount of money spent in the top alliances just to win AW's I seriously doubt there are any revenue problems at Kabam.

A_Noob_Is1

reasons why newer players leave..
1. game lags
2. they just have no patience and lose it
3. dicky high level players
4. sore losers

CYNDRDBODY

A year to get a 4* sounds like you didnt play but once a month

Jing_Yik2017

Here are my experience with my recent second account, which i started about 5 weeks ago for my son.

My main account are about 360k pi rating, and i have been playing more than 2 years in MCOC.

My son completed the Guardian event beginner and normal in 2 weeks, he got a 3* BPCW in 1st day, and 20 3* in about 3 weeks (mostly from shards and PHC). As he do not have time to play arena, he did missed out the chance to capitalise the beginner arena low cut-off. I did won a 3* Yondu for him with less than 40 streaks.

He got his 1st 4 * last week, from shards. Which is DD Netflix....... sucks, but he is quite happy, he knew how difficult to get a 4* as most of he opened most of my crystals.

And i just help him to fully explore ACT 3 with 1 R2 4* DD, 2 R4 3* Yondu and BPCW, and a R3 3* Hood.

Its too easy for veteran/any skillful to finish up to Act 3 with even 3* and bad mastery and roster.........

We knew Act 4 is going to be very difficult compared to ACT 3, but the beginner didn't know that.

All in all, i appreciate the shards system, its easier to get 4* compare to 2 years ago, which took me more than 5 months to get my 1st 4*, which is UC from an Alliance 7 days arena event. and my 2nd 4* was Cap Marvel from PHC, which is more than 8 months since i played......

And I remembered that i only have 4 3* when i beat Kang in ACT 2...... And less than 10 3* when i beat Thanos in ACT 3.

winterthur

CYNDRDBODY wrote: »

A year to get a 4* sounds like you didnt play but once a month

I obtained two 4* champs just by daily log-in in the second account.

I have to acknowledge that the monthly calendar was very generous too.
I can actually rank 4 one of the 4*.

CrusherOfDreams

Noobeeus wrote: »

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

Everyone is getting screwed over, and if you aren't getting screwed over, you at least feel like it. Kabam isn't getting a steady stream of new players anymore, and old players are boycotting things and leaving the game, so Kabam's revenue is at a steady decline by now. Long story short, the high tier champs need to be less accessible. It leads to boredom for new players and frustrations for vets. Please change things up, Kabam. For your sake and ours alike.
-CrusherOfDreams

Each person is different so your opinion while valid to you wont be valid to others. Also unless you are their corporate accountant how on earth would you know that their revenue 'is at a steady decline'? You can only be speculating and with the amount of money spent in the top alliances just to win AW's I seriously doubt there are any revenue problems at Kabam.

I don't know that for sure, but it seems like a valid guess. You can't tell me you haven't seen all the threads of people claiming that the game is broken and they will never play again, even though they've spent money. I'm just saying that the amount of players who get the game and keep playing is declining, which is obvious, and the already existing accounts are being abandoned as well.

CrusherOfDreams

Jing_Yik2017 wrote: »

Here are my experience with my recent second account, which i started about 5 weeks ago for my son.

My main account are about 360k pi rating, and i have been playing more than 2 years in MCOC.

My son completed the Guardian event beginner and normal in 2 weeks, he got a 3* BPCW in 1st day, and 20 3* in about 3 weeks (mostly from shards and PHC). As he do not have time to play arena, he did missed out the chance to capitalise the beginner arena low cut-off. I did won a 3* Yondu for him with less than 40 streaks.

He got his 1st 4 * last week, from shards. Which is DD Netflix....... sucks, but he is quite happy, he knew how difficult to get a 4* as most of he opened most of my crystals.

And i just help him to fully explore ACT 3 with 1 R2 4* DD, 2 R4 3* Yondu and BPCW, and a R3 3* Hood.

Its too easy for veteran/any skillful to finish up to Act 3 with even 3* and bad mastery and roster.........

We knew Act 4 is going to be very difficult compared to ACT 3, but the beginner didn't know that.

All in all, i appreciate the shards system, its easier to get 4* compare to 2 years ago, which took me more than 5 months to get my 1st 4*, which is UC from an Alliance 7 days arena event. and my 2nd 4* was Cap Marvel from PHC, which is more than 8 months since i played......

And I remembered that i only have 4 3* when i beat Kang in ACT 2...... And less than 10 3* when i beat Thanos in ACT 3.

My point is that, when you have a 4 star that early, it's just boring. It's the same difficulty as we had but with 3x better champs. It's way too easy, and it just bored us. I know what to expect later on, so I'm going to just get through it. But some don't know that, so they just quit.

Deadbyrd9

I started a second account and hated out boring the first act was. Once I got auto fight I just left that on

Deadbyrd9

How

CrusherOfDreams

Deadbyrd9 wrote: »

I started a second account and hated out boring the first act was. Once I got auto fight I just left that on

That's exactly the problem. If auto fight is beating all of your fights, then something is up.

Look, I'm all for making champs more accessible. 4 stars were EXTREMELY hard to get. But we can go from one extreme to another. Giving out high rated champs right from the start leads to boredom, and it makes vets regret the time they put in. Chop the time down to a couple months instead of 6-12, but you can't make it less than one. That's way too easy.

CrusherOfDreams

winterthur wrote: »

CYNDRDBODY wrote: »

A year to get a 4* sounds like you didnt play but once a month

I obtained two 4* champs just by daily log-in in the second account.

I have to acknowledge that the monthly calendar was very generous too.
I can actually rank 4 one of the 4*.

That's the problem. It took me a year to get my first 4 star, then a few months to get it r4. You can't jump from over a year down to two weeks on something that valuable.

CrusherOfDreams

CYNDRDBODY wrote: »

A year to get a 4* sounds like you didnt play but once a month

I did go through a few small stretches of rarely playing, but even without that, it would've still taken 8 months at best.

GroundedWisdom

4*'s are not as valuable as they were when you started. People have to have something to start out with. The game is not the same as it was 2 years ago.

CrusherOfDreams

A_Noob_Is1 wrote: »

reasons why newer players leave..
1. game lags
2. they just have no patience and lose it
3. dicky high level players
4. sore losers

Patience is what I'm talking about. There is two ways for patience to be a factor:
The can't wait to get a 4 star, so they quit.
They get the 4 star and can't wait to finish the easy but required quests, so they quit.
The first has always been a problem for the impatient. Its the latter that is concerning.

CrusherOfDreams

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

4*'s are not as valuable as they were when you started. People have to have something to start out with. The game is not the same as it was 2 years ago.

Yes, I get that. But not for Act 1. They didn't put 5 stars in Act 1. Those are much later on. And honestly, it still doesn't matter. It's kind of like a race. People got to the finish line, where they held nearly all of the 4 stars they could hold. The finish line has been moved up to 5 stars now. Everyone has to get there. Those people at the back shouldn't get a speed boost, because we had to get there anyway. But you know what, fine, if these guys are going to get an advantage, okay. But it can't be that early on. It makes the first third of the game so easy that you just want to leave.

Deadbyrd9

I used autofight because it's so boring. I could do more productive things with autofight on. Also I know how to play which made it super easy

GroundedWisdom

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

4*'s are not as valuable as they were when you started. People have to have something to start out with. The game is not the same as it was 2 years ago.

Yes, I get that. But not for Act 1. They didn't put 5 stars in Act 1. Those are much later on. And honestly, it still doesn't matter. It's kind of like a race. People got to the finish line, where they held nearly all of the 4 stars they could hold. The finish line has been moved up to 5 stars now. Everyone has to get there. Those people at the back shouldn't get a speed boost, because we had to get there anyway. But you know what, fine, if these guys are going to get an advantage, okay. But it can't be that early on. It makes the first third of the game so easy that you just want to leave.

It's anything but easy just because you get a couple 3*'s and a 4*. The game is always changing. It's not always going to be as hard as it was for you. Certainly not 2 years down the road. You're looking at it from the comparative perspective of how it was for you. That's not the same as how it is starting out. People who are new will have their challenges. Sounds like you're more upset that they are getting Champs and it took you longer.

CrusherOfDreams

Deadbyrd9 wrote: »

I used autofight because it's so boring. I could do more productive things with autofight on. Also I know how to play which made it super easy

It is boring, that's my point. Doing fights repeatedly where you win in 4 hits gets old quickly. That's the problem.

GroundedWisdom

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

Deadbyrd9 wrote: »

I used autofight because it's so boring. I could do more productive things with autofight on. Also I know how to play which made it super easy

It is boring, that's my point. Doing fights repeatedly where you win in 4 hits gets old quickly. That's the problem.

It can't be that boring or people wouldn't pick it up. We get new Players everyday.

CrusherOfDreams

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

4*'s are not as valuable as they were when you started. People have to have something to start out with. The game is not the same as it was 2 years ago.

Yes, I get that. But not for Act 1. They didn't put 5 stars in Act 1. Those are much later on. And honestly, it still doesn't matter. It's kind of like a race. People got to the finish line, where they held nearly all of the 4 stars they could hold. The finish line has been moved up to 5 stars now. Everyone has to get there. Those people at the back shouldn't get a speed boost, because we had to get there anyway. But you know what, fine, if these guys are going to get an advantage, okay. But it can't be that early on. It makes the first third of the game so easy that you just want to leave.

It's anything but easy just because you get a couple 3*'s and a 4*. The game is always changing. It's not always going to be as hard as it was for you. Certainly not 2 years down the road. You're looking at it from the comparative perspective of how it was for you. That's not the same as how it is starting out. People who are new will have their challenges. Sounds like you're more upset that they are getting Champs and it took you longer.

I kind of am, but that's not the main point. I'm still benefitting from this since I have the 2nd account, but that account is just boring. We didn't even get 3 stars as fast as they get these 4 stars, and yes, I know that from experience. I've created accounts that are around 2 years apart, and getting higher ranking champs is so much easier now. The problem is that the champs you face have been the same since the start, but they're getting these guys so fast that it's just boring and dull very quickly.

CrusherOfDreams

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

Deadbyrd9 wrote: »

I used autofight because it's so boring. I could do more productive things with autofight on. Also I know how to play which made it super easy

It is boring, that's my point. Doing fights repeatedly where you win in 4 hits gets old quickly. That's the problem.

It can't be that boring or people wouldn't pick it up. We get new Players everyday.

Well, yeah. There will always be new players, but the rate that they join and actually STAY is declining very quickly. You can see that in Duel Skirmish, the crappy alliances where no one has been on for 64 days apiece, and the newer players who you let into your alliance, but they stop playing right after they join.

GroundedWisdom

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

Deadbyrd9 wrote: »

I used autofight because it's so boring. I could do more productive things with autofight on. Also I know how to play which made it super easy

It is boring, that's my point. Doing fights repeatedly where you win in 4 hits gets old quickly. That's the problem.

It can't be that boring or people wouldn't pick it up. We get new Players everyday.

Well, yeah. There will always be new players, but the rate that they join and actually STAY is declining very quickly. You can see that in Duel Skirmish, the crappy alliances where no one has been on for 64 days apiece, and the newer players who you let into your alliance, but they stop playing right after they join.

That's just how it is. Some stay, some leave. Some have things that come up in life and they can't dedicate as much time as the rest of us do to a Mobile Game. It happens.

CrusherOfDreams

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

GroundedWisdom wrote: »

CrusherOfDreams wrote: »

Deadbyrd9 wrote: »

I used autofight because it's so boring. I could do more productive things with autofight on. Also I know how to play which made it super easy

It is boring, that's my point. Doing fights repeatedly where you win in 4 hits gets old quickly. That's the problem.

It can't be that boring or people wouldn't pick it up. We get new Players everyday.

Well, yeah. There will always be new players, but the rate that they join and actually STAY is declining very quickly. You can see that in Duel Skirmish, the crappy alliances where no one has been on for 64 days apiece, and the newer players who you let into your alliance, but they stop playing right after they join.

That's just how it is. Some stay, some leave. Some have things that come up in life and they can't dedicate as much time as the rest of us do to a Mobile Game. It happens.

But at the rate it's happening is alarming. I never really wondered why there were so many people that I fought in Duel Skirmish who has a rank 1 level 1 Yellowjacket, I was just happy they were there. But now I'm starting to see with my second account. Have you ever played The Division, or the new Ghost Recon game? Even Far Cry? You get better guns as you go on. If they gave us the 2nd best type of gun, then set us on the long campaign road, we'd wreck through everything for the first half or so, and it would get old. That's what's happening in the Contest, and it concerns me.

CrusherOfDreams

Keep in mind, I'm not just saying I'm mad that these guys have to do less work than I did for the same rewards, if not better. That's not my point. My point is, the game is boring early on. They give us high caliber champs then set us loose to demolish the easy fights. It would be like forcing the MMXIV alliance play AQ on Maps 1 and 2. It would get boring, the rewards would be low compared to what you already have, and they'd eventually stop doing AQ. Do you see where I'm coming from? If you give people the second best thing, and it takes a long time to get the best thing, they won't feel motivated since it isn't a step by step process. It isn't setting progressive goals anymore, it's setting one goal and then taking a year or so to get there, which gets old quickly. It takes far too long to see the fruits of your labor when you already have the second best tier champ in the game to begin with.

Twunt

You can't just start a second account and be able to live in a new player's shoes...

I tried to start a new account. You can't have a 300k pi main account that is current on all quests and waiting for 5.2 and then play a new account going through the monotony of Act 1. You're always going to try to compare the experience with your main account.

Maybe if this post was created by an actual new member with fresh eyes, we would really know why someone newly joined would quit.

CrusherOfDreams

Twunt wrote: »

You can't just start a second account and be able to live in a new player's shoes...

I tried to start a new account. You can't have a 300k pi main account that is current on all quests and waiting for 5.2 and then play a new account going through the monotony of Act 1. You're always going to try to compare the experience with your main account.

Maybe if this post was created by an actual new member with fresh eyes, we would really know why someone newly joined would quit.

No, it's boring. I can see that as well as a new player. Being limited to fights where you are triple the opponent's rating ALL THE TIME is boring. I used to lead an alliance that wasn't too great, and we were stuck doing Maps 1 and 2. It's boring doing easy things over and over again. If, when I joined the first time, all the champs were 35 rating that I faced with my 150 rated 1 and 2 stars, I'd be bored. It's not about being new, it's about not being challenged.

winterthur

I think getting high tier heroes very early in the game creates a "dilemma" on game progression (a distraction, may not be key though).

The scarcity of IG resource remains; isos, gold, catalyst and a fair amount of grinding is needed to obtain them.

Concentrate to rank up that one 4* or work on the 2*s to be able to grind in Arenas?

Parry? Evade? Bait? What is Parry or Evade or Bait? How to do it? Game tutorial only teach to block (and take damage

).

How to use the mastery points? Alliances, who can the player join?

There are so many variables to learn.

Bug? Not going to happened because no one playing 1* or 2* even knows there is a bug.

OP can get up to speed very quickly because there is no more or diminished learning curve.
Also, for sure OP can fight better with a 1* compare with another having 2* or even 4*.

This is still a very much resource gathering game at its core and usually for such games, grinding is non-negotiable.

There are different experiences at different game stages and for the new player to play long, having an interest in Marvel superheroes is clearly insufficient.

Does the player likes to grind? That should be a hint on gameplay longevity.