Wow! First of all I am amazed that anyone would start a second account and start the grind all over again! Why? For what possible reason! And to address your reasoning for new and younger players not sticking around, the real reason they don't stay around is that the game is pretty complicated as far as they are concerned. They are drawn to games that are much simpler and even less graphically appealing because they ARE simple and gratification is immediate. It isn't getting a 4 star to soon that is the problem, it is gathering the resources to level them. You gotta 100 percent act one before you collect near enough ISO to rank them at all. Most don't want to deal with thinking about who to rank, or to spend the time to obtain the stuff you need to rank a 4 or even a 3. Or about how to spend skill points. And then if by some chance they do work their way through figuring out how to rank and spend skill points they eventually hit the Alpha and t4 cat wall...it has taken me three years to collect 4 complete t4 class cats...not many people would stick around when they hit that kind of a wall...in fact that is the wall making many drop out. Doesn't matter if you get 4 and 5 star champs if you can't get supplies or the alphas and t4 cats to rank them. The arenas really have come down to one of two things, you get the instant gratification of winning the top prizes or you settle for shards. The majority are settling for shards, and there is no sense of instant gratification when the prizes are awarded. "Oh yippy! I got 250 shards closer to 2000! Yea!" The same with the sparse number of t4 shards handed out...it takes so long to make one they loose interest. I am loosing interest...42 4s and 3 5s and a total of 4 t4 class cats for ranking...Since you are holding this for "Approval" let me add that I am a teacher and started the game 3 years ago when a student showed it to me. None of the students play it now... They would rather play simple games where they beat their own high score. They compete by comparing level completion and top scores. Their games really do rely on "skill" and only skill. They do not have timers running or unobtainable items necessary to move up....and that Mike...or whoever...is gospel!
Yes, games that are complex and thought-provoking are loved by some and quickly ditched by many. You described the latter. That has always been a problem for this game. This game is only a game for those who want a challenge, both mentally and in fighting. When you give them a 4 star to face 1 stars, they won't be challenged. The game is limited to those who want a challenge. When you remove that challenge, you lose users. That's what's happening.
I just saw a Level 21 user with at least four 4 stars. I couldn't tell if he had more because they were his top 4, but that's ridiculous. I had like one or two 3 stars at that time, and things were pretty difficult. There is no difficulty at all in the first 35 levels now. The hardest part is the quests for t3 basic cats to rank up your 4 stars, and once you have those, your champs are even better. There is no difficulty for half of the new players. I'm fine with crystal shards. They make champs easier to get, since they used to be hard to acquire. But the "Beginner's Luck" has to end. And no, don't tell me it isn't true, because it is. As I said in the OP, 2 out of the 3 accounts that were started got a 4 star within a day. That's not a coincidence. There's no way that there isn't a statistical boost to the 4 star odds for new players.
This is making Kabam's target audience leave. Their audience is players who want a thought-provoking, difficult, and fun game. It takes no thought, difficulty, or effort to play this game. It might be fun for a bit, but if there is literally no challenge to win every battle in 6 hits. It gets boring, which is the opposite of fun. That means that all 3 aspects of the game are gone. The game has been ruined for new players.
I've all but abandoned my new account. My 4* Hulk is r3, and I can't be beat in anything. I've completed Act 1, and I don't even want to progress further. I know things will be better eventually, but I keep asking myself: "Is it even worth it? I could just use my first account." Even if I do decide to keep playing on my new account, which I don't know if I will, it'll only be because I know I'm getting a challenge later on. New players don't know that. They know nothing about the game, unless they do they're research like @Josh2Play. Not many do research, though. I wouldn't, because I like the new experience of figuring things out yourself. If this was my first account, I probably would've been long gone by now. That's happening to many users as we speak.
Well, I'm a new player, however; I installed the game because it looked cool and only played for a few minutes to show my young son who loves super hero games. I did not start actively playing it seriously until about 2 or 3 months afterwards. Little did I know, and there certainly was no sign or billboard telling me, "HEY! You get a bunch of rewards and things that will help you in the game if you play it a lot in the first 2 months!" So pretty much I got screwed over and missed out on quite a few things including the calendar Rewards, easy to achieve Arena cutoff totals for Heroes, etc. I have invested a couple hundred dollars over the 4th of July holiday and have spent more hours playing in the last month then I can even keep track of. In my experience, even though I have 4* and 5* champs, I am stuck. I cannot progress and I also cannot compete in arenas. I am an officer and one of the better players in my alliance but I have no motivation to keep playing after getting screwed over again and again. I have no idea why they would have the arena points cut off number bracketed by the date that a person's account was created. That just sounds like the stupidest idea ever considering some people have no life and can play this game all day every day. While others that have lives and work for a living and are supporting and raising a family can only play maybe an hour or two a day at most. I have already submitted a ticket and posted on Kabam's suggestion site that the brackets for arena should be determined by someone's overall roster score. As far as the special events I think they are fun and challenging. And also have great rewards. In story mode I am stuck on early parts of Act 4. I cannot level up my best Heroes any further without spending Cold Hard Cash! I am not a fan of "pay to win". I am really 50-50 on this game and not sure if I'm going to continue playing it or not. They are capitalizing on the whole Marvel explosion going on in today's society and let's face it who does not love superheroes! LOL. All I know is I have spent years playing other mobile games and spent more money than I care to disclose but I do not think this is going to be one of them.
There’s something fun about grinding a second time, with more knowledge and access to newer champs, it almost feels like a kind of “new game+“ for those familiar with the term. It’s amazing what kind of content took months the first time around now taking days.
Comments
Yes, games that are complex and thought-provoking are loved by some and quickly ditched by many. You described the latter. That has always been a problem for this game. This game is only a game for those who want a challenge, both mentally and in fighting. When you give them a 4 star to face 1 stars, they won't be challenged. The game is limited to those who want a challenge. When you remove that challenge, you lose users. That's what's happening.
This is making Kabam's target audience leave. Their audience is players who want a thought-provoking, difficult, and fun game. It takes no thought, difficulty, or effort to play this game. It might be fun for a bit, but if there is literally no challenge to win every battle in 6 hits. It gets boring, which is the opposite of fun. That means that all 3 aspects of the game are gone. The game has been ruined for new players.