Why are players stubbornly not progressing?

I saw a 4 million account rating Thronebreaker and a few 5 million+ account rating Paragon
We also have 14 days old account FTP Valiant by a youtuber showing us that it is possible with good skills in playing
So why are these players refusing to progress in game?
Share your thoughts on this

Comments

JESUSCHRIST

10 free 7* champions for Paragon and above but I still see many fat Thronebreaker accounts that are actively playing
Getting to Paragon isn't that difficult actually

Furrymoosen

It's a mix of all of the above, but the main thing it consistently comes down to is skill.
Those players that do the speed runs didn't beat the Collector for the first time with a roster of 6R3 champs. They did it with 4*, maybe some 5R2 or 3. Nowadays a new player's roster outpaces what is needed for content so significantly that it trivializes the content and actually creates a skill gap. Newer players smash Act 5 content with high level 6* (and even 7*) and the sheer power of the champs more than makes up for their skill. As a result, they don't learn proper reading of nodes, they don't understand champ interactions, and they become convinced that PI is the end all be all of whether or not a fight is doable. The fights are easy because they are bigger, then harder because they are smaller. The beefy rosters don't help in preparation for the skill requirements of Act 6, so they get stuck.
Then Kabam goes and adds a workaround for TB and now they don't even have to beat Act 6 to get rewards that are sometimes even shared at the Valiant level. They can now access the highest EQ and SQ, better stores across the board, and they can continue to build up a sizeable roster with far too easy access to 7* all while never having to beat the hard fights.
Kabam wants players to move through the progressions quickly to move to the top, but they've also created a scenario where players build up their roster too much and their skill too little, so they get stuck.

This doesn't apply to all new players, but this is the reason for a lot of them. And then you've got some players that just like to take their time or maybe just don't have the time (or skill) to progress. As long as they're having fun, who cares? It's really only the ones who don't/can't progress and then complain about things that need to sort themselves out.

JESUSCHRIST

I have 1 theory that there are too many modes in the game and some players are so distracted that they neglect story quests mode for progression

xLunatiXx

Too many casual players in this game. Which is fine. It's not fine when they start asking for things being handed over

Nemesis_17

For those cav and under I think it’s the first option for those tb and higher I think it’s the second option

MrSakuragi

Some play other modes and hate story. Some are stuck due to skill. Some are waiting to pull counters to bosses like Sinister.

JESUSCHRIST

Which begs the question, is progression in MCOC even necessary in the first place?
It started with Uncollected title being created by Kabam
Followed by Cavalier, Thronebreaker, Paragon and Valiant but what is the purpose of progression other than to segregate players into different tiers and now we have quite a few tiers
Is it a necessary device in game to have these progression tiers?
Does it serve the purpose of differentiating a player's skill level in game?

MrSakuragi

Which begs the question, is progression in MCOC even necessary in the first place?
It started with Uncollected title being created by Kabam
Followed by Cavalier, Thronebreaker, Paragon and Valiant but what is the purpose of progression other than to segregate players into different tiers and now we have quite a few tiers
Is it a necessary device in game to have these progression tiers?
Does it serve the purpose of differentiating a player's skill level in game?

It serves the purpose of Kabam being able to make new chase items and entice spending for players to stay at the top tier

kvirr

Starting from cav, I’ll go down the reasons.

Reasons why cavs aren’t tb : Act 6 is arguably the hardest act in the game for where you should be, I’m sure it’s easier now. It’s difficult for some rosters to complete, with all the specific champions nodes.

Tb not being paragon : they aren’t bothered with progression, they don’t care because they are also casual.

Paragon not being valiant : one reason is rewards, the reward difference is close enough that you don’t really want to hit it unless you chase the title, other reason is because it is harder to hit then paragon and tb, because you need 2 r3s and many paragon players don’t even have one, however during this Black Friday sales you can technically buy valiant, with enough money and barely enough catalyst. Oh and of course the help of the webstore milestones

captaincush

Some people have mentioned physical issues that make some skills impossible for them to master, which makes sense

arifin74

Which begs the question, is progression in MCOC even necessary in the first place?
It started with Uncollected title being created by Kabam
Followed by Cavalier, Thronebreaker, Paragon and Valiant but what is the purpose of progression other than to segregate players into different tiers and now we have quite a few tiers
Is it a necessary device in game to have these progression tiers?
Does it serve the purpose of differentiating a player's skill level in game?

Progression in MCOC isn’t really about showing off your skill. Like, someone might be Paragon today and Valiant tomorrow—it’s not like you magically get super skilled overnight.

It’s more about chasing better rewards. The more you chase, the more you play. That’s kind of the point of the game: getting players to aim for the next big title. Some people might think the older titles don’t matter anymore, but when they first came out, they were just as big a deal as Valiant is now.

When I was Uncollected last year, I thought I’d just chill, max out my 5-star roster, and play Battlegrounds. But then I noticed items were coming in slow, and Cavalier players were getting better stuff. So, I pushed for Cavalier , Thronebreaker and then Paragon. At first, I thought I’d stop at Paragon—Necro was super hard for me. But after four months, new options came out, and I managed to hit Valiant to stay in the top reward group.

Honestly, I think players who aren’t progressing are hard casual. Maybe they’re grinding arena or slowly building up their roster. As for all the complaints you see on the forums, it’s mostly a small group of players being vocal about everything.

Sunstar19

Getting to Paragon and Valiant needs a lot of time for the difficult fights and more efforts to strategise, which is not the aim for those players. Most I think are contented and happy just to be in the alliance with a bunch of mates they know for a very long time. I agree with xLunaticxx comments that this is all fine. To each his own.

Asher1_1

Stubbornly ?? It's a game , let them do whatever they want LOL

DNA3000

Which begs the question, is progression in MCOC even necessary in the first place?
It started with Uncollected title being created by Kabam
Followed by Cavalier, Thronebreaker, Paragon and Valiant but what is the purpose of progression other than to segregate players into different tiers and now we have quite a few tiers
Is it a necessary device in game to have these progression tiers?
Does it serve the purpose of differentiating a player's skill level in game?

First of all, progression is MCOC is not about skill, progression is about progression. This may sound silly, but it is not. Let’s try again.

Boxing is not about skill, boxing is about boxing. Being skilled at throwing and dodging punches is not enough to win boxing matches. You can get tired, you can get worn down. Your opponent can simply outlast you and they can win. How is this possible if boxing was only about skill? It isn’t, but boxing is not about skill. Boxing is about boxing. You win if you perform better than your opponent. You can hit harder, you can hit more often, you can take hits better, you can have better conditioning, you can simply outlast your opponent. You can knock your opponent out, or you can win on points. A win is a win.

We don’t differentiate players in MCOC by skill. We differentiate them by what they accomplish in the game, regardless of how they accomplish it. Accomplishment is the thing.

Progression in MCOC is structured around two kinds of accomplishment: content completion and roster development. When the game was younger and much simpler, progression was structured primarily around XP-based account level growth, but the game eventually outgrew that for the most part and shifted to content completion with the introduction of the Uncollected title, and then to an extent with the Cavalier title and more so with the Thronebreaker title roster growth was added.

Why this is done is, to oversimplify a bunch, because the core engine of progression in MCOC involves giving rewards for completing content which allow players to grow their roster which allows them to tackle harder content. This cycle of progression only works when the game can present reasonably tuned content to players for reasonably tuned rewards. The game can’t make customized content for every single player, so it has to create a smaller set of targets that attempt to cover the entire player base to the best possible degree. Progression tiers are essentially those targets.

It is more complex than that, because there are other game design factors that go into progression tiers. But this is not anything new: MMOs were dealing with these design decisions twenty years ago. Heck, the roots of progression tiers in MCOC go right through progression tiers in MMOs and all the way back to character levels in PnP games like Dungeons and Dragons. Fifty years ago, when games were being played with graph paper and dice, progression tiers had the same two primary purposes: to give players something to play for, and to give game operators a way to judge appropriate content and rewards for those players.

captain_rogers

Like furry said, they made the lower acts easier by giving away 6*s like candy so there's no incentive to develop skill, but after cavailer players realise how tough the game will get, they enter the real game and it's tough for them to progress.

Ercarret

It can be all kinds of things. I know that for me, I simply didn't think of progression for a very long time. I became Cav, had some trouble progressing in Act 6 (before all of the nerfs) and started looking elsewhere to have fun and expand my roster. I did the EQs, SQs, the Variants, all kinds of stuff that didn't include continuing with the story and becoming Thronebreaker.

I probably stayed there for a year or so before even remembering that there was a story mode. When I did, I went back and to my surprise, absolutely crushed much of Act 6 (still before the nerfs - my progress was because I'd built up my roster a ton in the other game modes, which made everything much easier). After that I really liked Act 7 which in turn led to greater rewards which progressed my roster even further, and things kind of rolled on from there. I really started feeling that the gap between me and all of the youtubers whose guides I'd followed up until then was starting to close, and nowadays I don't feel like there's a particularly huge gap at all.

My point is that it's very possible to have a lot of fun with the game without necessarily beelining through the progression tiers. When you become Cavalier or whenever it is that basically everything in the game is open for you to explore, you can have a grand old time even if you don't touch the story mode much at all.

Cdjcdkj

The ai is horrible now before it was missed inputs something is always wrong with the game

Joker1976

Maybe because it’s a horrible long slog of reading countless bs nodes and so time consuming,
( especially when you’re trying to play catch up on progression tiers).
That’s why when new story content drops i dive right in,..no waiting for youtube guides or what have you, and i will do the same when 9.2 drops…100%.

Sundance_2099

I didn't progress through Act 3 for ages because I was concentrating on developing my roster after doing Acts 1 and 2 100% and playing the EQ and SQ each month. I pushed through Act 3 when the tiered calendars below Uncollected came in. I then left Act 4 until I could develop my roster with more 5*s and ranking them up, and then pushed through it when they kept giving out all those l5 health pots and stuff each month in late '21 and early '22. I was going to stay at that point because I couldn't be bothered learning all the nodes and counters. My sister started playing last year and blew through Acts 1 to 4. Largely thanks to the above mentioned "higher rarity champs given out like candy" business. She then pushed into Act 5 and got Uncollected. I refused to let her get better than me, so I pushed to UC.

After the introduction of the alternate route to progression by rank-ups, we both got Cavalier by ranking our 6*s. My sister's then got TB through that, but I haven't yet.

Neither of us want to push on because we can't be arsed with all the complicated nodes and shid.

Hipoceros

I guess you forgot the crappy rewards for completing story and the large paths fot those 40-50 energies. It's more time rewarding to do anything but story.

CROSSHAIRS

They have a life

lightningbaron

I got hung up on mods in 6.1. I started to watch MCOC NOOB on YouTube. Completed 6.1 recently; so Cavalier / Faux Thronebreaker.

With Kabam providing a fasttrack, it gave me the means to obtain the resources to develop the roster to tackle the story content. Without it, I wouldn't even have considered Act 5.

Finally, work and family; the real life.