Thoughts on Eidol Champs vs Deathless and the frustrations with monetization in the game
So I've been doing some thinking and thought I would collect my thoughts on the game in a post. I am not quitting the game any time soon, but have definitely considered cutting my spending a lot recently due to how buggy things have been and the chase resources being absurdly expensive (tier 7 pass currently offered in the store for example).
I think part of the reason why people are so upset these days are that while the Deathless champs had a skill ceiling to obtain and awaken the ask to obtain and awaken Eidol champs is astronomical in comparison. The way to get a champ for the various Deathless were all obtainable by a medium to high skill player dealing with relatively challenging content and engaging with obtainable goals (complete a path in Necropolis, hit one of six challenges, etc). Furthermore, awakening pretty much every Deathless champ was the same, beat a fight in Season of Pain with the champ. While these were time limited there was no cash demand on the player base.
Contrast that with Eidol champs. Isophyne was free to all accounts with even a moderate amount of progression, but to awaken her naturally you either needed to spend money on banquet crystals or had an insane amount of units saved for gifting crystals. This is a drastic change from the Deathless pieces that were in sight of all free to play players. The next Eidol champ (Lumatrix) again was told we would need to spend to acquire and awaken him unless at the very top of battlegrounds and war (which typically top tier players have to also spend). While hard limits were not placed on how much one would need to spend to get him ($10? $100? $400?) unless a top tier player, we were told that we would need to spend something.
I think the calculus on champ acquiescence has changed quite a bit. The number of champs who are unable to be acquired without paying for them has grown. While some are obtainable by free to play methods (Saga champs for example) a good portion of them are locked behind passes and Kabam has figured most players would determine it'll generate them more revenue to spend say $30 on a pass and have a crystal to hunt the champ than just having the .5% chance to acquire the champ from crystals. I personally don't mind this, but I can see how people are getting fed up with pay to win. Technically when you could only get a champ from crystals, that was still a pay to win scenario, it's just that by lowering the bar the pay amount is way lower to acquire someone like Dazzler than it would from hunting through crystals.
I feel like the latest live stream, changes to the Titan crystals and number of champs that have very limited options to obtain via free to play methods is understandably frustrating. I think Kabam has been relatively generous over the past few months with giving top tier players seven star champs (the 10th anniversary for example and increasing access to small amounts of titan shards outside of dupes), but the chase champs have never been easier to obtain if you're willing to spend on them. The divide between Guy who spends hundreds of dollars on crystals to obtain a champ versus guy who is free to play has always been huge, but Kabam is now offering a middle ground for people who are willing to spend $30 on a pass or an Odin for a key that is much more obtainable.
I think the fact that it's much easier to justify spending in the game versus being purely free to play is what is at the root of the recent anger over monetization. Furthermore, people who missed the Deathless champs being frustrated that obtaining them no is astronomically expensive is quite understandable. I want this game to continue for a long time and understand that the new normal for monetization seems aimed at dolphins rather than true whales. It's just that wave after wave of spend on this to awaken this champ AND to acquire this champ AND to hit this milestone in a realm event is getting to be too much. It's a lot to ask of the community's patience to spend more frequently especially when the game has numerous bugs even if the spend is way less in amount (note, not frequency) than it used to be.
