although i do sincerely appreciate the transparency and intention, NONE of this will matter to me personally without a serious effort to fix the game itself. FOR ME, that is the single greatest thing that makes it a chore to continue playing in any mode of the game but especially BGs when proper function and performance is of utmost importance.
there are a number of simple functioning issues that, until addressed, at least for me ... my time will diminish because it sucks to have to fight through all of the gameplay issues.
I think everyone wants the rewards for playing the game to equal time spent on the game. Not only to be bought. A lot of the rewards and store items haven’t been updated in ages. Ive been awaiting a significant update to the BG store for months now. I’m almost at the cap with my trophy tokens bc I’m afraid to spend them and then have the store revamped (I wish they’d let us know if/when a store update might actually occur!).
But a real fear I have is increasing the rewards too significantly will only lead to the entry of the next star level champ that much faster. How will we all feel when they announce 8* champs coming with July 4th deals? The prospect terrifies me. I’m not sure I have that push in me again.
Have to start with a thank you to Kabam Crashed. You clearly spent a lot of time and thought on your post and it shows. I agree with a lot of what you say but I disagree with some but regardless I appreciate the effort.
I disagree with your point about roster growth. Yes our rosters and accounts are growing faster than ever but that is because of the choices Kabam made. By introducing 7 stars, you created the acceleration. We want the strongest champions and we want to rank them up. So when we feel constantly restricted, it is frustrating. I have a bunch of new champions that I want to rank up and use but I can’t because the resources are limited. If I want to compete in battlegrounds, I can’t choose putting resources into Mangog over Rintrah. Well then I can choose to not compete in battlegrounds, expect them I don’t have the resources. Kabam has made a concerted effort to speed up progression for lower accounts, you can’t then complain that accounts are progressing too fast.
If radiance is meant to eliminate other currencies (trophy tokens, loyalty, glory, mysterium, etc.), then I’m looking forward to it. However Kabam also needs to reduce the size of the game or else it will cause problems. If this currency is in too many places, hard grinders are going to run wild. I wrote in one of the surveys that Kabam should consolidate currencies and eliminate multiple game modes (arena, AQ, daily quests as examples). Make incursions and raids one week each month. Reduce the required grind and reduce how much people game the system.
I hope Kabam actually makes an effort to simplify the game because it is too big and too complex now.
appreciate the update but...meh, i'll do what I always do...get to GC and sit back and let it decay, all the more reason to not play this game mode. I can understand the processes and strategy needed to appease the masses but in the end of the day... with the 1000s of other issues in the overall game, this is just a blip.
Boycotts shouldn't be a driver for anything but this is not in Crash's hands, higher ups make those determinations. The boycott is a nice gesture by the CCPs but lets not make them heroes, because if change happens, they will chase that clout to boost their views and say "they made it happen". Social media and the almighty YouTube revenues will always be the driver there. No matter what they say.
Anyways, I appreciate the tough job these guys have to placate people and create solutions. I will never threaten boycott or I'm quitting because even with the issues, I still like the game, just waiting on the fixes.
BG is a side gig for me...its there when I have nothing better to do in the real world...lets see how they handle the multitudes of other issues, I would rather they focus on AI, Intercept and game glitches that a singular mode of the game. But for all you BG guys, this is a .....thumbs up?
Now, imagine if whales were doing this boycott for things that actually mattered and affected the entirety of the player base, like, AI issues and bugged gameplay, instead of their rewards...
I appreciate the post and finally it looks promising with these changes. Can't wait to see the new GC structure and rewards, right now it's not rewarding at all to push hard and not worth the stress, hopefully I'll get some motivation to do more than the bare minimum I do now to get decent rewards. The new store on paper has potential if used properly and updated often to match the state of the economy, this way rewards across the game modes can actually work together to match the players' efforts and preferences. Curious to see how it will work out, hopefully it will be rewarding for our time
Adding some trophy tokens for each match won (like in arena) would go a long way in terms of rewards. Of course, need to buff the store/increase weekly purchase limits to accommodate the extra tokens etc but that would be a big W imo
About pausing the match Solution. What about a simple timer counting the seconds of the match played placed inside the game routine (i guess it is already in) and put it as a factor of the score. Being the maximum number of seconds around 90 it could be de 1x factor, 45 seconds some around 0.5 factor or any scale that you (Kabam) want to use. The MOST IMPORTANT thing is It must be take in count ONLY IF NOBODY DIES (I mean attacker and defender, not the other player). So who pause the whole match after only 9 seconds going to have for example 10% of 15k points=1500 points (the maximum point having full energy) against a full 15 k points for who managed to elude all the incoming attacks, even without damage to the rival. I guess it coukd be a pretty fair implementation
Hello. I hope you don't mind but I'm going to only quote that aspect of your two posts and address them all - mostly just for spacing. Not because I'm editorializing.
So I'm going to start out with the proposed changes I would love to see in BGs and then address your post
1) Increase deck limit to 45.
2) Keep the three pre-draft bans, except we now each draft 10 champions instead of 7.
3) Implement a mid-round ban. If the match gets to a third fight - each summoner can now ban one of the remaining drafted champions.
4) Rewards should be reviewed and updated every other season. This is ambitious and ideal but this can also come in many ways and doesn't always need to be the same. Update to Alliance rewards, then next time update the store, update to Alliance rewards again, then update Solo rewards, Update the store again, then update Alliance rewards. That's six updates to the rewards - every other season you update something new. After twelve seasons you've updated the Alliance rewards three times, the store twice and the Solo rewards once.
5) Review match scoring more regularly. I understand this is the most difficult and likely changes with every meta. Sometimes time should be weighted a little more heavily, other times remaining health should (like during nuke metas - etc).
~*~
Some of this has been directly addressed in your post - whether Kabam appears to be working towards them or in the very opposite direction. Some hasn't been touched on, but I understand that even while Crash's post contains some sweeping changes they're also gradual and not set in stone nor are they the only possible changes.
So my thoughts on the points Crashed touched on. Only addressing the proposed changes - not the post as a whole.
1) Removal of Solo Event: So I'm very nervously pessimistic about this.
This is being presented as something that will benefit us and it is a much easier way to accomplish my above ask (#4), but we have a rather massive history of Kabam removing things, folding them into something else, promising "enhanced rewards that will be reviewed and modified regularly" only to have the player base end up receiving even fewer rewards than we were and having them ignored for ages.
Kabam removed the path rewards from quests, making it so we could no longer see what rewards were on the paths. Folded these into the chests that were already on the paths promised us "increased rewards" that were supposed to be a combination of what we got before (comparable or better) and yet instead we ended up getting 99.9% ISO from the chests and a reduced source of energy and revives because we could no longer optimize our pathing.
2) Creation of Radiance: Oh boy. This in combination with #1 REALLY has me worried. So now we're getting another in-game currency aimed at replacing/folding in all the other currencies and stores we have. So... our currency in game is limited, some of them overly so. Not only are these currencies limited, but the number of things we can buy from the stores are also limited in quantity - again, some of these OVERLY limited. Small limits and MASSIVE cool-down timers.
The fact that we have different currencies and stores is one of the only graces we have against these limits because it means we can spread out what we spend and where. Bought out an item in store #1 and your currency for store #2 is at risk of reaching the limit? Solution: Buy the items from store #2.
Folding that all-together will very easily create an opportunity for Kabam to further limit our access to resources. I'm not a fan of this. If done generously and liberally, sure this could be a great thing - forgive me that I have absolutely zero faith in this being done in a way where the resource and store are things that benefit the players.
I'll use the Sigil Store/Subscription as an example of this - because the trade-in options became much worse in this new sigil store. Some were removed completely and the ones that weren't are MASSIVELY limited.
3) I think this is an interesting start but also seems a little counter-productive towards the comment made about how you feel like there are too many players in the Gladiator circuit as this is just encouraging people to do exactly what's being done. Everyone rushing and pushing to the GC as quickly as possible resulting in a massive amount of the player-base ending up in the GC and then being seeded into Plat at the start of the next season and doing the exact same thing.
This will massively and disproportionately benefit people with massive rosters as it will just result those players steam-rolling over others, or others just quitting out and pushing those people out of the VT and into the GC. This last point is a big issue already and this point only encourages that rather than addressing it.
I have a rather large and intimidating roster. If I go into BGs as soon as the season opens, I will maybe fight four or five times before hitting GC - if I'm lucky. Most of the time I get quit out on and I win-by-default my way into GC.
4/5) These are things that should be reviewed and adjusted every single season. Sorry but that's just the truth - don't have the time or capability or resources/staff? Hire some.
Your post had a LOT of "... split focus" / "I made the decision to do this instead of that" / "we went through rounds of layoffs" ... this is going to be super insensitive, but ... boo hoo.
Hire more people, invest more resources and stop choosing whether the game has this or that focused on. Your post had a very telling remark when discussing Covid and the spikes that were realized and the new normal and the declines that followed. One point you discussed the game getting too big. I'm going to relate the two.
Businesses fall into a trap of "Every year needs to do better than the previous one. If we made 5 million last year we need to make 7-10 million next year and 15 the year after." Well, at some point that's not sustainable and realizing that is okay. Should the company then aim for stagnation? No. Of course not. But realize that min-maxing for profit isn't a healthy way to run a company and that there is a time where the company needs to reinvest and reinforce in order to maintain and sustain the growth.
Don't have the resources to focus on everything you want to? Maybe invest more into the company, expand the staff and stop forcing the choice - because doing the opposite? Cutting staff by 12% and choosing to focus on this instead of that IS creating stagnation. It's causing so many things in the game to be overlooked and not focused on and it's increasing player frustration and pushing us out.
Remember I said we shouldn't aim for stagnation in context of a company's growth? Yeah. Well, limiting resources and choosing what improvements to focus on is creating stagnation in the context of game experience. There needs to be a balance.
I understand that this point of mine is aimed at three or four people above you in company hierarchy, so it's not quite fair. For that part I genuinely and sincerely do apologize. I sympathize. But I don't accept it as a response when we all know that the company can very comfortably take the hit, invest more of it's profit margin and give you a bigger team and more resources to work with.
It's not like the investment won't pay out.
6) Nice.
7) Okay, nice. This addresses my concerns in #3. Appreciated.
8) Holy **** - This is potentially exactly what I'm asking for in my five requests. Thank you. Super optimistic about this.
9) Absolutely needs to be addressed but I don't think making it easier for elite players to get into GC is an issue. As I stated before, I often get pushed into GC simply because players quit out on me.
10) I can see why this is a need to be addressed but I'm cautious about this proposal. There have been times where I've queued up, put my phone down or done something else and had a fight aborted simply because my ADHD brain forgot I queued up literally two seconds ago. That's 100% on me, I get it. Not malicious, but it's on me.
Then there are occasions where I will queue up for a match but something unavoidable comes up and I realize I don't have the ten minutes or so and have to manually decline a match instead.
Simply removing the option to decline a match creates an opportunity to be too punishing for people who weren't abusing the system simply because you want to address the ones who are abusing it. It feels like an over-reaction.
11) No real thoughts on this.
I appreciate the write up and response, but these really need to be more frequent; not just when there's a tipping point or impending boycott of spending or the popular streamers are unhappy.
There are how many community managers - and weren't they people who came from the community itself and have a very unique perspective in the sense that some were players and streamers and are now behind the curtain?
So why does communication feel like it's slipping back to it's lowest point.
Never getting another dime from me. You used up all your good will.
What will it take for you to actually go away though?
When shills like this stop posting.
It's a mobile game bro. You're not some factory worker fighting the power.
It’s a mobile game bro. You aren’t some chivalrous knight defending the kingdom
Defending Kabam by suggesting that miserable people just quit?
Your whole schtick is to play devil’s advocate. It is certainly tiresome. Kabam does a lot right, but they really mess up in areas and the constant gripes from the community have resulted in this being addressed to a degree. Lots of work to do, but communication and responses to community members does a lot. Were you around for the infamous roadmap? What about for 12.0? There are times where the build up of frustrations nets a significant shift in the games future plans. If you don’t like the “miserable people” that play this game, take your own advice and quit. You’re played out and all you do is complain about other people complaining/venting frustrations. Its like your whole life is wrapped up in arguing with people on a forum for a mobile game…brutal existence, bud.
Creating Radiance shows you guys are on the right track, but the final destination needs to link all game modes, not just battlegrounds. The solution to all this is a Universal Store, one that mashes together Trader’s Outpost (and gets rid of the bundling, it sucks), Glory store, Loyalty store, Incursions, and BattleGrounds. With a Universal store, and Universal currency everybody can play the game mode they like and still get currency for relevant resources. I mean, you’ve already realized all the reasons why a Universal store merger is needed, they’re all listed in your post:
" It allows us to control the total reward distribution while better valuing Summoner time"
"It allows us to update the ranked rewards across the game by updating a single store"
"It allows Summoners to “choose their own adventure” when it comes to which modes they want to be competitive in and which they don’t"
The total “reward budget” can be easily set across all game modes and each game mode would offer up to a set amount of the total budget so if you want to reach the full reward allowance you’d still have to play multiple game modes. Also, each game mode can maintain its individuality by offering simple rewards in a milestone fashion, rewards like crystal shards, titan shards, awakening gem shards, t6 bc and t3a shards, and gold. To make the conversion easier, the game mode’s current currency doesn’t have to change, but instead apply a conversion rate of each currency to the universal currency (kind of like how we can buy Raid tickets with multiple currencies).
I would prefer the pricing structure of the store to keep a steady price like battlegrounds as opposed to the glory store’s.
Hopefully implementing Radiance really shines through and all roads lead to some type of Universal store.
better yet. let's just abolish the entire "reward budget". Obviously we dont expect them to get crazy, but holy ****, its 2025. the rewards they are giving out wouldn't even make 2023 me excited. Especially since I'm Valiant. I dont have any R4s yet but once I do, I know these **** rewards are going to piss me off tremendously. Stop telling us you are limited in what you are allowed to give out for the economy of the game.
No one asked BG GC rewards to be game-breaking, but not upgrading them for 18 months is a different story and anyone should agree that it does not make any sense no matter what. C1 rewards contain tier 2 basic relic alloy and stuff like that, it's quite gaslighting. Put some unique stuff instead, like titles was a nice introduction.
And yes, if you wanna eliminate farming define Alliance score by just adding members placements in the GC or in VT. That would be a good change. Automatic points decay in GC is also nice if you just park too long.
I'm not sold on decay because there's a large variation between parking and going all-out. I don't see people being motivated from being forced to play. I'll have to wait and see. That's one of the aspects I'm not so sure of.
Never getting another dime from me. You used up all your good will.
What will it take for you to actually go away though?
When shills like this stop posting.
It's a mobile game bro. You're not some factory worker fighting the power.
It’s a mobile game bro. You aren’t some chivalrous knight defending the kingdom
Defending Kabam by suggesting that miserable people just quit?
Your whole schtick is to play devil’s advocate. It is certainly tiresome. Kabam does a lot right, but they really mess up in areas and the constant gripes from the community have resulted in this being addressed to a degree. Lots of work to do, but communication and responses to community members does a lot. Were you around for the infamous roadmap? What about for 12.0? There are times where the build up of frustrations nets a significant shift in the games future plans. If you don’t like the “miserable people” that play this game, take your own advice and quit. You’re played out and all you do is complain about other people complaining/venting frustrations. Its like your whole life is wrapped up in arguing with people on a forum for a mobile game…brutal existence, bud.
Go back and look at the types of comments I respond to. It's never in response to people offering constructive feedback or specific criticism. It's the Eeyores who post things like "I'm done with you, kabam, you've lost all your good will with me," etc... Sorry, it's like a car accident, I can't look away... These people also dilute the impact of any good faith suggestions and feedback because they're just piling on and don't really care about any changes. Nothing Kabam does will ever satisfy them. And nothing Kabam does will ever make them leave.
Never getting another dime from me. You used up all your good will.
What will it take for you to actually go away though?
When shills like this stop posting.
It's a mobile game bro. You're not some factory worker fighting the power.
It’s a mobile game bro. You aren’t some chivalrous knight defending the kingdom
Defending Kabam by suggesting that miserable people just quit?
Your whole schtick is to play devil’s advocate. It is certainly tiresome. Kabam does a lot right, but they really mess up in areas and the constant gripes from the community have resulted in this being addressed to a degree. Lots of work to do, but communication and responses to community members does a lot. Were you around for the infamous roadmap? What about for 12.0? There are times where the build up of frustrations nets a significant shift in the games future plans. If you don’t like the “miserable people” that play this game, take your own advice and quit. You’re played out and all you do is complain about other people complaining/venting frustrations. Its like your whole life is wrapped up in arguing with people on a forum for a mobile game…brutal existence, bud.
Go back and look at the types of comments I respond to. It's never in response to people offering constructive feedback or specific criticism. It's the Eeyores who post things like "I'm done with you, kabam, you've lost all your good will with me," etc... Sorry, it's like a car accident, I can't look away... These people also dilute the impact of any good faith suggestions and feedback because they're just piling on and don't really care about any changes. Nothing Kabam does will ever satisfy them. And nothing Kabam does will ever make them leave.
Then why respond? If these people have nothing constructive to say, will never change, are just “Eeyores,” then why engage? By your own admission, your responses aren’t to anyone offering anything constructive so they fall on deaf ears. I don’t really understand the focus on non-value added posters if your target is to add to the overall conversation. You do you, bud, but its a little hypocritical to focus on folks you deem as “never satisfied” when your focus ultimately lands on them rather than adding to the conversation that moves forward with constructive criticism.
Never getting another dime from me. You used up all your good will.
What will it take for you to actually go away though?
When shills like this stop posting.
It's a mobile game bro. You're not some factory worker fighting the power.
It’s a mobile game bro. You aren’t some chivalrous knight defending the kingdom
Defending Kabam by suggesting that miserable people just quit?
Your whole schtick is to play devil’s advocate. It is certainly tiresome. Kabam does a lot right, but they really mess up in areas and the constant gripes from the community have resulted in this being addressed to a degree. Lots of work to do, but communication and responses to community members does a lot. Were you around for the infamous roadmap? What about for 12.0? There are times where the build up of frustrations nets a significant shift in the games future plans. If you don’t like the “miserable people” that play this game, take your own advice and quit. You’re played out and all you do is complain about other people complaining/venting frustrations. Its like your whole life is wrapped up in arguing with people on a forum for a mobile game…brutal existence, bud.
Go back and look at the types of comments I respond to. It's never in response to people offering constructive feedback or specific criticism. It's the Eeyores who post things like "I'm done with you, kabam, you've lost all your good will with me," etc... Sorry, it's like a car accident, I can't look away... These people also dilute the impact of any good faith suggestions and feedback because they're just piling on and don't really care about any changes. Nothing Kabam does will ever satisfy them. And nothing Kabam does will ever make them leave.
Then why respond? If these people have nothing constructive to say, will never change, are just “Eeyores,” then why engage? By your own admission, your responses aren’t to anyone offering anything constructive so they fall on deaf ears. I don’t really understand the focus on non-value added posters if your target is to add to the overall conversation. You do you, bud, but its a little hypocritical to focus on folks you deem as “never satisfied” when your focus ultimately lands on them rather than adding to the conversation that moves forward with constructive criticism.
Probably just indulgence on my part. You're obviously correct, there is no need to respond to the Eeyores and bad-faith complainers. I need to exercise more restraint in my posts.
I have been a veteran player to this game since 2014. I have retired several times in the past due to the overall state of the game and the direction kabam chose to take the game. It’s now pay to stay relevant and the issue is paying for an incredibly FLAWED game is insanity. Pure insanity. It’s like going to the store and buying an item you know is expired. It doesn’t make logical sense does it? I cannot support a company who continues to make excuses, sell content, etc without addressing the actual problems kabam themselves created. It’s a real shame I’ve spent over 2000.00 on a dying game. A game with so much promise and potential. I will not spend again until AI issues are actually FIXED. You guys continue to add champions rework them add content sell deals without updating anything without addressing the AI bugs. Rewards are beyond put dated for the time you expect us to devote to a mobile game. Intercepting issues. Lag. Delay. Force quits of the game. Dropped inputs. Missing rewards. Using revives back to back because your champs block isn’t registering or intercept isn’t working at all. The game isn’t enjoyable at all to play anymore imo. It’s a 2nd job and a minimal paying job at that with no benefits. I used to love this game. I used to believe in kabam. Not anymore. These issues have been present for years and gradually getting worse to where the game just isn’t worth my time or stress anymore. Good luck fixing these issues. Smh
Comments
there are a number of simple functioning issues that, until addressed, at least for me ... my time will diminish because it sucks to have to fight through all of the gameplay issues.
But a real fear I have is increasing the rewards too significantly will only lead to the entry of the next star level champ that much faster. How will we all feel when they announce 8* champs coming with July 4th deals? The prospect terrifies me. I’m not sure I have that push in me again.
I disagree with your point about roster growth. Yes our rosters and accounts are growing faster than ever but that is because of the choices Kabam made. By introducing 7 stars, you created the acceleration. We want the strongest champions and we want to rank them up. So when we feel constantly restricted, it is frustrating. I have a bunch of new champions that I want to rank up and use but I can’t because the resources are limited. If I want to compete in battlegrounds, I can’t choose putting resources into Mangog over Rintrah. Well then I can choose to not compete in battlegrounds, expect them I don’t have the resources. Kabam has made a concerted effort to speed up progression for lower accounts, you can’t then complain that accounts are progressing too fast.
If radiance is meant to eliminate other currencies (trophy tokens, loyalty, glory, mysterium, etc.), then I’m looking forward to it. However Kabam also needs to reduce the size of the game or else it will cause problems. If this currency is in too many places, hard grinders are going to run wild. I wrote in one of the surveys that Kabam should consolidate currencies and eliminate multiple game modes (arena, AQ, daily quests as examples). Make incursions and raids one week each month. Reduce the required grind and reduce how much people game the system.
I hope Kabam actually makes an effort to simplify the game because it is too big and too complex now.
Boycotts shouldn't be a driver for anything but this is not in Crash's hands, higher ups make those determinations. The boycott is a nice gesture by the CCPs but lets not make them heroes, because if change happens, they will chase that clout to boost their views and say "they made it happen". Social media and the almighty YouTube revenues will always be the driver there. No matter what they say.
Anyways,
I appreciate the tough job these guys have to placate people and create solutions. I will never threaten boycott or I'm quitting because even with the issues, I still like the game, just waiting on the fixes.
BG is a side gig for me...its there when I have nothing better to do in the real world...lets see how they handle the multitudes of other issues, I would rather they focus on AI, Intercept and game glitches that a singular mode of the game. But for all you BG guys, this is a .....thumbs up?
anyway, peace all, enjoy your weekend.
The MOST IMPORTANT thing is It must be take in count ONLY IF NOBODY DIES (I mean attacker and defender, not the other player). So who pause the whole match after only 9 seconds going to have for example 10% of 15k points=1500 points (the maximum point having full energy) against a full 15 k points for who managed to elude all the incoming attacks, even without damage to the rival.
I guess it coukd be a pretty fair implementation
Pro tip here if you are lazy to read long forum posts
Your smartphone has accessibility function hidden in your phone settings
You can turn it on and use the text to speech function
Your smartphone will read out to you through your phone speaker everything on your screen
You can listen to what Kabam crashed has written while you are doing arenas or eating
So I'm going to start out with the proposed changes I would love to see in BGs and then address your post
1) Increase deck limit to 45.
2) Keep the three pre-draft bans, except we now each draft 10 champions instead of 7.
3) Implement a mid-round ban. If the match gets to a third fight - each summoner can now ban one of the remaining drafted champions.
4) Rewards should be reviewed and updated every other season. This is ambitious and ideal but this can also come in many ways and doesn't always need to be the same. Update to Alliance rewards, then next time update the store, update to Alliance rewards again, then update Solo rewards, Update the store again, then update Alliance rewards. That's six updates to the rewards - every other season you update something new. After twelve seasons you've updated the Alliance rewards three times, the store twice and the Solo rewards once.
5) Review match scoring more regularly. I understand this is the most difficult and likely changes with every meta. Sometimes time should be weighted a little more heavily, other times remaining health should (like during nuke metas - etc).
~*~
Some of this has been directly addressed in your post - whether Kabam appears to be working towards them or in the very opposite direction. Some hasn't been touched on, but I understand that even while Crash's post contains some sweeping changes they're also gradual and not set in stone nor are they the only possible changes.
So my thoughts on the points Crashed touched on. Only addressing the proposed changes - not the post as a whole.
1) Removal of Solo Event: So I'm very nervously pessimistic about this.
This is being presented as something that will benefit us and it is a much easier way to accomplish my above ask (#4), but we have a rather massive history of Kabam removing things, folding them into something else, promising "enhanced rewards that will be reviewed and modified regularly" only to have the player base end up receiving even fewer rewards than we were and having them ignored for ages.
Kabam removed the path rewards from quests, making it so we could no longer see what rewards were on the paths. Folded these into the chests that were already on the paths promised us "increased rewards" that were supposed to be a combination of what we got before (comparable or better) and yet instead we ended up getting 99.9% ISO from the chests and a reduced source of energy and revives because we could no longer optimize our pathing.
2) Creation of Radiance: Oh boy. This in combination with #1 REALLY has me worried. So now we're getting another in-game currency aimed at replacing/folding in all the other currencies and stores we have. So... our currency in game is limited, some of them overly so. Not only are these currencies limited, but the number of things we can buy from the stores are also limited in quantity - again, some of these OVERLY limited. Small limits and MASSIVE cool-down timers.
The fact that we have different currencies and stores is one of the only graces we have against these limits because it means we can spread out what we spend and where. Bought out an item in store #1 and your currency for store #2 is at risk of reaching the limit? Solution: Buy the items from store #2.
Folding that all-together will very easily create an opportunity for Kabam to further limit our access to resources. I'm not a fan of this. If done generously and liberally, sure this could be a great thing - forgive me that I have absolutely zero faith in this being done in a way where the resource and store are things that benefit the players.
I'll use the Sigil Store/Subscription as an example of this - because the trade-in options became much worse in this new sigil store. Some were removed completely and the ones that weren't are MASSIVELY limited.
3) I think this is an interesting start but also seems a little counter-productive towards the comment made about how you feel like there are too many players in the Gladiator circuit as this is just encouraging people to do exactly what's being done. Everyone rushing and pushing to the GC as quickly as possible resulting in a massive amount of the player-base ending up in the GC and then being seeded into Plat at the start of the next season and doing the exact same thing.
This will massively and disproportionately benefit people with massive rosters as it will just result those players steam-rolling over others, or others just quitting out and pushing those people out of the VT and into the GC. This last point is a big issue already and this point only encourages that rather than addressing it.
I have a rather large and intimidating roster. If I go into BGs as soon as the season opens, I will maybe fight four or five times before hitting GC - if I'm lucky. Most of the time I get quit out on and I win-by-default my way into GC.
4/5) These are things that should be reviewed and adjusted every single season. Sorry but that's just the truth - don't have the time or capability or resources/staff? Hire some.
Your post had a LOT of "... split focus" / "I made the decision to do this instead of that" / "we went through rounds of layoffs" ... this is going to be super insensitive, but ... boo hoo.
Hire more people, invest more resources and stop choosing whether the game has this or that focused on. Your post had a very telling remark when discussing Covid and the spikes that were realized and the new normal and the declines that followed. One point you discussed the game getting too big. I'm going to relate the two.
Businesses fall into a trap of "Every year needs to do better than the previous one. If we made 5 million last year we need to make 7-10 million next year and 15 the year after." Well, at some point that's not sustainable and realizing that is okay. Should the company then aim for stagnation? No. Of course not. But realize that min-maxing for profit isn't a healthy way to run a company and that there is a time where the company needs to reinvest and reinforce in order to maintain and sustain the growth.
Don't have the resources to focus on everything you want to? Maybe invest more into the company, expand the staff and stop forcing the choice - because doing the opposite? Cutting staff by 12% and choosing to focus on this instead of that IS creating stagnation. It's causing so many things in the game to be overlooked and not focused on and it's increasing player frustration and pushing us out.
Remember I said we shouldn't aim for stagnation in context of a company's growth? Yeah. Well, limiting resources and choosing what improvements to focus on is creating stagnation in the context of game experience. There needs to be a balance.
I understand that this point of mine is aimed at three or four people above you in company hierarchy, so it's not quite fair. For that part I genuinely and sincerely do apologize. I sympathize. But I don't accept it as a response when we all know that the company can very comfortably take the hit, invest more of it's profit margin and give you a bigger team and more resources to work with.
It's not like the investment won't pay out.
6) Nice.
7) Okay, nice. This addresses my concerns in #3. Appreciated.
8) Holy **** - This is potentially exactly what I'm asking for in my five requests. Thank you. Super optimistic about this.
9) Absolutely needs to be addressed but I don't think making it easier for elite players to get into GC is an issue. As I stated before, I often get pushed into GC simply because players quit out on me.
10) I can see why this is a need to be addressed but I'm cautious about this proposal. There have been times where I've queued up, put my phone down or done something else and had a fight aborted simply because my ADHD brain forgot I queued up literally two seconds ago. That's 100% on me, I get it. Not malicious, but it's on me.
Then there are occasions where I will queue up for a match but something unavoidable comes up and I realize I don't have the ten minutes or so and have to manually decline a match instead.
Simply removing the option to decline a match creates an opportunity to be too punishing for people who weren't abusing the system simply because you want to address the ones who are abusing it. It feels like an over-reaction.
11) No real thoughts on this.
I appreciate the write up and response, but these really need to be more frequent; not just when there's a tipping point or impending boycott of spending or the popular streamers are unhappy.
There are how many community managers - and weren't they people who came from the community itself and have a very unique perspective in the sense that some were players and streamers and are now behind the curtain?
So why does communication feel like it's slipping back to it's lowest point.
I have multiple phones
1 for playing MCOC
1 for doing something else like playing out long forum posts through the speakers
These people also dilute the impact of any good faith suggestions and feedback because they're just piling on and don't really care about any changes. Nothing Kabam does will ever satisfy them. And nothing Kabam does will ever make them leave.