When it boils down to simplicity…it’s time/effort reward happiness that kabam can’t get right
Time Effort reward happiness.
A few years ago, most likely all of us were mad on the game, playing it whenever we could. The rewards were decent, the gameplay decent, the challenges decent. So overall a great time vs effort vs rewards equation. Very balanced. Happiness with the game high.
A few real world things would have course push the equation more favourably. Firstly, a decent apple device would speed up your loading times significantly, reducing waiting around for things to load. Secondly of course, faster internet always helpful. And thirdly, Within the game itself, your own skill. A good player could get through content reasonably well, with reasonable amount of expenditure of time, and great players could solo content, showing us all how it’s done. And you could offset some of these by either spending more time in the game getting better at it, or gathering resources or chucking some money at it.
So let’s back track…this would be my outlook on the game 3 years ago…use the percentages as…game engagement or happiness with that element .
100% Monthly eq - played it regularly on all difficulties.
100% Monthly side quest - played it regularly, some were amazing some were rubbish…but most of the time…ok.still did it all.
50% Story mode - did it mainly for the title boosts (tb, valiant) so left a lot incompleted unless it gave me something needed for the game.
100% Arena - did it regularly for the units for for 15k offers.
100% Revive stashing - of course. Needed for content
100% Loading times - quick enough decent
100% Aq - quick and decent enough but a bit boring
100% aw - quick and challenging
100% Game knowledge requirement (ie amount of reading and planning) - minimal apart from big stuff like necro.
100% Ai - not randomly getting wrecked was a good thing.
Overall happiness and engagement with game = 950 out of possible 1000.
My outlook maybe 18 months ago
0% Monthly eq - not worth the effort, rewards sucked , took too long. Stopped playing it apart from autofight low lvl , which I was glad for. Until valiant eq turned up which was amazing.
100% Monthly side quest - still,played it regularly, still hits and miss, but overall was quick and ok…and at least not as annoying as monthly eq.
50% Story mode - same as before
50% Arena - slowed ..not because I don’t have the time..I have the same time…I just slowed because the unit costs for top rewards started to jump..to 18k etc etc.to get the best rewards from the offers. So it started to feel like I was getting scammed. Paying more for what I’d normally get for 15k…so I kind of felt…well..what’s the point…in other words…rewards vs effort/time wasn’t adding up.
50% Revive stashing - slowed as kabam introduced some decent alternatives such as cheap revive offers, the daily revive quest was actually ok overall as it sometimes gave an extra lvl 2 revive if you were lucky, as well as the lvl 1 revive. But still kept stash high and used when expiring.
100% Aq - still play it..boring but simple and quick.
100% aw - still play it, challenging and can be stupid with nodes..but.ok..still decent.
100% New addition battlegrounds - new game mode. Decent .
50% Loading times - slower than before but still ok.
75% Game knowledge requirements - more intense requiring more time, but due to time playing the game, your old knowledge was still useful, as newer champs would still have decent older counter.
75% Ai - getting wrecked occasionally not great..but..
Overall happiness and engagement with game = 750 out of 1100
And…..Recently….
0% Monthly eq - still haven’t started it..the previous iteration of valiant eq I played and loved it. This iteration is a horror..forcing you to play and spend a lot of time.
50% Monthly side quest - when was this supposed to be hard? First time ever I just got annoyed enough with side quest and didn’t use my keys last week. Did one run and just left it. Enjoying it less and less.
50% Story mode - still same as before.
0% Arena - dead…grinding arena as a f2p to try and gather 38k for what we used to get for 15k..work nearly three times as hard? No thanks.
25% Revive stashing - still doing, but now I just don’t sweat it when I have revive expiring…as I simply can’t be bothered to do content that’s just going to annoy me.
100% Aq - still boring but simple and quick. Nightmare raids decent alternate.
50% aw - still complete it 100% of the time, but enjoyment marred by disconnects, ai issues just destroying you by not throwing specials etc etc and of course failed inputs.
25% Battlegrounds - competive mode just feels like a lottery often times depending on your ai, your draft and whether or not you’ll get disconnected and auto forfeit. When it works it’s still good fun. But always the fear…ai..disconnect….ai…
25% Loading times - even with a brand new iPad…I bought one just for the game, same as I did years ago..loading times are horrible. Wasting my time…I swear I spend more time waiting for a fight to load sometimes, and then I go in and die immediately.
25% Game knowledge requirements- need to read up everything, every time you go into anything. Side quest, monthly eq, side quest advice slip, side quest note from your mom, side quest text from your doctor, side quest missed parcel note..get it wrong and you die, or have to restart, or lose your entry, or miss some rewards. Need to read up new heroes defenders, and know how to counter them specifically. Otherwise you die. And this is without the game nodes. Often, older champs would be less viable, making your older game knowledge (and older champs) obsolete.
25% Ai - just a literal time sink now..delays your fights cocooning, refuses to throw specials, or just intercepts and kills you. No skill can affect it..making the game a simple lottery..roll the dice with each revive, let’s see how nice the ai is today..aaahh..you rolled a double..that means the ai is going to special interepcept you, then block you special after you perfectly string it in after a 5 combo, due to ingame lag.
Overall happiness and engagement with the game = 375 out of 1100.
And my overall free time has not changed much at all. It’s very much a reflection of quite simply my happiness when playing the game…happy person playing the game = naturally play the game more
Less happy person playing the game = naturally play the game less
So, yeah…
Basically, EVERY unfixed fault or issue and recent directions in the game just drains summoners time and effort. For zero or a reduced reward. And this is why it feels like the game has gone downhill …because it has, it’s like they want more from us, but giving less themselves.
They want us to play more..but do that by making things more difficult than they need to be..(resulting in more time spent playing of course as we spend more time struggling to understand wtf to do..) instead of just giving us more things to play with..like instead of giving a kid more comic books to read, you instead take away the comic books and give them a dictionary, and tell them there will be a test on Monday for every word beginning with the letter A. Thanks so much…just what I always wanted when I’m playing a game…homework…don’t get me wrong…for end game content that’s fine. Once in a while. But every time I go into a quest? Every single node is different now it feels? On every single opponents…give us a break….seriously….again..it’s time..effort…for what…the same relative reward as before..why the sudden need to make everything so complicated?
Effort - reward - time - happiness
Reward / effort x time = happiness value
High reward can be put with high effort, or high time, or a mixture of effort and time, and still come out with positive happiness.
Medium rewards can be put with medium effort or medium time or a mixture of time and effort and still come out positive happiness.
Medium rewards with high effort or time requirements (or a mix that ends in a high combined value) will most likely result in a negative happiness value.
Low rewards same as medium..you put rubbish rewards behind high effort or time and you’ll get low happpiness, often the result is either annoying the summoners, or simply disenchanting them so much , they stop playing that part of the game, because it’s not worth their effort or their time, because completing it does not give them an overall sense of happiness. They’re just pissed off that they had to do it (to keep up for example.)
It’s also very individual I guess, with some people requiring a much higher reward to warrant certain levels of effort or time spent, than others may do. Some may happily do the same for less…
But recently, it just seems so many people are just in that below 50% happiness rating..
I wonder if anyone is actually happy with the game..like..above 50% happy…
I wonder if kabam would even say if they themselves are even 50% happy with the game in its current state?
There’s a lot of game loyalty in the long time players, after a long amount of time building their account and enjoying some wonderful events, that kabam are constantly tapping into and draining. Players that have been around for 10 years hang on because they still love the overall game, even though their happiness might be at 25% of what it used to be.. but it’s not endless….
The game is still such a good game. There have been plenty of good decision also..but overshadowed by so many poor choices, from a consumer point of view of course. From a business point of view, kabam may feel the game is exactly where they want it to be? But if thats the case, sad times ahead for summoners I feel. More pain to come….
