The Three Levers of Mcoc

From what I observe, there is a current trend ongoing in Mcoc that will impact every player

It started off with Alliance Coliseum, a major event that is given 3 days for players within a original 7 days window, the defender difficulty is very high and there are 5 podiums to grind

I realized that there are 3 levers that game developers use to control the game

1) Difficulty
Difficulty is the first lever used to control the game for players, difficulty is increased for better rewards however there are upper limits for difficulty, make it too difficulty and it becomes impossible for majority of the playerbase

2) Time limit
So the 2nd lever comes into play, giving players less time to do difficult content, we see a prime example in Alliance Coliseum, 3 days within an original 7 days window, that’s giving you 42.8% of the original time, the rewards in Alliance Coliseum are the best so there opportunities for monetization

3) Grindiness
The 3rd lever is how grindy the piece of content is, we see this lever being pushed up for a few pieces of content, Alliance Coliseum, Solo Coliseum, LNY Side Quest etc

Alliance Coliseum is the worst offender with all 3 levers pushed up to the max, Arcade as defender, 3 days time limit, 5 podiums to grind unless you pay

Solo Coliseum has 2 levers pushed up, high difficulty, 320 bars to clear but with ample time given for players to plan their gameplay according to their schedule

LNY Side Quest is grindy with 7 days given but is very easy to play, if your alliance is aiming for 7* Heimdall den you have to do it for 21 days

So players now know what to expect from Mcoc this year, difficulty has a hard limit so time limit given and grindiness become more prominent in new content with attractive rewards

Comments

Jerichoharris

For all those with time and capacity to put in 20 hours a week good luck to you.

I’ve spent the last 12-18 months playing hard catch up from a long way back after being a very casual player with a couple of long breaks for the last 7 or 8 years.

I’m not there yet but at some point I’ll hit burnout and will end up on a year break or so.

lucianxvs

this is actually not a new trend, if you look far back at early MCOC permanent content, act 4 was extremely long, especially because people only had 3* champions, and the act had a milion paths to do.

and when they released Labirinth of legends, it took 10 hours per path, with 7 paths to explore. (using 4* R5 or 5* R3/R4) , and the characters weren't as powerful as nowadays.

you had to grind 50 milion points in arena for 1 4* champion..

and the solo events were much grindier, hero use, level up, etc..

what im trying to point out is that i think MCOC right now is touching a bit on that earlier concept of having to work really really hard for rewards.. its interesting but definitely not new imo

JESUSCHRIST

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930555#Comment_2930555

Ah yes, I also noticed more players using the word burnout more often due to how grindy the game has become

I also experienced burnout recently to the point of considering quitting for good

lucianxvs

act 6 was the definition of hard/grindy content, and when 6.4 released, you had to complete abyss of legends to get the resources for 6* R3 to become thronebreaker… the good old times..

JESUSCHRIST

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930558#Comment_2930558

Those content are permanent, you can do those anytime but now a hard time limit is set so it's either you do it now or you miss it

JESUSCHRIST

https://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/comment/2930562#Comment_2930562

Again you can be thronebreaker according to your own pace, it doesn't disappear if you don't do it immediately