A thought about the game's future

This game has been out for almost 3.5 years now and I've had it since the beginning. Apart from a long hiatus from the game (guessing over a year) I've genuinely enjoyed playing every single day, constantly improving to be able to complete the harder content. I don't know when I'll stop playing this game as I have yet to complete any end game content (LOL, Act 5) as I still lack the champs to do so. So while I see no end in sight for me, I began to think, when will the game stop?

By this I mean when Kabam decides enough is enough and stop s adding new content, cause eventually it will have to. We've been introduced to 6* champions this year, and will have to wait a while to witness their ultimate power by having a max level of them. But after that, how many new types of champions will there be? 7,8,9, 10* champions? It's difficult to imagine having anything past that cause having a 200,000 rated 10* Blade would seem absolutely ridiculous and expensive.

Along with this, what new content will come? We can assume that Act 6 is coming soon along with LOL 2, but like the champion tier, there has to be a point where the only thing Kabam can really be releasing is events with LOL rated champs. Act 10 for example would just be like doing LOL 24 times.

Just wanted to put my thoughts in writing cause it really makes you curious as to what the future of the game will look like in 3-4 years. MOst likely, Kabam has already planned way ahead as to what they are gonna release and this game will still entertain the masses for years to come, but I wanted to see if anyone has thought about this as well.

Comments

DNA3000

MCOC is a mobile MMO with 2D perspective combat. The longevity of fighting games like this before they go stale tend to be relatively short, but the longevity of MMOs can be extremely long. Typically, MMOs die when they go out of vogue, not when they literally run out of things to do. World of Warcraft has been around for fourteen years and it is still cranking along.

There's no technical reason the game can't go on forever. Games like this are all about introducing new content that is harder than the previous content, then introducing ways for the players to build their strength to match that content. This back and forth can go on indefinitely, as long as players want to keep playing.

If the game lasts long enough for 10* champions to be introduced, and assuming they go that route instead of other roster progression options, the notion that 10* champions would be ridiculous in power and expense will seem to the players then as someone who starts playing now and believes that 5* and 6* champions are ridiculous and the game should have stopped with 4* champs because there's absolutely no reason for a 5* champion to exist.

GroundedWisdom

The game will continue.

ACIDUCK

hey man, nothing lasts forever. Also must consider the capacity of the app until it explodes. phone memory, ect. They should add options to like permanently depete the act 1,2,3 ect. files, rtl, ect. after they’re complete so the game isn’t stacking too hard. also im sure it would be good for getting some bugs out possibly

ACIDUCK

*delete

ACIDUCK

if they keep adding without subtracting i can see loads of more problems occurring, even a computer can only hold so much. what will really be the end of the game isnt any of that, i think. its this lol. they have so much forms of champs, duplicates, maps, ect. imagine piling a load of crapola in your room daily, without cleaning it, it would pop like a balloon with too much air in it

DNA3000

ACIDUCK wrote: »

hey man, nothing lasts forever. Also must consider the capacity of the app until it explodes. phone memory, ect. They should add options to like permanently depete the act 1,2,3 ect. files, rtl, ect. after they’re complete so the game isn’t stacking too hard. also im sure it would be good for getting some bugs out possibly

Most of the storage in games like this generally goes toward shared assets, like graphics and other art assets that are used by multiple things. The storage specifically used for Act 1 and nothing else is probably trivially small.

mum_m2

They should have stopped at 5*s but here's why. Game will eventually be all about retention. New player acquisitions will begin to diminish and all you're going to be left with are the people that have been playing forever. Think about starting off in this game and think about how intimidating it is to obtain your first 5*. It takes a couple months of grinding away arena and getting through in game content as quickly as possible. Now you've did all of that work and you don't feel at all close to the end game of say having a 6* let alone a 10*. So 6* should be it.

Assuming they introduce a star level every year, not probable but just throwing it out there, at least 200 more champs will be in the game. Think about how badly you want a blade and the chances of that happening diminish to a third percent.

So they need to find a way to continuously make this game fresh and exciting to play. I believe they were successful this month in terms of the content but can they keep it up?

DNA3000

mum_m2 wrote: »

They should have stopped at 5*s but here's why. Game will eventually be all about retention. New player acquisitions will begin to diminish and all you're going to be left with are the people that have been playing forever. Think about starting off in this game and think about how intimidating it is to obtain your first 5*. It takes a couple months of grinding away arena and getting through in game content as quickly as possible. Now you've did all of that work and you don't feel at all close to the end game of say having a 6* let alone a 10*. So 6* should be it.

If your premise is that the game will eventually stop getting new players, there's no need to solve the problem of new players being intimidated by the end game.

The more fundamental problem with your hypothesis is that 5* champions are and continue to get easier to acquire. Had they stopped with 5* champs, the ability to acquire them would be vastly harder today than they actually are. They are only easier to get because they are no longer the top tier champion. Instead, progress is far faster today than it ever was in the past. Meanwhile, the non-cyclical content isn't getting progressively harder. Act 4, Act 5, and LoL are fundamentally the same difficulty they've ever been. But the maximum strength of a player roster continues to rise. This means players attempting to work their way to tackling LoL can theoretically work their way to making it easier than previous players could. They can, in effect, progress higher relative to the content.

In effect, players that start today actually have an easier time doing everything veteran players did. They can build rosters faster, stronger, and they have an easier time tackling the same content. Sure, the end game is higher than it was, and always will get higher, but it isn't necessarily getting farther away because prior content is getting easier and quicker to speed through. I would bet that a player starting today will likely get their first 6* champion in the same or less time than it took me to get my first 5* champion.

mum_m2

DNA3000 wrote: »

mum_m2 wrote: »

They should have stopped at 5*s but here's why. Game will eventually be all about retention. New player acquisitions will begin to diminish and all you're going to be left with are the people that have been playing forever. Think about starting off in this game and think about how intimidating it is to obtain your first 5*. It takes a couple months of grinding away arena and getting through in game content as quickly as possible. Now you've did all of that work and you don't feel at all close to the end game of say having a 6* let alone a 10*. So 6* should be it.

If your premise is that the game will eventually stop getting new players, there's no need to solve the problem of new players being intimidated by the end game.

The more fundamental problem with your hypothesis is that 5* champions are and continue to get easier to acquire. Had they stopped with 5* champs, the ability to acquire them would be vastly harder today than they actually are. They are only easier to get because they are no longer the top tier champion. Instead, progress is far faster today than it ever was in the past. Meanwhile, the non-cyclical content isn't getting progressively harder. Act 4, Act 5, and LoL are fundamentally the same difficulty they've ever been. But the maximum strength of a player roster continues to rise. This means players attempting to work their way to tackling LoL can theoretically work their way to making it easier than previous players could. They can, in effect, progress higher relative to the content.

In effect, players that start today actually have an easier time doing everything veteran players did. They can build rosters faster, stronger, and they have an easier time tackling the same content. Sure, the end game is higher than it was, and always will get higher, but it isn't necessarily getting farther away because prior content is getting easier and quicker to speed through. I would bet that a player starting today will likely get their first 6* champion in the same or less time than it took me to get my first 5* champion.

Not really...you're sort of proving my argument and you cut out half of it. I ask "can they keep it up" in reference to the amount of creativity it takes to keep things fresh. On the extreme side of the spectrum, The Simpsons did it but on the other hand Beavis and Butthead couldn't. People can't play the same game forever. Kabam is intentionally delaying giving us resources for everyone to catch up, among other reasons. But eventually, in game retention will diminish and new player acquisitions will decline. You'll be only left with the people who want to defeat every level on Candy Crush.

unknown

This content has been removed.

Cujo999

mum_m2 wrote: »

DNA3000 wrote: »

mum_m2 wrote: »

They should have stopped at 5*s but here's why. Game will eventually be all about retention. New player acquisitions will begin to diminish and all you're going to be left with are the people that have been playing forever. Think about starting off in this game and think about how intimidating it is to obtain your first 5*. It takes a couple months of grinding away arena and getting through in game content as quickly as possible. Now you've did all of that work and you don't feel at all close to the end game of say having a 6* let alone a 10*. So 6* should be it.

If your premise is that the game will eventually stop getting new players, there's no need to solve the problem of new players being intimidated by the end game.

The more fundamental problem with your hypothesis is that 5* champions are and continue to get easier to acquire. Had they stopped with 5* champs, the ability to acquire them would be vastly harder today than they actually are. They are only easier to get because they are no longer the top tier champion. Instead, progress is far faster today than it ever was in the past. Meanwhile, the non-cyclical content isn't getting progressively harder. Act 4, Act 5, and LoL are fundamentally the same difficulty they've ever been. But the maximum strength of a player roster continues to rise. This means players attempting to work their way to tackling LoL can theoretically work their way to making it easier than previous players could. They can, in effect, progress higher relative to the content.

In effect, players that start today actually have an easier time doing everything veteran players did. They can build rosters faster, stronger, and they have an easier time tackling the same content. Sure, the end game is higher than it was, and always will get higher, but it isn't necessarily getting farther away because prior content is getting easier and quicker to speed through. I would bet that a player starting today will likely get their first 6* champion in the same or less time than it took me to get my first 5* champion.

Not really...you're sort of proving my argument and you cut out half of it. I ask "can they keep it up" in reference to the amount of creativity it takes to keep things fresh. On the extreme side of the spectrum, The Simpsons did it but on the other hand Beavis and Butthead couldn't. People can't play the same game forever. Kabam is intentionally delaying giving us resources for everyone to catch up, among other reasons. But eventually, in game retention will diminish and new player acquisitions will decline. You'll be only left with the people who want to defeat every level on Candy Crush.

The thing you're missing is the game is based around the Marvel IP. Every time a new Marvel movie or TV show drops, there will be a horde of new potential players checking various app stores for a Marvel game. Everything is fresh to a new player. The game isn't based on a cyclical IP. For example, lots of products based on the Lord of the Rings IP died out after the movie cycle ended and the player base dried up. Disney is going to be pumping out Marvel movies and shows for the foreseeable future, which means a steady stream of new players to replace the ones that burn out.

mum_m2

sure @Cujo999 you're absolutely right. but I did say that there would be 200 more different champions in the game by the time 10* would come out. by then the complete dynamic of the game would change and would be completely overhauled. my point is can they keep the game fresh. That's the question and all roads lead to that. Because in game content is becoming stale, they did a good job this month, but you can only do so much before you have to overhaul it.

Blax4ever

@mum_m2

Trying to explain to some of them that the content has gotten stale because the META is too rigid is like talking to a wall, don’t waste your time.

Here is the game in a nutshell, get the trinity, get Medusa, get Iceman get Star Lord, toss in a new character here or there and use them in every part of the game.

Example:
Oh wow, you’ve played for two years and have all of the members of Guardians of the Galaxy awesome, what are you going to do with them? Nothing because only Star Lord has any utility and there is no content where it makes sense to use them as a team/ faction.

The game content is not making good use of Marvel characters

Double_Dragon2

We need new content, and simply adding champs isn't gonna do it. Champs are tools to be used on content, not content in and of themselves.

And when adding new content like dungeons, the meta needs to be adjusted a bit so the extra work doesn't get piled onto what we already have to do.

Dungeons is cool, but it's such a hassle even post-milestone adjustment. I wish that it never comes back again.

Kabam Miike

Hey All,

Thank you all for your thoughts and insights. There is some good stuff in here, but also a lot of just ranting for the sake of ranting. I'm gonna close this thread down now, because rant threads are not allowed in our forums, as they tend to just become a catch all place for negativity that tend to go very non-constructive very quickly.