Lots of long standing parts of the game are currently changing, often with no warning
Hulk_77
Member Posts: 782 ★★★
As part of the fallout from 12.0, there was a pledge made by Kabam to improve communication. This forum is supposed to be a place for discourse between the game team and the player base. It seems like communication has improved sometimes, but other times it is completely bypassed (to the point of changes to important heroes not even getting mentioned in the change log notes).
The Good Communication:
MD and Evade: They're going to Beta it, take feedback, and they've let us know a few weeks in advance that change might happen.
Eh, Okay Communication:
AA changed interaction with stun immunity. At least it was in the notes.
The bad Communication:
Changes either during the update or emergency maintenance to Magik's power steal, Drax's interaction with Mordo, changes to evade for BSS and SpiderGwen, etc. Maybe they were bugs. But they're bugs that have existed for a long time. For Magik, since she was retconned ages ago. For Drax, he's done that since Mordo entered the contest. BSS and Spidergwen have been the same since they entered the contest.
The Unknown:
Was there a change to Blade's danger sense? I don't know, but I keep seeing it everywhere, and people are reacting. If Kabam had a healthy habit of communicating these things, that wouldn't happen.
I get that Kabam must make changes to how things operate from time to time. And I get that there will be moments that they feel they must make a change without the playbase's consent. That is understandable. However, there are 2 areas that should be given more attention to:
1) Tell us. You fix a bug, log it on this forum. You alter a hero, log it. Changes to anything that has existed for more than a 3 months, like Magik and Drax, give notice in advance.
2) Even though the changes may be minor, they merit character specific rank down tickets as well. Or in the case of complex alterations to various interactions like Mystic Dispersion and Evade, general rank down tickets are merited. Our high end resources are incredibly scarce, and when heroes or interactions are altered, our well laid and thought out plans can crumble. At minimum, we need to be able to retrieve those resources to apply them to whatever new plan we develop. Also, if the utility of something is altered or reduced, as Mystic Dispersion or Evade may be, some sort of unit refund or compensation package is appropriate and should be seriously considered as part of the Beta process.
In short, Kabam needs to work on it's communication. It's been forever since an actual game developer came into this forum and posted anything. That would be great, he or she could explain the rationale behind various changes occurring the game. I think this would work well as a monthly or quarterly event, a Q&A session with a developer. And second, Kabam needs to care about the impacts of these changes. People have been leaving the game a lot recently, at least in the circles I travel. I hate to see them go. When someone has a Magik as their only 5r5 and she's fundamentally altered from how she functioned for years overnight with no warning or explanation, I get their desire to just throw their hands up and be done with the game. Kabam should care about that customer, because they just lost his/her revenue. This sorts of changes frustrate us all when we have no means to adapt to them. Considering the impacts fully before acting and offering some sort of remediation is how a successful business acts.
The Good Communication:
MD and Evade: They're going to Beta it, take feedback, and they've let us know a few weeks in advance that change might happen.
Eh, Okay Communication:
AA changed interaction with stun immunity. At least it was in the notes.
The bad Communication:
Changes either during the update or emergency maintenance to Magik's power steal, Drax's interaction with Mordo, changes to evade for BSS and SpiderGwen, etc. Maybe they were bugs. But they're bugs that have existed for a long time. For Magik, since she was retconned ages ago. For Drax, he's done that since Mordo entered the contest. BSS and Spidergwen have been the same since they entered the contest.
The Unknown:
Was there a change to Blade's danger sense? I don't know, but I keep seeing it everywhere, and people are reacting. If Kabam had a healthy habit of communicating these things, that wouldn't happen.
I get that Kabam must make changes to how things operate from time to time. And I get that there will be moments that they feel they must make a change without the playbase's consent. That is understandable. However, there are 2 areas that should be given more attention to:
1) Tell us. You fix a bug, log it on this forum. You alter a hero, log it. Changes to anything that has existed for more than a 3 months, like Magik and Drax, give notice in advance.
2) Even though the changes may be minor, they merit character specific rank down tickets as well. Or in the case of complex alterations to various interactions like Mystic Dispersion and Evade, general rank down tickets are merited. Our high end resources are incredibly scarce, and when heroes or interactions are altered, our well laid and thought out plans can crumble. At minimum, we need to be able to retrieve those resources to apply them to whatever new plan we develop. Also, if the utility of something is altered or reduced, as Mystic Dispersion or Evade may be, some sort of unit refund or compensation package is appropriate and should be seriously considered as part of the Beta process.
In short, Kabam needs to work on it's communication. It's been forever since an actual game developer came into this forum and posted anything. That would be great, he or she could explain the rationale behind various changes occurring the game. I think this would work well as a monthly or quarterly event, a Q&A session with a developer. And second, Kabam needs to care about the impacts of these changes. People have been leaving the game a lot recently, at least in the circles I travel. I hate to see them go. When someone has a Magik as their only 5r5 and she's fundamentally altered from how she functioned for years overnight with no warning or explanation, I get their desire to just throw their hands up and be done with the game. Kabam should care about that customer, because they just lost his/her revenue. This sorts of changes frustrate us all when we have no means to adapt to them. Considering the impacts fully before acting and offering some sort of remediation is how a successful business acts.
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Comments
Very well said