I put a post similar to this a week ago, and I am happy that people are talking more about this on the forum (even though it has been an ongoing conversation for a while now). I am just gonna tell you guys a story about a friend of mine, who used to play Marvel Contest of Champions.
So, a year ago, I introduced this game to my friend, since he was a fan of the Marvel franchise like most of us - I helped him understand the game, the barriers and what he should focus on. His roster was not too amazing, but he had champions like Cable to help his progress, from Act 1 to Act 3 in story mode. He showed a liking to the game, as intended - but did not yet fully understand the significance of each champion, until Kabam put out their Summoner's Choice Crystal deal back in December. He received a 4-star Archangel from that crystal, which he was not really hyped about, until he started using him in Act 4 in story mode, where he understood how significantly better his Archangel was compared to his prior champions. Around this time his will to continue playing was still there, and he was determined to farm 5-star shards in Event Quest and Alliance War to get his first 5-star. And when he reached his goal, he ended up with a 5-star Cyclops (Marvel NOW!) - this is where I noticed that his motivation was slowly turning and he stopped playing the game. He simply could not use his 5-star for anything to progress other than Arena, which he never was interested in.
This is just one great case scenario, of how this asymmetrical release of newer champions, which tends to be more advanced than previous champions, is breaking the game at its core. I understand that there is a 2020-plan of releasing as many champions as possible, but as the game advances each day with more challenging stuff to deal with, it also requires revamping of older champions. Hence, the focus of the game should not constantly be on releasing new champions each month, but instead redirecting the focus on balancing older champions for the game's well-being.
Hey peeps. Appreciate the feedback and it's true that some of our older Champs need some attention! But it's not true to state that we have entirely ignored the older Champions. A few that we have directly worked on:
Winter Soldier
Magik
Spider-Gwen
Luke Cage
Red Hulk
In other instances, adjustments or improvements we make to the game positively impact older Champions as well. An example of this would be Karnak - he became better when we made True Strike counter Auto Block.
Does this mean that all of these above Champions are exactly where we want them to be? No. Are there other older Champions we want to revisit? Yes, absolutely. It's true that developing new features and new content in order to keep The Contest fresh and exciting is a big priority for us, but we do want to and like to make improvements to existing content as well. In the instance of Luke Cage and Red Hulk, we ran a beta test. We recently ran a Mystic Dispersion beta test, but we do have a good idea of what we want our next 'existing Champion refresh' beta to be. While I can't share the specifics of that just yet because we don't have the timeline nailed down, I am looking forward to the day where we can share more on that front
Thanks for the update @Ad0ra_ while I maybe didn't focus too much on the champs you guys have updated, I do realize that you have had some great champ updates (all except Spider-Gwen... she is still just really underwhelming). I love my Rulk and LC. And as for Karnak, I don't have any versions of him that are playable, but I have heard from friends that he is much better. I think I can speak for a lot of summoners when I say that champ updates get me more excited than new character releases. Is there any chance you could tell us if you are looking at updating more than just 2 champs this time? I know it is a lot of work for you guys, but it would be awesome if there were more than just two champs getting a revamp. My personal hope is that some of the characters being looked at are in the 6* crystals because it is really a bummer to have two 6* champs that I can never use.
Hey peeps. Appreciate the feedback and it's true that some of our older Champs need some attention! But it's not true to state that we have entirely ignored the older Champions. A few that we have directly worked on:
Winter Soldier
Magik
Spider-Gwen
Luke Cage
Red Hulk
In other instances, adjustments or improvements we make to the game positively impact older Champions as well. An example of this would be Karnak - he became better when we made True Strike counter Auto Block.
Does this mean that all of these above Champions are exactly where we want them to be? No. Are there other older Champions we want to revisit? Yes, absolutely. It's true that developing new features and new content in order to keep The Contest fresh and exciting is a big priority for us, but we do want to and like to make improvements to existing content as well. In the instance of Luke Cage and Red Hulk, we ran a beta test. We recently ran a Mystic Dispersion beta test, but we do have a good idea of what we want our next 'existing Champion refresh' beta to be. While I can't share the specifics of that just yet because we don't have the timeline nailed down, I am looking forward to the day where we can share more on that front
Thanks for the update @Ad0ra_ while I maybe didn't focus too much on the champs you guys have updated, I do realize that you have had some great champ updates (all except Spider-Gwen... she is still just really underwhelming). I love my Rulk and LC. And as for Karnak, I don't have any versions of him that are playable, but I have heard from friends that he is much better. I think I can speak for a lot of summoners when I say that champ updates get me more excited than new character releases. Is there any chance you could tell us if you are looking at updating more than just 2 champs this time? I know it is a lot of work for you guys, but it would be awesome if there were more than just two champs getting a revamp. My personal hope is that some of the characters being looked at are in the 6* crystals because it is really a bummer to have two 6* champs that I can never use.
Anyways, thanks again for the update!
Regarding Spider Gwen, we agree with you there. For the next beta, it would still be two unfortunately. It's not only due to team bandwidth, but running betas with too many things that players need to provide feedback on can have an impact on how much time players actually spend with the changes, and the amount of feedback we get. We always pair feedback with in-game data, but it's still important for us to be mindful of both. And we've all seen comments from people that want us to avoid trying to do what they feel is 'too much', so ....
Hey peeps. Appreciate the feedback and it's true that some of our older Champs need some attention! But it's not true to state that we have entirely ignored the older Champions. A few that we have directly worked on:
Winter Soldier
Magik
Spider-Gwen
Luke Cage
Red Hulk
In other instances, adjustments or improvements we make to the game positively impact older Champions as well. An example of this would be Karnak - he became better when we made True Strike counter Auto Block.
Does this mean that all of these above Champions are exactly where we want them to be? No. Are there other older Champions we want to revisit? Yes, absolutely. It's true that developing new features and new content in order to keep The Contest fresh and exciting is a big priority for us, but we do want to and like to make improvements to existing content as well. In the instance of Luke Cage and Red Hulk, we ran a beta test. We recently ran a Mystic Dispersion beta test, but we do have a good idea of what we want our next 'existing Champion refresh' beta to be. While I can't share the specifics of that just yet because we don't have the timeline nailed down, I am looking forward to the day where we can share more on that front
Thanks for the update @Ad0ra_ while I maybe didn't focus too much on the champs you guys have updated, I do realize that you have had some great champ updates (all except Spider-Gwen... she is still just really underwhelming). I love my Rulk and LC. And as for Karnak, I don't have any versions of him that are playable, but I have heard from friends that he is much better. I think I can speak for a lot of summoners when I say that champ updates get me more excited than new character releases. Is there any chance you could tell us if you are looking at updating more than just 2 champs this time? I know it is a lot of work for you guys, but it would be awesome if there were more than just two champs getting a revamp. My personal hope is that some of the characters being looked at are in the 6* crystals because it is really a bummer to have two 6* champs that I can never use.
Anyways, thanks again for the update!
Regarding Spider Gwen, we agree with you there. For the next beta, it would still be two unfortunately. It's not only due to team bandwidth, but running betas with too many things that players need to provide feedback on can have an impact on how much time players actually spend with the changes, and the amount of feedback we get. We always pair feedback with in-game data, but it's still important for us to be mindful of both. And we've all seen comments from people that want us to avoid trying to do what they feel is 'too much', so ....
So which two are you guys looking to work on next?
Hey peeps. Appreciate the feedback and it's true that some of our older Champs need some attention! But it's not true to state that we have entirely ignored the older Champions. A few that we have directly worked on:
Winter Soldier
Magik
Spider-Gwen
Luke Cage
Red Hulk
In other instances, adjustments or improvements we make to the game positively impact older Champions as well. An example of this would be Karnak - he became better when we made True Strike counter Auto Block.
Does this mean that all of these above Champions are exactly where we want them to be? No. Are there other older Champions we want to revisit? Yes, absolutely. It's true that developing new features and new content in order to keep The Contest fresh and exciting is a big priority for us, but we do want to and like to make improvements to existing content as well. In the instance of Luke Cage and Red Hulk, we ran a beta test. We recently ran a Mystic Dispersion beta test, but we do have a good idea of what we want our next 'existing Champion refresh' beta to be. While I can't share the specifics of that just yet because we don't have the timeline nailed down, I am looking forward to the day where we can share more on that front
Thanks for the update @Ad0ra_ while I maybe didn't focus too much on the champs you guys have updated, I do realize that you have had some great champ updates (all except Spider-Gwen... she is still just really underwhelming). I love my Rulk and LC. And as for Karnak, I don't have any versions of him that are playable, but I have heard from friends that he is much better. I think I can speak for a lot of summoners when I say that champ updates get me more excited than new character releases. Is there any chance you could tell us if you are looking at updating more than just 2 champs this time? I know it is a lot of work for you guys, but it would be awesome if there were more than just two champs getting a revamp. My personal hope is that some of the characters being looked at are in the 6* crystals because it is really a bummer to have two 6* champs that I can never use.
Anyways, thanks again for the update!
Regarding Spider Gwen, we agree with you there. For the next beta, it would still be two unfortunately. It's not only due to team bandwidth, but running betas with too many things that players need to provide feedback on can have an impact on how much time players actually spend with the changes, and the amount of feedback we get. We always pair feedback with in-game data, but it's still important for us to be mindful of both. And we've all seen comments from people that want us to avoid trying to do what they feel is 'too much', so ....
So which two are you guys looking to work on next?
Can't tell you that yet. I wanna, but I can't You'll have to wait, unforch. I know, it sucks - but. Once we can tell you... we will!!!!
Kabam, you don’t need to get cute with it and make a textbook of complicated, and somehow still obfuscated abilities for everyone, just make them stink less by redoing them in the mold of champs of today that are successful and sought-after without game-breaking chicanery, like Medusa or Killmonger. Test them. Make the testing part of an event. Be up front that the abilities they start with may not be what they end with. Tweak them every 24 hours and see how and what people do. Put it to a vote in the forums to see which versions people liked the most. Then put them in a crystal after you apply the appropriate tweaks and announce the versions that won. The 3,4,5 or 6 star version crystals would only have their respective 3,4,5, or 6 star versions of the revitalized champs at each tier offered. Boom. Old champs no longer worthless. Kabam gets profit from people that want to buy units to get the crystals. People that don’t want to spend units can still get them in basic crystals if they want to play the odds like always. Everyone wins.
Hey peeps. Appreciate the feedback and it's true that some of our older Champs need some attention! But it's not true to state that we have entirely ignored the older Champions. A few that we have directly worked on:
Winter Soldier
Magik
Spider-Gwen
Luke Cage
Red Hulk
In other instances, adjustments or improvements we make to the game positively impact older Champions as well. An example of this would be Karnak - he became better when we made True Strike counter Auto Block.
Does this mean that all of these above Champions are exactly where we want them to be? No. Are there other older Champions we want to revisit? Yes, absolutely. It's true that developing new features and new content in order to keep The Contest fresh and exciting is a big priority for us, but we do want to and like to make improvements to existing content as well. In the instance of Luke Cage and Red Hulk, we ran a beta test. We recently ran a Mystic Dispersion beta test, but we do have a good idea of what we want our next 'existing Champion refresh' beta to be. While I can't share the specifics of that just yet because we don't have the timeline nailed down, I am looking forward to the day where we can share more on that front
Thanks for the update @Ad0ra_ while I maybe didn't focus too much on the champs you guys have updated, I do realize that you have had some great champ updates (all except Spider-Gwen... she is still just really underwhelming). I love my Rulk and LC. And as for Karnak, I don't have any versions of him that are playable, but I have heard from friends that he is much better. I think I can speak for a lot of summoners when I say that champ updates get me more excited than new character releases. Is there any chance you could tell us if you are looking at updating more than just 2 champs this time? I know it is a lot of work for you guys, but it would be awesome if there were more than just two champs getting a revamp. My personal hope is that some of the characters being looked at are in the 6* crystals because it is really a bummer to have two 6* champs that I can never use.
Anyways, thanks again for the update!
Regarding Spider Gwen, we agree with you there. For the next beta, it would still be two unfortunately. It's not only due to team bandwidth, but running betas with too many things that players need to provide feedback on can have an impact on how much time players actually spend with the changes, and the amount of feedback we get. We always pair feedback with in-game data, but it's still important for us to be mindful of both. And we've all seen comments from people that want us to avoid trying to do what they feel is 'too much', so ....
So which two are you guys looking to work on next?
Can't tell you that yet. I wanna, but I can't You'll have to wait, unforch. I know, it sucks - but. Once we can tell you... we will!!!!
Lol. Well can’t you grab a beer with us and tell us off the record? I don’t know about the others but I can keep a secret.
On a serious note have you already decided which two you all are working on or is that still up in the air?
The thing that disappoints me the most about MCoC is that most of the popular characters in the Marvel universe were originals in the game and now are just so underwhelming. The new champs they're releasing can be so OP but no one has ever heard of them. I mean, Massacre? Huh? Who the heck IS he?
Can't tell you that yet. I wanna, but I can't You'll have to wait, unforch. I know, it sucks - but. Once we can tell you... we will!!!!
I'm quite excited that we at least can be certain that two champions are gonna get revamped.
However, considering that the game now has around 129+ champions - why is the focus still on adding new champions "to keep the Content fresh and exciting"? New content doesn't necessarily mean new champions, right? You can add those new features to the current champions, hence balancing the game.
The thing that disappoints me the most about MCoC is that most of the popular characters in the Marvel universe were originals in the game and now are just so underwhelming. The new champs they're releasing can be so OP but no one has ever heard of them. I mean, Massacre? Huh? Who the heck IS he?
Good point, let's just consider a fight between Domino vs. Black Panther (Original) or Iron Fist in the Marvel Universe, based on their overall capabilities and skills. I'm pretty sure Black Panther (Original) and Iron Fist would win this fight, however this would not be the case in Marvel Contest of Champions, cause of how advanced Domino is compared to these outdated champions.
I'm pretty sure Black Panther would wonder how the heck Domino of all people is burning his life force away while he's just standing there and hasn't done anything yet.
Kabam you guys should really consider a maintance/summoner appreciation month to get this mess sorted. We’ve hardly gone a month since 12.0 where things didn’t feel like it was coming off the rails.
Hey peeps. Appreciate the feedback and it's true that some of our older Champs need some attention! But it's not true to state that we have entirely ignored the older Champions. A few that we have directly worked on:
Winter Soldier
Magik
Spider-Gwen
Luke Cage
Red Hulk
In other instances, adjustments or improvements we make to the game positively impact older Champions as well. An example of this would be Karnak - he became better when we made True Strike counter Auto Block.
Does this mean that all of these above Champions are exactly where we want them to be? No. Are there other older Champions we want to revisit? Yes, absolutely. It's true that developing new features and new content in order to keep The Contest fresh and exciting is a big priority for us, but we do want to and like to make improvements to existing content as well. In the instance of Luke Cage and Red Hulk, we ran a beta test. We recently ran a Mystic Dispersion beta test, but we do have a good idea of what we want our next 'existing Champion refresh' beta to be. While I can't share the specifics of that just yet because we don't have the timeline nailed down, I am looking forward to the day where we can share more on that front
Thanks for the update @Ad0ra_ while I maybe didn't focus too much on the champs you guys have updated, I do realize that you have had some great champ updates (all except Spider-Gwen... she is still just really underwhelming). I love my Rulk and LC. And as for Karnak, I don't have any versions of him that are playable, but I have heard from friends that he is much better. I think I can speak for a lot of summoners when I say that champ updates get me more excited than new character releases. Is there any chance you could tell us if you are looking at updating more than just 2 champs this time? I know it is a lot of work for you guys, but it would be awesome if there were more than just two champs getting a revamp. My personal hope is that some of the characters being looked at are in the 6* crystals because it is really a bummer to have two 6* champs that I can never use.
Anyways, thanks again for the update!
Regarding Spider Gwen, we agree with you there. For the next beta, it would still be two unfortunately. It's not only due to team bandwidth, but running betas with too many things that players need to provide feedback on can have an impact on how much time players actually spend with the changes, and the amount of feedback we get. We always pair feedback with in-game data, but it's still important for us to be mindful of both. And we've all seen comments from people that want us to avoid trying to do what they feel is 'too much', so ....
Well two is better than none! I hope you guys will continue to do this more frequently. I can tell you I'm more excited for these two champion updates than I have been for any of the monthly content (not saying monthly content is bad, I just enjoy myself a good old fashioned character update).
Hey peeps. Appreciate the feedback and it's true that some of our older Champs need some attention! But it's not true to state that we have entirely ignored the older Champions. A few that we have directly worked on:
Winter Soldier
Magik
Spider-Gwen
Luke Cage
Red Hulk
In other instances, adjustments or improvements we make to the game positively impact older Champions as well. An example of this would be Karnak - he became better when we made True Strike counter Auto Block.
Does this mean that all of these above Champions are exactly where we want them to be? No. Are there other older Champions we want to revisit? Yes, absolutely. It's true that developing new features and new content in order to keep The Contest fresh and exciting is a big priority for us, but we do want to and like to make improvements to existing content as well. In the instance of Luke Cage and Red Hulk, we ran a beta test. We recently ran a Mystic Dispersion beta test, but we do have a good idea of what we want our next 'existing Champion refresh' beta to be. While I can't share the specifics of that just yet because we don't have the timeline nailed down, I am looking forward to the day where we can share more on that front
Thanks for the update @Ad0ra_ while I maybe didn't focus too much on the champs you guys have updated, I do realize that you have had some great champ updates (all except Spider-Gwen... she is still just really underwhelming). I love my Rulk and LC. And as for Karnak, I don't have any versions of him that are playable, but I have heard from friends that he is much better. I think I can speak for a lot of summoners when I say that champ updates get me more excited than new character releases. Is there any chance you could tell us if you are looking at updating more than just 2 champs this time? I know it is a lot of work for you guys, but it would be awesome if there were more than just two champs getting a revamp. My personal hope is that some of the characters being looked at are in the 6* crystals because it is really a bummer to have two 6* champs that I can never use.
Anyways, thanks again for the update!
Regarding Spider Gwen, we agree with you there. For the next beta, it would still be two unfortunately. It's not only due to team bandwidth, but running betas with too many things that players need to provide feedback on can have an impact on how much time players actually spend with the changes, and the amount of feedback we get. We always pair feedback with in-game data, but it's still important for us to be mindful of both. And we've all seen comments from people that want us to avoid trying to do what they feel is 'too much', so ....
So which two are you guys looking to work on next?
Can't tell you that yet. I wanna, but I can't You'll have to wait, unforch. I know, it sucks - but. Once we can tell you... we will!!!!
Companies and their secrecy policies... am I right?
They did upgrade some of the old ones. That’s the beauty of the game, each month we get new characters and it may take forever for some to get them. I still have yet to pull some of the old champs and i just recently got SW lol. In my opinion, there is no need to update old champs.
@Werewrym
I agree with you 200%.
This was the reason why I left the game 'Injustice: Gods Among Us' for Marvel, because over there, they started introducing new characters also.
And each new character they introduced was better, stronger, and had more health than the last.
It got to the point where everyone was using the same new characters and it got boring.
I hope Kabam learns from this.
The more characters they keep relevant, the more scenarios things can play out and the more interesting the game remains.
Because, personally, I still love some of the old characters and would love to keep using.
One of the characters I would love to see improved would be Phoenix.
Comments
So, a year ago, I introduced this game to my friend, since he was a fan of the Marvel franchise like most of us - I helped him understand the game, the barriers and what he should focus on. His roster was not too amazing, but he had champions like Cable to help his progress, from Act 1 to Act 3 in story mode. He showed a liking to the game, as intended - but did not yet fully understand the significance of each champion, until Kabam put out their Summoner's Choice Crystal deal back in December. He received a 4-star Archangel from that crystal, which he was not really hyped about, until he started using him in Act 4 in story mode, where he understood how significantly better his Archangel was compared to his prior champions. Around this time his will to continue playing was still there, and he was determined to farm 5-star shards in Event Quest and Alliance War to get his first 5-star. And when he reached his goal, he ended up with a 5-star Cyclops (Marvel NOW!) - this is where I noticed that his motivation was slowly turning and he stopped playing the game. He simply could not use his 5-star for anything to progress other than Arena, which he never was interested in.
This is just one great case scenario, of how this asymmetrical release of newer champions, which tends to be more advanced than previous champions, is breaking the game at its core. I understand that there is a 2020-plan of releasing as many champions as possible, but as the game advances each day with more challenging stuff to deal with, it also requires revamping of older champions. Hence, the focus of the game should not constantly be on releasing new champions each month, but instead redirecting the focus on balancing older champions for the game's well-being.
Thanks for the update @Ad0ra_ while I maybe didn't focus too much on the champs you guys have updated, I do realize that you have had some great champ updates (all except Spider-Gwen... she is still just really underwhelming). I love my Rulk and LC. And as for Karnak, I don't have any versions of him that are playable, but I have heard from friends that he is much better. I think I can speak for a lot of summoners when I say that champ updates get me more excited than new character releases. Is there any chance you could tell us if you are looking at updating more than just 2 champs this time? I know it is a lot of work for you guys, but it would be awesome if there were more than just two champs getting a revamp. My personal hope is that some of the characters being looked at are in the 6* crystals because it is really a bummer to have two 6* champs that I can never use.
Anyways, thanks again for the update!
Regarding Spider Gwen, we agree with you there. For the next beta, it would still be two unfortunately. It's not only due to team bandwidth, but running betas with too many things that players need to provide feedback on can have an impact on how much time players actually spend with the changes, and the amount of feedback we get. We always pair feedback with in-game data, but it's still important for us to be mindful of both. And we've all seen comments from people that want us to avoid trying to do what they feel is 'too much', so ....
So which two are you guys looking to work on next?
Can't tell you that yet. I wanna, but I can't
Lol. Well can’t you grab a beer with us and tell us off the record? I don’t know about the others but I can keep a secret.
On a serious note have you already decided which two you all are working on or is that still up in the air?
I'm quite excited that we at least can be certain that two champions are gonna get revamped.
However, considering that the game now has around 129+ champions - why is the focus still on adding new champions "to keep the Content fresh and exciting"? New content doesn't necessarily mean new champions, right? You can add those new features to the current champions, hence balancing the game.
Good point, let's just consider a fight between Domino vs. Black Panther (Original) or Iron Fist in the Marvel Universe, based on their overall capabilities and skills. I'm pretty sure Black Panther (Original) and Iron Fist would win this fight, however this would not be the case in Marvel Contest of Champions, cause of how advanced Domino is compared to these outdated champions.
Well two is better than none! I hope you guys will continue to do this more frequently. I can tell you I'm more excited for these two champion updates than I have been for any of the monthly content (not saying monthly content is bad, I just enjoy myself a good old fashioned character update).
Companies and their secrecy policies... am I right?
I agree with you 200%.
This was the reason why I left the game 'Injustice: Gods Among Us' for Marvel, because over there, they started introducing new characters also.
And each new character they introduced was better, stronger, and had more health than the last.
It got to the point where everyone was using the same new characters and it got boring.
I hope Kabam learns from this.
The more characters they keep relevant, the more scenarios things can play out and the more interesting the game remains.
Because, personally, I still love some of the old characters and would love to keep using.
One of the characters I would love to see improved would be Phoenix.
There will always be plenty. HB, Colossus, She Hulk, IP.