Brian Grant's most recent video

bamagiantfan · February 2021

Regarding BG's most recent video, I wanted to have a discourse about if the game is ready for another arena. I personally both agree and disagree with wanting a 6 star featured arena in the game. I first however would like a 5 star basic arena as there are many champions I do not have as either 5 or 6 stars that I would be happy to rank up as a 5 star champ(Corvus, Wasp, Sorcerer Supreme). So I wanted to post this to find out what the overall view was and if there is a timeline for Kabam adding in the next phase of arena.

Defenestrated · February 2021

No to 6* featured arena. Yes to 5* basic arena.

zuffy · February 2021

If they do go with a basic 5* arena, it should be restricted to 4 and 5* only. Otherwise, folks with a huge 6* roster can easily clear all the milestones and get the champ.

Texas_11 · February 2021

I guess it all depends on how much the game is dominated by those players in the top 1-300 bracket.

As an end game player, I don’t know what I would do if a 6* featured was in the arena. I am not going to put up 3-4 Odins for one champ, I know a lot of people will.

The best part is if they did a 6* arena , it would allow a 5* basic arena to happen and then a 4* arena , the players that are chasing the 5* champs won’t have to compete with rosters that can do 50mil with little to no effort. It rebalances the game again. There aren’t many end game players ranking up their 5* anymore , unless it’s a rare occasion.

Vendemiaire · February 2021

Introducing a 6* Featured will only speed up the inevitable that is 7*s or whatever they are planning. It might implode the economy of the game, if it isn't already is. A 5* Basic, on the otherhand, will tip the game in favor of FTPs with lower arena scores and balance the game in the long run.

Gamer · February 2021

I’m wil like a 5 star basice. Atm I’m rarely rank op 5 star.

DNA3000 · February 2021

bamagiantfan said:
Regarding BG's most recent video, I wanted to have a discourse about if the game is ready for another arena. I personally both agree and disagree with wanting a 6 star featured arena in the game. I first however would like a 5 star basic arena as there are many champions I do not have as either 5 or 6 stars that I would be happy to rank up as a 5 star champ(Corvus, Wasp, Sorcerer Supreme). So I wanted to post this to find out what the overall view was and if there is a timeline for Kabam adding in the next phase of arena.

As I said in another thread, time is not the issue. Time is irrelevant. 6* champs, specifically *targeting new 6* champs* is a top tier pursuit goal. If you want to dilute that with a 6* featured arena, all you have to do is replace it.

Brian half-jokingly asked what do we have to wait for, 7* champs? Basically, yes. This game is powered by impatience, and fueled by the players willing to spend past impatience. As Brian himself admits, all those champs he wants in a 6* arena are attainable by just waiting for the featured crystal. But Brian doesn't want to wait, he wants a way to pursue that goal now. That's understandable: the game is financed by that feeling. But the game can't keep the lights on giving Brian a way to do that. It keeps the lights on by giving spenders a way to do that.

It doesn't have to be 7* champs. But it has to be something. Something that only spenders can get now, and the rest of us has to get much later. And it has to be something that by definition isn't easy to wait for. BY DEFINITION if F2P players like Brian are perfectly fine with waiting for it, it won't be worth the spenders going after it, at least as much as they do now.

And this goes all the way down. The very top spenders in the game are going after the 6* early bird specials, but every tier of the game has things that players are pursuing. The spending isn't only happening there. People are spending on grandmaster crystals and Cavs hoping for 5* champs as well, people are still saving shards for 5* featured crystals. Pursuit happens everywhere, impatience exists everywhere, and the game funds its existence from all of them, not just the top 1% whales. So people who say that a 6* arena wouldn't just help the top 300 grinders, it will also trickle down and help everyone else, yes, it would. It would remove the need to pursue not just newly released 6* champs, but also everything else people currently pursue. And then what are people going to spend on?

As I said, this game monetizes impatience. Everything that the top spenders get everyone else eventually gets. Everything the top players get everyone else eventually gets. This is something the game doesn't get enough credit for. Adding a 6* arena without adding something else above it as the new pursuit target is the first step to weakening the game's monetization model of charging people for impatience. If it cannot monetize impatience, it will have to monetize *things*. Instead of spenders getting things sooner, they will start getting things everyone else can't get at all. And I'd rather that not happen.

Brian's most common complaint, and it is a valid complaint, is the lack of F2P paths to earn 6* sig stones. 6* sig stones are not easy to come by without spending. That is a thing that is genuinely restricted by a partial pay wall. If we decide that a 6* arena is "necessary" because "its time has come" without understanding the role that 6* champions actually play in the monetization of the game, the next rarity tier in this game will be full of 6* sig stones behind paywalls. Because you monetize impatience, or you monetize things. If the impatient decide when things happen, impatience can't be monetized, and things will be instead.

Texas_11 · February 2021

Vendemiaire said:
Introducing a 6* Featured will only speed up the inevitable that is 7*s or whatever they are planning. It might implode the economy of the game, if it isn't already is. A 5* Basic, on the otherhand, will tip the game in favor of FTPs with lower arena scores and balance the game in the long run.

For the most part. The people that have the newest 6* champs are the people that are spending anyway. The economy of the game is safe because I can almost guarantee you aren’t getting a 6* featured champ from arena unless you are spending some major coin or you grind for 3 days straight no sleep like the old days.

Also, not sure how I feel about 7* champs , don’t think that’s coming as we can hardly R3 champs.

Gamer · February 2021

DNA3000 said:

bamagiantfan said:
Regarding BG's most recent video, I wanted to have a discourse about if the game is ready for another arena. I personally both agree and disagree with wanting a 6 star featured arena in the game. I first however would like a 5 star basic arena as there are many champions I do not have as either 5 or 6 stars that I would be happy to rank up as a 5 star champ(Corvus, Wasp, Sorcerer Supreme). So I wanted to post this to find out what the overall view was and if there is a timeline for Kabam adding in the next phase of arena.
As I said in another thread, time is not the issue. Time is irrelevant. 6* champs, specifically *targeting new 6* champs* is a top tier pursuit goal. If you want to dilute that with a 6* featured arena, all you have to do is replace it.

Brian half-jokingly asked what do we have to wait for, 7* champs? Basically, yes. This game is powered by impatience, and fueled by the players willing to spend past impatience. As Brian himself admits, all those champs he wants in a 6* arena are attainable by just waiting for the featured crystal. But Brian doesn't want to wait, he wants a way to pursue that goal now. That's understandable: the game is financed by that feeling. But the game can't keep the lights on giving Brian a way to do that. It keeps the lights on by giving spenders a way to do that.

It doesn't have to be 7* champs. But it has to be something. Something that only spenders can get now, and the rest of us has to get much later. And it has to be something that by definition isn't easy to wait for. BY DEFINITION if F2P players like Brian are perfectly fine with waiting for it, it won't be worth the spenders going after it, at least as much as they do now.

And this goes all the way down. The very top spenders in the game are going after the 6* early bird specials, but every tier of the game has things that players are pursuing. The spending isn't only happening there. People are spending on grandmaster crystals and Cavs hoping for 5* champs as well, people are still saving shards for 5* featured crystals. Pursuit happens everywhere, impatience exists everywhere, and the game funds its existence from all of them, not just the top 1% whales. So people who say that a 6* arena wouldn't just help the top 300 grinders, it will also trickle down and help everyone else, yes, it would. It would remove the need to pursue not just newly released 6* champs, but also everything else people currently pursue. And then what are people going to spend on?

As I said, this game monetizes impatience. Everything that the top spenders get everyone else eventually gets. Everything the top players get everyone else eventually gets. This is something the game doesn't get enough credit for. Adding a 6* arena without adding something else above it as the new pursuit target is the first step to weakening the game's monetization model of charging people for impatience. If it cannot monetize impatience, it will have to monetize *things*. Instead of spenders getting things sooner, they will start getting things everyone else can't get at all. And I'd rather that not happen.

Brian's most common complaint, and it is a valid complaint, is the lack of F2P paths to earn 6* sig stones. 6* sig stones are not easy to come by without spending. That is a thing that is genuinely restricted by a partial pay wall. If we decide that a 6* arena is "necessary" because "its time has come" without understanding the role that 6* champions actually play in the monetization of the game, the next rarity tier in this game will be full of 6* sig stones behind paywalls. Because you monetize impatience, or you monetize things. If the impatient decide when things happen, impatience can't be monetized, and things will be instead.

But can we at least Agerd of a 5 Star basice even if it takes away the 4 star basice arena but can get the 4 star from the milestone in that’s arena hopefully u get my point u don’t really take away the 4 star.

Texas_11 · February 2021

To follow up on my last comment , think about the gifting rewards , if you are spending 5k+ you are getting rewards that are game breaking for the economy , but players that are spending that much aren’t the ones breaking the economy.

Economy goes both ways , for the younger accounts in Mcoc they will never have access to a featured champ because they are going against players who have 30 maxed R5s 11 6*!R3s etc. by doing a 5* basic arena and 6* featured arena this allows the young accounts to finally get some crumbs for less effort.

Also, the game sees on average at least 2 new champs a month, they don’t get added into the basic pool for 3-4 months sometimes and then the only way to get them is via featured . The cycle is too long to keep players interested.

DNA3000 · February 2021

Texas_11 said:

Vendemiaire said:
Introducing a 6* Featured will only speed up the inevitable that is 7*s or whatever they are planning. It might implode the economy of the game, if it isn't already is. A 5* Basic, on the otherhand, will tip the game in favor of FTPs with lower arena scores and balance the game in the long run.
For the most part. The people that have the newest 6* champs are the people that are spending anyway. The economy of the game is safe because I can almost guarantee you aren’t getting a 6* featured champ from arena unless you are spending some major coin or you grind for 3 days straight no sleep like the old days.

The *average* amount of units you need to spend to snag the 6* featured is 25000. That's assuming 1.2% drop rate and 300 units per crystal. Featured grinds typically take much less than that many. That many units would be about 417 refreshes of a team scoring at least 200k (more with boosts) which would be 83 million points just from those refreshes, and an implied total score north of 130 million. For the people spending on the featured Cavs, the 6* arena would be cheaper if they were willing to do it. Some would, some won't, but I guarantee at least 300 would. This would have some impact on spending at the highest level, before we account for second-order effects.

DNA3000 · February 2021

Texas_11 said:
The cycle is too long to keep players interested.

I don't see any evidence this is true. People have been saying various forms of "people are losing interest" in different parts of the game or the game as a whole for a very long time. But all the evidence I can find is that the player base itself is stable or growing, and the revenue stream for the game is growing period.

Did we see less interest in the most recent featured 6* crystal, because people waited "too long" for those champs? It didn't look that way to me. Instead, I saw the reverse: people were talking about that featured and discussing its merits and saving shards for *months* waiting for that crystal. People were very interested, and the fact that they had to wait for it did not impair the majority of players pursuit of it.

So between the quantitative things I can weigh and the subjective things I can observe, I see no evidence that the amount of time it takes for champions to pass from introduction to featured cav to featured champion crystal to basic crystal causes any materially significant number of players to lose interest.

phil56201 · February 2021

Something has to change. Was just reminiscing in another thread about how much fun I used to have grinding out relevant champions as 4*'s. That drive has long since disappeared and clearly for most everyone else as evidenced by the all time low cutoffs (except perhaps for the 5* featured) . There no incentive to go after 4*'s anymore, and the only other option is the 5* featured. But that is still pretty gated from the larger part of the community.

It's been over 3 years since 6*'s came into the game which is about how long it was from the introduction of 5*'s until the intro of the 5* featured arena. At the very least, add a 5* basic, but I don't think it would hurt the game to introduce a 6* featured. Would probably add enthusiasm back to the arena if they got an overhaul.

bamagiantfan · February 2021

Vendemiaire said:
Introducing a 6* Featured will only speed up the inevitable that is 7*s or whatever they are planning. It might implode the economy of the game, if it isn't already is. A 5* Basic, on the otherhand, will tip the game in favor of FTPs with lower arena scores and balance the game in the long run.

Yeah I tend to agree with this. I just remember when 4*s were still relevant and Blade was out, when he came around to the basic arena, EVERYONE was hopping into arena to grind for him. And I think people in arena to get a champion that can help them get through more content is good for the game overall. Players will be relieved they can pull a 5* Sym Supreme and get past the 6.2 Champion. They'll be happy they can finally get a real chance at Ægon without 300 people shooting the score to the moon and be able to do Labyrinth and the Abyss. And more people happy with getting champions, having more control about which champions they get, is good for the game.

Texas_11 · February 2021

DNA3000 said:

Texas_11 said:

Vendemiaire said:
Introducing a 6* Featured will only speed up the inevitable that is 7*s or whatever they are planning. It might implode the economy of the game, if it isn't already is. A 5* Basic, on the otherhand, will tip the game in favor of FTPs with lower arena scores and balance the game in the long run.
For the most part. The people that have the newest 6* champs are the people that are spending anyway. The economy of the game is safe because I can almost guarantee you aren’t getting a 6* featured champ from arena unless you are spending some major coin or you grind for 3 days straight no sleep like the old days.
The *average* amount of units you need to spend to snag the 6* featured is 25000. That's assuming 1.2% drop rate and 300 units per crystal. Featured grinds typically take much less than that many. That many units would be about 417 refreshes of a team scoring at least 200k (more with boosts) which would be 83 million points just from those refreshes, and an implied total score north of 130 million. For the people spending on the featured Cavs, the 6* arena would be cheaper if they were willing to do it. Some would, some won't, but I guarantee at least 300 would. This would have some impact on spending at the highest level, before we account for second-order effects.

Yea, the featured would be cheaper , but in this game as you have stated , monetizes time. Time is money and depends which one you are willing to spend more of. I think as of now , the 5* featured is nice , but is pushing the lower tier players out of the bracket to acquire champs and grow their roster. The health of the game is not in the top tier 1% of players it’s everyone else. We see this effect by them making act 6 changes as well as making cav difficulty a lot less skilled. Half the battle is developing an interest and when your 99% feel they never have a chance of obtaining champs ( fueled by YouTube) it creates a shift from wanting to obtain a goal to understanding it’s unrealistic to you. The 5* arena is now saturated with 1%ers who can put up 50mil in their sleep. The shift has moved from 4* to 5* , so where does that leave those players ?

Scopeotoe987 · February 2021

The game is way overdue for a 5* basic, but I could see a 6* featured arena in later 2021 or early 2022.

Horror_punk · February 2021

Yes to
T2a arena
T5b 50% arena
T5cc 2% milestones arena

Cliffordcan · February 2021

Hot take:
The people saying a 6* Arena would break the game are the same people that said Cav Crystals would do the same.

This game is getting super boring for a lot of real endgame players (100% all content). There is literally nothing to look forward to on a monthly basis for most. A lot of people who don’t spend on Cavs don’t have a chance to get the 6* champions until months and months later. IBom was released in Nov, since I don’t spend on Cavs my first chance to get him as a 6* is 32 MORE days from now.

Where the endgame is at right now is very boring for people who don’t dump $ in the game. There is literally nothing to do but wait and not get excited for new champs because trying to pull them from a featured 6* crystal almost 4 months after they are released is lame.

Another issue is even if I grind the 5* (which I did for SpiderHam and Ibom) I don’t want to R5 them because if I get them as a 6* I would R3 them. And while there are more resources, there aren’t excess enough to R5 and R3 two different rarities of the same champ back to back.

So even getting the 5* makes you not want to invest in them since you want to rank the 6*. So even grinding for the 5* and getting a champ you want keeps you in limbo for months and months waiting for the 6* featured.

GroundedWisdom · February 2021

Texas_11 said:

DNA3000 said:

Texas_11 said:

Vendemiaire said:
Introducing a 6* Featured will only speed up the inevitable that is 7*s or whatever they are planning. It might implode the economy of the game, if it isn't already is. A 5* Basic, on the otherhand, will tip the game in favor of FTPs with lower arena scores and balance the game in the long run.
For the most part. The people that have the newest 6* champs are the people that are spending anyway. The economy of the game is safe because I can almost guarantee you aren’t getting a 6* featured champ from arena unless you are spending some major coin or you grind for 3 days straight no sleep like the old days.
The *average* amount of units you need to spend to snag the 6* featured is 25000. That's assuming 1.2% drop rate and 300 units per crystal. Featured grinds typically take much less than that many. That many units would be about 417 refreshes of a team scoring at least 200k (more with boosts) which would be 83 million points just from those refreshes, and an implied total score north of 130 million. For the people spending on the featured Cavs, the 6* arena would be cheaper if they were willing to do it. Some would, some won't, but I guarantee at least 300 would. This would have some impact on spending at the highest level, before we account for second-order effects.
Yea, the featured would be cheaper , but in this game as you have stated , monetizes time. Time is money and depends which one you are willing to spend more of. I think as of now , the 5* featured is nice , but is pushing the lower tier players out of the bracket to acquire champs and grow their roster. The health of the game is not in the top tier 1% of players it’s everyone else. We see this effect by them making act 6 changes as well as making cav difficulty a lot less skilled. Half the battle is developing an interest and when your 99% feel they never have a chance of obtaining champs ( fueled by YouTube) it creates a shift from wanting to obtain a goal to understanding it’s unrealistic to you. The 5* arena is now saturated with 1%ers who can put up 50mil in their sleep. The shift has moved from 4* to 5* , so where does that leave those players ?

The 99% wouldn't have a chance at those Champs to begin with. The Arena is, and has always been, a competition that rewards those who put in the most Points. You may have the odd Grinder that throws a few Boosts on and Red Bulls their way into getting the Champs spending Units for refreshes, but the majority of people who get them are the ones with the deepest Rosters. Meaning the 1%. Most have never even Ranked in the 5* Featured, let alone the 6*.

GroundedWisdom · February 2021

5* Basic? Sure. 6* Arena? We're just not there yet. Availability is just starting to open up more and trickle down. It's a bit too premature for that.

winterthur · February 2021

bamagiantfan said:
So I wanted to post this to find out what the overall view was and if there is a timeline for Kabam adding in the next phase of arena.

Are you already able to win 4-Star featured champs easily?

Monk1 · February 2021

People need to understand what arena grind looks like at top end. Doing 50-60m without boosts and refresh is pretty easy with big roster.

I don’t even bother with 5* feature anymore cause at end game 5* champs have little relevance.

Would I go back to it for 6* champ.. even if a basic one.. yes

Colinwhitworth69 · February 2021

DNA3000 said:

bamagiantfan said:
Regarding BG's most recent video, I wanted to have a discourse about if the game is ready for another arena. I personally both agree and disagree with wanting a 6 star featured arena in the game. I first however would like a 5 star basic arena as there are many champions I do not have as either 5 or 6 stars that I would be happy to rank up as a 5 star champ(Corvus, Wasp, Sorcerer Supreme). So I wanted to post this to find out what the overall view was and if there is a timeline for Kabam adding in the next phase of arena.

Nice explanation, and well written.

pseudosane · February 2021

I do not agree with BG on the 6* featured. All it does is possibility for those willing to grind out 3daysor spend a bunch of odins to get a featured 6* champ. It expands the pool of those getting the champ... but barely. That isnt a solution at all.
5* basic could be nice, but a 6* arena, no ways.

IKON · February 2021

The solution of a 6* featured may be wrong, but the problem itself is correct. Not being able to realistically get a new champion until 5 months after release is a problem to me. It completely removes any excitement I have for a new champion release, but I don't think the 6* arena is the way to fix it.

Crys23 · February 2021

6* arena would make the 5* one almost basic. The heavy grinders would move there leaving the 5* feature for people with smaller rosters.
If you want 5* basic arena so you can put up 15mil and get a 5* that wont happen. THAT would ruin the economy of the game.

Grean · February 2021

Can you imagine the milestones on the 6* arena?

Another thing too is that kabam should at least release 7 stars or something before we get the 6* featured arena because, if you think about it, most people would only put in the same amount of arena points as they would in the 5* arena, which pretty much means that the top 300 people would get a 6* featured champion with around the same amount of points as they would get for a 5* featured.

Raganator · February 2021

For me...it depends. If they start giving out more 6* shards, then I would be fine without a 6* arena. Currently, I am opening 3-3 6* per month, but the pool is so diluted that I haven't pulled a usable/rankable champ since November. That, or launch 6* dual class crystals. Waiting months between decent pulls is what makes this game tedious for me.

bamagiantfan · February 2021

winterthur said:

bamagiantfan said:
So I wanted to post this to find out what the overall view was and if there is a timeline for Kabam adding in the next phase of arena.
Are you already able to win 4-Star featured champs easily?

I personally am yes. And much like some tough content in the game it was something I didn't know I would ever be able to do until I just did it. I would even venture to say many can grind out a feature 4 star champ with fellow 4 stars if allowed the time and lack of sleep lol.

Wicket329 · February 2021

Raganator said:
For me...it depends. If they start giving out more 6* shards, then I would be fine without a 6* arena. Currently, I am opening 3-3 6* per month, but the pool is so diluted that I haven't pulled a usable/rankable champ since November. That, or launch 6* dual class crystals. Waiting months between decent pulls is what makes this game tedious for me.

I know Kabam is reluctant to launch 6* dual class crystals because they need to keep people looking for those shiny new prizes, but I think an argument could be made for like a tri-class crystal. Just cut the pool right in half to allow for some degree of targeting. Tech/Skill/Mystic and Cosmic/Science/Mutant could be a balanced setup.

Still a huge pool, but it at least makes it more manageable

Rockypantherx · February 2021

Honestly, just bring back the old featured system. It allowed people to target a specific champion much easier without being able to get enough shards to get every new champ. To me, that would be enough to make players immediately interested in new champs

I’m not sure where I stand on a 6* featured arena, but Brian’s point about people saving for months and stagnating is absolutely on point.

I know I personally saved shards for months for this featured. And I’m probably going to save up over the next featured for the one after that, assuming it’s good. While I don’t mind it, it really does take a good chunk of thrill out of the game for months at a time

I do think something needs to change in this area. New champion releases just aren’t that exciting for the majority of players. And playing with champions is pretty much a fundamental part of this game.

The addition of the 3* to arena milestones was a good move, but most players have no reasonable way to get a usable rarity of these champs upon release. Essentially, unless you’re busting cavs or one of 600 people grinding for a champ, there are very limited ways to target champs. And of course that’s part of the game. But that’s why I really liked the old featured system. It gave that certain level of targeting to the average player

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