**Mastery Loadouts**
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Due to issues related to the release of Mastery Loadouts, the "free swap" period will be extended.
The new end date will be May 1st.
Comments
I suspect I'll look back on MCOC similarly, because I play it similarly. I play it like it is a game, I play it with people I want to play with, and I never let the chase for rewards interfere with my enjoyment of the game. The game may make the rules, but you decide how you choose to play the game. I've been an alliance leader for years. I encourage people to participate. I do not force people to log in "every couple hours." I don't force them to grind constantly. I try to create a safe space to enjoy the game, and while I'm nowhere near perfect in doing that, I don't want and do not ask for addicts. And I don't believe anyone in my alliance is. If MCOC is as highly addictive as you claim, we've been exceptionally fortunate. I don't think 30 people could simultaneously avoid becoming addicted to heroin after being exposed to it for years.
And if your opinion was correct that they want to addict us, then why, as you seem to acknowledge, did they remove so many links from AQ and AW? Why is Kabam so good at inventing addictive technology and so bad at using it properly? Why are so few players spenders, and why does the game have any turnover at all? How can the game be so addicting, and yet actually addict so few people?
There's a difference between being psychologically addicted to something, and just doing it wrong. Every bad habit and bad behavior is not an addiction. True addition require significant focused effort to treat. You don't just sit at home and "rewrite your brain" any more than you can sit at home and rewire your kidneys to no longer require dialysis.
There was a post the other day taht showed that The Champion actually benefits from the bug. Again, if you are costing yourself resources, that's on you. This bug is frustrating and it sucks it's in the game but its not as impactful as you make out to be.
2. If you want to have a discussion about neuroscience, psychology, game theory, or patent law, I'm game. I am conversant on all of them.
3. In fact, I've read all of the legal patents owned by Kabam in their entirety. None of them were created for this game. If you want to have a discussion about those as well, I'm also game for that, as I've addressed those before multiple times here and on the Reddit. While neuroscience is something I have a passing familiarity with, patent law is something I have more of a professional familiarity with, having worked for patent attorneys on patent submissions in the past and having worked with clients on areas of information technology related to technology patent protection. So by all means, please select your topic and your particular area of interest.
4. Actually, I do in fact take breaks from the game. In fact I have a general rule that absent some very important discussions of immediate impact to the game (critical bugs, etc) I don't even read the forums after a certain time of day, and almost never on the weekends unless I'm working at my computer and have a spare minute. And I reduce my game play to the bare minimum when I take vacations, basically to move in AQ and/or AW and that's it. No arena grinding, no quest running, only what I need to do to not leave my alliance hanging. You could argue that minimum amount of gameplay is itself proof of addiction, in which case I would contend that I'm also addicted to work, as I'm an on-call professional that must be reachable 7x24, and the fact that I don't disconnect from cell service means I'm addicted to professional responsibility. But that would be ludicrous.
5. Its convenient that everything they do that is addictive is because they want to addict players, and everything they do that removes addictive features is because they are losing too many players. When every possible fact automatically fits the narrative, and the negative of every possible fact equally fits the same narrative, that's usually a sign the narrative is wrong.
6. So when you said "This game is crazy addictive. So addictive that I’d bet when you look back someday in the future, you’ll be mad at how it programmed you into an addict for it" you either meant just one particular you and not necessarily anyone else, or you meant you like making bets you expect to lose? It is ironic you're accusing me of implying you said things you didn't say, by implying I said things I didn't say. And not the Alanis kind of irony, but the real kind.
As a service provider myself, I decide what amount of time or staffing is required to operate my business at a level that I feel provides the quality of service I wish to be known for. I would never tell a client that they have to pick and choose which part of my service they wish to have executed properly. Because my time is limited. "So, would you like your stairs to be built to code or would you like the front door to lock securely? I have enough time to make one of those happen..." 🙂 It's not their concern *how* I execute the service I provide. They just want to have a good experience. If so, they will remain clients and even refer new ones to me. If not, they will choose a different provider and move on.
I have no idea how much time it adds to issue tiered comp vs blanket comp. I'm not in the video game business. I guess we are just viewing things differently. I never really viewed issuing a more comprehensive, tiered comp as "paying for a mistake". It just seemed like a reasonable response to the situation from my view point.
And I think a few others as well.
Honestly, I think it's more about folks having a negative reaction to the attorney-like posture that the company often takes. From our view point (which is often based on feeling and not fact), it really does feel like the amount of time and energy they put into deliberation process, in an effort to avoid "over compensation", could have just been spent on sending out last week's rewards instead. Though, I will acknowledge that compensation is a slippery slope. Once a precedent is set, the community remembers and expects it. So I can also see *why* the attorney-like posture is taken sometimes tbf. 🙂
But when something unexpected happens, I'm often required to triage. A client can tell me they shouldn't have to make triage decisions because it is my responsibility to just make everything magically happen. But I don't keep staff sitting around waiting for catastrophies, nor can I hire someone to resolve such a thing when it happens. Neither of those is practical. If your suppliers fail on you, it is still ultimately your responsibility to the customer, right? But you may be forced to tell them they can have it the way they originally wanted but there will be a substantial delay, or they can work with you to change what they want in order to get something acceptable within their deadlines. Sometimes that's the best that can be done. Clients can't always have exactly what they want, exactly when they want, because in the real world those kinds of promises aren't always possible.
So if you want to say such issues should be prevented from happening in general, or reduced to a much smaller degree, and if Kabam doesn't have the resources to do that, they should get more resources, I agree. I'm still having crashouts in AQ and AW, for example, and that's annoying. Although as a wholly owned subsidiary of Netmarble, human resource decisions may not be entirely in their hands. But in terms of the local decision to manage the fault after it happens and to determine how much effort should be spent trying to un-ring that bell, they have to use what they have now.
Please look into the problem.
Thank you for your time
So some people have gained loads more, others have gained alot less.
Enjoy it and spend wisely!
I just think this stuff wears on people over time. And, there's no way the community team or the game team didn't see this coming. The backlash. And I don't mean from a "yeah, well.. the player base is always mad about something.." perspective. Even though, in part it's true. I think they are smart enough to understand the reason for the frustration. They had to know that any alliance that earns map 5 or higher rewards would be looking around and seeing beginner alliances getting the same comp. And that there would be backlash. In fact, an alliance mate of mine said.. "Wow, my 9 year old got the same comp.." (not in a positive tone - he missed map 7 rewards this week). Whether they had unspoken valid reasons for releasing what they did, they had to know the optics would not be good.
And I think for me, it's a cummulative effect. It's not just this particular choice that Kabam made for one size fits all. It's many many one size fits all decisions over time that I have seen that all add up to resentment on my part. I frankly think there are many things in this game that should be tiered. From rewards to alliance/solo events, to comp and even free gifts.
The classic example I use is... Player A normally earns resource X over the course of playing for 2 months. Player B earns this same resource over the course of 2 weeks of playing. If they are both given resource X as comp, Player A has literally received an item 4x more valuable. Not slightly more valuable, but 4x. Which is why tiered comp/rewards/gifts are so important imo. That being said, they have made some movement in this direction in the past year or so. And it's appreciated, but I think there is still some room for improvement.
They explicitly and swiftly told us there wouldn’t be any rewards for this series once AQ was cancelled.
So why’s everyone surprised?
Thanks for the week off and free stuff Kabam 🙏
My ally easily without much item use scores like 400m plus. We wait for thee rewards to rank our champs or buy other stuffs. Such kind of rewards kills the mood. If we had to choice we would love to do Aq myself and get the rewards. But this Aq wasn't players fault. We missed cuz of technical issue. At least people deserves what they got last time. Seriously more than 2/3 of Ally members just logged in for calender this week since Aq was off. Playing Aq is fun . So compensation was really not compensating at all
No, the compensation is awesome and equal for all players that did not do anything this week.
The only answer should be : thank you very much Kabam!
Players should stop to complain too easily and enjoy this compensation and the free time (or the time to do anything else on the game).
Thank you Kabam for the equal and good compensation!