State of the Game - an open letter
ConcernedPlayer999
Member Posts: 2 ★★
An open letter to Kabam,
The last few months has seen this game riddled with input errors and countless other bugs that players are experiencing at various levels. Some have barely been able to play since early in the summer months, others are not experiencing them at all. Despite these issues, much of the player base has proven their loyalty and stuck with the game regardless.
This loyalty, it would seem, is a completely one way street.
The vast majority of players understand that the input and timing issues that we are experience has been caused by a build up of technical debt and the sole solution is for Kabam to create their own game engine from scratch. To do this correctly takes a lot of time and is projected to be complete sometime in early 2022 (details to come). We understand that this technical debt was built by Kabam trying to make the game a better playing experience and because of the increasingly complex coding required to run a game with so many game modes, playable characters, events, nodes, and other necessary gaming components.
Those issues set aside, Kabam has completely failed to uphold their end of the bargain when it comes to addressing recurring issues facing players in the Battle Realm that could show the players some good faith and keep things lively, entertaining, and uphold the “Commitment” Kabam made in the original Dev Diary.
COMMUNICATION
For lack of a better word, Kabam’s communication with the progress of game development is pathetic. Maybe twice a year they release a Dev Diary outlining what they “might” be providing the player base, just hoping that these “improvements” and “commitments” will entice players to hang around just that few months more (improvements is in quotes as, depending who you ask, the improvements are often a 50/50 toss up as to the impact of the change).
These Dev Diaries have done a good job in detailing some Quality of Life changes and other concrete items have been implemented since, but the major themes and messaging is either ignored, forgotten, or completely and purposely thrown out the window nearly as soon as they are released. Some examples:
“The Commitment” to Content, Community, and Creativity. Is there a player in existence that things this commitment has been upheld? The last few months have definitively proven it has not. How many fights have had to end in a light attack to fulfill an objective in the last 3 months? Forums, alliance chats, and YouTube videos are often debating whether the creative genius at Kabam has died.
“Keep Alliance Wars Dynamic” and nearly every other goal listed in an Alliance War Dev Diary. Some absolute top tier alliances and players will experience this but for the most part Alliance War has become a chore that too high a percentage of the player base does not truly enjoy. Constantly adding more Attack/Defensive Tactics just is not cutting it. Refer back to “the Commitment”. How has this been acted upon?
“Reduce Player Mental Load” – to quote the dev diary: “Asking players to draft complex battle plans to accomplish a single path in Story Content is a big ask, which is why we’re reducing the size and complexity of all our maps. We’re focusing more on designing less complex Buffs, as well as layering fewer overlapping Buffs on encounters.” Kabam did a fantastic job maintaining the less than 70 energy and 6 lanes per map practice that was started in 7.1 but anyone who has ventured into 7.3 realizes their commitment to less complex, easier to plan routes has been completely done away with. This issue applies to Alliance Wars as well.
Even when Kabam took the risk of addressing player concerns and having an Ask Me Anything session, the responses seemed structured, to the point of being scripted. Major questions were ignored, the “party line” answers were on repeat, and not much of worth came out of this event. Prof Hoff had a much more informative, entertaining, and real experience with the Kabam Broccoli interview as this designer was leaving the company.
To summarize, Kabam has a lot of work to be done in this area. The constant “let them eat cake” responses to true player concerns and criticisms, the patronizing and passive aggressive responses from Forum Mods, and the lack of follow through on their own commitments to better communication needs to end.
RESOURCE GATEWAYS
Marvel Contest of Champions has relied on resource gateways to bar progression since its inception. It is a good mechanic and keeps players working towards the next level when it is not handed to them. Over the last year or so, these gateways have become incredibly unbalanced and need immediate reworking to restore some semblance of control for players wanting to progress, control their champion growth, and general enjoyment of the game.
ISO and Gold – these two resources have become the focal pinch point for a variety of players and there has been zero recognition/change from Kabam to address the issue. The demands for these resources have increased dramatically with the introduction of Rank 5 5 star champs and the ability for many players to regularly take 6 stars to Rank 3. Demand has increased, yet Kabam has done literal nothing to address the supply. This equation needs to be addressed immediately.
T4B/T4CC – somehow midgame gateways have respawned as a major hindrance for end game players. How is it that advancing in the game actually inhibits your ability to get what is now a common place resource? This does not make any sense and needs to be addressed immediately.
COMPLETELY BUGGED NEW CONTENT
This is the most self explanatory and most recent issue experienced by the players. How is it even possible that nearly every single level of the new Variant is absurdly bugged in one way or another? How is it even possible for bosses, with mechanics that have been in the game for years now, are functioning in the completely wrong way? How is it even possible that the final boss cannot even be beaten by the specified champions the entire event is centered around?
Again, for lack of better words, it is absolutely, utterly, and completely pathetic.
Minor bugs here and there are expected, understood, and played around for the most part. To be experiencing game breaking mechanics in nearly every single piece of content released over the last year is wearing down the players and getting to be too much. Even the pinnacle summer event, Summer of Pain, was given to the public with such obvious issues that a single play through by an experienced player would have caught the issue.
Champions are regularly being released and take months to develop. Deep Dives and Spotlights available in advance. Yet when they are playable, it is only a day or two before some mechanic is “not working as intended” or the most basic of game mechanics have not even being accounted for? Kitty Pride and Ikarus being the most recent examples that come to mind right away. The Guillotine “rework” won’t be mentioned.
How are the project managers of this company not completely embarrassed by the quality of their work and ensuring a better job is done?
It should not be up to the players to find the problems created by the design team.
MISCELLANIOUS ISSUES
In absolutely no part of the game should the value of a 6* be weighted the same, let alone less, than a 5* in regular parts of the game. ISO payouts, event point values, max dupe returns, etc.
Rewards in the vast majority of the game need to be retuned to player progression. Cav EQ, 4 hour events, 3 Day Alliance, Summoner Advancement, etc.
Rewards need to be equivalent to difficulty. This months Cav EQ Terrax mini boss and Side Quest are prime examples of this issue.
Content has become incredibly stale, repetitive, overcomplicated, and creatively dead.
Some sort of targeting mechanic needs to be implemented. The “Wish List” crystal Kabam spoke about years ago now would have been a step up here. Even dual crystals returns are a rare return for the champions players are wanting to acquire and do not do anything for acquiring a relevant 6* champion.
To conclude this open letter, Kabam needs to realize how quickly its player base is dwindling and struggling to find reasons to continue playing. Players that have been here since the beginning, with 5+ years of investment, are wondering why they should bother to continue on this road? It has been years and years of Kabam committing to be better then abjectly doing nothing to listen to the major concerns, doubling down on their misguided decrees about the game, and doing the most minimal patch work to “fix things” each month.
The most disheartening part of all this is that these issues listed barely cover player concerns and the fixes are beyond blatantly obvious.
Listen to your players, Kabam. We want you to do well. Many of us want to give you our money. All of us want to keep playing this game… just not the way it is and not down the road you’re taking it.
Sincerely,
An extremely concerned, 5 year + player.
The last few months has seen this game riddled with input errors and countless other bugs that players are experiencing at various levels. Some have barely been able to play since early in the summer months, others are not experiencing them at all. Despite these issues, much of the player base has proven their loyalty and stuck with the game regardless.
This loyalty, it would seem, is a completely one way street.
The vast majority of players understand that the input and timing issues that we are experience has been caused by a build up of technical debt and the sole solution is for Kabam to create their own game engine from scratch. To do this correctly takes a lot of time and is projected to be complete sometime in early 2022 (details to come). We understand that this technical debt was built by Kabam trying to make the game a better playing experience and because of the increasingly complex coding required to run a game with so many game modes, playable characters, events, nodes, and other necessary gaming components.
Those issues set aside, Kabam has completely failed to uphold their end of the bargain when it comes to addressing recurring issues facing players in the Battle Realm that could show the players some good faith and keep things lively, entertaining, and uphold the “Commitment” Kabam made in the original Dev Diary.
COMMUNICATION
For lack of a better word, Kabam’s communication with the progress of game development is pathetic. Maybe twice a year they release a Dev Diary outlining what they “might” be providing the player base, just hoping that these “improvements” and “commitments” will entice players to hang around just that few months more (improvements is in quotes as, depending who you ask, the improvements are often a 50/50 toss up as to the impact of the change).
These Dev Diaries have done a good job in detailing some Quality of Life changes and other concrete items have been implemented since, but the major themes and messaging is either ignored, forgotten, or completely and purposely thrown out the window nearly as soon as they are released. Some examples:
“The Commitment” to Content, Community, and Creativity. Is there a player in existence that things this commitment has been upheld? The last few months have definitively proven it has not. How many fights have had to end in a light attack to fulfill an objective in the last 3 months? Forums, alliance chats, and YouTube videos are often debating whether the creative genius at Kabam has died.
“Keep Alliance Wars Dynamic” and nearly every other goal listed in an Alliance War Dev Diary. Some absolute top tier alliances and players will experience this but for the most part Alliance War has become a chore that too high a percentage of the player base does not truly enjoy. Constantly adding more Attack/Defensive Tactics just is not cutting it. Refer back to “the Commitment”. How has this been acted upon?
“Reduce Player Mental Load” – to quote the dev diary: “Asking players to draft complex battle plans to accomplish a single path in Story Content is a big ask, which is why we’re reducing the size and complexity of all our maps. We’re focusing more on designing less complex Buffs, as well as layering fewer overlapping Buffs on encounters.” Kabam did a fantastic job maintaining the less than 70 energy and 6 lanes per map practice that was started in 7.1 but anyone who has ventured into 7.3 realizes their commitment to less complex, easier to plan routes has been completely done away with. This issue applies to Alliance Wars as well.
Even when Kabam took the risk of addressing player concerns and having an Ask Me Anything session, the responses seemed structured, to the point of being scripted. Major questions were ignored, the “party line” answers were on repeat, and not much of worth came out of this event. Prof Hoff had a much more informative, entertaining, and real experience with the Kabam Broccoli interview as this designer was leaving the company.
To summarize, Kabam has a lot of work to be done in this area. The constant “let them eat cake” responses to true player concerns and criticisms, the patronizing and passive aggressive responses from Forum Mods, and the lack of follow through on their own commitments to better communication needs to end.
RESOURCE GATEWAYS
Marvel Contest of Champions has relied on resource gateways to bar progression since its inception. It is a good mechanic and keeps players working towards the next level when it is not handed to them. Over the last year or so, these gateways have become incredibly unbalanced and need immediate reworking to restore some semblance of control for players wanting to progress, control their champion growth, and general enjoyment of the game.
ISO and Gold – these two resources have become the focal pinch point for a variety of players and there has been zero recognition/change from Kabam to address the issue. The demands for these resources have increased dramatically with the introduction of Rank 5 5 star champs and the ability for many players to regularly take 6 stars to Rank 3. Demand has increased, yet Kabam has done literal nothing to address the supply. This equation needs to be addressed immediately.
T4B/T4CC – somehow midgame gateways have respawned as a major hindrance for end game players. How is it that advancing in the game actually inhibits your ability to get what is now a common place resource? This does not make any sense and needs to be addressed immediately.
COMPLETELY BUGGED NEW CONTENT
This is the most self explanatory and most recent issue experienced by the players. How is it even possible that nearly every single level of the new Variant is absurdly bugged in one way or another? How is it even possible for bosses, with mechanics that have been in the game for years now, are functioning in the completely wrong way? How is it even possible that the final boss cannot even be beaten by the specified champions the entire event is centered around?
Again, for lack of better words, it is absolutely, utterly, and completely pathetic.
Minor bugs here and there are expected, understood, and played around for the most part. To be experiencing game breaking mechanics in nearly every single piece of content released over the last year is wearing down the players and getting to be too much. Even the pinnacle summer event, Summer of Pain, was given to the public with such obvious issues that a single play through by an experienced player would have caught the issue.
Champions are regularly being released and take months to develop. Deep Dives and Spotlights available in advance. Yet when they are playable, it is only a day or two before some mechanic is “not working as intended” or the most basic of game mechanics have not even being accounted for? Kitty Pride and Ikarus being the most recent examples that come to mind right away. The Guillotine “rework” won’t be mentioned.
How are the project managers of this company not completely embarrassed by the quality of their work and ensuring a better job is done?
It should not be up to the players to find the problems created by the design team.
MISCELLANIOUS ISSUES
In absolutely no part of the game should the value of a 6* be weighted the same, let alone less, than a 5* in regular parts of the game. ISO payouts, event point values, max dupe returns, etc.
Rewards in the vast majority of the game need to be retuned to player progression. Cav EQ, 4 hour events, 3 Day Alliance, Summoner Advancement, etc.
Rewards need to be equivalent to difficulty. This months Cav EQ Terrax mini boss and Side Quest are prime examples of this issue.
Content has become incredibly stale, repetitive, overcomplicated, and creatively dead.
Some sort of targeting mechanic needs to be implemented. The “Wish List” crystal Kabam spoke about years ago now would have been a step up here. Even dual crystals returns are a rare return for the champions players are wanting to acquire and do not do anything for acquiring a relevant 6* champion.
To conclude this open letter, Kabam needs to realize how quickly its player base is dwindling and struggling to find reasons to continue playing. Players that have been here since the beginning, with 5+ years of investment, are wondering why they should bother to continue on this road? It has been years and years of Kabam committing to be better then abjectly doing nothing to listen to the major concerns, doubling down on their misguided decrees about the game, and doing the most minimal patch work to “fix things” each month.
The most disheartening part of all this is that these issues listed barely cover player concerns and the fixes are beyond blatantly obvious.
Listen to your players, Kabam. We want you to do well. Many of us want to give you our money. All of us want to keep playing this game… just not the way it is and not down the road you’re taking it.
Sincerely,
An extremely concerned, 5 year + player.
Post edited by Kabam Porthos on
487
Comments
Well said mate.
In nearly any other competitive game, you'll notice that balance passes happen all the time to keep the game meta dynamic, yet whenever Kabam make even a small change to an OP champion in MCoC, the response is incredibly negative. One reason why the ratio of difficulty:rewards in content isn't quite right is because said content must be tuned to account for the OP champions such as Ghost and Quake.
Frankly, the playerbase needs to accept that nerfs and buffs are healthy for any game's competitive ecosystem, and doing so in MCoC may hurt at first, but if done correctly will dramatically improve a meta that has been stale for far too long.
I already know this'll get disagree-spammed and people will accuse me of being jealous, believe me, as an endgame TB player, I have those champions. I'm just willing to have those OP champions tuned down to a reasonable extent if it's for the benefit of this game's long-term health.
IMO what this game needs to breathe fresh life into it is territories.
Allow alliance’s to establish their base in a territory somewhere in the battle realm.
Then alliances can battle other alliances in territories for dominance and resources (think win X territory and until the next challenge earn 20% more gold etc)
Allow players to raid other players
This would really excite players IMO
Re side events. Create 3 types of side events and just rotate them each quarter. Win tokens or glory or whatever to spend on what you need.
Just like teachers
Maybe it is my subjective issue, but as a TB I don't feel lack of t4cc + t4bc, because I am drowning in rankup gems. But that is the only thing I disagree with, rest of your post is very accurate
Not really sure how anyone can disagree.
So you agree that all other months, Cav MEQ's should have lesser rewards because they have been overwhelmingly easy? We finally get a difficult fight in Cav MEQ and rewards need to be increased?