Very eloquently written. Points were very clear and just straight facts.
Not really sure how anyone can disagree.
It's not all facts. Actually most of it is feelings. There's no way to prove 100's of people are leaving daily. That's assumption.
I "assume" you "feel" the weight of how much people disagree with you?
No. Most of those are pettiness.
It’s not pettiness it just that everyone disagrees with you and your Kabam is awesome no matter what posts.
If that were true, I'd have 0 "agrees". It literally doesn't matter what I say. There are people that click it regardless. Doesn't bother me either way.
But again, you're wrong again. I've already said in this thread that Cav MEQ is a disappointment and has been since launch. AQ is also incredibly boring and needs an overhaul. There's many things I don't like but because I'd don't agree with your incredibly jaded view on everything, you think that I think Kabam is the most awesome thing ever. I'll continue to have my view point just like will. You'll go on playing a game you dislike so much made by a company you hate even more. Life goes on.
Great post OP. After havIng spent literally thousands of dollars on this game I’m done. I’m done spending and I’m done with the feeling of not being heard.
Gold shortage is a disaster. AQ costs are unnecessary. Arena is full of bots and cheaters. ISO is somehow the same for a 4 star dupe and a 6 star. Duping a max sig 6 star gives you a slap in the face instead of shards. Mastery’s have been broken for years. New content is full of bugs and not tested. Basic game mechanics are broken. Forumposts are being ignored. Kabam support is unhelpful and closing tickets. AW nodes are being made to milk players of potions and boosts instead of rewarding skill, eg High Ground. Buffed champions are somehow being made worse than before their actual buff, eg Guillotine. Roadmaps and commitments are not being upheld.
We could go on and on but no is listening anyways..
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.
Get those agrees and open a bank
Change your name to communityhater. it suits you more.
One of the best posts I've ever read on here and I couldn't agree more.
Kabam has apparently been to "busy" to respond to it but have had enough time to read and edit other peoples responses. This in itself just shows that Kabam doesn't truly understand what the issues with the community (NOT the game issues those are separate) are and why people are getting so upset about how they are handling things.
Very eloquently written. Points were very clear and just straight facts.
Not really sure how anyone can disagree.
It's not all facts. Actually most of it is feelings. There's no way to prove 100's of people are leaving daily. That's assumption.
I "assume" you "feel" the weight of how much people disagree with you?
No. Most of those are pettiness.
It’s not pettiness it just that everyone disagrees with you and your Kabam is awesome no matter what posts.
If that were true, I'd have 0 "agrees". It literally doesn't matter what I say. There are people that click it regardless. Doesn't bother me either way.
But again, you're wrong again. I've already said in this thread that Cav MEQ is a disappointment and has been since launch. AQ is also incredibly boring and needs an overhaul. There's many things I don't like but because I'd don't agree with your incredibly jaded view on everything, you think that I think Kabam is the most awesome thing ever. I'll continue to have my view point just like will. You'll go on playing a game you dislike so much made by a company you hate even more. Life goes on.
Saying that you're disappointed because MEQ bores you, is completely different than being disappointed because MEQ is harder than it should have been lately.
I'm struggling with some aspects of the game at the moment, I won't lie. Monthly and Side EQ I've just found haven't grabbed me in the last few months - I always used to fully explore Uncollected EQ, and get some Cav EQ done, and just haven't got any drive to do it. Arena I can take for a few days but then I get fed up with it and skip a few days.
Looking inward, there's a number of reasons, I guess - node and champion combinations for the last few months have just seemed a bit... mean, across the board. Variant 8 is a perfect example of that.
I don't think it's that the Mods are unaware of the issues or threads like these - I think it's more that there's not a great deal they can say without risking inflaming the situation further.
Take the AMA for instance on Guillotine. I can't speak for anyone else but the AMA actually put me off from giving the buff a proper tryout - I read through the responses but they certainly weren't what I was hoping to read. Others were far more vocal in their level of upset - the AMA was a great idea but didn't make the situation better and may have actually had the opposite effect.
As a player, I don't expect perfection. Bugs happen. Maintenance is needed. Good enough is good enough. But positive engagement and a pro-player attitude can reap dividends.
Very eloquently written. Points were very clear and just straight facts.
Not really sure how anyone can disagree.
It's not all facts. Actually most of it is feelings. There's no way to prove 100's of people are leaving daily. That's assumption.
I "assume" you "feel" the weight of how much people disagree with you?
No. Most of those are pettiness.
It’s not pettiness it just that everyone disagrees with you and your Kabam is awesome no matter what posts.
If that were true, I'd have 0 "agrees". It literally doesn't matter what I say. There are people that click it regardless. Doesn't bother me either way.
But again, you're wrong again. I've already said in this thread that Cav MEQ is a disappointment and has been since launch. AQ is also incredibly boring and needs an overhaul. There's many things I don't like but because I'd don't agree with your incredibly jaded view on everything, you think that I think Kabam is the most awesome thing ever. I'll continue to have my view point just like will. You'll go on playing a game you dislike so much made by a company you hate even more. Life goes on.
Saying that you're disappointed because MEQ bores you, is completely different than being disappointed because MEQ is harder than it should have been lately.
Very eloquently written. Points were very clear and just straight facts.
Not really sure how anyone can disagree.
It's not all facts. Actually most of it is feelings. There's no way to prove 100's of people are leaving daily. That's assumption.
I "assume" you "feel" the weight of how much people disagree with you?
No. Most of those are pettiness.
It’s not pettiness it just that everyone disagrees with you and your Kabam is awesome no matter what posts.
If that were true, I'd have 0 "agrees". It literally doesn't matter what I say. There are people that click it regardless. Doesn't bother me either way.
But again, you're wrong again. I've already said in this thread that Cav MEQ is a disappointment and has been since launch. AQ is also incredibly boring and needs an overhaul. There's many things I don't like but because I'd don't agree with your incredibly jaded view on everything, you think that I think Kabam is the most awesome thing ever. I'll continue to have my view point just like will. You'll go on playing a game you dislike so much made by a company you hate even more. Life goes on.
With respect you state it’s a been a disappointment since launch, but in reality it’s a disappointment to you. Earlier in this thread you said that this post wasn’t fact, it’s feeling and you can’t prove 100s of people are leaving the game. Your assertion that Cav MEQ is a disappointment is a feeling and it’s your feeling. The historic issue people had was related to the time taken to complete it. This has been largely fixed with the class based nodes and difficulty hasn’t really come up as an issue. The number of dislikes on your post compared to likes show (at least for this self selecting sample) your in the minority that’s it’s a disappointment. The SEQ this month is pretty far away from the bench mark difficulty/fight effort at least for week 2.
Very eloquently written. Points were very clear and just straight facts.
Not really sure how anyone can disagree.
It's not all facts. Actually most of it is feelings. There's no way to prove 100's of people are leaving daily. That's assumption.
I "assume" you "feel" the weight of how much people disagree with you?
No. Most of those are pettiness.
It’s not pettiness it just that everyone disagrees with you and your Kabam is awesome no matter what posts.
If that were true, I'd have 0 "agrees". It literally doesn't matter what I say. There are people that click it regardless. Doesn't bother me either way.
But again, you're wrong again. I've already said in this thread that Cav MEQ is a disappointment and has been since launch. AQ is also incredibly boring and needs an overhaul. There's many things I don't like but because I'd don't agree with your incredibly jaded view on everything, you think that I think Kabam is the most awesome thing ever. I'll continue to have my view point just like will. You'll go on playing a game you dislike so much made by a company you hate even more. Life goes on.
With respect you state it’s a been a disappointment since launch, but in reality it’s a disappointment to you. Earlier in this thread you said that this post wasn’t fact, it’s feeling and you can’t prove 100s of people are leaving the game. Your assertion that Cav MEQ is a disappointment is a feeling and it’s your feeling. The historic issue people had was related to the time taken to complete it. This has been largely fixed with the class based nodes and difficulty hasn’t really come up as an issue. The number of dislikes on your post compared to likes show (at least for this self selecting sample) your in the minority that’s it’s a disappointment. The SEQ this month is pretty far away from the bench mark difficulty/fight effort at least for week 2.
The class based nodes have always been there and it's never been a difficult piece of content. Since the release of the Cav difficulty, people have complained about the rewards. They added more in like 2 months after. And I don't know a single person who enjoys doing cavalier month to month.
The only ones who find it hard are the new Cav players who haven't developed their rosters yet.
This community never thinks rewards match the difficulty. I have yet to see anything released where everyone agrees the rewards are fine for what the content is. It's either too good of rewards because it's too easy or too "hard" making rewards not good enough. If it were up to the community, rewards would be whatever 6* they want, 6* generic AGs, R5 6* materials and 10k units for Act 1 difficulty. OP literally only points out 1 fight in Cav that's touch more difficult (for them) and wants more rewards when Cav difficulty has varying levels each month and always has.
So again I ask, if this month is "harder" and deserves better rewards but next month is easier, does Kabam take away those better rewards?
I would like also know from Kabam who tested this content and who did they beat Venompool using the #mercenary and #deadpool ...mmm
I have been playing 7 years also and if this game did not have Marvel characters I absolutely would not play because of everything written in this open letter that is so brilliantly articulated and expresses my sentiment too.
Very eloquently written. Points were very clear and just straight facts.
Not really sure how anyone can disagree.
It's not all facts. Actually most of it is feelings. There's no way to prove 100's of people are leaving daily. That's assumption.
I "assume" you "feel" the weight of how much people disagree with you?
No. Most of those are pettiness.
It’s not pettiness it just that everyone disagrees with you and your Kabam is awesome no matter what posts.
If that were true, I'd have 0 "agrees". It literally doesn't matter what I say. There are people that click it regardless. Doesn't bother me either way.
But again, you're wrong again. I've already said in this thread that Cav MEQ is a disappointment and has been since launch. AQ is also incredibly boring and needs an overhaul. There's many things I don't like but because I'd don't agree with your incredibly jaded view on everything, you think that I think Kabam is the most awesome thing ever. I'll continue to have my view point just like will. You'll go on playing a game you dislike so much made by a company you hate even more. Life goes on.
With respect you state it’s a been a disappointment since launch, but in reality it’s a disappointment to you. Earlier in this thread you said that this post wasn’t fact, it’s feeling and you can’t prove 100s of people are leaving the game. Your assertion that Cav MEQ is a disappointment is a feeling and it’s your feeling. The historic issue people had was related to the time taken to complete it. This has been largely fixed with the class based nodes and difficulty hasn’t really come up as an issue. The number of dislikes on your post compared to likes show (at least for this self selecting sample) your in the minority that’s it’s a disappointment. The SEQ this month is pretty far away from the bench mark difficulty/fight effort at least for week 2.
The class based nodes have always been there and it's never been a difficult piece of content. Since the release of the Cav difficulty, people have complained about the rewards. They added more in like 2 months after. And I don't know a single person who enjoys doing cavalier month to month.
The only ones who find it hard are the new Cav players who haven't developed their rosters yet.
This community never thinks rewards match the difficulty. I have yet to see anything released where everyone agrees the rewards are fine for what the content is. It's either too good of rewards because it's too easy or too "hard" making rewards not good enough. If it were up to the community, rewards would be whatever 6* they want, 6* generic AGs, R5 6* materials and 10k units for Act 1 difficulty. OP literally only points out 1 fight in Cav that's touch more difficult (for them) and wants more rewards when Cav difficulty has varying levels each month and always has.
So again I ask, if this month is "harder" and deserves better rewards but next month is easier, does Kabam take away those better rewards?
After the initial feedback on the time it takes to complete they pretty much doubled the amount damage the class based nodes do making the CAV MEQ much quicker. That also changed the T5CC to a nexus. Since then I don’t think there’s been any serious complaints about the rewards.
Yes, if Kabam makes a month “significantly” harder the rewards should probably be adjusted upwards, if next month it goes back to baseline or easier the rewards go back to normal. SEQ’s rewards are variable anyway.
Ultimately Kabam can choose to do what they want. They can make the content difficulty variable by month, a lot of players will find this frustrating and turn them off wanting to do the content for that month. Kabam runs the risk of them not picking up the game again at all.
You’re coming at this from the view of someone who is obviously an elite level player. And that’s fine, there probably isn’t enough challenging content for you, but MEQ and SEQ should be more open and inclusive content. I don’t think SEQ should be designed so the difficulty can pretty much only be done by those with end game level rosters/skill. Yes it needs a high degree of skill but Drax is an Alien, Gamora is an Alien etc, they could have designed the content in a way the provides some slack and put one or 2 straightforward fights in. It’s content that allows players to build up there roster and resources so they can then tackle the Abyss or go deeper into act 6/7. I think like the issues with V8 if the content would have been playtested more thoroughly it would have been picked up as a probably the wrong side of what’s typical for this level of content.
When Kabam release end game content like summer of pain I do defend that it’s actually end game content, when we see people complaining it’s too difficult. If it’s meant to be end game content, not everyone can and should be able to do it. So I do see it both ways.
So this is all to say, I absolutely agree with the sentiments of this thread.
Comments
But again, you're wrong again. I've already said in this thread that Cav MEQ is a disappointment and has been since launch. AQ is also incredibly boring and needs an overhaul. There's many things I don't like but because I'd don't agree with your incredibly jaded view on everything, you think that I think Kabam is the most awesome thing ever. I'll continue to have my view point just like will. You'll go on playing a game you dislike so much made by a company you hate even more. Life goes on.
Gold shortage is a disaster.
AQ costs are unnecessary.
Arena is full of bots and cheaters.
ISO is somehow the same for a 4 star dupe and a 6 star.
Duping a max sig 6 star gives you a slap in the face instead of shards.
Mastery’s have been broken for years.
New content is full of bugs and not tested.
Basic game mechanics are broken.
Forumposts are being ignored.
Kabam support is unhelpful and closing tickets.
AW nodes are being made to milk players of potions and boosts instead of rewarding skill, eg High Ground.
Buffed champions are somehow being made worse than before their actual buff, eg Guillotine.
Roadmaps and commitments are not being upheld.
We could go on and on but no is listening anyways..
Kabam has apparently been to "busy" to respond to it but have had enough time to read and edit other peoples responses. This in itself just shows that Kabam doesn't truly understand what the issues with the community (NOT the game issues those are separate) are and why people are getting so upset about how they are handling things.
Will they!!????
I'm struggling with some aspects of the game at the moment, I won't lie. Monthly and Side EQ I've just found haven't grabbed me in the last few months - I always used to fully explore Uncollected EQ, and get some Cav EQ done, and just haven't got any drive to do it. Arena I can take for a few days but then I get fed up with it and skip a few days.
Looking inward, there's a number of reasons, I guess - node and champion combinations for the last few months have just seemed a bit... mean, across the board. Variant 8 is a perfect example of that.
I don't think it's that the Mods are unaware of the issues or threads like these - I think it's more that there's not a great deal they can say without risking inflaming the situation further.
Take the AMA for instance on Guillotine. I can't speak for anyone else but the AMA actually put me off from giving the buff a proper tryout - I read through the responses but they certainly weren't what I was hoping to read. Others were far more vocal in their level of upset - the AMA was a great idea but didn't make the situation better and may have actually had the opposite effect.
As a player, I don't expect perfection. Bugs happen. Maintenance is needed. Good enough is good enough. But positive engagement and a pro-player attitude can reap dividends.
The only ones who find it hard are the new Cav players who haven't developed their rosters yet.
This community never thinks rewards match the difficulty. I have yet to see anything released where everyone agrees the rewards are fine for what the content is. It's either too good of rewards because it's too easy or too "hard" making rewards not good enough. If it were up to the community, rewards would be whatever 6* they want, 6* generic AGs, R5 6* materials and 10k units for Act 1 difficulty. OP literally only points out 1 fight in Cav that's touch more difficult (for them) and wants more rewards when Cav difficulty has varying levels each month and always has.
So again I ask, if this month is "harder" and deserves better rewards but next month is easier, does Kabam take away those better rewards?
I have been playing 7 years also and if this game did not have Marvel characters I absolutely would not play because of everything written in this open letter that is so brilliantly articulated and expresses my sentiment too.
Yes, if Kabam makes a month “significantly” harder the rewards should probably be adjusted upwards, if next month it goes back to baseline or easier the rewards go back to normal. SEQ’s rewards are variable anyway.
Ultimately Kabam can choose to do what they want. They can make the content difficulty variable by month, a lot of players will find this frustrating and turn them off wanting to do the content for that month. Kabam runs the risk of them not picking up the game again at all.
You’re coming at this from the view of someone who is obviously an elite level player. And that’s fine, there probably isn’t enough challenging content for you, but MEQ and SEQ should be more open and inclusive content. I don’t think SEQ should be designed so the difficulty can pretty much only be done by those with end game level rosters/skill. Yes it needs a high degree of skill but Drax is an Alien, Gamora is an Alien etc, they could have designed the content in a way the provides some slack and put one or 2 straightforward fights in. It’s content that allows players to build up there roster and resources so they can then tackle the Abyss or go deeper into act 6/7. I think like the issues with V8 if the content would have been playtested more thoroughly it would have been picked up as a probably the wrong side of what’s typical for this level of content.
When Kabam release end game content like summer of pain I do defend that it’s actually end game content, when we see people complaining it’s too difficult. If it’s meant to be end game content, not everyone can and should be able to do it. So I do see it both ways.
So this is all to say, I absolutely agree with the sentiments of this thread.