**WINTER OF WOE - BONUS OBJECTIVE POINT**
As previously announced, the team will be distributing an additional point toward milestones to anyone who completed the Absorbing Man fight in the first step of the Winter of Woe.
This point will be distributed at a later time as it requires the team to pull and analyze data.
The timeline has not been set, but work has started.
There is currently an issue where some Alliances are are unable to find a match in Alliance Wars, or are receiving Byes without getting the benefits of the Win. We will be adjusting the Season Points of the Alliances that are affected within the coming weeks, and will be working to compensate them for their missed Per War rewards as well.

Additionally, we are working to address an issue where new Members of an Alliance are unable to place Defenders for the next War after joining. We are working to address this, but it will require a future update.

A lesson to be learned about Battlegrounds



This battlegrounds season has been very disappointing in my opinion. I will refrain from speaking at length about the reasons why because I believe many discussions have already been created about the problems with constant cheating, sandbagging and matchmaking. I also saw discussions about the nodes on gladiator’s circuit, which currently is the biggest reason for my frustration with the game mode, so I won’t go into specifics about it either. But I do want to point out a big problem.

My alliance is composed of people who is fairly active. We are inside Top90 in AQ and P3 in War. Last season we scored 10M+ In BG. This season however, no one wants to play it. The reason is obvious. The game mode is just not fun for us, and we have no motivation whatsoever to play the mode.

Now, before some of you (there is always that group of people) start getting their fingers itching to defend the game mode and say there is nothing wrong, I’d invite to you consider the situation currently before writing.

Mind you, it’s not about being able to win matches. The 30 of us can certainly get our wins here and there. But do we care to? We don’t. Even when we win, none of us feel like we are having fun. In a few matchups our win didn’t come because we beat our opponent, instead because we died later than our opponent did. Some of you may be fine with that, but I’ll tell you something, most of us aren’t. I don’t think a game is working when only a minority is enjoying it. And I know it’s a minority based on the forums, comments from other players I know and also the time lapse to find opponents. More often than not it takes me close to or more than an entire minute to be matched up, regardless of the time of day. That wasn’t the case last season. It’s obvious people just don’t care to play at the moment. Myself I only play 3-5 matches to complete the objectives we receive every 2 days and stop. There is no point in playing more than that, just those matches are already a miserable experience on their on their own.

The mistake in selecting these nodes has already been made, I don’t want to repeat what many already said, but I do want to encourage whoever is in charge of doing that selection to think this through with more care in the future.

We want to enjoy the game mode, not be put off by it entirely. Trust me, you don’t want to be satisfying pleasing only a small minority.

Comments

  • Heinz11Heinz11 Posts: 204
    Kaalen said:



    This battlegrounds season has been very disappointing in my opinion. I will refrain from speaking at length about the reasons why because I believe many discussions have already been created about the problems with constant cheating, sandbagging and matchmaking. I also saw discussions about the nodes on gladiator’s circuit, which currently is the biggest reason for my frustration with the game mode, so I won’t go into specifics about it either. But I do want to point out a big problem.

    My alliance is composed of people who is fairly active. We are inside Top90 in AQ and P3 in War. Last season we scored 10M+ In BG. This season however, no one wants to play it. The reason is obvious. The game mode is just not fun for us, and we have no motivation whatsoever to play the mode.

    Now, before some of you (there is always that group of people) start getting their fingers itching to defend the game mode and say there is nothing wrong, I’d invite to you consider the situation currently before writing.

    Mind you, it’s not about being able to win matches. The 30 of us can certainly get our wins here and there. But do we care to? We don’t. Even when we win, none of us feel like we are having fun. In a few matchups our win didn’t come because we beat our opponent, instead because we died later than our opponent did. Some of you may be fine with that, but I’ll tell you something, most of us aren’t. I don’t think a game is working when only a minority is enjoying it. And I know it’s a minority based on the forums, comments from other players I know and also the time lapse to find opponents. More often than not it takes me close to or more than an entire minute to be matched up, regardless of the time of day. That wasn’t the case last season. It’s obvious people just don’t care to play at the moment. Myself I only play 3-5 matches to complete the objectives we receive every 2 days and stop. There is no point in playing more than that, just those matches are already a miserable experience on their on their own.

    The mistake in selecting these nodes has already been made, I don’t want to repeat what many already said, but I do want to encourage whoever is in charge of doing that selection to think this through with more care in the future.

    We want to enjoy the game mode, not be put off by it entirely. Trust me, you don’t want to be satisfying pleasing only a small minority.

    I understand if you don’t like the nodes, but rather than just being negative, why not suggest what nodes you would like to see in the future?
  • Hort4Hort4 Posts: 494 ★★★

    Want a non competitive random matchmaking mode. 5 energy per match.

    Want to play random people without worrying about losing rewards.
    Would be nice to have a BG stats;
    Matches played. Win percentage etc.

    What does this mean? Non-competitive but against random people. Not sure what you are looking for?
  • OpandemonioOpandemonio Posts: 1,141 ★★★★
    Heinz11 said:



    I understand if you don’t like the nodes, but rather than just being negative, why not suggest what nodes you would like to see in the future?

    Yeah, like it would make a difference
  • rockykostonrockykoston Posts: 1,505 ★★★★
    No lesson to be learned.

    Just play the game if you enjoy it. I think it's pretty much enjoyable in the right amount.
  • ReferenceReference Posts: 2,899 ★★★★★
    Hort4 said:

    Want a non competitive random matchmaking mode. 5 energy per match.

    Want to play random people without worrying about losing rewards.
    Would be nice to have a BG stats;
    Matches played. Win percentage etc.

    What does this mean? Non-competitive but against random people. Not sure what you are looking for?
    An expansion of existing battle with friend mode to all players, if you aware the existence of such mode in BG.
  • Spurgeon14Spurgeon14 Posts: 1,665 ★★★★

    Here we go. 🙄

    Look, cheating and sandbagging aside. You saying that only a minority of people enjoy BG's, is a false statement. The time it takes to find a match in GC is not correlated to peoples satisfaction with the game mode nor is your friends opinions. Don't delude yourself with the affirmation of your echo chamber within your alliance or the forums.

    I'm sick of people whining about a relatively new game mode that is constantly being improved upon. At its core, BG's is an awesome game mode. Kabam just needs to do the obvious and adjust the matchmaking parameters to discourage sandbagging, and continue to develop their strategy to thwart cheaters.

    Here we go, there’s always people like you who feel so entitled to defend something just because THEY DON’T GO through what’s being point out, it’s like someone who is struggling and seeing other struggle as well, isn’t supposed to complain at all, but you can brag all you want while point fingers and making toxic claims against the community, you see, there’s lots of people around the world playing this game, and not a single one is you BUT yourself, so at least consider this before trolling non constructively on posts like this one
    AMEN!
  • xNigxNig Posts: 7,221 ★★★★★
    Well.. OP, fact is.. your alliance still scored 6m+ points for it. So obviously some in your ally are still playing it.
  • KaalenKaalen Posts: 8
    xNig said:

    Well.. OP, fact is.. your alliance still scored 6m+ points for it. So obviously some in your ally are still playing it.

    I invite you to read what I wrote one more time. In no point I said we aren’t playing. I said we do the bare minimum because we have no enjoyment in it. 6-7M is nothing compared to what my alliance is able to. We should be long past 9M by now, judging by last season’s performance.
  • JessieSJessieS Posts: 1,386 ★★★★
    The lesson I just learned is that you can do everything right but thanks to Kabam bugs you can still get screwed over
  • PSYKEOPPSYKEOP Posts: 12
    This week's knot on the circuit is simply horrible, as you said we don't have fun even in winning games because many times we win simply by dying after the opponent. I don't know what kabam was thinking when she decided to put this knot in week 4 of this season, it's simply unplayable having to release a special every 12 seconds so it doesn't get rooted, There comes a time when you just won't have the e1 full to release when the counter ends and it will turn into a snowball of you trapped without being able to do anything.
  • PSYKEOP said:

    This week's knot on the circuit is simply horrible, as you said we don't have fun even in winning games because many times we win simply by dying after the opponent. I don't know what kabam was thinking when she decided to put this knot in week 4 of this season, it's simply unplayable having to release a special every 12 seconds so it doesn't get rooted, There comes a time when you just won't have the e1 full to release when the counter ends and it will turn into a snowball of you trapped without being able to do anything.

    That’s very much a question of skill. It actually makes some champions easier to fight when you don’t get knocked back.

    The gladiator circuit nodes being challenging is important otherwise it becomes a zurg fest which this season has avoided fairly well for the most part.

    Reaching the circuit is and should be an achievement and being one of the top 10-15k players in the mode should imply the ability to play around nodes.
  • OmedennOmedenn Posts: 863 ★★★
    This game mode gave me excitement to play this game again. I ranked up so many 6* to r3 where before I couldn’t care less.

    Yes there are some things that can be improved, but battle grounds is the best game mode for me at the moment!
  • Vergeman78Vergeman78 Posts: 132 ★★
    I won’t pretend to speak for entire player base but my alliance finally reached the final milestone with less than 24 hours to go, and that’s only because we made a push for it.

    We had 15m+ last season, so that’s a considerable drop in our case. The reasons for lack of interests are mostly matchmaking.
  • altavistaaltavista Posts: 1,261 ★★★★
    Kaalen said:



    My alliance is composed of people who is fairly active. We are inside Top90 in AQ and P3 in War. Last season we scored 10M+ In BG. This season however, no one wants to play it. The reason is obvious. The game mode is just not fun for us, and we have no motivation whatsoever to play the mode.

    The mistake in selecting these nodes has already been made, I don’t want to repeat what many already said, but I do want to encourage whoever is in charge of doing that selection to think this through with more care in the future.

    We want to enjoy the game mode, not be put off by it entirely. Trust me, you don’t want to be satisfying pleasing only a small minority.


    Your mistake is in assuming that this game mode is meant to be enjoyable or fun. A video game should be enjoyable and fun, but that is not necessarily always true. You tout your AW ranking as part of your credentials. You know what I don't find fun or enjoyable? AW.

    It would be fantastic if Kabam had all their game modes appeal to everyone, but that is simply not realistic.

    There definitely is room for improvements to Battlegrounds. Could BG be made more fun and enjoyable? Yes, definitely. But your only suggestion seems to be 'think about nodes choices'. Would Power Shield and Biohazard node be more fun and enjoyable? Probably yes, but 'fun and enjoyable' doesn't answer the question about how competitive rewards should be distributed.

    There are a lot more problems inherent in Battlegrounds that should be improved (ie. matchmaking, input lag, modders), that 'fun node selection' is fairly low on the list of improvements.
  • KaalenKaalen Posts: 8
    altavista said:

    Kaalen said:



    My alliance is composed of people who is fairly active. We are inside Top90 in AQ and P3 in War. Last season we scored 10M+ In BG. This season however, no one wants to play it. The reason is obvious. The game mode is just not fun for us, and we have no motivation whatsoever to play the mode.

    The mistake in selecting these nodes has already been made, I don’t want to repeat what many already said, but I do want to encourage whoever is in charge of doing that selection to think this through with more care in the future.

    We want to enjoy the game mode, not be put off by it entirely. Trust me, you don’t want to be satisfying pleasing only a small minority.
    Your mistake is in assuming that this game mode is meant to be enjoyable or fun. A video game should be enjoyable and fun, but that is not necessarily always true. You tout your AW ranking as part of your credentials. You know what I don't find fun or enjoyable? AW.

    It would be fantastic if Kabam had all their game modes appeal to everyone, but that is simply not realistic.

    There definitely is room for improvements to Battlegrounds. Could BG be made more fun and enjoyable? Yes, definitely. But your only suggestion seems to be 'think about nodes choices'. Would Power Shield and Biohazard node be more fun and enjoyable? Probably yes, but 'fun and enjoyable' doesn't answer the question about how competitive rewards should be distributed.

    There are a lot more problems inherent in Battlegrounds that should be improved (ie. matchmaking, input lag, modders), that 'fun node selection' is fairly low on the list of improvements.


    While I can understand where you are coming from, I think it differently. True, the problems you noted should be given some level of priority, but thinking about nodes requires very little effort and no technical dedication whatsoever. You don’t need to come up with new programming or anything like that in order to beat the problem. It’s possible to tackle multiple problems at the same time, instead of waiting to solve one before thinking about the other.

    Regarding how fun the game mode should be, I am of the opinion that every single game mode should be ultimately fun. Otherwise it is not game, but a task. You said War isn’t fun, and a lot of people agree with your sentiment, which is why Kabam receives a lot of criticism and is constantly trying to refresh it. There needs to be competitiveness, but a balance with how fun it is has to be important. Unless, of course, the purpose is to make the mode interesting only to a small minority of the player base. If that turns out to be their intention for BG, then I really lose the argument, but that doesn’t seem to be the case based on everything Kabam has been saying since its release.
  • K00shMaanK00shMaan Posts: 1,289 ★★★★
    Basing a significant amount of your opinion on scores in the Alliance/Solo event is misguided imo. To do excellent in that event, you likely have to invest some units. If the entire Alliance isn't necessarily committed to that it isn't worth it when you can still participate and get good rewards by just playing with Energy. Furthermore, this season was all around both Cyber weekend and the Banquet event. Both great reasons to spend your units outside of BG's. One of the bigger struggles for BG's is that there are plenty of other game modes and BGs doesn't offer to much reward wise for just playing more. If you get to GC and find a spot where you plateau, most people are going to stop especially since there are other things in the game to do that will continue to improve rewards. I played way more matches last season and was in GC for 3 whole weeks. This time I didn't push as fast and was only there for 9 days. I was still able to get my GC Rating a little higher than last season. So less matches, better rewards
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