This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
time-gated content isn’t new, but having the option to pay to skip the wait is.
kabam has always time-gated stuff through energy, daily limits, or event pacing — but they’ve never combined that with a cash option to skip forward just because the content is deliberately slow, annoying and boring.
this is a first. and it’s not just about the mode — it’s about the precedent.
they’re testing: - how much friction they can add - how many people will pay to remove it - and how easy it is to disguise a soft paywall as “player convenience”
it’s not the skip button that’s the problem — it’s why it exists in the first place.
This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
I'll refer to @SirGamesBond as his comment made the most sense and reflected my thoughts the most accurately, don't feel like overanalyzing stuff and going on a rant
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
time-gated content isn’t new, but having the option to pay to skip the wait is.
kabam has always time-gated stuff through energy, daily limits, or event pacing — but they’ve never combined that with a cash option to skip forward just because the content is deliberately slow, annoying and boring.
this is a first. and it’s not just about the mode — it’s about the precedent.
they’re testing: - how much friction they can add - how many people will pay to remove it - and how easy it is to disguise a soft paywall as “player convenience”
it’s not the skip button that’s the problem — it’s why it exists in the first place.
think about that
Paying to skip the wait isn't new at all. That's the only thing paying ever does in this game. It accelerates time, aside from the select few things you can't get for free. I hate to break it to you, but monetization has been accelerating the growth of Accounts in this game since the beginning, and it isn't about to stop.
This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
time-gated content isn’t new, but having the option to pay to skip the wait is.
kabam has always time-gated stuff through energy, daily limits, or event pacing — but they’ve never combined that with a cash option to skip forward just because the content is deliberately slow, annoying and boring.
this is a first. and it’s not just about the mode — it’s about the precedent.
they’re testing: - how much friction they can add - how many people will pay to remove it - and how easy it is to disguise a soft paywall as “player convenience”
it’s not the skip button that’s the problem — it’s why it exists in the first place.
think about that
I didn't deny they are monetizing a shortcut in that comment you replied to, I simply said there is no fomo involved because you can complete it for free if you just play it three times a day like it was intended to. You're arguing with yourself here, again.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
I'll refer to @SirGamesBond as his comment made the most sense and reflected my thoughts the most accurately, don't feel like overanalyzing stuff and going on a rant
I saw his comment, I still can't see where all that fomo is at since you get enough resources to complete everything whether you spend or not, it just takes longer. Is it messed up that some people paid because they just wanted to be done with it? Maybe, but there is no fomo involved if you played the mode three times a day like it was intended to, you will by the end of the event get the same rewards as the people who spent. Fomo is what they did with Torch during the heat wave event, this is not fomo, this is a form of monetization by offering you a shortcut.
This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
time-gated content isn’t new, but having the option to pay to skip the wait is.
kabam has always time-gated stuff through energy, daily limits, or event pacing — but they’ve never combined that with a cash option to skip forward just because the content is deliberately slow, annoying and boring.
this is a first. and it’s not just about the mode — it’s about the precedent.
they’re testing: - how much friction they can add - how many people will pay to remove it - and how easy it is to disguise a soft paywall as “player convenience”
it’s not the skip button that’s the problem — it’s why it exists in the first place.
think about that
Paying to skip the wait isn't new at all. That's the only thing paying ever does in this game. It accelerates time, aside from the select few things you can't get for free. I hate to break it to you, but monetization has been accelerating the growth of Accounts in this game since the beginning, and it isn't about to stop.
yeah, we all know monetization speeds things up — that’s not some groundbreaking insight. what you’re missing is how kabam is testing it here. this isn’t about buying catalysts or shards — it’s about them sliding in boring low quality content with a time gate so you’re tempted to pay just to skip it. that’s a shift in design philosophy, and pretending it’s business as usual is either willfully blind or just lazy thinking.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
I was happy with the rewards I got for $7 and minimal effort. If you don't like it, that's cool, who cares? I don't like pumpkin pie. But when I go to the pie shop, I don't start yelling at the store for offering it. I just pick a different pie and move on with my life.
Yap yap yap. Go back to complaining about not being able to reparry
Bro, my F2P alt is in mysterium right now while you claim BGs is rigged and that casino poker requires skill and strategy. Stop trying to engage with me you pathetic loser, lol...
In mysterium and can't reparry. Tried to rank check and made yourself look worse. 😳
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you’re acting like the entire discussion hinges on whether i used the exact dictionary term you prefer, when the point was always about kabam giving us low effort content with a time gate, knowing its boring, frustrating to wait on, then selling relief from that tedium. call it a skip button, a soft paywall, psychological monetization — the label isn’t the issue. the design tactic is.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you’re acting like the entire discussion hinges on whether i used the exact dictionary term you prefer, when the point was always about kabam giving us low effort content with a time gate, knowing its boring, frustrating to wait on, then selling relief from that tedium. call it a skip button, a soft paywall, psychological monetization — the label isn’t the issue. the design tactic is.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
I actually did engage with it and multiple times not just once, and I told you some people liked it regardless of all the predatory tactics or whatever you want to call them. I even pointed out how you told someone they have Stockholm Syndrome for liking the event lol you're obviously not going to agree, or agree to disagree for that matter so what would even be the point in engaging with your point again and again in the first place? You won't stop arguing until everyone is sharing the same views as you.
Anyways I'm done here, we're beating a dead horse, you have your views and I have mine.
This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
time-gated content isn’t new, but having the option to pay to skip the wait is.
kabam has always time-gated stuff through energy, daily limits, or event pacing — but they’ve never combined that with a cash option to skip forward just because the content is deliberately slow, annoying and boring.
this is a first. and it’s not just about the mode — it’s about the precedent.
they’re testing: - how much friction they can add - how many people will pay to remove it - and how easy it is to disguise a soft paywall as “player convenience”
it’s not the skip button that’s the problem — it’s why it exists in the first place.
think about that
Paying to skip the wait isn't new at all. That's the only thing paying ever does in this game. It accelerates time, aside from the select few things you can't get for free. I hate to break it to you, but monetization has been accelerating the growth of Accounts in this game since the beginning, and it isn't about to stop.
yeah, we all know monetization speeds things up — that’s not some groundbreaking insight. what you’re missing is how kabam is testing it here. this isn’t about buying catalysts or shards — it’s about them sliding in boring low quality content with a time gate so you’re tempted to pay just to skip it. that’s a shift in design philosophy, and pretending it’s business as usual is either willfully blind or just lazy thinking.
They're testing what? You can wait and get everything, or you can pay and get it right away. That isn't a shift in design. It's been around all along. Have you heard of the Platinum Track? Potions? Energy Refills? Hell, everywhere you look in the game, there are ways to expedite the process. Honestly, you're up in arms because there's a Side Quest experiment that people can pay a few bucks and complete in a short matter of time. I can't speak for you, but waiting for Entries is one of my least favorite models. I can't see how this is a bad thing, but it's certainly not new.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you’re acting like the entire discussion hinges on whether i used the exact dictionary term you prefer, when the point was always about kabam giving us low effort content with a time gate, knowing its boring, frustrating to wait on, then selling relief from that tedium. call it a skip button, a soft paywall, psychological monetization — the label isn’t the issue. the design tactic is.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
I actually did engage with it and multiple times not just once, and I told you some people liked it regardless of all the predatory tactics or whatever you want to call them. I even pointed out how you told someone they have Stockholm Syndrome for liking the event lol you're obviously not going to agree, or agree to disagree for that matter so what would even be the point in engaging with your point again and again in the first place? You won't stop arguing until everyone is sharing the same views as you.
Anyways I'm done here, we're beating a dead horse, you have your views and I have mine.
then just admit you were more interested in tone-policing and nitpicking terminology than actually addressing the substance of the argument. you didn’t really engage — you skimmed over the point, waved it off with “agree to disagree,” and kept pivoting to how i said things instead of what i said. and yeah, i said the stockholm thing — because acting like predatory design is fine just because the rewards are good is exactly how this kind of garbage becomes normalized.
if you're fine with that, cool. i’m not. and i'm not going to pretend it's just “two equal opinions” when one of them helps kabam turn trash into a template.
This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
time-gated content isn’t new, but having the option to pay to skip the wait is.
kabam has always time-gated stuff through energy, daily limits, or event pacing — but they’ve never combined that with a cash option to skip forward just because the content is deliberately slow, annoying and boring.
this is a first. and it’s not just about the mode — it’s about the precedent.
they’re testing: - how much friction they can add - how many people will pay to remove it - and how easy it is to disguise a soft paywall as “player convenience”
it’s not the skip button that’s the problem — it’s why it exists in the first place.
think about that
This is it.
And to top it off. The players who paid for shortcut still had to sit for multiple hours compelting the 8+59 run objectives. They still had to focus on switching champs between fights for objetives. They still had to read the powerup thingies between the fights. They had to invest time reading into masteries and coming up with a plan.
How badly they executed it. Left everything on players, no helpful tips or explanations how things worked in the mode. Designed to frustrate. ... First week of kabam kids kasino had fomo of legend title. Kids went as far as dumping 5k units on refills to go after it. Atleast the rewards were not tied to it. It was a cosmetic fomo.
Kabam micro-transaction casino of champions indeed.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you’re acting like the entire discussion hinges on whether i used the exact dictionary term you prefer, when the point was always about kabam giving us low effort content with a time gate, knowing its boring, frustrating to wait on, then selling relief from that tedium. call it a skip button, a soft paywall, psychological monetization — the label isn’t the issue. the design tactic is.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
I actually did engage with it and multiple times not just once, and I told you some people liked it regardless of all the predatory tactics or whatever you want to call them. I even pointed out how you told someone they have Stockholm Syndrome for liking the event lol you're obviously not going to agree, or agree to disagree for that matter so what would even be the point in engaging with your point again and again in the first place? You won't stop arguing until everyone is sharing the same views as you.
Anyways I'm done here, we're beating a dead horse, you have your views and I have mine.
then just admit you were more interested in tone-policing and nitpicking terminology than actually addressing the substance of the argument. you didn’t really engage — you skimmed over the point, waved it off with “agree to disagree,” and kept pivoting to how i said things instead of what i said. and yeah, i said the stockholm thing — because acting like predatory design is fine just because the rewards are good is exactly how this kind of garbage becomes normalized.
if you're fine with that, cool. i’m not. and i'm not going to pretend it's just “two equal opinions” when one of them helps kabam turn trash into a template.
I did address it and you ignored it, just like you're ignoring the fact that we have different opinions and instead of agreeing to disagree you're still trying to force your view on me and everyone else who disagrees with you lmao.
You also seem very heated over an argument about a video game, sit down and take a deep breath it's really not that serious.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you’re acting like the entire discussion hinges on whether i used the exact dictionary term you prefer, when the point was always about kabam giving us low effort content with a time gate, knowing its boring, frustrating to wait on, then selling relief from that tedium. call it a skip button, a soft paywall, psychological monetization — the label isn’t the issue. the design tactic is.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
I actually did engage with it and multiple times not just once, and I told you some people liked it regardless of all the predatory tactics or whatever you want to call them. I even pointed out how you told someone they have Stockholm Syndrome for liking the event lol you're obviously not going to agree, or agree to disagree for that matter so what would even be the point in engaging with your point again and again in the first place? You won't stop arguing until everyone is sharing the same views as you.
Anyways I'm done here, we're beating a dead horse, you have your views and I have mine.
then just admit you were more interested in tone-policing and nitpicking terminology than actually addressing the substance of the argument. you didn’t really engage — you skimmed over the point, waved it off with “agree to disagree,” and kept pivoting to how i said things instead of what i said. and yeah, i said the stockholm thing — because acting like predatory design is fine just because the rewards are good is exactly how this kind of garbage becomes normalized.
if you're fine with that, cool. i’m not. and i'm not going to pretend it's just “two equal opinions” when one of them helps kabam turn trash into a template.
I did address it and you ignored it, just like you're ignoring the fact that we have different opinions and instead of agreeing to disagree you're still trying to force your view on me and everyone else who disagrees with you lmao.
You also seem very heated over an argument about a video game, sit down and take a deep breath it's really not that serious.
based on everything you’ve said, you come off as the kind of guy who thinks arguing semantics makes you sound smarter than you are. you latch onto technicalities — like the word “paywall” — just to avoid engaging with the actual issue, either because you don’t fully get it or you don’t want to admit it has merit. and when that runs out, you pivot to “it’s just a game” and play the victim, acting like anyone pushing back is being emotional or unreasonable.
you’re not arguing in good faith — you care more about “winning” a forum argument than actually understanding or responding to what’s being said. it’s all surface-level posturing with no depth.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you’re acting like the entire discussion hinges on whether i used the exact dictionary term you prefer, when the point was always about kabam giving us low effort content with a time gate, knowing its boring, frustrating to wait on, then selling relief from that tedium. call it a skip button, a soft paywall, psychological monetization — the label isn’t the issue. the design tactic is.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
I actually did engage with it and multiple times not just once, and I told you some people liked it regardless of all the predatory tactics or whatever you want to call them. I even pointed out how you told someone they have Stockholm Syndrome for liking the event lol you're obviously not going to agree, or agree to disagree for that matter so what would even be the point in engaging with your point again and again in the first place? You won't stop arguing until everyone is sharing the same views as you.
Anyways I'm done here, we're beating a dead horse, you have your views and I have mine.
then just admit you were more interested in tone-policing and nitpicking terminology than actually addressing the substance of the argument. you didn’t really engage — you skimmed over the point, waved it off with “agree to disagree,” and kept pivoting to how i said things instead of what i said. and yeah, i said the stockholm thing — because acting like predatory design is fine just because the rewards are good is exactly how this kind of garbage becomes normalized.
if you're fine with that, cool. i’m not. and i'm not going to pretend it's just “two equal opinions” when one of them helps kabam turn trash into a template.
I did address it and you ignored it, just like you're ignoring the fact that we have different opinions and instead of agreeing to disagree you're still trying to force your view on me and everyone else who disagrees with you lmao.
You also seem very heated over an argument about a video game, sit down and take a deep breath it's really not that serious.
based on everything you’ve said, you come off as the kind of guy who thinks arguing semantics makes you sound smarter than you are. you latch onto technicalities — like the word “paywall” — just to avoid engaging with the actual issue, either because you don’t fully get it or you don’t want to admit it has merit. and when that runs out, you pivot to “it’s just a game” and play the victim, acting like anyone pushing back is being emotional or unreasonable.
you’re not arguing in good faith — you care more about “winning” a forum argument than actually understanding or responding to what’s being said. it’s all surface-level posturing with no depth.
I engaged with the actual issue and told you we obviously have differing opinions and won't reach common ground on the matter so there's really no point cause you're not going to change my mind and I obviously won't change yours. You're just mad that I'm not just straight up saying "yes everything you said is true and I agree with you my Lord" lol you must be fun at parties, have a good one bud go touch some grass.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you’re acting like the entire discussion hinges on whether i used the exact dictionary term you prefer, when the point was always about kabam giving us low effort content with a time gate, knowing its boring, frustrating to wait on, then selling relief from that tedium. call it a skip button, a soft paywall, psychological monetization — the label isn’t the issue. the design tactic is.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
I actually did engage with it and multiple times not just once, and I told you some people liked it regardless of all the predatory tactics or whatever you want to call them. I even pointed out how you told someone they have Stockholm Syndrome for liking the event lol you're obviously not going to agree, or agree to disagree for that matter so what would even be the point in engaging with your point again and again in the first place? You won't stop arguing until everyone is sharing the same views as you.
Anyways I'm done here, we're beating a dead horse, you have your views and I have mine.
then just admit you were more interested in tone-policing and nitpicking terminology than actually addressing the substance of the argument. you didn’t really engage — you skimmed over the point, waved it off with “agree to disagree,” and kept pivoting to how i said things instead of what i said. and yeah, i said the stockholm thing — because acting like predatory design is fine just because the rewards are good is exactly how this kind of garbage becomes normalized.
if you're fine with that, cool. i’m not. and i'm not going to pretend it's just “two equal opinions” when one of them helps kabam turn trash into a template.
I did address it and you ignored it, just like you're ignoring the fact that we have different opinions and instead of agreeing to disagree you're still trying to force your view on me and everyone else who disagrees with you lmao.
You also seem very heated over an argument about a video game, sit down and take a deep breath it's really not that serious.
based on everything you’ve said, you come off as the kind of guy who thinks arguing semantics makes you sound smarter than you are. you latch onto technicalities — like the word “paywall” — just to avoid engaging with the actual issue, either because you don’t fully get it or you don’t want to admit it has merit. and when that runs out, you pivot to “it’s just a game” and play the victim, acting like anyone pushing back is being emotional or unreasonable.
you’re not arguing in good faith — you care more about “winning” a forum argument than actually understanding or responding to what’s being said. it’s all surface-level posturing with no depth.
I engaged with the actual issue and told you we obviously have differing opinions and won't reach common ground on the matter so there's really no point cause you're not going to change my mind and I obviously won't change yours. You're just mad that I'm not just straight up saying "yes everything you said is true and I agree with you my Lord" lol you must be fun at parties, have a good one bud go touch some grass.
what you’re doing now is pretending the conversation is about opinions when it’s clearly about patterns of monetization and psychological design, things that go beyond “agree to disagree.” you’re dismissing valid criticism as if i’m just mad we don’t share views, when in reality, you’ve consistently dodged the point and now you’re falling back on sarcasm and tired phrases like “touch grass” to avoid accountability.
you didn’t engage, you deflected, nitpicked words, and now you’re acting smug because you think not caring makes you look above it all. it doesn’t. it just makes you look like someone who can't handle a conversation that challenges how this game manipulates players.
This thread seems to be getting unnecessarily nasty and personal
It's literally any thread with the zola guy, just waste of time arguing. I agree with OP for the most part, they have a point and those baffled by simple, valid criticism are just making it worse without realising. Kabam utilizes fomo really well and we can't deny it, they get you to spend no matter how little. I don't think its healthy for the game quality and balance in the long term but you can see that same people who'll complain the other day support it today so fair play I guess?
I'm ready for the "Didn't you quit, why still here?" comments, bring it...
Except you can actually get the content done without spending, there is no fomo involved because you're not missing out on anything unless you choose to do so. You have enough tickets to get absolutely everything for free, it just takes longer. If you hadn't quit the game you would know this already.
time-gated content isn’t new, but having the option to pay to skip the wait is.
kabam has always time-gated stuff through energy, daily limits, or event pacing — but they’ve never combined that with a cash option to skip forward just because the content is deliberately slow, annoying and boring.
this is a first. and it’s not just about the mode — it’s about the precedent.
they’re testing: - how much friction they can add - how many people will pay to remove it - and how easy it is to disguise a soft paywall as “player convenience”
it’s not the skip button that’s the problem — it’s why it exists in the first place.
think about that
Paying to skip the wait isn't new at all. That's the only thing paying ever does in this game. It accelerates time, aside from the select few things you can't get for free. I hate to break it to you, but monetization has been accelerating the growth of Accounts in this game since the beginning, and it isn't about to stop.
yeah, we all know monetization speeds things up — that’s not some groundbreaking insight. what you’re missing is how kabam is testing it here. this isn’t about buying catalysts or shards — it’s about them sliding in boring low quality content with a time gate so you’re tempted to pay just to skip it. that’s a shift in design philosophy, and pretending it’s business as usual is either willfully blind or just lazy thinking.
They're testing what? You can wait and get everything, or you can pay and get it right away. That isn't a shift in design. It's been around all along. Have you heard of the Platinum Track? Potions? Energy Refills? Hell, everywhere you look in the game, there are ways to expedite the process. Honestly, you're up in arms because there's a Side Quest experiment that people can pay a few bucks and complete in a short matter of time. I can't speak for you, but waiting for Entries is one of my least favorite models. I can't see how this is a bad thing, but it's certainly not new.
you keep saying “this has always been in the game,” but you're ignoring the actual shift. this isn’t like buying potions or energy refills to speed up gameplay you ENJOY. this is kabam designing a low effort, boring mode just so they can see if they can sell you relief from it.
that’s the difference. it’s not just monetizing time within the actual game here — it’s monetizing frustration. and yeah, that’s a new level of predatory. the paid skip isn’t just convenience, it’s bait. and pretending that’s no different than previous systems is either dishonest or just not paying attention.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you’re acting like the entire discussion hinges on whether i used the exact dictionary term you prefer, when the point was always about kabam giving us low effort content with a time gate, knowing its boring, frustrating to wait on, then selling relief from that tedium. call it a skip button, a soft paywall, psychological monetization — the label isn’t the issue. the design tactic is.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
I actually did engage with it and multiple times not just once, and I told you some people liked it regardless of all the predatory tactics or whatever you want to call them. I even pointed out how you told someone they have Stockholm Syndrome for liking the event lol you're obviously not going to agree, or agree to disagree for that matter so what would even be the point in engaging with your point again and again in the first place? You won't stop arguing until everyone is sharing the same views as you.
Anyways I'm done here, we're beating a dead horse, you have your views and I have mine.
then just admit you were more interested in tone-policing and nitpicking terminology than actually addressing the substance of the argument. you didn’t really engage — you skimmed over the point, waved it off with “agree to disagree,” and kept pivoting to how i said things instead of what i said. and yeah, i said the stockholm thing — because acting like predatory design is fine just because the rewards are good is exactly how this kind of garbage becomes normalized.
if you're fine with that, cool. i’m not. and i'm not going to pretend it's just “two equal opinions” when one of them helps kabam turn trash into a template.
I did address it and you ignored it, just like you're ignoring the fact that we have different opinions and instead of agreeing to disagree you're still trying to force your view on me and everyone else who disagrees with you lmao.
You also seem very heated over an argument about a video game, sit down and take a deep breath it's really not that serious.
based on everything you’ve said, you come off as the kind of guy who thinks arguing semantics makes you sound smarter than you are. you latch onto technicalities — like the word “paywall” — just to avoid engaging with the actual issue, either because you don’t fully get it or you don’t want to admit it has merit. and when that runs out, you pivot to “it’s just a game” and play the victim, acting like anyone pushing back is being emotional or unreasonable.
you’re not arguing in good faith — you care more about “winning” a forum argument than actually understanding or responding to what’s being said. it’s all surface-level posturing with no depth.
I engaged with the actual issue and told you we obviously have differing opinions and won't reach common ground on the matter so there's really no point cause you're not going to change my mind and I obviously won't change yours. You're just mad that I'm not just straight up saying "yes everything you said is true and I agree with you my Lord" lol you must be fun at parties, have a good one bud go touch some grass.
what you’re doing now is pretending the conversation is about opinions when it’s clearly about patterns of monetization and psychological design, things that go beyond “agree to disagree.” you’re dismissing valid criticism as if i’m just mad we don’t share views, when in reality, you’ve consistently dodged the point and now you’re falling back on sarcasm and tired phrases like “touch grass” to avoid accountability.
you didn’t engage, you deflected, nitpicked words, and now you’re acting smug because you think not caring makes you look above it all. it doesn’t. it just makes you look like someone who can't handle a conversation that challenges how this game manipulates players.
Okay here's my answer for the last time, I don't mind paying 5 for a shortcut and I would do it again. I couldn't care less about how you feel about the whole situation I don't see a problem with it because the rewards are just that good, and to a certain extent I found the game mode entertaining and fun because it reminds of old pc games back when Steam was just starting. The only issue I had was how repetitive it ended up feeling after completing shatter mode for the tenth time. Other than that I have no issues with this because I think the game mode was alright.
Now go psychoanalyze someone else Dr Phil, I'm bored already.
The amount of effort you spent raging about this could've easily been spent getting 825 units and 20k titan shards.
you really thought you did something with that huh? it’s a time-gated, paywalled mode — nobody’s ‘wasting time’ by pointing out how trash it is while we wait for the next drip of content. maybe read how the event works before pretending you’re the productivity police.
You keep saying paywalled for some weird reason, let's actually do the math for a second so you can stop calling it that cause it's not paywalled at all if you strategize properly your masteries, spending speeds up the process yes but it's not 100% necessary. You get 3 entries a day and the event lasts 29 days, that's 87 entries in total, 59 of those entries need to be spent on shatter mode alone for the Titan which leaves you with 28 entries left for the rest of the chapters. This means you have 3 entries in total for each chapter other than shatter mode which if you actually use your brain when upgrading a character with masteries is more than enough, you really shouldn't be dying on the same chapter more than twice if you focusing on upgrading one single character first and then slowly upgrade the rest for the other objectives and even if you are, you will still have 4 more entries left in case you made a couple extra mistakes on a certain chapter.
you’re missing the entire point — it’s not about whether it’s doable, it’s about how kabam is monetizing frustration by time-gating a boring, low-effort mode and selling arcade tickets to skip the wait. the design is built around people getting annoyed enough to pay, not around fun.
kabam didn’t offer paid tickets by accident — they knew the mode was boring and slow enough that people would want to skip it. it’s not pay-to-win, it’s pay-to-stop-being-annoyed. that’s how they monetize frustration, it’s psychological manipulation.
they know people value their time, especially in a mode that feels slow, repetitive, or annoying. so they drag it out just enough that paying to speed things up feels like relief.
so yes it’s an indirect paywall dressed up as a player choice.
No it is not, you can't just change the meaning of words as you see fit lol paywall literally means restricting access to content with either a purchase or a paid subscription, you can't just change the meaning of a word. Nothing here is being restricted to you if you don't pay, the objectives are easy to complete if you just wait and play the way it was intended to play. The tickets you buy are just a shortcut and that's the word you should be using here because they are not a resource you absolutely need, they're optional if you're not a patient person.
no one’s changing definitions — you’re just ignoring how modern monetization works.
a hard paywall restricts access entirely.
a soft paywall — which is what this is — deliberately designs the experience to be slow, tedious, and frustrating unless you pay. that’s not “optional,” that’s psychological manipulation.
kabam didn’t sell us value — they sold us relief from their own artificial grind.
that’s the whole point: the mode was built in a way that incentivizes payment by making the free path annoying, not inaccessible. that is a paywall — just in the form of time, not a locked door. and that distinction? it's the exact kind of thing games exploit now because players like you pretend it's not happening.
That's not what a soft paywall is, a soft paywall limits access to some content but still allows you to engage with some of the content for free. Like I said, you are delusional and so fixated on pushing your views on everyone else that you're even attempting to argue against a valid point by changing the meaning of a word completely. This isn't a paywall no matter how you spin it, and how many Bibles you type about how the word can have a different meaning (it doesn't) if you add a different word before it because modern monetization bla bla bla. The tickets are simply a shortcut, they are not a paywall and by definition you are wrong, grab a dictionary and stop trying to modify the English language as you see fit lol.
you have repeatedly ignored the actual argument in favor of semantic nitpicking — which is exactly what people do when they know they’re losing on substance. whether you call it a “soft paywall,” “timegate,” or “strategic monetization,” the point stands: kabam intentionally designed boring, repetitive content and layered in paid shortcuts because they know some players will pay to skip it.
the definition game doesn’t change the fact that kabam profits off manufactured frustration. if you want to argue about dictionaries while they slowly replace effort with engagement farming, be my guest — i am going to call it what it is.
Yes some players will pay to skip, and I do agree it's a form of monetization because they know people will pay the five for the shortcut. What I found an issue with is you calling it a paywall, it's not a paywall no matter how you spin it, it's just a shortcut.
Now, people paying actually a good thing or a bad thing? If you hated the mode and don't want more game modes like this in the future then obviously not, if you did and you're okay with mini game type modes like this one with very good rewards then yes it's a good thing, and that's literally how every game mode is designed based on interest and player response and feedback. If you have different views on the matter then agree to disagree and move on lol it's really that simple. Don't go telling people they have Stockholm Syndrome just because they didn't share your views and actually liked the content.
you keep hyper-focusing on dictionary definitions and sidestepping the core argument like you're auditioning for a debate team no one asked for. you're still ignoring the actual point: kabam is monetizing frustration through psychological design — not by locking content outright, but by making it tedious enough that paying feels like relief.
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
I just told you they are doing that indeed, are you dyslexic? How are you still arguing after I agreed that that is exactly what they're doing lol it is a form of monetization to some extent. It's not a paywall but they are getting people who don't have the patience or the time to spend money even if it's just a small amount. Whether that's a good thing or a bad thing tho depends entirely on whether you enjoyed mini games like this one or not, if you do you obviously want more of them if you don't then you don't.
you did technically agree that kabam is monetizing frustration by offering paid skips, i’ll give you that. but let’s be real, you only admitted it after spending multiple posts trying to nitpick the word paywall like that somehow erased the point i was making.
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Because you didn't call it a skip button initially, you called it a paywall. I wouldn't have argued any of that if you called this what it is instead of calling it something else. You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you’re acting like the entire discussion hinges on whether i used the exact dictionary term you prefer, when the point was always about kabam giving us low effort content with a time gate, knowing its boring, frustrating to wait on, then selling relief from that tedium. call it a skip button, a soft paywall, psychological monetization — the label isn’t the issue. the design tactic is.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
I actually did engage with it and multiple times not just once, and I told you some people liked it regardless of all the predatory tactics or whatever you want to call them. I even pointed out how you told someone they have Stockholm Syndrome for liking the event lol you're obviously not going to agree, or agree to disagree for that matter so what would even be the point in engaging with your point again and again in the first place? You won't stop arguing until everyone is sharing the same views as you.
Anyways I'm done here, we're beating a dead horse, you have your views and I have mine.
then just admit you were more interested in tone-policing and nitpicking terminology than actually addressing the substance of the argument. you didn’t really engage — you skimmed over the point, waved it off with “agree to disagree,” and kept pivoting to how i said things instead of what i said. and yeah, i said the stockholm thing — because acting like predatory design is fine just because the rewards are good is exactly how this kind of garbage becomes normalized.
if you're fine with that, cool. i’m not. and i'm not going to pretend it's just “two equal opinions” when one of them helps kabam turn trash into a template.
I did address it and you ignored it, just like you're ignoring the fact that we have different opinions and instead of agreeing to disagree you're still trying to force your view on me and everyone else who disagrees with you lmao.
You also seem very heated over an argument about a video game, sit down and take a deep breath it's really not that serious.
based on everything you’ve said, you come off as the kind of guy who thinks arguing semantics makes you sound smarter than you are. you latch onto technicalities — like the word “paywall” — just to avoid engaging with the actual issue, either because you don’t fully get it or you don’t want to admit it has merit. and when that runs out, you pivot to “it’s just a game” and play the victim, acting like anyone pushing back is being emotional or unreasonable.
you’re not arguing in good faith — you care more about “winning” a forum argument than actually understanding or responding to what’s being said. it’s all surface-level posturing with no depth.
I engaged with the actual issue and told you we obviously have differing opinions and won't reach common ground on the matter so there's really no point cause you're not going to change my mind and I obviously won't change yours. You're just mad that I'm not just straight up saying "yes everything you said is true and I agree with you my Lord" lol you must be fun at parties, have a good one bud go touch some grass.
what you’re doing now is pretending the conversation is about opinions when it’s clearly about patterns of monetization and psychological design, things that go beyond “agree to disagree.” you’re dismissing valid criticism as if i’m just mad we don’t share views, when in reality, you’ve consistently dodged the point and now you’re falling back on sarcasm and tired phrases like “touch grass” to avoid accountability.
you didn’t engage, you deflected, nitpicked words, and now you’re acting smug because you think not caring makes you look above it all. it doesn’t. it just makes you look like someone who can't handle a conversation that challenges how this game manipulates players.
Okay here's my answer for the last time, I don't mind paying 5 for a shortcut and I would do it again. I couldn't care less about how you feel about the whole situation I don't see a problem with it because the rewards are just that good, and to a certain extent I found the game mode entertaining and fun because it reminds of old pc games back when Steam was just starting. The only issue I had was how repetitive it ended up feeling after completing shatter mode for the tenth time. Other than that I have no issues with this because I think the game mode was alright.
Now go psychoanalyze someone else Dr Phil, I'm bored already.
you literally said you’d pay again even if the mode is trash — that’s the whole issue. kabam wants players like you who will throw money at a bad mode just to skip it to get the rewards and be done with it. you’re not proving me wrong, you’re proving exactly how this design works: it looks small now but don’t cry when it’s reintroduced in a worse form later.
you’re not “above” the discussion — you’re just fine being exploited, and now you’re annoyed someone actually called it out.
if this is really the mode you claim to enjoy — while also admitting it’s boring and repetitive — then you’re not arguing in good faith. you’re not making an actual point, you’re just trying to "win" a debate. there’s no way anyone looks at this 2D auto fight arcade mode and genuinely thinks it’s fun enough to grind and keep in the game permanently, please come on.
This much outrage on simply a gamemode that you can easily ignore is crazy, It also gives good rewards for minimal effort so won't advice to ignore.
you completely missed the point or chose to ignore it. it’s not just ‘something you can easily ignore’ — they purposely stuffed it with great rewards so we can’t ignore it. that’s the issue. it’s low-effort, off-brand content shoved into the game with insane rewards to force engagement, not because it’s fun or good.
acting like that’s fine is how we keep getting more of this lazy design.
“We can’t ignore it”?. I have since last Wednesday when it was released,..did one run of it for 15-20 minutes and I haven’t been back since,.,and I won’t for the remaining tine it’s available. I don’t think the rewards make it worth playing the mode,.,(it’s that bad),.,so i don’t. …see?,.., it’s easy.
okay, you proudly missed the point, downplayed the problem, and acted like disengaging makes you wise, when in reality, it just makes you irrelevant to the discussion. here’s why:
i’m pointing out that kabam jammed valuable, top-tier rewards into garbage content specifically to force players — especially competitive ones — into engaging with it, whether they like it or not. It’s not about skipping it, it’s about how this tactic degrades the game design and sets a horrible precedent.
kabam’s entire goal with this kind of content is to test how little effort they can put in and still get engagement by attaching bait-tier rewards. players like you ignoring it does nothing if thousands more cave and buy arcade tickets.
You’re right,..i am proud of not participating in what i do not like and enjoy, and i do find it wise in disengaging in this game mode for that reason. (Why would i lessen myself by participating in this if that’s my feeling towards it)? Meanwhile, if you’re the “competitive type”..you should accept that if you are going to 100% every piece of content then some of it you may find wont always appeal to you. Instead you are crying about having to participate in something that you choose to do because of a bar you have set yourself,..pretty sad. And nobody is irrelevant in this game no matter if you’re competitive, semi competitive or simply casual as i’m pretty sure this certain game mode is available to all kinds of summoners. It is also their choice to disregard it or not,..but it’s kind of pathetic when people complain while grinding a mode that they themselves choose to take part in 😅.
This much outrage on simply a gamemode that you can easily ignore is crazy, It also gives good rewards for minimal effort so won't advice to ignore.
you completely missed the point or chose to ignore it. it’s not just ‘something you can easily ignore’ — they purposely stuffed it with great rewards so we can’t ignore it. that’s the issue. it’s low-effort, off-brand content shoved into the game with insane rewards to force engagement, not because it’s fun or good.
acting like that’s fine is how we keep getting more of this lazy design.
“We can’t ignore it”?. I have since last Wednesday when it was released,..did one run of it for 15-20 minutes and I haven’t been back since,.,and I won’t for the remaining tine it’s available. I don’t think the rewards make it worth playing the mode,.,(it’s that bad),.,so i don’t. …see?,.., it’s easy.
okay, you proudly missed the point, downplayed the problem, and acted like disengaging makes you wise, when in reality, it just makes you irrelevant to the discussion. here’s why:
i’m pointing out that kabam jammed valuable, top-tier rewards into garbage content specifically to force players — especially competitive ones — into engaging with it, whether they like it or not. It’s not about skipping it, it’s about how this tactic degrades the game design and sets a horrible precedent.
kabam’s entire goal with this kind of content is to test how little effort they can put in and still get engagement by attaching bait-tier rewards. players like you ignoring it does nothing if thousands more cave and buy arcade tickets.
You’re right,..i am proud of not participating in what i do not like and enjoy, and i do find it wise in disengaging in this game mode for that reason. (Why would i lessen myself by participating in this if that’s my feeling towards it)? Meanwhile, if you’re the “competitive type”..you should accept that if you are going to 100% every piece of content then some of it you may find wont always appeal to you. Instead you are crying about having to participate in something that you choose to do because of a bar you have set yourself,..pretty sad. And nobody is irrelevant in this game no matter if you’re competitive, semi competitive or simply casual as i’m pretty sure this certain game mode is available to all kinds of summoners. It is also their choice to disregard it or not,..but it’s kind of pathetic when people complain while grinding a mode that they themselves choose to take part in 😅.
man, your responses are full of nothing but deflection and condescension, you just never fail to completely miss the actual point!
you don’t get to dismiss legit criticism from players who did/are engaging with it just because they care enough to clear content and challenges to get good rewards. nobody’s crying, we’re pointing out lazy design and a clear monetization shift. and calling it “sad” to expect better from the game is just weak. you're not above the conversation just because you tapped out early. you're outside of it. huge difference.
you’re proudly sitting out a mode you say you dislike, acting like that’s some deep, enlightened take when all you’ve really done is remove yourself from the conversation entirely!
But see, that's part of the explanation. It is low effort for Kabam to put out, and low effort for us to do. So it's not replacing the high-effort stuff Kabam does, it's just something extra that took them very little resources to produce. If you hate it, just don't play it, that's your best way of signalling to Kabam you don't like it. For me, I'm sorry, but I'm a resource junkie, if it's easy with great rewards, sign me up. Now if this arcade replaces BGs or Everest content, then I'll just stop playing MCOC, but I don't see that as even a theoretical possibility.
Isn't it replacing high-effort stuff though? Every month, there is usually EQ, SQ, and some months usually something extra. This month there is EQ (yes the Valiant stuff is new-ish so maybe thats where their effort went this month), Poker (strange, but as an experiment tolerable), and an extra weird turn based RPG as the extra thing.
Compare that to July 2024 or July 2023 when the extra thing was something like a boss rush, or Summer of Suffering, or something else.
I can't argue with getting easy rewards, but having TWO games modes where I'm not playing MCOC feels very weird. While you could argue that we get equivalent extra rewards with less work from Doom Cycle compared to getting it from SoS, most of us are playing MCOC to play MCOC, not to get MCOC rewards playing an entirely different game.
With Arcade, Kabam is essentially saying "you can pay us money to get SoS rewards now and not have to engage with the non-MCOC mode". With SoS, Kabam was saying "actually play MCOC gameplay, but you have to wait for your SoS rewards till the season is over." You might have a different preference, but I personally like playing MCOC, and getting rewards based on playing MCOC.
Comments
instead of engaging with that, you're clinging to the technicality of the word “paywall” like it's some hill you're desperate to die on — while pretending this whole design isn't engineered to test how much annoyance players will tolerate before spending money.
kabam has always time-gated stuff through energy, daily limits, or event pacing — but they’ve never combined that with a cash option to skip forward just because the content is deliberately slow, annoying and boring.
this is a first. and it’s not just about the mode — it’s about the precedent.
they’re testing:
- how much friction they can add
- how many people will pay to remove it
- and how easy it is to disguise a soft paywall as “player convenience”
it’s not the skip button that’s the problem — it’s why it exists in the first place.
think about that
you kept shifting the conversation to semantics instead of actually addressing the core issue — kabam intentionally building a boring, time-gated mode and then selling relief from it and testing the waters. that's the design problem. arguing over the exact word i used doesn’t change what they did.
so yeah, you agreed with the mechanic but only while pretending the concern behind it didn’t matter.
Fomo is what they did with Torch during the heat wave event, this is not fomo, this is a form of monetization by offering you a shortcut.
You can have your own views on whether monetizing shortcuts is a good thing or a bad thing, but if you're going to start a debate at least call it what it is so there aren't any misunderstandings later on when you're trying to get your point across.
you latched onto the word “paywall” to sidestep the argument entirely and now you’re pretending that was the only barrier to understanding the point. it wasn’t. you just didn’t want to engage with it.
Anyways I'm done here, we're beating a dead horse, you have your views and I have mine.
That isn't a shift in design. It's been around all along. Have you heard of the Platinum Track? Potions? Energy Refills? Hell, everywhere you look in the game, there are ways to expedite the process. Honestly, you're up in arms because there's a Side Quest experiment that people can pay a few bucks and complete in a short matter of time. I can't speak for you, but waiting for Entries is one of my least favorite models. I can't see how this is a bad thing, but it's certainly not new.
if you're fine with that, cool. i’m not. and i'm not going to pretend it's just “two equal opinions” when one of them helps kabam turn trash into a template.
And to top it off.
The players who paid for shortcut still had to sit for multiple hours compelting the 8+59 run objectives. They still had to focus on switching champs between fights for objetives.
They still had to read the powerup thingies between the fights.
They had to invest time reading into masteries and coming up with a plan.
How badly they executed it. Left everything on players, no helpful tips or explanations how things worked in the mode. Designed to frustrate.
...
First week of kabam kids kasino had fomo of legend title. Kids went as far as dumping 5k units on refills to go after it. Atleast the rewards were not tied to it. It was a cosmetic fomo.
Kabam micro-transaction casino of champions indeed.
You also seem very heated over an argument about a video game, sit down and take a deep breath it's really not that serious.
you’re not arguing in good faith — you care more about “winning” a forum argument than actually understanding or responding to what’s being said. it’s all surface-level posturing with no depth.
you didn’t engage, you deflected, nitpicked words, and now you’re acting smug because you think not caring makes you look above it all. it doesn’t. it just makes you look like someone who can't handle a conversation that challenges how this game manipulates players.
that’s the difference. it’s not just monetizing time within the actual game here — it’s monetizing frustration. and yeah, that’s a new level of predatory. the paid skip isn’t just convenience, it’s bait. and pretending that’s no different than previous systems is either dishonest or just not paying attention.
Now go psychoanalyze someone else Dr Phil, I'm bored already.
you’re not “above” the discussion — you’re just fine being exploited, and now you’re annoyed someone actually called it out.
if this is really the mode you claim to enjoy — while also admitting it’s boring and repetitive — then you’re not arguing in good faith. you’re not making an actual point, you’re just trying to "win" a debate. there’s no way anyone looks at this 2D auto fight arcade mode and genuinely thinks it’s fun enough to grind and keep in the game permanently, please come on.
(Why would i lessen myself by participating in this if that’s my feeling towards it)?
Meanwhile, if you’re the “competitive type”..you should accept that if you are going to 100% every piece of content then some of it you may find wont always appeal to you.
Instead you are crying about having to participate in something that you choose to do because of a bar you have set yourself,..pretty sad.
And nobody is irrelevant in this game no matter if you’re competitive, semi competitive or simply casual as i’m pretty sure this certain game mode is available to all kinds of summoners.
It is also their choice to disregard it or not,..but it’s kind of pathetic when people complain while grinding a mode that they themselves choose to take part in 😅.
you don’t get to dismiss legit criticism from players who did/are engaging with it just because they care enough to clear content and challenges to get good rewards. nobody’s crying, we’re pointing out lazy design and a clear monetization shift. and calling it “sad” to expect better from the game is just weak. you're not above the conversation just because you tapped out early. you're outside of it. huge difference.
you’re proudly sitting out a mode you say you dislike, acting like that’s some deep, enlightened take when all you’ve really done is remove yourself from the conversation entirely!
This month there is EQ (yes the Valiant stuff is new-ish so maybe thats where their effort went this month), Poker (strange, but as an experiment tolerable), and an extra weird turn based RPG as the extra thing.
Compare that to July 2024 or July 2023 when the extra thing was something like a boss rush, or Summer of Suffering, or something else.
I can't argue with getting easy rewards, but having TWO games modes where I'm not playing MCOC feels very weird. While you could argue that we get equivalent extra rewards with less work from Doom Cycle compared to getting it from SoS, most of us are playing MCOC to play MCOC, not to get MCOC rewards playing an entirely different game.
With Arcade, Kabam is essentially saying "you can pay us money to get SoS rewards now and not have to engage with the non-MCOC mode". With SoS, Kabam was saying "actually play MCOC gameplay, but you have to wait for your SoS rewards till the season is over." You might have a different preference, but I personally like playing MCOC, and getting rewards based on playing MCOC.