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Evaluation of a Design Paradigm - Feedback for Developers & Players from a Designer's Perspective
Tse7en5
Posts: 39 ★
Hello, my name is Chris and I am a designer. This post should be prefaced with my intent: Which is to provide constructive feedback to both the Marvel COC community of players as well as the Kabam development team.
For the sake of fostering clear communication, I ask that any response to this thread maintains respect for both players and developers. Please keep this post on topic, refrain from asserting accusations of malicious intent and be constructive.
Evaluation of a Design Paradigm
The current state of Marvel Contest of Champions is a rather fascinating one for me to observe as a designer. Developers have kept increasing the amount of content within their patches with an exciting amount of energy and through all the hiccups they keep moving forward with fresh new content to keep players engaged and entertained. The steady stream of events, heroes, and purchase offers displays a healthy level of activity from the developers and their commitment to the game.
However through it all, the number of bugs within the game begin to amount and suggest that the content pushes are a primary focus - quantity over quality. As an observation, I come to the conclusion that the design paradigm is one that favors keeping game play new and engaging for new players and old players alike and that perhaps research data shows it is new content that players want most from Marvel Contest of Champions. As a designer I will admit that new content is fantastic and it is what we all want to bring to our player base. We want players to have fun and memorable experiences while keeping them engaged in our product of the course if its lifespan. Unfortunately a result of frequent content releases are bugs, features that are not tested thoroughly enough or mechanics that did not have enough time or understanding behind them to make them as clean as possible before release. As content releases become larger and more frequent, a development team must grow to accommodate. Up until recently there has been a lot of growth in content, but seemingly no growth in the development team which means more bugs, less testing, and less time to assuring the quality of the content being pushed to the public.
It is understandable. The current bugs are a byproduct of a development team who is passionate about what they do and what they are giving to the players, but indicative of a lack of self management when it comes to the development team itself.
It is forgivable. Marvel Contest of Champions is full of passionate players and passionate developers who can work together to create transparent communication and effective feedback loops to continue growing and improving the game we all love so much.
It is fixable. Through assessing the current design paradigm, a balance can be struck to fix broken content and still provide fresh and exciting content. The iterative design process is not known for being a quick one, but it is known for being an effective one. By clearing the way for better communication between developers and players alike - Marvel Contest of Champions can begin using a design paradigm that works for players and developers in a healthier way.
[CONTINUED IN POST BELOW]
For the sake of fostering clear communication, I ask that any response to this thread maintains respect for both players and developers. Please keep this post on topic, refrain from asserting accusations of malicious intent and be constructive.
Evaluation of a Design Paradigm
The current state of Marvel Contest of Champions is a rather fascinating one for me to observe as a designer. Developers have kept increasing the amount of content within their patches with an exciting amount of energy and through all the hiccups they keep moving forward with fresh new content to keep players engaged and entertained. The steady stream of events, heroes, and purchase offers displays a healthy level of activity from the developers and their commitment to the game.
However through it all, the number of bugs within the game begin to amount and suggest that the content pushes are a primary focus - quantity over quality. As an observation, I come to the conclusion that the design paradigm is one that favors keeping game play new and engaging for new players and old players alike and that perhaps research data shows it is new content that players want most from Marvel Contest of Champions. As a designer I will admit that new content is fantastic and it is what we all want to bring to our player base. We want players to have fun and memorable experiences while keeping them engaged in our product of the course if its lifespan. Unfortunately a result of frequent content releases are bugs, features that are not tested thoroughly enough or mechanics that did not have enough time or understanding behind them to make them as clean as possible before release. As content releases become larger and more frequent, a development team must grow to accommodate. Up until recently there has been a lot of growth in content, but seemingly no growth in the development team which means more bugs, less testing, and less time to assuring the quality of the content being pushed to the public.
It is understandable. The current bugs are a byproduct of a development team who is passionate about what they do and what they are giving to the players, but indicative of a lack of self management when it comes to the development team itself.
It is forgivable. Marvel Contest of Champions is full of passionate players and passionate developers who can work together to create transparent communication and effective feedback loops to continue growing and improving the game we all love so much.
It is fixable. Through assessing the current design paradigm, a balance can be struck to fix broken content and still provide fresh and exciting content. The iterative design process is not known for being a quick one, but it is known for being an effective one. By clearing the way for better communication between developers and players alike - Marvel Contest of Champions can begin using a design paradigm that works for players and developers in a healthier way.
[CONTINUED IN POST BELOW]
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This discussion has been closed.
Comments
MCOC has been one of the most exciting games I have played when it comes to offering new content, but it has also been one of the most buggy games when it comes to official content patches. If the size/amount of content being pushed to players is exceeding the ability to keep up with fixing critical bugs impacting game play, the content needs to become less excessive. The other alternative is that the development team needs to grow to accommodate for the growth in content pushes to players. Everyone loves content pushes. Players get fresh exciting new toys to play with, and development gets to do their creative thing and get their kicks off. Unfortunately things like this need to be carefully balanced when you do not have a means to push it through beta testing first.
Micro-Transactions
Many people thing the offers made by Kabam are ridiculous. It can be pretty challenging to find comments praising offers on MCOC, but perhaps one of the most overlooked qualities of these offers is the effort Kabam has put into making sure that their offers do not allow players to just buy their way past everyone else who may be using the free to play model. Players trying to play the pay to win method will find themselves paying an exorbitant amount of money to get ahead, showing that the developers have a lot of respect for their free to play players. Could the deals be better? I believe there is some flexibility they can offer in deals to give players more reasonable offers that are exciting, but as wild as some of their offers are - I don't think that they are overpriced for what they generally are. Balance is key when it comes to micro-transactions and it is why you see major games primarily focusing on cosmetic items for their micro-transactions. They sell well and they do not require balance from the development team in order to make fun offers for players.
The problem with micro-transactions in the current MCOC paradigm however, is how they are now attempting to take major functions of basic game play and corner players into buying them in order to continue moving forward. The removal of alliance revive potions is a huge concern as it allows players who are willing to pay good money, to start increasing the disparity between them and the free to play players. Being unable to use the free to play model in order to obtain fundamental items is a design flaw that does not seem to have much thought for overall balance or user experience. Having to lose alliance rank to farm them is a poor way of allowing players to obtain these now incredibly rare items. Changes like this decrease consumer confidence and increase consumer dissatisfaction - which is detrimental to the free to play model the game builds itself upon. A simple fix for this is to offer players the ability to obtain these items in the free to play model without forcing them to put themselves at a significant disadvantage with other players on a similar level.
Developer Transparency
Transparency between the development team and the players is a critical element of great design. It allows developers and consumers to communicate clearly on the path to building a product to perfection. In design, we call it the iterative process and is one which content is pushed towards the community to gather feedback and data to bring it back into development and push it out again. The process is cyclical and the lifetime of each cycle can vary from project to project or simply depending on what content is being analyzed. Marvel Contest of Champions has no real engine for this kind of process. The game lacks a beta state or testing realm, and the player feedback simply does not have enough people weeding through it to focus on the material that is most important at any given time.
In patch 12.0, communication took a giant leap forward as developers reached out to an enraged audience to collect feedback to fix issues and make the game better for the consumers.
Finally, we are into patch 13.0 and the development team has seemed to have gone almost radio silent on the current issues facing the game. The feedback loop they seemed so excited for has all but dissipated and players and developers are at a standstill and looking at a game with many broken mechanics. Perhaps one of the biggest issues surrounding the lack of transparency is change logs that are barren of developer comments.
Development teams thrive when they work through problems and can give the community feedback from a developers point of view on any given issue. Patch notes without developer comments are archaic for a reason, and in 2017 it is critical that for a successful feedback system, players and developers need to have a voice on the changes made to a project. Removing something like alliance revives without any real detailed explanation as to why is one of the most detrimental developer changes I have ever seen in a game. Fundamental elements of game play like that are not something that should be taken lightly when changes are being made to them and not giving players developer notes on such a change can erode consumer confidence and ultimately a companies bottom line.
The key to a great iterative process is open communication. Add developers notes to key parts of any change log and you will instantly create a much deeper level of transparency as a development team.
That is about all I have to say. It sounds like a rant, but it is something that needs to be said in a world of useless noise.
*KABAM - I am a designer for hire
Why is there such a push of new event quests and champs? Focus on the bugs and take a break for a month of new content.
I remember that post about our feedback from 12.0. It's a complete 180 degrees of transparency and a dialogue just a month and a half ago.
Let's see if any moderators respond to you
what is this supposed to mean?
Your comment add nothing to the conversation....I'm sure you've heard the saying...
TLDR - Kabam Lied to us about being open and transparent and have really betrayed the player base by doing so.
It means that this, while well written, is ill conceived and disrespectful from a professional point of view. In addition While he may echo the consensus of the reddit and youtube supporters misstates some of the issues that he finds incorrect. Instead of looking at the impact and priorities from a game design and marketing perspective, he takes a short sighted naive perspective that focuses on a limited scope and immediate gratification.
In my time working with designers of both games and other fields all of the good ones know that you do not go and publicly call them down at their own event or in their own grounds, because it is disrespectful and only serves to raise the ire of vultures that seek to get something from the situation. Instead if you see something you do not agree with you tell them discreetly, privately and preferably only if they ask. You understand that you are not the designer and that they may have a different vision than you and there may be extenuating circumstances.
I do not tell Emmy nominated designers that I know that I think they handled a show wrong, nor do they with their years of experience tell me what I "need" to do differently unless I ask. I do not tell the narrative or character designers that I know working on AAA console games that they need to change things unless they ask me what my opinion is.
There is an insane amount of time and investment that goes into creative items and critics that do not have enough knowledge only display that when they start making commentaries like this. With no real knowledge of the background situation and no real time considering it he only comes off as arrogant. There is no professional courtesy or consideration displayed here, consideration that comes after time working in the industry.
This is a very articulated post. I, along with many, agree that the bugs need to be fixed first & foremost before any type of new content is released to the player base. AQ & AW are in shambles right now, if you're playing at a very high competitive level, with the prestige to cosign said level of play.
The double evade bug is the most horrendous of all bugs, atm. The timing for parry has now been completely off since Tuesday nights maintenance. If you block in AQ or miss a parry, you die, because champs have 20x higher attack in there, then they do in LOL. The game has massive amounts of lag which are not device related (major lag on each & every Dormmamu fight, just like when he was first introduced to the contest). You try to evade more than twice now (as there is the double evade bug so you're stuck trying to triple evade now as best as possible), your champs just stay stuck. Champ's are still becoming unresponsive, ie; just standing there, block not registering, doing heavy attacks out of no where, & of course the parry & double evade thing.
Champs like Doctor Voodoo, Phoenix, Mordo, Archangel, Rogue; still have a suicidal short backwards dash, that desperately need to be fixed. Gwenpool is still a bugged champ with some of her abilities still not being able to work 100%, like her incinerate not stacking.
I'm glad you quoted what they stated - "One of the most positive feedback comments we received from you after our 12.0 update was that you really enjoyed the increased level of transparency and communication. We listened. We are bringing on two new members of our Community team to focus on bugs and quality concerns." Been almost 2 months since this was last stated on their part. The sad thing is, it truly seems as if it is starting to fall on deaf ears, or their programmers don't really know what's going on, as in not being able to identify what's going on.
So what you're saying is this:
You know designers
They design games
You would only offer advice or constructive criticism if asked
Answer me this, if you bought their game and it was trash, you wouldn't feel compelled to tell them where they fell short? You would just stay quiet?
So why don't you just stay quiet now?
The OP didn't ask you for your feedback, so maybe take your own advice and be quiet, because again you haven't added any value.
Yes
Some.
As a professional yes.
If I tell them it would not be on their PUBLIC BOARD, it would be discreet and respectful and I would do it as a consumer not spouting off that I was a designer.
Because this is offensive and if I follow the OP's example he likes feedback on things, so I have to assume this is how he likes things done because this is HOW HE DOES IT.
So if you want to go around condemning people look at all of them, because his entire two posts are telling kabam what they did wrong, and you have added less to the conversation than me.
The OP did nothing of the sort, he has simply applied design processes that he knows of to the way he perceives Kabam to be operating.
If he's wrong he's wrong, however he is also entitled to an opinion and that is his own, no matter what you say, or what facts you supply, your opinion does not mean his opinion is wrong to him.
This public board exists as not only a forum but a place for the developers to gain insight outside of their own closeted views.
I could only imagine that this game would not be worth playing at all if not for a degree of input PUBLICLY from the players.
Private input has its place, but Kabam said themselves they want to be more transparent and open about the progress and changes of the game. So they have invited it and here you are telling the OP that he shouldn't be posting this?
Can't have your cake....
I am a self made UX design consultant. I have been out of school for almost a decade and went to school for business.
You think this post is a sign of professional disrespect, when the reality is that it is a constructive outside point of view. It is evident that they are a development team of a company that has no dedicated design team for UX. If they did, there would be a better feedback loop for the development team. How do I know this? Because I am a UX designer and I can recognize even half-cooked feedback loops.
Last but not least, you say that it should be done in private and only if asked... They have a PUBLIC board for feedback and suggestions. Meaning they asked for this post and they asked for it to be public.
There is a difference between giving free public feedback on a public board, and giving a professional consult - the first is fiscal, and the second is the level of intimacy. I have not been hired for a private consult and if I was, it would be far more detailed than this post and it would involve layers of communication and implementation.
Game designers are not UX designers.
UX designers are game designers.
If you don't understand what I mean by that, then you don't understand what my profession is about or why it is important.
I never said you cant' have your opinion.
Don't be a hypocrite and post stuff that a) adds no value and b) denigrates the OP and his views. He didn't post this to have his life experience or integrity attacked.
Explain why his views are wrong, which you have now done.
I do understand what you mean and I also understand sales. And I would never handle it this way, because how you sell yourself is a good display of "user experience". A public beratement is not a good experience.
And a UX designer is not necessarily a programmer or a marketer or do they necessarily even work on games, there are different specializations what is yours?.
And if you know the difference between a consultation and public feedback, why include that you are a "designer" when you are not trying to appeal to that level of intimacy nor fiscal applications. Public feedback does not require qualifications, as a matter of fact qualifications can exclude you from the pool of people that are desired for public feedback. Market testing will not accept me for beta tests of any level of intimacy because of my qualifications and experience, so they do not want my "public feedback".
Your business training shows more than your design experience. You are just telling people what to do, without knowing what is going on, like any good manager does.
You sure put in the efforts to take my opinion down and discredit me. this entire thread holds very little value because he based it on his "integrity" If he did not put it there, I would not have had it to work with.
This is a feedback post, not public shaming. If you read the post, I also applauded them on things.
I am a UX designer. I analyze user experience and design systems based on collected data to improve user experience. Companies hire designers like me to improve their user experience by implementing systems to strengthen a feedback loop to improve and perfect products. In this sense, I am a game designer. Designers are not necessarily developers. One of the more common uses of UX design is in app development, where I am often hired to prototype an application to pass to developers to develop who then ship out to users to collect feedback and data where it is passed back to me to refine the design and hand back to developers. In game design, UX designers can be hired for numerous reasons and may only ever focus on one area to improve the user experience.
Companies like Blizzard, Adobe, Apple, Microsoft, and so many others - have dedicated UX design teams and they shell out millions of dollars to utilize those designers because it is a sector that provides an incredible amount of growth and revenue. From a business stance, user experience is one of the most important facets a company can invest in. From a designer's stance, their system can be greatly improved and it as clear as day. From a player's point of view, they are not doing enough to improve their systems.
My overall message is not one intended to go over specific bugs, but fundamental design concepts as it applies to program development and its user end experience. Which is absolutely a talking point related to design.
I am not telling anyone what to do. I am identifying issues within a design philosophy and providing suggestions to improve user end content in a more efficient way.
Man, re-read your first post....this is not an opinion, it is a statement based on nothing but conjecture and imagination. Your slanderous post was meant to discredit the OP for no particular reason other than being unpleasant.
Just plain unnecessary.
Because you got right into marketing and pricing strategies, risk/reward management, player advancement and transparency and communication (an area in which you are not paying enough attention to comment)
And all of it sounded like it came right out of a textbook. part of the reason you sound fresh out of college. I will give you this, you have the wordsmith skills to teach others, but you need to take a step back in your application skills everything you rely on is pure concept. And you are still trying to teach me things I already know, I know big companies use UX designers, I read the job postings for them, I know what the demands are to apply. I am closer to them than you seem to think I am.
You seem to have a condition...
My ex-wife had it too.
It's called Musthavethelastworditis. It's not contagious but the people who have it have a massively over-inflated sense of their own importance.
You don't get to decide what's necessary or not in a public forum.
But because your post was derogatory and was against the Forum rules I can say with certainty that your post was unnecessary...
Lets see if your Musthavethelastworditis kicks in...
in each post you put up you go after me and expect no reply? and then put an attack to goad me into Playing the last word game with you? So you can blame it all on me? That is passive aggressive, I don't think the issue was your ex wife.
You seem to have a condition...
My ex-wife had it too.
It's called Musthavethelastworditis. It's not contagious but the people who have it have a massively over-inflated sense of their own importance.
You don't get to decide what's necessary or not in a public forum.
But because your post was derogatory and was against the Forum rules I can say with certainty that your post was unnecessary...
Lets see if your Musthavethelastworditis kicks in...[/quote]considering how much you spoke of hypocrisy what is this?
in each post you put up you go after me and expect no reply? and then put an attack to goad me into Playing the last word game with you? So you can blame it all on me? That is passive aggressive, I don't think the issue was your ex wife.
[/quote]
You only think it's an attack because you can't see the forest for the trees.
Nothing I have written is an attack.
All you have done is prove my point each time you have posted.
When someone posts a thread for bug/issues the reply we get from Dev team is only that they are aware of this and pushing hard to solve this issue but they are not making clear what is causing this issue? Or how they are proceeding to remove this issue/bug. I still remember that how 12.0 created chaos when Kabam just announced about Thor,Dr strange, SW need. Instead of that they could have previously announced about it weeks ago and take opinions from forums. IMO they should not push any new content until all these issues are not fixed.
In new forums they are not even active as they should be. Even the forums have issues. So please FIX all of this first.
Sounds like what you do to everyone.
Just flag him for his abuse and spam, and maybe eventually Mods will do something about him.
I actually also enjoyed some of Mayhem's subsequent post about his experiences (not the initial dismissive "college" remark). He disagrees, and although he is disagreeable, he has several valid points too.
Most people want a game that works and, I think, forums that work as well. There's not a lot we can do about the game functionality, but it's not that hard to disagree and be civil about it. More of that would be welcome here.
Dr. Zola
PM or support channels.
Kabam most definitely needs to work on searching for bugs more before releasing updates. It's not public shaming, it's an obvious statement. Many of these bugs are found by half the community within 5 minutes of the update's release. Obviously Kabam isn't digging too deep when searching for flaws in the updates. This is concerning, especially at a time that bugs that have been relevant for long periods of time, and many users are boycotting Kabam products due to it. I personally think that these boycotts are unreasonable, but I can see where they are coming from, and it has to be taking a toll on Kabam's income, which is most likely why they are cranking out so many special offers in the unit store. That is also concerning, and here's why:
This is a free game, so many users come into the game with the mindset of "I won't have to pay to have a good time.". That isn't true in some cases. Many examples are Alliance Potions and Revives, the original Deadpool, and the Gifting Badge.
-Alliance Potions and Revives have become extremely rare lately, even though they are often necessary to have a shot at AQ and AW. Many users are forced to open up their wallets to help their alliance.
-Deadpool is obviously one of the most popular characters ever developed by Marvel. He's funny, lethal, and impossible to kill in nearly all scenarios. Yet he's unavailable unless you drop some money on the game. This leads to free players feeling cheated that one of their favorite characters is unavailable, and it's also created problems for those who bought him. Most people bought him as a 2 or 3 star and decided to go for him in Arena, just to save some money. However, his Arena hasn't been around for over a year (that's what I've heard, and I assume it's true, but I'm not completely sure). Now people are stuck with a 2 or 3 star they haven't used since they started their account, and they haven't even gotten a chance at the 4 star. Every aspect of Deadpool leads to users feeling betrayed. And Kabam can't make Deadpool available in common PHC circulation to fix that either, or the people who actually bought Deadpool would all have a brain aneurysm, leading to another major blow to Kabam's stream of revenue. They've dug themselves a hole here, and I honestly have no ideas on how to fix it other than PUT HIM IN ARENA!!!
-The Gifting Badge is stupid. You have to spend $30 or more to get it. Okay, fine. I don't think there should be an aspect of a free game that's only available to purchase, especially with Deadpool already being that way, but I can't really stop them. But then there was a whole Alliance Event that could give you Kang, but you had to gift. So yeah, Kang joined Deadpool as a purchase only character. Then the Greater Gifting Crystals. No. Stop it. There's now 3 PARTS OF A FREE GAME that you have to pay to get. No more, please.
Back to the bugs: Kabam needs to be more transparent. Their customers are losing faith in them due to these bugs that cause us to spend OUR money to stay competitive. In order to show us what they are doing about bugs, I've started a thread about it. Check it out, and let me know if you agree:
http://forums.playcontestofchampions.com/en/discussion/1726/bugs
Anyway, there's my take. Hope it helped.
Most of you all seem to be missing the apparent issue at hand here - customer dissatisfaction. MCoC users are more than never infuriated by this game as each respective post suggests. The cost, the bugs, the cost because of the bugs, the cost in terms of time spent. Your posts show one thing, they show you certainly may have insight into game design but let me remind you that your well spoken and intellectual statements are not here to represent any of the MCoC community. You are representing personal opinions which lack clarity to anyone (including me) and you have not considered what this forum represents - the wider community. Sure you have a right to post your opinion, but ensure you state the it is your OWN biased opinion and do not speak on behalf of the mcoc community about what it is that each player is going through on this game.
What do they want? I don't know? They know, they have posted their INDIVIDUAL concerns and will continue to do so without INTELLECTUAL RABBLE.