Evaluation of a Design Paradigm - Feedback for Developers & Players from a Designer's Perspective
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.
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