Basically all these flashy promises are detracting from peoples ability to actually PLAY THE GAME.
Yes it offers FTP opportunities they wouldn’t otherwise have, but if they can’t enjoy the game while they are pushing for their CHANCE at a flashy 5*… I don’t get the point.
Leveling up troops and heroes, and crafting battle items allows them to do a great many other things that give them chances, and involve being able to PLAY THE GAME.
Its cruel to dangle this and call it FTP freindly.
I echo the sentiments of the poster, and fellow Beta testers. I too have made the conscious decision to halt spending and not involve myself with the Beta activities until further notice. Hopefully there’s forward change before I reach the point of feeding my heroes and moving on.
Seems better to put the investment into tc20 instead of this horribly implemented idea. After 600 days most of what can be created here would have been found elsewhere during that process.
Ugh, I’ve tried…
Part of me wishes all of you could read the beta forum, so that you’d all know how much we all are trying to change things before this 
gets released.
We don’t want this game to die. We don’t want you all to find more reasons to quit. We don’t want even more dissatisfied players realizing that everything that they’ve worked for [over the past few years] was pointless. We don’t want you [all] to get so far, just to figure out [for yourselves] that there’s absolutely no pay-off for continuing to be so loyal… (absolutely none).
We all want this game - that we all enjoyed once upon a time - to grow and flourish. To repay us in some small way for all that we’ve given to it. To provide us with entertainment, of which we repay in $$, and not the other way around; we shouldn’t have to continuously pay endless amounts of cash for the smallest [in] hopes of eventually being treated well [with content].
Customer satisfaction should matter more. Why isn’t it being considered at all [here]?! Anytime an uproar happens [in beta], we may see [some] changes in the right direction, only to end up two steps back cuz of something else… It’s becoming futile to even try, and I’m afraid for the future of this game; things have never looked this bleak in the game’s history 
Without completely changing gears, I worry that SG is on a clear-cut course toward bringing about the death of this game. Maybe they know that, and they just don’t care. Maybe they’re blissfully unaware, and think they can pull [all] of this off [too], just as they’ve done so many times before… As in the past, we [all] jumped at the chance to line up - staying silent and patient in support of them and their game - even when they continued to show how little they cared [for us]… We all became complicit, blindly defending [them], while continuously being treated like dirt; we were ignored time and time again, and instead of all joining together to advocate for change, we continued to roll in the cuz we loved the abuse (ie the game)
But not this time. Cuz now… there’s just no hope. Absolutely none. I was willing to take the beating if it meant that maybe one day, it’d [all] pay off. That maybe one day, we’d have the ability to train non-S1 5* heroes freely, and easily enough, with a bit of grinding. That maybe one day, we could [all] work toward a goal of obtaining 4* mats for those very heroes without being forced to pay good $$. That maybe one day, we’d have more features [in-game] utilizing our entire roster, instead of always using the same ole heroes everytime, for everything. That maybe one day, they may actually use the creativity that they once had [for this game], and freshen things up - with QoL updates, alliance based activities, and various new/different rules applied to all parts of the game (war aids, war defenses, tourney rules, more quests, different titans, etc) to both improve our experience, and breathe new life into game-play.
But if HA is all we have left [to look forward to] in this game, and if this is how it’ll be [once] released, well… then I guess it really was all meaningless. & If that’s the case, and there’s no potential at all for things to get better - to be able to pull new heroes, get more mats and find more creative, new ways in using all of our heroes, items and in-game features without paying exorbitant amounts of money for a silly phone game - then I see no reason as to why I should continue wasting my time helping this game swindle more players…
Hel, if it weren’t for this community, and my alliance, I’d be long gone already…
But honestly, what’s so frustrating [about it all] is that there’s a solution here that I think [at least] most of us long-term players recognize, yet SG continues to ignore…
I mean, as is, there’s truly no point in building past SH20… but if the odds of pulling a new hero [in the Hero Academy] were in the double digits (ie 10%+), and it wasn’t so costly and time-consuming, then it might actually be worth it…
As is, it is not.
Welcome to the most greedy game in the entire world! Why can they not just try and care for their customers. I regret downloading this game so much! A total waste of a good amount of money and several years!
If all of these beta testers are bringing up the issues we often see posted about here, but nothing is being changed due to their concerns - what is the point of having beta testers?
SG should be called out for these shenanigans.
They are fooling alot of people, pretending to solicit “community” feedback, but I think savvy players here see it as a pure charade. This was always suspected, but after the Telluria debacle, it couldn’t be any more obvious.
They only want to create the ILLUSION that game development is based on community input, beta testers input, but in reality, the decisions are almost certainly made by whatever statiticians have determined is best for their bottom line. But they can always do it while saying it was the result of their feedback threads, and beta testing.
There were really good, fair and well thought out suggestions in all these cases, but they were completely ignored by SG. These attempts to solicit “community” feedback are being done purely for damage control.
The players, moderators, and community members that sit here day-in and day-out defending SG, blatantly being apologists for bad decisions are just as guilty. These players give SG the cover they need to continue this charade.
It’s shameful behavior and should be condemned by all players and all customers.
I like this game, but I’ve spent my last RW money here. I made that decision when I saw through the smoke and mirrors during the “rebalance”. I have better causes to support and I will not reward this predatory and deceptive behavior.
Don’t fall victim to the sunk cost fallacy.
Mainly merchandizing/free advertising/desire fabrication.
We are not even bug seekers. It may happen that sometimes we found something, but they have a real team making that job.
Our feedback is good until it can stay within their plans, whatever they are.
All the rest is out, no matter how much we ask, no matter how many agree.
Nothing more, nothing less.
It’s quite funny to me that what you’re describing is an old, well known fraud tactic, scammers call it “rainmaking”.
Honestly, for all these very nicely worded and insightful posts, the only thing the devs care about is revenue. If for every old customer who stops spending, 2 new ones take their place, the devs just won’t care.
End game players have less need to spend while new players spend more to catch up.
It does seem odd to invest in design time for something that on its face adds extremely little value to the game. Im curious how they justify releasing it at all other than that it was promised many, many months ago.
Well, i learn something new today.
I mean the name of it.
I sadly know very well how many psichological stuff are involved when we talking about millionaire companies.
Nothing new there.
I don’t know if that is the case. I have mentioned changing Noor into a heavy hitting red sniper. I bet if they released a red Lianna or red Seshat, even FTP players would consider pulling. Money would pour in, but alas we are going to be stuck with a sow red minion maker who will never be used or chased by anyone. Seems if money was their only focus, a real red sniper would have been an immediate thought instead of a rebalance of Tell. So there has to be more to it than money. A vision of the game might still be there for the devs.
I think this is the most depressing thread I’ve read on here.
It saddens me that the developers are hellbent on going down a path of destruction. It feels like there’s a war going on behind the scenes and the generals aren’t listening to the troops.
I just can’t understand why they would make content no one will use?
To elaborate on that…what do SGG think we will get from the Hero Academy that the beta testers aren’t telling them?? If you beta pool is saying it doesn’t work it feel beyond foolish to ignore them???
It was always both a great game and a continual cash grab. Always.
Small Giant have not changed. It’s just that their true intentions are coming to light in a more obvious way.
I railed against the original Alchemy Lab, and have railed against the updated version, as well as Hero Academy.
I also flat out told them not to release these versions, and that the community reaction is likely to be very negative.
@Guvnor‘s most polite feedback possible had to have the swears censored out by the Forum software.
Moderators are certainly not apologizing for nor defending these bad design decisions.
Some of us have strong opinions on them like many other players do.
Thought I had managed to get all the swearing outta it 
Believe me; if there was one or two left in there, the original draft had WAYYYY more…
This is a pretty direct question but are the mods who are also beta testers thinking of throwing in the towel?
I wouldn’t blame you or them.
I suspect that no matter how bad it gets I will still be around because I want to see what happens at the very end… (I have been waiting for a reckoning)
I won’t speak for others, but I’m seriously considering leaving the game.
At the least, I’m reducing, per: 🕵 Act Casual – How do you go from being a very active player to somewhat casual?