I will also add this presentation by the CEO: Managing Mobile Games as a Business – How a Small Team Can Challenge the Large Game Companies? - YouTube
Analytics is a big part of what they do and i have no problem with them optimizing offer based on patterns. It’s the optimizing game features he mentions that I am not on board with.
You’ve been tracking loot stats right?
What is the total number of 4* AM dropped to C players divided by the total number of C opportunities (so C players x # of titans)?
And how about the total number of 4* AM dropped to A+ players divided by the total number of A+ opportunities (so A+ players x # of titans)?
Well, no. C scores can seem to get better loot because in any alliance there are many more of them than there are A+ scores. If C scores have a 1% chance of pulling an item and A+ scores have a 5% chance, but there are fifteen C scores for every A+, then three times as many items will be accumulated by C scores as by A+ scores. One is still much better served to score an A+.
That’s a lot of superstitious gibberish. I could ask for the evidence that was collected to back it up but I’m not going to waste the effort. We all know from the vague, waffling, wording that no such evidence was collected.
That is unhinged, irrational nonsense. If I raid someone, then I win 9 times out of 10 (at least) because I have strong heroes that I can mix to match my opponent. Back when I was weaker, I won almost as many (let’s say 8 out of 10) simply by rerolling until I found opponents to suit my more limited selection of heroes.
The trophies available to be won or lost have a limited impact - they reflect the relative trophy totals of attacker and defender, which should act as proxy measures of raiding strength. But of course, trophy totals can frequently be either unnaturally high (after a player has filled their raid chest or if they have switched to a deliberately weak defence) or unnaturally low (after a player has been offline for a long time, or if they have just strengthened their defensive team).
If you regularly lose -45 battles on attack then you are simply bad at the game. You’re either selecting the wrong opponents, fielding a poorly chosen team on attack, or playing the boards incompetently.
Of course your cup total will regress to equilibrium: this is how an Elo-type system works. It’s self-correcting, so that if you collect a pile of trophies through dumb luck then you suddenly become a juicy target for stronger players, and you’ll lose a whole lot of them overnight. If you seriously see something mysterious or underhanded in this then I don’t think you really understand the process.
I just rolled my eyes so hard they did a full 360. Of course the last raid will be the hardest. Every time you win then the next raid will be harder than the last (on average) because your cup total will have increased and you will be matched with a more difficult subsequent opponent (again, on average). This effect will be most pronounced at the end of a series of wins. This is hardly rocket science, and nothing has been “adjusted”.
If your equilibrium cup total is 2650 then there is no reason you should ever lose enough raids on attack to drop to 2500. If you do, then you’re bad at raiding. If you drop to 2500 on defence then this is your equilibrium level, not 2650.
Your raiding principles hold water about as well as a bucket made out of candy floss.
I think the biggest pattern I see emerging time and time again is when a person is frustrated and upset about something in the game, they look for any reason it might be happening.
We never like to entertain the idea that it may be something we ourselves are contributing to, or simply the fact that as we play longer the items/heroes we used to be so excited to get aren’t quite such a big deal anymore.
And will look for any “evidence” (whether factual or not), to bolster the premise we have settled on, and sometimes get upset with those that try to present the actual data and facts they have collected over months and years of playing. (thanks to those of you that do this…I just don’t have the patience for all that)
So you feel uncomfortable with the idea that your player behavior is being monitored for SG to find better features, events, and offers? Optimizing and adjusting to current client needs is not a new concept. Without the ability to collect data, analyze it, plan for the findings, implement the plan, and then evaluate your work, nothing can be learned and growth cannot occur.
This is a business. They understand that this game will eventually have a shelf life and no longer be profitable as new games crop up. If you think they are using their “spender analysis” to squeeze money out of you then you need to get control of your accounts. No one else is pushing the confirm button when a deal rolls around. Yes, the CEO did say that they track spending (Slush, 2018) and that they use that data to optimize price-points, offers, and types of spenders. If you really want to annoy the analytics, stop spending.
What I took from the upload to YouTube by Slush (2018) was this:
“[This] last one is of course super important, which is community support, community nurturing, and player support. This is a very important part because all the success of games today are very social in nature and you have to put a lot of effort and sort of best practices into this area as well” (14:09-14:27).
To me, that does not sound like someone who is purposefully trying to sabotage his own creation. His seven principles of company culture seem to align more with running a successful business who cares about his employees as well as those he serves. I think he runs a fairly tight ship of “motivated individuals working together toward one goal” and they “communicate together and with players” to continue to develop a working relationship that benefits both sides.
Slush. (Dec 8, 2018). Managing mobile games as a business. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gwo-RWnb5O8
A few days ago we had Morlovia, you did not get you sixth tabard? I did!!! Kage is not a boy any more…!!!
I’ve had this thought a time or two but I keep writing my bad luck off to “true randomness.” However, I’ve also seen the phenomenon of boards color opposed to my team stacking that I have to wonder if the devs have mutated into cancer cells and are attacking the host, that would “us.” Greed has brought down many an empire and it seems none are immune.
I’ve also been under enthused by titan rewards for the decided most part. Oh there’s the occasional last tier ascension item or the like, but much more often I receive ordinary items I can easily obtain in the provinces. I mean it’s really kind of a slap in the face to give me a small health potion as a titan reward don’t you think?
I’m withholding final judgement on this subject until I have a little more game time under my belt and can more observe long term trends within the game. All the shortcomings I’m experiencing in the game may change tomorrow and I could go on a good run for a month or more with boards and rewards. Then I’ll believe in the true randomness argument.
Feel a hug. Everybody already had tough times in this play. Some boards are trash, some forum users are trash, some pulls are trash too. But a game means to have fun so if it’s failing to give you fun, leave it. I know, you wanted a not-broke game to play, but sadly it is like that. You can join a weaker alliance, farm easier stages (you still get lots of materials), stop caring about gems (leave a tc20 producing, the 5* will come eventually) and leave the forum. Its all gonna be ok, ok? X
I know we are costumers and we feel like we should complain about what is bothering us, but nothing is easy in life anyway. Play easy, lose if have to, leave for a couple weeks… Then come back. Don’t take it too seriously. X
I am starting a new alliance called Fancy Algorithms. There will be no cup or level restrictions but you will need to provide your SG paystub number on application so i can confirm you are one of us.
Sign up bonuses include 1000 emblems of each class, a dozen 4* mats of each type and event summons tokens with guaranteed 5* pulls. Using the player recognition software your boards will be made up of at least 50% of your strong color.
Worried about match ups? Don’t be! You will never see teams with higher TP than you and all wins are worth 50 cups. All titan battles will earn an a+ grade WITHOUT EXCEPTION.
So join us today. More details in the super special secret forum.
sure thing Korka, if there is anyway i can help a fellow player maximize their roster while learning the ins and outs of the game i would be glad to help. we were all new once and it can be frustrating. i was playing for two months before i even learned that colorstacking at all was a thing. being able to thwart foes early by stacking saves huge time as your roster grows and the better you become, the deeper the roster, the less stacking is required. look forward to hearing from you again. we have a facebook page that we usually showcase good fights or things we learned as new characters are released. just look up Asguard empires and puzzles and ask to be accepted there and we will do our best to help you enjoy the random as much as we do. 
All offers are just auto-deducted from our generous paychecks. Saves on taxes, you know.
Every complaint is a passionate desire expressed in a negative way.
So there is no complaining for the sake of complaining, by definition.
You of course have the right to disagree with the OP, but if you look past the negative narrative and unproven/disproved point, and discern the desires, he does have a point.
First, “complaining for sake of complaining”, is a commonly understood phrase, so there’s no need to “define” its fallacy. I’m pretty sure everyone, including you, knows what I meant.
Second, how do you define “point”? To say the OP “has a point”, implies that they have a valid complaint, based off of quantifiable evidence, research, proof, or some some other qualifier. He has none of that, so I disagree, there is no “point” to his complaint, other than the satisfaction of venting, which is what I meant by “complaining for sake of complaining”. OP provides no constructive criticism, options, opinions on improvement, just complaints.
This. 100%.
The pressure to expand one’s roster faster than the drop rate of materials and emblems allows is very real in mid-game. And classes did accelerate the problem. I think @Zero2Hero has a very valid point.
I feel a strong sense of responsibility to my alliance to do well in wars and on titans, and that drives me to always do my best. But it’s also what adds stress to the grind for me. If it were just me playing, like a console game? Eh, I know how to be patient.
I believe this point has been discussed before: the human brain tries to form patterns out of chaos. Unfortunately, human beings are way better at remembering the negative incidents and the positive ones float out of their minds.
When I used to do raids, I would think to myself, “Man, this is a bummer, I just keep losing!” - but then one day, I scrolled back through my raid log and was surprised to find that I actually had won about half of my raids. Just yesterday, I had a streak that felt like I was really getting pummeled. I looked through, and I had actually won 7 out of 10 in the stretch that in my mind had felt so negative.
I think what happened was, as I was playing through those raids, I kept feeling frustration when the pieces weren’t falling the way I wanted them to, but then I would spot a match I hadn’t seen, and through a bit of finagling, I managed to win the match. But clearly, my brain still though “Man, that raid sucked!” even after I had the “Whew, I barely pulled that one out!” moment.
So, with all that said… just because you see patterns in what people post, how people feel, etc. - only trust data. And I’ve greatly appreciated the efforts of those people here who have posted what they have observed and tracked, not just what they feel. Because time and time again, the negative vibe isn’t backed by the facts. It’s just how people work, generally speaking.
I would like to use my right to disagree.
If I have a bad experience at a bank and as I’m leaving shout at the tellers “You’re all a**holes and a slave to the system!” I don’t know that the tellers should feel compelled to say “Well, I disagree, but he has a point.”
Sadly that was my 5th been waiting ever since
Even chaos has patterns in it - hence Chaos Theory. However the patterns that appear in the science of chaos are often very VERY different from the patterns that we discern from (or, better worded, impose on) looking at the chaos.
