Don’t get me wrong I still enjoy playing it but it can really get on your flipping nerves sometimes.
When you see a trend towards longer grind & less & less rewards it kills the entertainment aspect of it.
I just don’t want to chuck it in & have all that progress go to waste.
I really hear that. When you’ve worked hard on something, the thought of just walking away really sucks. So what might help fix how you’re feeling? What sorts of changes do you think would excite you about the game again?
By the way, just so you understand where I’m coming from when I talk about the RNG: I’m not trying to say you’re wrong to feel frustrated by bad boards or crap loot. Bad boards make me want to throw my phone across the room sometimes.
My hope has always been that knowing the boards are random will help people feel better, not worse. But if that’s not been how it feels to you, I’m really sorry. I’m not trying to make you feel bad/wrong/stupid/xxx.
There have been some good suggestions & changes, I’ll grant that, but when the wars were introduced, granted again, teething problems needed to be ironed out, but what it did was vastly increase required heroes dramatically without an equal increase in mats.
Gold Tokens, one or two a month?
Now the talent system with micro cosmic drip chips. Other heroes need attention, with mat release unchanged.
So the big problem is you’re feeling squeezed to try to expand your roster for war, but the drop rate of mats is making it feel hopeless? And now classes has just made the problem worse, because it’s even more mats you have to collect…
Bingo!
20 epic tokens.
I think this is a profound insight.
Both Alliance Wars and now Class Trials / talent grids vastly increased the benefit and necessity of acquiring more heroes and leveling deep rosters.
That does make gameplay deeper, and is certainly good for the revenue generation of the game — but I have to imagine for longer-time players (like you) it’s effectively made the pace of progress feel slower, and harder to catch up with.
I can see where living through those changes could bring a lot of frustration, like you’re just always falling farther behind just when you thought you were getting ahead.
Has that been your experience?
EDIT: @Garanwyn beat me to it, and only needed 1/3 as many words.
I have to go now, but before I do.
Thank you for being patient, you guys broke through the wall & you didn’t even need a fire torch & pitch fork.
Best wishes, bye.
Pick this up tomorrow, or whenever you are available. I think this is more productive than pitch forks.
Thank you for being patient with us too. We may be slow, but it looks like we got there eventually
The problem you are facing was at the beginning every pull was new and great. Now that you have played for a year the things you want are rare. The game could change and make the rare things easier to get but then everyone has them and the games over. The rng in this game is frustrating but also allows for a strategic and reasonable progression. The game is as good as ever.
Interesting Discussion.
Yes, I agree, EP is an addiction.
When you continue doing something that you no longer like, that is actually detrimental to you, but you still do it, although it gets on your nerves and you do not enjoy it at all, on the contrary - then that is an addiction.
I realized that a little while ago.
As to not wanting to stop something, because you have invested so much in it, please google for “The Sunk Cost Fallacy”.
The time, effort and money is gone. Period. What counts is the present and the future. It makes absolutely no sense to make your present and future miserable, just because you have invested something in the past.
And I fully agree with getting tired of collecting this, collecting that, leveling up xxx heroes - and the game, RNG, boards and whatever often telling you “You still are not good enough, babe”
( This statement comes from one who had 4100+ team power. You can imagine the work … etc … that went into this account)
For me, those emblems were the catalyst.
Bother with more things, to collect more stuff? For all eternity? Or watch my nice account sink into oblivion? Lose any chance of having fun in raiding? Lose all the fun that I had in this lovely pvp line group? Because I do not wish to bother with one more grind? For all eternity?
Nope.
Over and out.
I saw the first quest for those emblems - and immediately took the decision to leave the game.
I left my alliance on that day. Merced for 3 days, giving help (and some joy) to 2 small alliances, found that I like helping people but can no longer stomach the game, and left the game on day 3.
I feel released.
…
That is my own experience.
Maybe my own experience can help another unhappy player to come to a decision as well.
Oh, I am not being negative. I am being honest.
I’m glad you mentioned the Sunk Cost Fallacy, it’s been on my mind too in these discussions.
This game is for the diesels, for the long haul. And yes in those games the Sunk Cost Fallacy is real.
Old players find their end of the line, and depart. New players come in, move up the ranks, and grow. These movements are ongoing. But on the micro scale of our alliances they may not always all be in full view. Old alliances can grow stale, and die, without being renewed.
The older a player, the longer ago the memory goes of the time they felt the Initial Rush. Do you remember yours? Your Initial Rush? It’s also an important concept, it’s what got you hooked to this game. That first time you scored A+ against the titan, or your first maxed 4*, or your first elemental chest.
For the very veteran players, the Initial Rush goes back to a time where, admittedly, quite a few things were easier to get. More elemental chests, no HOTM’s, and perhaps the devs were more generous with freebies as well, it feels like that for sure.
For the very veteran players, we also see that over time SGG came up with additional means to tug at our wallets.
It all comes together like a bowstring. You start playing, you put the string on the bow. And with every passing grind, every leaving alliance member, every change towards monetization, every change you don’t like, the string is tightened towards it’s breaking point.
Sometimes you get a new high, and the string is loosened. But the new highs will hardly ever be as big as your Initial Rush, and string tension will build up over time.
So your bowstring will snap, like @AnjaValkyrie 's. Despite the Sunk Cost Fallacy.
Or you release tension by playing less, taking a bit of a break, that worked for me.
Or you release tension by spewing it all out in a rant, like @Zero2Hero, which is also effective.
I agree with you, the game should give pleasure and joy, not anger and flustration. When we add real money to it, the stress increases. Titans give worse and worse prizes, the map is difficult to get ingredients, boxes are a tragedy. I love this game I play in it for over a year but it discourages me more and more. 13 months in one alliance, I’m still here for these people
Amen!
You put this very well indeed.
I like the bowstring comparison, it certainly rings true.
Thank you for putting it so well.
edit:
And as for the old times:
I fondly remember raiding purely as a robber baron, going for targets with lots of food, happily bringing home the food and giving a feast for my hungry heroes.
If I was successful in raiding, they would eat well.
If I was unsuccessful, they would eat on another day. No skin off my back. But that certainly got me interested in raiding
… That was before these nerfs in food gained through raiding, naturally. …
Nice little trip down memory lane
New game developments such as war, classes, etc are designed to move the goal posts. It seems that is what OP doesn’t like about them. These features have required players who were comfortable with their rosters and direction, and forced them to reevaluate those things. Some people would get frustrated by this and see it as a money grab. Personally, I don’t view them that way. I see them as a way to keep the game fresh and give older players some new goals to strive for.
I understand the frustrations voiced by OP. They are not without merit. It is a matter of perspective though.
I might shamelessly bash in an open door here, but I do think that this thread has ran it’s course. 100+ posts ago, actually.
In the end all it comes down to your last OP’s phrase:
If unnecessary things for your well being are becoming a chore than you shouldn’t do it at all and even without “cheerleaving” you can just focus on what you like about this game.
Heroes are not the destination, they are mere pegs for your ladder to entertainment:
- You don’t have to fight the strongest titans
- You don’t have to take them down at all costs
- You don’t have to chase for the last HOTM
- You don’t have to farm endlessly just because you have world energies
BUT
- You can cup drop to fill your chest without having to fight “unfair fights”: everyone wins
- You could give emphasis to the social/competitive aspects of the game (wars & titans)
- You could chat with friends about this and that
If the struggle derived from competitiveness at higher levels is too much you could just join a “middle alliance” (or open an training accademy) where players that don’t bother too much with requirements, having fun with what you have right now and not with what you could have or not according to RNG.
Dawa just dropped in time for Trials of Shadows. Didn’t expect I’d be leveling her, but slim pickings for that trial.