Rethinking the psychology of the summon reveal method

One of the fun aspects of a Match game, like E&P, is the thrill of having the tiles “cascade” and also knowing that a cascade could be possible – so the suspense leading up to cascades and nearly missed cascades.

The summon gives a similar thrill – the possibility of drawing a great new thing. And yet there is no “cascade” in the way a summon is done. In fact, some summons, like Daily Summons, there isn’t even the possibility of something great.

One option is to change the draw mechanism. Instead of Push - Pop: I push the button, you give me the result. Is to instead create levels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, corresponding to the levels of the heros/troops, and also categories = hero/troop/etc. I pay to enter at a certain level, say level 1, and then I Push the button, the first result is to show a symbol: [Hero], [Troop], or… [Level 2]. If I got the [Hero] or [Troop] symbol then I know that I will next receive a level 1 of that type, but if I got a [Level2 ] symbol, then I know I have “moved up” to the next level and that there will be another reveal… once again either [Hero] [Troop] or [Level 3] symbol.

Under this new system, the better the outcome, the more the suspense. [Flash]…[Level 2]…[Flash]…[Level 3]…[Flash]…[Level4]…[Flash]…[Level 5]…[Flash]…[Richard]!

A near miss would look like this: [Flash]…[Level 2]…[Flash]…[Level 3]…[Flash]…[Level4]…[Flash]…[Hero]…[Flash]…[Danzuburo]… meh, so close.

Also, this new system would let people know they “got close” to a good outcome. This concept of a near miss allows people to cope with very small probability events. Therefore, with this psychological support, adding a very very small Legendary chance to Daily summons would now be reasonable. Without this system, you could not add Legendary at such a low probability because people need the feedback of hits and/or near misses to feel that something isn’t broken. (and if you tell them that 4 and 5 stars are “possible” but then they go months under the old system and they never see one, they feel lied to)

All in all this new system would increase the suspense and excitement of the draw without fundamentally giving away any more or any different distribution of Legendary vs ‘Training Food’ than the old system.

One additional note: if you wanted to really drive home the concept of a “near miss”, during the [Flash] you could show a Metered Bar fill up, we would know that if it fills high enough we will get the Next Level. Thus in this case a near miss would look like this:

A near miss would look like this: [Flash]…(bar fills near top)…[Level 2]…[Flash]…(bar fills near top)…[Level 3]…[Flash]…(bar fills near top)…[Level4]…[Flash]…(bar fills somewhat high)…[Hero]…[Flash]…[Danzuburo]… meh, so so so close!

[ Lastly, it might be even more helpful if the odds of ascending up a level of this summon reveal mechanic were the same at every level. For example, If the ascension rate were 10%, then users would get a “feel” for what 10% is like. Paying to enter at level 3 would be similar to Hero Summons under the old system. 90% lvl 3, 9% lvl 4, and 1% Legendary. Daily Summons would give essentially zero chance of Legendary, 0.1%, but would give users good practice on what 10% and cascading 10% after 10% feels like. If different tokens allowed you to enter at different levels, then the designers could tweak the appearance rates of each token and the ascension percentage to give the overall distribution they desired. Though I will admit that this may take a great deal of effort, so perhaps the last ascension probability may need to be different than the others. Specifically I would suggest 20%, 20%, 20%, 10% as the ascension probabilities, and also recommend replacing the Daily Summons with a Start-at-Level1 token and replace Epic Tokens with two Start-at-Level3 tokens, but then to give out Start-at-Level2 token when 3xDailyToken is usually given. These changes should make the actual given heroes about the same as it is now.]

I get what you’re saying, but my gut reaction is that summonings already tend to trigger people with gambling issues or addictive tendencies. And this seems likely to exacerbate that. To some extent, I’d prefer that they tone down/speed up the process, rather than increase the drama.

Personally, I always click to speed it up because I want to get to the result.

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I think it would just frustrate the masses even more considering the probability of the pulls. False hope won’t help the situation. And as like @Garanwyn said, it would act more like an enabler to some.

Putting icing on a pile of doo doo is still a pile of doo doo.

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I also click the screen to speed up 10x-pulls.
Though, the way I think of summons there is no concept of a near miss in my mind. When I get Danzaburo I don’t say to myself, “man I was just a notch away from Legendary”.
I wonder though, if those two things are related? Do I click because I view the outcome as categorical (heroes names), and thus I just want to hurry up and see the categories (heroes names).

My gut says the same thing your gut says. No. Presentation cant make the food taste better.
But I have said that many times and then Psychology Studies prove me wrong – presentation absolutely does make the food taste better. Near misses have a huge impact on behavior (in some contexts), and people often think their behavior wont change, and then sometimes it does.

Not recommending a feature change here – so much as a Beta test on a small group of players.

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It seems likely that those two things are related :slightly_smiling_face:

Structurally, I suspect the draw is fairly flat; I think they project through to the exact hero you get in at most 2 random numbers (and it could easily be one). So there literally isn’t likely to be a near miss, in the sense that we’re used to thinking about one. They would likely have to construct a system that backfit the appearance of a near-miss or a hit onto the results.

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