I was wondering why I was tagged in this thread, then went back to glance to see where it originated from… Ah… something that’s in the works (Hero Academy), not even in beta yet. As a gamer, I don’t like to be spoiled, even with beta content (because there is some truth to the material, even if the final product might be a bit different), that’s why I purposely stay away from the “to-be-released” HoTM threads or ones that talk about contents that has not been released. Otherwise, I’d prevent myself from forming any pre-conceived expectation from speculative discussions and thus giving false sense of hope or expectations. Because, let’s face it, aside from players sticking around because of friendship formed from their alliances and and other Personal reasons, when has this game ever given any one “hope” when it comes to game contents in the long run?
This response from @Elpis is what I think this might pertain to me. In almost 2 years of playing, I’ve accumulated a total of 15 S1 5* heroes (if you do not count duplicates) and 1 HoTM (Frida), and none of those classic 5* came from the summon portals. I’ve done 1x summons through gems, Atlantis Coins, EHT, Challenge Coins, and 10x with gems. As @FrenziedEye have tagged me, he knows I am a F2P/C2P but what may not be known to some is that I haven’t spent a single cent of my own money or how F2P I am, more on that below.
Oh believe me, there is the conspiracy theory in me thinking that there is a hidden variable with each account that tracks spending habits to see the earning potential (but never disclosed and will always be chalked up to RNG at work by SGG). I have “spent” before. But it’s the Google Playstore promotional credits, encouraging me to spend on things in the Playstore. Hey, they gave me $1, I get to spend it on the $0.99 deal that pops up. I did that about 3 times, but I don’t get to do that any more, you know why? Not because I have not gotten any more promo credits since then, but the Playstore made it that promo credits cannot be used to cover an entire transaction, only partial. So that means, say I have a $2 promo credit sitting on my Google account, I cannot use it to cover a $1.99 deal, the transaction will show I have insufficient funds. But… if there is a $4.99 deal, that $2 shows up for me to use. If you are sitting here thinking I am a cheapskate, and yes I am. And that’s what I had set out to do for myself a long time ago when I started this game, I want to see where I can go with a F2P/C2P roster. If SGG have determined from this point on that my account only warrants TC20 heroes and the 1 HoTM they had teased me with, but from this point on it’s not going to change unless they see more $$ come in, then so be it. Who can blame them, right? They are probably losing money administering my account.
Or, I could be at peace to the fact that my luck is just going to be this bad when it comes to summons for as long as I play this game, which I’ve been doing for the larger part of the time spent playing this game.
I suppose one good thing about not keeping duplicates and no purchase of roster space increases or bad luck in summons is that I generally am not hurting for heroes to work on or whether I might or might not have enough mats to ascend each and every one of them when the time comes.
As to what else @Elpis have said they could use the delaying of Hero Academy behind after public perceptions of Emblems, Raid Tournaments, Hunter’s Lodge, and Alchemy Lab and maybe costumes have largely been lackluster rather than a hurray? Season 3 is on the horizon… The answer, there is always something to hide behind.
That said, when Hero Academy was announced and I glanced over the overview and felt it didn’t quite fit the F2P-friendly model (I could be wrong though, since I only glanced, not wanting to be spoiled with the details)… If in addition to Heroes and Gems has to be involved, wouldn’t it be possible that after you throw Thorne and some Gems in (and time spent doing this), out comes the same Thorne, congratulations, you just wasted time and gems to be worse off than you had been, better luck next time.
When “rarity” was discussed, do they count S1 Heroes the same as say a Challenge Hero of the same star? I kind of doubt it, say if I throw a Renfeld in, I’d expect the out come to be maybe a Dawa as opposed to an Arman. But if I throw an Arman in, I’d be expecting to see perhaps a Hisan, Vlad, Rudolph, Squire Wabbit, or maybe at the very least, another Arman, but not Renfeld (which I am feeling is a possible result), and again, congratulations, you just wasted time and gems to be worse off than you had before, better luck next time?
Going back to @Elpis quote, I wouldn’t care if the whales or spenders get the benefit of even more heroes, they already do and aren’t really affecting the way I am playing this game. With this many heroes (and only going to get more) in the game, there is always going to be better heroes. I told my alliance mates that in about a year or so later (assuming season 3 released), even Atlantis heroes might be rendered irrelevant, because heroes aren’t going to get worse, they need to be better and better for the spenders and hero chasers to keep spending. If they do not commit resources to keep the existing heroes relevant, it’s just going to promote the culture of spending to get the bling bling.
So yeah I wouldn’t mind seeing the butter churning after throwing in a S1 5* and out comes a S2 5* (or some other variety), at least it gives me (along with all the other down on the their luck players) a chance to try them, before they too become just a Burrito.
Yes, large part of the post was probably going to be more suited for Hero Academy discussion threads. But again, I really don’t want to be spoiled, and can only sit here and root for the fight, the good fight for F2P everywhere.