This game is fair and worth the money I have spent, and I intend to keep spending

I seldom read a very long post, But sure did this time and got me most part a reflection of my own actions and indulgence .
Very nice post.!

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Thank you. I feel its important to recognize how much we actually enjoy this game and why we do, especially in light of some of the negativity a handful of folks are motivated to spread.

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Thanks for creating this thread. Iā€™ve been playing for a year. Spent $15 of Google Survey credit and $5 of my own money on the VDay event. So Iā€™m basically F2P as I wouldnā€™t have spent actual money if not for the love of my alliance mates.

For myself ā€œthis game is fair and worth the money I have spent and I intend to keep spendingā€ in the same manner. Iā€™ve seen people spout about recent changes(purchasable emblems, raid event entry fee, etc) making it impossible for F2P to compete with P2W. However, Iā€™m wondering if the people making these comments are F2P themselves or just speculating on our behalf. P2W has ALWAYS had an advantage over F2P and these recent changes donā€™t change the already significant gap by much.

Iā€™ve been playing for a year as actively and aggressively as a F2P possibly can. Iā€™ve been running 3 TC20ā€™s for 5-6 months and have pulled 7 5s. I have 4 maxed 5s and the mats to ascend another 5(but no matching heroes). I can regularly output enough damage to take down my 1/30th of a 12* Titan. I have the potential to raid into the top 10 globally.

I think people are overlooking what the game provides regularly outside of ā€œbeing the bestā€. All aspects of the game scale to your level(Titans, raid opponents, war opponents, etc). The progression of my gameplay as a F2P has likely been more rewarding than people paying money for gems. I was able to enjoy running maxed 2s for a few weeks. I was able to run maxed 3s and a maxed 4* Rigard for a month or 2 enjoying the challenge. I was able to beat the Season 1 final stage with 3 maxed 4s and a Kailani. With a 2.8k TP team I was able to beat the 4k rated quest levels to get the 4 ascension materials for a 5* I didnā€™t even have yet.

I kind of feel bad for the people who pay as they miss out on the enjoyable struggle of performing above expectations. I really wish there was a pin to indicate how much money a player has spent on the game so that when I raid a whale and beat his ā– ā– ā–  I can feel that much better about myself.

Just so I donā€™t seem so biased, hereā€™s my actual criticism of the game:

  • challenge event rewards suck because you have almost no shot at top 100 as F2P where actual rewards start having value. And the amount effort(time and WE flasks) required is stupid. The people who do get top 100 probably donā€™t really need the mats and are just doing it for the new avatars, recognition and feeling of accomplishment.
  • The player base has increased quite significantly to a point where the profit margins on summons probably donā€™t need to be so high. So maybe increasing summon probabilities somewhat, somehow would be nice.
  • What happened to the 250 gems for a troop and hero token deals?
  • Itā€™d be nice if staff put out ā€œsky is fallingā€ fires a little quicker on the forums. When someone posts random beta stuff, people start panicking and itā€™s annoying.
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Peechy your post was everything my whole alliance feels day in and day out and from Asguards full squad we give a hats off. people like you are who we recruited and as we have grown none of them have left snd we created our own mini family. i have 3 kids, 2 out of the house and one fresh little guy, so Iā€™ve lived my party days now im a hard working dad and enjoy surrounding myself by other like minded players to enjoy a very unbiased form of entertainment with one another. your allaince is a lucky one to have you and thnx for such a positive and welll written post.

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I appreciate the balanced assessment. Challenge event placements in the upper echelon are even out of my reach, because I do not spend for WE refills over and over. I am content for now to do my best, and hope i can catch on to the bottom rung of placements (the WE flask level above the silver token)
I also do not choose to spend the time to obsess about placement, as work and kids are more important to me.
The rewards are unbalanced and unfortunate, but if it were more important to me, i might spend what it took to get there.

The emblem situation does have me concerned but its not like I can control it so I will play and see.

For scientific purposes, what is the name of your alliance, should someone want to be in a positive environment?

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we are Asguard alliance. can look us up on facebook also asguard empires and puzzles.

Feel free to swing by anytime, having conversations with people that ā€œget itā€ are usually a lot more constructive and less toxic snd thats what we pride ourselves on. let the toxic stay at my job lol.

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Well, @PeachyKeen. If thatā€™s how you feelā€¦ cool. Hereā€™s what I think is worth replying to.

You think the game is still fun? A lot of that is directly influenced by the heroes youā€™ve been able to buy. I no longer spend on this game, and when you donā€™t have anyone youā€™re interested in leveling up, the grind feels pointless. Iā€™m level 43ā€¦ I think? And Iā€™m currently leveling Kelli. Woo. Super fun.

Iā€™m not saying the game isnā€™t fun at ALL, but thereā€™s a huge difference when you have ā€œfun, excitingā€ heroes and when you do not.

A big problem in the game is the inability to get good heroes without spending (well, gambling). TC20 only gets you the OG heroes and there are only a handful of those considered to be good. My other half the infamous @Duaneski left this game due to a lot of these frustrations and seeing how other games were more balancedā€¦ if you were gonna grind, you could GET the good heroes/monsters/whatever. And thatā€™s just not the case here.

Now I have spent some money in the past, and I said to myself, itā€™s okay, because this game is my main hobby; I play everyday, and I enjoy it. But is it really ā€œworth what I paid for itā€? I donā€™t think so, and Iā€™ve spent far less than you. To pay over 1,000 for this game that you have nothing to show for. Nothing you can resell for even half value later. 1,000 for ones and zeroes that mean nothing outside the game. No, to me, thatā€™s not worth it, even if you have that much to spend. Obviously, you can do whatever you want with your own money. But just because you currently feel itā€™s fair and worth what you paid, doesnā€™t mean others are wrong for feeling the game is not fair/not worth what they paid.

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I make no bones about it. I bought because I wanted chances at the heroes. I swung and missed several times but, interestingly, I think proper resource management would have been more fun for me if Iā€™d been C2P.

I can see your argument. But, for me, it is a matter of perspective. If you buy a movie ticket, you spend 20 bucks. You walk away with nothing to show for it, except ā€œI saw thatā€. This game is a mix of farmville, Magic the Gathering and Bejeweledā€¦ if you like those things, you will like this game. Any other mobile freemium game is based on the same premise, and these ā€˜loot boxesā€™ are not unique, no matter how controversial.
The real point is that, in life, you should 'do more of what you love" and, in my caseā€¦ I need a pastime from a stressful job and something fun to talk about/share with my kids and friends.
I donā€™t think that you are, by any means, wrongā€¦ youā€™re just different than me and have reached your limit sooner than I will.

I know 3 people who are very C2P and are fortunate to draw a HOTM or event hero based only on saved gems, epic tokens. So they have the things they like. In the meantime, they level up the heroes that they have and build their war rosters to help their alliances. For them, like me, I play for the community and interaction as much as the ā€œones and zeroesā€.

So, for you over 1000 is too much. Me? I am adjusting to lower spending and itā€™s hard. Not one of us is wrong, and I do understand why many would be frustrated. The majority just arenā€™t as eloquent or polite as you have been. :slight_smile:

Interestingly, as a side note, I spent zero dollars on Atlantis and pulled Arielā€¦ so I suppose the RNG shined upon me that day.

Thank you for sharing your perspective. I know we might disagree, but you cared enough to craft it in a well thought-out manner.

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Thatā€™s true, BUT, when you go to the movie and buy your ticket, youā€™re getting the exact movie you paid for. Maybe youā€™ll like it and maybe you wonā€™t, but you donā€™t buy a movie ticket, then watch as the guy behind the counter spins a roulette wheel to determine which movie youā€™ll seeā€¦ the one that got two thumbs up, or the one Entertainment World called, ā€œā€¦ barely a movie.ā€ I know the gambling angle has been talked to death, but since the gameā€™s option are realistically gamble, or have next to no chance at the big heroes, then it does matter.

And I fully understand the everyoneā€™s dollar limit Is different. Just because 1,000 bucks is way out of reach for me doesnā€™t me my occasional 20 bucks on the game wasnā€™t just as out of reach for someone else.

And, Iā€™ve felt the same as you described at times, watching people leave the game and thinking, ā€œWell, Iā€™m still having fun, so I donā€™t really get it.ā€ But, as Iā€™m getting to the point where it doesnā€™t feel as fun, I do regret my purchases. I wish I had spent less on the game now. Itā€™s strange to realize @Duaneski and I spent the most at one time we ever had in December and now in March, heā€™s not even playing. So clearly, thereā€™s not a value in what we spent, there. We didnā€™t really get enjoyment out of it, and a short time later, heā€™s not playing the game we ā€œinvestedā€ in. Itā€™s started to give me a new perspective on spending in the game, and definitely returned me to my F2P roots.

But thank you also for the polite and well reasoned reply. Itā€™s really not my jam to argue with people on the internet, so cheers to polite discourse! :cocktail:

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You are absolutely right, everyone has a different threshold. I think that is the key sentiment. Some of the point of the originsl post was to express positivity in a vast array of complaining and, due to my own realistic expectations, my threshold hadnā€™t been reached to the point where I am dissatisfied or ready to quit/quit spending altogether.

However, i feel that my team is good enough now that I donā€™t get excited about every new hero that comes out. Sure, Iā€™ve purchased a lot of ā€œlottery ticketsā€ and had a lot of heroes come my way but as I have reflected upon my decreased spending, i feel that I got to where I wanted. So my threshold of spending a LOT has been hit. Perhaps we arenā€™t so different?

I think that I take the most issue with people that do not have the proper understanding of the odds, or the concept of freemium games, then come to the forum blaming SGG instead of their own triggered psychology.

Is the freemium system predatory or exploitive? Possibly, but that applies to so many games now that you would have to avoid all mobile games so that you never encountered this. Itā€™s no secret that games arenā€™t free and developers need to either use ads, freemium purchases or have a successful console presence to survive.

I know other games seemingly offer more in the way of rewards, but I donā€™t get what all the noise is about. If other games offer more, why donā€™t people abandon this one completely? I get that the hope is to evoke change or inspire SGG to alter things, which has happened due to player outcry, but I am just not sure shouting angrily is the way to get it. (Not you, but many others)

So i agree with you in spirit, recognizing now that my own alteration in habits is the result of reaching my own (albeit higher) threshold.

What I leave you with is this: I have come to enjoy the camaraderie, gameplay and am willing to look past the systemic issue of freemium games to back this particular one, despite its flaws. I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss the game on this forum, where the devs occasionally watch and comment, sometimes even alter the game due to overwhelming feedback. It is because of these reasons that I am inspired to inject some positivity into the forum and perhaps inspire others to be reasonable in return.

Thanks again for the chat :slight_smile:

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Agreed to both sides of the argument.

WE pay to gamble and it is fun to win a lottery every now and then.
It does get frustrating when probably you buy 120x pulls and nothing to show for (happened to me twice).

But there are days when we manage probably 2x HoTM in a single 10x pull.

Satisfaction from pulling will definitely decrease once your roster is ā€œstrongā€ enough and if I started to play this year, I would definitely want every single hero I can get.

@PeachyKeen point is the fact he gets intangible satisfaction such as friendship / topics to talk about / happy time burner.

@Lila_Ann is also not wrong but the perspective is more tangible basing on what ā€œmaterialā€ item that she gets at the end of the day.

For example, I collect watches but after 10 or so, I stopped buying and only buy after I have sold one. I only wear one watch and more often or not, it would be my daily beater. Most of them are kept in the winders.

Conclusion, at what point of your journey in the game are you at? Are you spending to get a more ā€œfullā€ roster or just to get the ā€œoneā€ hero that you desire. For me, when I started playing I get so much joy from pulling a single 4* and now I will give a :expressionless: face when I pull one.

I know some who pull non stop just to get every single HoTM there is or now Atlantis heroes. It becomes tedious for some and just give up. Why? It becomes a chore to upkeep and is no longer fun to pull.

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One of the interesting aspects of this form of collection gambling is you get diminishing returns the larger your collection is. When you started playing, any 5* was a good result that made you happy. Yea Thorne wasnā€™t great, but you werenā€™t depressed about it. But once you get a collection of 5*, youā€™re only really happy if you get 1 or 2 particular 5*.

Iā€™ve noticed this with one of my alliance mates in particular. They have 22 unique 5* with less than half fully ascended. But since they havenā€™t acquired one of the latest Wonderland or S2 heroes in their summon attempts they are unhappy. In the past a Sartana was a good consolation prize, but not now when itā€™s their 3rd.

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seriously you need to start a thread just for this?
am totally surprised by the number of replies here.

If you think this thread is long, you should see the length of the many threads in the vein of ā€œthis game is unfair and not worth the money I spent.ā€

Having some varied opinions expressed is a good thing, I think. Thereā€™s plenty of Forum space for civil discussion. :slight_smile:

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Iā€™d like to update that I have opened up a completely free-to-play account and am having more fun with the game on this account as I appreciate the heroes that my other account regards merely as ā€˜foodā€™.

I was happy, for example, to finally pull Brienne out of Daily Summons. Put her on my team right away. I saved up all my initial gems and got Gadierus on my first S2 draw. Saving up gems now for either fables, springvale or s2 (depending on when I get enough). Saving the gems up is rewarding at this stage.

So, in a way, I am reaffirming that Iā€™m not just having fun because I spent oodles of money. I enjoy the game itself.

Felt it was fair to mention this, considering I have been accused of 'just having fun because I spent oodles"

Sure. PeachKeen @ Helios has some very nice heros. But MillionsOfPeaches @ Helios Inn has precisely 5 passable heroes, and I am enjoying that account just as much.

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Love the positivity of the OP. Iā€™m of the same opinion. I donā€™t mind spending a bit of money on this game. I know itā€™s all about the RNGā€™s and donā€™t get mad at the game or developers when things donā€™t go my way.

Honestly, I look at it from the standpoint that I could spend $60 on a console game I beat in a week and then toss aside never to play again or spend $60 on this for a chance to get better heroes, grow my teams for raids, wars, and titans and compete a bit better. Itā€™s my money, I can and will do what I want with it and I donā€™t care what trolls on the forum or in Facebook groups say about it. I love the game, itā€™s fun, I love the alliance Iā€™m in and have great friends in there, Iā€™ll continue to support SGG by spending my cash to do what I like.

As an aside, I do look for deals on iTunes gift cards where I can spend less and get more and couple this with in-game deals which give more gems along with the rare ascension items I need for less. I donā€™t straight up purchase gems from their little store.

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And this, my friends, is what balanced expectations look like:

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I wish I could remember who posted this sentiment, and the thread ---- but they said something like:

I like it when luck goes in both directions, otherwise it just gets boring.

So far I am not bored, and still like the game even better with my very C2P status.

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Mountains without valleys are just flat land.

No yin without yang.

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