Letter from a long-time player
I just wanted to give a perspective from a F2P and sometimes P2P player who has been at this a long time. I clicked a link on some website in 2015 that took me to this cool new Star Wars game, SWGOH. It wasn't my type of platform (I didn't know the difference between a tank and support) but I gave it a shot and was instantly hooked. I am one of those Gen Xers that saw "A New Hope" as many times as my parents would take me back in 1977. I absolutely loved the fact that here were all my childhood favorites, all in one game. It was like the action figure battles of old I would have with my friends in the yard. All of the characters that I knew, loved, and collected as a child. I get to collect them again! Even the characters that you would often receive from a distant relative that just grabbed a SW toy off the rack... Hey I just got the weird hammer head dude from the cantina scene... cool (Not). Those characters were here in this game too, not sexy or famous but you developers made a way to make them desirable none-the-less.
No mods, no relics, just crystals, characters, and gear. Man how I wanted to get Darth Vader to 7 Stars! I was convinced that I would rule the galaxy for sure! It wasn't that simple though. You made it a strategy to collect characters and gear them up and find out who would play best with who and what team to use for what. Cool.
Then the marquis players came out. Rogue One. Even then, I knew that this was diluting the sheer enjoyment of opening that R2-D2 package and being in awe at the chrome plating that Kenner Toys placed on his rotating head. This is R2 man, so cool. Or how you always had to straighten out the little **** on top of Darth Vader's lightsaber. Those were the characters that made SW what it was. Not Rogue One.
I played along, eventually accepting that R1 toons would rule the arena, no big deal, I'll just go on iTunes and drop another $19.99 for crystals and get all these Luke (Farmboy) shards cause hey, He's Luke, it's the Skywalker Saga! Then the expanded universe characters started entering the scene. Some cool and famous, some that are "Book Only" types. Still cool, it freshens up the game but hey wait, some of us are spending money, trying to plus up who we have and now I need to chase more toons? Toons that bring no fond memories, toons that you may or may not remember after meeting them at a friend's party? Yes but you need to farm them all the same. So I farmed.
Like them or hate them, Episodes I, II, III, were now canon. I have fond memories of taking my little boy to see the Phantom Menace just as my Father had taken me to see A New Hope. Good memories and some great characters to boot! Some terrible characters too but they are a hazard of the film industry, what polls well and what age groups to sell toys to. You put those toons in the game early on and we loved it! QGJ was the man and I cant wait to build a Jedi Team... I will once again rule the galaxy!
Nope, just like Mr. Vader, the Jedi were not the answer. It seemed to always be the obscure or flash in the pan teams that were on top. I get it, good business model and all but, you have to provide value to keep your base market interested. Nothing in this game had long-term value.
Mods, Ships, now Relics, all very cool additions to a cool game but, the game already took forever (Even P2P) to build up what we already had. For the individual like me, a noob in this format, it was frustrating going weeks without an arena win and now ships and mods... what the heck is a mod?
Here we are in 2019, soon to be 2020. That will be 5 years that I have been playing this highly addictive game. I tried to quit a year or so back but the toons were calling me, the originals, the true reason this game was initially successful. I found more flash teams of toons I had never heard of and those teams were all the rage winning arena and opening all the special tasks to more and more toon treasure.
All-the-while the casino seemed to get very tight. No more good rolls, just more mk1 mods and training droids. Once again, great marketing and you guys are laughing all the way to the bank with your business model but, where did the enjoyment go? What is the grand benefit to being true to the toons that started this game? Why should the characters we know and enjoy be so useless in most cases, and not worth putting on teams?
It reminds me of the difference between those little action figure that I used to covet so much as a child. If you were very lucky, your parents ponied up for the 12" figure. It was more detailed, had cloth and not a cheap vinyl cape, it was just awesome to behold. There wasn't much to do with it though. The X Wing was made for the 5" figures, so was the Death Star with the trash compactor, and Luke's Speeder. Trying to fit a 12" figure in the cargo compartment of the Millennium Falcon was a huge no-go. The little figures were what everyone played with. The arms move, the head moves, the legs move. What else do you need?
You keep offering new 12" figures, at a premium, that don't really mesh with all our toys. Stop with the flash in the pan characters that don't add up to squat in the big picture. Loosen up the casino a little bit. And when we do P2P, stop dolling out crap that just frustrates us. We are the clients, we are the base that buys your product. Listen to us, and make it fun again. Some of us really enjoy the little break in real life that we get when we play a few minutes through the day.
I am a long time player. I have never been ranked, only have a couple of the marquis toons, and I am honestly finally getting the hang of mods. I am not a pro, I am not the best, I am just a customer that is getting more and more disappointed when I finally get to the store, all the Vaders and Stormtroopers are gone and I am left with the guard from Cloud City (Because there's 20 of them). Thank you for this game. It is often overlooked that you created a game that took us back to whatever memories we had and made it fun.
No mods, no relics, just crystals, characters, and gear. Man how I wanted to get Darth Vader to 7 Stars! I was convinced that I would rule the galaxy for sure! It wasn't that simple though. You made it a strategy to collect characters and gear them up and find out who would play best with who and what team to use for what. Cool.
Then the marquis players came out. Rogue One. Even then, I knew that this was diluting the sheer enjoyment of opening that R2-D2 package and being in awe at the chrome plating that Kenner Toys placed on his rotating head. This is R2 man, so cool. Or how you always had to straighten out the little **** on top of Darth Vader's lightsaber. Those were the characters that made SW what it was. Not Rogue One.
I played along, eventually accepting that R1 toons would rule the arena, no big deal, I'll just go on iTunes and drop another $19.99 for crystals and get all these Luke (Farmboy) shards cause hey, He's Luke, it's the Skywalker Saga! Then the expanded universe characters started entering the scene. Some cool and famous, some that are "Book Only" types. Still cool, it freshens up the game but hey wait, some of us are spending money, trying to plus up who we have and now I need to chase more toons? Toons that bring no fond memories, toons that you may or may not remember after meeting them at a friend's party? Yes but you need to farm them all the same. So I farmed.
Like them or hate them, Episodes I, II, III, were now canon. I have fond memories of taking my little boy to see the Phantom Menace just as my Father had taken me to see A New Hope. Good memories and some great characters to boot! Some terrible characters too but they are a hazard of the film industry, what polls well and what age groups to sell toys to. You put those toons in the game early on and we loved it! QGJ was the man and I cant wait to build a Jedi Team... I will once again rule the galaxy!
Nope, just like Mr. Vader, the Jedi were not the answer. It seemed to always be the obscure or flash in the pan teams that were on top. I get it, good business model and all but, you have to provide value to keep your base market interested. Nothing in this game had long-term value.
Mods, Ships, now Relics, all very cool additions to a cool game but, the game already took forever (Even P2P) to build up what we already had. For the individual like me, a noob in this format, it was frustrating going weeks without an arena win and now ships and mods... what the heck is a mod?
Here we are in 2019, soon to be 2020. That will be 5 years that I have been playing this highly addictive game. I tried to quit a year or so back but the toons were calling me, the originals, the true reason this game was initially successful. I found more flash teams of toons I had never heard of and those teams were all the rage winning arena and opening all the special tasks to more and more toon treasure.
All-the-while the casino seemed to get very tight. No more good rolls, just more mk1 mods and training droids. Once again, great marketing and you guys are laughing all the way to the bank with your business model but, where did the enjoyment go? What is the grand benefit to being true to the toons that started this game? Why should the characters we know and enjoy be so useless in most cases, and not worth putting on teams?
It reminds me of the difference between those little action figure that I used to covet so much as a child. If you were very lucky, your parents ponied up for the 12" figure. It was more detailed, had cloth and not a cheap vinyl cape, it was just awesome to behold. There wasn't much to do with it though. The X Wing was made for the 5" figures, so was the Death Star with the trash compactor, and Luke's Speeder. Trying to fit a 12" figure in the cargo compartment of the Millennium Falcon was a huge no-go. The little figures were what everyone played with. The arms move, the head moves, the legs move. What else do you need?
You keep offering new 12" figures, at a premium, that don't really mesh with all our toys. Stop with the flash in the pan characters that don't add up to squat in the big picture. Loosen up the casino a little bit. And when we do P2P, stop dolling out crap that just frustrates us. We are the clients, we are the base that buys your product. Listen to us, and make it fun again. Some of us really enjoy the little break in real life that we get when we play a few minutes through the day.
I am a long time player. I have never been ranked, only have a couple of the marquis toons, and I am honestly finally getting the hang of mods. I am not a pro, I am not the best, I am just a customer that is getting more and more disappointed when I finally get to the store, all the Vaders and Stormtroopers are gone and I am left with the guard from Cloud City (Because there's 20 of them). Thank you for this game. It is often overlooked that you created a game that took us back to whatever memories we had and made it fun.
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Replies
You can play however you want, but that doesn’t mean you’ll be competitive, nor should it. The time of yore when video games were just pixelated sprites with no discerning differences who could be used interchangeably has been over for a long time.
I had visions of "Adventure or Pit Fall" on the Atari 2600 as you made your description of pixelated sprites. That was funny. My main point is quality over quantity. Quality play versus play against the quantity (Although fully voluntary) cash grab. This game allows us to go at our own pace but it is at a cost. It's easy to use free will as the main detriment to competitiveness but that is not entirely accurate. I can choose to farm and pay for a competitive team and reap the rewards which in turn helps me build faster and better or, I can stick to the slow and steady game with obsolete toons and weak kits that only produce the obligatory minimum rewards. It is a choice, I'd just like more time to make it.
Arenas for factions would be cool, then the best of the best go to the grand arena, other options are to improve the factions on a relative schedule to new toons. For every new toon, they should improve 5 existing faction toons... the possibilities are endless. It just seems, (And I used the originals as MY example) that we end up with a huge closet full of crap we wont wear anymore. Tweak the parameters of the game that keeps all the tunes relevant.
We are humans, we have had to compete for everything since we figured out there wasn't enough woolly mammoth to feed everyone. I will play my way and I still want to be competitive. I was just requesting that there was more longevity to the toons, no matter who's' favorites that they are. OP Imperial Guard? When was the last time IG was worth using? Just an example. (I am sure that will change, as it should)
Thanks for your reply. I just realize that this game used to be a lot more fun. It may, and probably is me that has changed and I admit that. I just know that long term value is something we all look for.
I do play my way, thanks. Don't go and hurt yourself while trying to post a constructive reply. You missed the point.
Can you boil the letter down to a single sentence point for me?
As for your requests, idk if they'll be met, but I did enjoy your perspective on Star Wars, and hope you'll continue to find enjoyment in it and this game.
So you could more easily blame him for the way he feels about the game? That would be a curious way to spend his time.
Writing a wall of text is also a curious way to spend time.
a "tl;dr" would be too much work after all that lol
TVF - the community is supposed to be just that, a community. I think the OP is a great perspective and shouldn't be undercut by a lazy, entitled remark for the sake of your digital ego.
17686 posts is a curious way to spend time - a quality post over your quantitative space dust will do just nicely thankyou very much.
Thanks for your unrelated opinion however.
Now the hierarchy lists for attaining marquis toons are quite established. Phoenix to get Thrawn, etc. But there are many toons that just exist. You would think that if they included the toon in the game, it was for a reason. You don't see the musicians with the big heads from the cantina do you? No, there is no musical event in the game and really, they are background, period. CLS is a great toon, they made sure to do that and do it consistently. That is an example of what I mean. A Darth Revan, or Darth Whatever team should not be any more dominant than any other faction team that is put together correctly.
If you mod correctly (A task in itself to be sure) and work the synergy of the characters, you should be relevant in arena. Remember that Luke, Leia, Han, Chewy, Ben, Vader, Moff, R2, C3PO, Etc. were the icons that started this entire expanded universe. They were the characters that sparked the imaginations of millions spanning a couple generations. They should not have to be shelved because they are not new. It's like that brand new Kenner Boba Fett that you finally scored at Payless Drug Store. You had to ride your bike from store to store and put out an all points bulletin to your Grandparents, aunts, Uncles, Cousins, or anyone that would help you in your quest to find him. Now, are you going to play with him? Are you going to enjoy him as he was designed or are you gonna leave him in the package and be "That Kid" that has a great collection but no enjoyment from using their imagination to recreate a scene or two from the movie.
Just spend the money to get the Revan or Malak team is the equivalent of not using your imagination to enjoy the toons. It is scripted. What if there were special combinations of chex mix toons that when teamed up, they had a blistering assault? That would be fun. It would be cool to search for that team and maybe make another team that is just as good in other ways. Nope, Revan/ Malak wins...thanks for trying.
Nicely done, you responded beautifully to his counterpoint by focusing on the two words that criticized your 3 paragraph essay that can be summed up in a single sentence. Congratulations, you are vastly superior in intelligence and arguing.
As for your complaint about "pointless" characters: first and foremost, this is a Star Wars game started as a collecting game. There will be less useful characters that some players want, or serve a very niche role in the game, just like there are very minor characters in the movies/EU that serve very small roles. Second, this is the purpose of GAC, to give a space for the less used character to find a home.
Given I said I agree with him, there isn't much to counter, why are you trying to start more conflict unnecessarily? Aside from the fact that's all a lot of people do on these forums. Also I get it TVF, "quality" does have a high scrabble score after all.
tl;dr: derp wah insult derp.
What it really boils down to is maybe the game is too fast for me, not that I'm not capable, I really like working systematically on each toon's kit. Therein lies the problem, by the time I geared up, it's obsolete.
I read every one of those TLDR words OP and you have plenty of good points. Sadly, no matter how much I work on mods or if I were foolish enough to gear up to g13R7, my (currently g12+0) zFarmboy will never really find any use in the current end game. He's just a big, gold, bloated paperweight in my roster that I have to live with. Don't even use him in GAC. His zeta was developed for very long, drawn-out battles like raids and it isn't even good for that.
That's power creep for you.
Maybe he will be required for Jedi Luke who will never be released ever.