You capitalized it. Now, what are talking about? Still fun or fun or fun or FUN…“fun”.
There kind of is, actually. That statement makes it sound like the “goal” of the game (and by extension, the developers who made it) is to “win” over their player base by outlasting their interest somehow, as if it were some sort of endurance race. The game is a game, no more and no less. You play it while it is fun, and when it is no longer fun, you stop.
The goal of any (small, independent) development team is twofold: first, of course, they are a business and need to make money to put food on the table of the contributors. Second, and still quite importantly, they want to develop a game experience that is fun, that people can have positive experiences with, can share with their friends, and can brighten their day. There’s nothing directly antagonistic about either of these goals, and positioning your burnout as “the game won” is unfair to the people who put in a ton of effort to maintain the freshness and enjoyment factor of their (very simple, on the surface of things) video game.
All love affairs eventually settle, and with a video game, you aren’t beholden to anything. You can limit your game time to a minimum if you wish to pace yourself. You can walk away when it is no longer fun. You can come back whenever you want. If you decide to give it another go, and find yourself enjoying it again, then that’s when the game has “won.”
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When it comes to video games, could be any of the above (or none).
I think it’s fair to say video games are supposed to be fun. And some of them are. But just keeping people playing is not a sure indicator.
great commentary in this thread. I agree with the sentiment that Lyya and others have said, challenges are simply not a viable solution to gathering more than a few very specific traitstones. I’ve spent a large amount of time grinding them, and find it incredibly unrewarding. Grinds are great when the payoff makes the hours spent feel well spent, and I can not see a scenario in which grinding out traitstones for any troop Epic or higher would be satisfying. Epics simply require too many Arcanes, and the majority of the traits granted via those stones are underwhelming, at best.
One of the sorely under-represented characteristics of this game, is the variety of troop configurations. When met with either traitstone gating or in the case of hero classes a gem/time gate, the desirability to try new configurations falls drastically.
I’d love to see traits active in Arena, simply turn them all on, regardless of if you have them yourself, possibly even mixing in the chance to play an Epic or legendary troop too. Arena could be an excellent avenue for players new and old to experience lesser used troops, and traits. I find myself playing Arena, not for the rewards, but to add some variety to my opponents.
I still grind them while talking to one of my friends via steam voice chat. While diong this I only notice half of the game happening since I’m more focusing on my friend. My gameplay gets pretty much autopiloted, which makes the grind less of a chore. I never grind otherwise. Still agree with the unrewarding part.
Not only that, most troops are epic. I just unlock the first trait for points and save Arcanes for the legendaries.
EDIT: The jump between ultras and epics is pretty ridiculous. You need 12 arcanes for epics and 3 for ultras. 6-8 arcanes for epics would be totally fine. I consider legendaries with their 16/18 arcanes worthwhile (in general) because you get an unique legendary trait. Could be still shorted by 1-2.
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Exactly, the bang to buck ratio just isn’t there. Mercy and a couple of others have incredible, game-defining traits, but most of the others simply are mediocre. I know more than a few of the mob specific countering epics would make for excellent assault teams, but the trait cost is staggering.
If there were other activities in game which one could pursue to get the desired traitstones, the current ‘costs’ wouldn’t be so bad to swallow. As it stands, you are grinding a challenge over and over and over ~50 times to get a single drop of one that you need 6-20 for. It’s just absurd and increadibly discouraging.
The game makes you rely on RNG for the hopeful drop of arcane trait… or glory grind in PVP for weeks on end… and hoping your arcane trait stone you desire magically appears in the store with the troop of the week… so teams you want to try, you cannot because you are waiting on runic or arcane traitstones.
The model is fine if there were more direct ways to go after the stones you needed with enjoyable game types for game formats in each kingdom, where you could reliably predict payment for time and effort spent. Right now, the only direct approach is grind for days on end hoping for one when you need so many.
They have got to recognize and fix this… Hopefully, the new guild tasks will alleviate some, but without a direct approach, it’s just more RNG… The game desperately needs a non-grind answer of I need X amount of Y traitstone, so go here and work toward it while enjoying and progressing in game… that means new content in my opinion.
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I’d argue the game, much like a relationship, has won when you move from love affair to married. Passion is great, but long-term commit is better in the end.
Did you just give love advice?