That’s good to hear because while PQ was a good game and I’m sure the new version will also be, GoW is actually a better game. Scratch that. Better is subjective. I have enjoyed both quite a bit. GoW just captured the secret sauce better. That thing that keeps you playing even if you are mad at it. PQ was a game I played and liked and then just stopped, and I can’t even say why I stopped. I never got mad at it. That much I know. I just randomly stopped. That won’t happen to me in GoW… I’m guessing it’s the guild thing.
…that the PQ name has officially died for me.
PuzzleQuest has always been buy-to-play.
Nope, the digitalbros announcement states F2P. I literally cussed at my screen.
It turned me from “I’ll buy it day 1” to “I learned my lesson from GoW, PQ is officially dead to me, they can stuff the F2P corruption of the franchise that led me to try GoW in the first place.”
Probably, plus all the “experience” gained through the increased monetization of GoW. While I don’t personally see the existence of PQ3 as “GoW 2”, I do see it as an attempt to capitalize on a highly successful franchise, and if it happens to attract GoW vets who long-since decided “no, I’m done spending, game has gone too far downhill” it’s effectively a reset at attempting to get you to spend since there is no sense of “the way things used to be” with a new game.
Enhancements maybe, but they’re hard at work looking for new, innovative ways to monetize the game even further! Maybe they’ll add a “!” on the game board so that if you decide to spent $10 on a shrine in the middle of a match, you can do so with no interruptions! Such QOL!
…find more ways to monetize. Monetization was already king, but tying peoples’ pay to it will make it even worse. Expect more sneaky/devious microtransactions, more nag-reminders, more daily deals, harder timegates to get things done, etc.
As a PQ fan (it’s what got me to try GoW to begin with)…the “secret sauce” is that GoW is a social game. My incredible guild family is the only reason I’m still here.
PQ was an insanely satisfying game. I’ve played it beginning to end 3 or 4 times and I’ve purchased 3 different copies (two for PC, one for PSP) over the years because I like the game so much.
GoW pulls on all the mobile game schemes to set hooks in the player to keep them coming back. It’s not “secret sauce”. It’s psychological manipulation. (“Hook, Habit, Hobby” is a catchphrase in the mobile game industry regarding a tactic used to encourage monetization.)
I mean…I’m still playing. The game hasn’t broken that connection in my brain yet, obviously. But I won’t be touching PQ3 now that I’ve seen what GoW has turned into, because you can bet on PQ3 being the same or worse. They have years of experience to pull on, extensive metrics on what gets players to spend, and they have seen first hand they can just blanket ignore QOL changes and actively make things worse for the players (extra clicks put back into Explore, anyone?) and people will still throw money at them if the deal is juicy enough.
They betrayed me as a PQ fan by announcing PQ3 will be mobile F2P trash.
I’ll just stick to PQ and PQ2 (sorry Galactrix, wasn’t really a fan) when I get the PQ itch. Those are bought and paid for and can actually be completed and then be put away again so I can play something else. There are too many games competing for my time anymore to willingly step into another endless hamster wheel of grind vs spend.
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This is indeed key: are there many long-term customers who would ‘chose’ (sic) to trust this company enough to start playing another one of their ‘f2p’ products after seeing what they did to GoW in the past couple of years?
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If pq3 is a single player game, I will buy it.
If it’s free to play, I will not even play it.
GoW is the last f2p, or mobile, or multiplayer game I will ever play. After that it’s all single player games that have a definite amount of gameplay, no more forever games. My gaming list is headed towards 150 games. I only play this game. I haven’t even played Skyrim yet.
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I would fully expect another lesson to carry forward from GoW.
PQ3 will likely be ludicrously generous with premium resources early on. 'Hey look! We’re better now! This is different!" However, once it has a more-established playerbase, a year or more in…the screws will tighten. And tighten. And tighten.
I refuse to even throw my lot in with that type of risk, and I’m not sorry. I’m just disappointed at how they’re going to pervert a franchise I’ve loved.
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Yes. That was basically what I was trying to say (and apparently failing, haha 
). I have played countless games over the years. The social games are the ones I tend to stick with the longest. Even before mobile ftp games were a thing.
I am not a fan of the ftp model. At all. But to be fair, it exists because so many people think games should be free. They will pay $5 for a cup of coffee, but would stubbornly refuse to pay even $5 for a good game. Games were much much better before the ftp model. Absolutely.
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I’ll be one. Im happily F2P endgame here on gems and ill happily try a F2P PQ3. I’ll be F2P there as well. Long as they don’t have an obnoxious energy system I see no issue.
If players are put off by that, to each their own. No one is forcing you to pay in either.
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With any luck, I will be there on launch day, and probably a lot longer.
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I really don’t care what model they use for Puzzle Quest 3. If game is good and fun I will happily play it. I never look at how much I spend on a game. I always look at how much fun I’m getting out of it.
If I really like the game and I feel spending money on it will make it even better then so be it. It’s only fun when it’s not fun anymore. I have no problem walking away from a game I don’t find fun anymore no matter how much money I spend on it.
Like somebody said before, you got people willing to spend $10 on a cup of coffee every day but won’t spend $5 to help support developers on a game they obsessively play every single day but claim to hate. But hey, if doing that makes them feel like they’re sticking it to the man then to each his own.
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If I pay $10 for a coffee and it isn’t what I ordered or incorrect in some other way they fix it.
They don’t write [need more info] on it hand it back to me then either never do anything about it or tell me I need to submit a video of their incompetence before they fix it.
Its hilarious what people will justify to themselves. They accept mediocrity as if that is the way things should be.
We pay money to them and they completely ignore our input.
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First of all in a f2p game you’re not paying for the game itself. You’re paying for certain items in a game ie. If you pay for gems that’s what you’re getting, no more no less.
Whether you like it or not the game is functional and playable. Is it perfect? absolutely not. Does it make everyone happy? Of course not but the fact is just because you’re not happy with it doesn’t mean everybody else feels the same way as you.
If you don’t like it then the best thing to do is to stop playing the game period otherwise you look like a whiny hypocritical crybaby. And what the hell are you doing playing the game anyway? What kind of a person obsessively plays a game they supposedly hate?
The amount of hate the developers get by people who claim they hate the game is freaking unbelievable. Kind of reminds me of the type of person that would take care of a child of the man his wife had an affair with.
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I’m not debating with anyone, this dev team has skimped the entire last year, doing the very minimum. If that is acceptable to you, then you need higher standards.
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Then don’t debate. The fact is I’m actually doing more for your cause than you are. I’m actually telling people to stop playing the game and show the developers that they are losing their player base.
You want to keep playing and keep their numbers up. Seriously, the guy at the publisher is sitting there laughing and going: ‘look at this guy! he hates this game so much he can’t stop playing! This is awesome!’
You need to grow a set and say ‘enough is enough. Screw this game I’m walking away’. If the game stresses you out this much then that’s exactly what you should do. There, I just did more for your cause than you ever will.
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This isn’t the only problem with the F2P model. The other part of the equation is the trend by a lot of gaming publishers to move away from full, feature-complete games toward “live service” games where it is literally impossible to purchase the entire game.
People have finite time. No matter how rabid a gamer you are, there are only enough hours in the day for a certain number of “live services”, no matter how good they might be. The trend specifically by mobile/F2P publishers (although this is increasingly pervading the AAA pc/console space) is no longer just competing for your dollar but also for your time and every minute you spend playing their live service is a minute you don’t spend checking out a competitor’s product.
The true reason for “pay to lessen the grind”/“pay to speed things up”/“pay to get extra dice rolls” is so lost on some people…the game is literally creating the problem and then charging the player to improve it. Why put effort into developing truly engaging content that you can sell, when you can just keep artificially hampering the player to nudge them into throwing money at you to remove/lessen those barriers instead? And for whatever reason, people gobble this stuff up more and more. Sure, GoW is less predatory than other mobile games, but “less predatory” is not the same as “not predatory”.
Valid point, but it should also be kept in mind that if everyone who is unhappy quits, the devs are then left with a positive echo chamber, and that’s not healthy for the game either because they stop seeing/hearing dissenting opinions about the game direction.
If a player can say with absolute certainty that he or she hates the game, yes, it’s time to hang things up.
I’ve been unhappy with the game for a while, but I can’t say I hate it yet, and that mixed with the social aspect is why I am still here. At this point I’ve chosen to “vote with my time” because I’ve no doubt that someone somewhere is tracking the engagement level of various game features. I haven’t touched a Campaign since the first one other than the occasional task that is completed purely by random chance. I haven’t touched the redone Arena. I rarely do Explores anymore because the extra clicks are for the birds. When a World Event’s medals synergize decently with the available Troops, I play the event a lot more. When it doesn’t, I play the event a lot less. I only do Adventure Board tasks that give rewards I value.
Essentially, I have turned the game from a daily list of chores that was consuming an increasing amount of time to a buffet line where I only help myself to the things that satisfy me as a player. I am giving actual measurable feedback via how I choose to spend my time in the game. Since I stopped spending on the game years ago, it’s one of the only feedback mechanisms I have left, and it’s likely one that carries more weight than words on a forum.
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My post wasn’t directed at people who have a problem here and there with the game. My post was directed at the people who constantly make post after post attacking the devs or taking cheap shots at them and the ones taking cheap shots at the players who still enjoy the game.
That one guy Tabu actually told people to have higher standards when he himself probably plays the game more in a day than I do in a week. Can you believe this guy? The hypocrisy is unreal. When you’re up to the point where you hate the devs and the game that much then you need to walk away. When you’re at the point where you’re specifically creating topics just to take cheap shots at the devs, you need to walk away. It’s not even because it’s a waste of time but it’s because it’s not mentally healthy.
Like I said before if you legit hate the game and you’re still playing then you’re still helping their numbers even if you’re not spending money on it. The fact that the head guys at the publisher get a really good laugh at the hypocrisy while still making bank off this game is a plus for them.
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So I’m pretty confident Kitboga on Youtube is my spirit animal, but you may be close to my forum spirit animal @Denthegod. Obviously you are paid by the devs to say all these things. You should join the app 505 pays us on.
Salty likes to pay me in Kangeroo Coins. It’s a crypto currency some of us here use to manipulate digital bros stock using our mobile apps. The mobile app is free to play of course so you do have to watch some adds. They call them adds not ‘ads’ because they add something to your account after you watch them. There is also a cool statue that fills with excess currency over time and we can buy it when it gets filled. I of course have no control over my own fun with the app, so it creates a popup every few days to notify me to have fun. I always appreciate a good app that tells me when and how to have fun. Sometimes, the app will just put something in my cart. I feel like I have to pay for it, because I have to let the game control my wallet.
Some other Cryptdoh(name of the app) users have been really upset with the app lately though. They spent thousands and thousands and saw not return. Well, that’s not true. Everytime they purchased something their phone or laptop would leak small amounts of dopamine. This amount never changed overtime, but the more they spent the more they felt like it should be increased. The regular users who didn’t spend also got these hits, just at a much slower rate and dose. If you are a dedicated user, you end up getting the same amount in the end but usually without the accompany high and withdrawal symptoms. I guess some just like that quick rush ya know!
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Disclaimer: my like to the above post should in no way be intended as a statement of agreement nor disagreement, but only as sign I appreciate some quality sarcasm.
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I’d rather have a new Warlords TBS Game for a full fat price! I’ll never ever jump again on a F2P published by 505.
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I think a lot of people would love another Warlords game! Never say never, you can’t predict the future and neither can we. Maybe the stars will align and we will have the opportunity to make another.
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I just sent 5 million stars to your bank account. Let me know if they need any further adjusting!!! 
