It seems to me the players are quitting this game at an alarming rate. My opinion is that the time demands of PvP are to much for the casual player base to continue devoting their 1-2 hours a day to playing this game.
Players want to get gold marks when playing PvP. Grinding to 800k VP every 11 weeks for 5 gold marks a day is ridiculous. On average, I find you have to devote roughly 7 hours of pure PvP grind to get 100k VP. If you are going to reset VP every season I seriously suggest you cut it around 200k VP to match the season pass rewards.
Further, you are punishing your most loyal and longest tenured players (and likely the ones who pay for services) with PvP. As you level, it takes longer to get the same VP as someone with a much lower level. In the 1500s it took me around 4,000 victories to get to 800k VP. In the 1700s I am pushing 5,000 victories to 800k. The game only runs so fast so that means I have to spend even more time playing as I level. At some point I like many before will be done and move on to another game.
You have already shown you can modify the game by changing troops. Give us options to allow us to modify enemy teams with the hardest weapons/troops. Make them easier for less VP and harder for more VP. Left to right PvP battles should be 25% easier, normal, 25% harder. The VP base should be +30,+60 and +90 for everyone. If we choose to allow wand of stars +10 or 0 if replacing it. Stella/Chys can be a plus/minus. Then there could be something else for immortals. Three options to choose from should be good for now.
Lastly, it often takes 100k VP in diamond league to place in top 3. Let us choose which league we want to play in to start the week. If we choose a lower league we can’t choose a higher league the following week unless we place in the lower league. This lets players have an easier time getting gold marks by finding a league that’s not too grindy for them.
This would essentially mean that diamond league players go steamrolling noobs in low difficulty leagues, grab all the placement rewards intended for lower level players and then take the free trip back to celebrate. While I can see the benefits, I don’t suppose this would be fair towards those 99% of players not naturally in the diamond league.
The game as a whole is a slog now. You have to put so much time into everything and the rewards just aren’t worth it.
I don’t know why anyone spends money on this game, especially on the passes. I just don’t see the value in any of it.
PvP is such a boring grind in which you keep fighting the same exact teams all the time and I don’t see the point of grinding out more than the 176k VP needed to get all the free rewards.
The game is such an incredible time sink and I never feel like I have anything to show for it. Yet the devs keep adding things to the game and breaking other aspects that never seem to get fixed.
I feel Gems has essentially become 3-4 games stuffed into 1 and it’s to much. Frankly they need to stop and just start over and release Gems of War 2.
PQ3 is totally different gameplay though. And unlike most match games, it’s not as intuitive what’s going on there. It seems only to be aimed at people who already understand it from playing PQ2. I gave PQ3 a try once. There was no real tutorial explaining anything that was going on and I didn’t care enough so I just noped out. I’m probably not a unique case.
Which is all to say that I think PQ3 has its own reasons for doing poorly.
This very much encapsulates my sentiments. My last shred of enthusiasm died when IP2/505 made the choice to gate progress behind no-lifing untold hours of PvP for breadcrumb rewards.
As someone who’s hated GoW PvP in every incarnation it’s taken, the only thing left keeping me from uninstalling is the guilt of abandoning my guildmates, and I’m starting to doubt how much longer even that will stay a viable excuse.
I just couldn’t bring myself to try it. I have a longstanding and very unhealthy addiction to achievement/trophy hunting, which the GoW devs continue to punish from one update to the next.
For all I know PQ3 could be a fun little pastime, but after years getting sand kicked into my eyes in GoW I refuse to give IP2/505 a second chance to do it all over again.