I don’t feel like this update has addressed the issue that most of the player base has.
Early estimates of this game suggested that it would take several years of being a Free-to-Play gamer to finish the game off. This is unsurprising, as most free-to-play games use this model to support longevity of the game. But this also creates the major problem facing the community.
With the reveal of shutdown, gamers were left with months to try and finish off any goals in the game. At the same time, microtransactions were also shut down. Effectively, all players became ‘free’ players at this point. The only real changes made was that Thumpers were made limitless, but nothing else was done to reflect the game change.
Basically, players had to cram excess play into the final months, which is possible for few, but not most. While other Gears of War titles have goals to progress, they all are still playable. This title has a deadline, but nothing was done to accelerate that.
Only now, 2 months out, there was a boost to XP and Pin cost. But no changes to Pin drops were made. This means that most of the requirements have not been changed.
One of the biggest issues was the lack of change to Gold, and the store pricing. The cost of Gold is done to increase the potential of spending. But this cannot be done now. The Gold pricing model should have been changed to reflect this. Gold has two uses; either buying Coins or Crates. Both are useful in letting players decide which path to follow in progress. You have Coins but need Pins? Buy the Crates to get Pins. Or take the other direction to get Coins to ensure progression.
This is where the updates need to be focused. Hordes need to be giving out way more Pins and Gold as a reward. The Gold pricing needs to be dramatically reduced, reflecting the games years lifespan being compressed into months (now 2 remaining).
Currently, the Horde Event is Coin Fortune. This Thumper is the most underwhelming of the Thumpers. Long Horde fights that result in paltry Coin return and no Pins. The Coin amount should be greatly increased and a high amount of Gold should be added to it to make it reflect the time and difficulty of it, when compared to other Horde Thumpers.
The other Horde Thumpers can be finished far quicker, give more Coins for time spent, and offer Pins, which are needed for progression. It shows how little Coin Fortune gives for the time it takes.
But you also need to change the requirement for Gold League. Previously, the amount of COGs needed was lower, raised prior to the notice of shutdown. If the amount can be increased, it also must be able to be dropped. As has been pointed out, boosting player XP puts them at a disadvantage with their weaker Pins. Lower players will not be able to excel in Ranks, basically crippling them. They need to upgrade to advance, but upgrading Pins actually hurts their matchmaking position and success; it’s a massive Catch-22.
I don’t know how to fix this. I respect not just giving people a win, but I also don’t know the point in dragging out the race. Holding this over players makes sense when the goal is to get money from buying content or ensuring players keep working to get better or stronger, but, bluntly, this has no point anymore. Come May 1st, all of our Pins have no value. Player level means nothing. The game is gone.
You basically should be considering how to make this game finishable if you literally started the day before the notice of shutdown. Any player that tried to join into this game at that point is caught in a struggle of lost time that they believed they had to progress. Grinds need to be reduced, rewards need to be amplified. Years are crunched into months, the game progression needs to reflect this.
I appreciate that MediaTonic is trying to do something in the final months of this game (which is more than other companies do in these situations), but this minor update really didn’t address the issue of a vastly compressed deadline that uses the pricing and ranking from the yearly model.
I really hope they’re able to make these needed changes, as clearly most of the community of players still won’t be able to finish this game in the 2 months remaining.
