Hi,
I love the game. Aside from Disney being a huge part of my life, and now my childrens' lives, it's a whole lot of fun to play and has a lot to offer. A big part of the joy for me is spending effort in deciding if an event is worth time, gems, and possibly a financial investment. The recent layout of the Zurg event is putting that to the test.
After some number-crunching it is clear that not only is Zurg unobtainable by not the average player, he is a long-shot for the near obsessed. The sheer lack of character tokens along with the pitiful chest rewards for the first five tiers of the event coupled with gear tier requirements for the later stages make it painfully obvious that this is a cash-grab.
I understand that not everyone can have everything in a game. Some things being out of reach make the game exciting. But I think it is important that the top fraction of the Free-to-play base need to have a shot with careful planning.
From a personal standpoint, I count myself among the top fraction who is F2P (for now). I'm competing and holding down a top-10 slot in my tournament for the past week against full 7* Incredibles teams, which means players who have invested hundreds of dollars into their teams. Personally, I have over 12,000 gems that I've been saving, laying in wait for Zurg to pop up somewhere other than the VIP store. If I spent them all refreshing attempts throughout the course of the next 10 days I still wouldn't even have him unlocked.
The real issue is that we're going to see tons of people with Zurg at the end of the event and not a single one of them will be a free-to-play player. Considering the sheer power that Zurg has on any team, this means that anyone who considers themselves competitive will quickly be pushed out and be left staring at a top 20 or 30 (or more) with a Zurg on every team.
I'm glad the game is going well from a financial standpoint, but the long term health of a game and the standard by which it is judged is how it treats it's Free-to-play player base. I want to be clear that this isn't as narrow sighted as me being upset that I can't have the toys that the big boys have. It's that no one who plays the game for free will be able to mount an appreciable amount of competition against those who pay.
I understand the purpose of a mobile game is to make money, but people at least need the opportunity to be able to blind themselves to this truth. When the big spenders inevitably move on to the next game, what remains are the players who will keep the magic alive. If future events follow this trend a lot of players aren't going to want to take part in it. The responsibility to take better care of the F2P player base should start being taken a little more seriously here.
Edit: I saw news that DSA is going to be running at a huge loss for the better part of 2020. I confess that I was mostly ignorant on the costs associated with developing and running such a big title before doing research. I decided to leave what I wrote intact because it seems prudent to let people know there are players willing to shift their views based on new information. I know many more won't care, and although I don't entire feel this way anymore I can at least say that I don't blame them. I'm sorry to hear that the game is in the red right now. I still feel that the way the Zurg event is designed is going to ostracize a lot of F2P base as the consequences unfold. I am hoping the F2P player base doesn't suffer too greatly with future events due to the financial situation of the project.
I don't understand enough to give feedback on what to do about it, but to summarize I can say it feels bad to see an event that is out of reach, even for the top fraction of the F2P base.
Comments
This game should be categorized as a "free-to-play-game-that'll-only-be-fun-for-a-few-weeks-unless-you-spend-money". It's an insult to all the true "free-to-play" games out there.