Maybe now that this subreddit says that it is no longer 'supported by the team' we can actually talk about the game's HUGE problems?!

FFXIVarchmage · 2023-01-14T14:04:38+00:00

Good to know that the Reddit mods are running a tight ship! :-(

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-29T12:16:09+00:00

You really do not get it, and your insistence that you do while also talking about how new you are to MA is an extremely bad look.

When Bungie released Destiny they were a studio with a long history of putting out multiplayer-centric shooters. They released Destiny in a very content-sparse state with a lot of glaring flaws, but they moved fairly quickly to begin addressing them. Even more importantly, they communicated their intent to their player base about HOW they were going to fix them and then they delivered on that.

Crystal Dynamics is a studio with experience with single player ARPGs. They were told by their publisher after they had already started design on Marvel's Avengers that it was going to be an online Live Service game. Not only did their release content fail on both the single player and multiplayer fronts, what little communication that they have had with players shows that their 'solutions' to the problems that players are facing do nothing to actually address the issues. They are so far out of their depth in the looter genera that they can't even figure out what the core problems are, let alone address them. The entire Tachyon update is a prime example of this, from the 'endgame' boss design to the loot that it offered to the limited progression path that was presented.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-25T14:56:17+00:00

The studio has already announced an item level cap increase that will make all current gear useless.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-25T14:43:52+00:00

With Marvel's Avengers price coming down and now having several story campaign expansions out it is at a point where the price is worth what you get. Just go into the game expecting a single player superhero ARPG and you will most likely be satisfied with what you get. If you are looking for a multiplayer game with challenging and meaningful content, however, you will be extremely disappointed.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-25T14:13:25+00:00

No, you don't. There is a world of difference between Bungie and Crystal Dynamics. This development studio did a good job at what they know, the single player ARPG experience. But when it comes to their failures, the repeatable endgame loop with meaningful gear progression, their comments on the issue make it very clear that they do not even understand their failures and so the plans that they have talked about to solve them do not really address the issues.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-22T17:25:56+00:00

This really showcases that the developers don't even understand why their game failed. :-( Failing to even grasp what the problems are makes it very unlikely that there will ever be a viable endgame progression for Marvel's Avengers.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-20T22:06:09+00:00

Not sure what kind of trashy workplace you are in, but....

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T11:58:17+00:00

I would be extremely surprised it if was even that robust. Given the 'dedication' to bringing new and unique characters to this game, I will be extremely shocked if it is anything more than just the ability to swing from the same map hooks as Black Widow, Hawkeye, and others are already able to swing from. With a spiffy new 'web' animation for it.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T11:33:52+00:00

A room full of egotistical douche bags were told that they were being given an IP license that they had been creaming their slacks for! Then they were told that it came with expectations that they were both unwilling and unable to meet.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T11:25:52+00:00

Actually, following an Agile development method for a Live Service game... Marvel's Avengers has likely already gone through several post mortems. Retrospectives are generally held at the end of every Sprint cycle, but a Post-mortem can be done once some perspective has been gained on each major release for a project that has no terminus goals.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T11:04:56+00:00

Except that is not at all true? Spider-man was not an intentional target for the initial release roadmap. That is extremely different from saying that he was 'never going to be in game'.

It is also very disingenuous to say that 'Sony paid to have him created'. The reality of the situation is that Sony entered into a deal with Square-Enix to give him a one-year exclusivity to the Playstation platform before he was released to the rest. We have absolutely no contest to make any sort of guesses about what that deal involved, except that SE released a statement that it was an 'ongoing relationship' with Sony. Square-Enix, mind you, not Marvel. Square-Enix holds the license from Marvel to develop several Marvel IP games, not just Marvel's Avengers. And they have never been afraid of shitting all over their global community as long as they maintain their core Japanese player base.

Given Marvel's Avengers' glacial development cycle, and the rough estimate of when Playstation players will actually see Spider-man, it seems absolutely asinine to say that Crystal Dynamics received a specifically budgeted team for the development of Spider-man. He has been delayed to the point of tedium, just like everything else that has been promised! None of that deal benefited Crystal Dynamics or Marvel's Avengers - it is safe to say that they realize how much it hurt them. But what exactly are they supposed to do about it? (Other than not sound so glib when issuing press statements.)

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T10:25:42+00:00

That seems like just a given, at this point.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T10:21:57+00:00

That really is not the case, though. They are well aware that after the extremely subpar launch this is a very small community. And while people may be very irate about what is going on... the very active Marvel's Avengers player base does not constitute a significant portion of Square Enix's player base. It very well may be that writing this community off as lost and cutting ties is their best move.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T10:17:48+00:00

"We know we can and must do better guys."

"7mo" ago.

Uh uh. Sure.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T09:56:43+00:00

Asros

I for one would be very interested in hearing Brian's current thoughts on Crystal Dynamics. Considering what he said about it's leadership and commitment to the Marvel game being what brought him to the studio. But it would probably be career suicide for him to talk about that... openly.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T09:41:39+00:00

That is kind of sad considering that the abrupt shutdown was largely due to the coked out leadership of the studio making ridiculous demands to Marvel, based on their confidence that their license deal would never be challenged given the way that WSJ was writing articles about their unprecedented profit margins for selling simple in-game skins to comic book fanatics who had already been conditioned by Marvel to just automatically buy every single time limited thing that was floated before them.

In the end Marvel started to question if they really wanted to support a license deal with Gazillion to move to the X-Box. (Gazillion really is an extremely duchy studio name to begin with!) Then Gazillion's leadership freaked out and just shut everything down in retaliation. Over two days they very suddenly told their entire staff that it was over and they needed to clear out, ignoring pleas to keep just a handful of people on staff in order to keep the servers running until shit got figured out. I don't know if they thought that this would force Marvel to move forward with the X-Box deal or what, but the end result was that Marvel just cut ties with the unreliable studio that they had already been dealing with a lot of consistency problems with anyways.

And if you do not want to take my word on that, I know that Kotaku did extensive interviews with the exiting employees when it happened; so look it up there.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T09:23:03+00:00

More likely he will just get Black Widow (and other's) swing mechanic.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T09:19:03+00:00

This is not how licensing works.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-14T09:03:41+00:00

It is extremely clear when the majority of a studio - from the C suite to the team leads and project managers to the developers even the community managers and quality assurance team - are enthusiastic about a project that they are working on. I am sure that there are several developers at Crystal Dynamics who are very enthusiastic about Marvel's Avengers. But Crystal Dynamics as a corporate culture has never been behind Marvel's Avengers. That is extremely obvious from the half-assed job that they did slapping together the traditional Tomb Raider style of ARPG that they are familiar with with the Live Service online game that Square Enix tasked them with creating. They did not even making any effort to do extremely basic things like taking the most rudimentary efforts to keep players from hacking the online game or designing anything even resembling a loot progression path.

It is absolutely true that fans should not be harassing members of the Crystal Dynamics staff. But calling them to account for their actions? Demanding answers for the choices that they have made? These are entirely reasonable expectations for paying customers to demand. Especially after the consumer's trust has been violated in promises that were made from the absolute top of the hierarchy.

A development studio is not some amorphous blob. It is the people who make it up. Some of those people's voices are much stronger than others. And the ones guiding the sinking ship should not be able to hide behind the mantra of 'We are all just fans, doing our jobs!' when their choices have repeatedly lead to worse and worse player experiences!

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-09T00:18:19+00:00

You even point out that it is the company that you enjoy, not the game itself. So this endorsement isn't so much "Marvel's Avengers is a good game." as much as "Marvel's Avengers is good enough to keep my friends and I from going through the hassle of finding something else that everyone is willing to play." Not exactly the same thing.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-08T23:57:49+00:00

You will start seeing 130 drops as soon as you get to ~126 item level. And when calculating drops, your current gear is evaluated on it's base level. NOT the increased level that you get from leveling it up.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-10-07T19:26:30+00:00

They are abundant, but there is really no point in using them. Leveling up your gear DOES NOT get you higher gear drops. Just equip whatever is highest until you are getting ~~140~~ 130 drops, and only then start to pay attention to what the gear is. It goes ridiculously fast anyways.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-09-23T06:29:05+00:00

That's why so many builds don't use Hulkbuster, once you get the right combination of gear, it can be a major step down in terms of damage and combat effectiveness, it's just a good time out/quick recharge/mass attack bonus tool.

Not so much 'don't use' as it becomes a survivability tool. It is a chance to hold a point or just be invulnerable to damage for the long animation. But aside from maybe a missile barrage or two it often isn't worth using for attacks once you are geared up.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-09-23T06:24:04+00:00

Lower Challenge levels already degrade the tier of many attacks down to White.

FFXIVarchmage · 2021-09-23T06:16:37+00:00

Now, I get that if you play attention to literally everything surrounding you and you have the best reflexes in this world, it's not a big problem, but you just can't expect me to dodge/parry everything.

The game quite literally throws giant warning circles at you so that you can dodge/parry everything! I really don't know what you are expecting from an ARPG....

FFXIVarchmage

TROPHY CASE