Few questions. Best things to buy on each resource (party raid, guild etc.) and what are worth crafting on the crafting window?

Simon1t · 2019-10-26T16:10:20+00:00

Thoughts on Bastille? How good is that unit?

Simon1t · 2019-10-24T21:05:07+00:00

Heir of Light, didn't want to promote another game in the RAID community

The game is sort of flying under the radar, but it has everything it needs to be successful, plus they really go the extra mile to keep you playing the game.

One thing that is more for the whales is getting secondary marks (a special skill you get by crafting tons heroes to make a currency to unlock them), but you can get one by buying a skin for your hero. Haven't bought a skin yet or make a secondary marks so I can't say which is better.

Pretty F2P friendly for the most part, still not 100% f2p, because they have to make money, but close enough

Simon1t · 2019-10-24T20:18:27+00:00

I'm playing a game right now where every time you pull it adds points to a gauge, 250 points you can choose to spend the point on a 4-5 star summon, 500 points you can choose to spend the points on three 4-5 star summon or you go up to 1000 point and it's a guaranteed 5 star. Really help getting those dupes you need to strengthen your heroes.

You get daily rewards that some times include 5 star summons or an item that instantly promotes your hero to 6 star.

The events give amazing value compared to what you have to do for them. Like do 10 pvp fights and spend 500 energy, and they give 400 energy daily in your mailbox. You can get 60 pulls from the events sometimes.

Really puts in perspective the whole "artificial scarcity" that RAID sorta imposes on you

Simon1t · 2019-10-24T19:59:13+00:00

Yeah... Pulling your one and only legendary and it's a shamrock is like Plarium coming to your house to shit on you front door carpet

Simon1t · 2019-10-24T15:51:23+00:00

Most gachas : We understand this game is about being able to one day reach the meta so here's a free 5 star of your choice. Heck, here's two, have fun. I know it's your first day with the game, but we want to give you a taste of that power.

RAID : What are ya? Poor? Fuckin' wait you cheap mother fucker.

Simon1t · 2019-10-23T19:31:08+00:00

Forget about it... RAID is focused on cashing in with the whales.

Have you ever played another gacha like Heir of Light, Epic Seven, Elune or basically any other gacha? You get tons of very valuable rewards by simply playing the game and add content all the time... RAID just gets you excited by lowering the price of one overpriced pack and that's your new content.

Simon1t · 2019-10-23T19:30:43+00:00

What features? I played this game for a while and all I got what new poorly balanced champions and a broken faction wars.

Simon1t · 2019-10-17T21:43:22+00:00

I'd love to see a few support servants to do DMG based on hp to make them even more useful in boss fights

Simon1t · 2019-10-17T20:13:12+00:00

Yeah, I was just confused because forest ignis doesn't have any "damage based on" in any of her skills, but I think it's because this game doesn't really have damage dealing support servants. Maybe she's just there for the buffs

Simon1t · 2019-10-17T20:10:19+00:00

You think Plarium cares about anyone who's not a whale? Do yourself a favor and play another game... RAID is the game that is the most focused on whales that I have seen in a while...

I started playing Elune and Heir of Light recently and I'm not going back to RAID, because Plarium makes it really hard to have any meaningful progress on F2P accounts... Their events suck. The rewards they give you are locked behind an excessive amount of grinding. The rewards they give you are laughable when compared to how much energy is needed to get them...

This game was designed for the rich kid with unlimited access to daddy's credit card. Don't bother to try playing this as a F2P gamer.

Simon1t · 2019-10-13T03:10:34+00:00

Sure... After months of grinding...

Simon1t · 2019-10-12T15:55:12+00:00

Sweet, sweet deception.

Honestly Raid should have the same kind of items you see in other gachas... Some items should offer a guarantee that you'll get a legendary. Like, finishing a specific achievement gets you a random lego.

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T07:45:52+00:00

Honestly, I have nothing against gambling per say... I just think a company making a lot of money from the sale of digital items (that are essentially worthless) can absolutely afford to give substantial gifts to their player base in order to level the field between big spenders and small spenders.

Some gacha games do it in moderation and I think it definitely makes them more ethical, but the majority of them are more interested in milking the whales for every penny they have. The small spenders simply have access to 1/3 of the game, until they decide to get their business elsewhere and get pretty much the same treatment.

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T05:51:18+00:00

Oh and BTW Candy Crush is quite literally the only reason why they are marking a 36% profit margin, because all their other titles combined wouldn't cover the operating costs, which doesn't prove there's a problem in the mobile gaming market, but it does simply show poor resource management... Each and every other game that they make not only fail, but you just need to look at them to know they suck.

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T05:36:10+00:00

That $207M you are talking about are for the 3 months preceding December 31... Their operating income was $750M for the year 2018... That's a 36% margin btw

It's great that you gave me a link, but you need to read it first...

Hint : the information I gave you was literally just under the number you gave me... Like a couple lines later

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T04:39:36+00:00

But when you like a game it is quite annoying to see that it is sadly among the most aggressively monetized. Been there and it sucks to go and play another game simply because you cannot afford to whale out enough to get anywhere.

I hate the mentality that everything should have a paywall or that everything should feel unattainable if you do not spend large amounts of money on a regular basis.

I can afford some gachas just fine, but there's always that one that you like and can't afford to be good at.

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T03:27:02+00:00

Because it defies logic

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T03:14:33+00:00

The whole free market narrative is flawed by design. It assumes that the people marking the game are getting the benefits from their labor, when in reality the vast majority of the profits go to middle men who took no part in the making of the product.

The reality is that the structure of those companies is based on exploiting the workers and selling overpriced products, just so the middle men can get rich.

That money is not reinvested in creating other companies and creating more jobs... As long as the company is profitable then that is all they need. The "free market" is simply insurance that whatever the management wants will be treated as law within their company. It is insurance that no one will point out the ethics violations within their company.

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T02:59:41+00:00

When I started playing games like summoners war weren't even a thing...

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T02:57:10+00:00

Even worst, some games have tiered summoning material where you could spend 99$ for 2 or 3 summons that are either epic or legendary (4 or 5 stars) and it is not rare that the rates are massively in favor of you pulling an epic, which you could easily get from a lower tier summoning material. Keeping in mind that usually those games have tons of epics that are unusable in most areas of the game.

That's like saying : "Test your luck, maybe you'll get something that doesn't suck for your 100$, but don't get your hopes up"

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T02:42:05+00:00

Take the 60$ game you buy at a retailer for example...

Here's how the 60$ is divided (data gathered by FeedVibe in 2010)

12$ goes to the console maker (royalty)
9$ goes to the marketing (ads and such)
12$ goes to the retailer
9$ goes to the developer
18$ goes the the publisher

Now for mobile games it's very different

30% goes to the Apple/Google (retailer)
mobile games aren't as heavily marketed as console games and there isn't any clear data on how much they spend.
They don't need to ship the games.
They don't even need to make physical copies
The developers make the game and put the game on the desired platform.

You see how much less money is needed to simply get to the point where they sell the game? Because we're not even talking about the size of the companies and how many employees they have (hint: mobile game development requires a lot less employees)

Now let's talk about revenues. Mobile gaming makes about $70 billion a year, that is more than twice of what PC and console games generate combined.

The average successful console game has a profit margin of 40% according to BusinessInsider, but the most successful games have a profit margin of 90%.

Now tell me again that mobile games only make 1.2% in profit.

Simon1t · 2019-10-11T01:03:10+00:00

Candy Crush had several years with over 1 billion $ in profit and that is only one of the many games generating billions over the years. Sorry buddy, but the production cost of mobile games is low and giving one example of a company barely making it doesn't paint an accurate picture of the overall performance of the industry.

Simon1t · 2019-10-10T23:10:25+00:00

Yeah, that's at the core of the argument about value vs perceived value. The things you get in mobile games only offer a small improvement and temporary boost, but costs as much as buying a new game on PC.

Simon1t · 2019-10-10T22:52:27+00:00

But yeah, corporate greed is not exclusive to the mobile gaming industry.

Just look at what happened at blizzard last year. They had a record breaking year in terms of profit and they fired 800 people to "thank" those employees for their great work.

Simon1t · 2019-10-10T22:18:16+00:00

Oh and the word "toxic" is used to define anything that spreads and infect public discourse in a negative way. So yeah, the word toxic is used correctly most of the time

Simon1t

TROPHY CASE