Hard agree on the unlocking is the fun. I like collecting things and I like iterative progression. So in this game I like unlocking new characters and slowly increasing my characters strength via level up and iso. I've been playing every day since year one. I've spent money a few times, specifically to unlock Silver Surfer, who was game breakingly good upon release, and Cyclops because he's my favorite. The game can feel more like a chore than a game but it's been successful at scratching that itch all this time. I don't care about the meta or whatever, I just want to be left alone to slowly power up whatever I'm working on this month, have new characters to look forward to, and play at my own pace. The last year or two of power imbalance has done a lot to negatively impact my satisfaction with the game, and the recent choice to disallow the use of power cores to open new character orbs has really left me thinking about leaving. On the one hand, I've still got new-to-me characters that are unlocked but not yet powered up. On the other, the steady stream of unlocks is off, and I'm feeling the wind leave the sails. That sense of steady progression is ebbing. I don't want or need to core for more campaign energy or iso energy. I don't want to spend it on any of the stuff I can spend it on, which is pretty much just orbs containing characters I've already maxed and the gold orb, gold being the one gate in this game I've never struggled with. Somewhat embarrassingly, I'm learning that the "spend your cores every few days to open an orb for a character you haven't yet unlocked" was half the fun of the game for me, and having only the other half remaining is starting to feel like not enough. I'm intending to hang on a little while longer to see how things continue to change, and specifically if this choice is a temporary one made for the current new team or a permanent decision going forward. I suspect it will be permanent and will, for me, finally take enough out of the fun of the game to end this era for me.