1. love it, been asking for it since day 1... gave up

2. same. i'd use my tokens for no rewards

3. obv never gonna happen.  free stuff for nothing... zero sum game :)

I enjoy hydra and tag only... I think I am in the minority...

To your last point - that's more a consequence of there being nothing else for us to do, I think :)

It's not free stuff if we take our own and give it to someone. I'm not saying Plarium should provide their precious gems that they worked so hard for....I'm saying let me go "hey, whoever scores the most this CvC gets 500 gems from me". 

I enjoy Classic and Tag Arenas, I do not enjoy hydra as much (mostly because of all the RNG). Everything else is just grind grind grind. And their idea of new content seems to be new ways to grind. 

Yes and no...

Things others do that I do not:

1. Build 1 key UNM (and then go beyond that to get higher score.... this I do not understand)

2. Build super fast d25 teams (I barely do 25 as it is)

3. Attempt classic Plat (timezone problem, otherwise I'd like to do once...)

4. Sand Devil (procrastination and laziness keeps me at 7)

5. Regear champs, and build new ones (see 4 above lol)

I need an account takeover to make any progress on the above... lol

Obviously that would be abused.... same reason champ trading will never be allowed.

I have no interest in the live arena coming soon, seems like that would be more to your liking?

I think it will be a massive implementation fail though, everyone just stalling out for wins... but I have no clue tbh

I'm in a similar boat, except after spending enough to buy a car on the game. 

That's why I hate when people refer to it as p2w - even if you 'P', you're not gonna 'W'.....you'll be just as bored as an f2p, mindlessly grinding away. 

If I've never spent a dime on the game, I probably would have lower expectations of the game....but I did, so I don't, and it makes it hard to keep playing it. 

i

fellow tag/pvp enjoyer checking in, though ultimately a lot of the PvE grind is to improve the PvP experience/results, for me. 

I like the idea of Live Arena a lot. Any piece of content that rewards players for better decision making seems ideal. 

My chief worries with it remain the same as they always have when I've seen players asking for it: What will the time investment look like, especially in terms of roping/time wasting from opponents.

Champs I get, they make their money on RNG and dupes. Even shards, with the mercy system and guaranteed events and whatnot, I could see how people can extract value. 

But gems? If I buy/earn the gems, what does it matter if I spend it or give it to someone?

mechanism to protect against boosting other accounts, sales outside of the game come to mind

I wonder how lag would come into play. If I'm playing against someone who's been disconnected, what then?

Really hoping to have details soon. As it stands there's no defender like Classic so we're gonna have to secure that W, meaning disconnection protection might be important. 

I just had a visual of a guy setting up his own clan where you can show up and buy "dime bags" of gems lol

I mean they can limit the number of times you can gift a week, they can put requirements on how long you have to have been in the clan etc. 

This community will abuse any small loophole available... I don't think anyone can disagree with that

The sunk cost is what's driving your disappointment... if you let that go and put zero expectations on any specific timeliness it is easy to stay ftp.

Though I really want the bolster set... fukkk 😆 

I just gave away a gift card I could have used and technically still been f2p so as not to break the seal

If you've ever spent once, it's too late for you sir. lmao

Might as well get the FP cause we all know only Krama can truly claim to be totally forever and always F2P around here. :)

You're abusing your own loopholes 😂

"If I get this coffee for free and use the money I was gonna spend on coffee to buy gems, I'm still f2p, right?!" :)

Exactly.  That's why I gave gc away.  No loopholes. 

When was 1st BP, that is my born again virginity date :)

See, it's the principle of it for me. I still would enjoy playing Arena, I had big plans for Rotos, got decent ascension stats on his Gloves, Chest, and Boots, got him to 280% CDMG. Harima was doing great, was waiting to replace Candy's savage gloves, so I could give them to her for Def% stats etc.

But until I can shake off this feeling of being cheated, I don't even want to give my time to this company. When a business makes their clients feel stupid for doing business with them, the client will often walk. 

I think you are conflating feeling cheated to how the game felt when you were buying packs and climbing to Lydia to how it feels on a stricter budget.

Looking at why there isn't Practice Arena as being because it would "cost precious arena tokens" is backwards. Why there isn't Practice Arena is simple. While it seems like it is a great idea to people who want to do more free stuff in game without regearing costs or token costs, there is aboslutely no way people actually play that for long.

Here's the thing: You have a limited amount of time to play, you can 1) Play regular classic arena and get the gold coins you need to improve the GH or 2) You can waste that hour messing around in Pratice Arena and have nothing to show for it. 

People play games like Raid and Destiny as exploitative as possibly, grinding things out by sharing checkpoints in games, or putting in one man defenses in the hopes others will do the same and they can get that stuff done ASAP. To think people will actually use this feature to make up for the developmental time that has to be put into creating it? Well, right now it seems Plarium doesn't think so.

Instead they are building a Live Arena experience, and expanding the GH, and have a lot more changes coming down the pipeline. Changes they want people to engage with, interactive mechanics that are less exploitative like farming old Raid checkpoints in Destiny to level your weapons or endless 1 man defense farming.

People like Trips and Thorne enjoy Hydra cause it is challenging and the most interactive PvE content in the game. I enjoy Tag and Plat for the same reasons, basically. But to take away all rewards from that? Remove it from the overall resource economy altogether? Why would I want to waste my time on it then? 

I actually enjoy playing Arena....not farming it, I can do that anytime...I mean I still like to try different comps and play against people. So I would absolutely spend time trying out different champs, comps, synergies, speed tunes etc. even if I get nothing to show for it. 

As for why I feel cheated, it's not the gameplay of spending vs f2p. If anything, I've been enjoying the game a lot more as an f2p, lower expectations make the game a lot more enjoyable than feeling that you are buying your way to the top. It's that the game keeps coming up with grand new stuff I couldn't care less for as opposed to minor changes I (and many others, for that matter) would like to see in the game. It's that having spent outrageous (maybe not by Raid whale standards, but anywhere else) amounts of money on the game doesn't even entitle you to feel like a valued customer, you will always be regarded as "some rando asking for free stuff". 

The way I see it, what we ask for doesn't really matter. I'd be ok with it if I was alone in that. No, I see players asking for it, I see content creators asking for it, I see whales asking for it....but Plarium is gonna Plarium. That's where I feel cheated. Like another forum member said, "If I throw a dog a bone, I don't want to know if it tastes good or not".....well, I bought the bone, paid good money for the bone, and they still couldn't care less if it tastes good. That's why I feel cheated. I'm not saying I was cheated, I spent that money, that's on me....but somehow it doesn't make me feel good by contributing to that company anymore...not even with my playtime.