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.
I see a lot of new things coming into the game. I also see a LOT of QoL changes over the years.
Stuff like Doom Tower? That was a widely requested piece of content before we saw it. A huge QOL change for people with literally nothing to do.The tavern changes, vault space, instant upgrade, expanded multibattle features like auto gear selling and end during battle, the whole fitting room, hydra changes to difficulty, improved hydra rewards at all difficulties, a bunch of new champ buffs and rebalances that we didn't used to see (like my very first leggo Errol getting an awesome buff), even all the new live arena is in response to everyone competing that say classic arena is just button clicking (at my skill and champ level, it is just put in one team and click start until you get to top 50).
Gosh I am leaving so many changes out... some major things and all the minor things that get changed. See, cause I know even things people rage about like XP barrels are just to let people who want to spend to upgrade do it with less a PITA. They buy one thing instead of needing to buy 120 brews and just click once instead of 120 times.
Basically I find the assertion that Plarium doesn't listen to things people ask for crazy and just wrong, since I have been around long enough to see a bunch of those changes, and argued for a decent number of them myself. As a moderator, I have been collecting feedback and seeing changes based on that since before you started the game. Not always in the order I want to see things done, but even in my position, I am on the outside looking in, just like everyone else here.
The way you are coming off right now is that you expect a game company to constantly, every single week, look at the current thing a few vocal players are asking for, and immediately change it all without proper data and feedback. They have a development schedule and shouldn't have to crunch all the time just to immediately add every QoL thing people ask for, and especially not for things that would be a net negative for them, like this Playtime Arena. Instead, they need to add QoL changes into the game with regular updates, and work it into their development schedule, so they can keep making new content for people to engage with.
As far as not wanting to play? That's 100% up to you. If you aren't enjoying yourself with a game, you shouldn't be doing it. After seeing your other post in the other thread, I think stressing yourself out with your current playstyle in a large way. Yes, energy refills in 7ish hours but you sleep for 8, and then therefore you are wasting some miniscule amount of energy recharge for the day by not getting up to do things. But uhhhhh, I've never worried about this once, ever. Not one time.... and I'm just fine with my place in the game, the arena ecosystem, and where I'm at in the endgame.
I've made Plat, I got Lydia done and I sit in G3/G4 tag. I've done all the DTs, Hydra, SD. I've basically done everything you can in Raid. And I never once did it that toxic stress way or by spending. I've never even switched clans. And I've certainly never stressed about 1 hour of energy recharge. Release yourself from that stress please, play sustainably or you end up raging on a message board. :)
