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Saturday, September 13, 2014

On the Mystery of the Mystery Box



My question is "Why?". The subject is the Mystery Box.

For the past several months these boxes, which randomly select prizes and MAY contain the hero you actually wanted, have been released into the game, culminating in their most recent appearance: Rocket Racoon's Mystery Box. These boxes defy all logic. Here's why.

The idea, I presume, is to make more money by forcing people to buy gold so that they can buy a ton of mystery boxes in the hope of getting the promised prize. But wasn't that what the dreaded prize wheel did as well? And, in one of the best improvements the game has ever released, the Prize Wheel was dealt away with.

Here's the thing. I would like the game to make money. I want it to keep going. However, random chance is frustrating and degrading to the players. If you want them to spend real life money, why not just make these heroes Agent-Only?

The only argument for this is that it's more "fun" to randomly get a hero that you were tentatively hoping to get. Do you know what's more fun? Gameplay! Remember those arcade games that don't have a purpose, since they're a bad way of getting fractals? How about your score in the games reflects the chance of getting a hero? That's assigning rewards to gameplay, essentially Developer 101. I don't play "Rooftop Run" unless it's part of a challenge NOW, but I'd play it the whole gameplay session if it meant I'd get a hero!

In other, better news, Drax is confirmed. Yes! Thank you. I actually see the line of reasoning for once - Drax looked like another boring strong guy character before I saw the movie. However, I still don't see the logic behind the incongruous enigma that is the Mystery Box.

-- SHSOFan.