The beginning of the end...

Here is my take on the recent changes... it seems that the game needs new characters and new Talismans to keep the money flowing which is in itself necessary to keep the game afloat...

The problem with this is that this creates a huge balance issue and unless you have the latest and greatest you cannot compete...

Some recent over generous sacrifice event also mean that many of us do not need to spend to get these latest and greatest items and are in for a long “free ride”...

The way to counterbalance this is to make access to ressources even more difficult hence the changes in sacrifice rewards and the emphasis on the fragments system...

Of course some of us have enough fragments to keep us up to date for a very long time...

The only possibility there is to augment the quantities required...

Again this may not be enough and long term players will not spend anymore but will remain out of reach...

The only likely payers are now the seekers, those new players who want to fast track their progression and become competitive.

All in all the best for NF would be for the old players to quit and make room for the new players. This is sad but is the economic reality of the game.

The only problem is that this is completely against the values that Iron Maiden stands for...

I am very curious to see what is going to happen now...

What do you guys think?

I think it’s all gotten out of hand, and so your thread title says it all. The system is so convoluted now with the fast and furious release of new characters, talismans, overpowering abilities, making all characters that came before obsolete, and the obviously overpriced packs of junk, I can’t help but feel the same way. I play this, and mind you, it’s the one and only mobile game I’ve ever played longer than a week, because of my huge love of Iron Maiden’s music. To top it off, they have one of the most awesome themes and product branding a music band has ever dreamed of. Many have tried to emulate it (Megadeth) and have never come close to achieving the same.

So I play for the art, for the love of the band, and a little fun passing the time between the real things in life. I don’t worry about getting my epeen rock hard in pvp or gauntlet. I play just enough of that nonsense to score the characters hidden behind those walls. But again, it’s mostly because I love looking at all the characters. Do I mind spending a bit of cash here and there because I want to chip in and realize I should give a little back? Not at all. Do I want to throw the amount of a car payment every month at a mobile game so NF execs can make their yacht payments. No, but hell no. As I’ve said before, I’ve spent more here than I have on real online games, and they are not looking to rape you for more than the agreed upon monthly amount, and they stay in business. So I’m not sure what’s going on, but the asshattery of NF keeps increasing. Not sure I am excited at the future of this game at this present moment.

The fundamental issue is the business model. And with that I don't particularly mean this game's model, I mean freemium in general. Back in the 90s and 00s you would buy a game for 50 bucks, play it's campaign, maybe use the multiplyer with your friends and that was that. Freemium game's are open end and provide constant development. However, the income stream is highly concentrated on a very small fraction of players (about 1%) that stem all of the cost. Make the 1% unhappy and the product fails.
I don't know where most of the revenue is generated for this game, but it would appear to be related to the release of new toons/talismans which is the cause of the vicious cycle. If we don't want said cycle to spiral out of control, we need to help finance the game. On the dev's side that would require to open up additional revenue streams. I have a few concrete suggestions for that.

1) Advertisement. Well I realize nobody is a fan of that, so long it's non extrusive (no pop ups !) many of us will be able to live with it I guess, It could be your average Banner on either side, or maybe ONE AND ONLY ONE popup after starting the app.

2) A gift shop. As I said, most people aren't willing to pay for digital goods, and with the recent devaulation of souls many will probably have lost the trust in NF and I project revenue is going to decline as a direct result of their recent actions (maybe not significantly, but I'd be surprised if people would react by spending more. But then again ...) I personally would never spend on a game like this, however, I would consider purchasing a gift for others if they contributed or for friends if they are in dire need (because let's face it, sending someone resources from your own wealth will never become reality in this game).

3) A premium subscription. I don't think this should include premium content, but maybe a small amount of ironite each week or month, And maybe something like access to events 1 day before non subscribers will get access.

4) This is not revenue related but detrimental for trust of the player base into the company. NF needs to improve their communication with us. They need to communicate more frequently, more transparently, and should actually regard our feedback and wishes.

In my honest opinion, the game is currently progressing on a track that can be compared to ecnonomies experiencing extreme inflation. What happens in the end is a short period of hyperinflation followed by a crash. If they don't make changes, that we (players & company) can all live with, I wouldn't be too surprised if the game won't make it to 2020.

I agree Patrice. Furthermore this is leaving a bad taste in my mouth towards Iron Maiden in general. I followed the band from the first album, and this game is causing more frustration then enjoyment of the entire Maiden brand at this point.

I’ve been bored playing for a while now, and really it’s just become a game of Pokémon collecting. Now that goes away too it seems, as toons get more and more difficult, or impossible even to get.

I’ve been playing a few other games lately, and it may be time to phase out on this one.

I'm a much newer player, and I've put a lot of time (and a bit of money) to try to rev up to compete. I agree with Saigrim's post about the appeal of the game. I think that any game will have a limited shelf life. I heard that HearthStone was even having some problems. I think a couple of things would really help. First, new toons should not be so overpowered. I made it for the first time to SS this Gauntlet and got one-shotted by a FFE, Sentinel Killer Prime, Magus Lilith and assassin banshee. That seems kind of ridiculous, but it's OK because I felt good about my progress (having previously been at AAA). I'm not quite sure why we play so often against people's defenses, when it might be much more interesting to play against people in real time. Hearthstone does that. You have a certain amount of time to make a move. So, I think the other good thing would be to do actual PVP. I also think being able to trade in an out Eddies (like you can in dungeons) or even Toons would be a useful thing to add to PVP.
I think plenty of people will be motivate to collect the new toons without needing to make them so overpowered. Maybe just slightly overpowered, but still beatable. I can imagine that any defense would consist of FFE, Sentinel Killer, Magus Lilith (with Fortune or maybe Destiny) and Assassin Banshee. That does not make the game that interesting at the higher tiers, probably. It would be much better if the toons were more equal overall. It would make the strategy much better (instead of just throwing in the most overpowered characters).
That's my 2 cents as a newbish player.

.. kick a dog enough times and the dog quits running to you when you call.....

At a certain point, players should NOT be struggling to maintain gold levels, or fragment levels, or simply any resource level. That's not how this game works though. Seems no matter how much you play, how long you've been playing, or how much you PAY.. you will ALWAYS find yourself short of resources in the near future. Navigator Games has clearly made moves to ensure that remains the trend -- they want NO PLAYER to ever reach a point where they can "coast" for more than a couple weeks (if that). The "always missing something" trend makes sense for new players working through the story mode or still collecting some of the more basic upper tier characters. But it makes ZERO sense for players which have all, or almost all, the characters and are merely "grinding" regularly. How one could possibly play this "game" for more than a year, collect all the characters, have most talismans full power, have all characters full of skill shards, have all or most of the relics.... and STILL find themselves missing things such as gold or evo runes is baffling to me. I'm afraid Navigator Games is a whore and we're all merely her "tricks". The clear and apparent goal is to NEVER allow any player to "get ahead" of the system.... when that starts looking like a possibility, they implement things like massive gold cost increases to make resources less available.

This dog.. has been kicked enough I think.

And in case you haven't figured it out.. events are SPECIFICALLY geared to sucking up resources so that you'll hopefully need to purchase something for the NEXT event in a week.

Hence the reason we all need to sit back, play with a “meh” attitude towards whatever latest and greatest crap they throw at us this month, and maybe read a book or watch a movie and cut back the playtime. Save your money. Do that for month or two and let them sit in their own bullshit for awhile with less money. It is, after all, the ONLY thing that will get their attention.

I know it’s been going on for some time now but don’t you notice the rewards for the events are getting to be more and more of a joke

Several years ago, I played Mobile Strike. That game started out simple with tons of farming needed, and of course the big spenders on packs dominated. But they got really greedy selling game packs, and came out with newer, better things each week. It went way out if control, and caused most if the players to quit. I hope this game doesn't get as greedy and follow the same path.