Hello, and welcome back to Burning Questions, your weekly look at the hottest topics in Marvel Snap! This week, we're talking about Gold for Tokens, characters you love because of Snap, Doctor Doom, and forced updates.
1) Now that you can buy Collector’s Tokens directly for gold, is Marvel Snap pay-to-win?
In the most recent patch, functionality was added to buy Collector’s Tokens. The Collector’s Tokens you are missing for a purchase can now be made up by buying them directly with gold. This is similar to the change from a while ago that made it possible to buy the missing boosters needed to upgrade a card with gold. Just as that change was met with fear that Marvel Snap was becoming too explicitly pay-to-win, this change has been cursed as a betrayal of the original marketing done for the game. In early ads for the game, Ben Brode said the following:
“What would it be like if you couldn't just come to a game, drop hundreds of dollars to earn all of the cards right away? So we've explicitly prevented that in Marvel Snap.”
There's been an attempt to dunk on Second Dinner for going back on that. The problem, however, is that Brode’s statement is still valid. You are still time-gated by the rotation of cards in your token shop and finite token-for-gold purchases. You still have to wait to acquire the cards. A lot of people seem to forget that this line came later in that same ad:
“You can speed up the process by spending money.”
The original concept of players going on a journey and taking time to collect cards by upgrading them is still true. Just as before, you can pay to speed it up.
While I don't believe Marvel Snap is any more pay-to-win today than before this change, it was already a game that strongly favored those who pay. It's a game where you can acquire cards more quickly by paying money. It always has been. That ship sailed before the global launch. There have always been $100 bundles and “whale track” spending incentives, and many other ways people who can afford to spend money on the game can get ahead in card acquisition (and cosmetically). This is not some straw that will break the Camel's back. This change can ease some anxiety around the acquisition system since people know they can pay to make up small Collector's Token shortfalls with gold. Psychologically, people will feel less stress about missing out on a card if they know they can pay for it, whether or not they actually do pay for it. This option is probably marginally positive for public sentiment and is suitable for the game's income stream.
2) What characters were you unfamiliar with before Snap?
I grew up reading Marvel Comics, so there isn't a ton that I was completely unfamiliar with before Snap. I hadn't read the issues where the Infinaut was featured, so he was new to me, as was Swordmaster. Since everyone has varying familiarity with the Marvel Universe, either through the MCU, various animated series, or comics, I think the more interesting question is, which characters did Snap deepen your appreciation of?
Here are 5 characters Snap helped me fall in love with:
Elsa Bloodstone
I knew about Elsa (and her father, Ulysses) from the comics, in particular, the non-canon 2016 series Nextwave series that also featured Monica Rambeau (Spectrum) and a personal favorite character, Tabitha Smith (Boom Boom). It also has great Stuart Immonen art. But in her prominent continuity appearances, Elsa hadn't made a massive impression on me. But she was so fun in Snap, especially pre-nerf, that I now have much more of a vested interest in Marvel's coolest monster hunter. It helps that she was handled well in Marvel's recent Blood Hunt storyline and recent Werewolf by Night comics.
Quake
I never particularly loved Daisy Johnson in the comics—she was a bit too much of a cop for my taste, and I wasn't a watcher of ABC’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. series. But Quake becoming one of my pet cards in Snap has led me to reevaluate her. Should I check out the TV show?
Polaris
Polaris is a legacy character and one of the oldest mutants in Marvel publication history. Getting to love her in Snap, both as a cheeky clog effect with good power and through her cool variants, has made me realize how poorly Polaris has often been handled in the comics. Hopefully, she gets more chances to shine in the future with the recent reboot of the X-line. Also, I've stopped using her in Snap as much as she's been slowly power-crept by new 3-Cost cards. I think she should at least get a 3-6 stat line to keep her on pace with Magneto, or I'd love a 2-4 Polaris to play around with.
Spider-Ham
Every kid that grew up reading Marvel Comics in the 80s knew about Peter Porker. I had an irrational dislike of him from childhood, though. You know how sometimes you dislike something as a child and never reevaluate it? Marvel Snap (and his appearance in Into the Spider-Verse) made me realize Spider-Ham is a fun and harmless (if corny) character. His Snap animation subtly helped change my opinion.
M’Baku
M’Baku is one of the few characters I think is better in the MCU than in the comics. His role as a meme card in Snap has made me love him even more. What's more funny than when M’Baku pops out of your deck unexpectedly? When you have a full board, and he pops his head in to say, “No room for M’Baku!”
I'd love to hear which characters Snap helped you appreciate more in the comments!
3) What should I read to learn about Doctor Doom?
There has also been a lot of chatter on social media about Doctor Doom after the recent announcement that Robert Downey Jr. would be playing him in upcoming MCU projects. Twitter wondered what exactly Doom’s powers were and questioned how evil he was. There are a ton of great Doctor Doom storylines, from the Waid/Wieringo “Unthinkable” storyline to Hickman's massive Doom-centric epic that starts with his run on Fantastic Four and culminates in the Secret Wars event. But if you're looking to get to know Doom in a single issue, author Ryan North captures Doom as well as anyone in “The Enemy of the Good” in Fantastic Four #7.
The best way I've seen Doctor Doom described is that he's easily a 9/10 in terms of power level and ability but is quite sure he is an 11/10 (which he is fully aware is a scientific impossibility). This mentality is on full display in North's delightful celebration of Doom.
If you're looking for a few more Doom short reading recommendations, check out Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom: Triumph and Torment (1989) by Roger Stern and Mike Mignola, John Byrne’s Fantastic Four #247 (1982) & #258 (1983), or the 1987 Emperor Doom graphic novel.
And here's a sweet Doom deck from Ant to try out!
Infinity Ticket alert 🚨 I wanted to cook with as many new cards as I could since I’ve been away, and Iron Tempo did not disappoint! Iron Lad has no bad hits other than Copycat (only steals text upon draw), and the deck’s cost distribution tempos out nicely. Code in Alt! pic.twitter.com/d3Ie5J5CV2
— Ant (@antron07) August 20, 2024
Now let's hop over to the official Marvel Snap discord and find some juicy developer answers!
4) Q: This question I suppose is mainly directed at QA. Whenever a new update is released, the old update is allowed to remain up for some time before it's deprecated, but why is that? Most other mobile titles enforce strict update parity and the current setup does allow for exploitation to happen because some players can deliberately choose not to immediately update the game. Are there any benefits that aren't obvious?
A: There are a handful of reasons and some of them just boil down to "because we can and it's neat!" From a QA standpoint though, we like the slow rolls because it allows us to watch in real time for issues to surface and gives us an opportunity to follow up and address them (either through a follow up client update or a more rapid server fix) before the majority of players update or turn off the tap entirely if something catastrophic is occurring. We actually update the client for internal employees first though as our initial canaries
That all being said, there is risk and you rightfully pointed out sometimes there are weird behaviors as a result of NOT updating immediately. We try to test for and catch a lot of those scenarios during the course of development, but there are a lot of things like data "stuff" that can get messy and hard to keep track of version to version.
We've also had to approach recent feature development of things like Alliances with backwards/forwards compatibility in mind which adds additional hurdles and fun testing each release!
But again, ultimately, I think if you were to ask a lot of folks on our team WHY we do it this way they'll come back to the "because we can" answer haha.
-Addison
Author's note:
In light of reports that those who didn't update have been able to earn League points in friendly matches, it might be time to reevaluate this policy. Some people would grind as much as they could on older patches. When the game shifted to Spotlight Caches, quite a few players exploited the system by not upgrading immediately since it was possible to know where the new Caches would fall on the collection track. Forced updates might be coming soon.
5) Q: Does data indicate that The Peak is more disliked than Dream Dimension?
I am mostly wondering what is the kind data referenced in the latest location removals. And are the location frequencies always considered in meta balance along with cards stats?
A: Yes, the difference was fairly stark in how players behaved against each location.
And yes, we also maintain a balanced frequency among locations that help various decks. A few months ago, we rebalanced a number of location appearances for this purpose.
-Glenn
Author's note:
The recent patch removed The Peak, Lamentis-1, and Weirdworld (for most players). I enjoyed bluff-snapping people out of Peak games, planning my entire game plan after Lamentis-1, and the mini-game of Weirdworld. However, I understand most players didn't. Snap players seem to have a pretty low tolerance for having their plan disrupted, and it's wise of the team to notice that and cater to it. I hope they don't go too far in removing challenging locations because I think a massive amount of the replayability, skill, and character of Marvel Snap resides in these kinds of locations.
That's it for this week! Leave a comment about the characters Snap helped you love, and find me on Twitter! See you next time!