Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

While searching for a good deal on Amazon coins so I can make a purchase in the GoW, I was led to this review page and ended up reading many of the 1-star reviews that resonated my hatred toward this game. I, too, have become an addict of this game; am I am fully aware it is slowly destroying my relationship with my spouse, my saving in my bank account, and many other aspects of my life. Reading so many stories, I decided to share mine too; meanwhile, I also wanted to offer my perspective of the company MZ as you might find it interesting that I have an onsite interview with MZ for a full-time employment opportunity. xxxx---- My Story ----xxxx I was looking for a full-time job in the Bay Area, I received an invite to interview with this up-and-coming next-gen mobile gaming company called Machine Zone for a technical role. I couldn’t be more excited. I have always loved gaming, I owned every generation of Playstation and Nintendo consoles; but I had never play much social games on mobile devices. As part of the interview due diligence, I downloaded GoW and started playing the game. I even bought a $4.99 pack just to see what it is about. I went to the interview at MZ, and I met 7 or 8 incredibly smart people who are all amazingly good at their job and function. Next day I received a call, “sorry the hiring manager would like someone who is more technical, thanks for coming we’ll let you know if there’s any other opportunity.” Though disappointed, I understand that compared to these really smart and capable go-getters, I could see why they wanted someone who already knows what she's doing instead of spending time training me and get me up to speed. Oh well, at least the game is fun, so I kept playing it (and I did land on my dream job later on in case you’re worried). I even joined an alliance that I felt in love with... Not even within a year, I found myself spending 4-5 hours perday on this game and have already spent a total of more than $1,000 real USD on this game thus far (and I actually am going to spend more coming in today) Isn’t it ironic? I went in for an interview hoping to get paid by them, but I ended up giving them my money. Boy, are they good at what they do! :) xxxx---- The Game Design Does Not Reward Loyal Players ----xxxx My biggest problem with MZ is that it doesn’t care how loyal you are to the game (there are a little things they do, but they're not nearly enough), and every time I spend money, I feel worse about myself (I always imagine that’s how exactly how an addict feels) – but I’m not talking about I feel bad spending the money (heck, I can afford it by purchasing four less PS titles) – I’m talking about often when I just dropped $200 to purchase X amount of virtual goods, MZ will offer 2 or even 3 times more of the same virtual goods the very next day for half the price I paid!! If I had waited one day, I could have gotten 2-3 times more of these virtual goods – how does that make you feel as a purchasing consumer? I know many players quit because the new players can literally buy a $100 pack today can become stronger than an old player who purchased thousands of dollar a few months back. Here is an example, Just exactly 13 days ago, spending $200 got me 55,000 fire shards and 75-trillion food resources (among many other things). As of today, a $200-spend will get you 300,000 fire shards and 300-trillion food resources (among many other things). And just last month, the same $100 will get you 1,000 fire shards and a few trillion food. How is that fair for the older players? If this type of pricing happened in real stores for real goods in such short amount of time, the lawyers will be lining up at the company front doors; but sadly virtual goods isn’t part of the consumer protection laws, and MZ feels that they’re entitled to sell whatever they want, because these “things” they sells are not real, despite the players are paying real money. xxxx---- MZ Employees Don’t (Really) Play the Game Themselves ----xxxx Now you feel bad about your purchasing, so you write a ticket to their “Support” to voice your regret and sadness. Support being the responsive support they are, write back to you quickly and let you know that they have no control of marketing’s decision and that they couldn’t possibly post a schedule ahead of time of what they plan to sell (duh, because no one will buy any more), but rest assure your concern will definitely be directed to the right party, just like your last 40 tickets you submitted. Well, clearly almost no one at MZ is also playing their own game. In fact, while I was interviewing at MZ, no one seemed to care to ask me whether I had play their games before. And IN FACT, when I asked any of the interviewers whether they play the game themselves, their responses are always the same: “I have (or sometimes don't have) an account, but the job really has kept me too busy to play the game.” That is a true statement – as I was told by everyone who works that that MZ employees are working 10-15 hours a day to make the game even more successful (i.e. to help the company to bring in more revenue). Many of the old GoW players know, there are many aspect of the games that just don’t make any sense or seem to be fair – and I honestly think that is primarily due to the fact that seldom people at MZ actually play the game themselves, which would have allowed them to understand the true dynamic of the game and what the good and bad gaming experience are within GoW. The marketing team is all about utilizing player’s data to get more money out of cohorts, to prevent players from dropping out and churning, and how to design the game to make players to spend even more. The sales operations team are focusing taking in the data and making the perfect pack that contain the perfect virtual goods for each particular cohort – so they exceed their quota and get their bonuses. They all are extremely good at what they do, and MZ (a privately held company) is evaluated at 9-billion USD for a good reason – but there are more than 500 people working at MZ of which less than 3% of the people (I’m guessing) play the game as in-depth as its own loyal & hard-core players. There’s only so much you can get out of data, player experience and frustration is not one of them; but then again so long the money is rolling in, why would MZ care about player experience? Sometimes I can’t help but think how Gabe Leydon, the founder and CEO, feel about his game the way it is today compared to the one he invented for the intention of a a good gameto play? I also wonder - does Gabe even play GoW anymore nowadays? xxxx---- The Money The Players Spent is Being Used Somewhere Else ----xxxx MZ went through a re-branding and decided to call itself MZ (instead of Machine Zone) because it wants to rebrand itself as a “real-time” company. It wants to leverage the real-time engine they have built for GoW and Mobile Strike and come up with a real-time product and services that it can sell to other businesses - it no longer wants to be just a gaming company. From the business perspective, I applaud that as it is a great way to grow and make its way its eventual IPO. Coming up with new products and services takes money, so does putting together a whole new marketing and sales team for sell this new baby… Well, thank goodness that MZ has GoW and Mobile Strike as cash cows to provide the cash flow needed to fund this new venture that MZ is embracing. But thinking from a player’s perspective, it really sucks. Every dollar I pay for MZ, the majority of that dollar is not being used to make the game better, it is being used to fund another part of the company that will only eventually take more internal focus away from the game I'm playing today. GoW paying players, how does that make you feel? xxxx---- Final Words ----xxxx One thing you have to understand is that MZ really isn’t doing anything wrong from a business perspective. Hiring many great people, making a name for itself in Silicon Valley and paving its way to IPO all take capital, and you can’t blame them for doing whatever it takes to squeeze out every single dollar you have - and trust me, they have not pulled all the levers they can pull thus far; they haven’t showed their kings and aces yet. From the gaming experience and consumer perspective, MZ has becomes its own victim, it has gotten way too big way too fast, and there’s no turning back now the investors behind the company is anticipating a big return. The pack will only get exponentially better, and every single new component of the game will require spending. Oh man, check out the latest GoW sales - this $99.99 Buy-One-Get-Two 50% Off Lunar New Year pack seems incredible! 300,000 fire shards, 300-trillion food rss, and not to mention the newest and latest full Jiao Dragon set gears that is released in the last hour. I think I will buy it with my remaining Amazon coins even though I know I’ll probably regret it tomorrow when another new pack is out… I just can’t seem to help myself. Godspeed to you.