MARVEL Puzzle Quest

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My all-time most played Steam title: welp… no escaping that. I have some good company, I’m sure. And… last played: October 2018, during my last stretch of underemployment? Thank the powers above and below for that: my humble praises unto thee. Simply put, Marvel Puzzle Quest (MPQ) was my match-3 dopamine-schedule slot machine leading into and through my grad school experience. Each match (of untold thousands) was a little fix, and likely a task deferred: an itch, a private tic; a cup of water moving a lake, a sip from a thimble. And ten years on, I still can’t quite explain how or why it got its tethers into me during those years… aside from the grossly obvious facts that any freemium-afflicted player can tell you: these types of P2W PVP/PVE mobile-style games—with or without distinguished IP—are explicitly and exclusively designed to keep your hand on the screen or on the mouse. There is no philosophy or goal beyond continued engagement (speaking of the 2010s, please see: Facebook), and it’s certainly not contentious to wonder whether certain types of brains are even more susceptible to the types of reward schedules that such apps engineer and, at best/worst, perfect. For starters—and to the initiate’s wide-eyed befuddlement—there is always [i]so much[/i] to collect: a half dozen currencies (probably double or triple that by now), scores of memorable characters (many several of which are at least nominally playable), all within 24 hours a day of staggered events and braided clock-rush & inning or attempt-based modes. The early game curve was honestly pretty fun (story mode, neat!). Gravy until the internal economy really gets its hooks into you, the developer abandons narrative content outside of the collection economy, and progression becomes synonymous with compulsion. Any new player should, inshallah, be able to look at the payout structure and complexity and feel compelled to go running in the opposite direction; and any seasoned player could explain that the current meta tends to reward a very small set of builds centered on pushing MPQ’s latest rarity/nerfing/defensive energy-suck scheme, [i]always[/i] incentivizing currency purchases for energy feeding “PVP” rushes and top-tier pulls. (Although dammit, the balance of ladder-climb & “prevent” builds in tournament play can actually be pretty neat). But MPQ was first-and-foremost my partial off-switch for my brain when I had 1) a whole lot on my plate and 2) a supremely abnormal work/sleep schedule. The game is a devilish, marvelous enticement to [b]full[/b] procrastination for anyone with things to accomplish, and an absolutely pointless ouroboros digital hoarding demon disguised as an (a)hedonic treadmill. Le sigh. After my total playtime, maybe I should have a bunch of pithy and insightful commentaries on my favorite covers, and the feel of the game's probability tables and cascades and power/counters and stunlock synergies. I mean, I could just reinstall for a few games to see where they’ve taken the design and feel in these intervening years, yeah? Just one last smoke? But all I really want to relay to any potential new player coming across this remains: don’t start playing this. I could tell you exactly what I was doing in October of 2018: and so as not to bore you with the details, it was getting on with my effing life. Ignore this advice at your peril, or you may very well end up several hundreds of hours later [i]slightly[/i] under-resourced to push for the top-tier covers… and worse, starting to complain about the meta in the Discord… as you make your first $19.99 purchase in-game. [b]Pros:[/b] [List] [*] Every day brings a fresh decision of how to fill your waking hours [*] Video games are fun, and like movies and books or sporting events, can have meaningful “endings” [/list] [b]Cons:[/b] [List] [*]We’re simple animals with glaring neurological frailties [/list]