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Phoenix Lab's Preview on the Bounty System from 2019
I am already tired of daily challenges, and it probably has something to do with Dauntless already having a superior version to them.
I know this is just going to get dismissed as another person hating change, but I think the switch back to daily challenges is a different case because it is just that... a regression. Bounties were Phx's attempt to address the failings of the classic daily/weekly challenge model, some of those problems being...
- Favoring players who can log in daily versus weekend warriors
- Getting challenges that players don't find fun
- Timing can feel bad
There have been some statements by Phx employees about being open to the idea of stacking daily challenges.... what? The overlap of daily/weekly challenges and bounties is already so blatant, while stacking challenges would make the system better it also means Phx is openly admitting that they still think the system they already made is better.
I was originally going to make a satiric post about how daily challenges could be improved, all of the changes culminating in what is effectively just bounties, but with all of the negativity on the subreddit right now I wanted to be a bit more clear. The number balance of daily/weekly challenges is the least of their issues, they are a fundamentally flawed system that prey on player FOMO.
Bounties from my perspective are just better daily/weekly challenges. Clearly Phx disagrees for some reason, but all we have gotten is some PR BS. The changes Phx wanted to make to the vault could have been done without reintroducing daily/weekly challenges. I've asked these questions before (and got no answer), I'll try again.
- Why did you shift away from daily/weekly challenges in favor of bounties back in the day?
- Why do you think that bounties failed to replace daily/weekly challenges?
- Why is returning back to daily/weekly challenges a good change for players?
Maybe if those were answered I could understand and appreciate this change. But without some clear information from Phx I am left to assume the worst.
Speaking of FOMO, an additional rant about how disgusting the Slayer Club is. Boosters aren't inherently bad, I don't have any problem with the weapon XP or escalation boosts, the problem is with the boost on coins/crystals. There is a huge difference between weapon XP and coins/crystals, one can be farmed infinitely and the other can only be gained at a capped rate. Every day you do a daily/weekly challenge and don't have the Slayer Club you are missing out on currency that you will never be able to recuperate. If I don't have the weapon XP booster I can just run a couple more hunts, spend a little more time, as is the ways of (decent to good) F2P monetization.
Imagine if buying the Hunt Pass did not retroactively give you the items from previously attained ranks. So if you were rank 20 in the Hunt Pass when you bought the Elite you would never be able to get the Elite items from rank 1-20. This is obviously a more extreme version of the problem with the Slayer Club, but it is not all dissimilar.
I know not everyone suffers from FOMO, but I certainly do. It makes me feel sick to my stomach that I won't be able to get all of the things if I don't buy the Slayer Club boost, I am feeling psychologically manipulated by Phx because "I might need it later". I know this isn't all logical on my part, but that doesn't matter, nobody is defending loot boxes because people with gambling addictions are illogical. Humans are flawed beings and companies that maliciously exploit those flaws can go fudge themselves.
The rants about the balance of daily versus weekly challenges frankly don't matter. The changes Phx alludes to in this post don't fix the real issues. The problem is that they exist in the first place in a game where the developers found a better way to divvy out rewards over a period of time.
I hope I came of clear and level headed about this. I have always been critical of Dauntless, but historically in a positive light. Rarely have I thought Dauntless made a bad change in direction, rather I think executions could have been better. Hopefully I have made a decent case that daily/weekly challenges aren't a failure of balance but rather an entirely bad system (that has been done better in this very game). I want to go back to the days where I could spend money and get a thing, I liked it when the Hunt Pass was the pseudo-subscription that you could get and be satisfied. This nickle-and-dime stuff Phx is implementing is having me spend less money, not more.
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