Gaming Insights - Marvel Avengers Academy P2P Profiles - "Luke"

Being F2P (Free-to-Play) in online games, I am very interested in how paying players (P2P or Pay-to-Play) approach the games. This anonymous survey looks at alias "Luke", a P2P player for the game Marvel Avengers Academy. Our stock questions are in bold.

1. How did you find Marvel Avengers Academy and what made you commit time to the game? 
• I saw this game in Google Play store and being a huge Marvel fan, I went to try this game.
2. How much time are you able to spend playing the game compared to: What you initially expected; the amount of time you actually play the game; and what you would like your time investment to be?
• I'm able to spend a very good amount on this game timewise since I don't work due to my disabilities and I didn't start spending money till the game had its first event which was the Guardians of the Galaxy (I did the [Beach Event] but it didn't influence me to spend money).
3. Does this have any influence in your decision to spend money? 
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4. What keeps you coming back to the game / what do you like about the game itself? E.g., The actual mechanics of the game and events such as crafting items and fighting bosses; or collecting characters or decor; or laying out your Academy campus; or following the various story/one particular story; etc. 
• I enjoy the story and the game itself and the mechanics of the games are sometimes ok, or sometimes downright awful. The mechanics that I really like is the battle animations like we had in [Guardians of the Galaxy], British Invasion and Spider-Man, but what I really hate is what they did with Lizard. By making him a battle boss and then spend Generators to get his streak 7 done and then make him a premium character. Totally hated that and pardon my French but that actually make me fucking livid, was the first time ever I hated the game with such passion but I still brought him as I didn't want to miss him, but I made my feeling quite known to TinyCo.
5. What specifically about the game makes you spend money?
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6. Do you compare your purchases in the game or your reasons to spend money, to any other type of expense (e.g., it's part of your entertainment budget not different from watching a movie, or it's like buying a service with no physical goods you take away, or it's a consumable like eating at a restaurant, etcetera)? Do you feel this comparison is key to understanding why people spend money?
• No, I just spend money on this game if I decide I want to (so far I been using an unlimited assumption of how much i'm willing to spend but now I have decided to impose a limit).
7. When did you first buy Shards and what made you decide to? E.g., Did you decide to do so as soon as you saw the game, right when you started playing, when the "Buy One, Get One" quest ["Buy a Box of Credits and get US$5 of Shards for free!"] appeared, some experience later in the game, etc...
• I decided from Guardian of the Galaxy which is my favourite franchise.
8. Do you have a budget or other heuristic to determine how much you spend per unit time (e.g., per week); do you have a maximum amount you are willing to put into this game in total after which you will definitely not spend any more? What is your decision process / reasoning?
• I didn't have a budget but as I stated, I have now imposed a limit.
9. How much have you spent so far and how do you think you compare with other P2P in the game? How does it compare to your other online game purchases and do you use those purchases to decide how much to spend?
• So far I have spent roughly £600-£700 since the Guardian's event.
10. How much commitment to the game do you have now that you have spent money, and does that commitment increase the more you spend? What would make you walk away now?
• My commitment to this game is quite strong pre-Spider-Man event but after this event, I think my commitment is being very tested, because there was a few things I hate what they done in this event and I [am] personally beginning to get extremely frustrated.
11. How do you feel about F2P players in general? How do you feel about F2P players able to get Shards without paying (e.g., through levelling up or watching advertisements)? How does this influence your purchases? Other than having spent real money in the game, how else do you think you differ from F2P players?
• F2P I have no issues with how they play the game but from TinyCo perspective I do think they need to ease up on some of the challenges they set to F2P like if all free characters are supposed to be obtainable. Otherwise situation like Electro will be horrible. [ed: Basically it was impossible for F2P and extremely costly for P2P to defeat Mysterio 7 times].
12. What are your expectations / what do you feel you should be entitled to compared to someone who is F2P? How would you feel / what would you do if at some point the game stops developing and no further content is created. Do you feel this is part of the natural life cycle of a game and to be expected?
• Well I think at this current rate, this game will die in 2 years due to the abuse they are treating the whalers so F2P will struggle to have new content cos at the time of speaking to you, I know at least 8 whalers who have quit this game and I'm on the verge of stop spending if the next big event abuses both the whalers and the F2P cos I do think of them when I play this game. I mean personally myself as a whale, I share information so the F2P can make a plan on what they wanna do (I do this via Discord).

If you also play Marvel Avengers Academy and have spent money on the game, we'd love to interview you too and compile more insights into P2P player for all the F2P out there.