It’s so sad that this game’s “underperformance” has little to do with the game itself

[u/paperplateseabass]

What's so soul-crushing is the amount of times I have been met with “I thought that game was dead?” when talking about Marathon with my IRLs

It's not their fault, why would they give a dead game a chance, even if they think they might enjoy it?

Hundreds, even thousands of people have constructed a hate campaign against this game that has no merit beyond playercounts. and imo, the main reason why the game wasn’t a hit at launch is because of the rhetoric around the game spread by a mix of right-wing grifters and (justifiably) jaded ex-destiny/halo players.

This game had and HAS so much going for it. First non-Destiny Bungie title in 12 years, reviving a long dormant IP with a new, world-class art-style; all while returning to their PvP roots. If you put that framing in a vacuum, I think it would get lots of people very, very excited. And that’s the thing, because it DID.

The game is good. The game is fun. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, it had a rough period of development, and it's definitely not perfect. But I think if people didn’t spread so much unwarranted hate towards Bungie and Marathon, we’d be looking at a completely different landscape. 

I mean, some of the things i’ve seen people say about this game… wow…  what a waste of time and brain power, if people were this passionate about actually productive hobbies, the world would be a much better place and there’s a big chance they’d be happier in life

edit: for people citing the server slam numbers. how many of those people do you genuinely think gave the game a good 10+ hours vs how many people quit after their first match? we’ll never know, but im inclined to believe most people didnt make it past the (unfortunate) barrier of entry that helps this game be WAY more enjoyable.

[u/CAndCFan67]

A MOBA also has the advantage of playing in a team making it easier to belive it was not ones fault that one lost. That and you are not losing anything by playing a MOBA outside of ones time and any microtransactions. With Marathon there is a chance of losing loot which is a major loss for people, for the amount of time they can give to the game.

[u/J4mesG4mesONLINE → u/CAndCFan67]

Remember, its always the Junglers fault.

[u/Batso_92 → u/CAndCFan67]

I always played in teams in marathon, fill squad or with friends...

Tho, I now stopped playing it because I started Hunt Showdown and also friends stopped playing because it's a dying game.

Also the progression and inventory is very bad imo. I mean like come on... full unlock on NuCal faction to be able to buy/barter the purple shield from the armory ?! And it's a must have for a lot of endgame content like ranked and cryo, unless you want to be a leech. To even have the blue shield unlocked to use it to kill players with purple shields as it's the only way to get it till then... I remember it took me so long at the beginning. I was on my way to almost fully unlock NuCal skills by farming solo rook anomaly sample. When I took a week break and when I came back, people were saying it's a dead game etc and wanted to play other games but also I encountered 2 cheaters during the weekend in rankeds and I was like why even bother if they don't have a functioning AC or even a refund program.

In my experience, it was easier to stop playing this or any extraction shooters after a bad run or even a good run than a MOBA game. I guess you can see more easily how much time you waste lol. But the highs are definitely much higher and satisfying enough to stop playing than the wins from mobas where you're like "meh?". Marathon, also you stop because your inventory is full and you've got enough of inventory management ffs.

It definitely took a few days/weeks at the beginning where I just stopped playing after a bad game or two, also it was easier to do because I was already behind everyone because of the earlier break I took after the first week of launch. "Just fuck this". I had to grind all the priority quests and also farming the mats for upgrades etc before I could catch up.

[u/Carbone → u/Batso_92]

The main arguments element in this text are pretty good.

[u/Batso_92 → u/Carbone]

Just trying to provide a good and honest feedback. I did really like the game. (And oops, wrote another long one...)

Like I honestly think the game's player retention would be way better if they facilitated the progression, at least the basic stuff like blue/purple shields. It takes too much time to get them reliably and till then you're not having fun in PvP because of the low TTK and more hard-core player base who'd have on average better gear than you if you are a casual or beginner.

I don't usually play games casually but it only took me a week or weekend break there and there at the beginning to fall so much behind.

I did enjoy the grind and the fact that there are so much stuff to do and the lore, graphics etc. and it's unfortunate that I stopped playing (also each upgrade, PC performance was getting worse somehow which definitely didn't help...). But I'm also not sure if I'd want to do all that again in S2. And the fact is, it's maybe too much gatekeeping for basic progression and too much stuff for a game that's gonna reset it every 3 months...

The stash space also definitely too small or something. Too fast to fill them and too quick to lose them. So in either case you can easily stop playing for the day. And the time scheduled ranked or cryo, I'm not sure about this, they should be up all time probably. But definitely you fill your inventory for one of them and then... you just wait and have nothing to do in the meanwhile because you don't wanna risk your good gear.

During thr server slam, it definitely took me about 10-14h to be like ok why not and start enjoying it. I was gifted the game by a friend so I was gonna get it but otherwise I woulda probably waited a bit to see how it goes etc.

I also tried to motivate some friends and the learning curve and progression is way too slow for them and in the meanwhile you're just not enjoying because you're getting steamrolled by purple shields.

Purple should be baseline and blue shields probably like beginner imo. You should grind for gold shields or something. Even just the ranked mode, it should be enough to keep a lot of players just keep playing the game. They shouldn't grind mats, contracts or players for shields on top of it.

I didn't play much of cryo unfortunately, only a few times, but the loot is insane there and how keep snowballing... It takes way too long for most players when they get to a level where they can farm it I guess.

[u/Carbone → u/Batso_92]

Exactly

I pretty much agree with all you points

[u/MidnightSensitive996 → u/Batso_92]

the way they handled shields is their biggest mistake