The game Marvel Rivals, the hero shooter from NetEase, is about to get an update on December 18th but at the same time, the server will stay on through the new content and fixes at 9 AM UTC. However, the announcement has led to a general expression of dissatisfaction among the players concerning the performance, matchmaking, and monetization issues, and this has practically turned the patch in the background.
News about this coming patch was revealed by the official Marvel Rivals account, and yes, a new patch is coming! December 18, 9 AM UTC, which is… early for some of us but whatever. What they are prominently announcing is? There is no server downtime. Just update your client and you will be back on. Sounds smooth, right? They even put out all the detailed patch notes so that you can dive into the minutiae of balancing and bug fixing, along with probably a ton of new cosmetics. This is the case with a live-service game like this.
But the problem is, if you ignore the initial tweet and go deeper into the replies—a thing that probably is always the place where the real story is—the atmosphere is very far from festive. It is a lot of grumbling, and they are doing it at an astonishing speed. The way it is, the community has turned this patch announcement into a loud shout of all the complaints they have been holding back.
Among the complaints raised, the performance issue is the most mentioned one. A user named Ana (seeks_350) vented her frustration in a thread, which is very much like one we all can relate to, and is just… painfully relatable. “I try my best but I’m just absolutely fed up with this,” she says, continuing to tell the story of her having taken a break and returned only to experience “every single season the performance just gets absolutely worse and worse.” She blames the game and her rig—She has listed her specs (RTX 2060, Ryzen 5 5600x, 16GB RAM) and tells that she has done all possible things like reinstalling, file verification, and even PC resets—bringing the scare of reaching the end of the technical support line. “It is the game,” she concludes. Another fellow gamer jumped into the thread admitting his frustration with “this nonsense” since the battles are prolonged and playing on terrible servers he is now wishing for a server in their region (likely South Africa) that would make the experience somewhat less annoying.
Ensuing this, matchmaking turned out to be yet another… a completely different issue altogether. The matchmaking, oh what a dilemma. Many replies are pointing fingers directly at NetEase claiming the use of EOMM—Engagement Optimized Matchmaking. This is a sophisticated term for a system that allegedly manipulates your win/loss streaks to keep you playing rather than giving you fair matches based purely on skill. Onizuka Groyper, one of the players is on a quest, replying to the tweet and even to himself, demanding that the devs ‘own up to using EOMM.’ He asserts in his a previous match making video the castle of lies. Another, JayJayBombadil, said it in a nutshell: “You really need to eliminate EOMM and give us genuine matchmaking. I have been gaming for decades and no other game has such consistent win and loss streaks.” He cautions that it might give short-term revenues but will “kill your game in the long run.” That is a serious indictment from a veteran gamer.
And of course, the issue of monetization is always brought up whenever a game update is issues. One player, Blank, just posted a GIF with the caption “So many skins to buy in a limited time” which is quite the same as the modern free-to-play fatigue. Another, DarkTaintedKing, asked whether the returning bundles can be bought with in-game currency (Units) or it has to be real money only. The announcements are always followed by a demand to spend more money.
There are also a number of minor yet more precise requests. Michael wants the Black Widow bugs dealt with. Someone else desires a Moon Knight sitting emote. Kratos Dios asked, in Spanish, whether the console-to-PC crossplay will ever happen. And then the classic balance whine: “Iron Man is very bad,” one succinct player says. It’s like the community has served a whole buffet of its concerns.
Wait, what was I saying? Oh right, the patch. So there is going to be a patch. December 18. It may have some cool stuff! New tweaks, maybe a new mode or map teasing in those notes. Nevertheless, the real story is not about the patch itself—it is the environment it is coming into. NetEase developers are facing a hard time. They are coming along with the new content which is a good idea but a big chunk of the community is also playing on PlayStation and Xbox platforms where these issues are felt.
