It's really weird that they say they didn't design the game for monetization, and the stuff you can buy now wouldn't really help with the grind, but the game still utilizes basically every monetization tactic to a ludicrous degree.
- Multiple currencies to keep track of.
- A "premium" currency, available via real money transactions.
- A "main" currency that you get like water.
- Randomization of rewards.
- Limited-time specific purchases.
- Daily limited tasks.
- A massive influx of useless guff (ie, variation icons) to pad out the randomization.
Like, take out the randomization or the "opportunity" to collect hundreds of pointless little icons, and I'd figure it'd be a bit more fun.
I mean, wouldn't they make more money if you could buy what you wanted at any time though ?
Hell I would have fucking bought my intros and stuff you know.
The fact you can't does kinda line up with what they said.
They just horribly executed it to the point where it's 0 fun.
I don't believe there's anything wrong with having to work for your cosmetics as it's the alternative to just paying for them, but they tuned it up far too much.
Also it should be clearer how to get what you want, and it should reward you better for doing arcade, towers etc...
I think there was clearly some predatory design involved but they also clearly did not test this through, clearly the meat of the game was everything else and they nailed that so they probably thought they'd figure it out after launch.
Like literally NOBODY is having fun with this so that can't be the intention.