When Blizzard Entertainment had Overwatch playable to the general public for the very first time at Gamescom in 2015, I queued up for line with a swarm of attendees and waited for hours to get my hands on the game. I liked what I played. So much, in fact, that I played a healthy amount of the game when it first released. And I’ve been craving a similar Hero Shooter ever since. Marvel Rivals has more or less scratched that itch with it’s 6-vs-6 formula and lack of Role Queue, reminiscent of the early era of Overwatch, but it’s a shame I can’t seem to get a Closed Beta key through the Twitch Drops campaign — because I would really like to play with my friends.
Mine is not an unpopular opinion on this matter. The Reddit is full of users complaining about how bad the roll-out for Closed Beta keys are, with bots swarming the redemption page every 5PM PST/12AM UTC. As of July 27, 2024 eBay is full of keys that can be purchased between the range of $30 to $100, which is steep for a Closed Beta. But given that you will be able to unlock an exclusive Venom skin, one that is reminiscent of his color scheme in Marvel versus Capcom 2, and the desire for players post-Closed Beta to want to show off their participation in this limited test, it doesn’t surprise me that keys are being snatched up and sold for a profit.
I’ll provide a quick breakdown of how these keys are acquired. You can watch any Marvel Rivals Twitch stream for an hour and be eligible to obtain a key. Keys are distributed through the Marvel Rivals website, assuming you’re lucky enough to redeem one. Every time a new period of key distribution starts, the page where you can redeem your keys lags out. Sometimes it logs you out of your Twitch account, which means you need to spend a few seconds or a minute logging back in, or you have to make it through a CAPTCHA. All of these things mean you are probably not getting a key to the Closed Beta.
If you are fortunate to get a key, then you can only redeem one key through the in-game client for the entirety of the Closed Beta. Keys also go particularly fast, with 20% to 14% being available to redeem maybe a minute or so after key redemptions go live. Which sucks. Because if you aren’t on at the exact time redemptions refresh, you’re probably not getting a key.
And playing Hero Shooters without your friends is no fun. I mean, I’ve definitely solo queued in Marvel Rivals enough to get me over half-way through the Battle Pass and close to that Cyan Venom skin during my three days with the Closed Beta. But when even one of my friends also got access, I was having a lot more fun. And even more when two and then three were able to jump in. We were queuing together and figuring out team synergy. We were having fun and working together to box in enemies for me to swallow them up as Jeff the Shark and spit four opposing players off the map! It was great! And it required a lot of coordination to make happen. I’m sure you can do that through communicating in game with randoms, but there’s a lot of fun to be had with friends.
These kinds of games have become social activities, ways for friends to spend time together overseas, or even just for a handful of matches to satiate their desire for carnage — or yearning for something like Overwatch that isn’t Overwatch. That’s me, I’m that person. And I want to be able to get my friends to join in on the fun so they can also experience the really cool moments I’m experiencing in game. Because I want to drag them into this, and I think the way Closed Beta keys are being distributed is making that really hard, and even potentially leaving a bad taste in the mouth of those that can’t participate.
I will probably play Marvel Rivals when it releases. It’s my kind of slop. But I genuinely feel bad for people that have been looking forward to this, or even dedicated time watching streams that won’t be able to participate. Because who knows, maybe they’ll feel burned enough to just not play the game.
Marvel Rivals is currently in closed beta on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Published: Jul 27, 2024 08:30 pm