I play pretty much everyday, between 1-3 hours on weekdays and longer on weekends so am always ahead at the end of the month and wasting bulbs but not that many (the bonus of being single and not having to work more than 40 hours a week). Some people just can't play as often, but they should be encouraged to play too and I've seen so many people feeling that they can't keep up that something needs to give.
I'd like something that felt less grindy for those that just don't have enough time to keep up and feel less wasteful for those that can. I know some people grind through the map in a couple of days, I tend to get done and have 50 banked during the last few days and end up wasting a few bulbs afterwards. I posted a thread on helping people get more bulbs so they can keep up but people should be able to play how they want and keep up with the critical stuff (upgrades, characters, and legendary items), most of the rest of stuff feels pointless to be honest, especially victory slabs and punchers as we have so many and can use so few. Changing the XP per bulb from 15k to 5k was a great change as even just playing around in free roam zones you feel rewarded but it could be even better.
Maybe cut the prize map down so it's like 100 a month and let those that get done early gain rainbow stars instead of bulbs. Maybe just get rid of bulbs and let us use coins on the map instead; it's not like we have much else to do with them right now, and allow XP to give coins instead of bulbs so we don't get the same issue with XP being useless like we had in GW2 at max level. Maybe leave the maps largely the same but shift characters and upgrades out of the maps completely and have them be free or just cost coins, leaving the maps like they are in Paladins that just give skins and other secondary items for those that can play more.
Something has to give PopCap/EA. BfN needs some technical and balance improvements, more stuff to do, and other improvements so it can live up to its potential but we also need to encourage people to play. As I've posted before, if people want to spend money they often will, if they feel forced they're likely to quit. It certainly drove me away from WoT and OW. There's a lot of people that loved GW1 and GW2 that aren't liking BfN as much and the prize map/monetization is a big part of it. Give folks a reason to play even when they just paid the 'box price' and maybe they'll eventually spend a little more here and there too. There are too many F2P aspects to the game right now for a game that isn't F2P and it's definitely driving some away.
