Announcement about BFZ card packs + compensation

Hibernum_JC

Hi folks.

First, we would like to sincerely apologize for the situation that occurred last Friday. We realized far too late that there was a miscommunication issue with you guys, and I’m here to explain what happened, what steps we are taking to address the situation and to explain what we will do moving forward.

Here is the crux of the issue - there is a disconnect between what is visible in the card inventory (the entire set) and what is available in the card packs. There always was an option to view what is available in the card packs (tapping the I icon in the vault will show you exactly what can be looted from the card packs) but unfortunately we did not communicate this well enough and in doing so made many of you think that the list of cards visible in the inventory was what was available in the card packs.

We are taking steps to address this. We like the idea that you guys can see the entirety of the set from the get go, plan around it and see what you would like to loot, but at the same time we want to release cards on a regular basis. In the future, we will implement a new way to make it obvious which cards in the inventory can and cannot be looted at the moment. What that is exactly is not yet defined, but we do want to make sure this is visible, clean and most importantly easily understandable for everyone so this issue does not repeat itself. As of now, it will not change, but it will in the future.

One of the upsides to having lower card counts in packs is that it lets you guys loot some of the core cards from the set a bit more easily - a smaller pool of cards ensures you’ll be getting more specific cards. Again we are sorry this wasn’t expressely and clearly communicated, and we do strive to do better in the future so that everyone can make clear and informed decisions when opening packs.

As of right now, if you would like to know which cards are available in card packs, I would invite you to tap the I icon in the vault to see exactly what you can loot from card packs.

As some of you have noted on the forums, there are 17 additional cards coming later in the card packs. These cards are the following:
Omnath, Locus of Rage
Sire of Stagnation
Angelic Captain
Brood Butcher
Brutal Expulsion
March from the Tomb
Bane of Bala Ged
Oblivion Sower
Ulamog, the Ceaseless Hunger
Void Winnower
Aligned Hedron Network
Conduit of Ruin
Desolation Twin
Eldrazi Devastator
Endless One
Shrine of the Forsaken Gods
Titan's Presence

As some of you already have seen, Ulamog and Shrine of the Forsaken Gods were already offered as special offers, but they will definitely be included in card packs in the future. More cards from this set may be added as special offers moving forward, but rest assured that you will have a chance to loot them from BFZ card packs. We will of course announce when they are added to the BFZ packs, but in the meantime they cannot be looted from packs. The same logic applies to the Planeswalkers - every single Planeswalker that appeared as special offers and as Quick Battle rewards will be available in the vault for purchase for Crystals. This Friday, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Ob Nixilis Reignited will be available in the vault for 250 Crystals each.

As a token of gratitude for staying with us, we will be sending each and every player a compensation gift. It will be sent out shortly! Again, we are very sorry about the situation, and we are working hard so that such a situation does not happen again.

I will be sticking around on here for a while to answer questions you guys might have.

Fiddler

I would say that is exactly what we wanted to hear. Thank you for the sticky.

It is not on topic, but will the missing blue fat pack reward from the weekend challenge be addressed today as well?

Hibernum_JC

Fiddler wrote:

I would say that is exactly what we wanted to hear. Thank you for the sticky.

It is not on topic, but will the missing big blue box reward from the weekend challenge be addressed today as well?

You're welcome!

As for the missing blue fat pack as part of the Tezzeret rewards, we've seen reports of it and we're currently investigating the issue. Stay tuned!

Flaricus

This is the reason I am sticking around, and why I have put down money on this great game!! And exactly what I needed to hear. I am a part of acouple other F2P games that RARELY communicate with their player base in this way.

Thanks for the sticky, and am excited to hear things about events in the future

Hibernum_JC

Flaricus wrote:

This is the reason I am sticking around, and why I have put down money on this great game!! And exactly what I needed to hear. I am a part of acouple other F2P games that RARELY communicate with their player base in this way.

Thanks for the sticky, and am excited to hear things about events in the future

I'm actually a big player in some F2P games and I also rarely experience this kind of communication. It's part of why it's so important to me (and to us at Hibernum) that we are open, transparent and clear about how we communicate with you guys.

Meto5000

First of all, I'd like to say that I appreciate that your team is addressing this issue. I'm still sour that the two Big Boxes I purchased did not have the chance to contain 2 of Rare Cards that I was chasing (Desolation Twin and Lantern Scout), but I'm glad there are plans to address this for the future. In the meantime I think it would be a good idea to have a dedicated sticky note about what cards are included/not included in the packs that are currently available. It would be great if this note was also included in the zendesk faq pages as well. I do worry that because the compensation is game wide and not targeted at people who spent money/lots of crystals on bigger purchases, that it won't be very much, but hey, at least it's something I guess.

I'd also like you to consider readdressing how you're releasing PWs in terms of Crystals/Cash.

You say that "This Friday, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Ob Nixilis Reignited will be available in the vault for 250 Crystals each.", so essentially they're being released for an a la carte price of ~$10 each in Hard in-game currency, vs $15 cash and I think the bundle included a single colored fat pack and some runes. I actually think that's a decent price point. But why not let people pay Crystals from day one for an increased rate of say 400 for JUST the PW, and then 2 weeks later reduce the price to 250? It's not like gaining Crystals is the easiest thing to do and the $15 price gives you nice perk for paying cash. Players that have a glut of Crystals can still buy the Planeswalker but for a much higher price. On top of this, there's currently this weird period where you can't buy the new Planeswalkers at all and it seems weird. With the system I'm proposing you'd still be capitalizing on people who are willing to pay a premium for the new PWs before they are released for their "normal price".

Hibernum_JC

Meto5000 wrote:

First of all, I'd like to say that I appreciate that your team is addressing this issue. I'm still sour that the two Big Boxes I purchased did not have the chance to contain 2 of Rare Cards that I was chasing (Desolation Twin and Lantern Scout), but I'm glad there are plans to address this for the future. In the meantime I think it would be a good idea to have a dedicated sticky note about what cards are included/not included in the packs that are currently available. It would be great if this note was also included in the zendesk faq pages as well. I do worry that because the compensation is game wide and not targeted at people who spent money/lots of crystals on bigger purchases, that it won't be very much, but hey, at least it's something I guess.

I don't have the exact compensation we will be handing out, but I can tell you it should be satisfactory for everyone. As for the list of cards, it's something we can look into - I was worried that having a giant post with all the BFZ cards with 17 cards missing might be a bit much, but we'll see what we can do.

Meto5000 wrote:

I'd also like you to consider readdressing how you're releasing PWs in terms of Crystals/Cash.

You say that "This Friday, Gideon, Ally of Zendikar and Ob Nixilis Reignited will be available in the vault for 250 Crystals each.", so essentially they're being released for an a la carte price of ~$10 each in Hard in-game currency, vs $15 cash and I think the bundle included a single colored fat pack and some runes. I actually think that's a decent price point. But why not let people pay Crystals from day one for an increased rate of say 400 for JUST the PW, and then 2 weeks later reduce the price to 250? It's not like gaining Crystals is the easiest thing to do and the $15 price gives you nice perk for paying cash. Players that have a glut of Crystals can still buy the Planeswalker but for a much higher price. On top of this, there's currently this weird period where you can't buy the new Planeswalkers at all and it seems weird. With the system I'm proposing you'd still be capitalizing on people who are willing to pay a premium for the new PWs before they are released for their "normal price".

I'll bring this up to our product manager, see what he thinks, but I can't guarantee anything. It's an interesting proposition, but I'm not in any position to decide these things. As I said, I will bring it up however.

EDUSAN

I still believe that not releasing the whole set is a mistake, SPECIALLY if most of the cards that are not released are the ones the mayority of us want (rares and mythics)

Thanks for clarifying this and compensating us, but compensations should really compensate.
I've sent more or less 1500 crystals in 2 BFZ big box and 1 BFZ fat pack hoping to get cards that we cant get.
And im sure a ton of people spent even more on a semi-released set. Are you guys going to compensate us with exactly the same amount of crystals we spent on BFZ since release? i dont think so, i dont even think the compensation would get near what i (that i get 10-20 crystals per ladder event) had to work to be able to spent those 1500 crystals

What is the idea behind releasing a set without releasing it completely?
If you guys would have communicated that the BFZ release didnt have all the cards, and that the rest would be released later do you think we would have sunk all our crystals on packs? I dont think so

you could release cards in the form of events rewards or SP campaigns. I totally disagree with your way of doing this.

And 250 crystals for the NEW PW seem a bit too much. Considering the ones the game came with costed 10, to go from 10 to 250 is outrageous. What are the next wave of PW cost? 500? I would have expected the NEW PW to cost 50.
I know we can get the things eventually, but 250 feels like i have to chose if i want a PW or some cards because there is no way i can make enough crystals for a PW and a FAT PACK in a month.

Meto5000

Hibernum_JC wrote:

As for the list of cards, it's something we can look into - I was worried that having a giant post with all the BFZ cards with 17 cards missing might be a bit much, but we'll see what we can do.

I realize the forums don't have a way to insert html tables so presenting the data in an easily digestible format isn't easy. You could link to a blog page on the d3go wordpress site but I'm not sure how quick that would be since it requires cross team participation. I'll do something on Decktester to easily disseminate this information as well.

In the meantime, just having a dedicated sticky about the new cards that just got included AND the cards that are yet to come would be great.

Also, are any of the following cards slated to be added at any time?

• Unnatural Aggression
• Jaddi Offshoot
• Munda, Ambush Leader
• Planar Outburst
• Stasis Snare
• Swarm Surge
• Fortified Rampart

These are including in the official (non planeswalker) mtg card list for BFZ but they don't appear in the mtgpq card list.

Hibernum_JC

EDUSAN wrote:

I still believe that not releasing the whole set is a mistake, SPECIALLY if most of the cards that are not released are the ones the mayority of us want (rares and mythics)

Thanks for clarifying this and compensating us, but compensations should really compensate.
I've sent more or less 1500 crystals in 2 BFZ big box and 1 BFZ fat pack hoping to get cards that we cant get.
And im sure a ton of people spent even more on a semi-released set. Are you guys going to compensate us with exactly the same amount of crystals we spent on BFZ since release? i dont think so, i dont even think the compensation would get near what i (that i get 10-20 crystals per ladder event) had to work to be able to spent those 1500 crystals

What is the idea behind releasing a set without releasing it completely?
If you guys would have communicated that the BFZ release didnt have all the cards, and that the rest would be released later do you think we would have sunk all our crystals on packs? I dont think so

you could release cards in the form of events rewards or SP campaigns. I totally disagree with your way of doing this.

And 250 crystals for the NEW PW seem a bit too much. Considering the ones the game came with costed 10, to go from 10 to 250 is outrageous. What are the next wave of PW cost? 500? I would have expected the NEW PW to cost 50.
I know we can get the things eventually, but 250 feels like i have to chose if i want a PW or some cards because there is no way i can make enough crystals for a PW and a FAT PACK in a month.

There's multiple reasons why we're not releasing the entire set at once, but overall we like to slowly release content instead of just dropping it in one go. We did that for Origins since we didn't have a choice, but going forward we're going to release the sets in a more controlled fashion.

Part of the reason why the initial Planeswalkers cost 10 Crystals is because we deliberately wanted everyone to have access to all 5 colors for very cheap (almost free). It feels really bad when you loot cards for a color you simply cannot play with, so we priced them that way to ensure players could have access to them.

Hibernum_JC

Meto5000 wrote:

Hibernum_JC wrote:

As for the list of cards, it's something we can look into - I was worried that having a giant post with all the BFZ cards with 17 cards missing might be a bit much, but we'll see what we can do.

I realize the forums don't have a way to insert html tables so presenting the data in an easily digestible format isn't easy. You could link to a blog page on the d3go wordpress site but I'm not sure how quick that would be since it requires cross team participation. I'll do something on Decktester to easily disseminate this information as well.

In the meantime, just having a dedicated sticky about the new cards that just got included AND the cards that are yet to come would be great.

Also, are any of the following cards slated to be added at any time?

• Unnatural Aggression
• Jaddi Offshoot
• Munda, Ambush Leader
• Planar Outburst
• Stasis Snare
• Swarm Surge
• Fortified Rampart

These are including in the official (non planeswalker) mtg card list for BFZ but they don't appear in the mtgpq card list.

I'll look into making a new sticky.

As for those other cards, we made a conscious decision to not always include each and every card in a set. There will be some sets with a reduced amount of cards from the paper release, for sure. Not every card translates well to MtGPQ, and sometimes we exclude cards for a large variety of reasons.

Coconut99

Thanks for providing an update and this info, JC! I'll agree with others that I'm a bit surprised and disappointed by the high crystal cost of the new PWs, but at least it did make the decision to buy the old ones instead of waiting that much easier...not sure roughly half a BB is worth the price of a single PW, unless it's one of the dual-color ones (will leave it to others to figure that out). Still, thanks for keeping on top of things!

EDUSAN

Coconut99 wrote:

not sure roughly half a BB is worth the price of a single PW, unless it's one of the dual-color ones

im pretty sure Kiora and other dual-color will cost more than 250

Coconut99

I know. I was trying to subtly imply that the new single-color PWs should be much cheaper and the new dual-colored PWs should be the ones priced around the 250 mark, if any should be priced that high at all .

span_argoman

Hibernum_JC wrote:

We are taking steps to address this. We like the idea that you guys can see the entirety of the set from the get go, plan around it and see what you would like to loot, but at the same time we want to release cards on a regular basis. In the future, we will implement a new way to make it obvious which cards in the inventory can and cannot be looted at the moment. What that is exactly is not yet defined, but we do want to make sure this is visible, clean and most importantly easily understandable for everyone so this issue does not repeat itself. As of now, it will not change, but it will in the future.

Some (unsolicited) suggestions:
1. Put a big ugly red stamp over the art of unreleased cards indicating that they are unreleased.
2. Have a filter to show only unreleased cards (and vice versa released cards only).
3. Change the red text at the bottom of the screen when viewing the inventory from "You do not own this card." to "CURRENTLY UNLOOTABLE".
4. Add an icon (in the same space as the other icons like Defender or Berserker) to unreleased cards stating that they are such. This will be visible when story AI summon the cards or when browsing in inventory.
5. A red dog ear/corner on unreleased cards in the grid/row view of inventory.

BassMuffinFIve

The 250 crystal cost is a bit high. Is Kiora going to be available for crystals as well? I'm kinda scared to think about it honestly. If she isn't, then this game has devolved into P2W, and if she is, how much is she going to cost? 500? 1000?? 250 crystals is already several weeks of play, and at the rate we acquire cards (negligible), sacrificing half a fat pack to get a planeswalker is a bit rough.

I don't understand your plan for this game. So if I play everyday for a month, say for even 2 hours a day, all I will have to show for it is either 2 planeswalkers or 1 fat pack of cards? This is kind of garbage rewards. Honestly, I could get more enjoyment from this game from just the log on rewards. So why bother? You need to drastically up the crystal income, or drastically reduce the cost of fat packs, or drastically reduce the crystal cost of planeswalkers, or (the elephant in the room) UP THE DROP RATE ON CARDS. To reiterate, I can play for 2 hours a day, NOT GET A SINGLE NEW CARD FOR A WHOLE MONTH, or have 2 brand new PWs to show for it. Please reconsider this if you want a viable game moving forward.

Like I have said before, do not copy the stingy model that MPQ uses if you want this game to last. MPQ's stingy reward structure only worked because it hit the market at a time when F2P games were new to mobile. Gaming has changed. MPQ has not. We expect more from our games now. We expect our games not to punish us or treat us like idiots, or lie to us. I can only warn you so many times. Do not base your game off a failed, archaic game.

I take issue with your deceptive card release practices. You DID mention that new cards were going to be released down the road. This is true. You did not, however, mention that all the cards in the set were not currently available. That is a HUGE difference. It's basically lying to us.

Please respect your playerbase. Fix the bugs. Fix the stingy reward structure. Fix the disgusting card drop rates. Stop lying to us. We aren't guinea pigs. Make a quality game and people will pay $$ for it.

ChrisTot

span_argoman wrote:

Hibernum_JC wrote:

We are taking steps to address this. We like the idea that you guys can see the entirety of the set from the get go, plan around it and see what you would like to loot, but at the same time we want to release cards on a regular basis. In the future, we will implement a new way to make it obvious which cards in the inventory can and cannot be looted at the moment. What that is exactly is not yet defined, but we do want to make sure this is visible, clean and most importantly easily understandable for everyone so this issue does not repeat itself. As of now, it will not change, but it will in the future.

Some (unsolicited) suggestions:
1. Put a big ugly red stamp over the art of unreleased cards indicating that they are unreleased.
2. Have a filter to show only unreleased cards (and vice versa released cards only).
3. Change the red text at the bottom of the screen when viewing the inventory from "You do not own this card." to "CURRENTLY UNLOOTABLE".
4. Add an icon (in the same space as the other icons like Defender or Berserker) to unreleased cards stating that they are such. This will be visible when story AI summon the cards or when browsing in inventory.
5. A red dog ear/corner on unreleased cards in the grid/row view of inventory.

Better yet, make the cards say COMING SOON

madwren

Thank you.

Most of all, I'm pleased that you recognize this is an issue, and that there will be steps taken in the future to ensure we aren't misled as to card availability. A compensation award is simply icing on the cake.

SorinMarkov

Hey JC,
This seems like a very good start towards restoring our faith in the game.

Just some suggestions that you might want to pass on:
Would it be possible to do something with the quick battles. 3000 per pool is off-putting to most people with the amount of grinding required (and us on the forum are the hardcore, imagine what it's like for the casuals). Maybe multiple pools with lesser prizes for the smaller pools or better prizes at the lower ranks.

Push the rarity drop rate back up a bit for packs. I am ok with it being difficult to get rare/Mythics but if I buy a BB then I should get something worth my while.

Give us some sort of crafting or trading mechanism. Even if it's expensive in terms of runes or crystals. I understand that you need to make money but look at Hearthstone for an example. They do well and have crafting.

Give us enough information to budget for the offers we want. If we spend $50+ the first week of a month on average stuff and then the super duper pw of the set drops the next day without warning then it kind of sucks.

Do something better about duplicate cards. Runes are practically pointless and we don't even get many for converting duplicates. Give us crystals or card crafting material even at a low rate.

I appreciate your communications and I think you have created the beginnings of a fantastic game. There's no need to milk us players, if we got the above (and other similar suggestions from the forums) a lot of people would be happy to pay a reasonable amount for cards, pws, etc (again look at Hearthstone, very fair system and makes Blizzard a lot of money).

Regards,
Sorin Markov
Lord of Innistrad - where we will be heading next I assume

Abenjes

time for some pointless conjecture. last week I spent approx. 20 hours playing MTGPQ. if that was paid at minimum wage of $15.00 the wage i'd earn; less the 17.5% tax in the hand enough to buy 42 packs of real paper MTG, that's at least 42 Rare's ( I assume its still one rare a pack. Its been a while) and a pack is 15 cards. so surely that should work out at least 1 rare per 5 free 3 pack booster packs.
I managed last week only 3 rares from my 20 hours 2 of which were duplicate and no mythics. no rares from the free 3 packs
what's the point in sinking so much time for so little. I know you can't compare the two paper and online but the drop rates of Rare's are ludicrously low in this game and it is beyond frustrating and making a lot of people unhappy. see totally pointless but I enjoyed working it out

rulerhumankind

This is the answer we were looking for. I am fine with the cost for the new planeswalkers, because they still have to put in events, that could increase crystal gain per month. They also backed off from raising the cost of the big box/fat pack/booster pack, so the planeswalker price is not that bad. 250 crystals is pretty easy to obtain, since I can get 180 a month by just logging in each day. I just hope that the dual-color ones don't cost a bunch more. I would be ok with a longer delay to purchase dual-color planeswalkers, since those that shelled out the money should have some dominance for good period of time, like many FTP models.