D3's Recent Decision Making

deletedgone

The recent string of decisions by D3 have been loathed. At best, they seem to be short-sighted attempts to squeeze more cash out of the player base. At worst, they are actively antagonistic and anti-consumer (am I the first to compare them to Comcast?).

One thing seems to be clear - they want to stem the flow of powerful cards into circulation (Baral notwithstanding).

So far we have seen:

Gradual elimination of Mythics as event awards (currently only three a week for QBs).

Reduction of crystals given out as rewards. (Ok, at best it is a redistribution on a total quantity basis, but also...)

Reduction of card-value of crystals in the form of **** packs.

Misleading value of new currency - heavy bias towards mythics in elite packs make masterpiece drops occur at a rough rate of a little more than one a year. (5% drop rate based on forum surveys, two elite packs a month). Maybe two a year to be charitable.

This explains a few of the apparently anti-consumer decisions in customer service:

New policy refusing rewards lost to cheaters, even with proof. Assuming they don't hate the player base, the only logical explanation is a mandate banning the distribution of mythics wherever possible.

Original policy - duplicate masterpieces were granted another chance, but not mythics. This was not about poor customer experience. This was about appeasement while awarding a minimal number of cards. Honoring this policy for mythics would mean a real increase of mythics in the game (or worse, masterpieces for people who pick in sets where they own all of the mythics).

New policy - duplicate masterpieces and mythics were given another chance, but one time only. Out of eight cards, there is an overwhelming likelihood that the drop will be a mythic (five available). Of the five, at least one is a duplicate. And you only get this once. Ever.

So what explanation is there for this crusade against powerful cards? The increased cash prices across the board (lets not forget that crystals are worth less and purple things are worthless) suggest that it could be purely monetary, but let's not assume the worst.

What if this is a "father knows best" situation where D3 is really trying to balance the power level and avoid an endgame where a few (or many) players have everything, and all decks are the same?

Maybe they have no clue how to stop the power creep and have decided that if all players have worse cards it will be less of an issue. The endgame here would be a more powerful basic set in the next block, raised planeswalker levels and even more powerful mythics and masterpieces, but far less of them. This is ambitious and, I feel, unlikely. The developer has not shown the technical savvy to be able to pull something like this off. Also, in this case, the game becomes 100% pay to win - and I'd be surprised if there are many players who can even afford this at this game's prices.

Where does that leave us?

D3 has alienated customers, ruined their App Store rating, and made the game less fun for everyone. Maybe the game dies. That would be disappointing. At its best, this game is legitimately a lot of fun.

What do I wish would happen now?

D3 - start by bending over backwards to make your customers happy. Don't screw people over. If players get screwed by someone else (cheaters) help them! If customer service can make someone happy at no cost to you, just do it.

Your customer service department is being run poorly. Fix it.

Figure out a way to return incentives to the player base. Use a light touch when you take things away. Maybe daily top 5 mythics were too much, maybe awarding mythics to top coalitions twice a week was too much, but try putting yourself in the players' shoes.

We put hours upon hours into this game. We see the cards we don't have. We play against them every day. We want to build different decks and new cards are what keep them interesting.

The latest round of updates have told me "You will never have Startled Awake. You will never have Ulvenwald Hydra. You will never have Ulrich. You will never have Nissa's Renewal. You will never have Lightning Runner". It is the semblance of a chance at the cards we want that make the game compelling. This has been taken away.

Put more effort into bug fixing. Why is Lone Rider still broken? There has been enough time to fix it. When the game was crashing constantly, you responded by making everything in the UI blue. What?!?

You are fortunate to have a player base who are still invested in the game and in each other, but are driving us away. Your current actions are not spawning replacements.

GrizzoMtGPQ

Having all the cards is the end game. I have seen a lot of the "end bosses" of this game quit when they have gotten above 100 mythics and card counts near 1000. Chasing cards, getting a new mythic, that's the whole game/set/match. There is nothing much to do when you have all the cards.

Why is this? Because Hibernum does not have a sense of progression. Unless you were here day one and lived all the releases then you don't have any realistic shot at getting cards. It was super awesome when SOI first released! It was crazy fun because we got a new Mythic every couple days and we'd deck craft and it was totally awesome. It is an experience like none other.

None of the new players will get this. They will see those fabulous Mythics and only on a random chance can they get them. No progression. Not possible. Not even if you get into a feeder coalition. The game since December 2015 has been a fantastic run. But to replicate that they need to give new players a chance to experience releases. And you know what? They could. This is all just software. There is no need to put everyone into a single metaspace. I bet some people would even jump at a chance to live it all over again on the chance they could get a different set of cards with an alt.

They had the formula right. They just destroyed it because they are not players of this game and have never solicited our advice in a meaningful way. They didn't understand what they created nor did they understand what made it so special.

RIP MTGPQ. We barely knew you.

Chubbys

I posted an "I'm done" comment just like everyone else, but just like everyone else I didn't think I meant it.

Nevertheless, not only haven't I spent money, I haven't even bothered playing. I dropped down from Extinction, I'm sitting out RAC... I just don't care anymore.

In fact, I've spent more time in Discord and here, munching the proverbial popcorn during the mass exodus than I have playing the game.

Shame. It was a great game.

Sorin81

Chubbys wrote:

In fact, I've spent more time in Discord and here, munching the proverbial popcorn during the mass exodus than I have playing the game.

Shame. It was a great game.

Same here. I've been reading everything I can here in the forums just for a glimmer of hope. Beyond that I've caught up on a lot of shows on Netflix. I've hardly played at all lately.

DSidey

I look for glimmers of hope, but I'm also here to grieve the loss as I think so many others are. We also don't want to feel like we are the only ones feeling so frustrated and like we are the only one who still want a change.

blacklotus

Chubbys wrote:

I posted an "I'm done" comment just like everyone else, but just like everyone else I didn't think I meant it.

Nevertheless, not only haven't I spent money, I haven't even bothered playing. I dropped down from Extinction, I'm sitting out RAC... I just don't care anymore.

In fact, I've spent more time in Discord and here, munching the proverbial popcorn during the mass exodus than I have playing the game.

Shame. It was a great game.

let's share the popcorn. I am sure there will be more fireworks once the next patch is up and Baral is badly nerfed against the wishes of many cash-paying customers.

why badly nerfed? because except for pummeler, Hiberium has a history of overly nerfing everything: Jace1, Chandra1, Harbringer of Tides, Skysnare Spider, Sage, etc.

Kiora almost fell into the same situation, until the player base got up after reading the pre-released notes and demanded a less severe nerf.

shteev

Don't panic, Brigby. I'm in it for the long haul. I'll be here until it's just you and me pal. #heartsmilie #whyistherenoheartsmilie

[Deleted User]

I wonder how much D3 is relying on its addicted fanbase to continue playing through the sunk-cost fallacy brought about from the incredibly high microtransaction prices.

Celerial

I'm never getting Olivia...

naphomci

Celerial wrote:

I'm never getting Olivia...

Pfft, I'm still trying to get Inner Struggle. No, I am not joking. It is sad that I realistically have little chance of getting mythics as a newer player.

Laeuftbeidir

Hibernum_JC wrote:

As I said, it's something I will seriously look into.

And I know I'm not as active as I probably should be on the forums, but I'm very happy I can get to communicate with you guys. It's super important for me as a designer to be able to talk to our players and see what they like/dislike and such. Designing in a vacuum doesn't always produce optimal results, and every mistake we made helps us forge ahead and make a much better game. I think pretty much everyone agrees that the direction we took with the Mythics in BFZ is much better than what the one we took in Origins, and it'll be even better in the future.

Just something from an unrelated, but comparable one year old thread I've recently found. Love that attitude! What the tinysweetlittlekitty happened?

Of all bad or good decisions they've made in recent times (not all were bad!), the decision for the (no) communication strategie we're faced with is the worst.