Greed.

THEMAGICkMAN

Throughout the last few updates it has become increasingly obvious that this game gets changed based on greed. 1.10.2 and 2.0 are prime examples:

Coalition reward nerfs and other place rewards: this was just the beginning of the reward nerfing. With the removal of mythics as top 10 coalition prizes they became far, far more rare. A lot of people say this was a good thing, and I happen to agree, but this was only step one in the grand scheme. The slashing of personal place rewards must've seemed logical to D3H as the bracket sizes were lowered for all PvP events, but was really just another part of the grand plan to get more money.

Progression reward nerfs: the progression rewards were also nerfed across the tiers, with lower tiers getting next to nothing for progression now. This incentivises newer players to spend money on crystals and cards, because it is so difficult to get resources through just playing in the lower tiers. This true intent was hidden by claims that a lot of people were sandbagging in lower tiers, and as an attempt to get players to move up. The progression rewards were also slashed in the higher tiers, likely with the same intent or just to achieve a bit more uniformity.

Mana Jewels: Here is a major offender, the main ways to get mana jewels were through buying exclusive deals for $$ and through an event called Trials of the Planes, which I will talk more about soon. you can also get them through RatC progression and the coalition leaderboard, but not in significant amounts like you can with $$. These mana jewels seemed like an amazing idea at first, an extra currency you can use to get guaranteed mythics is rather appealing. However they are largely locked behind a $$ barrier.

Trials of the Planes: This is an event that costs crystals to play. The rewards are mainly focused around Mana Jewels, and this event is the other main way to get Mana Jewels other than spending cash... By spending crystals... Which are now much, much harder to come by because of the reward nerfs, see what I'm getting at? Mana Jewels and Trials of the Planes are another part of the grand plan to screw people who are Free2Play and attempt to force people to spend $$.

The removal of quick battle: This is what really kicked it into me, the last vestige of unnerfed rewards... gone. It used to 100% that money = time and vice versa, whatever you could buy with money, you could buy with time. With the removal of Quick Battle that's a little less true. Sure, you can still technically get anything without spending $$ if you wait long enough, but I get the feeling that soon enough that won't be true.

So you can see an interesting chain reaction where everybody gets less stuff, which will make people want to buy crystal/jewels/cards to get more stuff. Sure, there is a chance that D3H have great intentions and just thought we were all a bit pampered, but if that's the case, they went way too far. To me at least it seems they are just very, very greedy and don't care at all about the playerbase and will do whatever they can to get a bit more $$. This is definitely the wrong attitude. @Hibernum_JC @Hibernum_Will @Lakestone @Cthulu would you please explain? Perhaps you can allay my fears about your intentions, but it really seems as if you're just being plain greedy. I, and many others would like to know why you slashed rewards across the board, what you REALLY think of jewels, and if you are going to continue this trend in the future.

Regards, THEMAGICkMAN.

losdamianos

THEMAGICkMAN said:

So you can see an interesting chain reaction where everybody gets less stuff, which will make people want to buy crystal/jewels/cards to get more stuff. 

Bingo! it always was an obvious cash grab, they can throw at you as many apologetic posts as they can but at the end of the day grD33y management will push their agenda alienating anyone who has any interest in this game.
Baral case shows it really well, community indicated it well before it went on sale, in fact 3.1 objective in RatC was created for baral purpose only. They knew well in advance that this card will be nerfed and is OP but id didnt stop them from milking 100/1000 of players..

THEMAGICkMAN

Yep, I've got to hand it to them though, the excuses they covered it all up with weren't bad. You did something right, I guess?

julianus

While I am not an apologist or defending the companies(?), it's hard to say that they're greedy. The changes were clearly meant to increase player spending, absolutely. But that's fundamentally why the game exists.

The right level of profit is ultimately up to the company. We don't even know what their numbers are, how profitable they are, or even if they're doing much better than breaking even. One of their main jobs is to balance price against customer demand, but that's in the interests of keeping the business going.

They don't owe anyone free entertainment. 

Infested

So i dont have an issue with them trying to make money, but I really think that they are going about it the wrong way. 

They are trying to bring in a bunch of new players and keep them interested. Good job. That is what they should be doing; however they are cutting off the top end to do it. The top tier is now in an us vs them mentality and wont spend cash to stick it to D3. The ratings on google play are very negative in an effeor to hurt the bottem line. What makes it worse is that there is little effort to smooth this over.

At the end of the day they have to grow and if that is by revenue or population it has to be done. If they want to grow the top end and the bottem end there needs to be a way for their current base to see that their issues are being taken seriously. 

THEMAGICkMAN

Exactly, growth at the expense of most of the playerbase is not good.

Infested

They might see the part they are cutting out as the minority, but vocal. The problem with that is that minority might be buying lots from the company or might be the end game and it does a lot of damage as those groups get hurt.

THEMAGICkMAN

losdamianos

Have a glance over at MPQ forum the their situation is even worse......

shteev

losdamianos said:

Have a glance over at MPQ forum the their situation is even worse......

Don't sympathise with them, tho, or your post will be deleted.

Infested

Many of the problems can be relaxed if we have simple responses like "we hear the problems and are working on a solution. Several other patches are near development and will be put out first, but we are concerned with these reactions". They will still get the odd person saying not good enough, but it feels like policy to no post anything when there is a negative post regarding a patch or new direction for the game.

gruntface

Bear in mind the number of people really paying attention (those on this forum, those in social groups of multiple coalitions) are a significant minority (at most a few hundred out of thousands of players).

Whilst we may represent a keener core who are engaged with the game there are many more spenders out there and that is why we are largely ignored for the big stuff. What we think really doesn't matter all that much other than how our voice can be mined for profit making changes. Furthermore, when they do listen, it is often to pick out a single thread in the spool and a minor one at that which is itself often misinterpreted.

And heck, even within the informed community, those who KNOW what is wrong with the game and the direction, people STILL hand over their hard earned money. Who knows what those outside of this bubble think or do?

I never cease to be amazed at how much cash people are willing to part with what is at best a nice little distraction during the day, especially when there is no end game that can be reached. No pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Infested

Very true; however there are also tons of negative feedback in the app store. I agree that most people dont rate, but it would be bad business to ignore all of it. 

DuskPaladin

@THEMAGICkMAN
I disagree about the mythic removal, as you already know and agree with the rest. As you said, it's all just a front to cut all the rewards and force players to spend. They are not serving the newer players, just themselves. It's like saying, they are doing it for the poor, children, kitties, etc. How can anyone be against one of those things? You must really be a heartless person if you disagree.

First they came for the coalition Mythics, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a top 10 coalition player.

Then they came for the top 5 Mythic reward, and I did not speak out— 
Because I was not finishing in the top 5.

Then they came for the Mythic event in Quick Battle, and I did not speak out— 
Because I was not a QB grinder.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

(Disclaimer: Please, it's satirical and in no way making fun of a real world tragedy, the message is the same, though, that we should stick together. In no way, this is meant to offend anyone.)

AngelForge

DuskPaladin said:

...

(Disclaimer: Please, it's satirical and in no way making fun of a real world tragedy, the message is the same, though, that we should stick together. In no way, this is meant to offend anyone.)

Good thing you wrote this... I was already kind of shocked that you relate a game to that statement!

On the mythics... I think it is a problem to give out mythic in larger numbers.
I think you can see that the most on sold cards. Because they are so numerous and it is likely that you meet them.

Why was there never an outcry on "Crush of the tentacle" or "Rattlechains" on the forums? Both cards can be quite tough when you meet them (like Olivia for example) but you meet them rarely. 
But sold cards you meet quite often.

So, I think the biggest "health" problem for a balanced game are powerful single sold cards (because they are not rare anymore but quite common). And this is also true (IMO) for given out mythics as a price.

THEMAGICkMAN

I agree with the reason they "say" they do things, but the actual things they do? That's a different story. I kind of agree about the mythic for coalition removal, I disagree about the removal of mythics for QB and Top 5 in events though. You can PM me if you want to know why, those reasons don't belong in this thread. 

The reasons I agree with. The means I do not agree with. 

THEMAGICkMAN

Also I got some more examples:

Deck slots: one slot costs a decent amount of crystals... Which are hard to come by. Te other requires a level 60 planeswalker and costs a lot of runes... To start with, getting a planeswalker to 60 is tough already, and costing even more runes is not good. Guess where else you can get runes from... Exclusive $$ packages!! 

Brigby

@Infested

A lot of the times I am hesitant to discuss upcoming projects too early, because between high-level discussion and implementation, a lot can change that would cause initial discussion to no longer be valid. I know accuracy is very important in communication, so I'd hate to say one thing, but then 1 or 2 months down the road that might completely change; even high-level topics can be subject to this.

What I can say though is that the team definitely has not turned a blind eye to the concerns of the community (Matchmaking, Color Mastery, etc etc) These are all topics we have discussed in our meetings, and have plans to address further down the road. It's just that features take a long time to develop (think in terms of months) and they all need to be queued up in order to schedule time and efforts efficiently.

The development team is very busy right now with the upcoming several updates, but once they are free I will see if one of them can write an in-depth post detailing the development process of a feature.
 
@THEMAGICkMAN

I can actually talk a bit more about Deck Slots, the pricing, and how I envision you can utilize the events to acquire the resources to unlock them. (Disclaimer: All event rewards I mention will be from the Platinum tier) 

200 Crystals:
With the upcoming addition of the Training Grounds, you can easily acquire 15 Crystals every day with minimal effort. If you only utilized that event to fund unlocking deck slots, it would take about 2 weeks. Not the quickest method, but definitely one of the simplest.

Once you add in the other events though, that's where you get a burst of additional Crystals. For example, hitting 45 ribbon progression in NoP gets you 30 more Crystals and FiRF gets you another 30 at the same ribbon mark. That means you can theoretically get 75 crystals in 1 day, which means you only need about 8 days of additional Training Grounds Crystal rewards to get one deck slot. (This isn't even counting any other events that start within those 8 days, nor daily login rewards)

45,000 Runes at Level 60
The decision to have Runes be a resource to unlock a deck slot was following the community request of players wanting more options to use their abundance of Runes on. The reason it is only available at Planeswalker level 60 though, is to encourage lower tier players to invest their Runes into leveling their Planeswalkers. By doing so, they get a better understanding of the full potential of their Planeswalker, therefore they'll have a better idea as to how to craft their decks once they get to that stage of needing additional deck slots.

On top of this, players will also get a free deck slot to house each of their completed Planeswalker Theme Decks; some as many as 3!

naphomci

Brigby said:

@Infested

A lot of the times I am hesitant to discuss upcoming projects too early, because between high-level discussion and implementation, a lot can change that would cause initial discussion to no longer be valid. I know accuracy is very important in communication, so I'd hate to say one thing, but then 1 or 2 months down the road that might completely change; even high-level topics can be subject to this.

What I can say though is that the team definitely has not turned a blind eye to the concerns of the community (Matchmaking, Color Mastery, etc etc) These are all topics we have discussed in our meetings, and have plans to address further down the road. It's just that features take a long time to develop (think in terms of months) and they all need to be queued up in order to schedule time and efforts efficiently.

The development team is very busy right now with the upcoming several updates, but once they are free I will see if one of them can write an in-depth post detailing the development process of a feature.
 
@THEMAGICkMAN
45,000 Runes at Level 60
The decision to have Runes be a resource to unlock a deck slot was following the community request of players wanting more options to use their abundance of Runes on. The reason it is only available at Planeswalker level 60 though, is to encourage lower tier players to invest their Runes into leveling their Planeswalkers. By doing so, they get a better understanding of the full potential of their Planeswalker, therefore they'll have a better idea as to how to craft their decks once they get to that stage of needing additional deck slots.

On top of this, players will also get a free deck slot to house each of their completed Planeswalker Theme Decks; some as many as 3!

Does the team discuss the reasons for cutting so much prizes? Because I think the community would love to hear any reasonable statement of that.

As for the Runes for deck slot--the irony is that the devs took "not enough to spend on runes" to mean "give them 1 thing to buy, then severely cut down on how fast they accumulate them." Another example of hearing, but not listening.

losdamianos

oh they listen but they are very carefully picking up only convenient arguments to push their greedy agenda, look how Brigby (not his fault really) conveniently dodged the fact that ability to acquire runes in timely fashion is going away without anyone really asking for it

THEMAGICkMAN