Event Rewards Aren't Worth Playing For

System
System Posts: 1,032 Chairperson of the Boards
in MtGPQ General Discussion
This discussion was created from comments split from: Server Issues Compensation (5/2/17).
«1

Comments

  • babar3355
    babar3355 Posts: 1,128 Chairperson of the Boards
    A few lone soldiers like to defend the practice of removing mythics from top event finishers.  However, for the other 99% of the community we don't think events are worth playing if the prizes are not exciting.  Sorry guys, but 20-30 mana jewels are not exciting.
  • Phase
    Phase Posts: 157 Tile Toppler
    I wouldn't mind all the RatC if the prizes were worth getting. The event premise is fine- it's just too long and the rewards are not worth the time investment. Most of us who have been playing since AER came out have most or all AER rares by now. 15 jewels is not worth playing 3-4 trips around the nodes. The crystals are OK but even the daily events are more cost efficient. Progression rewards have been nerfed heavily as well.

    You can make up for a stale event with better rewards- but if they continue to remain a poor investment of time participation will continue to drop.
  • toastie
    toastie Posts: 119 Tile Toppler
    babar3355 said:
    A few lone soldiers like to defend the practice of removing mythics from top event finishers.  However, for the other 99% of the community we don't think events are worth playing if the prizes are not exciting.  Sorry guys, but 20-30 mana jewels are not exciting.
    The problem was never that the top players were getting mythics, it's that lower players were getting nothing useful. Mythics for top players + jewels (partial mythics) for lower players would be an excellent solution. Or at least a large number of jewels for top players (like 100-400) to make competing exciting.
  • Razrbck89
    Razrbck89 Posts: 9 Just Dropped In
    Phase said:
    I wouldn't mind all the RatC if the prizes were worth getting. The event premise is fine- it's just too long and the rewards are not worth the time investment. Most of us who have been playing since AER came out have most or all AER rares by now. 15 jewels is not worth playing 3-4 trips around the nodes. The crystals are OK but even the daily events are more cost efficient. Progression rewards have been nerfed heavily as well.

    You can make up for a stale event with better rewards- but if they continue to remain a poor investment of time participation will continue to drop.
    Yea, I'm literally only missing Solemn Recruit from Aether Revolt rares. The RoI for the Revolt events are so low that the only reason I still actually play it is we have some newer members on our coalition so helping them get rares is nice.
  • Mainloop25
    Mainloop25 Posts: 1,959 Chairperson of the Boards
    toastie said:
    babar3355 said:
    A few lone soldiers like to defend the practice of removing mythics from top event finishers.  However, for the other 99% of the community we don't think events are worth playing if the prizes are not exciting.  Sorry guys, but 20-30 mana jewels are not exciting.
    The problem was never that the top players were getting mythics, it's that lower players were getting nothing useful. Mythics for top players + jewels (partial mythics) for lower players would be an excellent solution. Or at least a large number of jewels for top players (like 100-400) to make competing exciting.
    This is exactly how I feel, I think since they are so concerned with leveling the playing field, they should have been bringing up the bottom end, not chopping off the top.
  • AngelForge
    AngelForge Posts: 325 Mover and Shaker
    edited May 2017
    babar3355 said:
    A few lone soldiers like to defend the practice of removing mythics from top event finishers.  However, for the other 99% of the community we don't think events are worth playing if the prizes are not exciting.  Sorry guys, but 20-30 mana jewels are not exciting.

    It is more plausible, that 99% of the community don't care that the prizes for the top players have been cut.

    Edit: Removed possible insult
  • Ohboy
    Ohboy Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    shhh...the plebs don't matter.

    Apparently.
  • shteev
    shteev Posts: 2,031 Chairperson of the Boards
    Ohboy said:
    shhh...the plebs don't matter.

    Apparently.
    Well isn't it you who's always telling us that only the whales matter?
  • Ohboy
    Ohboy Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    Only the whales matter when it comes to income stream.

    Are you deliberately messing up what I'm saying, or do you really not understand the difference? 
  • Mainloop25
    Mainloop25 Posts: 1,959 Chairperson of the Boards
    Ohboy said:
    Only the whales matter when it comes to income stream.

    Are you deliberately messing up what I'm saying, or do you really not understand the difference? 
    If only the whales matter when it comes to income stream, this game has a weird way of showing it.

    It used to be that people were paying for cards that got you to the top of the leaderboard in order to reap the benefit of good prizes. Now you reach the top of the leaderboard for what? not much more than self-satisfaction? The only reason so many people played last weekend was to get a good card. 

    Whales have nothing to whale over, other than the idea that they are keeping the servers running. How long until they don't care about that anymore? 
  • Ohboy
    Ohboy Posts: 1,766 Chairperson of the Boards
    It's really just damage control at this point. Flogging a disintegrated horse carcass at this point, but the time to stop handing out all those rewards were months ago. 

    They'll need to figure out how to fix this, but going back to the system that broke it in the first place is not the way. 

    The temporarily embarrassed millionaire mindset is just sad. Most of them won't ever hit the top 1%, ever. It's like those middle income families who support slashing taxes for billionaires because they might one day be one. It's a horrible mechanism that makes people work against their own interest. 

    I think the path to take from here is to increase rewards at the bottom of the pyramid, not the top. 

  • EDHdad
    EDHdad Posts: 609 Critical Contributor
    As with most problems with this game, I think it's caused by a one-size fits all mentality.  Why not offer a variety of prizes and let people choose which prize they are going for?  Some might want a pile of runes.  Some might want a pile of crystals.  Some might want a pile of purple things.  Some might want a pack or several packs.  Some might want a random rare or random mythic.  Some might want a specific card.

    You're never going to have 20 people in one coalition agree on which prize is most important to them.  For example, back at the start of Eldritch Moon, I was much more interested in rares like Imprisoned in the Moon and Noosegraf Mob than Mythics like Mind's Dilation and Mirrorwing Dragon.  I was very interested in winning Thalia, but she was never offered as an event award (that I know of).  More recently, there was an event where the grand prize was Baral's Expertise, which I had already won the previous week. 

    Yet, there have also been times where the event prize was really good - Oath of Liliana, Impetuous Devils, Oath of Gideon, and so forth.  But would it have been a really big problem if some of the people in those events chose to get a pile of gems or runes or a random pack instead?
  • shteev
    shteev Posts: 2,031 Chairperson of the Boards
    [iDevils was never a reward, was it?]
  • EDHdad
    EDHdad Posts: 609 Critical Contributor
    Impetuous Devils was an event award, yes.
  • Mainloop25
    Mainloop25 Posts: 1,959 Chairperson of the Boards
    Yes, impetuous devils was a reward toward the end of Shadows over Innistrad. 
  • Mainloop25
    Mainloop25 Posts: 1,959 Chairperson of the Boards
    Ohboy said:
    It's really just damage control at this point. Flogging a disintegrated horse carcass at this point, but the time to stop handing out all those rewards were months ago. 

    They'll need to figure out how to fix this, but going back to the system that broke it in the first place is not the way. 

    The temporarily embarrassed millionaire mindset is just sad. Most of them won't ever hit the top 1%, ever. It's like those middle income families who support slashing taxes for billionaires because they might one day be one. It's a horrible mechanism that makes people work against their own interest. 

    I think the path to take from here is to increase rewards at the bottom of the pyramid, not the top. 

    If they aren't going to increase rewards at the top, they should increase them somewhere, so I'll give you that. Based on the results however, you're never going to be able to convince me that slashing top tier rewards was a good thing.
  • Phase
    Phase Posts: 157 Tile Toppler
    edited May 2017
    Winning for its own sake has never been enough to keep the $50 and $100 offers moving. If you want whales, you have to fish for them. The same is true for the rest of us, we're just not individually as profitable. Still as important to the health of the game, however.
  • Infested
    Infested Posts: 98 Match Maker
    I agree that the lower tiers need a better way to move up. If it is that rare for some events during the week it has to happen to keep them moving forward at a reasonable rate and it will bring more moderate purchases to the game.

    That does not solve the problem of all the beached whales. They need a reason to spend money. Right now it is not there. A few extra weeks on walkers or cards does not cut it. They want top prizes or at least something to fight for. Purple crystals are not that thing.

Categories