how to demoralize..

Laeuftbeidir

..me. 

Congratulations - you did it.
@Brigby - I don't know what's going on on the minds of the devs, or if there is anything going on at all, but the development of this game went from bad to worse in just a couple of weeks.

I know a lot of players, some from the forums, some from several slack/discord channels, and I know that a lot of them agree with me. Until now, I was involved in the organization of a top ten coaliton, and helped dozens of new players to improve and become competitive until the highest tiers - something that this game befits from, since it boosts their motivation to get further involved in this game.
So, what did you do to make me go casual?

- Event rewards are nerfed.
Not very pleasant, but I understand why it would be neccessary - apart from the three-card booster in Platinum?? It only became annoying in combination with..

- 4 hour recharches in the weekend events. 
Yeah, captain obvious. The weak players loose more often for boring rewards, and the top players got their mechanics figured out and have to grind till the fingers break if they want to be competitive.

- new event times
that was basically the killing shot. New times are bad for the US, bad for Asia and bad for Europe. Where the heck does the majority of your players come from? For those prices, I will surely not change my sleep schedule - and like I said: it's not only my timezone
Also, overlapping events / short times between coalition events - why did you implement a coalition system if you try to prevent competitive coalition play? I'll invite anyone of you into our slack, if you're interested in how this really works.

- drop rates / packs in general
yeah, I know statistics, I can figure out I'm just at the bottom of the curve right now. 200 origins & 100 HOU cards without mythic still feels bad. And you need to remain silent about the real ones, don't you? Ridiculous.
Also, stuffing the elite packs with **** like the last two turns is not really nice. I won't start about booster crafting here.

- Deck slots
Implement something new, something cool, something everyone agrees it is not perfect, but has some real improvements compared to the situation before - and get rid of the only part of it everyone loved in the next update. Great job!

- Card design / Power leap
Another point, this time with a known person responsible for the decisions: @Hibernum_JC - I think you don't really really understand how your game works, from a player POV. You gave us a lot of cool and great cards, you seemed to be aware of the problems of power creep - and then you gave us cards like Aven Mindcensor?? Drake Haven?? Baral??  R'ex? (I have dozens other cards in my mind, I think my point is clear). Some of those cards are irrationally OP, some others indicate that you might have other mechanics in mind as they exist in this game. How could I stay involved, if even the designer is not? I can't tell, since you do not seem to care whenever players point out if there is something wrong - ..leading to..

- communication
Hah! A bad joke. Can't decide where to start and where to end here - fact is, you're directly responsible for the bad mood of the community by ignoring us, or making empty promises. "We'll work on it, improve it", meh. You either did not even try or failed: so you're either not trustworthy or incompetent
..and it took me a long time to accept this conclusion.


Well, those are just some major key points that seem to be the consens of the players I talked to. Everything from this list has been said before, and will probably be said again, but not by me anymore.
Bye.

BayTamago

+1 all of the above, additionally, it would be nice to not get ticket responses that are just copy pasted irrelevant information.
If people are giving feedback, the reply shouldn't be 'well sucks to be you'. The correct response is 'Ok, How can we improve this?'

majincob

Laeuftbeidir said:

...

- Card design / Power leap
Another point, this time with a target: @Hibernum_JC - I think you don't really really understand how your game works, from a player POV. You gave us a lot of cool and great cards, you seemed to be aware of the problems of power creep - and then you gave us cards like Aven Mindcensor?? Drake Haven?? Baral??  R'ex? (I have dozens other cards in my mind, I think my point is clear). Some of those cards are irrationally OP, some others indicate that you might have other mechanics in mind as they exist in this game. How could I stay involved, if even the designer is not? I can't tell, since you do not seem to care whenever players point out if there is something wrong  <snip>

...

I agree with the post in general except for this part. Complaints about balance issues are valid, but personal attacks are counterproductive. I feel like the design has been improving over time, but it's all too easy to see the bad points and miss the positives.

One thing that Magic has done that really impresses me is they have Mark Rosewater come out with each set and explain the design process, what mistakes they've made, what they've done to fix it etc. The @Hibernum_JC
I remember at the beginning of the game did a good job of this and I was impressed with his openness, enthusiasm, and vision for how the game should be.

I don't know why this has devolved into silence, but lashing out is not likely to encourage communication.

It may not be possible from a legal standpoint (since they can't consider unsolicited ideas) but it would be great if they would do a better job in the release notes of identifying what issue each change is addressing and state the design philosophy behind that decision. Of course more transparency and communication take time and resources so it may be beyond their capabilities.

Laeuftbeidir

majincob said:

Laeuftbeidir said:

...

- Card design / Power leap
Another point, this time with a target: @Hibernum_JC - I think you don't really really understand how your game works, from a player POV. You gave us a lot of cool and great cards, you seemed to be aware of the problems of power creep - and then you gave us cards like Aven Mindcensor?? Drake Haven?? Baral??  R'ex? (I have dozens other cards in my mind, I think my point is clear). Some of those cards are irrationally OP, some others indicate that you might have other mechanics in mind as they exist in this game. How could I stay involved, if even the designer is not? I can't tell, since you do not seem to care whenever players point out if there is something wrong  <snip>

...

I agree with the post in general except for this part. Complaints about balance issues are valid, but personal attacks are counterproductive. I feel like the design has been improving over time, but it's all too easy to see the bad points and miss the positives.

(snip) 

I don't know why this has devolved into silence, but lashing out is not likely to encourage communication.

(snap)

Well,I totally agree on your post. Honestly - I just gave up.
This was not meant as a personal attack, my wording might have been contraproductive - but the connection between the person and the specific changes is known, and the total refuse to step into any discussion makes such interpretations easy to defend. And yes, I also see the good parts - that's why I put the "gave us good and great cards" in it.
I tried it in an open, friendly way, saw others doing the same.

The intention of my post is no longer to improve the situation - I gave up on trying to be helpful - this is just my conclusion. Everyone is welcome to discuss it, of course! But I wasted too much thoughts on a game that gave me a good time for a long while, and now began to turn into stress.

babar3355

Yeah, I hear power creep a lot but can't think of a single mythic I would even use right now.  The creatures in this block are a joke.  Maybe I will look back with regret when ixlan comes out, but for now these cards just feel super weak.

The exception are some of the rares and c/u upgrades and a few cards like bontus ramp that are nice.

You did forget one point that is making me enjoy this game less and contemplate quitting.. the events are so redundant with no fresh objectives or overlays (ie enraged).  However, they top.that by making the objectives anti-synergetic with the PWs... Lose 3 or less zombies with L3? Really?

losdamianos

Laeuftbeidir said:

.

- 4 hour recharches in the weekend events. 
Yeah, captain obvious. The weak players loose more often for boring rewards, and the top players got their mechanics figured out and have to grind till the fingers break if they want to be competitive.

To the author of 4 hour recharges idea:
There is a special place in hell for You