Switch Event Rewards

_Daromax_

Same here. I skip events at this point because I can't take any longer getting another dupe for a gameplay I don't even enjoy because I know I will win the match with the 99% of certainty - it just grinding. It's not even about puling mythics every day but any new card would be rewarding for the time spend but there is a problem here because the game is greedy in terms of better cards and I have all common and all but 6 uncommon so to please me the game would have to start giving me better cards from the pool of 89 rares, 131 mythics, 38 masterpieces missing from my collection which is not very likely and though maybe I can understand why, I can't understand what would be a harm if I pulled let's say a new rare per week, a new mythic per month, a new masterpiece per two month. At this rate I would still not have completed the collection before new expansion release but I would be so much happier. If the problem is overpowered decks I don't think it's an issue for as long as there is no real PvP and at this point I treat new cards as thophies not the thing I need to be better player. I miss the events where the rare card reward was specified so that you know what you get because now there is now way to get a certain new card except for pink jewel pack. Lately I really wanted one card from ORI pack so I collected some yellow jewels and decided to spend it getting a dupe rare as a result. Unfortunately due to gambler's fallacy I decided to have another go and again got dupe rare as a result. 560 jewels (weeks of effort to collect) down the drain. I only comfort myself I haven't bought them with real money. 

Rasalghul

@_Daromax_ I've always wondered if the crystals and jewels you buy have better value than the ones you get free by playing the game.

But I can also imagine that it would be difficult to have an algorithm to check each player collection to find a reward he/she doesn't already has.

_Daromax_

Rasalghul said:

But I can also imagine that it would be difficult to have an algorithm to check each player collection to find a reward he/she doesn't already has.

I'm not expert but I believe it's not difficult. They have the data about the card any user have and don't have so it's all about generating a random number from the pool of cards you don't have instead of all cards but anyways that would be too great.


I'm just bitter because I've been playing since the beginning which is I believe TWO YEARS on almost daily basis and after countless packs I opened I have:
 

	owned	all	percent
common	447	447	100,00%
uncommon	459	465	98,71%
rare	220	309	71,20%
mythic	52	183	28,42%
masterpiece	2	40	5,00%

therefore to catch them all at this ratio I would need like SEVEN YEARS?! [calculation based on proportion](I'm talking about mythics only since masterpieces were introduced later). But there is more, they add new expansion pack every now and then so the simple conclusion is what I cannot somehow comprehend that I will never get them all but another stupid thing called sunk costs fallacy makes me keep up believing in this game especially since they tease us with this booster crafting thing.


I would love to see a video of the devs buying the premium packs (i'm merciful ;] ) until all the cards are collected. That should be their penance for making this game the way it is.

TomB

Sarahschmara said:

I seem to remember SOI & EMN cards packed together at the end. I was surprised they didn’t do it that way during AMK/HOU. 

I think they try to follow the same methodology as paper MTG, so while SOI & EMN were expansions that were part of the same block of cards AMK and HOU are considered stand-alones.

tfg76

Totally agree with this - in fact, I think it´d be great if all events other than the newest award more generic prizes.

To be specific (with current event setup):

- HoR awarded HOU rare and boosters
- ToA, EO and FIRF awarded a "Standard legal rare", and a "Standard booster", the latter basically being a 5-card version of the "free booster".
- Other events awarded a "Legacy legal rare" and a "Legacy booster"

Taking it more extreme, one could argue that rares are best purchased through the Elite Pack (120 jewels), so maybe the solution is simply to give out some more jewels (instead of rares)?

I also think events would be a lot more exciting if the rare prize was "Rare or better", meaning it would drop a mythic or masterpiece based on whatever the drop rate is for them in regular boosters.

babar3355

Rasalghul said:

@_Daromax_ I've always wondered if the crystals and jewels you buy have better value than the ones you get free by playing the game.

But I can also imagine that it would be difficult to have an algorithm to check each player collection to find a reward he/she doesn't already has.

I once spent $100 of cash on crystals and bought 5 big boxes immediately.  I got 0 mythics and just a few new cards.  So, I don't really think this theory holds.  The reality is that the drops are most likely random and the drop rates are pretty awful.  Based on Volrak's database the drop rates are roughly

Masterpeice: 0.05%

Mythic: 0.95%

Rare: 4.0%

Uncommon: 40%

Common: 55%

When Volrak did the math it would cost somewhere in the range of $200,000 to have a 95% chance to collect all of the cards.

Maybe its not greed.  Maybe its just bad business people doing a poor job of setting profit maximizing prices.  But I certainly won't be chasing after any cards at these ridiculous rates. 

Sarahschmara

babar3355 said:

When Volrak did the math it would cost somewhere in the range of $200,000 to have a 95% chance to collect all of the cards.

Maybe its not greed.  Maybe its just bad business people doing a poor job of setting profit maximizing prices.  But I certainly won't be chasing after any cards at these ridiculous rates. 

That’s the main problem with THIS game though, isn’t it? We’ve got mathematicians and programmers on our side crunching the numbers. Even with D3’s lack of transparency, Volrak and Octal have given us a glimpse behind the curtain and the player base that ISN’T into gambling just don’t even bother trying anymore.

MPQ’s player base is geeks. MTGPQ’s base is nerds. Subtle difference. 

TheDragonHermit

Sarahschmara said:

babar3355 said:

When Volrak did the math it would cost somewhere in the range of $200,000 to have a 95% chance to collect all of the cards.

Maybe its not greed.  Maybe its just bad business people doing a poor job of setting profit maximizing prices.  But I certainly won't be chasing after any cards at these ridiculous rates. 

That’s the main problem with THIS game though, isn’t it? We’ve got mathematicians and programmers on our side crunching the numbers. Even with D3’s lack of transparency, Volrak and Octal have given us a glimpse behind the curtain and the player base that ISN’T into gambling just don’t even bother trying anymore.

MPQ’s player base is geeks. MTGPQ’s base is nerds. Subtle difference. 

MtG is largely focused on strategies based on manipulating statistics, how many lands do you put in to balance Mana flood and drought? How many copies of a card do you put in to influence draws? What can you put in to position your win conditions? That changes that are obviously bad for players with some simple analysis, the changes to bulk packs and 2 hour one card boosters, and that players have pooled data for statistical analysis and the actual statistics haven't been released or altered in response suggests that they may have underestimated the fans of MtG and how much it makes analysis almost instinctual, "I have x Mana available, they have y. They are playing such color(s) deck which means they have those options. What is the best card to play in this situation with all the additional rules from the cards on the field. Or do I hold off to interrupt their plans, because I know these exact thought are going through their head(s)"

Sarahschmara

TheDragonHermit said:

...they may have underestimated the fans of MtG and how much it makes analysis almost instinctual...

Yes, exactly this!

TheDragonHermit

And just to let it be known I don't blame them for underestimating us, mobile games tend to be more casual, but the passion, commitment, and strategic intelligence of MtG fans are quite the forces to be reckoned with.

babar3355

 I think you are right on the button @thedragonhermit.  This was one of my core beliefs that led me to author this proposal/poll a few months ago.

https://forums.d3go.com/discussion/66778/should-brigby-pass-this-message-on-to-d3s-upper-management/p1

Basically, I think they followed a familiar formula they used with Marvel PQ because they didn't understand the MTG community.   I go on to provide solutions that would align the developers with a community who has no problem spending large amounts of money for content.  We are just too smart to get ripped off.

joerginger

_Daromax_ said:

Lately I really wanted one card from ORI pack so I collected some yellow jewels and decided to spend it getting a dupe rare as a result. Unfortunately due to gambler's fallacy I decided to have another go and again got dupe rare as a result. 560 jewels (weeks of effort to collect) down the drain. I only comfort myself I haven't bought them with real money.

In comparison with you I'm literally twice as bad since I bought four (!) Origins packs - just for the chance to get Turn to Frog. Of course I didn't get it, in fact I didn't get a single card I hadn't owned already. There was a mystic among the cards, but it also was a duplicate. Oh well, I had intended to save the jewels for the next expansion. Hopefully I learnt my lesson this time and will not try anything that foolish again!

Sirchombli

This is an awkward situation for both us and d3. In the beginning, this game was quite generous. Definitely more so than many f2p games. That was super sweet. Then they scaled rewards back a little. We all groaned, but it was still pretty generous. The issue, or at least my issue, is that with each major update they've found a way to scale back rewards. I'm not going to call them greedy, because they're a business. The goal is money. I will say that they scaled things back way too far. I don't know if drop rates really have gotten worse, but it feels like they have. Little things like the "chance of mythic" clause are minor, but make a huge difference in player satisfaction. By the umpteenth week of God Pharaoh, there's almost no incentive to play. I certainly don't need a 14th vizier of the true, but if I had a small chance at a mythic I'd be content. As ohboy has stated to me on numerous occasions, the old model wasn't sustainable. I agree with him on that. Where we disagree is that there need to be prizes worth playing for. A mythic for the event that we have to get the new pw for would be a great start. I understand that you can't keep giving away the shop, but since you started off in that manor, a huge turn in the opposite direction runs off long time players while newer players are struggling to compete. The whole thing is off balance 

luckyvulpi

@babar3355

I just finished reading the message you wrote in August to d3.  Really good message, I feel the same.  Thread is locked so asking here:

I know brigby promised to pass the message on, but did anything else come from that?  Like was there any changes or responces?

Rasalghul

@_Daromax_ I understand your frustration as I've played this game as long as you do. 

I have 42 mythics and 181 rares but no masterpiece. 

I've thought a year ago about going to paper Magic, as this game awakened my card collecting hobby with sports a while ago. But decided no to do it as you end up having a lot of cards at home.

I'm frustrated not to be able to have all the cards but with a collection above 1100 cards, there are cards I don't play with because I've build trusted decks I play over and over in order to competitive in my coalition. 

I don't think collecting digital, non material cards is worth it. The collection you build up is so fragile that if one day you lose your collection, it will really makes you mad for no serious reason. Just be patient and enjoy more the competitive side of this game rather than focusing on getting more cards.

babar3355

luckyvulpi said:

@babar3355

I just finished reading the message you wrote in August to d3.  Really good message, I feel the same.  Thread is locked so asking here:

I know brigby promised to pass the message on, but did anything else come from that?  Like was there any changes or responces?

Thanks buddy.  The answer is no.  Brigby stated he would take the feedback to the developers but never mentioned it again.  I just reopened the thread as some people requested to get the dialogue going again.

Honestly, I wouldn't expect any big changes until Oktagon gets settled in. I am not sure D3 could even toggle the "chance of a mythic" button back on if they wanted to.  But I do get the impression that the player squeeze (nerfed prizes, reduced size of packs, drop rates, cost of elite packs, and other financially oriented decisions) are primarily led by D3.  Although they wouldn't exactly admit to that when I asked them directly.  However, I think that D3 sets the targets but then Hibernum/Oktagon actually implement the coding to execute the decisions.