A Plea to Oktagon and D3

babar3355

By special request I am reposting this "essay" as a plea to Oktagon and D3.  Recently there has been some more discussion along these lines but Brigby wanted an updated version to make sure it was current and relevant.

Background:

The game has undergone a host of changes in 2017 which Bhave presumably been aimed at increasing the retention rate of players and ultimately leading to additional revenue to the firm.  D3 likely expected that many of these changes would be unpopular to many of the veteran players but felt they were necessary changes for the longevity of the game.  These changes include:

• Nerfing individual prizes, especially for top performances

• Nerfing coalition prizes, especially for top 10 coalitions

• Removing quick battle from the game

• Introduction of mana jewels

• Introduction of standard format

• Reducing the bracket size of contests

• 6-hour recharge timers on weekend PvE contest

• Many others like power creep of commons and uncommons, AI nerfing (maybe), more casual content like weekday PvE events, etc

Most of these changes resulted in extreme negative sentiment from the veteran community including a name change protest and the Not.Another.Dime. movement. Despite the resistance, D3 continued down the path that they thought was appropriate for the long-term health and profitability of the game.  However, evidence has mounted that these changes are not having the desired outcome. Evidence includes the shrinking number of brackets opened in each event, survey results about willingness to recommend the game, witnessing and hearing reports of high attrition rates from coalitions and third-party data showing popularity and profitability have declined

https://searchman.com/android/app/us/com.d3p.olympic/en/d3-go/magic-puzzle-quest/?d=android

(The line is clearly downward sloping even though they always get a bounce post patch... and WAY down in the last few months)

Synopsis:

First, I just want to say, I want D3 and Oktagon to succeed with this game. I have spent countless hours and a substantial amount of my hard-earned money on the game.  I have a great network of friends in the MTGPQ community.  

My belief is that the game’s target audience is primarily those who are familiar with and appreciate Magic the Gathering.  I would absolutely recommend the game to my brother, who still plays MTG, but never to my wife, who doesn't.  MTGPQ is a complex match 3 game and it really helps break the learning curve if you understand some of the mechanics in MTG. It’s also cool to see the translation of cards, to follow the story through the beautiful artwork etc. 

Now a key component of MTG is that you collect cards and then combine them into synergistic decks to take down opponents.  Opening new and powerful cards is awesome.  But it goes beyond that.  It gets into collectability for a huge percentage of MTG players.  Not only can you get whichever cards you want if the price is right, but many MTG players highly value having complete sets of these cards.  Fortunately, a constant stream of new content allows the game to stay fresh with players having new cards to chase, new blocks to build from and new formats to engage in. 

Let’s compare this to Marvel Puzzle Quest.  They have a broader audience and likely a somewhat less nuanced audience.  If I thought it was a cool game I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to my wife or a friend who wasn’t into more complicated games.  Not only that, but it doesn’t translate directly from a card game which has a constant stream of content and there isn’t a direct translation between collectability of marvel characters in and out of game.

Now this is where I feel that D3 and Hibernum missed the mark.  They wanted to make each players collection different and purposefully prevent players from acquiring the entire set of cards.  They have created the first game licensed by Wizards MTG (that I am aware of) which purposefully restricts the collectability of the available cards to the player (Duels restricts the card pool and number of cards, but players can collect all of those available in the game).  This made sense for Marvel PQ but goes in the face of what has made MTG such a successful and lasting game. 

I believe the outcome of this is poor retention of new players. A paper MTG player downloads the game.  After getting acquainted with the mechanics and playing through the first handful of battles they start realizing the card pool and the necessity of deck building and card collecting.  Then after grinding through each chapter of story mode 5 times for a 10 crystal progression on each one, they finally get a premium pack and it gives them a total of 1 rare, probably not even a very usable one.  They try a few PvE and PvP battles and realize this game is an absolute grind fest and that it’s very hard to acquire a decent set of cards.  Or maybe they run into some extremely strong player decks and realize they have no capacity to compete. Most of them then decide it is just not worth their time and either uninstall or just stop logging in every 2 hours for their 1 card booster.

On the other side of the player spectrum are the veteran players who have been dedicated to the game since the start.  The attrition rate is huge with these players who feel that D3 has sabotaged the end game and removed anything worth playing for. Pair that with bugs, awful communication with the community, boring and redundant content (and the list goes on, and on, and on…..) and players have been quitting in droves.

Solution:

First and foremost, D3 and Oktagon need to recognize what they have.  They have a tinykitty license from Wizards of the Coast!  They have an endless stream of new content that comes out roughly every 3 months and contains fresh and exciting cards that players WANT to play with and collect. They do NOT need to make the cards exclusive or impossible to collect.  If someone gets the entire set of KLD/AER then AKH and HOU are right around the corner.  I can’t even begin to speculate how much more money I would have spent if I was chasing those last 2-3 cards from a set with the knowledge that eventually I would get them.  I can guarantee you it would have been at least 5-10 times more than I have spent.  And with never-ending new content what is the downside for D3?

Currently, when a new set comes out I glance at the mythics but don’t even bother looking at the masterpieces.  I am so unlikely to get them that I won’t even salivate if they are bombs.  The mythics I fleetingly hope for but have virtually no real hope of attaining. This is not the desired reaction to a new set release, and is certainly not the reaction to new sets from the MTG paper crowd.

If you are worried about players getting bored once the collection is complete then give them other things to chase and spend money on.  Custom skins, sound effects, backgrounds, etc.  Also, make sure there is plenty of new engaging content to play.  Add other types of overlays besides enraged and supercharged.  The community has already recommended dozens of fresh and fun game modes that would keep players engaged.  Include a ranking system, where players could battle it out for top spots each release which would incentivize them to spend cash early rather than earning cards through F2P means. In fact, use this to determine brackets and who you play against to make the learning curve that much easier on newer players, rather than the silly system of color mastery. Do the same thing with coalitions and give seasonal rewards that can be as simple as "trophies" but will still create a competitive environment. Of course you can retain card collecting as a core aspect, but not as the only thing that engages players.(Hint: it already isn’t the primary aspect).

On the subject of newer players, if they are able to get ahold of some strong cards early and know that they will eventually have a strong collection without waiting and grinding for years they will see what the game really has to offer.  It's a great game at its core, but it is not fun to have to use awful cards or shell our loads of cash to get started. Give them a chance to compete by actually allowing them to build a strong collection of their own. 

Conclusion:

Basically, it comes down to the philosophy that you should give MTGPQ players what attracts them to MTG in the first place.  The ability to actually use the cards that Wizards releases.  You can do this through increased drop rates, better prizes for contest, and a crafting system that allows players to target cards they want and avoid additional duplicates. If you continue to approach the problem of sub-optimal retention rates by harming the end game experience to veteran players you will fail to meet the desired objective for newer players and continue having a high attrition rate for veterans. I genuinely believe that the plan I have outlined will lead to a better game, a more active game, a more profitable game and a game with more longevity than its current form.

TLDR: The target audience of MTGPQ is people familiar with MTG which is a collectible card game.  Making it impossible to collect all of the cards leads to attrition and is an unnecessary and negative crossover from Marvel Puzzle Quest. Allow MTGPQ to be what it could be by allowing players to actually build sets to completion.

babar3355

From @kinesia yesterday before the thread got closed.

One part of the "collecting" thing that would help make the company money is already in the game, just the implementation is broken.

The Elite packs.

Firstly, dupes, the support work involved to stop this costs the company money but is completely unnecessary, the server _knows_ the cards people have. There is zero reason for people to get a dupe except for myopic stupidity in initial implementation. I suspect it was to stop people buying just rare packs and getting all the masterpieces cheaper but it's a bad solution.

Instead...
Have it 100 for a Rare, guaranteed non-dupe but ONLY one of the rares, zero chance of mythic or masterpiece.
Have a mythic pack at 300 that is a guaranteed non-dupe mythic by zero chance of a masterpiece.
Have the masterpiece pack at 600 with a guaranteed non-dupe masterpiece.

If it is separated this way the company has no risk, no maintenance, no support and some people _will_ buy the unobtainium to get everything. Don't try to stop them, you actually _want_ them to do this.

The lack of surity, the pain in dealing with dupes, these all hurt the experience which is meant to ALWAYS be a positive amazing one. 

Sarahschmara

Well said @babar3355! Thank you for reposting this to reflect the changes made already. Hopefully we can keep this conversation going!

Koolmind

Very good points @babar3355 I want to add rebalancing old Pw 

Houdin

As it was before, this post is the most poignant and well thought out explanation of what is wrong with a game that should be so much more amazing. 
Should D3 fail to heed the advice and continue on this oath of self destruction it can not be said that they were not given the tools they needed to turn this game into a highly profitable, sought after game as it was before.

Although I'm sure we may hear some desenting opinions from the local forum trolls, it should be stated that the above post encompasses every major issue and idea that this community has brought before the developers time and time again.

The simple fact that your veteran community still keeps trying to help you to fix this wonderful game that you broke, should more than anything convince you of its sustainability if you actually act upon these suggestions.

If you don't? Well as stated above, we As a group are not under educated or naive. You can only kick us for so long before we kick back. 

Houdin

Kinesia

Thank you for reposting.

Theros

Nice post and thank you for reposting.
But I'm in favor of nerfing top 10 coalition prices (no mythics)

majincob

MADAFAKA said:

Nice post and thank you for reposting.
But I'm in favor of nerfing top 10 coalition prices (no mythics)

I believe the sentiment you are trying to express is that coalition prizes shouldn't provide decisive competitive advantage to those already winning.

I 100% agree with that.

The point is that there should be something to drive competition. If it is expected that you could complete sets of cards, then getting mythics as coalition prizes wouldn't necessarily be a worthwhile prize. (see toxic elite posts about all the dupe mythics :eyeroll: )

The reason being in the top coalitions was so awesome during the mythic reward times was not that your decks were so much better than everyone elses, it was that you could actually start to enjoy the game at its fullest potential since you were likely to get a large percentage of the mythics and could actually build the stuff you'd love to play with.

The concept that I and other players at the top have been trying to get across is that everyone who puts in a modest amount of effort into learning the game should be able to have that experience.

The best version of this game is when you can play with all the fun toys. Instead of increasing the number of players who can experience the best of the game, they cut off those people who really experienced how good it could be.

Sarahschmara

MADAFAKA said:

Nice post and thank you for reposting.
But I'm in favor of nerfing top 10 coalition prices (no mythics)

I disagree. After all, I still have my collection. They just made it more difficult for others to catch up. A rising tide lifts all boats or something. 

Edit: I got most of my mythics from the guaranteed rare PLUS (what happened to the chance, however slight, of a better card?!?) top 25 reward which was typically achievable with 12-14 “all in” players. I’ve only started playing top ten because of lack of interest with my vast team of skilled slackers. I’d much rather go back to my casual team. So, yeah, if you can outscore me, you can have my spot in a top ten team. It’s not that difficult to be “elite.”

Mainloop25

The reason being in the top coalitions was so awesome during the mythic reward times was not that your decks were so much better than everyone elses, it was that you could actually start to enjoy the game at its fullest potential since you were likely to get a large percentage of the mythics and could actually build the stuff you'd love to play with.

Yes, and also the fear that too many people would have all the overpowered cards also has a solution: stop designing purposely overpowered cards. 

Ohboy

Sarahschmara said:

MADAFAKA said:

Nice post and thank you for reposting.
But I'm in favor of nerfing top 10 coalition prices (no mythics)

I disagree. After all, I still have my collection. They just made it more difficult for others to catch up. A rising tide lifts all boats or something. 

Edit: I got most of my mythics from the guaranteed rare PLUS (what happened to the chance, however slight, of a better card?!?) top 25 reward which was typically achievable with 12-14 “all in” players. I’ve only started playing top ten because of lack of interest with my vast team of skilled slackers. I’d much rather go back to my casual team. So, yeah, if you can outscore me, you can have my spot in a top ten team. It’s not that difficult to be “elite.”

If only the point wasn't to decrease the pull the top and bottom closer, this would be the case.

But like you said, you already have your collection and headstart, so it's necessary to pull the bottom at a higher rate than the top.

Volrak

I'm not sure if it's been said already, but it's worth noting that what's probably the #1 barrier to collecting all cards is simultaneously probably the #1 long-term catch-up mechanism for newer players.  All else being equal, as long as a player has fewer rares/mythics than someone else, they're pulling new ones at a faster rate, because they're less likely to open a dupe.

TomB

I think that if you want newer players to be more competitive right out of the box the starting decks you get with new  PW's should be better. The garbage most of them come with make early story mode tough enough as it is, but playing in events against other people's decks with them is downright painful.

Ohboy

TomB said:

I think that if you want newer players to be more competitive right out of the box the starting decks you get with new  PW's should be better. The garbage most of them come with make early story mode tough enough as it is, but playing in events against other people's decks with them is downright painful.

Story mode is beautifully designed and paced for the beginner starting out. This possible because progression is slow and gradual.

If you take that player and ask him to play events, he's definitely going to have a hard time. But then if you give him the firepower to play competitively in events, he doesn't get to enjoy the challenge that story mode provides.

I think a lot of people make this mistake, thinking they should start out at the deep end. Pvp should start when chapter 3 of story mode is completed. 

Firinmahlazer

TL;DR..

How do I remove myself from a thread? Good God I'm sick of getting notifications about this. 

Sarahschmara

Ohboy said:

Sarahschmara said:

MADAFAKA said:

Nice post and thank you for reposting.
But I'm in favor of nerfing top 10 coalition prices (no mythics)

I disagree. After all, I still have my collection. They just made it more difficult for others to catch up. A rising tide lifts all boats or something. 

Edit: I got most of my mythics from the guaranteed rare PLUS (what happened to the chance, however slight, of a better card?!?) top 25 reward which was typically achievable with 12-14 “all in” players. I’ve only started playing top ten because of lack of interest with my vast team of skilled slackers. I’d much rather go back to my casual team. So, yeah, if you can outscore me, you can have my spot in a top ten team. It’s not that difficult to be “elite.”

If only the point wasn't to decrease the pull the top and bottom closer, this would be the case.

But like you said, you already have your collection and headstart, so it's necessary to pull the bottom at a higher rate than the top.

Oof. It seems as if you completely misunderstood my point. They actually reduced prizes for everyone, not just the top. They made it harder for new players to collect cards and catch up. It’s misleading to imply otherwise. 

James13

I don't really follow this "nerf" idea at all.  I collect literally thousands of gems a month and a bunch of jewels, too without any extraordinary effort.  And I'm not even in a "top" coalition.

Gideon

No response from anyone actually involved in making the game. Come on DEV team engage already!!!!!

babar3355

James13 said:

I don't really follow this "nerf" idea at all.  I collect literally thousands of gems a month and a bunch of jewels, too without any extraordinary effort.  And I'm not even in a "top" coalition.

Well top 5 event finishers used to get 1 mythic, 125 mana crystals, and a fat pack (4 boosters)

Now top 5 event finishers get 1 rare, 60 mana crystals, and 1 booster.  

Similar prize reductions occurred for lower tier finishers and coalitions.

Not sure how this can be seen as anything but a prize nerf. 

babar3355

majincob said:

MADAFAKA said:

Nice post and thank you for reposting.
But I'm in favor of nerfing top 10 coalition prices (no mythics)

I believe the sentiment you are trying to express is that coalition prizes shouldn't provide decisive competitive advantage to those already winning.

I 100% agree with that.

The point is that there should be something to drive competition. If it is expected that you could complete sets of cards, then getting mythics as coalition prizes wouldn't necessarily be a worthwhile prize. (see toxic elite posts about all the dupe mythics :eyeroll: )

The reason being in the top coalitions was so awesome during the mythic reward times was not that your decks were so much better than everyone elses, it was that you could actually start to enjoy the game at its fullest potential since you were likely to get a large percentage of the mythics and could actually build the stuff you'd love to play with.

The concept that I and other players at the top have been trying to get across is that everyone who puts in a modest amount of effort into learning the game should be able to have that experience.

The best version of this game is when you can play with all the fun toys. Instead of increasing the number of players who can experience the best of the game, they cut off those people who really experienced how good it could be.

100% this!

Mainloop25 said:

The reason being in the top coalitions was so awesome during the mythic reward times was not that your decks were so much better than everyone elses, it was that you could actually start to enjoy the game at its fullest potential since you were likely to get a large percentage of the mythics and could actually build the stuff you'd love to play with.

Yes, and also the fear that too many people would have all the overpowered cards also has a solution: stop designing purposely overpowered cards. 

And 100% this!

James13

babar3355 said:

James13 said:

I don't really follow this "nerf" idea at all.  I collect literally thousands of gems a month and a bunch of jewels, too without any extraordinary effort.  And I'm not even in a "top" coalition.

Well top 5 event finishers used to get 1 mythic, 125 mana crystals, and a fat pack (5 boosters)

Now top 5 event finishers get 1 rare, 60 mana crystals, and 1 booster.  

Similar prize reductions occurred for lower tier finishers and coalitions.

Not sure how this can be seen as anything but a prize nerf. 

I don't see why I or anyone else "has" to get more.  We don't even have crafting yet, so I'm reserving any comments till then.  Having perfect collections of all mythics is not good for the game generally, IMO.