New idea for continuous play

Houdin

So...
With the recent lack of events leading up to the release of ixalan. I noticed something.

If there are no overlapping events, there really isn't any reason to play the game for large blocks of time.

I mean, I realize for a brand new player it might be a little different, but I have story mode completed.
Training grounds really isn't all that interesting if there isn't something to be tested. 

Trial of the planes is over costed and really hitting progression only takes like 20 minutes anyway at which point it's also completely pointless.

So I have come up with what I think is a super cool, awesome new event that will instantly make this game relevant to play 24 hours a day.

Ready??
Here goes.

So first.
Run the event continuously. Whenever it ends a new one starts right away. Maybe each reiteration focuses on a different set of planeswalkers for its prize types or colour? Just a crazy thought I'm throwing out there.

We make it pvp legacy with no secondary objectives. Just kill or be killed.
We all know this is the funnest way to play.

We give out fairly decent prizes for top spots but we also give a really good rune count for each game won. Hmmm.... say like 300??
This will be awesome for new players to help them not only level their planeswalkers but also to gain some much needed extra cards for placing. (Wow I can't belive no one has ever thought of this before)

I think we call it....
Speed war???
Hmm or maybe
Fast fight???
No.. still not quite right...hmmm
How's about
Lightning duels ???

Ahhh I don't know. Maybe you guys can come up with a better name?


(Yes, this is how you use sarcasm and still maintain relevance to the game)

GrizzoMtGPQ

Gosh maybe we could call it something with the word Quick in it.

Mburn7

I really hate all the QB debating.  It was great for top players, it was somewhere between painful and necessary for new players, and it was kind of meh for everyone in between. 
There was also a lot of cheating.

I'm not opposed to bringing it back necessarily, but I don't think it'll be as great as you all seem to think it will be.
And I really don't mind the slower pace, since it allows me to have a bit of a life and play other games.

Drewster

I don't like playing other games.

Firinmahlazer

Or maybe. Collectively. We could quit trying to raise the dead. 

Just a thought

Kinesia

Firinmahlazer said:

Or maybe. Collectively. We could quit trying to raise the dead. 

Just a thought

Or just understand that while the _idea_ of raising zombies is nice, when it's actually done the result smells bad and goes slow and eats away the important parts of your brain.


Rather than raising QB fully we need to cut off the bits we really want and Frankenstein it to hell to get something way better than the original for _everyone_.

GrizzoMtGPQ

Some of us really, really liked QB. It was the game for some of us. We're just living in the post apocalyptic wasteland of its death.

Kinesia

GrizzoMtGPQ said:

Some of us really, really liked QB. It was the game for some of us. We're just living in the post apocalyptic wasteland of its death.

I understand. But instead of the "all or nothing" approach can you break down to which aspects where the most important to you personally (can even among all of you who loved it, maybe you liked different parts) and also address some of problems people had with it.

To move forward some of you who loved it need to understand while other people didn't and put forward a compromise that gives you what you want but also makes more space for other people _especially_ the beginners.

Every part of the game needs _some_ place for beginners, even trials need to be adjusted so they are worth beginners playing. Just adding the 30 crystal refund to all levels would fix a great deal.


But, ok, time for me to talk about QB. I tried playing it a bit when I started and wasn't in a coalition and knew noone else who was playing and it was far far too harsh and painful to get even basic progress and my time was _better_ spent in story. And that shouldn't be true. There shouldn't be such huge disappointment and despair at the beginning of a game. I did not have access to many other parts to play and there was no "easy entrance" or "tutorial" for what to really expect from QB, there was nothing to _encourage_ me to overlook my 4/5 losses, there was nothing to show I could progress or _ever_ expect anything different. It was a total total solid wall obstructing everything. It was pointless and useless.
But it _was_ the only event I really had access to at the time too... So I played a bit of story instead and then I GAVE UP ON THE GAME FOR OVER SIX MONTHS, just getting the login reward daily and nothing else. Most other beginners would've just QUIT.
That is the _real_ environment you are all trying to bring back. It might've been good for _you_ personally, but it was _actively_ bad for many others and was _harmful_ to the long term viability of the game in the form it first existed in.


Please actually address other peoples problems with it instead of just going "I know when I hit you with my cricket bat it hurt your head, but I really enjoyed it, so lets do it again, I promise if I hit you hard enough you'll stop feeling bad about it."

DBJones

I would like a chance to try QB. I'll wait until we know more about the Ixalan events before anything else though. Reading the first post, I did think of an interesting idea for a new event. PvP, legacy, no charge limit, good runes just for winning (300 per, or 10x opponent's Planeswalker level would be my preference), and progression rewards only. The twist? It runs each month for the whole month. The progression rewards would be for 1-10 wins, then every ten to one hundred, every hundred to one thousand, and every thousand. Thoughts?

Kinesia

What I've suggested in the past is a weird combo of TG/QB/Other things...

5 nodes, one of each colour, around a locked center node.
The first fight in each outside node gives you a basic card or basic booster _instead_ of the currently 2 hour one. It's better for the game if people have to play to get these.

Once you've won each you unlock the centre where you can put any planeswalker (but not one you've already used) and it becomes a kind've QB thing where you can just keep playing forever. Not sure on rewards or details, but that matters less.

The thing is, this arrangement reduces people running into the same decks and planeswalkers over and over because _everyone_ is forced to use 6 different ones.

It helps newcomers because the rewards are front loaded and they can work on just getting the basics and they can stop whenever they like but still feel they have accomplished something.

Houdin

Kinesia said:

What I've suggested in the past is a weird combo of TG/QB/Other things...

5 nodes, one of each colour, around a locked center node.
The first fight in each outside node gives you a basic card or basic booster _instead_ of the currently 2 hour one. It's better for the game if people have to play to get these.

Once you've won each you unlock the centre where you can put any planeswalker (but not one you've already used) and it becomes a kind've QB thing where you can just keep playing forever. Not sure on rewards or details, but that matters less.

The thing is, this arrangement reduces people running into the same decks and planeswalkers over and over because _everyone_ is forced to use 6 different ones.

It helps newcomers because the rewards are front loaded and they can work on just getting the basics and they can stop whenever they like but still feel they have accomplished something.

I actually don't hate this idea.

I will say though I started playing qb pretty much right away when I started.

I lived it because it was so much like paper.

At first I list almost constantly. It forced me to learn new interactions with the cards I had in order to win.

Slowly my collection got better.

Eventually if I felt like grinding I could win a qb.

Then came cheating.
Then came austerity.

Then qb  died

TheDragonHermit

Kinesia said:

What I've suggested in the past is a weird combo of TG/QB/Other things...

5 nodes, one of each colour, around a locked center node.
The first fight in each outside node gives you a basic card or basic booster _instead_ of the currently 2 hour one. It's better for the game if people have to play to get these.

Once you've won each you unlock the centre where you can put any planeswalker (but not one you've already used) and it becomes a kind've QB thing where you can just keep playing forever. Not sure on rewards or details, but that matters less.

The thing is, this arrangement reduces people running into the same decks and planeswalkers over and over because _everyone_ is forced to use 6 different ones.

It helps newcomers because the rewards are front loaded and they can work on just getting the basics and they can stop whenever they like but still feel they have accomplished something.

The only issue that newcomers might have with this is whether they have 6 PWs and enough cards of all the colors to make full use of this. While it doesn't have the endgame sort of feel TotP does sometimes, it certainly is not something someone can get to fresh from tutorial.

Kinesia

TheDragonHermit said:

Kinesia said:

What I've suggested in the past is a weird combo of TG/QB/Other things...

5 nodes, one of each colour, around a locked center node.
The first fight in each outside node gives you a basic card or basic booster _instead_ of the currently 2 hour one. It's better for the game if people have to play to get these.

Once you've won each you unlock the centre where you can put any planeswalker (but not one you've already used) and it becomes a kind've QB thing where you can just keep playing forever. Not sure on rewards or details, but that matters less.

The thing is, this arrangement reduces people running into the same decks and planeswalkers over and over because _everyone_ is forced to use 6 different ones.

It helps newcomers because the rewards are front loaded and they can work on just getting the basics and they can stop whenever they like but still feel they have accomplished something.

The only issue that newcomers might have with this is whether they have 6 PWs and enough cards of all the colors to make full use of this. While it doesn't have the endgame sort of feel TotP does sometimes, it certainly is not something someone can get to fresh from tutorial.

True. It needs some supporting things...

We've talked before about, instead of buying the first 5, have a tutorial like Nissa's for each of them and you get them as the reward after finishing the tutorial with them for free.

Reward for doing all the tutorials can be something like a choice of one single colour planeswalker (not from the latest set). Giving them crystals is bad, they might spend it on cards. Force them to get the planeswalker at this point.

Firinmahlazer

Kinesia said:

Firinmahlazer said:

Or maybe. Collectively. We could quit trying to raise the dead. 

Just a thought

Or just understand that while the _idea_ of raising zombies is nice, when it's actually done the result smells bad and goes slow and eats away the important parts of your brain.


Rather than raising QB fully we need to cut off the bits we really want and Frankenstein it to hell to get something way better than the original for _everyone_.

Oh. I gotcha. Maybe like a place that we could try out different decks? You know a place where you could still earn some rewards and not have to grind incessantly for a chance at rankings.

We could call it... Testing Chambers. Or something like that.

TomB

I think that, instead of resurrecting QB maybe d3/Oktagon could just try having an event of some sort running at all times? They don't have to all be coalition events, so participation could be optional, and they don't have to all be Standard/Legacy, they could be Block-orientated, or Pauper, or maybe some kind of methodology could be employed to make a Highlander kind of format.

Point is, we're spoiled and we want something goal-oriented given to us to do all the time...

Mainloop25

Or you could just not play QB if you didn't like it. From what it sounds like, people are already picking and choosing which events they play already. 

Kinesia

Mainloop25 said:

Or you could just not play QB if you didn't like it. From what it sounds like, people are already picking and choosing which events they play already. 

This is true. But "people who need far more events to play" overlaps with the set of beginners as well as golden oldies. I just don't want to see the way it's designed being hostile to beginners from the very start. Too much of the game already isn't friendly to them. I'm not saying cater to them completely, I'm just saying don't alienate them automatically. A good design can make space for both requirements easily.

Mainloop25

That is a problem with matchmaking, not as much a problem with the design of QB, although I wwoul be in support of any improvements to the old QB. 

Gideon

Just run a QB once a week. That’s all. I don’t miss it and I’ve won quite a few of them. It was fun though especially when you could snake a new bracket and play 3-5 games and win the whole thing.

Toodles

I'm no technical wizard like some of you, but I would assume people NOT playing the game for ten hours straight in QB is probably easier on the servers and people who maintain them? There may be a legitimate reason for a ftp game not wanting high traffic all the time. 

That being said, I would love a recurring Sealed Deck format for say 300 crystals or $4.99 where there was a 20 minute window to build a deck from your Fat Pack and then play it against only other sealed decks for prizes. Groups could be capped at say 64 players so you wouldn't face the same people or decks in concurrent events. It could have prizes for only Top 8 finishers (runes for the rest) and those decks could be viewable by any participating  for a short time frame after the event ends. 

Gunmix25

GrizzoMtGPQ said:

Some of us really, really liked QB. It was the game for some of us. We're just living in the post apocalyptic wasteland of its death.

More like the post apocalyptic wasteland of Hibernium.  Huh... whaddayaknow, that sentence actually goes together right. Lol

As for QB, it was a cesspool for anyone below elite. I would be extremely disappointed if it came back. 

 The only way I would agree to reinstating it is to attach randomized build restrictions like Iron Chef announced at the time of it's opening.  So not only is speed registered by deck effectiveness,  but your skill at building under pressure is too. 

For example:

Iron Wizard speed battle
 (heh JK about the name)

Rules are as follows for this round:
* creatures cannot be greater than 7 mana
* all supports are destroyed every 4th round.
* graveyard effects are turned off. 

Or another as an example

* Gain an additional card for each Support on the board. 
* Hands are discarded every 4th round.
* restricted to playing up to one mythic card in deck. 

Or

* when three creatures are on the battlefield all creatures gain Double strike (this includes total from both sides). 
* flying is turned off
* any cascades you make will disable all creatures that you control.  

Along those lines. That way you're fighting with your skills... not your ability to throw everything but the kitchen sink into a build.

Prizes though should be a legacy mythic and or legacy rares. No legacy boosters, we get those already in other legacy events. No standard cards or boosters as prizes..... ever.