Drawing non-magic players...

Aeroplane

 Playing this game 20-odd years ago in a small apartment with some friends in downtown Tokyo over a few beers brought back some fond memories when I picked up this game last year. We played with no standard rules, just went for it with 100 card decks and overpowered cards. With group play we just ganged up on anyone who started to control the board. A lot of slurring negotiations and huddling over some new card played we have never seen trying to figure it out with addled brains.
 Puzzle Quest on the other hand is very rigid with its conversion from the paper game and has quite the following of seasoned players and by the overall somewhat negative threads(rightly so in some cases with no emergency updates for some glaring bugs like Vraska) might throw off some new players with no prior history of magic. What will attract new players?
 I'm in a coalition that ranks usually between 200-250 in a events , but that is with only 4-6 members participating at one time. Yes , I'm loyal as we have jumped from 1200 to 500-something over the past year.We have had players join for a month or 2 then probably pinched by the elite coalition that is made up of many coalitions. There seems to be strong core of players , but very few fringe players.
The trends in other games I've played have really expanded their player base and created a fun atmosphere by doing a few things I really enjoyed.
1) Collabs - Games now are teaming up with tv shows, other games, anime , and other card games to create certain playable characters. I play Puzzle and Dragons and they just did a collab with Magic the Gathering to create playable characters like Karn, Vraska, Bolas ..etc . The threads were very positive about this and it created many funny accounts and stories in the forum. Persona, Monster hunter, Marvel , DC, and many others have participated as well.

2) Seasonal themes- They need some mini-sets released during holidays , seasons , or special times of the year. I'm not talking about releasing one card over X-mas either. Wouldn't it be fun to have a summertime PWS . Take the basic 5 PWs and give them a duo color with water, dang throw Nissa , Chandra, Lil in a swimsuit and Gid and Jace in a speedo. Halloween , give them costumes with a swamp duo PW. Mini- card sets of ten( they could be revamped cards to fit the theme) added to the shop. These would rotate each year and maybe one or 2 cards and a PW added each time. Who wouldn't want to spend a little cash on some exclusive stuff. 

This might irk some traditionalists , but I can't see how this game will survive in the long run only catering to a few people. It's obvious Okt. lacks resources as the updates are few and far between and the merchandise is quite expensive in this game. I might have gone to far with the speedo but the lack of content and I say it in a variety sense needs help.

FindingHeart8

The humiliation I would feel losing my first match to speedo Jace is too great to be quantified.

Stalker

I likened magic to chess when i played during unlimited. Its not for everyone but it was simple enough. Now there are too many layers and generators to track each turn that playing it requires too much to make it casual and relaxing.  

FindingHeart8

Stalker said:

I likened magic to chess when i played during unlimited. Its not for everyone but it was simple enough. Now there are too many layers and generators to track each turn that playing it requires too much to make it casual and relaxing.  

chess was actually my gateway drug to paper mtg

Aeroplane

FindingHeart8 said:

The humiliation I would feel losing my first match to speedo Jace is too great to be quantified.

Ha! After I wrote that I thought I went too far, but I had to balance it out after hinting at Chandra in a bikini. However, it showed that Oktagon could be pumping out exclusives every 1-2 months by tweaking PWS and giving some different flavors to already published cards. Origins could be expanded with these exclusive cards. Whales would be in ecstasy and the poor folk could be selective with a variety of cards and PWs. 

wereotter

FindingHeart8 said:

The humiliation I would feel losing my first match to speedo Jace is too great to be quantified.

Ummm haven't you seen me... I mean Jace.... on the Ixalan art? Pretty sure a speedo is fine now.

[Deleted User]

I think its a great idea. But when i looked at the google play store reviews for this game, it seems a lot of people were upset about standard rotation abd hence quit. This makes sense considering they probably lost their cards they tried so hard to get.

Card accessibility and longevity are probably some more important issues. Along with the need to educate new new new players with better tutorials about stabdard and legacy. As well as communication about what future sets will change when through the app inbox.

Aeroplane

jimpark said:

I think its a great idea. But when i looked at the google play store reviews for this game, it seems a lot of people were upset about standard rotation abd hence quit. This makes sense considering they probably lost their cards they tried so hard to get.

Card accessibility and longevity are probably some more important issues. Along with the need to educate new new new players with better tutorials about stabdard and legacy. As well as communication about what future sets will change when through the app inbox.

I agree. Beginners would have a hard navigating through all the details of magic and the initial cost to get going is pretty expensive. Achievement rewards early in the game like a mythic pull, free crafting reward,..etc would help them become familiar with the small details of the game.
The content seems to be very rigid, too. Once a event is created, that's it. They don't dress it up with any special bonuses or objectives in the future during holidays or what not. Legacy is the void of no return, story mode gathers dust, lack of future info. is mind boggling.... Unless this game is very difficult to code, they must be very limited with their resources and workers. They just released new content with no notice , but didn't fix any of the bugs that are rampant through standard. The image of Brigby huddled in the trenches all alone is probably not far off the mark with a few coders coming in once in awhile with a pack of doritos and a chocolate milk.

FindingHeart8

wereotter said:

FindingHeart8 said:

The humiliation I would feel losing my first match to speedo Jace is too great to be quantified.

Ummm haven't you seen me... I mean Jace.... on the Ixalan art? Pretty sure a speedo is fine now.

I was always wondering if that avatar art was something you found offline or a self-portrait from a photoshoot.

Either way, I'll pass on the speedo tho.  Thanks

FindingHeart8

Aeroplane said:

FindingHeart8 said:

The humiliation I would feel losing my first match to speedo Jace is too great to be quantified.

Ha! After I wrote that I thought I went too far, but I had to balance it out after hinting at Chandra in a bikini. However, it showed that Oktagon could be pumping out exclusives every 1-2 months by tweaking PWS and giving some different flavors to already published cards. Origins could be expanded with these exclusive cards. Whales would be in ecstasy and the poor folk could be selective with a variety of cards and PWs. 

Oh yeah, I follow why you did it.  Realistically, as hilarious as I think the idea is, the practicality of bathing suit planeswalkers is about as likely as me finding an alpha Tundra dual-land for $50 or less.

The Gatewatch (and friends) are the mascots of Magic the Gathering, turning into a similar equivalent of Disney's Micky Mouse or Tinkerbell.  Unauthorized sexualization of the planeswalkers (basically anything not developed by their in-house R&D department or contracted artists) would probably be viewed quite negatively by WotC.  I'd imagine the leash they have on D3 in regards to artwork is quite tight, and limited to art already copyrighted by WotC (aka not fan art or independent artists).

That being said, I wholeheartedly agree with you in that Origins needs to be expanded.

wereotter

FindingHeart8 said:

wereotter said:

FindingHeart8 said:

The humiliation I would feel losing my first match to speedo Jace is too great to be quantified.

Ummm haven't you seen me... I mean Jace.... on the Ixalan art? Pretty sure a speedo is fine now.

I was always wondering if that avatar art was something you found offline or a self-portrait from a photoshoot.

Either way, I'll pass on the speedo tho.  Thanks

It’s actually me. Now you know

FindingHeart8

wereotter said:

FindingHeart8 said:

wereotter said:

FindingHeart8 said:

The humiliation I would feel losing my first match to speedo Jace is too great to be quantified.

Ummm haven't you seen me... I mean Jace.... on the Ixalan art? Pretty sure a speedo is fine now.

I was always wondering if that avatar art was something you found offline or a self-portrait from a photoshoot.

Either way, I'll pass on the speedo tho.  Thanks

It’s actually me. Now you know

oh that's really cool!!  well done

Aeroplane

FindingHeart8 said:

Aeroplane said:

FindingHeart8 said:

The humiliation I would feel losing my first match to speedo Jace is too great to be quantified.

Ha! After I wrote that I thought I went too far, but I had to balance it out after hinting at Chandra in a bikini. However, it showed that Oktagon could be pumping out exclusives every 1-2 months by tweaking PWS and giving some different flavors to already published cards. Origins could be expanded with these exclusive cards. Whales would be in ecstasy and the poor folk could be selective with a variety of cards and PWs. 

Oh yeah, I follow why you did it.  Realistically, as hilarious as I think the idea is, the practicality of bathing suit planeswalkers is about as likely as me finding an alpha Tundra dual-land for $50 or less.

The Gatewatch (and friends) are the mascots of Magic the Gathering, turning into a similar equivalent of Disney's Micky Mouse or Tinkerbell.  Unauthorized sexualization of the planeswalkers (basically anything not developed by their in-house R&D department or contracted artists) would probably be viewed quite negatively by WotC.  I'd imagine the leash they have on D3 in regards to artwork is quite tight, and limited to art already copyrighted by WotC (aka not fan art or independent artists).

That being said, I wholeheartedly agree with you in that Origins needs to be expanded.

I was using the summer theme as in another game I play(Puzzle and Dragons), they took some older playable monsters and gave them a blue attribute recently.The speedo doesn't do anything for me. They do this for seasonal events and holidays. X-mas will get green and red att. while Halloween would get black. A bad business decision for not letting this game evolve on its own. So much potential.