Long-Time Veterans - Player Level Adjustment (4/22/19)

Brigby

Hi Everyone,

Back in January with the release of the 3.2 update, we implemented a feature called Player Levels. This was meant to track the level of progression a player had accomplished in-game, but in a way that would be separate from Color Mastery. (Right now it's only card mastery, but there will be other ways in the near future) With its arrival, we saw a lot of players providing their feedback. The most vocal feedback we heard specifically pertained to long-time veteran players that had mastered a large number of cards prior to the 3.2 update, and their subsequent rate of Player Level progression compared to players that did not.

Since then, we've been compiling all the comments players have provided, reviewing all of the suggestions, and analyzing them for viability. Since the arrival of new, but not-yet-announced content would introduce additional ways to earn Player Experience in the near future, it was a challenge determining what suggestions could or couldn't work with the system in the future.

What we eventually settled on was the following plan:

Player Level Adjustments for Long-Time, High Color Mastery Veterans
Any player that had a total Color Mastery higher than 5,000 at the time of the 3.2 release will fall under this Long Time, High Color Mastery Veteran category. We then created sub-categories within this grouping, based on the the range of Color Mastery values these veterans had.

Finally, starting on 4/23/19 at 11:30 UTC, these players will have their Player Levels adjusted according to the Color Mastery values below: 

• 5,000 - 7,500: Up to Level 80
• 7,500 - 10,000: Up to Level 85
• 10,000 - 15,000: Up to Level 90
• 15,000 - 20,000: Up to Level 100
• 20,000+: Up to Level 110

We did this to accomplish a few things:

• Push Veterans To Higher Player Level
• At the implementation of Player Level, players who had mastered less cards than veterans Pre-3.2, but more than them Post-3.2, were able to catch up and even surpass veteran players.
• With Ravnica Allegiance adding a whole new card set to master, and setting veterans to a minimum of the highest current Player Level, veterans should no longer have to worry about being surpassed by those that mastered less cards than them.
• Maintain Future Matchmaking Structure
• Player Level is intended to be one of the more important factors in determining the future of Matchmaking, and because of that, the way its currently designed influences a whole variety of other interwoven elements.
• By raising veterans to a minimum of level 80, we are able to still remain within the range of the design's flexibility, subsequently avoiding a complete re-design of the Matchmaking system and any other variables it interacts with. (A re-design would've meant delaying a whole lot of other content along the development pipeline)

We understand that this decision may not be exactly what any given player's suggestions posited, but please know that one of our goals was and always will be to highlight the accomplishments of our veterans. This just also has to be balanced with allowing for foundations to be laid to benefit all players in the long-run; both new and old.

As always, we thank you all for your patience and understanding, and a big thank you for being a part of our passionate, Magic: the Gathering - Puzzle Quest community.