Player Interaction Suggestions

kunnelation

Hi teams! This is gonna be a big ask with a lot of moving parts, so bear with me as I try to outline what we’ve been brewing.

Ever since the introduction of PvP, many players have realized the potential that opening that door could have on the game, and I want to share with you some of our ideas- big and small- and demonstrate how they will benefit the community within the game and the game itself. There are three big things that have been discussed:

World chat- even if it needs to be separated into servers

Expanding PvP and coalitions- Through direct challenges using the world chat or by visiting the profiles of those outside of your own coalition

PvP events and rewards- This includes competitive and cooperative gameplay, each having their own distinct reward systems

The importance of a world chat:

The game as it is now is very quiet. The only real way to communicate with players about the game is through coalition chat or using platforms outside of the game like Discord. While these methods of communication have been useful- having a more centralized form of in-game communication that expands to more than just those in your coalition would provide a sense of community, foster learning, and draw players to use the app more. Smaller coalitions that have trouble finding players can recruit, form new coalitions, or even just talk to one another to compare strategy for events and organize PvP. Larger coalitions can advertise looking for skilled players rather than just keeping an empty slot every week, which would promote healthy growth for all players in the game. Additionally, the implementation of a world chat would draw new players to the game, along with marketing around these new features.

Moderating chats like this will be a challenge- especially since it currently falls to the leader of each coalition to act in this role. Many others and I believe that the benefits of a world chat will outweigh the drawbacks. It could be implemented in a way that you don’t have to see the world chat if you don’t want to, add friends, or block those who you don’t want to hear.

The importance of expanding PvP and coalitions:

As I mentioned earlier, PvP breathed new life into this game for many players, myself included. While tuning our decks fighting against Greg (the AI), is useful from time to time, it is nothing compared to the challenge of playing against a real opponent. I realize that it was a feat to launch this capability on its own- but expanding the ability to cross-coalition challenge would be a phenomenal way to hone the skills of veteran players and promote the growth of new ones.

Similarly, coalitions could be updated so that finding active ones is easier. The search function could include filters like percent of members that play the last 5 events and their average score for the last 5 events. The inclusion of coalition descriptions would be beneficial as well, allowing leaders to describe their approach to the game and performance requirements for members.

Not everyone is a fan of PvP, but it could be implemented in a way to where it is not in your face if you do not want it to be- like having its own tab on the home screen menu and possibly having its own chat.

PvP events and rewards:

A reward system designed around PvP would encourage players to take part in challenges, offer rewards for improving their strategy, could be set to different modes like standard and legacy, and be broken up by tiers.

Cooperative events- this is a big one. We currently have archenemy themed events centered around Avacyn and Bolas, but in this form- you and another player would team up and fight through a dungeon similar to the You Found an Entrance event- ultimately ending in a boss battle. You and your ally would share a board-state and health, but take your turns sequentially with separate hands, flipping between player 1 and player 2. Cooperative gameplay would open the door for a multitude of card interaction possibilities and would be a fun challenge to play with your friends or even someone you’ve never met before.

Ultimately we just want more ways to interact with the other players who love this app as much as we do, we want to see the game grow, and we want to promote the growth of every player. I know this is a LOT of things, and many of them might not seem feasible, but this is important to us and we hope it is important to you!

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Some Random Gruul Player

andrewvanmarle

I'm wary of world chat, just because of the spammy way some people interact, I've seen it in mmo's.

Maybe the option to group coalitions?

My experience is that the moment you make pvp competitive, people start complaining about balance.
(also mmo experience) 

I have no suggestion here other than to tread carefully


I love the coop idea!!! 
I see my coalition go wild with that

AoMadness

World chat would be cool in my opinion. The only thing I'm not a fan of is making PvP more focused for events or rewards. This damages the balance as it locks out a certain player base who don't like PvP because it's slow and full of loop decks, from earning rewards, and if there's a world chat, adding PvP events increase the chances of toxic and abusive behaviour if saw losers or these people who think there op.

In my opinion a way to open communication is a great idea I wouldn't mind talking to more folk, but PvP is one thing this game doesn't need. The rewards in tiers for all the other events are already broken and annoying don't need to make it worse by making PvP rewards. And having a AI match last 20 minits is bad enough don't fancy this with a human as they know the Deck better and may make it longer. Or from experience of the AI running loopy decks I would hate to face these run by real folk as they know how to set it up and get it'd maximum effect 

gozmaster

1. World Chat...

This is interesting as a suggestion, and I'm not opposed to it, I'm just not sure where it falls in the "Priority" of things that could make the experience of the game better...

IE, Is world chat more important to work on than say...

- Common bug fixes, the ones that have been around for awhile and cause veteran players to froth at the mouth like Kujo every update?

- or working to improve speed/function of certain mechanics (Example: Token generation is one of my biggest asks in this category)

- Or Game-Wide PvP (personally, I want this more than anything else right now)

I for one, feel there may be more priority items on the list that need attention, but if all things were equal might enjoy the ability to chat platform wide... 


2. Game-Wide PvP:

You know where I sit on this...

I LOVE the idea and feel not only will that make the deck building more interesting, but also attract a bigger base to the game (especially from the Magic Cardboard/Arena field) 

The game could use with an injection of new players (I love my nerds but I think our army could be much bigger/better.)

Also, Maybe "World Chat' Could start here... With ability to chat with those that we challenge across other coalitions, (a private chat for the two playing, rather than spamming the group coalition chat board) 

I love trash talking (Respectfully of course) and this would allow a nice way of meeting new people, or being able to isolate problem makers for easy discipline if needed.

Those Are my biggest thoughts on these

gozmaster

Oh And @kunnelation, bro... That profile pic lol