Boosting MtG:PQ: Player Insights

Opperstamper

Hello Oktagon and fellow MtG:PQ players,

I hope this message finds you well. I've been thoroughly enjoying MtG:PQ and appreciate the effort your team has put into creating such an engaging experience. As a dedicated player, I wanted to share some constructive feedback regarding a few aspects of the game that I believe could enhance the overall player experience. Additionally, I'm reaching out to fellow players in the community to gather their insights and support for these concerns.

I've taken the liberty of compiling a list of significant concerns that, from my perspective as a dedicated player, require immediate attention. The impact of these issues is palpable, and they seem to detract from the otherwise captivating experience your game offers. With each concern, I've outlined potential solutions that could potentially mitigate the negative effects on gameplay and player satisfaction. These are just some suggestions, and not the only possible solutions. If there are better, easier, or more elegant solutions, I am looking forward to seeing them.

I understand that every game is a work in progress, and I'm excited to see how the game can evolve based on the feedback of its community. Your team's dedication to creating an outstanding gaming experience is truly appreciated, and I believe that with the support of players, we can help shape the game's future in a positive way.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my thoughts. I'm looking forward to hearing from both the development team and the community about these concerns.

1: Unhealthy meta: "I win" buttons have a dominant presence in standard format.
Possible solution(s):

• Better design philosophy.
• Prerelease testing (players are willing to help!).
• LPS redesign.
• Design more and better anti-meta cards.
• Introduce a banned/restricted list for specific events.
  Please note that combo and/or loop decks should not be totally removed from MtG:PQ. This is a legit playstyle that we enjoy. Just not the ridiculous ones that are meta warping, because that's what makes players quit.

2: Bugs take too long before being addressed, sometimes more than 1 year or never at all.
Possible solution(s):

• Prerelease testing (players are willing to help!).
• Postrelease testing (players are willing to help!).
• Reward players for finding and reporting bugs.

3: The game seems stale.

A. 5% of the available PW's are used 95% of the time.
Possible solution(s):

• Balance PW's.
• Introduce a "banned" list for PW's for specific events.

B. 5% of the available cards are used 95% of the time.
Possible solution(s):

• Balance cards.
• Redesign obejctives.
• Redesign event-rules supports.
• Design more and better anti-meta cards.
• Introduce a banned/restricted list for specific events.

C. Delayed standard is a bad decision for MtG:PQ.
Possible solution(s):

• Delaying standard is fine as long as the meta is healthy and there's a good variety of things to do and rewards to gain.

4: There is a lack of new content.

A. There are no new events. A lot of old events are discontinued, even though most are still usable. Some may need a tweak in objectives to fit for standard format, or a fix for a certain bug.
Possible solution(s):

• Create new events for us, and don't be shy about variation. Event-rules supports are fine. Have some complex ones, some simpler ones, and even some events with no event-rules supports at all. Give us PvE, PvP, Block restricted, change the number of nodes, etc. The non-coalition events seem well covered, but the coalition events need more spice to them There are so many possibilities. And there's no need to rush, but a (slow and) steady supply of variation will keep things interesting.
• Revive older events. Tweak them for the current environment, repair them when necessary, and let us play them.
• Add content to Story Mode, add epic boss battles, etc.

B. Acquiring new cards is hard. The newest set is only rewarded in TotP or available to purchase with Mana Crystals. Of course there needs to be a balance for revenue, we all understand this is a business.
Possible solution(s):

• Have events where we can win cards from the newest set. Not just RP for a Rare card and a normal booster, but also a coalition event.
• Have specific cards from the newest set as event rewards.
• Make older sets available in the Vault or through events more often.
• For new players: Have them start with a decent collection right from the start. Give all players a full collection of Origins cards and Planeswalkers, or let them (easily) earn it during the starting journey.

5: There is a lack of communication.
Possible solution(s):

• Have scheduled (live) meetings with the community on the forums.
• Make the Q&A really a Q and A. Forwarding a question to someone else at Oktagon is not a real answer.
• If the real answer is not immediately available, proactively give the answer when it is available. It can even be forwarded to the next Q&A if that works better.
• If the answer is negative, just tell us. We may be disappointed, but being clear is more important.

I know that there are more concerns going on inside the community, but these seem to be the ones that we are the biggest causes of frustration among players. We can all see that there is a decrease in event participation, and my goal is to turn that around. When there is no more fallout of dedicated players, hopefully the focus can be on bringing new players in.

We genuinely understand that addressing these concerns is not an overnight fix. Let us know how you feel about it, inform us every now and then about how things are going, and I'm convinced that we can stay patient. We want you to be succesful, because that means we can keep playing the game that we love so much.

Skurwyknator

@Opperstamper amazing work :bow down:

just little watchout regarding 3rd point. lots of players have limited resources especially new players, so they will naturally go for the strongest PWs like Dakkon or Ajani, so banning PWs might backfire and result in players not being able to participate since they don't have 'whitelisted' PWs

Julie71

thank you @Opperstamper well said. we all appreciate the hard work the Devs do. we are willing to help change the things that definitely need attention for the longevity of this game (we love)

Ampersand

Thank you for this thoughtful list, Opperstamper!

I would LOVE to have more block restricted events. Legacy is just too much degeneracy, but block-restricted creates a new meta for that event and adjusts the value/utility of cards that may otherwise not get much use.

Sythe200

I agree with most of what's written here. To be honest, the biggest issue for me is the lack of new events. The meta is boring right now but I could live with that if there was a reasonable amount of new events. They don't even have to be new, just rotate more of the events we have if necessary. Even just fixing revolving planeswalk so we don't have to play white and blue all the time would be nice.

CMatador137

I agree with most of this! I will say I appreciate that you guys have gotten rid of the 1-turn combos. Those are just no fun. I will also say as much as I love using Sarkhan (I call him Brokhan because he's OP). I would rather see PWs like him and Dakkon and PM Ajani nerfed a bit if it made for a healthier meta. Honestly I would rather see you buff a bunch of the older PWs that don't see much play. I know you did that for AK adding an additional +1 to red and green mana somewhere along the way. It could also be tweaking ability costs and /or effects. I want to play with a variety or PWs but there is just too much gap in ability to make that worth it most of the time.

I would really love to see some more block specific events but there would need to be a way to keep those fresh (force a rotation of available PWs or something each time for thr event).

Also, I would love to see some random new events thrown in like color specific events (not just Valentine's day, but maybe each color gets a couple events a year). Or other event styles like the DnD one where you had different routes based on objectives with a big boss level.

You guys have made some crazy PvE bosses like Bolas and Avacyn with over 400HP. Why not start a series (could be story mode) With some super crazy level bosses. I'm talking 1000+ HP!

Finally, I would suggest mixing up some of thr classic PvE events. They have been the same exact bosses with the same exact abilities and the same exact decks. At this point we know how to beat them. Going back to Bolas and Avacyn. Those were some of the best events, but now we know to just simply build decks with no creatures and it mitigates half their abilities and cards, so it's not even a challenge for most of us anymore. You could give them updated abilities or new cards (some vanguards for example) and really slice up those events!

Opperstamper

@Skurwyknator said:
@Opperstamper amazing work :bow down:

just little watchout regarding 3rd point. lots of players have limited resources especially new players, so they will naturally go for the strongest PWs like Dakkon or Ajani, so banning PWs might backfire and result in players not being able to participate since they don't have 'whitelisted' PWs

A good point! I hope it's clear enough that my suggestions are just that. If there are better suggestions, I'm all for it. Who knows what Oktagon comes up with, they've shown creativity in quite a few things.

I see a lot more suggestions already, about how we can get more variety and address our concerns at the same time. You guys are awesome!

Drag0n

Thankyou @Opperstamper, 100% agree with all points made, a little freshen up would be great.

Scifibot

I'd say make some new cards and don't snooze the new set. I haven't seen any of the hard work everyone is talking about there has been little to no effort as of late. Adding a 3 turn timer to couple of problem cards does little does little to address a problem that could have been avoided had there been actual players who understand the game involved at the outset.

Fix the green seed bugs asap this is just negligence, we deserve better. If you are giving up on the game let us know so many of us can move on. I've tried to support you as long as I can but after getting every card available through regular channels I cancelled VIP. The non dupe packs I have already accumulated will give nothing new.

The answer isn't limiting what we have to call it something new, it is actually making something new. It can't be that hard considering everything as of late is basically the same with a couple of lines of code changed.

HellsBells

In total agreement with pretty much everything here. It's sad that I see soooo much potential in this game, yet there seems to be very little excitement and effort put in to it. I really hope something changes soon, and even a small change for some of the points made would help dramatically.

Jayarieldrillowup

Great points from a legendary player in the game.

I would also like to add how about making the forums more open and friendly to everyone who wants to post instead of them being afraid to post out of fear of being banned or angering moderators or admins.

Tremayne

Regarding 3A - I seem to recall that it was possible to make events where the PW was fixed. If you didn’t own the PW then you would be able to loan the PW for the duration of the event. Maybe, that was a way to go - once in a while.

This method might seem bad from a sales perspective, thinking players won’t buy the PW when they can participate anyways, but try-before-you-buy is not a bad concept.

TheHunter

Amazing @Opperstamper I’m reaching out from my hols to say well done for this post, very balanced opinion and no angry rants. I hope our new friend Lu is reading this!
My personal bugbear has been the lack of interesting events and I wholly support this changing. I can’t remember the last time an event objective forced us to use a set mechanic. Was Adventure the last set mechanic in an objective? It makes players get creative with often buggy suboptimal cards, gives newer players without the OHKO cards a chance to compete, and reduces the win-button loops we face every week. Even the daily RP event only has new mechanics in permanent supports not objectives. And I would LOVE a new PvE event with some scary challenging bosses!
Great work, thanks for driving this.

Vargo

@Opperstamper thank you for the amazing effort and your time in listing out all the issues and concerns with the game and taking an initiative in leading the charge. I completely agree with all your points and suggestions. We have seen that Octagon listens to our concerns and I am hoping that us reaching out and offering ideas would bring players, that love and support this game, with developers who continue to work hard and listen to us. Kudos to all in trying to make this game better!

Vargoroth

Mainloop25

All great suggestions!

Darker

A lot of great points made here! I think one of the best things to take fast action on, that costs you almost nothing, is communicating more with the community and being honest about timelines for changes. Knowing that something better is on the way would do a lot in terms of alleviating at least my own player burn out and frustration. Give us something to look forwards to. We don’t expect miracles overnight, but if we think we’re wasting our breath, it will indeed be game over. Let us know what we can and can’t expect

TIMEWARP

Good post and good structure, thanks

Your points are all good. Some solutions I would change. You propose a lot of 'stick' solutions. I would advocate more 'carrot' solutions.

For instance the lack of PW and Card variety. I would propose to increase the benefits of leveling (f.i. nom dupe packs every 3-5levels), therefore making card mastery more enticing. You can then award extra xp for cards used during events.

wraszowixuXuxi

Not an insider myself, but I keep considering that the March of the Machine release was supposed to be sorta like the War of the Spark release that we got way back, which added a lot of new aspects and events to the game: vanguards, Fblthp's Findings/Planechasing, full art cards, and for a bit the Ravnica at War event. I think Role Reversal might have come with WAR as well, if it wasn't part of the earlier Ravnica block sets before it. Either way, it was a lot of new content.

With March of the Machine, maybe something similar is/was in the works, but they had rush out (sorta) an initial portion of it to keep with Wizards of the Coast's schedule. A lot of times we get Standard sets added to the game as paper is getting their following set released or close to fully spoiled, whether it's a set that we'd get or not. Can't say we can expect Puzzle Quest to be getting the Lord of the Ring stuff as 1. It is technically not a Standard set itself where we'd be more sure to get it and 2. It is a separate IP that probably would require more licensing (in paper itself, it's products cost more than usual, being Universes Beyond stuff). But LotR's release in paper may have spurred Oktagon to release at least some of MOM, before Battles were fully figured out, where maybe events and mechanics would have tied into those a bit. Idk. Maybe wishful thinking, but it could explain why no events were released for it (yet).

A bit of what I'm getting at is though is if it is just a delay, once we get passed it, then Oktagon might wind up answering a lot of the issues you had, with newer cards and events for more content. Bugs would be nice to have some updates on sooner, but I'm not sure what else could be said on that as that is probably an internal decision for them, if we'd get smaller updates here and there to fix things if needed sooner.

Sure WotC might say they are having some record profits, but it has felt like a difficult year or two for Magic in general with some of their decisions. So, maybe some of that has bled into what support Oktagon and Puzzle Quest might get from them, as well as some of what they have to deal with. There were some times in the past where there seemed more hints of the two entities working together in tandem: one of m21's earliest spoilers was Dowser(?)(the merfolk with prowess), shown as both a paper and a PQ version at the same time; Outlaw's Merriment in the first Eldraine set ran with the idea of making creature supports sets ahead of when Zendikar Rising's party mechanic made it a necessity. But the flip side of this potential cooperation that Wizards and the developers of Puzzle Quest may have is that maybe them getting some clues of what to expect ahead of time might mean that they are dealing with some NDAs here and there. It could be why a lot of times when we ask for some answers and such, they may have to check on it, but may not be able to give full answers at that time of what they are working on.

Sorry about if a bit of this is a tangent, but it's a post that I keep thinking of in response to stuff going on these days. That said, I do like some of the ideas that y'all have said above, but could half worry about some banning mechanics, if it might take away a newer player's lucky pulls or their purchases (card and planeswalker-wise), but it could maybe also make a more level playing field if done right(?). More content Story-wise would also be nice as it can have a chance to display some more of Magic's lore, even if just as their loading screens. And prerelease testing would be interesting, but again might have to deal with NDAs; the closest that we have had to the idea is them giving and sharing stuff with our video content creators, such as with when live PvP was developed, and when they get Planeswalkers and exclusive cards before we are able to purchase them, so there is at least some precedence of the prerelease idea. And I think also when they beta tested the Zendikar vs Eldrazi event, but not sure what those who didn't opt-in or submit for doing it saw of it from the outside. Does remind me though of it could be useful if they added a Testing Mode to the game, where we could chose what our opponent is and has, PW and card-wise, as well as testing objectives outside of events to see how they work and what counts for them... But that is maybe a wild dream for another time.

ArielSira

Great post Opp.

Only extra suggestion I have regarding the new player position is to hand out Origin packs for the first level ups (25? 50?) or to increase their percentages, like with the Odyssey-block. Catching up quicker is a good way to keep new players.

AcidRhapsody

Maybe not a PW ban list... but I think giving us 1-3 rerolls with a possible guaranteed PW shift would be nice. It would be unfortunate to have your only viable PWs banned away for newer players with limited options.

Possibly even a weekly rotating free to use PW list with a few new options each week, for players to try out and find interest in new playstyles/fun options.

DREAMER

Full support to our fella! Do what he said and nobody’s got hurt!