Player Retention

Well, we've got a screenshot of you doing it, Oppenstamper, so if you have a screenshot of our coalition doing it, then we'll accept your assertion that you're only as bad as we are.

@Volrak said: "I'm curious why you think a powerful reward for long term paid loyalty is "sickening"? Should powerful rewards never be given for money, or should they be given more cheaply? Do you think the latter would actually sustain the game? Personally I think MP crafting, if we're to have it as a paid reward at all, is pitched about right. I also think there's a huge space D3 could explore further which is cosmetic rewards for payment. E.g. money-only "foil" planeswalkers which animate or are glammy in some way in-game (whether you play with that PW or against it)."

(sorry, the new forum formatting won't let me crop a direct quote, so this is the best I can think of)

Look, I understand all "free" games cannot, in fact, be free for everyone. The devs need to make money somewhere too. The reason I say "sickening" is because of two reasons (both of which others have beat me to saying here)

1: There is no way for a free player to ever unlock the ability to craft MPs for orbs.

2: It requires 6 months of paid VIP to access. That's almost $200 in addition to the 6 months waiting period, which is long after many players would have absolutely no need for VIP membership anymore (especially going forward with the pack changes). If I wanted to I could by VIP for a month or two and have every card in the game and a huge surplus of currency left over. Why should I have to spend another $100 to be able to craft MPs that, by that point, I could mostly just buy with all the jewels I got from VIP?

Honestly, I hate the VIP system in general, since it has a very distinct Pay-to-Win feeling to it and I feel like it cheapens the time and effort I have spent amassing my collection over the years. But I understand the devs need for cash and I guess putting the best mythics in the game up for sale every week wasn't bringing it in enough. But to force people to spend so much time and money on something that is thrown in your face every time you go to the crafting screen (scroll to the top of the rarity wheel in one flick to craft a mythic? Now you get a "sorry, VIP6 only" reminder instead!) just doesn't give me the warm fuzzies. Combine that with the fact that the game is getting noticeably worse with every update instead of better and it really feels to me like a cash grab and run here.

Disclosure: Not VIP, have dabbled in the past.

For me this argument doesn't really make sense. The two points contradict each other, point 1 is something great is being hidden while point 2 is that something isn't that great.

It would be sickening if VIP players were the only ones that had any access to Masterpieces, this is just a little something extra. As you point out it's something that likely wouldn't get used much anyway.

They are also still double the crafting price of mythic so pinks and crafting mythic might be the better route in some cases anyway.

So (twisting your phrasing a little) the first 6 months of VIP are so sickeningly generous that MP crafting is a bit of a fizzer when it finally arrives. IMO that's actually a useful insight which might not be obvious to people who've never tried VIP.

I'm personally still free-to-play, and because that's an easy decision for me I can just ignore the existence of MP crafting. It's never felt "forced" on me or "in my face". As for VIP as a whole, again it won't ever have a direct impact on me, but if it's responsible for the continuance of the game, to me that seems a positive which must always clearly outweigh any quibble about its implementation (let alone its existence), unsatisfying though it apparently is in some particulars. I just (still) wonder whether their choice of VIP rewards is sustainable, in particular whether D3 fully understands the incredible value of non-dupe packs.