1.10.2 Feedback

[Brigby]

I know I’m going a bit off topic right now, but for the record, just because Cthulhu was the one delegated to posting this in the forums, does not mean that he was the person responsible for crafting the entire response. It’s quite apparent that many of you are frustrated right now, but that does not mean we should be directing that frustration at him. Thank you for understanding.

@Steeme

If you’re actually going to implement something for us to do with our dupes, what about all the dupes we’ve already converted?

@Brigby

If it’s a Mythic or lower rarity, then you’ll most likely want to wait for the upcoming system that addresses duplicates to be implemented.

What are you saying? We should all stop converting dupes now?

I don’t know the exact details of the new system, so converting previously hoarded duplicates might not be an available option, just for the sake of fairness to everyone.

If anything, I was merely reiterating that there will be a new system to address duplicates within the next several months.

[buscemi]

@Brigby

If anything, I was merely reiterating that there will be a new system to address duplicates within the next several months.

https://vimeo.com/187073963

[wickedwitch74]

My suggestion…

Step 1: Revert to pre 1.10.2 patch.
Step 2: Take this mountain of feedback and try again.

[Nitymp]

@buscemi

Took me a minute

[Ampmp11]

@Corn Noodles

New weekend event is called “Breaking Points”. How appropriate.

Our complaints have been answered, top 50 in platinum get the “exclusive mythic”!

[losdamianos]

@wickedwitch74

My suggestion…

Step 1: Revert to pre 1.10.2 patch.
Step 2: Take this mountain of feedback and try again.

I’ve got better suggestion

Hire “opposite guy”
opposite guy will have final decision on ANY project and his sole role would be to do the OPPOSITE of what you were intending to do

[Infested]

I cannot believe the disconnect between the development and the player base.

At the moment you should be putting anything that is in development on hold. Admit that this patch is a failure and find out how to fix it.

You might have nice features planned and there might be good ideas, but your players are telling you that they won’t stick around with the current environment. It does not matter what you add if the core of this game is not working.

[toastie]

A fix for duplicates in “the next few months” isn’t good enough. This is quite possibly the biggest frustration with the game for players of all levels, and needs to be addressed in a timely fashion.

Specifically, getting duplicates out of Elite packs is totally unacceptable.

It feels terrible for enfranchised players, will feel even worse for new players, and ultimately defeats the entire purpose of elite packs. They are supposed to be a way for new players to be able to save up for mythics and old players to get specific mythics, but pulling a dup does neither of these things.

[gruntface]

@Houdin

Come on Brigby,
The answers Cthulhu gave were not answers at all. He completely avoided every post on the forums for the last week. This update is nothing but a money grab. We all know it. You can’t tell me that in all your meetings no one has realized that if you don’t fix things immediately this game and all its possible income will be gone because your player base will raise such a ruckus with google, apple, wizards of the coast, and every social media platform we have access to that the game will tank and be discontinued.
This is not meant as a threat. This is a plea from myself and many like me who love this game but won’t spend another dime unless you treat us properly.
Not optional!
Bring back proper rewards for events to make them actually worth playing
Not optional!
Fix the dupe rates and drop rates
Not optional!
Do it now. Saying we can’t fix anything with some coding time but we can manage to out out more ridiculous sales that require coding is insulting.

Have the decency to give us a real response no side talking, no evasions.

Or go crab Cthulhu from his cubicle and make home do it.

We deserve a real response!!!

Houdin

Come now Houdin, that’s not fair.

He does not work in a cubicle at all, he clearly works in an ivory tower.

[FARTFACTORY]

They won’t listen to your voice so let your money do the talking.
Not. Another. Dime.

[nexus13]

I don’t understand why you want to keep the duplicate solution completely secret. That’s just an idiotic idea, you really want to work on a system for months and then release it to have it fall flat like the current rune system? If you could tell us some of the plans now you could get some feedback and tweak it before release so the rollout goes smoother. We just need the high level view, the basic premise of what is being planned.

[_Adam]

TL;DR for those who are impatient: You’re out of luck

I feel so much better now that we’re closed the ‘narrative gap’.

[toastie]

I am what you would describe as a mid-game player (2 colors in gold, the rest in silver, been playing for about a month and a half), and wanted to address a few things from my perspective.

@Cthulhu

If new players decide to jump into the Trial, they will benefit greatly from the booster you get for earning only 5 ribbons. Elder players in the Gold and Platinum tiers have a way to gather Mana Jewels.

The gold rewards for trials are useless. It is better to just buy premium packs than grind Trials for Mana Jewels.

@Cthulhu

With all the best rewards going to a few top coalitions, it becomes hard for new players to compete. To even out the playing-field a little, we’ve removed the guaranteed Mythics for top coalition rewards

This doesn’t really feel like it helps me catch up, it feels like it helps me not fall further behind. Dunno if you consider that a good thing or not.

@Cthulhu

made leaderboards smaller for most Events. Smaller leaderboards let new players climb higher and get better rewards. If the reward we had in the prize pool wasn’t something you wanted or was something you already had, you now get a reward that should be more meaningful to you.

Smaller events are great, something I have been wanting and easily the best part of the update, so thank you for that. However, I really want smaller QBs as well. It feels like a grind to get to the rare in top 150, and WAY too much of a grind to get to the pack in top 50 to even be worthwhile. Spending several hours to get a pack of mostly duplicates is just a waste of time.

@Cthulhu

The Masterpiece collection also guarantees a steady rate of Mythics for players who don’t get them from opening boosters.

It feels like it will take forever to even get to one, and since they can be duplicates I really don’t have the motivation to try. Also the mythic pool is… ok? I would not open one if I had the jewels to right now.

@Cthulhu

So what about other duplicates?!? … Converting them into Runes is fine for new players

It’s still mostly useless. You don’t get enough duplicates early on for it to amount anything significant, and you get FAR more runes from just playing story or QB.

@Cthulhu

Mid-game players should want to focus on participating in events, earning more cards, leveling their Planeswalkers and increasing their color mastery until they can reach Platinum tier.

I am focusing on earning more cards and participating in events. I have no motivation to get to platinum because I don’t feel like I will be able to do well enough there to get any real reward. Gold seems way safer, and I will probably happily chill here for the forseeable future.

[Nitymp]

@nexus13

I don’t understand why you want to keep the duplicate solution completely secret. That’s just an idiotic idea, you really want to work on a system for months and then release it to have it fall flat like the current rune system? If you could tell us some of the plans now you could get some feedback and tweak it before release so the rollout goes smoother. We just need the high level view, the basic premise of what is being planned.

This is far too logical and what normal companies would consider market research and testing the waters.

Therefore, it won’t be done and will be “top secret”, just like everything else.

[Dologan]

The whole “response” is dripping with condescension, but the following paragraph is the tiniestkitty of it all

We’ve also rebalanced rewards in several Events.

Oh, how kind of you to point that out… Since you made absolutely no mention of this change in the pre-release notes, we barely even noticed! I guess such a tiny, inconsequential change must have simply slipped your mind.

Since the introduction of Coalition Events, we’ve noticed that the game is becoming more difficult for new players. With all the best rewards going to a few top coalitions, it becomes hard for new players to compete. To even out the playing-field a little, we’ve removed the guaranteed Mythics for top coalition rewards - and made leaderboards smaller for most Events. Smaller leaderboards let new players climb higher and get better rewards. If the reward we had in the prize pool wasn’t something you wanted or was something you already had, you now get a reward that should be more meaningful to you.

Oh, come on now. If the difficulty of the game for new players were really your concern, you could simply make changes to the matching algorithm, which ends up pitching most people against the same dozen players or so over and over again, regardless of how they compare. Or, perhaps, balance better the exclusive Mythics that anyone can buy that end up causing the most grief, but that, coincidentally, appear to be almost necessary to hit a few tricky objectives.

Besides, new players, i.e. Bronze and Silver, do not really normally compete with the people in the Top 10 coalitions who were getting guaranteed Mythics, who are, with few exceptions, all Gold or Platinum, a natural consequence of earning Mythics. The only case where this might be the case is in Quick Battle; and then, why not partition that better too

Smaller leaderboards do nothing for anyone if the rewards at the top are rubbish and only a tinykitty fractions of what they used to be.

Just admit it: You removed all Mythics from rewards because you decided they should be mainly accessible to those who pay, as doing so is the only way of acquiring enough Jewels to get something more frequently than once a month at best.

[Brigby]

@nexus13

I don’t understand why you want to keep the duplicate solution completely secret. That’s just an idiotic idea, you really want to work on a system for months and then release it to have it fall flat like the current rune system? If you could tell us some of the plans now you could get some feedback and tweak it before release so the rollout goes smoother. We just need the high level view, the basic premise of what is being planned.

We are not purposefully trying to keep it a secret. This feature is still being developed, which means certain details might change. We don’t want to say one thing, find out later on there are issues preventing those details from happening, and then end up telling players we’ve ended up changing them. Once we receive confirmed information from the team, we will be sure to communicate that to all of you.

[naphomci]

So, I am a relatively new player (4 weeks, I have a grand total of 1 mythic and only Chandra at 60, though Gideon is close). Even I find this update laughably bad. I did the first trial. It was not at all worth it. The one KLD pack I got gave me all duplicates. I am still missing 16 of KLD’s 53 uncommons, and 8 of KLD’s 65 commons. Prior to the update I had been able to save up crystals and get 2 on the 14 pack + rare, and that was significantly more worthwhile. At this point, just 4 weeks in (and having spent $0), it is clearly more efficient for me to drop 300 and get the bonus rare, even though that is a significant devalue compared to a week ago. The one 300 crystal pack I got? Gave me 2 rares, one of which was a dupe, at the time I had 8 rares of KLD’s 43.

So, no, even for a new player, the 60 crystal entry fee is not worth it. At silver tier, I got a few
crystals. You know what would actually make me consider playing them? Being able to earn back even 30 of the original 60 crystals.

For the record, prior to the update I had been considering spending some money on the game, and probably would have. Once I heard about the update, I waited, and unless these things are actually fixed, I will not be spending money. So, not only are you losing some invested players, the value proposition to new players is pitiful as well.

[naphomci]

@--Adam

TL;DR for those who are impatient: Sorry

I feel so much better now that we’re closed the ‘narrative gap’.

I read the original message. Changing what it originally said with “Sorry” is blatantly altering the meaning of the poster. I understand not swearing, but you shouldn’t be changing people’s meanings.

[Nitymp]

@Brigby

@nexus13

I don’t understand why you want to keep the duplicate solution completely secret. That’s just an idiotic idea, you really want to work on a system for months and then release it to have it fall flat like the current rune system? If you could tell us some of the plans now you could get some feedback and tweak it before release so the rollout goes smoother. We just need the high level view, the basic premise of what is being planned.

We are not purposefully trying to keep it a secret. This feature is still being developed, which means certain details might change. We don’t want to say one thing, find out later on there are issues preventing those details from happening, and then end up telling players we’ve ended up changing them. Once we receive confirmed information from the team, we will be sure to communicate that to all of you.

I’ve said this before - we don’t mind if you tell us that’s its early stages and I wouldn’t care if you explained the reason you couldn’t do something in the end. Just make it clear from the offset that it is early stages. Let us brainstorm with you!!

Y’know, for example, Blizzard run closed Betas and things drastically change and no-one complains that things change because they know its a Beta.

[Brigby]

@naphomci

I read the original message. Changing what it originally said with “Sorry” is blatantly altering the meaning of the poster. I understand not swearing, but you shouldn’t be changing people’s meanings.

You’re right. I guess “Sorry” can be interpreted in too many ways to be deemed an insult, so I have adjusted it to fit more accurately to the original meaning of the profanity.