The recent string of decisions by D3 have been loathed. At best, they seem to be short-sighted attempts to squeeze more cash out of the player base. At worst, they are actively antagonistic and anti-consumer (am I the first to compare them to Comcast?).
One thing seems to be clear - they want to stem the flow of powerful cards into circulation (Baral notwithstanding).
So far we have seen:
Gradual elimination of Mythics as event awards (currently only three a week for QBs).
Reduction of crystals given out as rewards. (Ok, at best it is a redistribution on a total quantity basis, but also…)
Reduction of card-value of crystals in the form of crappier packs.
Misleading value of new currency - heavy bias towards mythics in elite packs make masterpiece drops occur at a rough rate of a little more than one a year. (5% drop rate based on forum surveys, two elite packs a month). Maybe two a year to be charitable.
This explains a few of the apparently anti-consumer decisions in customer service:
New policy refusing rewards lost to cheaters, even with proof. Assuming they don’t hate the player base, the only logical explanation is a mandate banning the distribution of mythics wherever possible.
Original policy - duplicate masterpieces were granted another chance, but not mythics. This was not about poor customer experience. This was about appeasement while awarding a minimal number of cards. Honoring this policy for mythics would mean a real increase of mythics in the game (or worse, masterpieces for people who pick in sets where they own all of the mythics).
New policy - duplicate masterpieces and mythics were given another chance, but one time only. Out of eight cards, there is an overwhelming likelihood that the drop will be a mythic (five available). Of the five, at least one is a duplicate. And you only get this once. Ever.
So what explanation is there for this crusade against powerful cards? The increased cash prices across the board (lets not forget that crystals are worth less and purple things are worthless) suggest that it could be purely monetary, but let’s not assume the worst.
What if this is a “father knows best” situation where D3 is really trying to balance the power level and avoid an endgame where a few (or many) players have everything, and all decks are the same?
Maybe they have no clue how to stop the power creep and have decided that if all players have worse cards it will be less of an issue. The endgame here would be a more powerful basic set in the next block, raised planeswalker levels and even more powerful mythics and masterpieces, but far less of them. This is ambitious and, I feel, unlikely. The developer has not shown the technical savvy to be able to pull something like this off. Also, in this case, the game becomes 100% pay to win - and I’d be surprised if there are many players who can even afford this at this game’s prices.
Where does that leave us?
D3 has alienated customers, ruined their App Store rating, and made the game less fun for everyone. Maybe the game dies. That would be disappointing. At its best, this game is legitimately a lot of fun.
What do I wish would happen now?
D3 - start by bending over backwards to make your customers happy. Don’t screw people over. If players get screwed by someone else (cheaters) help them! If customer service can make someone happy at no cost to you, just do it.
Your customer service department is being run poorly. Fix it.
Figure out a way to return incentives to the player base. Use a light touch when you take things away. Maybe daily top 5 mythics were too much, maybe awarding mythics to top coalitions twice a week was too much, but try putting yourself in the players’ shoes.
We put hours upon hours into this game. We see the cards we don’t have. We play against them every day. We want to build different decks and new cards are what keep them interesting.
The latest round of updates have told me “You will never have Startled Awake. You will never have Ulvenwald Hydra. You will never have Ulrich. You will never have Nissa’s Renewal. You will never have Lightning Runner”. It is the semblance of a chance at the cards we want that make the game compelling. This has been taken away.
Put more effort into bug fixing. Why is Lone Rider still broken? There has been enough time to fix it. When the game was crashing constantly, you responded by making everything in the UI blue. What?!?
You are fortunate to have a player base who are still invested in the game and in each other, but are driving us away. Your current actions are not spawning replacements.
