–"Which subset of players should lose more than others?–
This answer for me is simple: players that spend less resources.
Mind you, that does not mean less money. I posit that every player should have a decent chance at getting high level cards, assuming they invest enough resources. For FTP people, like me, that is time. Players can than opt to shortcut time by switching to other resources,aka irl money, and ‘whale out’.
We can than have a debate on what a healthy and stable time or money investment should be, in order to f.i. be able to have 50% of all MPs and 80% of all Mythics (100% rare and lower) of any given set in standard 6 months after release of that set.
Finally, from Dec 24 to Jan 04, you’ll find traditional discounts for new friends in our Planeswalker Sale! Most planeswalkers will be included in this sale, except for
Aminatou the Fateshifter, Nicol Bolas Planeswalker, Dakkon Shadow Slayer, Grist the Plague Swarm, and Dack Fayden (they’ll be present in Bundles)
This is ridiculous. At least stop being so blatant in your cash grabs.
I’m definitely familiar with the asymmetry idea here, whether called whales vs minnows, Pareto, 80/20 rule or whatever. And I’m not discounting any of the tiers, I understand the need for minnows/plankton/etc in the game ecosystem.
What I’m missing is where the idea comes in that the whales (whoever/however many they are) were the ones calling for the nerf, let alone calling for it because they were losing more. I’ve made many posts in the past about trying to determine the difference between “I don’t like how I’m winning” vs “I’m losing more” and there hasn’t been a sustained argument for the latter, and certainly not from identified whales. Even if you disagree on whether the nerfs went too far, the rationales given were thorough and thoughtful toward the game as a whole, so really not understanding why the sudden accusation that whales are behind the whole thing.
As for this sale, it’s definitely disappointing in context of past years, there’s not much arguing otherwise. You can call me pollyannish, but this “cash grab” smells more to me of a desperate attempt to stop the bleeding rather than greed/“making line go up”. None of us know their metrics/finances, but if Webcore is pushing out cards to keep up with WOTC’s insane release schedule without properly playtesting, that points to being materially understaffed, meaning they’re not awash in extra cash. And only offering the PWs for cash instead of gold (even without a holiday discount) sounds like people fumbling for a solution of “we’re not seeing great results from the packages we release for sale, what will people buy instead?” and settling on a known in-demand commodity. You can chicken-and-egg whether their own past mistakes are the cause of people not buying/the game not growing, but after the power creep of MKM/OTJ and cumulative results of prior years, I can easily see the thinking “well we tried this same holiday structure for many years and this is the state we’re in, what can we do better?”
I guess my counter is for the most part, that’s not what’s happening. Win rates are still remarkably high across the board, whether due to dumb Greg, matchmaking trying to align similar deck/collection strength, whatever. F2P players are still getting enough cards to win regularly, almost regardless of time investment. Perhaps that’s fine, but it runs counter to what a lot of people would consider the point of F2P in an head-to-head game ecosystem.
@Sarah i’m considered a whale and with what I’ve spent there was absolutely a) no need to nerf anything…well they butchered it all, and b) whales aren’t likely to complain its more like the F2P players who get whooped by them, and trust me they don’t care what us whales think because i unloaded on them about the butchering and all I got back was sweet f.a when I told them I’d stop spending if they went ahead with it, and they didnt care.
Absolutely! I was just coming here to say this. $80 for 1 PW (I already have the other 2) is just insane. Completely insane. I’m probably cancelling my VIP after the sale because I use it mostly to help save up for the best PWs. If I can’t get them without spending more money than I’m already spending (which is a lot over the years) then they can take a financial hit. I hope the sale is a total disaster for them because it is garbage. Maybe they’ll wake up then and not be so incredibly greedy moving forward. But I’m not holding my breath.
Though I agree it is odd the 3 walkers are packed together and not each in a separate offer, them not being part of the discount isn’t a big deal at all. The difference in gold/crystals you’ll get within a week by playing.
So what? You can also think the other way. That gold you get by a week of playing could have been spent on something else if the walkers you wanted were included in the offer.
While I feel for people that were waiting on certain planeswalkers to go on sale (and I hope they still become available soon for yellow crystals, even if not on sale), I want to focus on the positive for a minute.
Thank you, WebCore, for all the little extras you’ve been giving away in various places. The bonus rewards to the dailies, weeklies, and story mode, including some nice foils and extra yellow and pink crystals, have been really appreciated! Plus, while I don’t have time to play EVERY event you’ve been throwing out there, I do appreciate all the activity and so many choices.
I’m sure it’s really difficult for you to try and keep making money while also not pissing everybody off. But I really appreciate your efforts to spice things up this holiday season. Thank you all for your efforts!
As a filthy casual player who only invests a few bucks in the game once or twice a year and still has a lot of fun just challenging my friends, these past few months have been awesome!
The new Story system, all the fun new Quick Battles just made for casual deck building, and much more low pressure events in general have all been really fulfilling for me, enough so that it’s actually inspired me to spend a little bit more this year than I’d actually originally planned because I’ve been playing more often than in previous years.
This is just anecdata from an invisible casual, but I really like the direction the game has taken recently.
@Magic_PQ_Support_Team What’s up with the DSK Planeswalkers? DSK isn’t listed as excluded from the sale but none of the DSK planeswalkers are available.
Okay never mind. They’re now in the shop. But do you know anything about Chandra, Hope’s Beacon or Comet, Stellar Pup? Wasn’t sure if it was on purpose or not that those two are excluded.
