|
As communication slowed I was expecting them to cut back and just sort of slide to the finish when next came out. But just killing the introductory product during a year where Standard attendance is face-planting and sales are apparently stagnant is... Wizards of the Coast I guess. It's sort of funny as someone who came back to the game at Zendikar, when sales were going insane and the game was exploding due to duels and the high quality core sets among other things, to get to this point where they've mucked up nearly everything.
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2017 20:29
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:11 |
|
|
I guess we should have seen it coming when they said they were bringing back core sets. DotP was a massive driver of new players and two years in a row they screwed the pooch by trying to make extra money off a product that didn't need to make a dime to be profitable. At the rate they're going, they'll start charging money for the intro packs and put exclusive chase mythics in them because they're not selling.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2017 20:32
|
|
|
Lottery of Babylon posted:Amonkhet will be the last new content update for Magic Duels. Hour of Devastation will not be released on the platform. Hahahaha I knew this was coming but I thought they'd have the courtesy of announcing this after an update, not sneaking it in just weeks before the expected next one. What a bunch of turds.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2017 21:57
|
|
|
Is there even an online card game worth playing now? Eternal and Elder Scrolls are way too creature focused. Hearthstone wants a yearly money commitment to stay competitive in a game where it's only a matter of time til they literally make a coin flip "win the game" card. Shadowverse was the best digital CCG I'd ever played until they released two sets that destroyed its interesting, multifaceted meta.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2017 22:08
|
|
|
It's 2017 WoTC, the company is at a low point in management and organization. I'm not sure why. It feels like since Hasbro came down on them for slowing growth a couple years back they've been really goofy and it's all coming to a head now.Nehru the Damaja posted:Is there even an online card game worth playing now? Eternal and Elder Scrolls are way too creature focused. Hearthstone wants a yearly money commitment to stay competitive in a game where it's only a matter of time til they literally make a coin flip "win the game" card. Shadowverse was the best digital CCG I'd ever played until they released two sets that destroyed its interesting, multifaceted meta. Hearthstone really spoiled the latter by giving them something to compare to even though Hearthstone's popularity is almost entirely bound up in Blizzard's popularity. As long as the accounting department can look to that there will always be a risk.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2017 22:16
|
|
|
Lottery of Babylon posted:Amonkhet will be the last new content update for Magic Duels. Hour of Devastation will not be released on the platform. Wow, those fuckers. RIP. Nehru the Damaja posted:Is there even an online card game worth playing now? Gwent is okay. Slightly more fun than Hearthstone.
|
|
#
?
Jun 13, 2017 22:49
|
|
|
Nah it's all poo poo. Time for self-immolation.
|
|
#
?
Jun 14, 2017 04:24
|
|
|
I'm all in for Gwent and Hex
|
|
#
?
Jun 15, 2017 11:35
|
|
|
Which one is Hex? Is that the one that's basically a copy-paste of Magic (in a good way)? I'm just loving how they waited until everyone had spent money on AMK before announcing this. Not even announcing HOD will be the last set, just "lol thanks for the bucks". At least I only ever had to spend like $10 when we got two sets at once and I didn't have enough gold banked. Now, if they announce that all your Duels cards will carry over into Magic Next... which, considering the rarity restrictions, would not really be that insane of them. It would earn them a ton of goodwill and an overnight playerbase, but people would still have to buy packs/cards to fill out full sets of 4 for Uncommons, Rares and Mythics, not to mention all the cards we just didn't get in Duels. But, since that would be the smart thing to do, we can be sure they'll never do it.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2017 20:22
|
|
|
I'm pretty sure they implied there's no transfers between platforms planned. I'm also pretty sure looking at the release calendar for the next eight months WoTC is in full panic mode. I know the pipeline is months back, but there are four products out in november, and two sets after the fall big set. It's pretty clear duels just wasn't making enough money and they dropped it to try to clear a little more spending to improve the books.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2017 20:40
|
|
|
Duels wasn't ever supposed to make money, I thought. It was phenomenally successful at feeding people into the paper game, so much so that they were willing to kill core sets. Obviously I don't have access to their numbers but I feel like the past two iterations were killing the golden goose to try to squeeze out money because Hasbro is demanding more profitability across the board. It wouldn't surprise me at all if some goon from outside WotC had some shortsighted directive to kill off projects that weren't making money without a feel for the larger ecosystem of how the in-store play network exists, gets new blood, brings back lapsed players, etc. If nothing else, the state of design and standard format definitely feels like it's reeling from shortsighted cash grabs. The Gatewatch was apparently a big marketing failure. The push to make story elements into tourney-viable cards has led to a giant heap of standard bans. The game just doesn't feel like it's being run by the people who know how to make a good game right now.
|
|
#
?
Jun 16, 2017 21:07
|
|
|
Personally I can't wait to see how bad the Magic MMO will be, and how bad it will tank.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 02:07
|
|
|
Magic MMO could easily be fantastic: It's Shandalar, but you've got a vanguard like sort of thing going. (They won't do this)Nehru the Damaja posted:Obviously I don't have access to their numbers but I feel like the past two iterations were killing the golden goose to try to squeeze out money because Hasbro is demanding more profitability across the board. It wouldn't surprise me at all if some goon from outside WotC had some shortsighted directive to kill off projects that weren't making money without a feel for the larger ecosystem of how the in-store play network exists, gets new blood, brings back lapsed players, etc. WoTC has always, always been immensely short sighted. There's no way Hasbro came up with the accelerated rotation, and that's probably the dumbest idea they've ever come up with. But I mean, Duels was made after years of pushback that products like Shandalar would somehow destroy the game. I suppose with that in mind it doesn't matter: Either Hasbro put pressure on them and bad ideas boiled up, or Hasbro put bad ideas in.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 02:59
|
|
|
Hasn't it all been more or less constantly downhill, with only occasional upticks, since Garfield left? I don't mean profits obviously, but general quality and good decisions.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 03:07
|
|
|
Garfield left like 15 years ago but occasionally comes back to work on design teams. Has quality been declining? Battle for Zendikar through Eldritch Moon was an obvious bump caused by them switching release formats when the design and creative teams already had three-part sets planned. Kaladesh was fun and had energy and vehicles as major new mechanics that seemed fine. Amonkhet isn't that exciting but I would have said the same thing about Kaladesh before Aether Revolt came out and rounded out the mechanics. I guess you could say like, 2015 to 3rd quarter 2016 was a dip in quality? I'm not sure how people reacted to the New Phyrexia and Khans of Tarkir blocks but I'm not aware of any antipathy. The constant Gatewatch focus has been annoying and they've said they're backing off on them in upcoming sets. If you consider Apocalypse and Champions of Kamigawa and Odyssey I'm not sure you can draw a downward trend line on quality. There have been some pretty dire sets before the Ravnica-Innistrad winning streak they had. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 03:42 on Jun 17, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 03:37
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:If you consider Apocalypse and Champions of Kamigawa and Odyssey I'm not sure you can draw a downward trend line on quality. There have been some pretty dire sets before the Ravnica-Innistrad winning streak they had. Also there is no streak from Ravnica to ISD. Cold Snap is garbage. Time Spiral is a noted "hurt attendance" block that forced a revision of design policies. I've read Lorwyn (and it's three sets with it) was considered a gently caress up too and that it's poor sales are why the supply of cards is lower than Mirrodin through Kamigawa. As an aside the Gatewatch is so loving funny to me. There are interviews with R&D where they talk about the Weatherlight crew and how following a cast too tightly really pissed off players after a while, and how they'd never ever do that again. There's still people in R&D who worked on the weatherlight arc! It's the same people! Like what, maybe this time Jace will be oh so much more compelling than Ertai?
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 04:36
|
|
|
Ah I didn't realize Lorwyn and Time Spiral were in there. So we're left with what, no pattern at all? Seems like wildly popular, boring, overcomplicated and broken sets come on each other's heels. Sometimes one set is both popular and bad. I personally thought Armageddon was trash even though it was popular because while gold sets sell they didn't do anything interesting with the mechanics and the story was DBZ level schlock. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 04:47 on Jun 17, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 04:44
|
|
|
I think you could argue the new world order policy churned out mostly excellent sets (other than AVR in limited, I guess) until the two-block accelerated thing started loving up blocks midway through design. Also the other pattern is every single artifact block is accompanied with standard bannings. So maybe they should just stop with that idea.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 04:49
|
|
|
I really hope this new Magic digital game has full card art and not that Hearthstone style poo poo.
|
|
#
?
Jun 17, 2017 22:34
|
|
|
Playing through the story and all the help quests again this was kind of cool, nice interactive magic basics tutorial. and still waiting for those useless 2000 coins!
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2017 08:23
|
|
|
precision posted:Which one is Hex? Is that the one that's basically a copy-paste of Magic (in a good way)? Yep, need a magic game like that! https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3762663&userid=0&perpage=40&pagenumber=1
|
|
#
?
Jun 19, 2017 08:30
|
|
|
Wow you'd think they would have continued updates on their current platform until the new one comes out so that the playerbase doesn't disappear. I'm not sure I see myself playing Magic in the future.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 03:24
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:I'm not sure I see myself playing Magic in the future. I'm definitely skipping NEXT for the time being.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 03:27
|
|
|
I downloaded Hex and opened a Tyrannosaurus Rex, a 6/4 trampler for 6 mana with 2G required. Hi Craw Wurm lol. Lands aren't permanents in Hex and I don't know if that's a good thing. Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 04:14 on Jun 20, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 04:03
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:Wow you'd think they would have continued updates on their current platform until the new one comes out so that the playerbase doesn't disappear. You can always pay $700 a month and play Magic Online.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 04:47
|
|
|
I'll have you know the average Top 10 deck only costs $340 now! Of course you could just open packs... quote:the current EV of an Amonkhet booster pack is $0.51, while the retail price is $3.99 Wait so MTGO doesn't even have matchmaking unless you pay for a game? Arglebargle III fucked around with this message at 06:16 on Jun 20, 2017 |
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 06:09
|
|
|
If you can get Amonkhet boosters for $0.50 a pop it seems like the odds of getting decent cards would be pretty good compared to the certainty of spending however fuckoff dozens of dollars per chase Rare? I haven't used MTGO in about 7 years, except for about an hour a couple years ago where I hilariously steamrolled a bunch of people who were clearly not expecting to be facing a 10 year old Web of Inertia/Samurai of the Pale Curtain deck 
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 06:22
|
|
|
MTGO is probably not that expensive, unless you never win, but it's A) Terrible in terms of a Digital product B) Constantly on the prowl for more ways to squeeze money out of the player base instead of trying to increase the number of players. People like to say you can draft in your underpants, but I draft more than enough in real life.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 07:20
|
|
|
Arglebargle III posted:Wait so MTGO doesn't even have matchmaking unless you pay for a game?
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 13:07
|
|
|
Boco_T posted:It has casual rooms you can play all day once you have a deck built. The people and decks in there aren't always tournament-level and you'll find a lot of babies that will concede if you cast a Thoughtseize or counterspell That's what makes MTGO so expensive. If you want to play a full game, you have to put money on the table, otherwise the other player will just concede if their turn two combo doesn't go off.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 16:54
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 18:11 |
|
|
There's a random sale on Kaladesh and Aether Revolt boosters today.
|
|
#
?
Jun 20, 2017 17:33
|
|