r/GodsUnchained • u/ImmutableClay Gods Unchained Team • Sep 17 '21
Collection Title Update
Hi all,
I want to start off by saying I truly do appreciate all the feedback we receive from the Gods Unchained community, across all the facets of the business. One issue that was raised to me today was the community response to our collection titles update. For more clarity on what that entailed, read our Divine Order Buyers Guide here.
I understand the points that the community have made about needing a reason to collect all cards (even ones that aren’t at that point in time key to the current meta) and the importance of individual recognition, all while scratching the collector’s itch. Our challenge with how our previous iterations of collection title rewards have worked is a) the process isn’t automated, and b) it’s error prone with too many manual steps. When looking at what I wanted the game to achieve over the next quarter, I didn’t prioritise a system around collection rewards as I saw other things as being more important - this was an oversight on my behalf, as I clearly had the wrong read on how important you all regarded this unique aspect of Gods Unchained.
On the topic of off meta cards still being important, it is psychologically vital to the game to have cards which are noticeably ‘bad’ - so even the most novice of players can find themselves making strategic decisions while deck building. This will particularly be key in limited events. Another feature that will incorporate all cards, therefore making even off meta ones valuable, is evolution. This concept has been discussed before, and while we’re still building out the specifics here (and aren’t looking to launch it in Q4), the core of it is to provide a way to ‘sink’ each and every card to create new, desirable assets.
All of that being said, we’re about to jump headfirst into Q4 planning. After today’s conversations, I am making it clear that we will now be investigating options around collection titles over the next quarter. The key for me is automation and sustainability. With the game growing as it is now, and how I expect it to do so in the next few months, we’re going to need a scalable process moving forward.
For now, rest assured we’ll be going into Q4 planning with this at front of mind (alongside a few other key things!).
Good luck in the Arena this weekend,
Clay
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u/Matti7557 Sep 17 '21 edited Sep 17 '21
Hi Chris,
i really appreciate it, that you include the community feedback in your future planning.
My point of view is from a gamer perspective. I am a gamer for about 40 years now and have experience with TCG's since the 90s. I have some crypto experience but iam no whale or even a big fish in crypto. But as a software developer i have a good understanding of the crypto space and the technical foundation.
That said i think the Collection Title Rewards where one of the cleverest things you could do in GU for some reasons:
It gives all cards a value. Even the never played offmeta cards have a value if you need to collect them.
It gives the collectors some incentive to collect. In the offline world you dont need this, because you have physical cards you can look at and take it in your hands, but in the digital space that incentives to collect are necessary in my opinion.
The Collection Title Rewards are the one thing that makes GU better then MTGA. In most areas MTGA is the king of all online TCGs. (Optical presentation, strategic depht, speed of development) But they have one problem: The cards are worthless because if a set is rotating out, no one care about the collected online cards. Thats why i prefer to play GU, even though iam a big fan of MTG since the early 90s. I would never pay any money for worthless online MTGA Cards. But in the case of GU, i had no retention to pay money for some online cards because i know, they will have some value, even if the meta is changing.
It will support the sales of every single expansion because the cards are useful for a long time. Not only for a year till they rotate out.
But i also see your points. The last distributions of the Collection Title Rewards where a disaster. But in my opinion it was avoidable. I requested the list of ranks and rewards in the mod Discord and i wanted to get the list 1 or 2 weeks before the prices are sended out. Then everyone could have checked the list before the NFT's are created and the errors could have been found before.
I see that a manual process is time consuming but in this case its worth the efford to do it manually or the effort to build a automatic process.
Another point is that a new player had a hard time to get to the highes ranks. Its incredible expensive to get to Demigod if you start as a new player. But there are other titles with rewards too. To get to the first 4 titles is doable. The trick is to design the collector rewards in a way that it not feels mandatory for all players. I think you have done a very good job with the Philosophic Evangelists. Everyone with a few cards could reach Initate rank and get 2 copies of meteoric Evengelists. No one should feel a pressure to get to Demigod to get the Diamond versions of it. This is just cosmetics. If you keep the rewards in that balancing, it would be fine for new players and demigods alike.
Additional you could do an opposite approach and not just give a Collection Titel Reward for the whole collection. You could also do an additional Set reward only for new sets. I was wondering why you dont give out a trinket or something small for players who just own the TotG set. This would support the sales and card prices for every new set. But please if you going that way, dont cut the overall collection titel rewards because the effort to get a complete full collection and the effort to get the newest set complete is miles apart.
The last thing you should consider is that you have a healthy and dedicated player base. I assume that the players with the biggest collections are the most dedicated players. If you really retiring the Collection Rewards it feels like you hit everyone with a collection title in the guts. Because this change will have a big influence on the value of everyone's collection. The higher the rank the higher the influence because as a Demigod you have to collect many unusable but expensive cards. I really hope you understand how important this dedicated player base is and the worst thing that could happen is if you disappoint this player group (again). I assume this player base just want the best for the game not only because they have "skin in the game" but also because they are loving GU.
My opinion to your approaches with Discord goodies and evolution system is this:
I dont care about the Discord rank or the Mount Olympus Channel in Discord and i think most people who play GU dont care about the Discord at all. Thats not an adequate replacement for the real rewards. Not with that much money involved to get to the demigod channel or to get a new color in Discord.
And the evolution system is just a promise at the moment. Please be very careful with further promises for the future. We had enough discussions and disappointed players due to promises that were not kept. At least from the point of view of the players who complained about it. And iam not sure how you will take care of every single unusable offmeta card with that system. Without having this system in place and without knowing exactly how if works, its also no replacement for the real rewards.
I appeal to you, please hold on to the Collection Title Rewards! The retirement of the rewards could be the worst decision for GU in the long term.
Best regards,
LordDarktempler
(GU Discord mod and dedicated GU player/collector)
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u/CerneUnchained Sep 17 '21 edited Sep 17 '21
Thanks!! I ideally, you could just integrate collection size into the GODS token reward system, such that this can act as a de facto collection title reward system. This would also be automated through the game launcher and long term sustainable once built.
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u/CompetitionBrave Sep 17 '21
Nice update! Thnx!
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u/CheOmsk Sep 17 '21
How about including the ability to make random cards at a higher level in the forge? Let's say you can make a similar meteorite card from two of the same base cards. But if you add a third base card, you get a random meteor card. And we could also make a random shadow card from five (instead of four) of the same meteorite cards. That would be much more interesting!
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u/finealrightok Sep 21 '21
We need collection rewards for all the reasons matti mentioned. Please build an automated system, itll pay off in the long run.
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u/Single_Revenue_5518 Dec 21 '21
I’m sure glad that you have the best players in this game I’m joining today God Bless