Top streamer and caster M0gwai quits the game until it's fixed

[Draconifors]

Also, make Slave Drivers "Doomed". They were for a time, and it was fine.

Slave Drivers were never Doomed; Slave Infantry was the card that got the tag for a short while.

 

[friketje]

Mogwai rage quitting, who cares. He is an avarage player at best. I guess his stream is popular cause there is a lack of skilled players that stream atm. The game is okish now, altough last patch was better. Dwarves are dominant in normal ladder, but more because there so easy to play then of pure strenght. Top players can win with any faction, just check the pro ladder.

 

[Joonlar]

There have been stale and unbalanced metas before and I'm pretty sure Mogwai has taken breaks in the past for this exact same reason.

IMO you're being way over-dramatic. Game is unbalanced now but the next patch will help alleviate or fix the problems, as has always happened.

 

[iamthedave]

iamthedave. Rather than going point by point on your response I will keep it brief.

1. Look at the factions you already have mahakam was against SC in the books. Monsters are at war with wild hunt. NR are separate kingdoms that cooperated in war but the games show one conquer another, easy split. Also Google little horse (this is the foundation for a faction by itself.)

2. We can agree to disagree on cards power but plenty of golds made much bigger impacts before they made them vulnerable

3. Deck diversity is dead because the system killed it. Others suggest giving rewards for rotating factions (hard to do for new and casual players.) You want real deck diversity you need balanced factions that each have multiple archetypes. Also kill the losing penalty completely and rework the top 1000 to account for win rate relative to games played.

4. You try going first multiple ranked matches in a row and see how you like it.

1. Yes, but what would they DO with those factions? I'm not against the idea on principle, I just don't know what those factions would look like that wouldn't result in further diluting the faction identity we already have, which is already one of the loudest complaints the fanbase has. I can see this backfiring spectacularly, is my point.

2. How did 'the system' kill it, as opposed to one deck dominating the format above all others? I've not pushed for 4k this season because i refuse to play Dorfs on principle, and I see a lot of deck diversity in the high 3000s

3. I once went first 12 matches in a row. Won some, lost some. Didn't upset me particularly.

 

[friketje]

There have been stale and unbalanced metas before and I'm pretty sure Mogwai has taken breaks in the past for this exact same reason.

IMO you're being way over-dramatic. Game is unbalanced now but the next patch will help alleviate or fix the problems, as has always happened.

Bad meta, the memories. In closed beta there was this elven mercenary meta when al players in top 1k ish (player base was smaller those days) played the exact same deck. You could only swap 2 golds. I believe it's this one https://www.gwentdb.com/decks/9488-swims-expert-st-2-rank. It also was dead easy to play, winning the mirror was draw dependent.

 

[xDivinity]

I dont give a flying Roach about streamers quiting games.But i agree that the game has seen better days.CDPR is aware of the situation for sure,im certain they are working on a solution .

 

[Pruny]

lol, in closed beta mercs were 4points. i was playing consume then and allways won first round with 2 cards down because of triple scorches, god bless Ciri+Roach in round 2.
:readytofight:

 

[altaybek]

next patch will help alleviate or fix the problems, as has always happened.

Always? When? Their only reaction to feedback is "Thanks for feedback it's appreciated <3". They started leaking more new cards just to create more problems even before they fix the ones already present. So far, they always bit more than they could chew. They even admitted this in their letter but we're yet to see it in action.

Only thing I'm happy is the artists are employed and earning their well deserved money. They are the only heroes in the team right now.

 

[Joonlar]

Always? When?

The patch prior to Midwinter is commonly viewed as the most balanced state that Gwent has ever been in.

 

[altaybek]

The patch prior to Midwinter is commonly viewed as the most balanced state that Gwent has ever been in.

Because it wasn't a "one patch" thing:

-Weather Update (13th of June) Some stable changes but no new cards.
-Gold Immunity (4th of September) added 30 new cards which we still use and was a huge game changer update (and the best one imho)
-Agile (29th of September) didn't add any new cards and removed rows and balanced a few things
-Saovine (9th of November) 10 new cards (one of them being a meme card Avallac'h: The sage), balance tweaks and that's about it.

Only 40 new cards in 4 months and it took them literally 1 month to balance a 30 card Gold Immunity patch. It's that difficult.

Now do you think a mess of 116 cards (and counting) can be solved in the oncoming February patch?

 

[StrykerxS77x]

I don't disagree but I will say again that when Skellige was meta it was worse than dwarves is now. Maybe not by a lot but it was worse.

 

[Pruny]

that meta with huge morkwarg? sucubus and caretaker were their doom.
:evil2:

 

[Joonlar]

Now do you think a mess of 116 cards (and counting) can be solved in the oncoming February patch?

No, I don't claim everything will be solved in the next patch.

I'm just saying that whenever imbalances emerge, CDPR are generally aware and work to correct them, as the long-term pattern shows.

Because it wasn't a "one patch" thing:

-Weather Update (13th of June) Some stable changes but no new cards.
-Gold Immunity (4th of September) added 30 new cards which we still use and was a huge game changer update (and the best one imho)
-Agile (29th of September) didn't add any new cards and removed rows and balanced a few things
-Saovine (9th of November) 10 new cards (one of them being a meme card Avallac'h: The sage), balance tweaks and that's about it.

Only 40 new cards in 4 months and it took them literally 1 month to balance a 30 card Gold Immunity patch. It's that difficult.

Yes, patches generally improve the game over the long-term. That is exactly what I'm saying, and exactly why I find your statement "This season (if not the game as a whole) is broken beyond repair" so overly dramatic.

Why do you think the game is possibly broken beyond repair when history shows it will improve over time, particularly after a new influx of cards?

 

[OG.laloquaint]

I'm just saying that whenever imbalances emerge, CDPR are generally aware and work to correct them, as the long-term pattern shows.

Yeah, they have honestly. Even though I don't have much fun playing at the moment, I still remain hopeful that CDPR will balance things out. I'm glad at least somebody else has a positive mindset about the game. Welcome to the forums btw

 

[Joonlar]

Yeah, they have honestly. Even though I don't have much fun playing at the moment, I still remain hopeful that CDPR will balance things out. I'm glad at least somebody else has a positive mindset about the game. Welcome to the forums btw

Yes, I am positive because I think the game is moving into a positive direction overall. I agreed with Gold immunity change, I agreed with the introduction of Create. I see more potential for variety in gameplay than ever before, once obvious balance tweaks are installed (and personally I'm still having a lot of fun with the game, aside from playing against ST). Technical issues are of little concern as I expect them to be fixed, frankly.

Thank you Glad to be here and check things out. I usually frequent the Gwent subreddit so this is a nice change of pace. Cheers.

 

[Philologus]

It's called Ranked for a reason. That's what pretty much happens in every game, especially in high ranks. You need to use the best decks. The problem is that this behavior extends to casual, where I see a lot of dwarves...

I generally agree with the rest of your points though.

Then it ceases to become a game of skill. If one is forced to use one of a few archetypes that is OP in order to reach the upper echelons, then chance (in the draw/mulligan) becomes the determining factor in winning. I'll say it again: Gwent in it's current state is not overly-complicated to play, and the OP SC decks can have (at least) a 50+ percent win rate by less "skilled" players. This problem is exacerbated by the undeniable fact that the game is also unbalanced in too many ways, starting with individual cards (e.g. Brouver and I:M) all the way to the faction level (e.g who the heck wants to play NR at 4250+ MMR).

Until Gwent reaches a state where one can mix and match mechanics using a large library of cards, and said cards and factions are more balanced, things won't change. (Yes, I know the former will take time, but the balance issues should not take this long to resolve)

Once more.. how in the nine hells did the MW patch make it through play-testing? I could have assembled a team of 4-5 testers and after a few weeks easily come to the conclusion that MW was absurdly broken. Heck, I (and others) could even see it during the reveals.

 

[Philologus]

I'm feeling the same way. I don't agree that it doesn't take skill to get to the top of the ladder - there's still some involved - but right now the game is frustrating. I don't object to linear decks, but when linear decks are much stronger than everything else the game's less fun. That's not counting the coin flip as well. Few things are more discouraging than seeing a blue coin and knowing you're a significant underdog before the first card is played. Almost as discouraging is losing the spy war (especially vs. NR) and / or simply not drawing the cards needed to fight it.

Apparently the coinflip isn't being addressed soon either: https://www.reddit.com/r/gwent/comments/7sp82a/coinflip_issue_being_addressed_is_not_something/

I'll probably still play because I'm already pretty damn high up the ladder and I figure if I'm going to get GM some season, it might as well be this one. But if / when I manage, I suspect I'll cut back to getting 6 wins a day.

Oh wow. It appears you have changed your mind a bit from a couple of weeks ago, when you were stubbornly saying, "Just play better" (in response to complaints about SC Dwarves)?

 

[Maerd]

Oh, some streamer "quits". How sad... Everybody will be crying for a week now.

 

[partci]

... some streamer "quits"...

It would be one thing if it was "some streamer". Like JJ Pasak.

 

[quantum_number]

I see some people offhandedly dismiss streamers and I think that is a mistake.

First, M0gwai is the topic of the thread, but his feelings are mirrored in a lot of streamers. In one of his videos or streams Merchant, beating around the bush and without naming names, mentioned that the general feeling among streamers was an anticipation of another card game and that Gwent is used to pass the time. In streams morale feels low, chatter about two other card games is becoming more prevalent and the Gwentelmen renamed themselves to Topdeck.

Second, some people are being gleeful about streamers being salty, even though they spoke well of the game before. I feel this makes it worse. When the staunchest defenders start tilting, boycotting and quitting you know things are bad.

Third, regardless of one's opinions about streamers, they are the loudest voices in the community and hold a lot of sway over their audience. If a streamer is dissing Gwent, it leads to viewers doing the same and it spreads bad word of mouth. If streamers leave the game, they'll take part of the playerbase with them, which is not good.

Fourth, and this links to the third point, there is a group that really cares about the opinions of influencers, and it's made up of people much more important than any of us: investors. A recent doom and gloom analysis regarding Destiny 2, written by a Wall Street analyst, put forward four factors contributing to the game's decline and one was content creators bailing. The same can lead investors to lose faith in Gwent and CDPR. Not good for the devs, not good for us.

Fifth, this might discourage new players. They hear about Gwent, and being socially minded people, decide to check the game on social media. What they see is a streamer saying they hate every deck, others taking a break until stuff is fixed, one in particular going bonkers and getting himself permabanned. All of these situations have context, nuance and details but those are irrelevant for people looking to join the game. This doesn't paint the picture of a healthy game and a thriving community.

Just some thing to consider about the whole thing.