Join the Light Side! Popularity Analysis

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Hello, community! I want to show u some simple analisys of the reasons of new Gwent “popularity”.
Since Gwent Homecoming released most of people left it. Now some of them are coming back, but not so quickly as u may want. Newcomers are not the big numbers too.
What is a reason? I think, that the main perpetrator is a new graphical style. In a nutshell, it is dirty, dark, foggy and too contrast. Just dark and bad.
But if we look at the most popular games (including twitch views), we can see that the most of them are clean, light (even at the night time) and not very contrast (cause light styling makes picture not contrast): Fortnite, Apex, GTA, Dota2, LOL, Overwatch, Hearthstone are clean and light.

Fortnite looks bright even in the night; Apex has realistic, light and not cartoonish picture. The same picture we can see at the very popular Witcher 1 and 3 (and Piranha Gothic series); GTA has the same realistic styling:
FAG.jpg

Dota 2, LOL, Overwatch are clean and bright too (even in the night):
DLO.jpg

Now let’s look at the Gwent opponents: Hearthstone and MTG: Arena. They both have clean and bright styling too.
The most popular HS (74 000 watchers at this moment) is bright and simple:
hs.jpg

MTGA is quite young but at this momet it has 10 000 watchers against Gwent’s 173 (not thousands alas). MTGA has more complicated and boring gameplay than HS and Gwent but still has more popularity than the more interesting and unique Gwent:
mtga.jpeg

And now look, what do we have at the new Gwent:
hc.jpg

Why is it so f**** dark? Games are made to be source of fun and rest, especially card games, when we do have some funny random effect. But here we have a source of depression: I can hardly see what is placed on the gameboard.

If we look at the Gwent OBT, which was more popular, we could see more clear and playable graphical design with more clean lines:
3obt.jpg

This design is quite dark too, but it’s ok, it’s the way brighter then the modern one and it’s not so acidly contrast. It’s looking really well. These neat card frames are much better then the modern damaged ones.

Another example of popularity and avoidance we can see at ur own products, CDPR. Witcher 1 and 3 are the most popular, while the Witcher 2 was less popular. And the pictures are the same as u could see earlier.
Witcher 1 have realistic light design (as popular Gothic, Apex, GTA and so on):
w1.jpg

Witcher 3 – the same:
w3.jpg

Witcher 2 is too dark and unpopular like Gwent HC:
w2.jpg


This dark and contrast acid design is not realistic and is hard to perceive. When u cannot understand what is on the screen – it is a stress, it’s not fun and rest as we want to get from a card tavern game. Darkness by itself is depressing. Depression and all bad things are dark: curses, demons, death, terror and so on. “The night is dark and full of terrors”.

Why don’t we have something like this?
gwent-good.jpeg
Clean and understandable design - and ur eyes and mind are in peace.
 
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Are you serious? There is nothing wrong with the style.

I thought this thread was about measuring the popularity/use of each card in the game and for CDPR to change provisions costs based on overuse and underuse.

But I guess all I got was a post about the graphics. To be honest, you point to an example Fortnite and Apex Legends. I think gwent falls into the same category as Apex, kind of dark and bland. It was a bad example to use to say it should get more bright and fresh like Apex. Apex is the typical gray/brownish looking graphics as most FPS games. I agree Fortnite and many other examples you mentioned have bright and fresh graphics, but this is not a major issue in Gwent. Card balance is far more critical atm, even faction balance.

Looking at the opponents you mention, Heartstone and MTG, I think they look ugly to be honest. Like something out of a Pokemon cartoon.

Maybe you are right though, for people with visual impairments, perhaps CDPR should make a "high contrast" graphics mode for those people.
 
Looking at the opponents you mention, Heartstone and MTG, I think they look ugly to be honest. Like something out of a Pokemon cartoon.
And this is a strange thing: lightness is more important then beauty. When something is dark - it's no metter how it is beautiful, cause people just don't see anything :coolstory:
Everithing living goes to light: all insects, birds, and people too. Cause light is life.
dsc_9162-d7073bd3b0790cfd82ac89eaa9c55afc1560e580.jpg
 
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And this is a strange thing: lightness is more important then beauty. When something is dark - it's no metter how it is beautiful, cause people just don't see anything :coolstory:
Everithing living goes to light: all insects, birds, and people too. Cause light is life.

Well, that's true, but myself I don't have perfect vision, but I have no issues seeing things in Gwent quite clearly. If I needed more light I could adjust my TV brightness or picture. But sure, there could be a graphics mode in Gwent for people with visual impairments.

I kind of like the graphics of Gwent. It's nice 3d looking graphics. Not some oversimplified 2d looking graphics. I do see where you are coming from though, I understand your point, but I don't really agree. Does Gwent look optimal and the best it possibly can, no. Does it look good enough? Yes, and beyond that.

A possible solution for people with different preferences is that CDPR makes a "theme engine" for Gwent and that people themselves can determine how their game looks.

Ps. I can't stand primitive clean cut oversimplified looks. I think graphics need to have a bit of depth to it as well.
 
Witcher 2 is too dark and unpopular like Gwent HC:

Lol, that comparison....how do you even come to the conclusion that the Witcher 2 is unpopular? It sales numbers were quite good. While I agree that the UI in HC is too dark, I can assure you that this isn't the reason why I don't play it.

MTGA is quite young but at this momet it has 10 000 watchers against Gwent’s 173 (not thousands alas). MTGA has more complicated and boring gameplay than HS and Gwent but still has more popularity than the more interesting and unique Gwent:

Well, speak for yourself, a lot of people like MTG's gameplay more than Gwent's and saying MTGA is young is kind of BS. OK, MTG Arena itself is quite young, but MTG in general......you know....
 
Well, speak for yourself, a lot of people like MTG's gameplay more than Gwent's and saying MTGA is young is kind of BS. OK, MTG Arena itself is quite young, but MTG in general......you know....
I meant MTG as electronic product of course. Still, MTGA, HS and Elder Scrolls Legends even are the same: it's all about face bitting, what is too aggressive and stupid. While Gwent is much more about tactics and smart moves. U can beat one unit, but u may lose to another. At this point Gwent is unique. Almost all another CCGs just copying MTG. That's why I like Gwent and wish it luck. That is why it's one of the reasons, why do I want it to be more popular and successfull. But dark, dirty and unclear styling is disattracting people from it.
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I think, may be Gwent must be GRAY, cause witchers go a gray neutral way. OBT was exactly gray with silver neutral elements, not light and not dark.

maxresdefault.jpg
May be this is a perfect decision for this game... :think: May be not. May be light is still better, if u wanna make a funny game, cause this game is not about witchers only.
 
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Maybe it's the bigger problem, that Gwent HC is closer to conventional card games than before.
Agreed, Gwent mechanics have become quite primitive: deal damage to a card or buff a card. It's quite boring. All it looks like Gwent is going to darkness, to oblivion, becoming dark, boring and primitive, like it is cursed. I'd fire all the stylists, who chose this way of Gwent "evolution", which is in real a degradation. This dark theme, which is everywhere, even on RED streams, vlogs, competitions, t-shirts and this forum even is very depressive. There is no way for going forward with that.
I suggest developers to make a simple thing: just add an option for making gameboards brighter and then watch how many people switched it on. And u will see the result. I guess, 99% will choose the bright option.
 
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Hello, community! I want to show u some simple analisys of the reasons of new Gwent “popularity”.
Since Gwent Homecoming released most of people left it. Now some of them are coming back, but not so quickly as u may want. Newcomers are not the big numbers too.
What is a reason? I think, that the main perpetrator is a new graphical style. In a nutshell, it is dirty, dark, foggy and too contrast. Just dark and bad.
But if we look at the most popular games (including twitch views), we can see that the most of them are clean, light (even at the night time) and not very contrast (cause light styling makes picture not contrast): Fortnite, Apex, GTA, Dota2, LOL, Overwatch, Hearthstone are clean and light.

Fortnite looks bright even in the night; Apex has realistic, light and not cartoonish picture. The same picture we can see at the very popular Witcher 1 and 3 (and Piranha Gothic series); GTA has the same realistic styling:
View attachment 10998676

Dota 2, LOL, Overwatch are clean and bright too (even in the night):
View attachment 10998685

Now let’s look at the Gwent opponents: Hearthstone and MTG: Arena. They both have clean and bright styling too.
The most popular HS (74 000 watchers at this moment) is bright and simple:
View attachment 10998661

MTGA is quite young but at this momet it has 10 000 watchers against Gwent’s 173 (not thousands alas). MTGA has more complicated and boring gameplay than HS and Gwent but still has more popularity than the more interesting and unique Gwent:
View attachment 10998664

And now look, what do we have at the new Gwent:
View attachment 10998712

Why is it so f**** dark? Games are made to be source of fun and rest, especially card games, when we do have some funny random effect. But here we have a source of depression: I can hardly see what is placed on the gameboard.

If we look at the Gwent OBT, which was more popular, we could see more clear and playable graphical design with more clean lines:
View attachment 10998697

This design is quite dark too, but it’s ok, it’s the way brighter then the modern one and it’s not so acidly contrast. It’s looking really well. These neat card frames are much better then the modern damaged ones.

Another example of popularity and avoidance we can see at ur own products, CDPR. Witcher 1 and 3 are the most popular, while the Witcher 2 was less popular. And the pictures are the same as u could see earlier.
Witcher 1 have realistic light design (as popular Gothic, Apex, GTA and so on):
View attachment 10998700

Witcher 3 – the same:
View attachment 10998703

Witcher 2 is too dark and unpopular like Gwent HC:
View attachment 10998706


This dark and contrast acid design is not realistic and is hard to perceive. When u cannot understand what is on the screen – it is a stress, it’s not fun and rest as we want to get from a card tavern game. Darkness by itself is depressing. Depression and all bad things are dark: curses, demons, death, terror and so on. “The night is dark and full of terrors”.

Why don’t we have something like this?
View attachment 10998715
Clean and understandable design - and ur eyes and mind are in peace.

I agree with you. It’s dark and depressing including the music and the expansion is bloody and even darker. It’s a shame because I like the game and the mechanics in HC in general, especially provisioning.
 
I agree with you. It’s dark and depressing including the music and the expansion is bloody and even darker. It’s a shame because I like the game and the mechanics in HC in general, especially provisioning.
I like provisioning too, but am not agree with expansion's style and the music. Expansion MUST be bloody and terrible, cause it's a curse, it is the style of a curse, but I don't like that all the game (and all the Gwent community) totally and permanently cursed. Witchers are removing curses, not creating it and not living in it. Music is ok too, cause it's a game-like music, I enjoy it, cause a real not electronic instruments are involved.
 
As a person with sensitive eyes, I definitely disagree. Dark themes are less aggressive, less tiring. Gwent beta or HS look much worse IMHO, too many bright elements, ugh. I just couldn't force myself to play it more than an hour.

Current Gwent (dark backgrounds, bright cards and effects) is nice.
 
As a person with sensitive eyes, I definitely disagree. Dark themes are less aggressive, less tiring. Gwent beta or HS look much worse IMHO, too many bright elements, ugh. I just couldn't force myself to play it more than an hour.

Current Gwent (dark backgrounds, bright cards and effects) is nice.

You see, everyone have different preferences. I happen to like the current look, and I think the looks of competitive games are presented earlier in this thread is ugly.

But if it is really an issue, I think the best solution would be to create some kind of "theme engine" for Gwent, so that players could themselves choose how the game looks. Alternatively CDPR could create a couple of alternative looks for people with visual impairments, like a high contrast simplified look. Something those who need to can choose in the option, if they have problems seeing things with how it currently looks.
 
You see, everyone have different preferences. I happen to like the current look, and I think the looks of competitive games are presented earlier in this thread is ugly.

But if it is really an issue, I think the best solution would be to create some kind of "theme engine" for Gwent, so that players could themselves choose how the game looks. Alternatively CDPR could create a couple of alternative looks for people with visual impairments, like a high contrast simplified look. Something those who need to can choose in the option, if they have problems seeing things with how it currently looks.
As I have shown, most popular games are bright. And this is not a coincidence. 1% likes dark themes, 99% likes the light ones. And what? Will u make a game for 1% or for 99%?
 
As I have shown, most popular games are bright. And this is not a coincidence. 1% likes dark themes, 99% likes the light ones. And what? Will u make a game for 1% or for 99%?

There is no evidence of that. You're just presenting a few selected arguments and drawing some conclusion based on that, which is not based on any kind of certainty, but rather selective speculation.
 
There is no evidence of that. You're just presenting a few selected arguments and drawing some conclusion based on that, which is not based on any kind of certainty, but rather selective speculation.
It's obvious, you just don't want to see it.
 
It's obvious, you just don't want to see it.

I generally just prefer good games with good graphics. If it is dark or not is irrelevant. If a game has bright ugly pokemon like graphics, it's highly unlikely I will play it in the first place.

Some of the best selling games of this generation is dark souls and bloodbourne, some of the "darkest" games around.
 
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