So rather than weeping on and on about how the game used to be better in the past, maybe we should strive to work with what we have and improve it.
I believe people were entitled to be disappointed and critical about a certain faction or more becoming overpowered. While their win rate was not way ahead of the rest, they were overplayed to the point that when the expansion was released, you were lucky if you met in 2 out of 10 games a non-SK/NG/NK player. And there is indeed imbalance when an experienced player with even 2 card advantage loses to a broken faction.
Alas, your last statement is balls on. Couldn't agree more with it.
Well my views on how to improve it are to make it less balances and more board disruptive so that single cards can change how the entire game plays out and who plays the last card actually matters because it could the whole outcome of the game could be determined by it,
I completely disagree with your assertion that they are entitled to be disappointed or critical
And there is indeed imbalance when an experienced player with even 2 card advantage loses to a broken faction.
I disagree with the above as well the
game should not be in a state where if you have card advantage and played perfectly you are "guaranteed" a win.
Again that is chess not a TCG . If you want that type of experience you should go play chess not a tcg and again there we cards where you could regaulary win in the above case or even at a greater disadvantage going into round 3.
(IB4 someone tells me to go play MTG i already do. MTG Does Not have Ciri Triss and Yen" yet my comment about chess remains valid because it is referring to play style and pure technical game experience)
The game should model itself after MTG a game where a person playing their first ever game has a chance to beat the best player in the world . ( best player gets a bad draw mana screw etc)
it also has more Archetypes and ways to impede , stop, or destroy your op's side of the board.
I can hear the people who again feel the need to prove their "pure skill " to the world already typing and saying that is not a win because it's not a "chess style win"
Yet MTG is the longest running Tcg/ccg in history who has a pro tournament an competitive player long before anyone else so they must be doing something right.
That is how I would improve the game.
Also worth mentioning, Doom Eternal offers free cosmetics. New cosmetics are released every month.
These include weapon skins, Demon skins, Slayer skins. Avatars and other minor titles or profile cosmetics.
To attain all these, you have to play less than 4 hours in total during a single month.
I'm sure the developers of Doom Eternal have put as much time designing these skins as developers of Gwent.
Only difference is that Doom Eternal is one of the best selling games, that keeps generating profits so that new skins can be released for free. So I can't realy say if monetization is bad, as some sort of income generating mechanism needs to be in place, if this game is to survive.
I think that monetization of skins, also at very high prices, is somewhat fair, given that players will be willing to pay for it, as show-off is a natural human tendency. And we need to pay developers in some way, if we want this game to survive. (Or maybe it could survive regardless, if the intellectual rights were given to an organisaztion, which we for the sake of argument would call 'Gwent Community'. I bet this approach would also ensure that this game survives, just think about the time we idiots (no harm intended with the use of word) have spent in Gwent forums, if we had Intellectual rights for this game, some of us would probably make meaningfull changes such as adressing balance problems, or other things which we as community deemed as appropriate in order for our organization to grow, not in profits but in members.
Either way, back on topic.
Keep in mind that this is open market, so in general you are selling at a price which maximises your profits, so there is a natural reason for why cosmetics in gwent are very expensive. This might have to do with assumptions of a small minority of players, willing to pay whatever price for the cosmetics, while majority of player base won't purchase cosmetics regardless of price level, or the skins being a 'veblen good' for which demand increases, when the price rises. I dont know, as I dont know the statistics about the purchases. I can only assume.
"Also worth mentioning, Doom Eternal ....."
Your not even comparing games in the same genre - First person shooter vrs CCG invalidates your whole argument.
- I disagree that more "free stuff" should be given out or made more accessiable in this game
- disagree that you seem to be implying that people who only play 4 hours a month dearve more free stuff than they already get in this game.
- I also think you are taking a jab at the current journey which i will also disagree with but you can coorrect e if I am wrong with this assumption.
"I think that monetization of skins, also at very high prices,"
so there is a natural reason for why cosmetics in gwent are very expensive.
-Disagree regarding your views about price . Nothing in the store is "expensive" or "high priced" in my personal view.
Price is something that is subjective not a general term .
It depends on your personal financial level what is deemed expensive or not . But to just generally say something is expensive in general is just plain inaccurate.
- say that there is none a MINORITY of people willing to do that without specific stats in this game specifically is also a point of contention. There could be studies that show that that is generally how things work in these pyes of games but to outright say there is a minority in this specific game is again innacturate.
"which we for the sake of argument would call 'Gwent Community'. "
- maybe you need to read the quote I post above I would be very surprised if the
total social media and forum community put together would even be .4 of a percent of the total player population. You think that kind of percent should dictate what's good for the other 99.6% of players?
- and he way people complain about facing the same decks and how an op faction is ruining their lives how expensive things are , how unfair the current journey is to have an actual say ANYTHING concerning this game in the way you suggest.
-for the sake of argument - my view would be to erase homecoming an actually put it back to a state combining the best parts of the closed and open beta. That was the best time in gwent.
- a time where individual card could complete change the game
-a time where you could have a 50 point or more less but if the op had op decked they could play a card that would completely destroy your side of the board and they would win.
- a time where you could use a combination of card to complete empty the other players side of the board and there was nothing they could do about it
That was the best time in gwent not this homogenized over balanced chess with fantasy cards game they have turned this into.
So there are my suggestions for your "
'Gwent Community' player run balance team
- could go on but again in my view they ruined gwent in alot of way with HC.
in general disagree with all your views presented here.