It kind of says a lot that one of the most prolific streamers isn't even interested in playing with a new expansion coming out soon.
Explain this to people who are demanding that this is not a big a deal.It kind of says a lot that one of the most prolific streamers isn't even interested in playing with a new expansion coming out soon.
Indeed.It kind of says a lot that one of the most prolific streamers isn't even interested in playing with a new expansion coming out soon.
It kind of says a lot that one of the most prolific streamers isn't even interested in playing with a new expansion coming out soon.
I used to enjoy watching Gwent streamers in Beta. There were at least half-a-dozen that I watched regularly (all gone now) - and I found it entertaining as well as educational. There are a handful of good streamers still going, but despite their best efforts to try to entertain, I just don't watch anymore. It's not them that are dull, it's the gameplay. Flashier visuals are ok, but ultimately a game lives and dies on how enjoyable it is to play (and watch).There is no incentive or hype to stream Gwent. Homecoming game is so much slower and more predictable, personally i have a hard time watching others play it. I'm not saying there is no skill left, but you don't see such crazy outplays like this in Homecoming because cards just don't have multiple abilities (also cool abilities) like they used to.
The game is just less entertaining which makes it difficult for entertainers.
In Beta, you could watch a match and see how the strategy and tactics evolved across the game. See how a player anticipated and adapted in order to deal with the evolving board state in front of them. It was rare that you couldn't at least compete for the win in most matches, especially if you didn't just go for an all-in win or lose strategy. A great move at the perfect moment could still be decisive, but was often the result of several carefully considered moves laying the groundwork leading up to it. It wasn't as obvious who was going to win until the final card was played. Things were less binary.
This. Exactly. I remember closed beta being a binary game - you had enough weather clears or the match was over before it began or you had enough removal to clear the dwarves or it was over before it began or you could stop them before they transmuted their cards to gold (and therefore immune) or it was over, etc.I´m not sure I played same beta then. The beta I remember was full of crazy unbalanced combos (nekkers), minimal interactivity (greatswords), card advantage shenanigans (CA spies), absurd create RNGesus (slave drivers), oppresive weather and game decisive one-card swings you have exactly zero possibilities to counter (C:Nova, DJ Dijkstra). Was it more entertaining to watch? Propably yes. Playing it was different story though.
I like the idea of new factions but I agree with you that the priority should be improving the current factions. The dilemma that CDPR have is that impetus to games like this come about through big events like introducing a new faction. While many of us think that widening the card pool first and then introducing new factions is probably the sensible way to go they have to see things in terms of cash flow, and that means enticing new players in and getting existing players to spend money on vanity items. Having a new faction helps with both these things (shiny new cards, shiny new card back, shiny new keywords).They need to fix the game before jamming a new faction in it.
I dont really understand this whole wider design space thing, to be honest. Lots of cards now are damage dealers and buffs with little to none synergy across factions.
This. Exactly. I remember closed beta being a binary game - you had enough weather clears or the match was over before it began or you had enough removal to clear the dwarves or it was over before it began or you could stop them before they transmuted their cards to gold (and therefore immune) or it was over, etc.
Beta was full of stuff like this. It's very different now.
I just want to add a few words about balancing:
A card game needs to have a certain degree of balancing, but if you focus too much on it, you won't get a fun game. During beta tons of things got removed (instead of tweaked) and cards got simplified, because it was the easiest way to balance things. And it lead to a pretty shallow game in the end (after midwinter, problems starting to occur earlier though). Weather used to be a fun, but broken mechanic during closed beta. Now you could just delete it and noone would even care as it doesn't have any significant impact on the game. Both doesn't seem desirable.
if all cards were perfectly balanced, there would be no purpose in deckbuilding. Small asymmetries is what make the game interesting in the first place. To me it is better to have a game a bit unbalanced, but with interesting gameplay, than one with perfectly balanced shallow cards.
I think when people say "balanced" they mean at least adjust them accordingly with examples from other factions or Neutral cards. Cause now we have SK (and perhaps MO) that have extremely cheap, high value cards, which makes the other factions really hard to compete against them.Indeed and I'll go the extra mile and write:
if all cards were perfectly balanced, there would be no purpose in deckbuilding. Small asymmetries is what make the game interesting in the first place. To me it is better to have a game a bit unbalanced, but with interesting gameplay, than one with perfectly balanced shallow cards.
Indeed and I'll go the extra mile and write:
if all cards were perfectly balanced, there would be no purpose in deckbuilding. Small asymmetries is what make the game interesting in the first place. To me it is better to have a game a bit unbalanced, but with interesting gameplay, than one with perfectly balanced shallow cards.
Very true, but looking ahead and spotting potential issues in advance doesn't seem to be a strong point, based on Gwent's development history to date..."CDPR have apparently decided to target the game at the more casual mobile gamer market, as they presumably see more profit there in the long run."
It looks that way on first sight, but their approach is inconsistent. Orders slow down the gameplay and you have to activate them manually, which could be a bit clunky on mobile.
same mechanics as Hearthstone