4RM3D;n9021660 said:
CDPR is like "what would happen if we turn this (card) up to eleven" and then, when the house burns down, they think "whoops, should have seen that coming". I don't think they do it for financial gain, though, and the lenient refund policy is a confirmation of that. What it does create is an ever-changing meta, which might actually be one of their goals.
If they aren't doing it for financial reasons then it honestly says more to CDPR's discredit than otherwise, this isn't all that complicated and whilst perfect balance is hard to attain decent balance is easy.
Creating an ever-changing meta is something that comes naturally in a balanced state regardless you don't need to force it. If all things were balanced then all archetypes would be viable and people would choose decks that appeal to them for aesthetics and game play reasons not a 'gotta be the very best, gotta have the very best, gotta buy them all!' mentality. A downside also is that the game is far less enjoyable on the whole for several reasons. One being that you play against the pool of 3-4 decks again and again (which we're seeing) and you can't successfully play anything outside of said decks either. The only variety is found within whether you take 3 bears or 2 bears and 1 armor smith etc. Ultimately the prominent deck builders have this worked out quickly. A second problem is that as playing outside the meta punishes you with losses, more than half the cards currently in the game may as well not be.
Don't just take my word for it take a respected professional tier card gamers. Lifecoach had a mini rant about how bad the balance is right now, worst state its ever been in, and I wholeheartedly agree, at the very top it is 3-4 decks and ultimately success is mostly down to the mulligan RNG. I cannot fathom the level of incompetence that would be required to screw the balance this bad therefore I can only believe that this is meta defining imbalance is by design, I know for a fact that CDPR as a company does not employ fools, so again what gives?
I don't think it will work, I think it will likely stifle long term profit margins as I believe it is too transparent. People like playing whack a mole because they get to whack stuff; after all its pseudo violence, not because its a pointless never ending endeavour. If success in this game means conforming to strict deck building limitations that you may or may not have to purchase 50 kegs a month to obtain I honestly doubt people will continue playing this game for long.
Also if I am right about this but it actually works then whoever proposed the idea that creating imbalance to shape meta's to create artificial demand to generate greater revenues is a genius and should be rewarded as such, respected, and employed at a senior games industry level. Again its out of respect for CDPR that I believe they are doing this for profit, otherwise they'd have to be pretty bad at balancing which is the cornerstone of a games design.
Then again if enough people spot this and decry it then it will either cause the game to die or force CDPR to change their balance philosophy, I'd hope for the later but honestly I wonder at this point if people would even care, assuming they don't just fail to see this. Again the refund policy may have been generous last patch but if the nerfs happen to the bronze cards then it hardly makes up for the 4 gold and 6 silver cards that had to be acquired to make the bronze cards work. Whats more if they just buff the weak cards above the previous meta then no refunds would ever be rewarded and yet the deck is indirectly nerfed.
If someone sets fire to their house because they wanted to test their miniature water fire extinguisher by starting an oil fire on beside their curtains do you think a court jury of their peers would accepts "wanted to see what would happen ~ whoops" as an excuse?