I can respect this, to an extent, as it's not unlike my comment above.
I have to mainly agree with that post.
I am disapointed a lot for several reasons. I will name a few:
1) I strongly dislike theme. When I play, I do not want to be "crime maker", I want to be "crime fighter". That means, I can play against other players using this expansion cards and enjoy fighting against crime, but for me myself, new expansion has nothing to offer. I see no counterbalance to crime in this expansion, just support for criminals of all kind. If I would want to play new expansion cards, I would have to join criminal side and I do not like it. I may eventually do it for some contracts and for refreshment from usual play, but theme is one big disappointment for me and if I would play with new cards, it would be despite theme, not because of theme.
2) Pre-order packages are strange. I bought pre-order for Crimson Curse and if I remember it right, it was about 35 euro for 40 kegs. Current pre-order is just official price for 15 kegs (about 17 euro) which can be bought anytime and only what makes it feeling as pre-order is extra card skin. My long time experience with MtG and HS is, that pre-orders offer special price, just like Crimson Curse did. Pre-order for official price and extra card skin does not feel like pre-order to me and this time, I will pass this offer.
3) Frequency between releasing new expansions and gathering reward points for unlocking leaders trees is unbalanced and I am falling behind even faster than before, because there was longer period between Thronebreaker and Crimson Curse, than is between Crimson Curse and Syndicate. I doubt, if I would have even been able to catch up lack of reward points if I would play 4 hours every day. I would very much like to either increase frequency of gaining reward points or decreasing frequency of releasing expansions with their reward trees.
4) I very much appreciated, when new cards for Crimson Curse have been posted in this forum and people could see them there. Shifting card galery to facebook is big minus for me, despite this is probably more subjective matter than other points above. I would very much appreciate if cards would have been posted in forum as well.
EDIT: In the meantime, cards have been posted in forum too and I very much appreciate it. Thank you! This point 4) is now "solved" and is not valid anymore.
There are few more points which I do not like about new expansion (at example why do you bother making 4-power, 4 damage on deploy card for 9 provisions, when the first thing, you will do after one month from release will probably be its increasing of provisions to 10), but it becomes more and more subjective and is not so important to me like 4 other points above, so I will end list here.
I am sorry, but I am not excited about new expansion at all, I am rather worried about future of Gwent.
Dear @Charles5pencer ,I am disapointed a lot for several reasons. I will name a few:
1) I strongly dislike theme. When I play, I do not want to be "crime maker", I want to be "crime fighter". That means, I can play against other players using this expansion cards and enjoy fighting against crime, but for me myself, new expansion has nothing to offer. I see no counterbalance to crime in this expansion, just support for criminals of all kind. If I would want to play new expansion cards, I would have to join criminal side and I do not like it. I may eventually do it for some contracts and for refreshment from usual play, but theme is one big disappointment for me and if I would play with new cards, it would be despite theme, not because of theme.
2) Pre-order packages are strange. I bought pre-order for Crimson Curse and if I remember it right, it was about 35 euro for 40 kegs. Current pre-order is just official price for 15 kegs (about 17 euro) which can be bought anytime and only what makes it feeling as pre-order is extra card skin. My long time experience with MtG and HS is, that pre-orders offer special price, just like Crimson Curse did. Pre-order for official price and extra card skin does not feel like pre-order to me and this time, I will pass this offer.
3) Frequency between releasing new expansions and gathering reward points for unlocking leaders trees is unbalanced and I am falling behind even faster than before, because there was longer period between Thronebreaker and Crimson Curse, than is between Crimson Curse and Syndicate. I doubt, if I would have even been able to catch up lack of reward points if I would play 4 hours every day. I would very much like to either increase frequency of gaining reward points or decreasing frequency of releasing expansions with their reward trees.
4) I very much appreciated, when new cards for Crimson Curse have been posted in this forum and people could see them there. Shifting card galery to facebook is big minus for me, despite this is probably more subjective matter than other points above. I would very much appreciate if cards would have been posted in forum as well.
EDIT: In the meantime, cards have been posted in forum too and I very much appreciate it. Thank you! This point 4) is now "solved" and is not valid anymore.
There are few more points which I do not like about new expansion (at example why do you bother making 4-power, 4 damage on deploy card for 9 provisions, when the first thing, you will do after one month from release will probably be its increasing of provisions to 10), but it becomes more and more subjective and is not so important to me like 4 other points above, so I will end list here.
I am sorry, but I am not excited about new expansion at all, I am rather worried about future of Gwent.
Really? What a surprise! Did you notice, that I was writing my reasons why I do not like new expansion? It was nowhere near to statements that new exapansion is objectively bad because of immorality reasons. I was just explaining why I am very disappointed with it and why it is rather repulsive, than attractive to me. I was not hinting in any way in my post about making objective standpoint from which expansion theme is objectively bad. I was only giving my feedback, why I do not like new expansion. At example usage of words like "like/dislike" directs by definition to subjectivity, while statements using words like "good/bad" rather direct towards objectivity. Of course, it is possible to use manipulative techniques, where subjective statement is falsely presented as objective one, but I am pretty confident, I did not claim anywhere in my post that new expansion is objectively bad or that my statements are meant from global objectivity point.
I did not mention other people in my post, I was not claiming to represent anybody else than me, I was expressing only myself and my reasons why I dislike new expansion.
That really goes without need to say. I came here from HS, which I stopped playing when I started playing Gwent. I dislike many things on HS, which I found out Gwent to do much better (not going to mention list right here, right now). I was only pointing out "business standards" present in "Gwent's older brothers". I did it for simplicity, because comparison typically saves lots of effort to explain something. Nonehtless, I can do it the hard way and try to explain purpose of pre-release sale and why it is typically done the way it is typically done, without using comparison of other games, it will just take much more words from me. In general, pre-release is way to "ensure" some business income without presenting full product yet. In other words, it means, that buyer is going into some uncertainity, he is taking risk, that final product, which is at the moment unknown yet, will not be fully to his image/liking. That is sphere, where customer increases his uncertainity, while producer decreases his uncertainity. Customer is in risk of buying product, which he may not like. Producer is getting advantage of having some income assured even if in the end, final product will be considered as bad one and after release, it will be unsuccessful and will generate much less income, than expected. In case, where pre-release price of product is same like price of product after release, there is no "rational reason" (however there are still present "emotional reasons", which are representing values like trust, empathy, will to support etc), why to buy pre-release pack, because you can buy same amount of kegs anytime later, if you wish so. At day of release, one month later, two months later, one year later, price "will be" all the time same. That means, same price for pre-release like for release product is presenting no "rational" advantage for customer. From that equation above, where customer is increasing his uncertainity for better price and producer decreasing his uncertainity for assured income, the left side of equation is nullified (or better said, customer increases his uncertainity without getting better price for it) and there is valid only right side. I one more time mention, that I talk about "rational reasons", while vanity products I do count among "emotional reasons". You see? It took much more effort from me in place, where I could make just a simple comparison and that is why comparisons are used in conversation.
I have impression, you misunderstood me even on this point. I agree, there should be no problem with unlocking leaders. My post was specifically mentioning leader reward trees, which for Thronebreaker means reward tree of Eldain, Gernichora, Queen Meve, Ardal aep Dahy and Arnjolf the Patricide. For Crimson Curse, that means reward trees of Dana Meadbh, Dettlaff, Queen Calanthe, Anna Henrieta and Svalblod. Unlocking those leaders is relatively easy, but completing their all reward trees? Good luck with it. I really wonder if there is in Gwent currently present anybody, who will up to the release date of Syndicate expansion have unlocked all leader trees for basic leaders, Thronebreaker leaders and Crimson Curse leaders. Because if you do not have those leader trees completed, you are going into next expansion with certain "deficit", which is potentially snowballing into bigger and bigger one. I doubt, there is even reasonable theoretical chance to achieve that and this was the reason, why I would wish to increase reward points generation frequency or decrease expansions release frequency.
I'm guessing Dijkstra won't be a part of the expansion at all. He's such a prominent character; If they had him, they'd have shown him.
