Hydrahead;n9977331 said:That's the problem. They listen to Swim and Merchant lol. They wanted the discover mechanic in Gwent which is horrible for the game IMO. Yes, it's still in beta but that doesn't make it any less weird that they completely changed direction with all this RNG. And I'm not sure I understand what you're saying about a "natural progression" when it's comes the increasing amount of RNG? Doesn't seem natural to me at all...
This is purely my own speculation but I think the community (at least most guys) don't like the new direction. It's a couple of streamers who routed for that. But what do I know?
You are right, I am not a big fan of it, either. I am speculating about the intersection between good marketing practices for a CCG, the age of such a game, and what types of mechanics should be introduced. In a vacuum, let's say three card games are designed from scratch and none of them begin with any sense of randomness in their card designs. Over time, more mechanics are introduced and the game increases in complexity. This affects the ability for developers to consistently create "balanced" cards judged by the ever more scrutinising eyes of the community. A game based on numbers alone is particularly vulnerable to such scrutiny (see Swim's reviews of the new cards as a prime example i.e. pretty much all "one star cards"). It's like being able to read and understand a book by just reading a single page. A card's usefulness is summed up by its synergy with other cards and its maximum value on the board. If long-time players keep coming back to see cards that are objectively worse than previous cards still in use, then the game's complexity throw rows and other mechanics becomes a bit pointless. However, if the value of a card is undetermined (Whispering Hillock), even if it seems stupid to a lot of players, there must be a reason why, from a design perspective, it is the best direction to go in. I'm not saying I know what that reason is. I'm just saying that like any category of product, card games have a particular player base and they all go through similar stages of development. Power creep, for instance, is inevitable because time is a factor. Merging of mechanics and updating of card effects are also bound to happen. As much as I hate to admit it, maybe this injection of randomness, while painful right now, is intended to help the game survive past its current stage.
I suppose my main point is that the game would eventually reach a point where randomness is inevitable, but I think the amount they have included in this patch is a bit ridiculous.