So much negativity around Homecoming on gog.com

+
This thread may not have warnings like the "GWENT is uninstalled" thread does, but that does not mean that it's okay to be rude towards others here.

Two posts deleted.
 
The user reviews have long been mostly rubbish, full of comments where fanboys and haters figth to write the most ridiculous comment. It's not new, and CDPR don't think could be an exception. Today, Gwent is not a 1 star game, and is not a 5 star game. Using reviews to express your frustration only works to make an initial good tool, a useless tool.
 
First off, I never played beta, only official release, so I can't compare. I'd say the game is good and 3,5 score seems fair, even if it's just the average (almost) of 1 and 5 star reviews.

My problem is not with the game, but with (some) players' behavior. Of course I'm talking about people with decks built around artifacts and specials or immune units. They are completely ruining the gaming experience for the rest of us, throwing units on the board so the opponent can have his target practice with them is of course no one's idea of fun, engaging game. Just a little better are Skellige decks with witcher trio, those two spear artifacts and all the discard cards possible. It gets really boring when every Skellige deck you encounter is like that.

On the forums, some are quick to defend these players (or rather, themselves?) with stating, basically, "hate the game, not the player." But I call that BS. What they are doing is abusing the game, using the cards in a way they were never meant to be used. It's like saying it's a car manufacturer's fault if their car is used by someone to kill people. Maybe somewhat inappropriate analogy, but you probably understand the logic of what I'm trying to say.

And for what? It's all this human pettiness I see… So you will make wins with your stupid artifact deck and eventually reach pro rank. Oh wow, such a personal accomplishment, your life really took a turn for the better. Or when someone thinks they will win, but then they lose for one point and refuse to give you GG. So lame.

Anyway, sorry for the rant.
 
First off, I never played beta, only official release, so I can't compare. I'd say the game is good and 3,5 score seems fair, even if it's just the average (almost) of 1 and 5 star reviews.

My problem is not with the game, but with (some) players' behavior. Of course I'm talking about people with decks built around artifacts and specials or immune units. They are completely ruining the gaming experience for the rest of us, throwing units on the board so the opponent can have his target practice with them is of course no one's idea of fun, engaging game. Just a little better are Skellige decks with witcher trio, those two spear artifacts and all the discard cards possible. It gets really boring when every Skellige deck you encounter is like that.

On the forums, some are quick to defend these players (or rather, themselves?) with stating, basically, "hate the game, not the player." But I call that BS. What they are doing is abusing the game, using the cards in a way they were never meant to be used. It's like saying it's a car manufacturer's fault if their car is used by someone to kill people. Maybe somewhat inappropriate analogy, but you probably understand the logic of what I'm trying to say.

And for what? It's all this human pettiness I see… So you will make wins with your stupid artifact deck and eventually reach pro rank. Oh wow, such a personal accomplishment, your life really took a turn for the better. Or when someone thinks they will win, but then they lose for one point and refuse to give you GG. So lame.

Anyway, sorry for the rant.

As a long time player I want you to know that I really thought that the devs would reduce the amount of removal/damage cards in the game. I think it's a mistake that they didn't. I hardly bother with engine cards or orders cards because of the sheer amount of removal in this game. I liked the game more when Alzurs thunder was one of the only removal cards in the game and it felt nice to have it to mess up your opponent. Now Alzurs is just a dime a dozen amongst removal cards.

I believe you are not correct about players "abusing the game". Players are using cards as they were created. I don't think you can give me any examples of players using cards as they weren't meant to be used but even if you could that would still be the responsibility of the devs, not the players.

Also I think artifact cards are horribly designed. They shouldn't be in the game in this form at all. They are straight up boring cards. Either you have removal for them and you can win or you don't have removal for them and you very likely will lose. That is just bad design.
 
Why are people who haven't played the game before "release" coming in these threads saying "But I don't understand what the problem is."? It's insulting to players who've been here since the beginning. It comes across as us being idiots who wouldn't know a good game if it hit us in the head.

I try and keep an open mind at all times. I haven't played Gwent in ages but I keep tabs on it. From time to time I jump in for a few games but every time I'm reminded that Gwent turned into a spam fest of damage and buff units. Played a few games today where opponents played a whole of 2 units, with the rest being artifact spam.

We've lost archetypes that were replaced with damage by one/boost by one cards. Nilfgaard, one of the most intresting and tactical factions (minus alchemy witchers), was turned into an RNG faction.

We need more actual archetypes and interesting cards. And artifacts need a serious overhaul as a mechanic. +/- on their provision cost will only get the game so far. Introducing so many uninteractive cards isn't good for the game. Yes, you can have artifact removal cards but not nearly enough to counter their spam and still have a deck capable of winning.

P.S.

Bring back NG spies.
 
Last edited:
On the forums, some are quick to defend these players (or rather, themselves?) with stating, basically, "hate the game, not the player." But I call that BS. What they are doing is abusing the game, using the cards in a way they were never meant to be used.

People will always look for the easiest way to win. So yeah, blame the game and its developers for introducing such a binary design for artifacts and their removal.

And this is exactly one of the reasons why HC sucks (i.e. regardless of Gwent beta).
 
The user reviews have long been mostly rubbish, full of comments where fanboys and haters figth to write the most ridiculous comment. It's not new, and CDPR don't think could be an exception. Today, Gwent is not a 1 star game, and is not a 5 star game. Using reviews to express your frustration only works to make an initial good tool, a useless tool.
What excatly is wrong about that? In the end you get the fair 3,5. It isnt important, if all people give 3,5 or some 5 and other 1. Only the the endvalue is important. Otherwise, you must hate steam-revies much more, there you only can binary top/flop votes.
 
Real quick, can someone fill me in on why the game is getting so much stick? I havent actually managed to find a consistent answer, and i havent played before homecoming so i dont know.

Imho the game seems decent, even great in some parts. Its a bit buggy for a 1.0 release but still playable. Its far from p2w which i love about it, it doesnt get boring or repetitive because by the time i get bored of a leader/faction i got enough scraps and rp to start a wild new deck, its actually quite tactical and gives me a nice feeling when i pull off something major and erase my opponents smug face, and last but not least, its a wholly different kind of CCG, something new, fresh, not the BS we get used to playing hearthstone/shadowverse etc.

To me, it seems like homecoming was s major overhaul to the game that was planned to be a finishing touch to be added for release and should have been expected. I suspect this might have pulled people out of their comfort zone and some could even feel betrayed by it, or angered that they feel like they were sent back to square one. In the absence of any real knowledge or concrete facts, this is just my speculation so dont hold me to it.

TLDR: game's gud, haeters gon haet.


From my perspective (not enjoying this new game after spending I don't know how many hours on my PS4 playing Gwent and based on what I've read) it comes to a few factors:

• While we still have the Witcher aspect in the visuals, the use of its universe to design card abilities and as a design base for the game's structure has been either eliminated or heavily diminished (which makes the game less unique in my opinion).
• This type of design brought a lot of variety in card abilities that we feel got lessened.
• A lot of the essentials of the game (knowing when to pass, card advantage, Spies, faction identity, archetypes, unique mechanics, etc) have been eliminated or heavily controlled behind new game aspects. Like Jason said in the stream: they may have gone too far on a few things (which they have already started to try and fix).
• The game is too slow compared to before.
• (This is more my opinion) While Orders and Artifacts are interesting, it goes against the game's initial philosophy of having card effects be instant. Having cards that can be used later makes removal and other things be too easy in my opinion. Like Schirru, he is a good and strong card, but for me it would have been a more interesting idea to buff him on your hand and its effect being a Deploy. It will be harder to achieve, but more satisfying to pull off.

This is a really basic summary based on my opinion and a lot of details that are left out. If you want to know more you'll have to read what is (I agree) a lot of text or you can watch some videos of how the game ran before HC.

Still, I agree with this sentence:

Today, Gwent is not a 1 star game, and is not a 5 star game.

HC is not a perfect game and calling it a piece of crap is also not true. All this negative backlash, in my opinion, has basically come from the Team's communication strategy of showing the community by surprise 3 to 4 weeks before release that the 6month home-coming project changed more than 90% of the game.

I agree that some people are maybe taking things too personally, but I think its fair to feel betrayed and express deep displeasure since the Team did not clearly inform this Reboot/NewGame and some players feel like they wasted their time and money... And yes that was Beta, but they promised a full release of the game with HC so we could focus on the future of Gwent, and what we got feels like an incomplete and unpolished game that is going to keep changing (Mulligan system, Leaders Recruit Cap is already here and they have already talked about more changes: changing card draws to maybe 1 2 instead of 3 each round, the probable rework of the starter decks, and who knows what else).

This is all good for this game's future, but we've been here before and we're getting tired of it since at this point a year ago we ended up here. Also remember, some of us have the full collection since the start of HC, we've played a lot of Gwent and this was supposed to be something fresh that added more to the game, yet we've been here before and by then we had a more complete and entertaining game in my opinion.


Why are people who haven't played the game before "release" coming in these threads saying "But I don't u derstand what the problem is."? It's insulting to players who've been here since the beginning. It comes across as us being idiots who wouldn't know a good game if it hit us in the head.

I try and keep an open mind at all times...

I agree. I don't get why is it so hard to understand that by not being through the whole process you cannot have a complete understanding of the full picture. And while yes, this game is new and good for you, for other people that have played through its other iterations, its a different experience.
 
For me, the game is a solid 2/5.

You are quite mistaken to think people are quitting and uninstalling it out of spite. As much as I hate what's been done with Gwent, if I were at least having fun with it, I would be much more forgiving. As it stands, I would rather do housekeeping than play Gwent. And I'm done forcing myself to play games I don't like - after a few years of Elder Scrolls Online on and off, I don't think I have it in me anymore. It's either I click with a game, or I'm out.

Why am I still here? I was still hoping the team would see the error of their ways and bring back some of the stuff that made Gwent Gwent. Following certain recent statements by Burza, I think it is now safe to assume that will never happen, and that the Gwent team is committed to riding HC into the grave. Their problem. And this means my time on this forum is drawing to a close.

One thing that I am still a bit upset about is these out-of-order reactions by certain community members. I have never personally attacked another player for liking this game. Who am I to decide which Gwent is more fun for them? However, on the other side of the debate, it seems everything goes. If you're criticizing Gwent, that automatically involves all sorts of personal judgements - "you guys are so entitled, why don't you give it a rest, what's the point of whining on this forum and being so negative, etc. etc.".

I never looked down on anyone for having fun with Homecoming - so don't look down on me for hating it.
 
@Shabman

Maybe just move on instead of hating something :unsure:. It has been almost 3 months since release, you still don't like it - what is the point in staying on the forum? Are you here to get some attention or just to annoy people who like Homecoming?
 
Last edited:
Maybe just move on instead of hating something :unsure:. It has been almost 3 months since release, you still don't like it - what is the point in staying on the forum? Are you here to get some attention or just to annoy people who like Homecoming?

Who are you responding to? The original poster likes the game.
 
@Shabman

Maybe just move on instead of hating something :unsure:. It has been almost 3 months since release, you still don't like it - what is the point in staying on the forum? Are you here to get some attention or just to annoy people who like Homecoming?

Please no personal attacks.

Read forum rules.

Thanks!
 
Why especially there?

Haven't you seen my other thread? Premiums don't even work right. It's pathetic.

We also don't have private matches at all. I feel like there are only a small group of console players interested in playing at all and I can't blame the others for giving up on the game. We wait like 7 months or whatever it was and then get a really buggy product with features we had before stripped out with no explanation.
 
Please no personal attacks.

Read forum rules.

Thanks!

Just say what you have in mind, and ignore who don't share your POV, hover your mouse on their name and choose to ignore them, that the way i deal with those who is not with me (Read my signature), Remember they are NOT with you, then why bother.

@Shabman want to play a more strategy, interactive CCG, try MTG Arena, complex at first but when you know how it's go it pretty fun IMO. BTW, it's F2P friendly too, with some luck i'm about to have a tier 1 control deck after 2 months in (Jeskai control, one of the most expensive tier 1 decks).
 
Last edited:
What excatly is wrong about that? In the end you get the fair 3,5. It isnt important, if all people give 3,5 or some 5 and other 1. Only the the endvalue is important. Otherwise, you must hate steam-revies much more, there you only can binary top/flop votes.

What you've basically said is: Regarding the score, the spread (1-5) is not important only the average thereof.

First off all, the score matters to whom? People who are already playing the game, know what it's like. The only way they benefit from the score is when they are so attached to the game that they want to praise it (or bash it into the ground). I understand that if you really like the game, you also want it to succeed which usually also means the game having a good score. However, normally, a score has no impact on the enjoyment of the game. With multiplayer games, it's a bit different because a mediocre score might attract fewer new players. But even then, I still think most players came here because of the Witcher, friends' recommendation or streamers, not because of the game's rating.

On a more practical note, the spread does matter from a statistical standpoint. If everyone is giving the game either a 5 or 1, then it turns into a love hate game. This is not accounting for review bombing, which is a different matter. On the other hand, if everyone gives the game a 3, then everyone thinks the game is okay'ish, but needs some work. The differences between the former and latter is pretty big. However, like I've mentioned, this distinction would only matter to new players.
 
What about people who still play but want the game to get better? I try to enjoy it but it needs big improvements. Especially on console.

What about them? I too think that Homecoming needs improvements and I am waiting for them patiently. I am not praising or bashing Homecoming. I said many times that I don't like speed of the animations and that they should be faster (burza responded few days ago that they are working on new and improved mechanics and more QoL changeS). Same with the number of available mechanics in game. I know that we will get armor mechanic one day (because it is in Thronebreaker), I hope we will get more mechanics with the expansion. I am waiting for future patches, I can't wait for patch with leaders, for season trees, for observer mode, for twitch extension, for expansion in March and other stuff that I forgot.

In my opinion right now we have solid foundation. Game looks nice but it needs some polish and other stuff that I mentioned above. Right now it is 3+/5 maybe 4/5 for me.

You have to have in mind that Microsoft and Sony slow down CDPR with patch certifications. MTGA or Hearthstone don't have this problem because they are only on PC (and mobiles in case of HS) and they don't have to work on 3 versions of 1 product. Sometimes I wonder how it would be with Gwent only for PC and mobiles.

Please no personal attacks.

Read forum rules.

Thanks!
It is not a personal attack. It is an advice for you to stop wasting your time on something you don't enjoy. Maybe look from the different perspective. [Nope]

Just say what you have in mind, and ignore who don't share your POV, hover your mouse on their name and choose to ignore them, that the way i deal with those who is not with me (Read my signature), Remember they are NOT with you, then why bother.

@Shabman want to play a more strategy, interactive CCG, try MTG Arena, complex at first but when you know how it's go it pretty fun IMO. BTW, it's F2P friendly too, with some luck i'm about to have a tier 1 control deck after 2 months in (Jeskai control, one of the most expensive tier 1 decks).

Living in the safe bubble must be interesting. People are so fragile these days. You can't have a conversation without someone being offended, there are too much emotions and not enough logic and legit arguments.

Maybe start giving out some legit arguments why you don't like Homecoming in comparison to the vintage Gwent instead saying how you "feel" about Homecoming.

EDIT:

Sure... players who don't like Homecoming can spit hate here and say things like "Gwent is dead game" etc. but I can't point out that it can be annoying for people who like Homecoming and that it is harmful for game and community. What the hell moderators?
 
Last edited:
Living in the safe bubble must be interesting. People are so fragile these days. You can't have a conversation without someone being offended, there are too much emotions and not enough logic and legit arguments.

Maybe start giving out some legit arguments why you don't like Homecoming in comparison to the vintage Gwent instead saying how you "feel" about Homecoming.

Don't be so surprised. If I asked someone why they are here, if they're seeking attention or trying to annoy people, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't like that.

Communication 101.

Also, in that very post that you first quoted were the answers to why I'm here. So either you misread the post or you just wanted to get a reaction out of me.

Furthermore, the "legit arguments" you mention - we've been giving them for months. If you are genuinely interested, I can dig up some of them for you.
 
Top Bottom