By fully resetting I mean wiping every players existing progress in levels, rank, any other unlocks (except maybe cosmetics that show you were a part of the beta) and most importantly everybody's full card collection. Bought kegs would of course have to be reinstated (not reimbursed, CDPR wouldn't have to actually give back the money just to be clear).
Not having done this has (1.) made Gwent problematic from a business perspective for CDPR (2.) made Gwent less enjoyable for a certain type of player (3.) elevated the threshold for new players, which contributes to (1.)
(1.) I don't have any official numbers or sources on this but putting some things together I'd say it's safe to assume Gwent isn't a monster succes. With just a few handfuls of ranked battles played last season (and no other activity) and an MMr of 486 I was globally ranked as at around 37,000. Meaning the people below me probably didn't play any Gwent at all and the first 10K or more of players above me also didn't play much more than a modest amount. Unless there's tons of people playing only casual or arena it's not looking too good for Gwent. My guess is that most people still playing now are here from the beta and there's little influx of new players. Now, after the jump to HC we got the full value of all milled cards even though there are now less cards to craft. Meaning players who had unfinished collections were able to get proportionally more out of their resources and were able to get closer to finishing their collection without having to do any effort. Than there are the players who've been sitting on tons of scraps since the beta and are now sitting on even more scrap. And of course the high level of generosity from CDPR in rewards and resources as another major factor. The result now is a stagnant player base that has zero motivations to buy kegs with real money. The recent economy changes, no more crafting premiums with scrap or full value mills, seem to be some indication that they're re-evaluating their business model and a first consequence of Gwent not making enough profit. More consequences will likely follow if nothing changes.
(2.) Generally there's 2 types of gamers. Competitive players who're only interested in the high level endgame content of any game and people who enjoy the road there unlocking things and slowly growing, and this goes for both multi- and singleplayer games. For the latter type of players (who came from the beta) most of the potential fun to be had in Gwent has been completely negated. Instead of the Gwent playerbase slowly exploring the new meta and moving from archetype to archetype, where every new begotten card offers new opportunities and players' decks evolve slowly, almost the entire gwent playerbase has immediate jumped to the endgame. Again, because of there now being less cards and more reward opportunities most players were able to craft the full collection from the start. And because it's overwhelming to make a deck when you've got all the cards to choose from not yet knowing what they do or how to play yet, I think a lot more players resorted to 'netdecking'. There's probably a lot of good ideas for decks that weren't explored enough or too quickly deemed not viable because there was no slow organic growth of a new meta in HC. These ideas might never see the light of day because no players traveled a route that led past them. In fact there were no "routes", everybody instantly arrived at the destination.
(3.) All of this results in a much higher overall difficulty for new players. In vintage Gwent I never had tier 1 decks, none of my faction collections were complete, missing a lot of golds and silvers and most of my decks even had Geralt and Tris still in them. And I never netdecked once. Despite that I was able to attain rank 18. Now most of my faction collections plus the neutrals are complete, I can make any deck I want within those factions. I made some straightforward but powerful decks yet I can't get past rank 25. Sure I'll admit it none of my decks are tier 1, because I don't want to netdeck, but they should get me a lot further. Seeing as I have access to all the cards within that faction to choose from and I didn't just throw something together but made an effort to combine the best possible cards. It seems to me you have to be a top notch player just to get past the first few ranks now. So for new players, starting out with those woefully inadequate starting decks playing Gwent must feel like hitting a brick wall. This obviously will not help Gwent and only worsen the things explained in paragraph 1.
Had CDPR done a full reset, they would likely see more revenue and attract more new lasting players. There would of course have been the risk of chasing away long time players, and I'm sure a lot of people will think a reset a terrible idea, but I think an equally large number of people would have appreciated a clean slate for everyone.
Thoughts?
Not having done this has (1.) made Gwent problematic from a business perspective for CDPR (2.) made Gwent less enjoyable for a certain type of player (3.) elevated the threshold for new players, which contributes to (1.)
(1.) I don't have any official numbers or sources on this but putting some things together I'd say it's safe to assume Gwent isn't a monster succes. With just a few handfuls of ranked battles played last season (and no other activity) and an MMr of 486 I was globally ranked as at around 37,000. Meaning the people below me probably didn't play any Gwent at all and the first 10K or more of players above me also didn't play much more than a modest amount. Unless there's tons of people playing only casual or arena it's not looking too good for Gwent. My guess is that most people still playing now are here from the beta and there's little influx of new players. Now, after the jump to HC we got the full value of all milled cards even though there are now less cards to craft. Meaning players who had unfinished collections were able to get proportionally more out of their resources and were able to get closer to finishing their collection without having to do any effort. Than there are the players who've been sitting on tons of scraps since the beta and are now sitting on even more scrap. And of course the high level of generosity from CDPR in rewards and resources as another major factor. The result now is a stagnant player base that has zero motivations to buy kegs with real money. The recent economy changes, no more crafting premiums with scrap or full value mills, seem to be some indication that they're re-evaluating their business model and a first consequence of Gwent not making enough profit. More consequences will likely follow if nothing changes.
(2.) Generally there's 2 types of gamers. Competitive players who're only interested in the high level endgame content of any game and people who enjoy the road there unlocking things and slowly growing, and this goes for both multi- and singleplayer games. For the latter type of players (who came from the beta) most of the potential fun to be had in Gwent has been completely negated. Instead of the Gwent playerbase slowly exploring the new meta and moving from archetype to archetype, where every new begotten card offers new opportunities and players' decks evolve slowly, almost the entire gwent playerbase has immediate jumped to the endgame. Again, because of there now being less cards and more reward opportunities most players were able to craft the full collection from the start. And because it's overwhelming to make a deck when you've got all the cards to choose from not yet knowing what they do or how to play yet, I think a lot more players resorted to 'netdecking'. There's probably a lot of good ideas for decks that weren't explored enough or too quickly deemed not viable because there was no slow organic growth of a new meta in HC. These ideas might never see the light of day because no players traveled a route that led past them. In fact there were no "routes", everybody instantly arrived at the destination.
(3.) All of this results in a much higher overall difficulty for new players. In vintage Gwent I never had tier 1 decks, none of my faction collections were complete, missing a lot of golds and silvers and most of my decks even had Geralt and Tris still in them. And I never netdecked once. Despite that I was able to attain rank 18. Now most of my faction collections plus the neutrals are complete, I can make any deck I want within those factions. I made some straightforward but powerful decks yet I can't get past rank 25. Sure I'll admit it none of my decks are tier 1, because I don't want to netdeck, but they should get me a lot further. Seeing as I have access to all the cards within that faction to choose from and I didn't just throw something together but made an effort to combine the best possible cards. It seems to me you have to be a top notch player just to get past the first few ranks now. So for new players, starting out with those woefully inadequate starting decks playing Gwent must feel like hitting a brick wall. This obviously will not help Gwent and only worsen the things explained in paragraph 1.
Had CDPR done a full reset, they would likely see more revenue and attract more new lasting players. There would of course have been the risk of chasing away long time players, and I'm sure a lot of people will think a reset a terrible idea, but I think an equally large number of people would have appreciated a clean slate for everyone.
Thoughts?