Issue with the Economy for F2P players
Hey there, first of all I just want to say thank you for putting the time and effort into improving PTCGO into Live - with some minor tweaks to the UX/UI it does look like it can be a step up from the previous client.
After playing for a bit and understanding the structure of the economy, it feels like it is quite harsh on the F2P player. In a span of 2-3 months they will be lucky to be able to craft 1 playset of V and VMax pokemon - meaning they will at best be able to make 1 (!) deck only. This assumes that they forced themselves to grind all the levels of the Battle Pass to obtain the 2-3k credits they get.
Reasons why a harsh economy is bad:
- Less players - F2P players will be less inclined to play the game if they cannot build competitive decks or experiment with interesting rogue decks relative easily.
- Discourages rogue decks - if players can only realistically build one good deck, they will choose the best deck. This means players will rarely get the fun and novel experience from playing against off-meta decks.
- Discourages experimentation - similar to point 2, if cards are hard to obtain, people will experiment less with card choices. This also decreases enjoyment for players in general.
Proposed solutions:
- More credits in Battle Pass - Evolving Skies BP gave 50k credits. That seemed like a good number to test with. But somehow it has been decreased to something like 3k for the current set, which is too little for any player aiming to play more than just 1 deck for 3 months...
- Bring back Theme Deck mode - if a F2P player wanted to play without being unnecessarily handicapped, in PTCGO they were able to play the Theme Deck format AND earn packs from doing so. Right now there is no such thing in PTCGL and that takes away choice and variety from players.
- Decrease the amount of credits required to craft rares - this will help players obtain the cards they need. You can also increase the credits required to craft Special Art cards so paid players can still show off their collection. Monetization can be geared more towards card/client/player cosmetics than actual cards.
- Add more game modes, and reward players for success - right now you can only play Standard on PTCGL, which can get boring fairly easily. One interesting format you can add (apart from Expanded and theme deck) is the Gym Leader Challenge format. It will make all the 'useless' cards that most players get from booster packs actually become useful, and it would also be easier for F2P players to build decks and play in. If rewards can be given to players that do well (like the tournaments in PTCGO) it will attract a lot more players spending time thinking, building, and playing more on PTCGL.
Pokemon TCG is fun and there's a lot of potential here for great things. Thanks for reading and hopefully we can all enjoy the digital game becoming a success!
Comments
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- More credits in Battle Pass - Evolving Skies BP gave 50k credits. That seemed like a good number to test with. But somehow it has been decreased to something like 3k for the current set, which is too little for any player aiming to play more than just 1 deck for 3 months...
Definitely needs an increase. I did a full spreadsheet of battle pass rewards, the premium pass give 350 Credits.
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At the very least, offering certain sealed products through coins could also work well:
- Were "Themed mode" to be added again, offering those decks through coins (considering their Standard value, specially once D block cards rotate out of the format) would be more than reasonable. It'd also include a coin and a deckbox so it'd still fit the original usage for coins, in a way. (Update/Edit: Almost forgot about this, one alternative could be a game mode similar to japan's "Starter Deck 100" set. They could offer these decks in some crystal-paid way, but also offer one random deck a month for x coins as an special offer!)
- A weekly bundle could be offered, for a set number of coins providing with some credits, and a selection of boosters plus some promo card (with a purchase limit of 4, or 2 if giving 2 copies of the promo per bundle - in short, only giving enough for a playset, or that much in credits for those with said promo already in their account). Maybe have them available for 2-3 weeks, with a new one being added every 1-2 weeks as the older ones rotate out. If someone misses them out, they can always get the promos themselves through credits so it wouldn't be as bad as it once was in PTCGO.
- We still don't really know how they're planning on handling old monthly ladder rewards (currently: Shaymin-themed coin/deckbox/sleeves), but hopefully those are added to the shop like the Pikachu-themed ones were added the other week. Same with the offered avatar cosmetics.
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For the Credits, a simple thing that I would like to see, is the ability to sell cards we don't want anymore. Cards are really expensive and it need to change, but at least allowing us to sell cards will make it a bit easier to grind the currency
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