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filkry

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,892
Speaking only for myself, there are a few things that put me off the game after playing a bit:

1. There are no "linear" decks. I play MTG and sometimes I'm in the mood to play a complicated game and sometimes I just want to turn some cards sideways. It has range.

2. I really don't like the idea that sometimes killing an opposing hero is wrong. Killing the hero and having it respawn in a different lane for the win feels like being punished for doing something that is thematically a win.

3. This will be solved later, but there weren't many exciting cards. Most cards give edges to the combat board, but it's fun to have out there combo pieces.

Artifact felt more like playing chess than a typical CCG, which is a good game but not what I'm interested in.
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
I can't see how F2P would save it. The game is $20, and it's failing, cost doesn't seem to be the issue. Also the game is set up in such a way that F2P would undermine everything they actually did right with the game.
F2P would lead to more people getting free packs which in turn would drive down the price of cards on the marketplace. I agree that it's not the biggest issue, but it would certainly help against the "pay2pay2win" complaints.
 

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,053
F2P would lead to more people getting free packs which in turn would drive down the price of cards on the marketplace. I agree that it's not the biggest issue, but it would certainly help against the "pay2pay2win" complaints.

The pay2win complaints are the only complaints about this game that aren't valid. It's a card game, their very existence is p2w. For $20 I can play this game indefinitely with all the cards, in a variety of formats. If I wanted to play constructed, I could buy the *exact* deck I wanted instead of hunting for hards. This makes it the most wallet friendly competitive card game out there, yet a big group of people who haven't even touched it think it's issue is P2W. If I want This would solve a problem that doesn't exist.
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
The pay2win complaints are the only complaints about this game that aren't valid. It's a card game, their very existence is p2w. This is most wallet friendly competitive card game out there, yet a big group of people who haven't even touched it think it's issue is P2W. This would solve a problem that doesn't exist.
That's why I said "pay2pay2win" since there's an upfront fee on top of constructed being P2W regardless of how cheap decks are.
 

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,053
That's why I said "pay2pay2win" since there's an upfront fee on top of constructed being P2W regardless of how cheap decks are.

You're not paying to pay2win, you're paying the initial cost of the packs you get. 10 booster packs, a handful of premade decks, and unlimited access to all the cards through draft. All for $20, that's a steal. The fact that people are painting this as a bad thing is baffling. You wouldn't get a fraction of that in MTG for that amount of money.

The game acts more like a board game, and for $20 you get all the pieces and cards you need to play it forever without spending an additional cent.
 
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Lyng

Editor at Popaco.dk
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
2,206
Richard Garfield has not worked on a successful TCG since Magic. Everything else he has touched has been a bomb.

Keyforge is huge. Netrunner the LCG which was based on his design was huge until wotc and FFG split.
And he has created massive board game hits aswell in the form of King of Tokyo and Bunny Kingdoms.
The idiotic idea that Garfield is some one trick pony designer needs to die.
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
You're not paying to pay2win, you're paying the initial cost of the packs you get.
That's irrelevant to a customer that doesn't know how into the game they'll be. At the end of the day, there's no free SKU that doesn't give packs, so you have to drop $20 before you can even start drafting a deck that will lose to Annihilation, triple Blink Dagger, etc.
 

Weebos

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,060
Keyforge is huge. Netrunner the LCG which was based on his design was huge until wotc and FFG split.
And he has created massive board game hits aswell in the form of King of Tokyo and Bunny Kingdoms.
The idiotic idea that Garfield is some one trick pony designer needs to die.
Not to mention every time he returns to design a Magic set it turns out great, his latest contribution being Dominaria (and Sagas in particular).
 

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,053
That's irrelevant to a customer that doesn't know how into the game they'll be. At the end of the day, there's no free SKU that doesn't give packs, so you have to drop $20 before you can even start drafting a deck that will lose to Annihilation, triple Blink Dagger, etc.

But that's true with *any* game. Also you have to normally pay money before you can draft in ANY CARD game. The fact Artifact lets you do it for free should be a way bigger deal. Spending $20 to play draft free forever is a hell of a lot cheaper than paying $5 everytime you want to draft.
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
But that's true with *any* game.
Yes, and those non-F2P games that also have MTX that affect gameplay also get criticized to shit.

Also you have to normally pay money to draft in ANY CARD game. The fact Artifact lets you do it for free should be a way bigger deal. Spending $20 to play draft free forever is a hell of a lot cheaper than paying $5 everytime you want to draft.
I'm only familiar with HS in terms of other digital card games, but paid Arena runs guarantee you a pack even if you go 0-3, which is far more than what Artifact gives. You could argue that Artifact has a leg up by having a free variation, but Valve obviously overestimated how much people likethe act of drafting versus how much people like competiting for prizes on a (relatively) even playing field.
 

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,053
I'm only familiar with HS in terms of other digital card games, but paid Arena runs guarantee you a pack even if you go 0-3, which is far more than what Artifact gives. You could argue that Artifact has a leg up by having a free variation, but Valve obviously overestimated how much people likethe act of drafting versus how much people like competiting for prizes on a (relatively) even playing field.

I understand if people think they don't get good enough rewards for the win. I'd go even farther and say constructed was a horrible decision for this game, and the worst mode it has to offer. It's why I think F2P wouldn't fix it, constructed itself feels like it was tacked on this game to facilitate trading through the steam marketplace.
 

Metallix87

User Requested Self-Ban
Banned
Nov 1, 2017
10,533
I understand if people think they don't get good enough rewards for the win. I'd go even farther and say constructed was a horrible decision for this game, and the worst mode it has to offer. It's why I think F2P wouldn't fix it, constructed itself feels like it was tacted on this game.
So what solution do you think has the highest probability of fixing the issues?
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
I understand if people think they don't get good enough rewards for the win. I'd go even farther and say constructed was a horrible decision for this game, and the worst mode it has to offer. It's why I think F2P wouldn't fix it, constructed itself feels like it was tacted on this game.
Not having constructed would certainly solve the messaging problems, but that would also kill the revenue stream since without it there would be no need for buying things on the market. I guess a $20 card game that's just for fun with to MTX at all would've gone down better, but there's literally no long tail on that. How would you even monetize new expansions?
 

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,053
Not having constructed would certainly solve the messaging problems, but that would also kill the revenue stream since without it there would be no need for buying things on the market. I guess a $20 card game that's just for fun with to MTX at all would've gone down better, but there's literally no long tail on that. How would you even monetize new expansions?

The same way you do in other LCG board games like dominion. Release an expansion with new cards and prebuilt decks. I don't think the game would light the charts on fire, but at least it would make the game have a pinpoint purpose and set itself away from Hearthstone/MTG.
 

collige

Member
Oct 31, 2017
12,772
The same way you do in other LCG board games like dominion. Release an expansion with new cards and prebuilt decks.
That was my original thought, but if the core mode of the game is people playing Draft you would end up splintering the playerbase between those that do and don't have the expansion.
 

Ferrio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
18,053
That was my original thought, but if the core mode of the game is people playing Draft you would end up splintering the playerbase between those that do and don't have the expansion.

True, like I said I'm not sure if this is fixable. Valve painted themselves into a corner that's for sure. Seems any fix they'd do would undermine a different part of the game.
 

Metallix87

User Requested Self-Ban
Banned
Nov 1, 2017
10,533
True, like I said I'm not sure if this is fixable. Valve painted themselves into a corner that's for sure. Seems any fix they'd do would undermine a different part of the game.
Maybe the solution is to make it so competitive modes require you to own the expansions for draft, while the free mode remains free for anyone who owns the base.
 

Deleted member 9100

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
3,076
I wish they had a better way for bulk selling cards. I can sell all my commons in game immediately and get 1 cent each (buyer would pay 3 cents), but I want to try to get 2 cents each for them (buyer would pay 4 cents).

There doesn't seem to be a way to list a price for the cards other then selling them one by one in the steam market.

Is there something I'm missing? Anyway to bulk list all my commons for 4 cents?

I have about 400, so it will be very time consuming to list them individually.
 

TheYanger

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,142
You realize the headline is clickbaity and misleading to a lay person, right? Usage varies according to the day and time of day. On Jan 12, for example, DOTA2's peak usage was around 775k and their trough usage was 310k. And I could honestly write a headline saying "DOTA2 loses 60% of its audience overnight" if I were really hungry for clicks, but it wouldn't make the headline any less misleading. And comparing trough usage at 3 AM on a weekday to peak all-time numbers on a weekend evening is just as misleading.

Like, you really don't need to massage the numbers to get a sufficiently interesting take on the matter - the numbers are quite bleak as they are. Steam charts says the 30-day change is at -55%, or something similar. I'm not disputing that the game is bleeding players. But the numbers are dire enough on their own that this kind of exaggeration is wholly unnecessary.
I mean, if you use the 24 hour high it's still down 95% from their original high.

Your post is more misleading about the numbers than the article you're quoting.
Keyforge is huge. Netrunner the LCG which was based on his design was huge until wotc and FFG split.
And he has created massive board game hits aswell in the form of King of Tokyo and Bunny Kingdoms.
The idiotic idea that Garfield is some one trick pony designer needs to die.
I can't believe someone could actually post that Garfield is a one trick pony. It's like, not even a 2 second google search to see how insanely successful he is in general. Is anything else as big as Magic? No, fucking of course not, he has not designed another game as big as the biggest card game there is, no.

Thanks for also bringing up his non-CCG related products, man is a true designer and he knows what the fuck he's doing. The actual play design of Artifact is NOT an issue. It's essentially everything else.

As I mentioned before, he's a very thinking man's sort of game designer, and even Magic was incredibly complex when it came out relative to everything else that was around, especially as a card game. Artifact is definitely complex to its own detriment I think when it comes to wide accessibility. That doesn't mean I think it's 'better' than Magic or Hearthstone or anything, it's just a harder sell. I personally don't want to feel drained every time I play a digital CCG for sure.
 
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Deleted member 16849

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,167
SV5g4nf.png


Now below 3K. I think at this stage we might see it stabilize around the 2K mark, i could be wrong, time shall tell!

The thing is there are a lot of fixes Valve can do don't require much effort at all. Its funny you see small developers put their blood sweat and tears into their games and support their games and provide lots of community interaction but this is apparently beneath a multi-Billion dollar corporation like Valve.
 

Deleted member 10551

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,031
The pay2win complaints are the only complaints about this game that aren't valid. It's a card game, their very existence is p2w. For $20 I can play this game indefinitely with all the cards, in a variety of formats. If I wanted to play constructed, I could buy the *exact* deck I wanted instead of hunting for hards. This makes it the most wallet friendly competitive card game out there, yet a big group of people who haven't even touched it think it's issue is P2W. If I want This would solve a problem that doesn't exist.

Faeria is a lot more wallet friendly than Artifact IMO.
 

ZeroX

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
21,266
Speed Force
Also those game speed changes are welcome but still not enough and only 1 part of the problem. Also i can't believe thats what they have worked on for almost the last month, Christmas period or not.
They put out a patch last week and how easy and fast do you think game development is? They put out the major patch, had two weeks off over Holidays and have released out two QOL patches since then. I don't know what more you could reasonably expect, especially from what I understand is a mid sized dev.

They can't change the whole monetization model, release a new expansion or put together a massive marketing campaign within two weeks.