Dropping the gold for winning I think was a bad idea. New players are going to have a very hard time getting started now. Perhaps as a minor consolation all new accounts should start with 10g to buy into their first tourney, OR have a regularly scheduled default-deck-only league for them to have a chance to play against others who are relatively new and level out the learning curve a bit. I definitely think there should be some consolation there...

Combine that with the new market addition and this game just got much more dangerous for my wallet LOL

Even if the 1 gold per game won were restored, I think the new market will still siphon PLENTY of gold out of the system since it's much more convenient than trying to find people to trade with.

And without the 1 gold per game won reward, there's really not much reason (IMHO) to play the AI any more.

I have to agree this was a terrible idea. No one was making huge sums from the AI (i.e. it wasn't broken) and it was a great way for newbies to get into the game (i.e. it provided a good benefit).

I understand if the intention was to prevent people from selling commons to newbies which would decrease the amount the 'power' players would spend, but honestly you'd have to sell a lot of commons at 1-3 g a piece (after the cut) to make it worthwhile so I don't see it being an actual issue.

Please change it back!

I humbly concur with all of the above.

FWIW, consider this an addition to the noise of "1gp > nothing".

Coming back to this from a different angle-- I draw a bit of lore from the book "Silicon Worlds".

One of the concepts it discusses is how people form psychological addictions to the kinds of 'alternate/secondary existence' that games offer. Most games provide a reliable work:reward system. If you kill creatures, you will get items. If you beat the AI, you will get gold. This system encourages players to grind away, happy as can be. The more time they grind, the more wealth they'll accumulate... and the more involved they become in the game.

The reason this is an addictive concept is that it is completely unrealistic. In the real world, if you work more, or harder, that does not necessarily mean you will become more wealthy, get a promotion, etc. etc. The reliable work:reward system that games offer can be quite comforting and fulfilling to many people.

I think removing this very small, and very simple psychological "carrot on a stick" will have a devastating effect on the rate of expansion, and longevity of the game.

Guys I agree there needs to be some reward for playing games. I just think it needs to be something other than gold. Gold is just a proxy for money. We want these cards to have value and for people to be able to sell them on ebay and whatnot. If people can just grind gold by playing games it makes the cards less valuable. It hurts everyone that has a collection of cards. It means we are paying people to play the game which is not a sustainable business. So for the health of the market and for the players that do spend money on the game we don't think we should give away free gold.

Also there are tons of ways to gain gold and tons of ways to play for free. So it really doesn't detract from any ones enjoyment or access to the game.

All that said we know there does need to be some kind of reward/sense of progress that players get from playing. And we will be adding that very soon...

I hope that "new carrot" of yours is coming soon Jed... and if it's not, I humbly recommend temporarily reinstating the old one. I'm sure you have hard data on this, but some have observed that activity in-game, and on the forum is dramatically down.

:-/

I have to agree with sun. With all do respect, we want the game to succeed as much as you do. The 1g per win thing was a nice little carrot of insignificant consequence that gave people a direct, easy in to the game. I think it should be reinstated no matter what is down the road because it made the community stronger (which in turn does the things jed was saying he wants to protect).

.......
1nobody! will by this cards on ebay
because u game dont have much players! u arent successful, yet.
to be successful you need more players, so you will need a carrot on a stick!

2 how much players have a own deck??
i dont think there are many of them, here
only some "hardcore" player

3 maybe there are tons of ways to get gold. but this ways are not possible for everyone.
i dont have a deck and i think i will have only in one month a deck, withall this tons of ways!

4 it would be better if you tell us the new system and THEN develop it. we could improve it. we can tell you whether it is shit or cool
i dont want this situarion "you develop a tool and the whole commity says it is shit"

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sry for bad english

TFW borderlands trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47Vh4ZxtkbE
TFW trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSTCNgoFBQ4