Yes, I know the ladder is for new players. My idea was to get some of the players who tank their rating to hopefully not tank their rating anymore.

Yeah I agree with Rufio, in that what needs to happen is more incentive for higher-rated players to play something OTHER than the ladder.


I don't know though. Really all problems would be solved with just more players, and the problem is how to get to that point.

It seems like the consensus is that the bulk of the issues would be solved by having more players to the game in general. That means that whatever the ladder does, it has to get first time players hooked more than anything.

I started playing about 1 week ago, and I didn't feel the ladder system did that for me. I played 5 or 6 games (some against AI and some against human players) and nothing registered on the ladder. I decided this game wasn't any fun, so I gave up and then ordered a different game. But while I was waiting for that new game to come, I played this game a few more times... and found I was getting more into it.

And finally, after winning my 19th game (about half against humans), the ladder points finally registered. So I was much more intrigued at staying. Well I know now that you have to play so many games to qualify for ladder, but it was never explicitly stated, and I found it frustrating to the point of giving up on the game.

Every day it seems like nearly half the users are guest users, 0-5 wins or so. I don't think many of them return. There is no incentive to keep playing (even if you win almost every game!) because to them it doesn't seem like the ladder is working. If you want to keep players I think that brand new players need eligibility quicker - or, at the very least, they need to know exactly how many games do they need under their belt to qualify for ladder.

This would help other players as well. I find that I can almost never play a 'similar' game that counts, because nearly ever person I play doesn't have enough wins to qualify.

I haven't purchased any gold yet. I want to, and probably will, but I want to know that there is a player base large enough to warrant building a collection. Right now it's hard to tell because most of the drafts and tournaments don't fill up. But if there was a way to make sure brand new players stay and get more involved (and I think the ladder is vital for this), I would almost certainly purchase cards.

Right now ladder matches depend on similiar matches, and similiar matches depend on rating. If you had ladder matches depend on total number of wins instead of current rating, tanking your rating with losses would not effect it.

Perhaps there should be different "weight classes" so to speak, and as soon as you reach a certain number of wins you are thereafter ineligible to participate in a lower bracket.

aaron: did you see that you were winning phantom cards? That wasn't incentive to keep playing?

phantom cards suck

they keep people from spending money and reward freeloaders

phantom cards should only last 3 days at MOST.

more rewards for people that dont use phantoms or default decks.

default decks give players too many powerful cards too soon.

paid cards should be better, phantoms and defaults should suck.

lord midnight i don't agree. i think phantom cards are a fine way to give people a chance to see what kind of deck full of commons they might be able to buy in the future if they keep playing... yes, it makes them potentially competitive in the Ladder without spending any money, but as was said above, there need to be ways for newer players to get excited enough about the game to stick around. i've been playing for months and haven't spent any actual money yet, and yes, i have won a decent amount of power/gold and built a 3 or 4 decks of mostly commons with a small number or uncommons or rares, and yes that started with being able to build a reasonable ladder deck with phantom cards.. so right now maybe i'm a freeloader... but how can i justify spending money when i have no clue whether this game will ever become popular at all? if more people were playing this game for free, then there would be plenty of people paying money, and that would encourage more of the "freeloaders," as you put it, to spend..

my solution is to keep playing for free and just try to help the community grow.. i'm not rich, i can't really afford to go spending 20-50 bucks on every new game that i think is interesting..

gee its working so far huh ?

cuz all these players just use the defaults and a few phantoms, and win consistently over people who play money

phantoms suck, giving players THE BEST CARDS IN THE GAME at the beginning sucks.
Gimping elemental sucks

developers are not making money because they are DOING IT WRONG!

get a clue, make people pay for good cards

till then, there IS NO REASON TO SPEND MONEY!

just one question: how many people do you think would still be playing tomorrow if there were no default decks and no phantom cards?

I never said dont give any, but as it is it SUCKS

YOU may be doing great, I am getting my ass handed to me

how is it good that I spent 30$$ and you spent nothing, but youi are winning and I am not ?

how does that encourage people to spend money, you made my point for me: you dont spend money, but you get plenty of gold

that is a crap business plan

give people defaults sure, but no towers and spafs and shit

phantoms are ok, but keeping them for 3 weeks is stupid, many people WILL ONLY PLAY THIS GAME FOR 3 WEEKS. then their ADD riddled minds will get bored and they will move on

dont reward freeloaders, reward people that spend some money

I honestly feel ripped off and cheated, like I was stolen from, like I got tricked into spending money on something that everyone else gets for free. now Im the one at a disadvantage, because I sure spent money

with the balancing changes its even worse, I dont even have what I paid for, I will get some gold for cards that lost value, but not all the low level spells I bought to suppor a strategy now USELESS making half my collection worthless

great code, good art, terrible management