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Valve responds after Artifact community slams 'pay for everything' model


The3rdWalker

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The base game costs $20, and then you have to pay to unlock new cards.

 

Update: Valve has addressed some (but not all) of the complaints in a blog post. The next beta update, coming today, will include the option to play Call to Arms Phantom Draft events in user-created tournaments, as well as a Casual Phantom Draft gauntlet to practice drafting without spending a ticket. Before the beta ends, Valve will also add "a system that allows extra, unwanted cards to be recycled into event tickets," so that low value cards aren't a total waste. The developer hasn't commented on requests for card trading or the difficulty of winning card packs. The original story follows.

 

Original story: Artifact's public beta launches tomorrow, but many would-be players have lost their appetite for Valve's digital card game because of its monetisation model. A Reddit post from yesterday that encourages players to cancel their pre-orders is now the top post of all-time on the Artifact subreddit, while numerous other popular threads are slamming the payment model, described as "pay for everything you do".

 

Here's the deal: You have to pay $20 for the Artifact base game, which gets you some starter cards. The only way to get new cards on top of that is to spend money. You can buy booster packs packs for $2, you can buy and sell specific cards through the marketplace (for which Valve takes a small cut), or you can win cards by playing game modes that require paid-for tickets to enter. Currently, you cannot trade for cards.

 

The community is also upset at the contents of the 12-card booster packs: one of them is guaranteed to be a hero card, but many of the others could well be starter cards, which are likely to be close to worthless on the marketplace, because other players will have acquired them as part of the base game. "I'm just so saddened by the greed Valve is showing," said Reddit user filipanton then he started this thread. "I was actually changing my mind a bit about the game after seeing some gameplay as it seems quite complex and interesting, but the 'pay for everything you do' model, and now this, just forces me to not support the game."

 

You can win card packs by playing either Expert Constructed/Phantom Draft Gauntlets, which cost one ticket to enter, or Keeper Draft Gauntlets, which costs two tickets and five packs to play. To get packs, and to win back your tickets, you'll have to win a series of games against progressively harder opponents. The exact numbers are in Tim's post here, but basically it's going to be hard—and once you lose two games, your time in the gauntlet is up and you have to buy more tickets to play again.

 

It's not just Reddit users that are annoyed about the model: Team Liquid pro player Savjz tweeted that the "paywall is huge fucking mistake", while popular Hearthstone streamer Disguised Toast said that while Artifact had a "high skill ceiling" and "lots of strategy", the fact you have to pay for more cards counts against it. 

 

It's worth pointing out that, away from the paid-for events, players be able to create their own tournaments, but these won't support prizes at launch.

 

Valve's recent FAQ on the game seemed to suggest that the developer was open to changing its monetisation policy based on player feedback, so let's see what happens.

 

Artifact is due out on November 28.

 

11/18 Beta Update
NOVEMBER 18, 2018

 

The Artifact public beta is starting later today. All attendees from this year's International and everyone who redeemed a beta key will find the game activated in their Steam account.

 

Since lifting the NDA on the private beta yesterday, there's been an overwhelming amount of feedback on all parts of the game. Much of that feedback has been a clear signal that we underestimated how much interest and excitement the community has around certain features that weren't available in the initial beta build.

 

We want to take a few minutes to talk about some of those missing features now:

  • There was no way to do a draft event with friends. We didn't prioritize this play mode, and had planned to enable it sometime after release. We've heard your feedback: drafting with friends is a core part of what you want to spend your time doing in Artifact. In the next Artifact beta build, you can select Call To Arms Phantom Draft in any user-created tournament.
  • There was no way to practice the draft modes without spending an event ticket. Drafting is incredibly fun, but can also be very intimidating. We agree that it's important to have a way to practice before venturing into a more competitive mode. In the next Artifact beta build, everyone who has claimed their starting content will find a Casual Phantom Draft gauntlet available in the Casual Play section.
  • There was nothing to do with duplicate starter heroes. We're adding a system that allows extra, unwanted cards to be recycled into event tickets. This feature will ship before the end of the beta period.

 

The first two changes will be live for everyone when the public beta activates later today. We'll ship the recycling system, as well as other improvements to the beta, over the next week and a half.

 

Please enjoy the beta, and keep sending us your feedback.

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/artifact-community-slams-pay-for-everything-monetisation-model/?utm_content=buffer3be1d&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=buffer-pcgamertw

 

https://playartifact.com/news/2535985526495756390

i7 7700k, 16GB RAM, GEFORCE 1080, 240GB SSHD, 2TB SSD

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How is there a 'community' in the first place for this game if they're literally charging for everything? Regardless of the changes to happen I wouldn't be buying a game that had very little way to progress by playing rather than spending money.

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3 hours ago, GazzaGarratt said:

How is there a 'community' in the first place for this game if they're literally charging for everything?

They're all bloody 18 hours a day internet cafe Koreans basically. 

 

Instead of this being a mass market F2P card game like the others; Valve seem to be appealing to a smaller pocket of die-hard card gamers who they could probably milk to buggery over years rather than having millions of gamers just dropping in for a free ride. 

 

I'd rather play online poker. 

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How is there a 'community' in the first place for this game if they're literally charging for everything? Regardless of the changes to happen I wouldn't be buying a game that had very little way to progress by playing rather than spending money.


MTG & Hearthstone Pro Players.


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i7 7700k, 16GB RAM, GEFORCE 1080, 240GB SSHD, 2TB SSD

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I still can't work out how to play this game - I've watched tutorials and gameplay but it looks pretty complex and that's just with the basic mechanics.  Apparently people were walking out of the PAX event as the audience didn't have a clue what was going on on-screen during a showpiece match either. 

 

Currently the game is 'Mixed' on Steam - most complaints are based on the monetization platform and how the cards are pretty bland.  I still want to get into a good card game but this may not be it. 

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