a) At the rate WotC is working in advance, we probably would still be getting them for the next 3-4 sets even if they had decided to stop doing them immediately after the Firesong and Sunspeaker feedback.
I don't buy this at all. They can easily say 'put out a different promo' even if they've printed them up or change the policy and use the printed promos for another purpose. They can even shred them all. If it's not included in boosters they have a wealth of things they can do to stop the madness.
Now the pros are speaking up and hopefully when they 'complain' WotC pays a little more attention. It is not good for the game nor the format to have a low supply card that is one shot you got it or not to be legal in standard or any format. The is just the tip of the iceberg and they should NOT be willing to continue down this road and we as consumers shouldn't allow them the peace to keep going until it really explodes in their face. Because nothing they've done in the past three years has done that...
Just wait until they decide that it'd be cool to make the next Fatal Push a Buy a Box promo.
Why is it ok to make a card that is LEGAL to play promo only? How is that not a crap road to be going down?
With all the great decisions WotC has been making in the past 3 years how can anyone trust them to not eventually go there? They're already incrementally going there since this latest promo is rocketing in price/demand compared to the first time they did this. They must think they're geniuses. Working as intended!!
This is a crap tactic that players should NOT be supporting.
They said 'heard you loud and clear' after everyone *****ed about exclusive BoB promos and here we are... still pushing it out exclusive.
They should be punished with fewer boxes purchased. Stand up for yourselves people. Even if you have the money don't.
They're making so many bad decisions in so many places lately please don't reward them for this craptastic BoB crap.
I refuse to bother with Bo3 because the timer is ridiculous. They are resisting the chess clock with passion but have ZERO fixes for ropers and animations not syncing properly with the timer. They lack vision.
I'd like to see they delete the Mythic rarity to lower the prices for standard. Not sure there's much else they can do other than stop printing so few cards that are standard playable per set.
A while back when you joined people got 6? starter decks. They may have changed that and you earn 'starter decks' as rewards as you complete quests instead of right off. Pretty sure some mono colored decks are rewards from the new starting vs AI deal.
If you don't earn one look up UW control or UB control the lists are pretty standard. The problem now is they are manipulating match making for Bo1 and it suuuuuuuuuuuucks. You'll get rammed against the same kind of deck constantly and frequently that ends up being RDW.
It's like they're trying to make things worse.
The newest reward system for opening packs is both decent and predatory at the same time. Good for people getting daily quests done and earning gold, but also pushes people to buy packs which is meh. Doesn't really hurt. The gem system is the problem. Predatory period. The vault being hidden (indicating they're trying to get rid of it but don't know what to do about 5th copies of cards since they 'don't like' dusting)
Timer still busted. No changes.
Animations still take too long and don't work with timer.
Land still hops around even though they said they fixed it. They made it less egregious. That's it.
A lot of meta complaints aren't valid because that's not the Arena team's problem. That's Maro's problem. There's a lot of control because you don't need a bazillion rares to make it work. Counters are uncommon mostly and they GAVE OUT 2 complete (starter decks) control decks that were easily upgraded if you know anything. They made it cake to play control and win against their other trash starter decks. Also red is crazy right now and how do you get wins done fast? RDW get your gold and quit for the day. Rampant because red is ridiculous right now. Again, not Arena's fault.
Lots of sub par programming is disappointing. People willing to pay and play will be ok with it but the timer will make them mad. Sitting around waiting 2 min every turn for your opponent to be afk and play at the last second will make a lot of people mad. Every freaking turn. It's a built in exploit and they refuse to solve it patch after patch.
If vehicles couldn't be crewed by summoning sick creatures I'd have less of a problem with them.
Vehicles isn't the only part of cards you can't interact with. God-Pharaoh's Gift is a slightly more complicated way to cheat things in and Ixalan's Binding isn't even good enough to kill it because the cheat in spell doesn't cast it. Approach is narrow interaction unless you play counter spells or you red deck them dead before they can cast it... oops turn 4 is kind of fast.
Design team is making too many cards that you either can't interact with or the way you interact is very narrow. Kaladesh is FULL of those and frankly vehicles is one of the worst design mistakes in years outside of individual OP cards.
It's not so much that just Goblin Chainsmuggler is so evil... it's the confluence of cards that together make red utterly dominant.
You can't block, you can't remove, Chandra, you can't destroy, Chandra, oh yea red went first you now have 40% less chance of winning.
They are going overboard on too many fronts. Look at the utter value each card red has to play provides. No drawbacks, no compromises, no weaknesses except poor draws and we can all see that's not happening very frequently.
Arena standard is exposing a lot of people to rampant red, vehicles, and control without very much else going on and it's just not that much fun anymore. I wish we could get back to balanced sets like we had 3 years ago like RTR and Khans. Even when they admit making mistakes (midrange stupidfest) they're not checking the desire to make cards that just end games or crowd out entire strategies that can't interact. Approach is part of that problem. God-Pharaoh's Gift (amongst all the other utter trash in Kaladesh)/Aetherworks McCheatypants are the problem. The rash of indestructible and uninteractive is the problem. They can't fix it with a single ban (as they've already tried with several.
They need to fix this garbage format at the drawing board. I for one cannot wait for Kaladesh et al to go away.
So you have nothing to add to the discussion you just like to attack other people's assertions.
1. Repetitive nothing new
2. I said that as well nothing new
3. You quoted the lesser info from the report. The most relevant is the Franchise Brand info of 19%. If you're going to use a report to throw shade use it properly.
If you don't have an opinion on how well WotC is doing why do you care if other do?
You brought up 'best-selling' and referred to it as a 'significant data point' when in fact it's not data at all. Now you call it a 'factoid' and muddy the water of why you're using it.
You are purposefully presenting data (from memory) as if it backs up belittling others opinions (weak arguments) and then saying you don't have an opinion. Why are you talking smack then?
What does it have to do with Ravnica and why you like it, or don't like it, or care at all about how the set/block comes out?
Point of fact. Franchise Brands for HASBRO include LITTLEST PET SHOP, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, MONOPOLY, MY LITTLE PONY, NERF, PLAY-DOH and TRANSFORMERS.
Gaming division is separate and is reported separately and took its own loss of 22%.
Franchise brands are down Q1 19% across all listed. There is no way to determine individual brand losses because they are not reported.
Emperical evidence shows that LGS play has been down and continues to waffle in the Standard segment of the game for the past 2 years. Modern and Legacy are up and healthy. How much product do Modern and Legacy players buy? Not much; standard drives box/pack sales. If people aren't playing as much (WotC has observed and admitted attendance at big events is down) they aren't buying as much. If people aren't buying as much prices for singles get worse because supply is low (oh look at the chase mythic prices for Dom).
RTR was when things were good and if they're smart, they'll stick to the block's strong points and balance across color combos help bounce back.
I'm more than fine going back to Ravnica but they need to get back to the balance and design choices they used in the past to make Ravnica just as good or better.
Sigh.
Okay, to quote the earnings report:
*Hasbro’s total gaming category, including all gaming revenue, most notably MAGIC: THE GATHERING and MONOPOLY, which are included in Franchise Brands in the table above, totaled $203.5 million for the first quarter 2018, down 20%, versus $253.3 million for the first quarter 2017. Hasbro believes its gaming portfolio is a competitive differentiator and views it in its entirety.
That is: Magic falls under both "franchise brands" and the broader umbrella category of "gaming," but not "Hasbro Gaming," which is a specific segment of the brand portfolio. I get that this is confusing. "Gaming" had a slightly bigger drop than "franchise brands," but Hasbro as a whole took a hit across all of its portfolio categories in Q1 2018, which the latest results report attributes to Toys R Us' death.
The constant mtgs narrative of Magic failing isn't supported by Hasbro earnings, as revenue was growing above the overall economy in both of those segments last year; it's only Q1 of 2018 that has this sharp drop. Also, the cited value is relative to Q1 2017 revenue. It's entirely plausible that WotC hasn't done as well in 2017 as it did in prior years, but nothing about the earnings report numbers people keep citing actually supports that conclusion.
One data point that DOES mean something is the assertion that BfZ is the best-selling set of all time - indicating that Magic sales are on a dip from that peak which hasn't been reached yet. But there's a difference between doing poorly and not doing unprecedentedly well like BfZ did; and without real marketing data, you might as well be cutting pigeons open and reading their entrails to make guesses about what causes Magic sales to ebb and flow.
Also, while singles prices are very perceptible for enfranchised players, they are not the only driver of pack sales. A lot of Magic packs are sold to people who don't really know or care about singles values and just want cards to play with in casual settings. A lot of packs are sold to people who want to draft them. And as Magic packs are sold in different kinds of businesses in different places, anecdotal reports from LGS about tournament activity aren't indicative of sales either.
sigh
All you did is quote from a different portion of the earnings report. Why would you look at all gaming when the Franchise Brand number does NOT include all the Hasbro board games and is salient? I get why you're confused but the fact is you can't say WotC's doing great because you also don't have the numbers to back that up.
They do not publish individual brand numbers.
What you have is a sharp drop in Q1 which INCLUDES other properties. WotC's part of the report could be 50% loss or 25% gain or anything else depending on how those other brands have done.
The data point of people NOT PLAYING is more significant that "BfZ is the best selling of all time". Best selling adjusted for inflation? Best selling based on box sales? Free Range is a thing they say too but it doesn't always mean what you want it to.
Selling packs for different reasons is a given and quite obvious. You can read the entrails the way you want but it doesn't make your opinion better than everyone else's nor does it add to any discussion to accuse others of 'wild-ass guessing'.
Point of fact. Franchise Brands for HASBRO include LITTLEST PET SHOP, MAGIC: THE GATHERING, MONOPOLY, MY LITTLE PONY, NERF, PLAY-DOH and TRANSFORMERS.
Gaming division is separate and is reported separately and took its own loss of 22%.
Franchise brands are down Q1 19% across all listed. There is no way to determine individual brand losses because they are not reported.
Emperical evidence shows that LGS play has been down and continues to waffle in the Standard segment of the game for the past 2 years. Modern and Legacy are up and healthy. How much product do Modern and Legacy players buy? Not much; standard drives box/pack sales. If people aren't playing as much (WotC has observed and admitted attendance at big events is down) they aren't buying as much. If people aren't buying as much prices for singles get worse because supply is low (oh look at the chase mythic prices for Dom).
RTR was when things were good and if they're smart, they'll stick to the block's strong points and balance across color combos help bounce back.
I'm more than fine going back to Ravnica but they need to get back to the balance and design choices they used in the past to make Ravnica just as good or better.
They like their master's sets so much that reprints in standard are not likely at all. We do see lands (the same ones again and again) and I'll bet they don't reprint anything worthwhile for other formats but a new land cycle to promote pack sales.
Rumors have it that WotC's division at HASBRO has lost 35% sales in all areas (as Hasbro released it's losses bundling WotC with Monopoly because hiding numbers) even though they're releasing more products than every before each year.
Current prices of top mythics
Karn $64
Teferi $40
Lyra $25
History of Benality $19
The rest of the set lacks value thus can't possibly be promoting sales.
My concern about a 3 large set 'block' (because that's what it is) lies in their recent trend to overpower just a few cards per set leaving the rest mostly worthless in conjunction with plot. They're going to want to build to something so are we going to get another spaghetti monster type 'we went too far' and more bans? More crappy format that people don't want to buy into?
Standard needs help, so on the bright side... if going to a popular world that was a very successful and good standard environment fixes things and gets people back into standard that is GOOD.
I'm just waiting for their faceplant.
The likelihood they will continue to support MTGO and MTA long term is very low.
I don't give them that much credit in planning.
They are planning the greedy path though. The predatory gem system tell it all. Not communicating with the testing community so they don't have to answer questions about direction and fixes is a big tell as well.
So many testers really want to help them make the game all it could be. They don't need MTGO and frankly that game is so old and dated they're not going to be pulling in new players there. It's MTA or continue in mediocrity. Guarantee within the first 2 years they change the system after releasing with predatory selling practices and an unpolished game. They're too busy prepping for release, the tell is they're working on Kaladesh block instead of fixes. MTGA initially will be standard only so they plan to release sooner than people think.
I don't buy this at all. They can easily say 'put out a different promo' even if they've printed them up or change the policy and use the printed promos for another purpose. They can even shred them all. If it's not included in boosters they have a wealth of things they can do to stop the madness.
Not a big deal? Read this.
https://www.channelfireball.com/articles/what-to-do-about-nexus-of-fate/
Now the pros are speaking up and hopefully when they 'complain' WotC pays a little more attention. It is not good for the game nor the format to have a low supply card that is one shot you got it or not to be legal in standard or any format. The is just the tip of the iceberg and they should NOT be willing to continue down this road and we as consumers shouldn't allow them the peace to keep going until it really explodes in their face. Because nothing they've done in the past three years has done that...
Why is it ok to make a card that is LEGAL to play promo only? How is that not a crap road to be going down?
With all the great decisions WotC has been making in the past 3 years how can anyone trust them to not eventually go there? They're already incrementally going there since this latest promo is rocketing in price/demand compared to the first time they did this. They must think they're geniuses. Working as intended!!
They said 'heard you loud and clear' after everyone *****ed about exclusive BoB promos and here we are... still pushing it out exclusive.
They should be punished with fewer boxes purchased. Stand up for yourselves people. Even if you have the money don't.
They're making so many bad decisions in so many places lately please don't reward them for this craptastic BoB crap.
If you don't earn one look up UW control or UB control the lists are pretty standard. The problem now is they are manipulating match making for Bo1 and it suuuuuuuuuuuucks. You'll get rammed against the same kind of deck constantly and frequently that ends up being RDW.
It's like they're trying to make things worse.
Timer still busted. No changes.
Animations still take too long and don't work with timer.
Land still hops around even though they said they fixed it. They made it less egregious. That's it.
A lot of meta complaints aren't valid because that's not the Arena team's problem. That's Maro's problem. There's a lot of control because you don't need a bazillion rares to make it work. Counters are uncommon mostly and they GAVE OUT 2 complete (starter decks) control decks that were easily upgraded if you know anything. They made it cake to play control and win against their other trash starter decks. Also red is crazy right now and how do you get wins done fast? RDW get your gold and quit for the day. Rampant because red is ridiculous right now. Again, not Arena's fault.
Lots of sub par programming is disappointing. People willing to pay and play will be ok with it but the timer will make them mad. Sitting around waiting 2 min every turn for your opponent to be afk and play at the last second will make a lot of people mad. Every freaking turn. It's a built in exploit and they refuse to solve it patch after patch.
It could be so much more.
Vehicles isn't the only part of cards you can't interact with. God-Pharaoh's Gift is a slightly more complicated way to cheat things in and Ixalan's Binding isn't even good enough to kill it because the cheat in spell doesn't cast it. Approach is narrow interaction unless you play counter spells or you red deck them dead before they can cast it... oops turn 4 is kind of fast.
It's not so much that just Goblin Chainsmuggler is so evil... it's the confluence of cards that together make red utterly dominant.
You can't block, you can't remove, Chandra, you can't destroy, Chandra, oh yea red went first you now have 40% less chance of winning.
They are going overboard on too many fronts. Look at the utter value each card red has to play provides. No drawbacks, no compromises, no weaknesses except poor draws and we can all see that's not happening very frequently.
Arena standard is exposing a lot of people to rampant red, vehicles, and control without very much else going on and it's just not that much fun anymore. I wish we could get back to balanced sets like we had 3 years ago like RTR and Khans. Even when they admit making mistakes (midrange stupidfest) they're not checking the desire to make cards that just end games or crowd out entire strategies that can't interact. Approach is part of that problem. God-Pharaoh's Gift (amongst all the other utter trash in Kaladesh)/Aetherworks McCheatypants are the problem. The rash of indestructible and uninteractive is the problem. They can't fix it with a single ban (as they've already tried with several.
They need to fix this garbage format at the drawing board. I for one cannot wait for Kaladesh et al to go away.
1. Repetitive nothing new
2. I said that as well nothing new
3. You quoted the lesser info from the report. The most relevant is the Franchise Brand info of 19%. If you're going to use a report to throw shade use it properly.
If you don't have an opinion on how well WotC is doing why do you care if other do?
You brought up 'best-selling' and referred to it as a 'significant data point' when in fact it's not data at all. Now you call it a 'factoid' and muddy the water of why you're using it.
You are purposefully presenting data (from memory) as if it backs up belittling others opinions (weak arguments) and then saying you don't have an opinion. Why are you talking smack then?
What does it have to do with Ravnica and why you like it, or don't like it, or care at all about how the set/block comes out?
sigh
All you did is quote from a different portion of the earnings report. Why would you look at all gaming when the Franchise Brand number does NOT include all the Hasbro board games and is salient? I get why you're confused but the fact is you can't say WotC's doing great because you also don't have the numbers to back that up.
They do not publish individual brand numbers.
What you have is a sharp drop in Q1 which INCLUDES other properties. WotC's part of the report could be 50% loss or 25% gain or anything else depending on how those other brands have done.
The data point of people NOT PLAYING is more significant that "BfZ is the best selling of all time". Best selling adjusted for inflation? Best selling based on box sales? Free Range is a thing they say too but it doesn't always mean what you want it to.
Selling packs for different reasons is a given and quite obvious. You can read the entrails the way you want but it doesn't make your opinion better than everyone else's nor does it add to any discussion to accuse others of 'wild-ass guessing'.
Gaming division is separate and is reported separately and took its own loss of 22%.
Franchise brands are down Q1 19% across all listed. There is no way to determine individual brand losses because they are not reported.
Emperical evidence shows that LGS play has been down and continues to waffle in the Standard segment of the game for the past 2 years. Modern and Legacy are up and healthy. How much product do Modern and Legacy players buy? Not much; standard drives box/pack sales. If people aren't playing as much (WotC has observed and admitted attendance at big events is down) they aren't buying as much. If people aren't buying as much prices for singles get worse because supply is low (oh look at the chase mythic prices for Dom).
RTR was when things were good and if they're smart, they'll stick to the block's strong points and balance across color combos help bounce back.
I'm more than fine going back to Ravnica but they need to get back to the balance and design choices they used in the past to make Ravnica just as good or better.
Rumors have it that WotC's division at HASBRO has lost 35% sales in all areas (as Hasbro released it's losses bundling WotC with Monopoly because hiding numbers) even though they're releasing more products than every before each year.
Current prices of top mythics
Karn $64
Teferi $40
Lyra $25
History of Benality $19
The rest of the set lacks value thus can't possibly be promoting sales.
My concern about a 3 large set 'block' (because that's what it is) lies in their recent trend to overpower just a few cards per set leaving the rest mostly worthless in conjunction with plot. They're going to want to build to something so are we going to get another spaghetti monster type 'we went too far' and more bans? More crappy format that people don't want to buy into?
Standard needs help, so on the bright side... if going to a popular world that was a very successful and good standard environment fixes things and gets people back into standard that is GOOD.
I'm just waiting for their faceplant.
I don't give them that much credit in planning.
They are planning the greedy path though. The predatory gem system tell it all. Not communicating with the testing community so they don't have to answer questions about direction and fixes is a big tell as well.
So many testers really want to help them make the game all it could be. They don't need MTGO and frankly that game is so old and dated they're not going to be pulling in new players there. It's MTA or continue in mediocrity. Guarantee within the first 2 years they change the system after releasing with predatory selling practices and an unpolished game. They're too busy prepping for release, the tell is they're working on Kaladesh block instead of fixes. MTGA initially will be standard only so they plan to release sooner than people think.
Or they did and imagined sales are more important than game health?