Playerbase level: critical. Override shutdown?

As you improve in any activity previous difficulties lessen and new ones arise. This happens with everything, everywhere, not just Pox.

Having an entire building dedicated to Research & Development, M:tG might strike some as difficult, but never poorly designed. WotC allocates a large amoung of resources to ensure Magic developers are overqualified, to say the least.

 

I've already posted my suggestions numerous times here since the transition, won't be a problem to do it another time though.

For new players there are two ways:

Easy one — just give everyone 30 untradeable "jokers", which can be turned into ANY rune with a certain cd and xp loss, also invest some time into recolors and other cosmetics.
That way everyone can play any rune absolutely free, but if they want to rank higher or switch runes often or maintain multiple bgs or just look fancy, they have a payment option for this.
When a player starts losing interest in a game he's already hooked to, he's much more likely to spend money than when he has no idea what the game is and faces only frustration.

Harder one — go with a "standard" way of splitting runes into unlockable tier trees (with purchasable premium/boosters and stuff), and somehow implementing team features into the main game mode, so if a player loses he still contributes something to the team.
It would require another balance hell for lower tiers, but would improve learning curve — which really matters, unlike ability count.


As for keeping old players, there are also two options (but both make sense only if there's constant surge of new players):

Rmt potential — add some really hard to get game-affecting stuff (maybe usable only in a separate q), which would make best guilds and players fight for it, and leave them possibility to cash out.

Community potential — focus on competitiveness, streams, events, etc.

 

When you unneededly destroy the runes everyone paid for, You have to develop another 8 years to nurturing the players base back into a player base.



That said its champions like Vothsair at 90 Nora and pincushion under 75 is what makes more people stop playing

 

typical green response. great things coming.... after this next expansion. how many times can they get away with that line? well it all depends on how stupid you guys are. and lets face it, if you've put any sort of money into this game since maljara, youre stupid.

 

Did you know pox has 6 pages of achievements none of which grant new players anything ? You guys ever think about making them give gold or untradeable runes? Just a suggestion @Moles @Sokolov knowing that 3/4 of your current dying player base is saying give the core set runes for free that should really really be telling you something. Let's be honest nobody is buying core set packs anyways either give them for free or pox can dwindle into nothing, just my 2 cents and every other veteran left.

 

The achievement system could really use an update with regards to granting rewards. In a way the entire reward system is flawed. The player level system is useful how? You turn level 99 for god knows what reason. A suitable reward could be linked to this to make a player feel like he actually earned something by reaching that landmark.

 

In my view there are probably 10% players who play a game for achieving a rank, where as the majority 90% are actually in it for the rewards. So improving the reward system on the whole will probably have a better way of attracting more players. I have no knowledge about market strategy but this is just my general experience of playing games & players.

 

you are building a lot of hype for 26, I hope it lives up to it moles, I look forward to finding out whatever you do for 26

 

@Moles

I feel that you all are doing a fantastic job. The revamp was a good first step and the new user experience is vastly better than it was.

 

i have faith that pox will get better. it'll just take time. there's only so much such a small team can accomplish with all the back tracking they have to do with the old stuff, bugs that come up and those that remain unfixed, and making new stuff as well in a timely enough fashion so that players dont think the game is dead. having pox thrown around definitely did not help nurture a new player base, so ranked has been stuck with the same old peeps for awhile. given a couple years under dog, i feel that pox came can get where it should be. we just gotta stick around and support them till then.

 

Unfortunately it doesn't matter what we - old players - like or not.
The whole point of this thread was that it turned out we had already passed the point of no return — with all the improvements to rune accessibility - forgeable legs, decent forge rates, tourneys, events - playerbase only continues to decrease.
Now you just have to go all-in and try to rebuild it from ash, half-measures just won't work.

 

Agreed.

 

Has anybody read " the name of the wind" and how the librarians have trouble cataloging the stacks because there were manny different chief librarians that all used their own way to organize everything. I kinda feel thats what pox is a bit like.

 

SoonTeeEm

 

Ok. I get that now. Thanks!

 

@ the devs...

Do you actually involve the general community in the specific updates / new runes for upcoming expansions, beyond the general forum threads?

I read a lot of unsolicited advice and I read of a restricted set of forums accessible only to 'the council' but I'm not sure what that is. Do good players get the chance to give specific feedback and thoughts on proposed runes there?

One brief suggestion would be to check the game development blog of a board game called Xia. That was role model in terms of informing the fan base as development progressed, and seeking input to design decisions.