I thought of some ideas in game mechanics that might allow more accessibility for all players, it is just rough drafts for ideas that I am sure makes the game more accessible to everyone. If anybody can help improve my ideas, please share it here, this just an idea made by a simple player.
1. Class Specific Packs
At the start of every release, instead of a single pack for a single expansion, we will make 3 different packs based on classes, they are themed based on the classes they contain. The Magic Pack will contain neutral or only "magic" related classes as in those that is mainly control style or uses a lot of spells. The Light Pack is for classes that usually has plays tempo decks or decks that buff and heal minions, they are also characterised by the fact that they are protectors of thisngs deemed holy or blessed, the wild and the light. The Fury Pack is for aggro decks, they contain classes that do a lot of damage, goes face all the time, and just plays dirty on every turn by stealing or pulling out big minions, every class in the pack are also characterised by rage, aggression, deceit, and just being wicked for the sake of it.
When people make decks they just need cards from a certain class, and by downsizing the pool, people have more chance to pull cards relevant to their archetype. This might not be perfect for everyone but I would rather open a magic pack if I want to make a mage deck rather than open a regular pack that contains stuff I don't need, it is also something I can realistically see blizzard do since it doesn't fully make the game free but just makes gameplay more efficient. Each pack is 100 gold and contains 5 cards, at the end of every season, if you are on legend you can choose if you want to open 7 magic, light or fury packs
Make Legendaries you get from packs something like a wildcard so people can craft the Legendary they want / need and not get one for a class they don't (want to) play.
Ok so we're looking for ways that make people have more of the cards that they want without directly messing with the games economy?
- They could make some bundles purchasable with gold during the cycle (like the mini set is). Just for the fwp who farmed or saved some G since release.
- They could likewise make full gold purchasable decks with refunds/discounts for duplicates
- The could make a gold derby/casino function, where you can bet gold on competitive games (or whatever) and maybe win some gold back.
Your grouping of classes makes very little sense imho. You can't really divide classes by archetype because most classes have had almost all archetypes at one point or another. It would make much more sense to just let players buy expansion pack for a single class or for neutral cards.
I think the problem is less how f2p friendly the game is as a whole, and moreso how it's disproportionately unfriendly towards specific kinds of players. This sounds goofy, but it's kind of interesting to think about.
I'll give 3 examples of f2p personas: the arena player, the broad constructed player, and the constructed specialist.
The f2p arena player, for example, enjoys playing arena as their main game mode and will realistically never have problems building a collection and playing whatever deck they want in constructed since the reward structure is so beneficial towards them. The gold to dust RoI on arena is still bomb if you take a minute to learn the meta. The current rewards structure is perfect for them, and they don't need any changes. I play a decent bit of arena, I have every card I want right now and am sitting on like 20k dust untouched.
The f2p broad constructed player likes having a wide variety of standard decks, but doesn't need every list to be 100% perfect. They can make a couple budget adjustments for decks, and like having a lot of options when it comes to playing standard. They generally won't dust cards unless they have extras, and only craft a few cards from each deck they play. The current rewards structure is good for them, but not the best. They might not always have everything they want to play and will occasionally feel that they are at a competitive disadvantage.
The f2p specialist wants to have 1 or 2 top meta standard decks, and wants to have them as soon as a set launches to have as much competitive advantage as they can. They will dust every "bad" card they have, and dust cards from classes that they do not play, but might end up recrafting some later if they have a top meta deck. The current rewards structure heavily punishes them, and they will have a bad time building what they want. Class specific packs are helpful for this, as players who only want to play one or two classes are better brought up to speed this way. Constructed has pretty poor rewards per hour played when compared to formats like arena and duels.
Key points are that dusting cards liberally to build what you want faster is absurdly punishing since the DE value of cards is so low. I believe this is by design, as players looking to compete quickly are more likely to spend money to solve this. This isn't passing judgment on if that's good or bad, I don't really care very much to be honest. I just don't dust cards that aren't extras and I'm good to go.
Honorable mention to wild players that only need to craft like 10 cards per set. Not much to say there, wild is as f2p friendly as it gets once you've gotten the staples.
I thought of some ideas in game mechanics that might allow more accessibility for all players, it is just rough drafts for ideas that I am sure makes the game more accessible to everyone. If anybody can help improve my ideas, please share it here, this just an idea made by a simple player.
1. Class Specific Packs
At the start of every release, instead of a single pack for a single expansion, we will make 3 different packs based on classes, they are themed based on the classes they contain. The Magic Pack will contain neutral or only "magic" related classes as in those that is mainly control style or uses a lot of spells. The Light Pack is for classes that usually has plays tempo decks or decks that buff and heal minions, they are also characterised by the fact that they are protectors of thisngs deemed holy or blessed, the wild and the light. The Fury Pack is for aggro decks, they contain classes that do a lot of damage, goes face all the time, and just plays dirty on every turn by stealing or pulling out big minions, every class in the pack are also characterised by rage, aggression, deceit, and just being wicked for the sake of it.
When people make decks they just need cards from a certain class, and by downsizing the pool, people have more chance to pull cards relevant to their archetype. This might not be perfect for everyone but I would rather open a magic pack if I want to make a mage deck rather than open a regular pack that contains stuff I don't need, it is also something I can realistically see blizzard do since it doesn't fully make the game free but just makes gameplay more efficient. Each pack is 100 gold and contains 5 cards, at the end of every season, if you are on legend you can choose if you want to open 7 magic, light or fury packs
1. Magic Pack (Mage, Shaman, Warlock)
2. Light Pack (Priest, Paladin, Druid)
3. Fury Pack (Warrior, Hunter, Rogue, Demon Hunter)
These are just my ideas and if anybody can give improvements to make the game more accessible but still balanced, feel free to comment.
To Be Continued...
Lower the cost for crafting.
Make Legendaries you get from packs something like a wildcard so people can craft the Legendary they want / need and not get one for a class they don't (want to) play.
Just some thoughts.
In the next post I have an idea similar to this, thank you for the thoughts
PS I find they font you are using hard (unpleasant) to read.
Noted
Ok so we're looking for ways that make people have more of the cards that they want without directly messing with the games economy?
- They could make some bundles purchasable with gold during the cycle (like the mini set is). Just for the fwp who farmed or saved some G since release.
- They could likewise make full gold purchasable decks with refunds/discounts for duplicates
- The could make a gold derby/casino function, where you can bet gold on competitive games (or whatever) and maybe win some gold back.
Your grouping of classes makes very little sense imho. You can't really divide classes by archetype because most classes have had almost all archetypes at one point or another. It would make much more sense to just let players buy expansion pack for a single class or for neutral cards.
I think the problem is less how f2p friendly the game is as a whole, and moreso how it's disproportionately unfriendly towards specific kinds of players. This sounds goofy, but it's kind of interesting to think about.
I'll give 3 examples of f2p personas: the arena player, the broad constructed player, and the constructed specialist.
The f2p arena player, for example, enjoys playing arena as their main game mode and will realistically never have problems building a collection and playing whatever deck they want in constructed since the reward structure is so beneficial towards them. The gold to dust RoI on arena is still bomb if you take a minute to learn the meta. The current rewards structure is perfect for them, and they don't need any changes. I play a decent bit of arena, I have every card I want right now and am sitting on like 20k dust untouched.
The f2p broad constructed player likes having a wide variety of standard decks, but doesn't need every list to be 100% perfect. They can make a couple budget adjustments for decks, and like having a lot of options when it comes to playing standard. They generally won't dust cards unless they have extras, and only craft a few cards from each deck they play. The current rewards structure is good for them, but not the best. They might not always have everything they want to play and will occasionally feel that they are at a competitive disadvantage.
The f2p specialist wants to have 1 or 2 top meta standard decks, and wants to have them as soon as a set launches to have as much competitive advantage as they can. They will dust every "bad" card they have, and dust cards from classes that they do not play, but might end up recrafting some later if they have a top meta deck. The current rewards structure heavily punishes them, and they will have a bad time building what they want. Class specific packs are helpful for this, as players who only want to play one or two classes are better brought up to speed this way. Constructed has pretty poor rewards per hour played when compared to formats like arena and duels.
Key points are that dusting cards liberally to build what you want faster is absurdly punishing since the DE value of cards is so low. I believe this is by design, as players looking to compete quickly are more likely to spend money to solve this. This isn't passing judgment on if that's good or bad, I don't really care very much to be honest. I just don't dust cards that aren't extras and I'm good to go.
Honorable mention to wild players that only need to craft like 10 cards per set. Not much to say there, wild is as f2p friendly as it gets once you've gotten the staples.