Based upon the prize structure I think gold leagues should cost at least 750 to 1000 gp. I'd pay that readily. The loot rarity of a league is often better than I get on a 40 adventure grind. Giving away both pizza and chests in the pizza leagues seems a bit much to me, but that's just my opinion. I wonder whether the old-school slot machine payout method might work here. Winnings were based upon the amount of money played, rather than playing more "lines" like the later versions. You might have a single league that allowed players to choose from a selection of entry fees in both gold and pizza, with separate prize structures for each amount and currency. The payout should be commensurate to the fee, and people who think the current fee/prize relationship in the gold leagues is realistic should be disappointed. The variation of fees vs. prizes should be pretty simple to set up. The purpose of this would be to fill pods. Players could pay whichever fee they felt most comfortable with. I think pizza should provide a more tempting payback than gold, but not too much in the way of pizza. People shouldn't play on the house's money for too long.
I think too few people would be able to throw money around like that. I'd rather see pods fill, even if that means reducing the prizes to match the (admittedly low) entry fee.
Yeah, 750 to 1000 is an insane amount for what it is. I could easily see 100... 200... maybe 250? But going above that would be extremely prohibitive and make it unlikely that others outside of the top tier farms would play. The pizza rewards for entering a league are fine -- it makes them really competitive and fun since you can lose nothing (and actually gain pizza) if you're good enough. I feel that's a very fair set up.
In any league or tournament that doesn't use digital currency the prizes are paid for by the entry fees. For the gold leagues the prizes are 3 epic chests (750 gp each) and 10 magnificent chests (150 gp each), for a total purse of 3,750 gp. 3,750 divided by 5 equals 750. That isn't insane, that's basic math. This is using the 1 pizza = 5 gp exchange rate, which only works in one direction. You can't buy these chests for gold in the shops, so the entry fee might be somewhat higher than 750. If a 750 gp entry fee is too high, it means the chests are overpriced. The pizza leagues gave out 4 epic chests, 2 magnificent chests, a special figure (count as 80), and 150 pizza. The entry fees totaled 250 pizza, and the prizes totaled 890 pizza. Fair? No. That's giving away the store. It's possible to give away imaginary prizes for imaginary currency because they're just bits in a file, but even an imaginary digital economy should have a frame of reference and some degree of balance.
Yes, chests are overpriced. And I got to agree with Stexe here: above 250 gold for entry fee would be quite insane.
They can't increase too much the fee because very few players would have the amount of gold needed to play regularily the leagues and leave something for Randimar's. What they should do if they want to balance the fee-prizes issue is increasing the fee just a bit (I'm thinking 100-200) and reduce the prizes. I think they could be losing some money from the membership club (their main revenue I believe) if they keep giving epic chests away so easily (not to mention with the free-pizza prizes from the free week), so it wouldn't be crazy to think about a, for instance, 150 gold entry fee and an epic chest only for the winner.
If 250 is fair, then epic chests are worth 50 pizza (250 gold) and magnificent chests are worth 10 (50 gold). A thing is worth what people are willing to pay for it, and I hear they're not selling at their current prices. 50 & 10 might actually still be a bit high, but in any case the cost of the entry fees should cover the cost of the prizes.
.. unless Blue Manchu deliberately want to offer chests more cheaply through the leagues. This might be experimentation to see what price the market will bear or the desire to let the players provide content for each other by frequently becoming league opponents or to promote the leagues by the cheap price to get more players to experience the fun new content or a combination of these and other goals.
Sir Veza, time also costs something. It's not like I could spam click my entry fees into price chests.
You're assuming the pizza to gold ratio should determine gold price of chests. That's a big jump and one that shouldn't be made. Especially considering they are thinking about reducing the price of chests. Instead I'd look at the sell value of the items -- that would give a more accurate idea of their worth.
Partially. Mainly I was assuming if I wanted to spur discussion I needed to make a statement people would feel inclined respond to. The current gold leagues have proven 3 magnificent chests are worth at least 50 gp because people (including me) will pay 50 gp to enter even when we don't have time to play in order to get them. Whether in gold or in pizza, chests should be valued realistically. My argument is based upon two points: 1. A thing is worth what people are willing to pay for it. (A baic law of economics.) 2. Entry fees should cover the cost of prizes. (My own premise from IRL counterparts.) The current prices are ridiculously high IMO, and I think looking at sell value is a good place to start. I believe the price should be higher than the average expected sell value, but probably less than doubled. Something better than lottery odds, but somewhat poorer than blackjack. Chests are a classic "pig in a poke" gamble, and gambling odds should favor the house, but only offering sucker bets will result in very few takers.
Okay first of all you are basing this on the assumption of the "prizes" have a real value... they don't. They have a market value as you pointed out. But if the net gold cost of an item or chest is below the "market value" it is not a loss. Again I see this as a marketing exercise, a way of bring people back to the website. Stexe - don't make the mistake of assuming the average player is anything like you. If you haven't figured it out you are far from ordinary in term of Card Hunter play.
I don't think any of this has a "real" value. The in-game market value is what I'm looking for. I think the entry fee should be set in relation to the market value of the prizes. I may be wr0ng, but I think the point is certainly defensible. To do this, the in-game market value of the prizes must be determined. True. The worst it can do is flood the market in a closed economy. I think the purpose of the low introductory price is to get high league participation, which helps with both program testing and marketing, but Jon has already said we should expect a price increase.
Most likely Jon just forgot to schedule more and it is the weekend so he isn't working. It has happened one or two times before -- I think he logged on during the weekend to fix it, but another time it went without. Kind of annoying, but I'm sure we'll see more Leagues schedule in the next 24 to 36 hours. At least, I hope so?
Sorry, I've been down and out with a really bad cold for the last week. I'll schedule some more leagues soon. To make up for the downtime, I'm going to schedule some of the earlier leagues as Gold leagues once the new build goes live.
I just scheduled two more leagues before the new build deploy. After that we'll rotate back in the launch leagues (with 50 gold entry cost).
Awesome. I assume without the special figure prize though. Either way, it will be good to get some variety in there.
