I just got into the beta a few days ago after months of anticipation, and I have to say (at roughly level 8, currently), I am loving this game so far. Some of the game design is brilliant and the battles are a great mash-up between a CCG and tactics game. On the whole, it's pretty much everything I expected, which is to say that it's very good. The one surprise, though, was the Club Rewards system, and that sometimes-tantalizing item-on-the-pillow after every battle. Now, I've already shelled out the ten bucks it took to get all of the treasure hunt adventures, not even because of the extra loot but because I want the complete game with all the content. With these adventures locked, it almost feels like a shareware game, but ten dollars seems perfectly reasonable to unlock the "full" game. My problem, though, is with the subscription nature of the Club Rewards program. The thing I hate about it is that, if I were to buy in, I would feel obligated to play more than I would otherwise, in order to "get my money's worth" - and let's face it, roughly $10 a month is way too expensive for the amount of content offered. This is fine for an MMO, where you need to pay the monthly fee to be able to play at all, but for a game like this, I think it's a totally unsuitable business model. While a good MMO can command a monthly fee because it provides a rich world with tons of things to do, I play Card Hunter a bit more casually. I like to run a few adventures and then move on to something else. For someone like me, the subscription model is a poor value proposition because I'm not interested in making the time commitment to make it feel worthwhile. Therefore, my idea is to scrap the Club Rewards system entirely. Although some have suggested the idea of a lifetime subscription ($30 feels about right for this, if so), I don't get the feeling that Blue Manchu is planning on moving away from the microtransaction model. My idea? Offer the ability to buy the "extra" item for pizza. Think about it - 90% of the time, you might not even care about the "extra" reward offered for Club members...until that one awesome item for your build pops up. Why do I have to buy into a monthly subscription that I don't want in order to get that - just let me buy that item with pizza! I envision a scaling system, where the rarity of the item affects the cost. Something like: Common - 10 pizza Uncommon - 20 pizza Rare - 50 pizza Epic - 100 pizza Legendary - 200 pizza The idea here is that, even if I see a common or uncommon item on the pillow that would be great for one of my characters, I'd happily spend a bit of pizza to get it...pizza that I would still have to get at a $5 / 150 pizza minimum increment. Whoa, an awesome legendary popped up that I can't live without?! Sure, I'll buy $10 worth of pizza to get it. In either case I'm going to have some left over to spend on other things, which will probably result in me buying more pizza later as I'll never quite get down to zero exactly, and then not see anything else I want. I think this system would be better for both Blue Manchu and for players like myself. I'll NEVER buy the monthly subscription, because I don't want the game to feel like a chore while I grind away to get my money's worth, but Blue Manchu actually stands to make MORE money from someone like me under the model I proposed, depending on what pops up in the chests. And I should note that I really don't think this system would be any more pay-to-win than the current one, since you can still get all the items just by playing for free - but it would be nice to even be able to spend your little bit of free pizza from the campaign on a few choice items (in fact, I think this alone would be enough to lure many people in to buying pizza). Okay, that's plenty long for my first post on this or any other forum - no wonder I never do this, but I really hope that someone reads this, as I honestly think this would be a great solution (and obviously felt strongly enough to post). What do you guys think? TL;DR version: Scrap the Club Rewards Program. Instead, give me the choice to buy the extra "reward" item with pizza, with the cost depending on the item's rarity. I only have to get what I want, without feeling like a slave to a monthly subscription or a second-class player without it, and I'd probably both spend more money this way and be more satisfied overall.
I think that's a good idea. But an alternative would be to leave the club as it is and add the option of buying the item for pizza.
I like the club as it is. I look at the extra item from time to time and think "this is what you pay for?" I fully intend to support the game with my money when it launches, but the club is not for me.
I actually love the club. The option to buy the displayed item for pizza is a pretty good idea though. Even if I think an epic should cost about 40 pizza (price of a treasure hunt). Otherwise it's only there to nag you; this way it has some positive opportunity associated with it as well.
OP here - thanks for the likes and replies! This seems to be a great community; I hope it stays this way even after the game leaves beta. After some more thought, I do agree that a hybrid system would be best, where the subscription option is still there for those who want it, but the reward items could be bought for a nominal pizza fee for those who don't (and I do think that the prices I made up initially are probably a bit too high). I'd love to see them experiment with a system like this before the beta ends, as I would be willing to bet that it would get players like me to plunk down on some pizza if an irresistible reward item pops up, even though I'd never consider getting a subscription. (For the record, I also agree that the subscription should either be moved to a lifetime membership for a flat fee, or should at least be be changed to offer more value for people who already have more items than they know what to do with and aren't interested in the custom adventures - something like a significant discount on the figures, or a weekly subscribers-only PVP tournament and/or challenging PVE dungeon with a unique-but-not-OP reward.) Also, sorry to be a bit redundant with this thread - I hadn't noticed the one Pengw1n linked to when I posted this. I've just checked it out and support a lot of what was said, and I'd also like to thank shram86 for incorporating my idea into that thread!
