Thoughts on the Expansion?

That motivation is purely internalized, save for bragging about it on the forums. Games need some token of recognition for them to have replayability within a defined structure -- like achievements. I assume when Card Hunter gets released on Steam it will have Achievement and Card support -- which will probably tie into Challenges and other interesting things to increase replayability. No idea when that will be coming out though.

Outside of achievements getting rewards for doing things within a specific framework is a thousand times more effective in getting people to do something. That's really what Card Hunter is heavily lacking.

 

I agreed with that in my post above yours, but does everything have to have outside rewards? Isn't Black Plume Mountain kinda more valuable as it exists, as a proud challenge, standing aloof and impregnable, daring you to brave its desperate final confrontation? If Blue Manchu paid players to play it, wouldn't that diminish its status and prestige? "It was there, so I fought it." vs. "I was lured by a 5x Legendary chest to do something I didn't really enjoy." It's very okay to have one hard thing in Card Hunger outside any special reward system, seems to me.

 

No, it wouldn't diminish it -- at least not to most people. People want rewards in the form of things they value or trophies. It is why so many games have Achievement systems in place over simply what they had before (nothing or just fan made challenges). For example, do you think people would play to 20 wins a day if there wasn't an Epic chest at the end? Probably not. That incentive gives people a reason to do it. Without an official reason behind it then it isn't as strong of a emotional trigger of accomplishment.

 

Again, I agreed with the general principle before you brought it up. There's no need to try to convince me about it. I question the necessity of needing to extraneously motivate players for this one particular battle. Why couldn't one of them stand alone? Besides, the battle already has the same quests as every other one.

I claim the emotional trigger of accomplishment is stronger when it was you yourself that made you fight the horrifying dragon and not some promise of extra reward. Getting some phat loot is always nice and motivating but sometimes a cigar being just a cigar makes it all the more enjoyable.

 

The emotional trigger of accomplishment is stronger when there's a reward behind it. It gets even stronger when there are random rewards (item drops) involved and "endowed progress" behind it as well (you're started already partially there). There's a lot of interesting psychological things going on behind the scenes in game design and marketing. Here's a short clip talking about the "endowed progress" and how it can apply to game design: http://traffic.libsyn.com/ludology/GameTek_Classic_57_-_Endowed_Progress.mp3

 

1. Different people are motivated by different things.
2. Never trust a psychologist.
Edit:
3. Ever.

 

It isn't a psychologist, it is a psychological study using the scientific method and peer review. I'd trust that. =)

 

You still continue to try to convince and educate me about it in general (totally unnecessary) without engaging my claim of it being detrimental in this particular case. The hardest boss in the game is not the same as every other battle. It has impact enough as is and I claim being unexceptional rewardwise enhances the emotional value in this case.

 

After a mth of testing the new content, I find the 6 new advs fairly linear and atypical of hack and slash table-top dnd/rpg progression. With the lower levels fairly easy and the lvl 18s challenging. Met my expectations for a small indie outfit. Wasn't surprised, so to speak.

As far as custom scenarios are concerned, the new cards and monsters are a welcome. I see some interesting design directions which would not make the usual adv progression tho. Given the quality of some builders, I wonder how difficult it would be to garner the builders into making the next expansion. Food for thought, maybe ?

Leagues feels like an attempt to put a spin on something that's alr fairly mainstream in existing pvp genres. And then finding out that it was a re-invention of the wheel before reworking the scoring as a mundane league would. On the plus side, it's a system that's designed to support a variety of possible formats, not unlike mtg's. This is where the crowd puller is and I expect big things here.

Overall, a solid expansion which managed to pull some of the old crowd back. On the other hand, it really also points to the fact that what players really want is more engaging sp/mp content. Something that many others (including myself) have pointed out repeatedly. What Blue Manchu sorely needs after 6mths past release is still manpower and finances and a publisher/reputable backer.

 

I'm a little disappointed with the fixed deck leagues. I was hoping for something more like the sealed deck leagues they used to have in MTGO. Open a bunch of cards and put together the best deck you can. Constructed leagues are fine, but I can't see myself paying for them as they are going to favor players who have all the good stuff. The great thing about sealed deck leagues is they leveled the playing field.

The single player aspect of the expansion was a little disappointing as well. It seems like it was more of a "mini" expansion. I was expecting an expansion to have a level cap increase and lots of new adventures to get you to the new cap. Not just a handful of treasure hunts. Hopefully we'll get a true expansion in the near future.

 

A 1 for 1 copy of the sealed draft format would likely make the game long. Its something that would be easily implemented in a standalone client. As it is, the fixed decks are akin to sanctioned limited formats which (imo) is already an interesting positive development. I'm not expecting a 1 for 1 copy of various mtg formats, but taking the formats and then adapting around a board system is VERY doable. I forsee more interesting formats coming thru either from player suggestions/feedback or in upcoming league rotations.

Keep in mind that its 19 boards, approximately 10 - 20 new monsters decklists, many new items and cards all from a two man team with a bunch of part time contractors.

 

A seal deck competition would be good, but it would require a lot of work. There'd have to be UI elements incorporated and a whole "secondary inventory system" to hold the league items. That's not even including the time it would take to test and come up with a decent balance. It could work, but it would be a lot of development time to perfect.

The new monsters are interesting for customized maps. I'd really love it if we could have access to making monsters with our own choice of custom decks, but I'm sure that would require some work to implement as well.

 

Soooo...

I finished playing Attack of the Artifacts a day or two ago. As I posted in the "Funniest Moments" thread, I found the final Troll Tryant battle hard. In contrast, I had a much easier time vs. The Elder Mind (lost, changed deck, won) and vs. Blizkenripper (lost, changed deck, lost, won). (Another contrast I wrote in Funniest Moments was taking down the AI expansion relatively easily.) Being unfamiliar with the Alabaster Dragon, I got one horrifying death when I used a double-buffed Sundering Strike and hit a hidden reflecting block, tearing through my own Reliable Mails and killing me. Wow. But fwiw, I was determined to beat it with my old 1/1/1 adventuring party and in the spirit of the role-playing experience, I put Riptides on my human warrior, Whorls on my dwarf wizard, and no Blackhammers on my priest. $E^ D

Also, I really liked the Puzzle battle. That was different. That was fun. $:^ ]

The #1 reason I'm posting my "review" though? This next point. I was gonna make this next point its own thread, but I decided to first look for an AotA feedback thread, and lo and behold. Anyway, my most favorite aspect of the entire expansion (at least in the adventures)? ~sigh~ We get to see why Gary looks up to Melvin. The Big M tossed in a little snark here and there, but through and through, we got to see him humbly correct himself about his "historical inaccuracy" complaints (even coining a lovely phrase, "re-imagining" stuff, along with Gary's wave-off with retconning, ah ha ha, BM, you silly wonderful people, you, lol) and show himself to be a fun Game Master, with nice, fun banter between the brothers (i.e. banter they each/both enjoyed as opposed to so much at-each-other's-expense). Thanks go to BM for letting us see a different side and all that. $:^ ] Good stuff.

(Playing served to remind me once again that it would be really nice to have the option to reset or temporarily toggle on/off the GM dialogs...)