A polite request to the Forum regarding Kiora

+1 Totally agree with all of the parent post

@Hibernum_JC: I'm really disappointed with this, and while I realize that the Hibernum team likely had no say in the pricing, the $50 pricetag for Kiora is above and beyond what you should ever expect a normal user to pay. Add to this the cost of a single (not very good) rare card for $10 and I have serious doubts about the overall marketing strategy of this game.

$50..maybe you think that because it's a package people should be happy to pay? Why not offer tiered packages at least? If you alienate all your moderate and non-payers and they all decide to quit the whales aren't going to continue to support a game with no userbase. The problem right now is that you have to spend whale money to compete and the people who only spend moderately get almost nothing for their money.

I'm not going to play this game if the only way to acquire cards is to either play 6 hours a day including weekends, or drain my kid's college fund.

You guys have yet to respond to a single pricing thread in the forums, but you need to start. If this is what we can expect for the future, I'd like to know now so I can quit while I can still compete against the rich oil tycoons who will be the only people left who can still afford to play.

Meto5000 wrote:

@Hibernum_JC: I'm really disappointed with this, and while I realize that the Hibernum team likely had no say in the pricing, the $50 pricetag for Kiora is above and beyond what you should ever expect a normal user to pay. Add to this the cost of a single (not very good) rare card for $10 and I have serious doubts about the overall marketing strategy of this game.

$50..maybe you think that because it's a package people should be happy to pay? Why not offer tiered packages at least? If you alienate all your moderate and non-payers and they all decide to quit the whales aren't going to continue to support a game with no userbase. The problem right now is that you have to spend whale money to compete and the people who only spend moderately get almost nothing for their money.

I'm not going to play this game if the only way to acquire cards is to either play 6 hours a day including weekends, or drain my kid's college fund.

You guys have yet to respond to a single pricing thread in the forums, but you need to start. If this is what we can expect for the future, I'd like to know now so I can quit while I can still compete against the rich oil tycoons who will be the only people left who can still afford to play.

There's two things I can answer here.

First off, Shrine of the Forsaken Gods was buffed - I made it much better than it was, so it's a better value now. The one you have on your site is out of date. It's now 5 mana for 3 every turn + activate 3 on the conditional. It's much. much better, and more in line with the dual lands in BFZ.

Second, my role here at Hibernum on MtGPQ is officially Senior Game Designer, and on MtGPQ I act as a data designer, which means I design and integrate cards and planeswalkers. As such, I'm not in a position to comment on any sort of pricing concerns you good folks have. I can escalate them to the powers that be, but keep in mind that my job is to make the game fun for you guys. (Sometimes it isn't perfect and we try to fix our mistakes on that!)

All this being said, Kiora is a fantastic addition to the game. The dual-colored nature of this Planeswalker is a game-changer, and specifically using blue and green she's incredibly strong. I tried to design her so that she would work well with only green, only blue or a mix of both.

Meto5000 wrote:

Hibernum_JC wrote:

Shrine of the Forsaken Gods was buffed

It might be buffed in the new update - but the update won't be live until Tuesday unfortunately, so as of right now, my version is still correct (I just checked in the app and I'm still seeing the "old" values)

Also, according to the patch notes only Aligned Hedron Network is listed for card changes. Are there other cards besides these two that are getting changes? I'd love to know in advance so I can update all cards accordingly when the patch hits.

There's a problem with the data in-game right now, and we're working to have a data push shortly to address the Shrine issue - it does not require a new client version.

Otherwise there are no other cards that are changing.

Meto5000 wrote:

Game related stuff!

Hibernum_JC wrote:

All this being said, Kiora is a fantastic addition to the game. The dual-colored nature of this Planeswalker is a game-changer, and specifically using blue and green she's incredibly strong. I tried to design her so that she would work well with only green, only blue or a mix of both.

I'm also excited for dual color Planeswalkers but am wondering about your intentions for their comparative power level vs existing Planeswalkers. The card pool you get to use for Dual Color Walkers is obviously much greater so it seems like she will simply outclass all other Walkers. Could you talk about some challenges you had to balance her or if Dual/Tri color walkers will be somewhat equivalent to an upgrade in power level over single color Walkers.

I have a nice big forum post coming up later today where I will detail some of that, and we'll discuss this in further detail for sure.

Overall, she has a tiny bit less mana gain (she's +3 to both of her main colors and 0 for all other 3) so she's a bit more specialized for her kit (also since she has access to green ramp she still can be very effective).

First, I agree with the OP. $50 is ridiculous.

However, I'd like to point out that we don't know how the crystal prices for planeswalkers will break down, and at least there's a way--winning crystals in QB--that we could conceivably get her for free. Eventually.

The MtGPQ team needs to seriously consider their actions. Making a mistake is one thing, but astronomically overpricing digital products of this nature is borderline lunacy.

What you are offering is not a comparably similar product to a physical MtG card of similar "rarity"/demand and should not be treated the same when determining a price point. Your product is not a trading card game. It is not Hearthstone. And you guys should be ashamed that anyone is letting gross oversight into what advertised prices are showing up as.

With the last release and recent "offers" only escalating in price, you guys are going to cause some irreparable damage to your brand. This is not a big box title where you think just because some players of the official MtG TCG are willing to shell out big bucks for individual cards, that you can tap into that same revenue stream... That is gross oversight. MtG card value is based on the tradable market that is driven by a system of play that MtGPQ is not built on. Entering into a macro transaction model for a game where you play against a sub-optimal AI is a completely different experience.

I was extremely hesitant to even shell out the $14 for the latest Gideon, but I did, justifying it by telling myself that I'm happy to pay a premium to show my support for continued development.

I wholeheartedly agree with the OP that no one should buy this card as it is a smack in the face to the mobile gaming community. It shows utter lack of value of the community that has supported, played and provided feedback on bugs, issues and accepted gouging (now beyond excessive) on all digital products, including the crystals.

If I were a new player and I was prompted with an opening "offer" for a Planeswalker and Fat Pack (which have gotten far worse rarity distributions in the last month) for ~$50+ dollars, I would laugh then promptly uninstall the game.

I uninstalled when i opened up 3 Big Boxes (42 packs) and got 8 rares and 1 mythic.
Looks like I made a good decision. RIP game.

+1 to original post. Bundling Kiora with all the other items that I don't want puts it at a price that is far too high for a game of this nature.

Hibernum_JC wrote:

Meto5000 wrote:

@Hibernum_JC: I'm really disappointed with this, and while I realize that the Hibernum team likely had no say in the pricing, the $50 pricetag for Kiora is above and beyond what you should ever expect a normal user to pay. Add to this the cost of a single (not very good) rare card for $10 and I have serious doubts about the overall marketing strategy of this game.

$50..maybe you think that because it's a package people should be happy to pay? Why not offer tiered packages at least? If you alienate all your moderate and non-payers and they all decide to quit the whales aren't going to continue to support a game with no userbase. The problem right now is that you have to spend whale money to compete and the people who only spend moderately get almost nothing for their money.

I'm not going to play this game if the only way to acquire cards is to either play 6 hours a day including weekends, or drain my kid's college fund.

You guys have yet to respond to a single pricing thread in the forums, but you need to start. If this is what we can expect for the future, I'd like to know now so I can quit while I can still compete against the rich oil tycoons who will be the only people left who can still afford to play.

There's two things I can answer here.

First off, Shrine of the Forsaken Gods was buffed - I made it much better than it was, so it's a better value now. The one you have on your site is out of date. It's now 5 mana for 3 every turn + activate 3 on the conditional. It's much. much better, and more in line with the dual lands in BFZ.

Second, my role here at Hibernum on MtGPQ is officially Senior Game Designer, and on MtGPQ I act as a data designer, which means I design and integrate cards and planeswalkers. As such, I'm not in a position to comment on any sort of pricing concerns you good folks have. I can escalate them to the powers that be, but keep in mind that my job is to make the game fun for you guys. (Sometimes it isn't perfect and we try to fix our mistakes on that!)

All this being said, Kiora is a fantastic addition to the game. The dual-colored nature of this Planeswalker is a game-changer, and specifically using blue and green she's incredibly strong. I tried to design her so that she would work well with only green, only blue or a mix of both.

I applaud your design work. Kiora looks powerful, fun, and flavorful. However, does it bother you at all that no one will be able to experience this thing you have created? As a musician, I would be frustrated if no one could hear the music I was making due to a technicality with the music label.