Arena locking before rotation only punishes the arena players

Every time there's a rotation in arena, the arena gets locked down way in advance. Presumably to prevent people from 'abusing' the compensation mechanism.

I have a pretty good run going, currently at 8/1. I want to keep playing, but it might be that afterwards the arena will be locked and I won't get the free ticket/pack. I feel that I am unjustly punished for actually playing arena.

People who play no arena can leave a run open for several days, they don't care. Still they get their free ticket+pack. This compensation mechanism is rigged towards the abusers.

You can:

• Play until 2 losses and then stop and get a free ticket
• Play until you have 12 wins or 3 losses

You have exactly the same choices as the other players. No one is punished in any way.

Quote From Alfi

You can:

• Play until 2 losses and then stop and get a free ticket
• Play until you have 12 wins or 3 losses

You have exactly the same choices as the other players. No one is punished in any way.

These choices don't have the same impact on these two groups. That's like closing one road and telling everyone they can use 'other roads'. This will, of course, impact the users who would normally use this closed road. Even though everyone has the same options: 'other roads'.

Quote From sinti

It is not to stop ppl from abusing the compensation mechanism. It is to let ppl who want to play out their runs play them out.

I'm not sure how closing the arena helps people to play out their arena runs. You can also play out your run if there is no lockdown.

Quote From Freek

Quote From Alfi

You can:

• Play until 2 losses and then stop and get a free ticket
• Play until you have 12 wins or 3 losses

You have exactly the same choices as the other players. No one is punished in any way.

These choices don't have the same impact on these two groups. That's like closing one road and telling everyone they can use 'other roads'. This will, of course, impact the users who would normally use this closed road. Even though everyone has the same options: 'other roads'.

 

No, you are wrong. It is easy: 

• You want a free ticket? => stop playing at two losses
• You want to try your luck? => continue to play after two losses.

Your problem is, why there you cannot start a new arena run 6-8 hours before the change. The answer is: this is a decision to help players finish their run. 

You want to finish your run and have an unfinished run at once, which is not possible.

If you want to keep playing, keep playing.

If you want to secure the free run, you stop (for few hours, which should be no big deal for anybody. Hint: it's just a game, not a grinding activity).

If you want both, you are being greedy.

It's not that I'm greedy, I just like equal treatment. I actually think it would be better if the expired run did not give a card pack as part of the arena reward, the compensation is a bit excessive tbh.

let me get this straight, you are upset because you enjoy playing a lot of arena, and when they lock it like this it means that you cannot play the format you enjoy, while other people who like to play constructed can still play the format they enjoy, but you cant. I am getting this right? so then would you would be happier if constructed was also locked for 6-8 hours before a patch, would this be better?

Quote From Freek

It's not that I'm greedy, I just like equal treatment. I actually think it would be better if the expired run did not give a card pack as part of the arena reward, the compensation is a bit excessive tbh.

But you have equal treatment. Everybody has the same treatment.

The problem is you want un-equal treatment, a special treatment for you. 

It never fails. Anytime Blizzard gives away free stuff in any amount, in any context, someone finds a way to actually complain about it.

You call them on it, and they cook up the weirdest, most convoluted reasoning for their nonsensical position.

The only thing in this post that I'd agree with is that preventing new runs from starting 6-8 hours prior to a rotation is excessive.  Maybe 1-2 hours prior is enough.

To look at both sides though, what if someone is playing an Arena run right up to rotation and they are on pace for their first ever 12-0 finish?  Then before they can get there the rotation happens, their run expires and they are forced to start over before hitting that 12-0?  That wouldn't feel very good either.

So what this discussion boils down to is there is no clear cut way to make everyone happy.  The way things are now don't seem to bother too many people as this is literally the first time I've ever heard a complaint about it, and as we know from the Internet people with complaints are typically very vocal about them.  Therefore, if it were upsetting a lot of people, the Arena lockouts would have as many forum posts about them as Big Priest does.

Geez, I did not expect this much resentment. One last attempt to summarize my standpoints, try not to burn them to the ground it's just my opinion.

• I think it's great they started interrupting runs, to prevent old drafts from sticking around.
• I think it's great that they are compensating people for their interrupted runs, the compensation is more than sufficient.
• I don't like how people 'trick' the system by making a new run just to get the free pack, but that's not the problem
• It sucks that they lock the arena for 6-8 hours before they (attempt to) upgrade the game.

Quote From Freek

• It sucks that they lock the arena for 6-8 hours before they (attempt to) upgrade the game.

 

The solution is to be aware of when updates are going to happen and plan your day accordingly. Get some fresh air or something. (What anime features an MMO where the protagonist decides the game should be unavailable on certain days of the week? I forget.)

Six to eight hours is not an unreasonable lockout period for you to work around, and it's certainly not a "punishment." This thread basically boils down to you saying, "I am impatient." You should not feel persecuted when people tell you, "Yes, you are indeed impatient."

Did you guys confuse the time the arena was out due to them fixing the lackey thing with a big lockout period? The big lockdown periods had happened in the past, but this time they were really short if there were any. I had a 6-2 arena I decided to roll the dice with because 7 win rewards are much better and I thought the deck was good enough for that, I messed it up because it was my first game of the day and while I was upset because it was only a bit over 3 hours until the update and I thought there would be a lockdown, I was able to buy a new arena. Then I thought I'd play until 2 losses, I ended up going 12-0 and I was still able to buy a new arena run about an hour before the update was scheduled. 

I don't know if that will continue to be the case when the new expansion hits and if they have to take more time to ensure everything is ok when they introduce more cards, but at least in this case it feels like people are complaining about how they think things are instead of how they actually are.

Yeah that was on Monday, according to my deck tracker time stamp it was 1 hour and 4 minutes before the expansion was supposed to hit.

Quote From FortyDust

It never fails. Anytime Blizzard gives away free stuff in any amount, in any context, someone finds a way to actually complain about it.

You call them on it, and they cook up the weirdest, most convoluted reasoning for their nonsensical position.

If I could post this all over the internet on every single blizzard reddit thread, forum, fan-site, etc. I would.  <