We have prepared our changes to the current reward system and invite you to become participants in our research. You will have the opportunity to evaluate the effectiveness of our idea. Perhaps together we can change the economy of the game, or vice versa, the results of our experiment could confirm the effectiveness of the current monetization system.
VIDEO VERSION
Hearthstone is an important source of income for Blizzard. We respect that. But on the other hand, a crisis has ripened in the economy of the game. According to the results of our survey, only 2 percent of players are completely satisfied with the game economy and don't want any changes. More than half of players are convinced that change is necessary.
Our main goal is to try to offer a system that will not only allow Blizzard to maintain a high profit, but possibly even increase it, while also making the game economy more loyal to players. This would expand the audience of the game and allow completing a collection of cards for free. Subsequently, developers will gain the respect that they deserve.
As you know, we constantly monitor the number of rewards players recieve. Under the current economy during the 4 months between expansions, players have had the opportunity to receive rewards equivalent to approximately 110 packs (sometimes this amount is more, sometimes less). We propose to increase the number of free resources by almost two times, to 200 packs (as you know, you need to purchase approximately 250 packs to get the entire card collection). In addition, we propose introducing a generous reward for a complete collection.
CHANGES
Let's start with the our changes to the quest system. A daily quest should most often award you a pack from the current expansion.Sometimes you will be able to get a classic pack or 80 gold as a reward for completing a quest with a friend. If you refresh the quest you are guaranteed to receive a random quest for 60 gold, or in very rare cases, 100 gold. Thus, you can always choose between a current pack and a smaller amount of gold.
We also want to increase rewards for ranked play. If you manage to reach the tenth rank, you will receive an additional 3 packs. For the fifth rank you will receive 5 packs. If you have reached the legend rank you will receive 10 packs.
In addition, we propose to create weekly special quests with tasks that you can perform in solo mode. As a reward, you will also receive the current card pack. Events should occur every month, as a reward you will receive packs from past expansions and cards. Within 4 months, the reward will be equivalent to 40 old packs.
Thus, you will receive a reward that is equivalent to a minimum of 200 packs if you took part in all events, made 6 victories per day and reached rank 5 each month for 4 months. Most players spend much less time in the game.In this case, if you achieve 3 wins per day and also reach rank 10, your reward will be equivalent to 180 packs.And finally, if you managed to achieve the legend rank every month and won 9 times a day, you will earn at least 230 packs.
In other words, in the long run, players will have all the cards from past sets, regardless of whether they spent money or not. Creating a deck will be easier, and players will be able to use more classes and strategies. Moreover, players will not have to get rid of cards after rotation, since they will have enough resources. In turn, this will allow players to play in wild mode.
Another very important innovation is a special award for the full collection of cards for every new expansion. We offer a very valuable reward. First of all, you will get a golden pack. Secondly, you will receive a special set of golden cards from the current expansion. Let's look at this with the example of Descent of Dragons.
You will get 5 golden legendary Galakrond cards as well as 2 golden copies of Devoted Maniac and Shield of Galakrond. These will be promotional cards that you cannot disenchant. If you already had these golden copies, they will be automatically disenchanted from your collection for the full cost of crafting. And the main reward. A special new golden legendary card that will not affect the balance of the game, but will give a lot of fun to the players. It could be a card that looks like Whizbang the Wonderful or Elite Tauren Chieftain. Maybe it could be a card that will make your deck into random legendary cards. Why not? We are convinced that the developers and the community have a lot of interesting ideas.
The main source of income for Blizzard is still pre-orders. We suggest keeping the current pricing system for the bundles that were introduced in Descent of Dragons. 60 packs and a golden legendary card for $ 50; and 100 packs and a golden legendary card for $ 80. But in addition, we decided to add a new bundle. We called it the "Thank You" Bundle. In other words, by making this purchase you say thanks to the developers. The money received for the purchase will be spent on improving the game, experimenting with modes and new features. For just $ 10 you get 20 packs. This is a great opportunity for Free-2-play players to support developers.
Unfortunately, pre-orders are still too expensive. We tried to find a way to reduce the cost of packs, but this, in turn, inevitably entails a significant reduction in company revenue. Blizzard has created an ingenious monetization system that allows them to get the maximum possible profit. The company will definitely not give up on this approach.
DISADVANTAGE
Here are a few words about the main disadvantage of this system. About a third of players use a rational strategy for collecting resources. They collect gold for 3 to 4 months. This approach allows you to significantly save money and get the maximum possible number of new packs for free on the release day of a new expansion.
The main source of gold is daily quests. In our system, quests will almost always offer you a pack of cards as a reward. You can always update your daily quest
and choose gold instead of the pack, but it will not be as profitable. Thus, collecting resources over the course of 4 months will be a meaningless exercise, since all players are guaranteed to receive much more cards after the expansion release. They will only need to wait a bit.
We understand that our concept is not perfect, but at the same time, we believe, it solves many problems.
THE MAIN QUESTION
Dear friends, here is the main question. If this monetization system appears in Hearthstone, will you have a desire to regularly pre-order? And how much money will you be willing to spend? Are you ready to thank the developers for their hard work and generosity? Please, think carefully and be honest with everything.
We created a Youtube poll. Just open this video on Youtube, find the "i" button on the screen and vote. Also share your opinions in the comments.
