I’m seriously pissed off and I’ll cry about it. But let’s try to see things with a cool head - I’ll even provide the suggestion in the end, so feel free to skip the rant.
I’m a casual f2p player (donate is not even available in my region, lol). Which means - I don’t have time, not do I have willingness to grind for gold 24/7. And I’m not the only one.
What did we have?
150 gold - the standard arena run until 12 wins or 3 loses. Yeah, I’m not a great Arena player, yet I still like drafting the deck and solving challenges that this format provided. In fact, it was my favourite game-mode.
Getting 150 gold - is relatively easy for a casual player. I could afford like 300-ish gold per week, which means 2-3, sometimes even 4 arena runs per week, if I get few good runs. But even with the average 4-5 wins I could enjoy the mode consistently - and these 0 wins runs were balanced by the occasional 9-10-11 wins runs. Bad weeks were balanced by good weeks. And so on. And even bad runs could get you some “cash-back”, which is a deal-breaker.
Important notice: many 5+ wins runs started with like 1-2, 2-2. The fact that run ends at 3 losses was a big deal, since it was optimal for balancing bad luck/bad plays/getting used to the deck.
What do we have now?
The Novice Arena:
Oh well. 150 gold - up to 2 loses and 5 wins.
- More stressful, no time to adapt;
- More dependent on luck;
- You draft a poor deck - you get gut punched by 0 rewards;
- You draft a good deck - you don’t get to savor it enough;
- Finish ANYTHING less, than a 5-win run - you are not compensated at all;
Underwhelming, isn’t it? Well, there is this 300 G new format Arena. Maybe it is more exciting?
The Underground Arena:
No. Get middle-fingered in every orifice you prefer to keep uninvaded.
300 gold for 12 win - 3 loss runs. Twice as much.
- Every opponent seems to have a better deck than you do. Which is most likely the skill issue. But you can’t even practice or do anything about it.
- Get 0-3’d, 1-3’d, 2-3’d all the time - and get like…3 packs on average? That’s it?
– Oh, nevermind. There is a GENEROUS cashback staring from 2 wins that is twice as less impactful as before. - You HAVE to play 5+ wins runs to get at least the 75G equivalent of the old format arena. Nuff said.
- So…you grind for a whole week to get a SINGLE arena run, which often gives no satisfaction, no joy and no rewards, as opposed to 2-4 runs per week before.
And even if I wanted to pay for the gold - even if the shop wasn’t banned in my region - I’d spend 900 G for like…6 packs and bunch of negative emotions? Wow. Just wow.
So, despite me liking the new format gameplay-wise, the economics aspect of this format is abysmal for f2p players. The underground Arena is a whale farm now. Thank you for the update.
As for the suggestion:
Just…give 2 Arena tickets for 0-3 runs, if the player didn’t concede in his 0-2 game. No packs needed. No dust needed. Nothing else. Just 2 tickets.
Please, Blizzard, let me play my favourite game mode. Let me learn the meta, let me get better, let me make mistakes and correct them as the f2p player. Even cheap gacha-games let players, well…play, until the hit the grind wall. You just obliterate f2p player’s face with this wall right at the gates.
Respectfully, f2p casual player with a banned shop, who just wants to have the deceptively simple, insanely fun experience.
Peace and stay hydrated.