Artifact has been released not even 2 months ago and it already feels dead. I think that Valve made several mistakes that they should have foreseen prior to the release. Throughout these examples, I will compare Artifact to Hearthstone since Blizzard obviously got it right with their Card Game.
Of course, these 2 games aren't made for the same kind of audience, nor they have the same business model behind it. But that doesn't mean Artifact should ignore schemes that are working for the competitors in the same genre of games. I'll list just a couple of things I see as mistakes even though the game isn't out for too long, but feel like it should be different than it currently is.
No Incentive To Keep Playing
Well $20 for a game isn't that much and for that, you get a decent start with 10 packs and two basic decks and it is enough to initially experience a game. The problem is that you can't make any progress (get new cards) just by playing the game but only by dumping more cash into the game or by trading cards on the Steam market. There is also another way to get cards, The Keepers Draft. It's where you draft a deck of 60 cards and from that point onwards those are your cards and still, of course, you had to buy a ticket for that draft so it's the same (more or less) like buying cards directly. The good thing about the market for the player, but not that good for the game is that you can sell your cards if you got bored and spend that money on other Steam games which is awesome.
On the other hand, Hearthstone is free to download and easy to jump into. While doing a tutorial and practicing the first few matches with bots there is already a feeling of progress while unlocking classes that also come with their respective basic decks. Even after that with some time investment (playing the game) little by little gold accumulated by wins keeps the progress going and nets you a couple of cards here and there. And to get you to come back to the game each day a new Daily Quest appears that rewards more gold for more card packs. Although there is no market to sell your collection of cards, that by itself keeps the players invested in the game longer, not saying that this is a solution for a bigger player base, but it definitely helps the longevity of the game.
Bad RNG
This one is highly subjective but I think many would agree that there are really bad ways to implement RNG into the card game that already inherently has "Luck of the Draw". Don't get me wrong, a lot of the RNG in the game isn't bad, it gives more dynamic to the game and makes every game feel different.
The problem comes when there is the type of RNG that doesn't let the players to play around it or doesn't give them the opportunity to maximize the odds or manipulate them in any way. Another example of bad RNG is when one outcome is strictly worse than the other one in any given situation.
All of these examples except the Golden Ticket are basically coin flips that have the ability to swing the games around solely based on luck not only that but it is always going to frustrate the player on the bad side of the coin almost 100% of the time. In the case of Fog of War spell, there is a chance to spend 4 mana for zero effect or totally negate your opponent's side of the board, the same goes for Tidehunter's ability Ravage. Golden Ticket, on the other hand, can win you the game turn 1 by giving you Horn of the Alpha and make you pretty much unstoppable in the lane with a hero equipped with it. The one Card that they thankfully changed already was Cheating Death (basically your hero has a 50% to avoid death).
Not to say that Hearthstone doesn't have problematic RNG (Shaman...) but the game gives players a better opportunity to "set up" a situation to utilize those random moments. The coin flip ones are gimmicky and mostly bad cards that won't be considered in deck building.
In later expansion Blizzard discovered (pun intended) how randomness can be a part of skill and decision making while still preserving the random events to keep maintaining dynamic gameplay. Just by giving some kind of control to the player even if in the end it's just a random event gives a better sense of learning and improving in the game rather then just "oh I lost because of that coin flip" or whatever.
Ranking System
This is also a problem connected to the lack of incentive to play. The ranking system right now is meaningless. Yeah, there are ranks to climb, but it mostly represents the quantity rather than the quality of the games played and there is no reward to hunt while climbing. There is no reason to climb if you don't get anything out of it.
It's not that Hearthstone's ranking system is excellent the way you climb it, but at least at the end of a season you get rewards in form of cards and the top players get HCT points. Points qualify players for seasonal tournaments which grant spots at the Hearthstone World Championship.
That will be the end of my rent. There are probably more things I forgot to mention and yeah I know these things will most likely get fixed. The game is young there is plenty of work to be done just some things Valve decided don't make sense and it obviously hurts the game.
I just want to say, I think that Artifact is a great game, at least it can be, but currently it has too many issues and that reflects with the player base they are losing constantly.
What do you guys think? Let me know in the comments.
Thank you for reading!
, z3ll
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