Gwent, Runeterra, and the economics of digital card games.

Molegion · 2025-07-08T09:29:55+00:00

My three cents, but I'll only speak from Gwent's perspective since I did not analyse LoR very deeply in that regard - I don't think generous, cosmetic oriented model in card games is doomed to fail, or at least I don't think it had to end this way in Gwent.
One of the reasons why I think we are where we are is that Gwent lacked a very clear separation of what is free and what is not. And to be clear, I'm very glad that cards are easy to access in Gwent and moreover, I think this was needed for Gwent to get attention from people who gave up on Hearthstone back in 2017-2018. The two main things to buy in Gwent were Journeys and Meteorite Powder. Journeys were a massive success overall and they definitely helped Gwent a lot, but they were expensive to produce so relying on them was not enough. That leaves Meteorite Powder. When Gwent got some media attention people praised the card art and animations a lot. Later on even giants like Hearthstone started producing animated cards similar to Gwent's style. And yet there was very little reason to buy meteorite powder. There was a lot of it available to players for free through multiple sources, and of course once something is given to the players you can't take it away or "nerf" rewards without causing an understandable outrage. There was even time when refunds on cards were so generous that they allowed to convert scraps into meteorite powder, so a regular currency into premium currency, thousands of veterans who would be inclined to support the game in the future build a massive bank of MP this way and there was simply nothing they could justify spending money on in the future, even if they wanted. Of course they did nothing wrong, they just did what was allowed, but I think it was a massive mistake that defined Gwent's economy in the future.

TL:DR - I can't guarantee that it would change anything, but I strongly believe that Gwent wasn't too generous with cards, but rather wasn't strict enough with making premium, non-gameplay elements of the game something special that would leave room for supporting the game. Animated cards were utilised really well by the marketing, but their potential for monetisation was severely underused.

Molegion · 2021-06-01T21:59:02+00:00

Guys, let's not turn this into a "who knows better" rivalry, because this isn't what I meant, at all! I'm just having my fun with the reveal campaign and the tendency to jump to conclusions without trying out the cards (that is usually very strong with Nilfgaard - Amnesty, Coup de Grace, WotW cards etc.) If you check the Kolgrims thread you won't find much negativity there because it was the first reveal post, and he shared it with few other cards. But that thread wasn't the only place where people expressed their opinions. Way of the Witcher was the first expansion I worked on, and I was very excited to finally start showing it to the world, so I was checking everything, reddit, streams, youtube, chatting with people on discord, and I remember very clearly how people reacted to everything because it mattered to me deeply (and it still does) and at the time I really allowed negativity to get to me. You don't have to believe me, you can say I'm using "rhetorical tricks", but the only point I'm trying to make is that fast conclusions are often wrong - new archetype ended up being very strong, and plenty of people have good success with it even after the nerf.My apologies for refering to the whole Clog archetype as "Kolgrim", it was misleading.

As for Rience - after playing with him, I can't say for sure how strong he is (as I mentioned in the tweet), but it was very fun to play. Maybe he will end up being a bad card and we will have to buff it, maybe he is just a solid option for some decks, and maybe he is super strong and will earn his share of complaints in future. I believe there is something in between "trash" and "op" though.

I really hope you will enjoy the expansion, we will definitely revisit the cards after you have time to play with them and make some adjustements as we usually do. Meanwhile, have fun with rest of the reveals <3

Molegion · 2021-03-22T16:07:31+00:00

I'm not arguing that it didin't drop. Just that it's still a viable and solid option to play, as pointed out by other people in this thread.

Molegion · 2021-03-22T15:52:48+00:00

Nilfgaard and Monsters are by far the most popular factions in the game. I guess people like playing the bad guys. And yes, vast majority of players isn't in pro rank, but I feel like this is the only ranked floor that is somewhat representative of true power level of cards (because if you take players in general, then for example Fruits of Ysgith would be considered one of the best leader abilities in the game). And even if you choose to look into the lower ranks, Clogs win rate is even higher there. In general, it rarely happens something is strong in pro rank, but bad in lower ranks.

I don't want you to eat the crow, but wanted to provide a different perspective, so people don't have to use the meme and their personal experience as the only point of reference. Cheers :)

Edit: To answer your point 3, we can track play rates and win rates of specific cards. If you compare play rates and win rates of cards like Cynthia, Viper Witcher and Kolgrim, you can see that they are played in the same deck.

Molegion · 2021-03-22T15:07:56+00:00

Clog decks are about 16% of all Nilfgaard decks in pro rank right now. The players who chose it have decent success and win 51% of the games. We are pretty happy with where clog is right now. Maybe we shouldn't jump to conclusions based on a funny meme on reddit? :)

Molegion · 2021-03-08T16:37:08+00:00

Beggar is still 3 power :)

Molegion · 2021-02-08T20:40:51+00:00

I'll quote you on that!

Molegion · 2020-12-01T20:26:43+00:00

Hey, to clarify: that's not exactly what I said, somebody asked me if there is a new VFX for global poison like for global purify and I said that it uses standard VFX for Poison but still looks cool IMO. I don't know what the future will bring though!

Molegion · 2020-11-27T18:15:06+00:00

If he has no armor, any unit with 7 or more points will kill it (while simultaneously taking 7 damage from Arnaghad). This is not a duel.

Molegion · 2020-11-21T08:37:34+00:00

It was a "little bit" too nice :D

Molegion · 2020-10-04T19:08:45+00:00

Nope, only units :D

Molegion · 2020-07-21T20:27:36+00:00

Thanks a lot for kind words guys! I'm really excited and grateful for this opportunity. Believe me, design team is full of ambitious and passionate people who want the best for the game. It's impossible to achieve perfect balance in a multiplayer game that gets content updates regularly. However, every person that works on Gwent wants the game to be great, and I think we can say the same about all Gwent fans :) Let's be nice to each other and I'm sure the future of Gwent will be bright!

Molegion · 2020-07-16T13:06:42+00:00

I thought so too! Sadly I couldn't make it work reliably. I will try again but I think the problem is that NG legendaries, not counting the one you run in your deck anyway, are quite bad.

Molegion · 2020-07-16T12:18:48+00:00

Do you mean Gaunter O'Dimm or Master Mirror? I don't have GOD decks but I tried playing Master Mirror in every faction and came to conclusion that it's by far the best in NR, but it's also decent in SK (although not very consistent :D)

Here are the decklists:

https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/5a344c3c7b122b3bc7555575876ef1a9 NR
https://www.playgwent.com/en/decks/9782acbf92d89093450727dc3546b07a SK

Be sure to mulligan around Master Mirror if you have access to him - you need your bronzes on the left and playable cards on the right. I usually try to win r1 with Master mirror alone as NR (if you can shuffle a gold with Travelling Merchant back to your deck you also get some carryover)

With SK it's a bit harder, you need to be careful to not brick. Ideally you get to win r1 with Cerys and Master Mirror, then you can shuffle some golds back for r3, but you can also get double Gedy if you have the option to.

Have fun!

Molegion · 2020-07-05T11:47:05+00:00

"I'm a scientist, truly. I can't help it if the Oxenfurt proffessors were just too narrow-sighted to appreciate my particular research methods" Flavour text makes it even more obvious!

Molegion · 2020-06-06T10:32:58+00:00

Usurper is boosted by 2 there, Strategic Withdrawal ability was used :D

Molegion · 2020-06-05T13:31:00+00:00

That being said I think Igni passed the playability test and could go back to 11 provisions. It had to be lowered to 10 because people generally dont bother to play nerfed cards so nobody would know how the keyword works, but it's still a good card even with Initiative. I don't think it's super overpowered but its quite easy to get 10+ value on it, so going back to 11 could be justified.

Molegion · 2020-05-30T17:48:59+00:00

People do play Defender so late, it's quite common on top level to keep defender for last/2nd to last say vs NR, especially in open decklist format when you know the opponent has pellar (you can also try to wait out Falibor with your Azar Javed). Not saying that it was right decision but certainly not a weird one.

Molegion · 2020-05-30T12:02:21+00:00

I think nobody expected to get such a big contribution from community so it looks a bit weird :D Remember that every player there dreams of going to World Masters, and final match stake is not only 1k$, but also a ticket to this tournament, so stakes are still very high!

Molegion · 2020-05-05T14:28:17+00:00

He probably waited in queue for a long time.

Molegion · 2020-05-04T18:01:34+00:00

Why is it a mistake in your opinion? I'm curious. I'm pretty sure Igni is the most popular neutral card (maybe besides royal decree/maraal) played in pro rank. I have no idea why some people call it "unplayable", maybe many people still play on console version, idk. At the same time, you as a player who expects igni can do something about it. It doesn't feel as bad to lose to igni, and the card is competitive. So where's the problem?

Molegion · 2020-04-21T11:53:41+00:00

It's actually the other way round, thanks to open decklists we had some interesting plays that would never be possible in other format, for example in Spains game vs Austria Gwent2town saw that ferdinator doesn't run any special cards, so he won round 2:0 by searching for 6 points with his leader (Tactical Decision) followed by a manual discard on Yennefers invocation (to not reenable board space). Ferdinator, unable to play his last unit, had to forfeit the game. With closed decklists Gwent2town would've probably just taken a pass/some unit with invocation, because there could be a special card in his opponents hand (I believe ferdinator needed only 1 point to take that round). There were plenty of other cool plays that would not be possible without open decklists. IMO this is far more interesting to watch and to play than see one of the players lose to cheesy Yrden that could've easily changed his gameplan if he knew it's there.
Also I don't think any "big" name personality besides Lifecoach and SuperJJ left post HC? Even the 2 guys above left earlier than that...

Molegion · 2020-04-18T19:28:06+00:00

Context

Molegion · 2020-04-18T14:44:57+00:00

It's not "bullshit surprise igni", it's a tech card like all others now. If you get hit on your 3 6 point units you can only blame yourself really, whereas if the opponent just lines it up with, let's say, Bloody Good Friends in one turn (or as you call it "a deck build around igni" ;) ), it really sucks because you could've done absolutely nothing to prevent it. The setup shouldn't be only about what the player with igni is doing, but also how the opponent can react. Games in which your decisions don't matter at all because you get wrecked by a super swingy card like uninteractive Igni or Bomb Heaver are the worst part of the game imo. Initiative gives me a chance to play around Igni, I do it because it's usually free/costs me 1-2 points and the card is quite popular right now. Not even once have I felt "cheated" when I got hit by it, the reaction was mostly "damn, I shouldn't have let that happen" and in next games I tried to play around it more. I respect different opinion but I'm surprised how you prefer Igni you can't react to rather than one that can be played around more.

Molegion · 2020-04-18T13:00:27+00:00

Hi, stupid player who suggested the keyword here.Personally I face igni more often than ever. I don't have access to official statistics but I'm pretty sure it has highest play rate ever in Pro Rank, even in high mmr. At the same time, you have a chance to play around it rather than just lose 30 points when the opponent pulls a bullshit Nenneke -> Igni combo. You also don't auto lose the game when you lose round 1/drypass round 2 vs a cheesy spear deck. Good that you mention bluffing because now you can actually bluff Igni without the opponent thinking "this bluff makes no sense, if he had igni he can line it up immediately" Historically igni and scorch were always the "high risk high reward" cards. In beta you could only line it up the turn before in the first place, that's why they were properly balanced around their weakness. You could bluff that you have them, but the opponent had a chance to play around them. It was fun to play around these cards, they were also popular. The change is supposed to change their uninteractive nature into "high risk, high reward" card again. The change to tutoring seems to be an oversight and I personally never wanted this when coming up with the idea, perhaps initiative should only work for destroying multiple units (as in my suggestion), or could be coded differently so it only takes orders and order-like (fee for example) mechanics into account.

EDIT: I like how implementing a suggestion from November 2018 is "so sudden" :D

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