What I Played This Week (12/6/2020)
After a week off for Thanksgiving I’m back to write some thoughts about videogames. Most of my free time over the last couple weeks have been spent playing even more Yakuza Kiwami 2, which was the subject of my last post 2 weeks ago. I don’t have a specific topic to do a deep dive into for this week, so we’ll go back to the original format and give some thoughts about some of the games I’ve played.
Yakuza Kiwami 2: I think I’ve softened on my position from last post, I am still playing Kiwami 2 very differently than I played Yakuzas 0 and Kiwami 1. I have done way more side stories than I did in the last games, both because the map makes them more clear where new Side Stories are, there is also a menu that lists out all available side stories and what the next step is. If this menu was in the last 2 games I didn’t use, or even notice, it. I’m currently torn between trying to do everything possible in Yakuza and also really wanting to start Spider-Man: Miles Morales. At this point I’ll probably just keep doing most everything in Yakuza before moving on. I’ve already done most of the side stories, and the story feels like it’s approaching it’s conclusion. I really do want to start Miles Morales though.
Hearthstone: If you look at the Hearthstone Subreddit, which I don’t recommend anybody actually do, most of what you’ll see is people angrily posting about the changes to the progression system. While I think the reaction is overblown, I do think there are problems with the changes they’ve made. Some baseline numbers for some context: a pack of 5 cards costs 100 Gold, a ticket to the card drafting mode The Arena costs 150 gold. So, what was the old system like? There were a few ways to earn gold: Every 3 wins the regular Hearthstone modes earned 10 gold, daily quests granted 50-60 gold on average (with rarer 80 and 100 gold quests also possible), and if you’re good at it The Arena can also earn players gold depending on how well they do.
So what changed? Quests no longer grant gold, instead they grant experience points for a new battle pass system that grants rewards for every level. They have also removed the 10 gold reward after 3 wins entirely. Arena rewards didn’t change.
Most of the angry posts on Reddit are about the claim that less gold is earned, on average, between expansion releases. If those criticisms pan out to be true Blizzard should rethink the system especially after claiming that players would earn more than they used to before the changes were released. I do think there are problems that exist outside of the gold/expansion question. Removing the 10 Gold/win just feels bad. Removing this reward disincentivizes playing Standard and Wild a bit, and while earning Gold shouldn’t be the only reason for players to keep playing but removing the ability to earn Gold just by playing will probably make people play fewer games on average. I think it also makes another problem even worse; limiting rewards to only be earned when a new level is reached means that the time between rewards increases as the amount of experience for each level also increases. The case of a player wanting to buy something with Gold, but they’re 10 gold short means that player will need to get all the way to the next level that grants Gold, which might not even be their next level. Even if that level gives enough Gold for 2 (or more) items, that feeling of having to wait multiple days to finish multiple quests to be able to do the thing you want is a terrible experience. Most of these things can also be bought with real money, so making it harder/more annoying to get gold is making a lot of players think that the decision was changed just to get a few more players spend real money. Even if that isn’t true a well designed progression system should not leave players with a rotten taste in their mouth when they’re playing.
Not to just make this post another angry Reddit post, I want to say some things I like about the change. Achievements were added as a part of this update, and I think they are imperfect, but neat. Getting a little toast that says “you did something cool” is fun, having a place to go back and see all the stuff I’ve accomplished is also cool. I do wish they didn’t pop early, especially in Battlegrounds where the “win with X hero” achievements always pop before the final battle spoiling the outcome.
Weekly quests are great, they give a big chunk of XP and are fun goals to keep working towards. The only problem is every week since they were introduced I’ve finished them by Wednesday or Thursday which leaves the rest of the week feeling a bit less exciting since I don’t have any big quests to work towards.
Battlegrounds is still fun.