Interesting. For my part, I was waiting before getting more into Artifact to see what they would do about the obvious balance issues (Axe being the most prominent one), and their recent announcement has me really happy. It turns out I just care so much more about a game *being a good game* than I do about the “physicality” of the cards or whatever.
I’ve long thought that the physicality of real card games is a downside and that digital games are hugely advantaged by their ability to patch, but that most of the digital game designers were failing to make use of the medium to the fullest by implementing balance patches, instead focusing on “showy” randomized effects and animations that can’t be done in paper. I’m really pleased to see that Artifact is going to take a more aggressive approach to balance issues.
It remains to be seen whether they’re going to go full blast on making lots of changes, and whether the changes they do make will be good going forward—while these changes were net positive by most accounts, even with the giant crater they left in the color green, they do suggest a trap I’ll be describing in my next post that I worry about.
Interesting. For my part, I was waiting before getting more into Artifact to see what they would do about the obvious balance issues (Axe being the most prominent one), and their recent announcement has me really happy. It turns out I just care so much more about a game *being a good game* than I do about the “physicality” of the cards or whatever.
I’ve long thought that the physicality of real card games is a downside and that digital games are hugely advantaged by their ability to patch, but that most of the digital game designers were failing to make use of the medium to the fullest by implementing balance patches, instead focusing on “showy” randomized effects and animations that can’t be done in paper. I’m really pleased to see that Artifact is going to take a more aggressive approach to balance issues.
It remains to be seen whether they’re going to go full blast on making lots of changes, and whether the changes they do make will be good going forward—while these changes were net positive by most accounts, even with the giant crater they left in the color green, they do suggest a trap I’ll be describing in my next post that I worry about.