Banner and all additional screenshots are taken from inside my playthrough of Gods Unchained

The Battlepass: Good Idea, Bad Math

Greetings everyone and welcome to another GU post! This time we're going to talk about the battlepass in a constructively critical way, because not everything about it was/is the most well received. So we're going to talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly.

The Good: Gamifying the game, Fun Content |

The Battlepass brought a lot of people back just for the new cosmetics and BP quests and fun/content etc. alone. It increased the DAU, and streaming I saw a lot of people I hadn't seen in forever pop in and comment on the battlepass (good imo).

The Bad: Bad Reward Math

The rewards (in packs not in raw $gods emotes etc.) are as follows

• A shiney pack (200 dollar value)
• 5 premium packs (100 dollar value)
• Emotes and manawheels ( Player retained value)
• 19 regular packs other packs
  And numerous Battlepass packs aswell

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This totals hundreds in value is for only $40 dollars and your playtime.

Normally in a web2 game without secondary real money market (those with one have this happen also this this is not web3 unique) those who buy packs and the battlepass aren't at ends for the same loot chests and/or cosmetics. Mostly because the perceived value can't be seen outside of a closed system via market activity. However the pack buyer normally wants to gamble on the probabilities of "getting something worthy" but is mostly looking for the rush of opening the packs themselves. HOWEVER, in web3 especially (even outside of it) there are many who are trying to net or make back their investment without losing the entirety of the items gained. In a closed system this is never an issue since cards can never be sold, so this is a problem unique to games like GU. For better or worse. So in games like this you typically have a lot of the BP value in locked collectibles or "unique but not gamechanging" cards/cardart for said season. GU gave hundreds of dollars of value to people who want to make at a bare minimum Battlepass cost (35 dollars) plus anything beyond that and maybe keep something. This severely effects the floor price making many cards very low, depending on how desperate those buying it are to "net returns". In web3 many are desperate for any gains so they can use them to speculate and gamble in the space again, this isn't my case but is the case of many. Overall still a positive on the battlepass, it was fun and made grinding and trying to make other decks fun.

TLDR The math was just bad and was a "deal too good to be true, insane ROI" instead of "pretty worth since I'm playing anyway and has some aesthetics I like". The pass was fun tho, just shouldn't be an "ROI opportunity" for any warm body off the street.

Alternative Rewards/Structuring Ideas

Basically the dollar value of rewards shouldn't have massively exceeded the base cost (in interchangeable rewards) and there should've been more aesthetics, core set stuff, and less packs taken from the "paying for it" pool of cards. It could still be "value" just not "obscene ROI value even an unconscious person can behold". The battlepass is mostly directed at people who are already enthusiasts of the game and playing anyway, it shouldn't appeal to anyone off the street looking to make a profit.

The Quests: Decent, but Lacking

The quests were fun and a deckbuilding excercise, but more specific parameters would definitely spice it up. The current engine can't handle these suggestions but some of mine would be things like

• Playing specific tribes
• Defeating Particular Gods (if they aren't popular in ranked you'd try modes or reroll, by design)
• Using/interacting with particular abilities and keywords ie Killing Frontline Creatures, Breaking Protected, Discard cards with Wither etc.
• Lose units to spells/destroy units with spells and Lose units to blocking/ destroy units with blocking/attacking. This would mostly have people having to alter the way they play to complete this quest depending on which side of the coin they usually sit.
• More "Win without using this, or while using this" quests. ie "Win with war without the keyword "Blitz"" etc.

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Infinite Levels: Extending the Gamification

I think there should be "infinite levels" past 40 that give stardust and core packs just to have something to do and continue questing after hitting "the main target". It would be really cool to continue questing.

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Talking Tidbits: Closing Thoughts

It was honestly a blast to complete the BP, I know I will continue to buy the battlepass if it continues to improve as it comes out. Mostly to support the game and also for cosmetics and a fair reward for money spent (not egregious overproportioned gains that effect pack sales, but you know. Something reasonable). I've been having a lot of fun in GU. I'm not maintaining mythic these days and at most pop in but I got a bit burnt out on that grind and janking with cheap diamonds has been having it's charm and deckbuilding fun. I look forward to all this tournament talk that jammy has said to "revitalize competition" on the weekends. I look forward to the future of GU even though I can't put in as much time as I used to and what's ahead is uncertain, might as well have fun doing it.