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Artifact - a Valve card game based on DotA

GrainWetski

Arcane
Joined
Oct 17, 2012
Messages
5,080
Having no chat seems to be the standard in card games for some reason.

I wish they'd give you tickets for "free". They can even put them behind a weekly quest or something, but there should be some way to get them besides money since the rewards for the modes requiring tickets are so pitiful.
 

cvv

Arcane
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Mar 30, 2013
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For years people were waiting for Valve to employ their fabulous riches and marvellous talents that have been just sitting there and rotting uselessly and create something stunning, novel and epic. Something with:

1) never-before seen production values
2) Dark Souls-level innovative mechanics
3) all at generous price/monetization, which would be especially appreciated in this age of widespread Ndrangheta grade racketeering

What they produced is a cheap looking card game with a monetization scheme even EA must be green with envy about.

To say it's a disappointment would be doing a criminal disservice to the word.

Gaben you greedy fat fucking prick, melt all your gold into a giant dildo and go fuck yourself with it.
 
Joined
Apr 3, 2013
Messages
2,071
Location
Siberia
Having no chat seems to be the standard in card games for some reason.

I wish they'd give you tickets for "free". They can even put them behind a weekly quest or something, but there should be some way to get them besides money since the rewards for the modes requiring tickets are so pitiful.

Hilariously the chat functionality is in the game already, was available during beta and there's a "show chat" button in options even.

As far as tickets are concerned I'm on the fence about the whole thing, it's fairly easy to get em, thanks to recycling and consistently going 3+ wins, but it sure sucks to suck (as I did initially), at least in MTGA you get a little something something for your trouble.

My problem is, shit's pointless and rather boring. Lack of variety is killer, out of 200 something cards only half is usable, rare heroes are way too powerful compared to common/uncommon ones and balance in general is pretty terrible.

Latest tournament had 90% of decks running Red as a primary color, so that tells you everything you need to know about state of constructed. In draft it's not much better either, for me it usually goes like this:

> Grab Axe/Bristle/LC (if available) or go Keefe so you have a good chance of instantly winning one lane just by virtue of having an OP red hero there, forcing your opponent to abandon it. Get some good red creeps if able, so it creates more pressure

> Grab Sorla (Debbie/BH can work too, due to their high basic damage) or even Prellex, grab lane wide buff(ers) like Oath, Disciple of Nevermore etc. and pressure one lane, forcing your opponent to contest it or abandon and go back to fighting your Red lane, which isn't much better for them.

> Grab Abbadon/Ench/Treant (the basic Green hero works okayish too, but all of the upgrades are a lot better) and stall out your opponent's strong lane (with best heroes/creep deployments) as much as you can. Grab inter-lane buffs and Selfish Clerics. Adding a couple of Satyr Duelists and Thunderhides is also an option, since in some cases people abandon their easy lane in order to save others and you have an opportunity to finish the game while they are stuck 5v4ing some place else.

> Get 3+ wins consistently only losing to decks with some lucky draws (both in-match and during the draft itself).

Haven't gone 2-2 or below once, since figuring out the current "meta". Never played against blue as a primary color in 5th win games either (even with Kalla).

So yeah.

:dead:
 

Atlantico

unida e indivisible
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Undisputed Queen of Faggotry Vatnik In My Safe Space
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Make the Codex Great Again!
Also the game forces the player to use the Steam Marketplace, the most
rating_prosper.png
interface I've seen anyone seriously offer.

Selling and buying is just no, hell no I'm not using that un-intuitive, ugly mess ever. Fuck you Steam and fuck your fatass tasteless overlord.

:abyssgazer:
 

Dawkinsfan69

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck Bethestard
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inside ur mom ᕦ( ▀̿ Ĺ̯ ▀̿ )ᕤ
What they produced is a cheap looking card game

This is what's turning me off the most I think. One of my favorite aspects of card games is the aesthetic and 'lore' but the card art in this game is so bland and there's literally no lore whatsoever.

Also, of all the valve games they could have based the game on, dota is the lamest. They could have made a game based on half life, counter strike, portal, etc.. They could have purchased rights to warhammer and done something with that.. But no they choose the most bland game and base it off of that.

Especially for me, since I used to play dota, having a connection to that shitstorm is horrible. Even though it isn't present in the card game, whenever I see artifact I'm immediately associating it with kid screaming into mics, ragequitters, peruvian assholes, super boring 1 hr long games, etc ugh
 

cvv

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This is what's turning me off the most I think. One of my favorite aspects of card games is the aesthetic and 'lore'

Yep, played Hearthstone for a few months but the wart-ass ugly mobile graphics never stopped annoying me. Played ESL for a while - the art is great but the mechanics didn't hook me. Same for Gwent - by far the best, most luxurious art but the mechanics are just meh.

The gameplay of Artifact looks interesting but the bland, beige, cheap aesthetics of Artifact would be shocking even for some poor Eastern Yuro indie. Valve is one of the most disgustingly rich developers in history, come fucking on Gaben, you greedy prick.
 

Jenkem

その目、だれの目?
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An oasis of love and friendship.
Make the Codex Great Again! Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. I helped put crap in Monomyth
What they produced is a cheap looking card game

This is what's turning me off the most I think. One of my favorite aspects of card games is the aesthetic and 'lore' but the card art in this game is so bland and there's literally no lore whatsoever.

Also, of all the valve games they could have based the game on, dota is the lamest. They could have made a game based on half life, counter strike, portal, etc.. They could have purchased rights to warhammer and done something with that.. But no they choose the most bland game and base it off of that.

Especially for me, since I used to play dota, having a connection to that shitstorm is horrible. Even though it isn't present in the card game, whenever I see artifact I'm immediately associating it with kid screaming into mics, ragequitters, peruvian assholes, super boring 1 hr long games, etc ugh

Yeah I'm sure there would be less ire and outrage generated if they made a a fucking HALF LIFE card game.. :roll:
 

cvv

Arcane
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Most of the ire and rage is due to the monetization, aspergers rarely care about aesthetics or lore. They perceive only numbers.
 

sebas

Scholar
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Joined
Dec 20, 2015
Messages
282
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut
Games are way too long. Can you imagine how ridiculous it's going to get with the expected power creep?
 

Cromwell

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2013
Messages
5,443
Most of the ire and rage is due to the monetization, aspergers rarely care about aesthetics or lore. They perceive only numbers.

Can I get a breakdown how valve monetiozed this?
 

Dawkinsfan69

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck Bethestard
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Game costs $20 up front then you can buy packs of like 10 cards for $2 or something and cards can be sold on steam market or traded in for event tickets for draft mode and such..

tbh this game's cheaper than other popular card games but people are mad because there's no f2p path like daily quests that reward cards etc..
 

agentorange

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Codex 2012
I know its a tired question by now- but what the fuck happened to valve? How do you go from creating the most interesting fiction and industry-dominating gameplay to fucking around with numbered picture-cards.
Short answer is they found a way to make money from nothing, which killed their creative drive. Why bother taking a chance on something new when you can continue to use your money printing machines (CSGO, Dota2, TF2, and their assorted marketplaces, not to mention the steam store itself.) Saddest part of this Artifact bullshit is seeing Valve go from a trend setter to a follower, since despite subjective opinions on CSGO, Dota2, TF2 they were pretty much the gold standard for their respective genres, whereas Artifact looks like it could be another Chinese knockoff of Hearthstone or any other mobile card game. The illustrations for the cards are so banal that I wouldn't be surprised if they were all outsourced to China or India or something.
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

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Joined
Aug 20, 2017
Messages
4,092
What a fucking dogshit game. They launched this at the worst time too, because card games are on their way out. Hearthstone in particular is bleeding players, and now they think they can get people in on a PC only card game where you have to pay 20€ for the game and then another 100€ to get all the good cards. This is the first game that Valve launched in 6 years and it got only a peak of 60k players. That is fucking PATHETIC for modern PC gaming.
 
Joined
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Location
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What a fucking dogshit game. They launched this at the worst time too, because card games are on their way out. Hearthstone in particular is bleeding players, and now they think they can get people in on a PC only card game where you have to pay 20€ for the game and then another 100€ to get all the good cards. This is the first game that Valve launched in 6 years and it got only a peak of 60k players. That is fucking PATHETIC for modern PC gaming.

Lost a good chunk of players the very next day too, all the way down to 47k.
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

Self-Ejected
Joined
Aug 20, 2017
Messages
4,092
Lost a good chunk of players the very next day too, all the way down to 47k.
I know, it's fucking pathetic is what it is. Kingdom Come Deliverance was a game that had only word of mouth marketing and zero marketing budget and that game got a peak of 95k. I wouldn't be surprised if Artifact has a total daily peak of under 15k by next month. They couldn't even revive this fucking thing by making it F2P since the stagnating and declining market for card games is already invested into something else or is already playing Artifact.
 

cvv

Arcane
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Artifact has an all-time peak of 60k players. 30k players right nao. Is that an insane flop or what? For a CARD game of this stature, from this developer, on this platform?
 

Jaedar

Arcane
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Aug 5, 2009
Messages
9,838
Project: Eternity Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pathfinder: Kingmaker
Artifact has an all-time peak of 60k players. 30k players right nao. Is that an insane flop or what? For a CARD game of this stature, from this developer, on this platform?
The sad thing is that it was easy to see coming. Doubt there is a lot of synergy between ccg and dota players, and it's not like the dota lore is worthwhile either...
The ccg market is also very saturated, with HS, MTG:Arena, and dozens if not hundreds smaller games. I guess the good news for valve is that the game was likely cheap to produce, only thing with high production values seems to be the special effects. 60k is probably a pretty good achievement given the circumstances.

How far the mighty have fallen.
 
Joined
Apr 3, 2013
Messages
2,071
Location
Siberia
It's just puzzling why the game was made in the first place, it's not like they are strapped for cash, their dotes/csgo revenue probably makes up like 0.5% (if that) of all of their profits anyway.

Mechanically it has some nice ideas but all of them are buried under layers of RNG and it's missing some of the very basic features any game should have. It just feels unfinished if not rushed, which makes it even weirder since they should have all the fucking time and finances in the world.
 

v1rus

Arcane
Joined
Jul 14, 2008
Messages
2,253
As many of you have stated, the worst thing is anyone could see this coming.

HS is totally dominating the market, MTG:A is catching up, Gwent, Duelyst and dozen other smaller games are doing fine, and they all share fremium model. There is just no fucking way Artifact ever compete with them with p2p model. I seriously dont know how could they not see the failure coming.

While I was never particularly interested in Artifact, I'm sad to see it failing - a serious competitor would make Blizzard step up their game, since Hearthstone has been in steady decline for a while now. Dont mistake this for a death tho, its much like it was with wow. Sure, the sales could be declining, but that game aint going anywhere.

At least MTG:A is fucking great, I just hope its going to survive, because its freemium model seems way too fucking generous. Third time is the charm, God willing.
 

Pope Amole II

Nerd Commando Game Studios
Developer
Joined
Mar 1, 2012
Messages
2,052
Another nice casual deck under $5 - Revtel Jihad. Used to win against an Axe & Tinker guy today and it's very sweet to win against those $20 fuckers with the $0.04 shitty Rix.
 

Frusciante

Cipher
Joined
Aug 24, 2012
Messages
716
Project: Eternity
I mean Codex loves a good flop of a game developed by one of the big companies.

Personally I really enjoy a good card game and this is one of the best I have played in years. Yes it is slower than hearthstone but also much more tactical/strategic and more complicated. Which is fun for me.

I don't own Valve shares so I don't care about the peak player count etc. But maybe you all own Valve shares so then I understand the buthurt.
 

Cromwell

Arcane
Joined
Feb 16, 2013
Messages
5,443
Can I get a breakdown how valve monetiozed this?

Forgive me, in my naively I assumed theres a System behind the Game where you can grind cards. So after reading up about it I was told I have to pay for all the cards. Is this correct? Wouldnt that mean I never have the chance to get a lucky drop out of a pack and if valve decides to bring in new op cards I would have to by them for 30 dollars or more?

So they expect me to give them 20 dollars for the privilege to give them even more money? Here I thought Arcanas in dota where greedy. Fuck them and their game.
 

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