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OK, just trying to think out loud and do a bit of analysis about the new prize structure.

First of all, I think the value of cube tickets is firmly pegged at 0.6 of a normal ticket, as the only use for them is for 10 of them to replace 6 normal tickets when entering cube events. You can't trade them, so their value cannot float based on supply/demand.

A single-elim Cube Draft pays out 3 boosters and 40 cube tickets. Those 40 cube tickets are worth $24, which is equivalent to only 6 packs. So we can think of this as a draft that pays out 9 boosters.

So, remind me if I remember incorrectly, but didn't we used to have cube drafts that paid out 11 or 12 packs and cost 7 tickets? I remember because I thought of them as paying $6 for an average of 1.5 prize packs per player (which is OK), plus $1 for the fun.

Now we have cube drafts that only pay out the equivalent of 9 boosters, and cost an extra ticket entry. Unless I'm missing something, this looks like a massive reduction in prize support.

The swiss cube drafts pay out 54 (16-8-8-8-4-4-4-2) cube tickets, which is equivalent to 32.4 normal tickets, or just over 8 packs. Again, terrible.

So, Wizards_Sean, you asked us to tell us what we think of the new prize structure. I think it stinks. I'm insulted. I feel like everything that people have said regarding their wishes for prize support in cube has been ignored or dismissed. I feel like WotC has intentionally obfuscated the prize structure to attempt some sort of trickery, and were hoping we wouldn't notice.

I definitely agree with the sentiments above about the new prize structure being terrible, but I have a slightly different problem with it.

The problem previously was that the packs that were being paid out would be reasonably valuable at first, but then tank in value as the market got flooded with the packs.

This "solution" that is being implemented now solves the latter part (the value won't change) while creating a NEW problem with the initial value (basically the prizes start out at a terrible value instead of trending to that point over time).

I actually don't have a huge problem with Cube online not being a very "profitable" endeavour, but the problem I have is that you literally make the hopes for "going infinite" nil. It's clearly not in WotC's best interests to have TOO many people able to go infinite, lest they stop making money, but it IS in their interests to have it at least be possible, so people will play in the hopes of achieving it (despite it not being very statistically likely).

In the Swiss queue, the best you can get is 16 cube tix. What does that actually get you? Well... it lets you enter another Cube draft if you're willing to invest 2 regular tix, then you have a non-divisible 6 cube tix leftover. If you combine a 3-0 and a 1-2 performance or a 2-1 with an 0-3 performance, you can combine to get multiples of 10, but that's still kind of terrible, even ignoring that you still have to pay actual tradeable tickets to enter ANY of these.

In the single-elimination queue, you will PROBABLY be able to recoup the next draft from 1st or 2nd, but those will still depend on the market value of the packs. Most likely, the packs will still get devalued enough (if they're even valuable enough to begin with) that 2nd place won't be able to draft again.

Also, by mixing the entry between the 2 types of tickets and making the cube tix not tradeable, you make it so that if someone has <10 cube tix, they just can't do anything with them at all. Maybe that will encourage some people to draft more with regular tix to try to fill out their cube tix, but I think it's just going to be a net negative for user experience.

My suggestion to fix this: make the alternate entry method all cube tix (and have 1st place of each draft have enough to pay that, but 2nd place is under that amount) or scale the cube tix so that you have something like 3 cube tix substitutes for 2 regular tix in cube entry. 

Cube? Who cares, we have Mirage and Tempest block draft queues! And, for 14 tickets instead of 15.

This link should work better: www.wizards.com/Magic/Magazine/Article.a...

Fixed my original link. Sorry about that!

 

Sep 25, 2012 -- 5:58PM, MTGKaioshin wrote:

Yeah....I'd love to hear the reasoning behind cube tickets not being tradable.  That just seems pretty stupid to me (or smart, depending on how you want to frame it).  WotC likely has the data to determine how many cube tickets will be "stranded" in accounts, so they are probably going to be pulling in more profit than we could predict from this.

Again, I'm also not saying these events need to have awesome prizes or anything.  You could see the prize as just being able to play the cube on MTGO.  However, untradability just seems....stupid.  I'd love to be swayed by a well thought out reason, though.

They gave their reasoning in the article (not being tradeable keeps the market from flooding, so the "value" of the cube tickets stays the same). I don't agree with the reasoning or think it's a good idea, but they said why they thought it was a good idea.