Community

Dec 27, 2012 -- 8:21AM, slipperyPete wrote:

270 posts in and no additional word from Wizards. Just here, we are doing this, deal with it.

I wouldn't expect a respons just yet, but our feedback in this thread is surely read by Wizards. Also don't forget we're in the holiday season and they probably want to see how these new queues perform first.

Since they haven't been firing at all, I expect some respons in a couple of weeks. Probably a change in entry/payout an/or the addition of a non-phantom 6-booster sealed. Also expect Dimir to have a milling theme and there's your real reason for the change.

From 10 am pacific on the 26th, when they opened the phantom sealeds, until 10 pm Pacific, 4 rtr phantom sealeds fired.

From what I've reat on pure mtgo, this forum and other places, 9 out of 10 people are very upset with the removal of the 4 pack sealeds.

I can understand Wizards removing them, they were the best return for us as players/collectors.  What upsets me is that Chris mentioned nothing about the 4 packed sealeds being the least profitable for Wizards, instead he wrote that it was a broken format and that the phantoms are successful.  

Chris, come clean about this terrible decision.  Talk about the real business decision, damn your title included business in it.  I have found that most magic players are above average intelligence.  By arbitrarily making this decision and removing the best value option for players while maintaining that monetary reasons were not considered, insults my and the rest of your paying customers' intelligence.

Its the holiday season, many people had extra time to play.  This decision dropped the 8 player sealed firing from something like 5 or 6 an hour to 4 every 12 hours.  72 vs 4.

Most of the feedback before the change was actually implemented told you that this was going to be the result, but you still implemented the change.

This is the first Christmas break, I didn't drive my family nuts wanting to play magic.  No leagues, no really nice "presents" to play like in other years, and 4 pack sealed is gone.  No phantom for me...I'll never win and 8 tickets for nothing isn't in my budget.  I might play some draft but my budget for magic is dropping while other online games increase.  I need leagues or something else that is less expensive while involving the excitement of opening packs to find that really good money card!

Worth, my Dad was a great salesman and always said sell the best and offer the best deal and the rest will take care of itself.  The best game is what you've got but not the best play or offers.  Make it the best in all three and its a win-win.  What you guys are doing isn't the best you can offer the players. We older players know that and don't like it.

Regarding the elimination of 4-Pack Sealed:

Firstly, let me say I am an avid limited player; I love drafting and sealed, and have a tremendous amount of respect for those at Wizard that work every day to bring such a challenging, diverse, well-designed product as Magic the Gathering.   However, I feel that it is entirely too common in this day and age for comapnies to use statistics to drive profitability to distance themselves from their customers by clearly ignoring their wishes, touting the line "the game isn't designed for this, so it doesn't work" rather than challenging themselves to deliver a version of the product that overcomes the obstacles they claim evident in the current iteration.

Furthermore, the problems with their assertions that: (1) "First, and most importantly, Magic R&D does not do any set development around four-booster Sealed." -- This is an issue inherent to any kind of change to any format of any type.  You could say the same about the entirety of limited, considering it wasn't until years after the product was realeased that this was an accepted format.  Instead of complaining that you don't design a product around a format, find a way to find a happy medium between what your customers want and a way to design the product.  (2) "Second, thirty-card decks are not a standard size and the client does not handle them well." -- This is the EXACT same arguement as (1) since the crux of the explaination is that a product WotC offers is unable to meet the demands of their customers through design flaws.

On the issue of profitability.  I am by no means a statistician, but I can use figures other people  develop and compare them: Assuming packs universally cost 4 tix, the total payout (without factoring in any cards received from the event) of a sealed 4-pack queue is 53.1% vs a payout of 42.8% for 8-4 and Swiss (and even lower in 4-3-2-2, which is another mockery, but I digress).  With these 2 numbers in mind, it makes WotC's efforts transparent: they are eliminating an event that is clearly more payout-friendly (a greater than 10% increase from the next-most-profitable event) and more customer-friendly (since it is a swiss event, you can play 3 rounds even if you don't win anything; however, if you do, you can still make tix on the event as a whole).  It is unfortunate when a company tries to make excuses that further exacerbate the negative PR rather then owning up to an explaination of "We simply can't make money on this; we're open to suggestions on how to find a way to cooperate"

Finally, WotC, please understand that your long term viability as a comapny rests on the faithful devotion you have had for your customers for so long.  Don't make this an exception and utilize the feedback that you see here on the boards to understand that 4-pack sealed may be a "broken" product, but it is still one that had many, many happy players now struggling to fill the void of an even they often played.  You may not bring it back like it once was, but please find a way to make your customers happy.