Artifact's Biggest Problem - G and R aren't fun
I've seen a lot of people talk about how the biggest issues with Artifact, the reason so many people aren't continuing to play, is because of things like a lack of progression or a general lack of features. I don't think this is the case. I think the biggest reason that so many people aren't coming back is because 2 of the 4 colors simply aren't fun to play as.
According to ArtifactFire, 14 out of the 30 red spell cards to nothing but modify numbers for heroes. For green it's 11/27. That's almost half of all red cards and over a third of all green cards. That's way, way too many. In a game where you don't have a consistent way to choose who attacks who you can't have so many of the cards do nothing but modify numbers or it starts to feel boring. Contrast that to Hearthstone or MTG:A, where the vast majority of cards have their own unique effects, it's easy to see why people aren't sticking with Artifact. I understand the idea of Artifact was to have it play out like a MOBA where heroes grow in strength, but it's fun in DOTA because you control your hero. You decide where they go, who you attack, and when you switch lanes. Leaving those kind of decisions to chance isn't fun, and in my opinion it's bad game design. What do you guys think? Do you think having so few cards with unique effects in 2 of the 4 colors is a big deal? Does anyone else find it boring? Does anyone else feel like the attacking RNG is boring? Not necessarily unfair or frustrating, but boring?
Posted Dec 16, 2018, 11:55 PM UTC