Why are we angry and what can be done about it? Open letter to developers:

Dear Sparkypants,

I am writing this letter as an answer to the reaction on the new client. To be honest, I was truly disappointed when the new client had been released. It just did not look the way I have imagined it. I felt so frustrated and I also considered to switch to another game. I really tried to like the new client, but I failed. Then I saw a video by one of my favourite creator Justin Larson (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMPOaAZOtcA) and it hit me hard. While I was watching it, I realized that there are people who I like and who invested many hours to create a great community around this game and bring new experience. Without people like Justin Larson, CVH and many, many others., I would be just playing the game. With them, I experienced it. I can listen, watch, read or even discuss the game publicly. Therefore, I consider as my duty to help them overcome this situation. I owe it to them and the whole community.

I am sure that you have already received many feedbacks, but I did not find any that would be complex, organized and united. I try to present all without emotions and factual as possible. Most of the feedback was just hatred or insults, which I found useless to work with.

Since I realized how much I love this game, I decided to write down all major feedback and mixed it with my personal experience and write it down to the open letter. First, I would like to mention major positives to motive you and I hope that will help you to find the right direction:

Main page – I really love the new look of the main page in game client. It is clear, intuitive and super easy to work with it. And moreover, it looks fantastic, animations are great, both amazing and eye-catching while not disturbing. Awesome.

Card design – New card design is also nice. Pictures are clearer, power and health are more noticeable, as well as creatures’ types.

Deck builder – The deck details page is super informative and clear, I have better overview of my decks.

Mulligan / choose effect animation – Its just beautiful, it is not another screen, it masterfully created. Clear color combinations, awesome animations and well arranged.

Graveyard list – Clear and easy, very user-friendly.

In-game shop – More intuitive.

Stability – the game is more stable, people experience less technical crushes etc.



Now, I would like to look at features that are ambiguous and contradictory. Those are pluses, which came at a price.



The game board – The new game board is more synoptic. However, it looks way smaller. It takes only small part of the whole screen. With the old board, I felt like I am fighting on the great battlefield, the new one is not that immersive.

The quest – It is nice to see quest on main page, but why I cannot interact with them here? (I mean to swap them)

Pack opening - Nice animations, but the background looks awful.

Colour theme – The universe background and blue/purple combinations may be neutral, but it has no soul. For me, it is very unpleasant design.

And finally, maybe the most important part are the weaknesses of the new client.

Soul – The old was a great experience, it had its own design and its own soul. I really felt like I am in the immersive battle. When I killed my opponent, I really felt satisfied and rewarded.

Animations in battle – the new animations are somewhat clunky and weird. They usually do not represent the real effect of the card. The best example is Ice Storm. It looks nice, but it doesn’t look like real ice storm.

Icons – Icons do not its borders, it doesn’t look nice.

Card layout – I miss the borders of the cards; the new card looks cheaper. Moreover, in battle, it is hard to tell the card colour. Cards with longer text are not very readable. Ongoings, shouts etc. are even less readable.

Technical issues – yeah, we all expected them, and we also accept them. Cards are loading slowly, animations are delayed or jammed, and sound do not really fit the effects.

This is a list of the major comments on the new client. I hope it will help you to improve the game we really love. Take as much information from this letter as you wish. We as the community want to co-operate with you to improve the game we love. Please, do not take this letter as an act of attack or aggression, I want to help back the community that gave me great experiences.

With the old client, we were heroes. This game is unique with is complexity and high skill cap. It has small proportions of randomness and its very unforgiving. The old design let us experience every battle as real as possible. All visual and sound effect were so real, and we all have been fighting for our lives. When you lose, it is your mistake. And when you win, you feel like hero. You are hero. Each of us feels like hero. And we want that feeling back.

I wish I could help you more, but this is all I can do from my position. I hope are reading this letter carefully and take as many information as you can to improve the game. Should anything in this letter be unclear or should you have any question, do not hesitate to contact me. I am looking for your answer. Thank you for your time.

On behalf of many of your supporters

StarRover

Disclaimer: I am not appointed or elected by community, I just feel I must step up and speak and I will be glad if you help me to extend this letter to help Sparkypants improve the game.