LogFAQs > #913427082

So if you lose twice your run ends. If you win 0,1, or 2 times you get nothing. 3 times gets you your ticket back, and 4 and 5 wins gets you packs.

So to summarize: by buying the game you could play constructed for free, constructed tournaments for free, and play the Call to Arms event for free to try cards you don't have. There was no way to play Phantom Draft for free, which was a highlight for lots of people

This meant there's three layers of monetization - you have to pay to buy the game, you have to pay for cards for constructed (through packs or the market), and you have to pay the $1 entry fee for Expert Constructed or Draft (the only way to play draft).

The community was outraged for a few days and didn't accept this. The monetization was way too much at every stage of the game. Having to continuously pay to keep playing draft was outrageous. The community became very toxic at this point (and was pretty toxic before this getting impatient for release and at how limited beta access was) You might recall in this very topic I posted about requesting a refund for my Artifact prepurchase because of this issue on posts #126 and 127 of this topic.

Well, Valve responded and gave a free casual Phantom draft to play. That means that once you buy the game you can play Phantom Draft forever with no entry cost. There's no reward in that mode, but you can play it. You can make a phantom draft tournament now as well, with a few other changes.

The community rejoiced. I prepurchased again. Everyone is happy. They took away one of the layers of monetization. entry tickets still exist if you want to play for rewards, but you can play as much constructed or draft as you want. You just have to pay to buy the game and then pay for packs/the market for constructed cards.

release happened, and the community is overally pretty happy. Everyone has the usual gripes you see in communities about "this card being OP" or "this feature should be added" but I would rate the Artifact community right now as VERY POSITIVE. The game is being very well received. I'm a bit confused by Reynad's tweet about Artifact being so toxic. It was VERY toxic pre release, but things have really improved. He released a video talking about how he doesn't like the game, so maybe he got hate for that, but that's gonna be true with any community, so if he made that tweet because of that then I don't know what to say.

The only backlash Artifact is still getting is from free to play type players. There are a lot of people who are very put off by the entry fee and the fact that there is no Free to Play type Gold mechanic. I understand that these players want to be able to play the game without spending anything at all, but.... I think that model is deceptive

Comparing it to Hearthstone:

If you want to spend $0 money, you can grind a ton and get a few decks that you want to play.
If you want to spend money, you can buy a ton of packs, get some of the stuff you want, then use the dust you got to get some of the other stuff you want, then grind to get the remaining stuff you want (or keep spending money)

In Artifact, you spend $20 to play, and then you spend exactly how much you want to get the cards you want.

I think at first glance, it makes Artifact seem more expensive. But to me, the cost in Hearthstone of getting the legendaries I wanted in both time and money was MUCH higher.
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