How to encourage collecting in Gods Unchained? | May 2024

Collecting, understood as the hobby of collecting, conserving and showing a certain type of good is nothing new (it is old as the world, I would say). And it certainly shouldn't surprise anyone that a player of a trading card game has the Willingness to collect Those letters, right? This behavior, which makes it possible for the player to adapt to the meta more easily, is positive for the game ecosystem because it has numerous benefits (increased demand for cards, variety in the game, players' sense of achievement, etc.) and tends to create a virtuous circle of revaluation. Supply and demand, you know.

I'm JFA, from GU Masters, and in this article I analyze the current situation of collecting in Gods Unchained and, above all, How it can be incentivized by the Immutable team. You may not share my personal perspective or all of my conclusions, but I have tried to conduct an honest and dispassionate analysis, applying rationality without losing sight of the psychological dimension that must always be taken into account. Will you join me?

Background

This table, dated March 2024, shows the number of Gods Unchained player wallets with cards from the various expansions available at the time, and details how many of them have those full expansions in the various existing rarities (column w/Set). Could we conclude that out of an estimated 15,000 active monthly players there is a small group that is collecting full expansions ? Perhaps there are 81 that we could consider devoted collectors (who are the ones who have the complete Core set)? Do you think they are many or few?

I would say that, a priori, it seems a low percentage in the context in which we move: a game of collectible cards. Not only that, but the value proposition of Gods Unchained is that it is a collectible card game in which its players benefit from owning their assets How is it possible that players are not interested in having more cards than they use (which seem not to be too many)? Is this positive for the gaming ecosystem? It certainly doesn't seem to be for the market value of your assets (including cards).

Can we deduce from the above that Gods Unchained needs to implement Additional incentives to encourage your players to want to collect Letters? This should result in an appreciation of existing cards and increased trading volume on the secondary market (with a consequent increase in commissions for the Gods Unchained team that result from those sales).

Diagnosis of the situation

The incentives that exist at the moment to collect cards are the following:

• Possibility of Play different domains and archetypes .
• Increase in the fragments obtained in the Play & Earn (P&E).
• Option to access Expansion Rewards , either random (giveaways, as part of Tides of Fate Mythic Variants) or guaranteed (such as Dread Awakening Collector Points Rewards).
• Personal satisfaction (feeling of achievement, aesthetic pleasure, prestige, etc.).

In view of the available data, it does not seem too risky to conclude that These incentives are insufficient :

• As for the possibility of varying in domains and archetypes, because it is not necessary to extract value of the game economy (at least as long as the current P&E system is maintained).
• In relation to the increase in fragments obtained in the P&E, today it does not make much sense to go beyond quality Meteorite (even more so when the useful life of the cards tends to be shortened due to the impact of the power-creep ).
• As for expansion rewards restricted to a Determined time frame , the problem is that once obtained, the intended effect is lost since players can put those cards on the market.
• And what about the aspect of pure personal satisfaction? It's there, no doubt, but it can Strengthened remarkably.

At this point, it seems essential to consider measures to redirect the situation. These measures include, at least, Enhance :

• The Use of multiple domains and archetypes .
• The will of the players of collect Letters.

Let's dive deeper in all this.

Options to consider to encourage collecting

In an ideal world, it would be possible to implement Milestone Rewards , such as those used in the early expansions of Gods Unchained. This system rewarded the fact of reaching certain collection percentages, as can be seen in the following table (source: "Collection titles – Genesis and beyond!" ):

Unfortunately, the implementation of such a system in the short term seems complicated for technical reasons. It is necessary, therefore, to look for alternatives and the truth is that A system that is easy for anyone to understand and simple to implement would be to compute complete expansions (a copy of each of the cards that make up a particular expansion) converting the cards Shiny to the "lowest common denominator" (i.e., if a player has a full expansion in quality Meteorite and a particular menu in quality Shadow , the letter Shadow would be computed as Meteorite ).

Obviously, there is no "magic wand" that encourages collecting and it will be essential that the Gods Unchained team adopts measures of a different nature . Based on the information we have, it seems that this is what we can expect and I believe that they should consider both one-off incentives (which promote short-term sales) and permanent incentives (which help the cards to retain value).

Right here are a few ideas that could be weighed, divided into Three major groups of incentives :

1. Of play.
2. Social/achievement-oriented.
3. Economic.

Without further ado, Let's get into the matter .

1. Gambling incentives

¿ What do I mean? with "gambling incentives"? Let's see it:

• Access to Game Modes (premium or not) where ownership of the cards is required , applying the highest reward scale to make them more attractive.
• Temporal challenges (such as specific game modes) that require the use of certain domains and/or cards, something that also helps to mitigate the effect of the power-creep .
• Tournaments , especially if these tournaments include restrictions on deck building.
• Etc.

While gambling incentives are important, we can – and should – go further .

2. Social and achievement-oriented incentives

There are many odds :

• Exclusive interactions with other collectors or with the Gods Unchained team (as has historically happened with the Mount Olympus Discord channel).
• Leaderboards (Which players stand out for their collectors?).
• Badges (think of the titles that remained active during the marketing of Genesis and Trial of the Gods) and others gamification elements private and public, such as cosmetic elements "Soul bound" (not NFTs).
• Etc.

3. Economic incentives

The Range of Choice It is also very broad:

• Apply multipliers in the calculation of fragments of the P&E system that give weight to factors that do not yet have it (such as the quality of the player's collection, not just their current deck in use). When activating P&E for all "Constructed" game formats, take this into consideration.
• Apply Multipliers in staking of $GODS.
• Hybrid $GODS and collection staking models , which could be funded by a percentage of pack sales (in line with what is already done to fund $GODS staking).
• Advantages for card acquisition, such as early access to the purchase of expansion packs, free expansion packs, discounts on expansion packs, etc.
• Access to Exclusive Rewards (cosmetic elements, etc.).

Last but not least, I would like to stress colon :

The High Quality Cards ( Shinies ) deserve special attention, as the Forge plays a key role in the economy of Gods Unchained. It is essential that they gain in importance, either through collector's rewards or others, which will probably have to be accompanied by other types of measures to increase their attractiveness (such as better aesthetics).

Ideally, in my opinion, the different incentive systems were interlinked to reward the most involved players . Gods Unchained is a game with several dimensions and that means that it seems desirable that the players who interact the most with all of them are the ones who are most rewarded. For example, collecting cards is good for the game, but if you reward this without adding any additional demands, you run the risk of attracting speculators, rather than players. This is solved by establishing conditions in line with those foreseen for Offering of the $GODS and which require, in short, a minimum activity. In other words, it should not be enough to buy a complete expansion and leave it "parked" there, but ideally it would be necessary to require the player to be active (a minimum number of wins in a given period of time, a minimum number of purchases of packs or on the secondary market, a minimum of forged cards, etc.). In short, the first thing is always to reward interaction with the game as such and that the rest of the "layers" of the game come to reinforce this (collecting, staking of $GODS, etc.).

Conclusions

If there is one thing we surely agree on at this point, it is that (1) encouraging collecting would have a very positive influence on the game, since players would have more access to different domains and archetypes, and would help preserve the value of the cards; and that (2) the range of options is enormous. Consequently, and always from my personal point of view, it would make sense for the Gods Unchained team to allocate resources to incentivize behavior that should be as natural as it is beneficial at all levels, but in view of the available data it is not as much as it might seem. Not all players are going to become "super collectors", that is obvious. But it would be good if all players, each at their own scale and taking into account their priorities, expectations and circumstances, considered the interest in collecting.

What do you think of all this? What would you propose to encourage players to buy and keep cards? What incentives would make the most sense from your point of view? What would appeal to you? I trust you to share Your reflections with me.

Before I say goodbye, I want to take this opportunity to remind you that you can support GU Masters by purchasing your cards through the TokenTrove referral link (which has no cost for you) and invite you to join all the players who already receive the GU Masters newsletter to stay on top of what's new in the Gods Unchained universe: The Herald . Thank you for being there.

Images courtesy of Gods Unchained Pty Ltd.