Rigged

[saintlydevilis]

Today I had the same starting hand 3 times. Followed by playing 2 games in rank and winning, then on the third game losing. This happened at least 10 times. So effectively, I was not able to progress to the next level. I would keep doing it just to see.. If this so called random game of luck would continue, but it gets tedious and annoying. Tomorrow, it will allow me to actually win to get to the next rank, but playing a game that has become more and more manipulated/rigged is not fun. I'm not saying this happens to everyone, but then some might not play as often, or for such a long period of time to notice. I can play and win and then stop, go back after 10 minutes and it will allow me to win. This is all with the same deck by the way. It's also a deck that been proven to win several games. So I thought I annoy the hell out of their rigged system today and I conceded about 50 games just so I would stop it happening to others. 

[agentevil007]

I have played this game before they released it in the North America. For me, the games would evenly matched versus the AI. It was only until after the 2nd update, I noticed the AI started getting better draws or get the card they needed to win. Now, it's insane to the point I will quit this game. AI wins majority of the matches. Don't get me started on the Hero challenges too. Some challenges are so hard to beat, it takes 10 to 16 tries till you get the right combo. 

Of course it's rigged because they want to give the perception that need the Ultra rare or super ultra cards to win, hence convincing people to buy gems to buy packs. It really comes down to the draw, chance. It's the only way EA/PopCan would make money to pay the programmers/developers.

[saintlydevilis]

[Removed by CM]

[Gabochido]

Two things:

1) I've been playing this game since it was in beta and while there are things I disagree with and think are very bad, I just have not seen any of this rigged behaviour you guys are talking about. Apparently, neither has most of the reddit population or the ones in these forums. 

2) You really need to think this through a bit. Making people lose in a game like this does not equal greater profits. Think about it. For starters, for everyone losing, there is also a winner. Does that mean that the winner will now spend less? Having the AI cheat also won't bring any relevant amount of money to the table. The events need to be a challenge otherwise people will complain they are two easy, so the AI has good cards. That doesn't mean its cheating.

Take a look at the forums for any other card game. You'll see that there are posts like these ones talking about rigged systems for all of them. Then, I encourage you to become friends with someone who's worked in the videogame industry and you'll find that games are never rigged in this way. They have other issues and other nefarious things, but this particular one just doesn't make sense.

[Offendzemall]

Yuor theory on “developers motivation” makes alot of sense... however. What if there was no “other player” to lose or win to? Am I the only one to ask these questions? 1) If gameplay is left to right, who is playing right to left? 2) why did they switch from left to right gameplay in the original game (PvZ)to bottom to top in Heros PvP? When left to right would have been ideal for REAL PvP play.
I think this might confuse many people because this topic has never been brought up As far as I can see. In a nutshell this game would not work if everybody plays left to right.It is physically and digitally impossible in a “take turns” format game.
So the financial gains are in fact GIANORMOUS due to the competitive nature of most humans and our assumption that spending money will increase your chances to win(which is not true, just track your win/loss % after a purchase) AND your assumption that game developers wouldn’t cheat us out of millions of dollars. */u/me is a very dangerous word. Please include wether or not you play left to right. If you claim to play right to left please include your email address so I can prove you are bogus thanks! Try to enjoy the game still... it is still fun IF YOU SPEND NO REAL MONEY

[Offendzemall]

Did I shut this topic up? Or did I shut it down

[Gabochido]

Just to answer your questions:

The game is left to right for everyone. Basically, each player sees a mirrored version of their opponent's game so for both players it is always left to right.

To make it a little bit clearer: Imagine each lane has a number. The high lane is 1, the three ground lanes are 2,3 and 4, and the water lane is 5. Things will happen in those lanes in that order always. If you put a plant in the high lane, it means it is in lane 1. Don't think of it as the one on the left or the right, just the number.

When it comes time to display the lanes, each player is shown those lanes in the same order, even though if it was a physical set up, one of the player would see the lanes in an inverse order, but thanks to computing technology and user interfaces, our mobile devices show both players the lanes in the same order. 

BTW. I believe this topic has been brought up before, but I can't remember exactly where. Maybe on reddit.

So if your worry is that we have been playing against AI or some elite group of people who invested money or some weird thing like that, rest assured that is not the case

Now, I encourage you to rethink your idea of human nature and look closer at some of the data that comes out of the business industry. Look up the distribution of how people typically spend money on these types of games. You'll find a very small percentage of people spend a lot of money, then a small, but larger percentage spend a little bit of money, and then the vast majority spend no money at all. So, most people don't spend any money, regardless of how competitive or how challenging a game is. What encourages people to spend their money is usually related to how encouraged they are from progressing and winning. Losing and feeling the game is rigged is NOT encouraging.

[puntwothree]

@Gabochido Thank you for answering that last question/statement, because to be quite homest I got lost in the message behind all the lefts to rights and rights to lefts and tops to bottoms. I though we were having a discussion about where players tend to PLACE plants and zombies first, and couldn’t understand why that would indicate the presence or absence of an AI.

As to player motivation, however, I think you’re both wrong.

PvZ prompts you to spend after you’ve lost. Maybe they’ve got some bad consumer data, but they certainly seem to think you’re more likely to pay money if you’re not winning as much as you want to.

To me, this makes a lot of sense. Because PvZ is, after all, a card collection game. Assuming more options will lead a good player to better choices, spending money should improve your deck (and thus your win rate) faster than not spending money. I know not all P2W players win, nor do all F2P players lose... I am an F2P player myself. However, I am absolutely positive that if I were to spend money, I could make all of the decks I want to make the way I want to make them sooner.

(And PvZ also prompts you to spend money when you’re winning... as with the new league bundles. So clearly frustration is not the sole or even primary reason for spending.)

I think the ultimate driver of consumption in a game like this is simply patience. It is a great free game, I think, because we can all (through crafting) create any card we like and make any deck we like. And thus if we wait long enough, spending money will neither help nor hinder us. But if I were not able to delay gratification, I could easily see myself dropping bank to reach the end game sooner.

[puntwothree]

The person must likely to spend is probably:

-Impatient
-Competitive
-Enjoys the game
And
-Is winning, but not as often as (s)he would like to.

If such a person also happened to be loaded, spending money would also make a lot of sense. More power to ‘em.

PvZ has the right to cater to such a personality, which may explain why they nerfed 4 cards to nerf Valkyrie (two of which weren’t even in her class) instead of nerfing Valkyrie herself.

[Gabochido]

Here is an interesting fact. Did you know that, if you play normally and do most of the quests, play the ads and rank up your two leagues each season you will be getting, on average, between 200 and 220 gems a day? That's about 3 multiplacks every 2 weeks. That also means getting 3 legendaries and 6 super-rares every two weeks. It also means that between seasons you will be getting about 8-10 extra legendaries and 24-30 extra super rares. That's actually quite a high intake of the highest rarity cards for a card game and quite a reasonable progression rate, specially when compared to other card games. 

I'm pointing this out because to me this means that an average player will usually be quite pleased with the rate of how fast they are acquiring those shiny extra rare cards, specially when compared to other CCGs where the rate is usually lower. A well balanced progression rate is the kind of thing that encourages spending for the average person, because it feels that it will be a good investment.

A rigged game would make it feel like there was a wall and would not encourage spending, specially with so many other options of card games like this one out there.