About Duelyst current status, is there something to be done?

[gartegna]

Hi guys, recently i’ve gain interest back in duelyst after, i don’t know how many years, without it.

Last thing i remember was the first expansion being released, me getting to rank 8 and then life happens.

So i didn’t knew anything about it, actually i always guessed that duelyst “is fine just not under the radar” well, i was very surprised when i started to read what happened.

Just to be clear i love the game and the reasons why i dropped it has nothing to do with the game itself.

Sorry if i keep it long but i have some things to say/ask and i’m hoping someone will answer.

So if i’d understood correctly, Duelyst was going “fine” but it’s just an issue on how they (developers/owners) wanted the game to be (in terms of popularity and income) and instead where always was.

I read even the lack (none at all) of communication from their side in about a year and ofcourse the balancing issue here and there but i guess that at least is “ok”

Regarding the “bandai namco” i guess they needed money to keep the game up? and the issue about many players that pratically lost their account or login access is unbelievable to me.

It’s correct till now? or i missed something? if anyone want’s to answer and even dwelling too much in it, im ok, i like to read.

Speaking of “today” i’m amazed on how the community (we as players) (well, not me, i just came back XD) is still strong, we can currently say that the game is alive only thanks to us all…and the will by them to not shutting the servers down i guess.

This very forum is full of people, even on the steam forum someone took the will to answer something (and by definition, the majority of “steam forums” are not very active, even the early access ones).

Duelyst discord too is alive on meltdowns e-sport and boronian’s den and i’d not even searched carefully.

Duelyst has done so many things “right” that i can’t wrap my head around the fact it is “dying”
I love the pixel art and it’s the first reason i got attracted to it but somehow many don’t like it and even prefer to switch to something else entirely, i was already too bothered by games with a “mobile” feelings, and today they are all very much the same.
Even the mechanics are still new and can obscure any other “card” game out there.

Duelyst is an entire universe of possibilities that sadly will stay like that, possibilities and nothing more. I can imagine/daydreaming about even anime/manga lore in general about it with that amazing art style.

As of today is there something that can be done? let me explain better, are someone entitled to do something about it? because i can think something like “developer/publisher have rights/said that the game is on hold and nothing can be done about it” and if that’s the case, are “we” really just condemned to watch it die slowly?

I even read the discussion where they said “no more content or information until we release godfall AND we establish it well” so it’s like saying goodbye with other words.

Any card game seems doomed to end badly in a “short” time, mostly in 2-5 years but as of today we have the record with Artifact and that’s a whole new story.

I have this feeling that Duelyst can be “saved/restored/back on track” with some not so crazy effort but i’m just a dude who knows nothing really.

[anjosustrakr]

Welcome back to Duelyst, friend! I am Anjosustrakr, Official God-Emperor of Communication, Last* Link Between the Devs and the People. It is true that things seem rather bleak, but I can assure you that absolutely nothing is being done to rectify the problem and save this glorious game. Soon™ enough it shall be nothing but a bitter memory. You can blame Bandai Namco for that. The only thing We The People could possibly do to have a 1% chance of making a difference is start pumping unprecedented amounts of money into gem purchases, but I don’t think anyone is willing to do that. Here is a summary of the events that led up to this sorry point in Duelyst history:

1. Duelyst was not well monetized or advertised, so it did not make enough money for Counterplay.
2. Counterplay sold Duelyst’s soul to Bandai Namco, trusting that Bandai would do some good advertising and bring money to both companies.
3. Bandai Namco did nothing.
4. The devs decided that Duelyst was a lost cause and moved on to making a new game called Godfall.
5. A year later, they remembered that Duelyst still had a community and decided to tell them what they already knew: Duelyst would not be receiving any more updates. They also decided it was too much work to put out a small patch nerfing Mythron Wanderer, the most oppressive card in the game other than Desolator.

[isbee]

^^^^^^

…meanwhile, welcome back and enjoy the slow descent. As long as the servers are up and we have occasional conversations with folks connected to CPG, then I remain patient.

[mrmana3]

Sounds like you did your homework.

The long and short of it is that Duelyst will probably not be given more content at this point. It’s a game that appeals to a niché audience, one that isn’t bringing in enough funds to motivate future development on the game.

Don’t let this discourage you from playing though. We still have events that take place throughout the year (Duelyst World Cup is starting next week. Feel free to join. It’s gonna be super chill and fun ) and the game can still be enjoyable!

The other good news is that you don’t have to worry about being behind on card collection. Without future expansions, you can catch up with everyone else playing the game without spending a dime.

Also, always obey your Official God Emperor of Communication @anjosustrakr. Your overlord always knows what is best for you and the community.

[gartegna]

thanks for the answer!
Can we create a possibility to gain Bandai Namco attenction somehow? we can see the steamcharts, do we know anything about the stand alone client? having some numbers in our hands can help us having a better idea of things in general.

I saw your answers on another topic, This exactly and i think that are very reasonable ones.

If we can understand better how many players duelyst still has , somehow we can talk to some streamers or whatnot.

Sorry for my english, i’m very aware that this is mostly (99%) just a dream but any game to be considered “well and alive” doesn’t need thousands of players, 300-500 daily will be just fine i guess.
I’m talking only by comparison on other titles with not so precise data so feel free to shot at me XD.
I mean, looking at artifact for a moment, right now they have 50 players roughly (at the same time) but it is not even that, on artifact i guess people doesn’t have any reason at all to came back, insteady they got many many reasons to leave and to not come back ever, bad monetization, bad advertising, unbalancing from the beta session and the transition to the full game ecc.

On Duelyst at least ““we”” don’t have those kind of issues, game is very free to play friendly, it’s tangibile the fact that no one has to spend a dollar/euro to be competitive.
Even without new expansions or patchs, game is pretty solid and there is the certainity that nothing will change (bad thing ofc…but we can see the good in it).

I’d like to see how you imagine a positive resolution, just for talking (and if any of you wants ofc)

Oh and btw i guess i will call you “god emperor” because i can’t pronounce your name without having an ictus XD.

(thanks to all for answering!!)

[bepoest]

Here we just call him “Anjovies”.

[anjosustrakr]

Can you derive solace from the failures of others? I know I can. Behold:

Hand of the Gods, a shameless knock-off of Duelyst –

Artifact, the one and only credit card game –

Faeria, the once-great once-F2P game that turned traitor –

Duelyst, the abandoned game that is still more alive than any of them –

– especially because that’s only on Steam. I do not know how we would find the numbers for the stand-alone client or the browser version. Asking one of the devs would probably be the best bet there… but I doubt they would divulge such information to us.

game is very free to play friendly, it’s tangibile the fact that no one has to spend a dollar/euro to be competitive

Yes, that is one of the best things about Duelyst… but it is also one of the worst. In-app purchases are unnecessary (and overpriced), meaning that the game doesn’t make much money even if it has a lot of players. Now, as Faeria and Artifact have taught us, making online living card games is a horrible decision (they don’t live very long), and I would never suggest that as a solution even if it did work out for them. I think Duelyst’s last expansion had a good model (buy 60 packs to get the Mythrons), because it was still F2P but encouraged buying packs for real money for impatient people. I think people also liked the $20 full mini-expansions they did before. The Elder Scrolls: Legends has a great monetization system (I’m not sure how much money they are actually making, but it seems great, anyway), what with frequent expansions, stories that can be bought for a large amount of gold or real money, and daily real-money deals that are quite a bargain. Of course, none of this worked on me – I haven’t spent any money on Legends – but I think I am more resistant to such charms than others. If Duelyst implemented more content like Legends does – a story mode would be awesome – and made their in-app purchases actually tempting, then perhaps it could rise from the grave.

Of course, that will never happen, because Counterplay isn’t working on Duelyst anymore.

I’d like to see how you imagine a positive resolution

Hmm… I’m not a very positive person, but… I had thought that writing a letter from the fans to the devs and Bandai Namco might be a possibility… and you know, PC Gamer just chose Duelyst as one of the Top 10 F2P Games of 2019, so maybe Bandai would be willing to do something, for once…

i can’t pronounce your name without having an ictus

Yeah, no one can… not even myself. Well, actually, I pronounce it wrong on purpose, after the Apex Legends text-to-speech taught me the correct pronunciation.

Here we just call him “Anjovies”

Since when do you know my true name?

[gartegna]

I don’t know how you linked that games so well (you are a god afterall XD) , didn’t know Hand of the gods (i will go find somethings to read about that as soon as i can)

On the other hands i know even Battleforge (guess it’s unknown for the most) that game, like these others, had try to use the card game with another mechanics, like in real time units like age of empire style somehow, very appealing (at least to me) and when it came out, was well accepted and full of purchasable things (even i spent money on that). But died for the same reasons and unbelievably a very strict hardcore fans are keeping it alive with a different name (skylords), but in that case the game has totally closed forever.

I still have to try elder scrolls legends but it will be just a fallback, any other cards game lacks the strategic - board - mechanic of duelyst and i doubt that we will see something like that ever.

Btw nice thing to know about pc gamer, and the “mail thing” can lead to something if done right and at the right time.

I was on the Kickstarter page of Duelyst and by reading some comments i realized that they had some…trouble? with delivering the physical things on the rewards (statues and artbook for the most) and i didn’t knew that.

This i guess, had an impact on the total number of people that just “leaved” the game.

Just your last post presented like that (images + playerbase) with a thoughtful description of the situation, posted somewhere else can start a bigger discussion i believe.

And to be clear, as i said before i’m just a dude who got back his interest in duelyst lately but i can’t imagine yours (all of “you”) feelings in the past year(s).

It’s like we already have the best games and isn’t possible to make them “better”, but just to find the right people to keep them well and alive.

Edit: Oh i almost forgot Solforge… XD

[isbee]

Anj-no(thanks)
Anj-go(away)
Anj-so(youthinkyoucandance)
Anj-mo(moneymoproblems)
Anj-slo
Anj-glo
Anj-flo
Anj-gro(up)
Anj-thro(aparty)

[anjosustrakr]

Just your last post presented like that (images + playerbase) with a thoughtful description of the situation, posted somewhere else can start a bigger discussion i believe.

Somewhere else? There have been many such discussions on the Forums already. Would you have me turn to Reddit?

Also, such discussions are fruitless. The devs know our feelings, and they don’t care. It is nice that they give me and whoever runs the tournaments orb codes to keep the community alive, but they have stated many times that they will do no more than that.

I really wish there were a way to save Duelyst… but I think all we can do is wait, at this point. That, and boycott Godfall (once it releases) until Counterplay starts supporting Duelyst again.

I just had to end each paragraph with an emoji.

[halcyon98]

It’s sad that Duelyst isn’t getting any updates, but looking on the bright side, the meta as of now isn’t the worst we’ve seen. A new Duelyst expansion will most likely introduce the next Ragnora/Lavaslasher/Finality/Rebuke/Fault.

[excogitator]

Anjo-dust is one hell of a drug

[miguelosz]

Deet Mughrmår

7 mana Mggrm spell

Summon 5 Exhuming Sands. Summon Rippers on those tiles. Your Exhuming Sands now summon Rippers instead of Poops. All Rippers Fight™ all nearby enemy generals and minions. Heal your general for 2 for each of these Fights™. Your opponent loses a mana crystal. All non-Mhgmh cubs join the “commit seppuku” pack. Stun the opponent’s keyboard.

[halcyon98]

I give this card fair and balanced/10.

[alplod]

I think people also liked the $20 full mini-expansions they did before

Actually, it produced a shitstorm of moderate scale, when some players were very fond of the model and others were pretty angry.

As always, innovations produce heated discussions, that case is not different.

I don’t remember what the disappointment was based on, tbh, cause I liked the model. I guess it was “I can’t disenchant and craft, evil CPG wants all my money” stuff.

[gartegna]

But it’s always an heated discussion nontheless, like saying “something is better than anything”

[gartegna]

Would it be so bad? i mean, it’s not like we have something to loose XD
But sorry if i give the impression that “that post has to be somewhere else written by you”
I was just taking into consideration that suggestion, same reason, just to talk and see what people think about it.

For example i use reddit only in Lurker mode, i don’t know the platform so well, i can’t imagine if a post or anything will be “successful” or useful in any way.

There is something that bothers me, like, for almost a year there was not any kind of information about duelyst, then like you said, “they rememebered that duelyst was still alive and wrote something” and that “something” had put a stone on it.
So for the most that’s it, a wall that before was just silence, now is taller and you can’t even imagine anymore what lies behind.
But it’s really like that?

And talking about godfall, lately i’m starting to see patterns everywhere like some kind of “conspiracy” XD (i said that just for fun) but really, it’s not the first time that a company just don’t like how much money is making and prefer to abandon/stay in silence instead of doing something else.
So what if that will happen to godfall too?

(sorry for the double post, i thought i was answering only to a “single” person)

[epicflygon]

You forgot Shardbound, the numbers are slowly rising.

[gartegna]

Another interesting case, thanks to let me know it!

[halcyon98]

It’s another card game that’s facing a shortage of players. I think it’s still in early access, but it’s free on Steam.