@lordmantis I really hate to be like this but it sounds like you’re just being difficult with me now to be… difficult? I already answered these questions 
On The Spot Talk - Merged Queues
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I’m sorry, I was looking for clarification and to be frank, nothing I’ve read here from you indicates that there’s anything in the messaging other than a “deal with it” kind of takeaway. Is there a situation or circumstance in which some variation of unranked may return? Ultimately that’s the only question that matters and I honestly didn’t see that addressed here anywhere.
As to, maybe the tone? It’s largely because everything we’ve seen out of you guys in response to this has been… non-plussed. I bought products for a game. You removed what I perceived the game to be. I’m pissed. If you bought DLC for Street Fighter and they removed online vs mode… when that’s the way you play it… wouldn’t you be pissed?
EDIT: For the record… I wasn’t angry before but I am now…
Sure thing buddy, so let me reiterate the following points
And I think most importantly
At this very moment in time, we believe it is in Duelyst’s best interests to maintain a single queue for the several reasons/issues described in the above posts (not just the ones I highlighted in this one). This isn’t something we are content with, as there are many flaws that we have acknowledged with the current system.
(The obvious and best solution would be to just have both a Ranked and a Casual queue up).
One of the biggest showstoppers we’re currently having with that is that both queues are not being properly supported by the playerbase; there are not enough players joining both modes to sustain a healthy queue time. As such, we have to take actions to maintain the best interests of all Duelyst players (and thus why we have to merge the queues again until a better solution presents itself).
(Such as one mentioned in the patch notes - those are things worth investigating)
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I really enjoy this game and I’m just happy to be able to continue playing it in any form.
I realize this was a very difficult decision on CPG’s part, and some people are bound to take it personally, but I recognize it as a necessary evil so Duelyst can continue to succeed as a game. Because if it stops succeeding, it’ll be gone forever.
Thanks for posting in this topic and being willing to broach the subject with players, even when inevitably faced with strong and angry opinions. Most companies wouldn’t even go this far, just post patch notes and leave the players arguing and speculating in the dark. So, this is appreciated.
That’s pretty much all I have to say.
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So if there is an increase of players, unranked queue could be added back?
Possibly with a “coming soon” mobile release, etc.
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To begin, this topic makes me very happy. The openness, honesty, and integrity shown in this topic is exactly everything I like to see. Thank you @ThanatosNoa and all CPG staff involved (both in the making of this topic or for having hands on the state of the game).
I agree with essentially all of the points provided and I do believe merging the queues into just ladder games was a wise decision. As much as I loved the casual queue and I wanted it for so long, I knew before it was ever a thing that it would take a large toll on the game’s health. Although I’m sad to see it go, I’m glad CPG gave us the casual mode when they believed it could work and I’m glad they have the integrity and are conscientious enough to remove it when deemed necessary.
On a personal note, my reasons for playing the casual queue are kinda different. Due to difficulties managing my own anxiety, it is very difficult for me to play modes that have any sort of competitiveness to them (or success-based rewards). While it is still entirely possible for me to play on the ladder (as I did before casual queue even existed), it is painful and difficult for me to acclimate to the perceived environment. It’s reasons like this I never touch any modes that have a rank tied to them, even if I’m good at the game. League of Legends, Overwatch and more, I cannot play their ranked modes due to this anxiety and forever play in unranked queues.
Regardless, I will continue to play Duelyst. I enjoy this game. I will shoulder my own problems and continue to play at my own pace (even if slowed at times 
).
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I second this motion.
Can we all just stop whining about fair cards and neccessary mechanics for one godamn second and not derail a topic completely unrelated to such complaints?
On topic however,
I really appreciate that you took the time @ThanatosNoa to explain this topic to everyone and answer everyones questions.
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Hey, @ThanatosNoa, good to hear from you. Thanks for sharing this perspective.
A few questions/comments from my side:
- Did you consider giving refunds to players who disenchanted their Shimzar cards because they were only interested in the Standard format?
- Rotation was presented as a fundamental change to ensure the health of Duelyst on the long term. How do you plan to deal with this in the future?
- As nice as your comment was, it doesn’t add much. Basically, you reverted the game to its original state and asked people to deal with it by working on their psychology. This formula doesn’t sound successful: players expect features rather than to adapt to the game. I’m not aware of any CCG on the market which lacks unranked play and removing it was a bad move in terms of marketing. I understand the urgency behind your choice, but other solutions to push ranked play could have been tested, because you don’t know the real reasons why Ranked was not played. For instance, why didn’t you try to implement a big balance patch - including buffs - in Standard, more or less as you did on the merged queues, to push underplayed factions and downtone overly played factions? You implemented both balance changes and queue merging at the same time, so you don’t know which was the working solution to stabilise the game…
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This was the main pull of unlimited for me and the reason I spent more time in it than ranked.
This doesn’t really matter though when you can just concede early against a meta deck with no punishment.
I agree with this. Give us the option to queue but not risk losing rank. Sure, we will still have to play against meta decks half the time but at least then we could just concede against them early with no punishment, or test new decks against the meta without losing rank.
People have been discussing about playing against meta decks and I agree: playing against them all the time can be quite boring. However, the unrotation combined with frequent-enough balance patches presents a possible solution to this: buffing underplayed archetypes through new expansions. With an ever-expanding cardpool, I dream of a time where there might be 10-15 “meta” decks, instead of the usual 2-4 you see most often. Of course there will always come up stuff like old Saurian Finality or old Shadow Nova, but with nerfs the biggest abusers can always be dealt with.
Incoming the rotation defenders, but please stick to the main topic of ladder vs casual format instead of just writing walls of text on why rotation is the one true way of building digital ccgs
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I would like to make a tentative suggestion. Offering an option to simply turn off displaying a ranking for either player at the start and end of the game. A lot of the stress and aggravation for casual players comes from either seeing your opponents rank or your own. In fact this option could be on by default for new players. I suppose players would still see their rank if they opened their profile. At some point new players who are performing well could get a one time notification to turn on visible ranking. I understand this doesn’t address all of the issues raised and has some downside in transparency but I think it would give casual players a more healthy experience.
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I love your blunt not-so-blunt talks. Thanks Thanatos. I, for one, support these decisions.
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Alright I’m back so I guess it’s time for Day 2
Hey tsevech, unfortunately, I can’t answer any of these questions due to the things I listed before I started any of the talks (those being)
- Refunds have nothing to do with queue merge
- As mentioned, can’t talk about pros/cons of having rotations (or not)
- As a community manager, I have very limited insight into how/why things are balanced the way they are. I can not, do not, and have not had my hands in big balance patches and to speak on the behalf of my team members runs the risk that I may say something out of line and misconstrue their actual intentions. The only knowledge I am giving are whatever the team feels they can entrust in me that’s currently relevant (Duelyst does operate under rapid iteration cycles, meaning what’s “important” today may be obsolete tomorrow). (That being said, maybe I can have another “on the spot talk” about those changes if one of those guys wants to join me?)
Just wanted to recognize this as “yes, Ranked anxiety is a real thing” and one of the reasons that Gauntlet no longer displays Ranks&Ribbons. We had considered in the past to implement a toggle feature to hide information by default (with the understanding that by the majority of new users no one would ever turn it on). There was also the idea of hiding just Ribbons until a player acquired one themselves (since players will multiple hundreds of wins is a big scary impression, despite the absolute possibility that the user is a “silver tier” player with many years of play). (Amongst all the matchmaking quirks, ribbons seems to be the most common “WTF why am I matched against this” response thread we see on Reddit)
I guess my rambling here is “we know.” We’re still monitoring how these changes affect the current state of the game and will make adjustments as necessary (when and where appropriate solutions present themselves).
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Hi! Hello! I am one of those…yep, that’s me. 
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I would say the same but I had enough time to hit gold.
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<joke>
I f you want to lighten the pressure put by Ranked players and meta decks, added to the ribbons you may also want to hide a Magmar playing a Golem Metallurgist T1, a Reva playing Crescent Spear, Mahev and Gor and stuff like that 
</joke>
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If I could I’d just add filters to pick and choose what you want to fight so you never have to experience anything you dislike (and I can finally “delet songhai” 
)
As an off-topic side note; I wish we could support more modes such as a “pauper” queue where you can only join with decks having X amount of Spirit, or something like No Epics/Legendaries. Despite the fact that deck costs haven’t changed in the last 2 years and Epics/Legendaries aren’t typically P2W cards 
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Replying in spoiler mode to your spoiler text.
Imagine … “The player becomes the game mode” !
I build a deck, using some amount of Spirit, a number of legend/epic etc.
Then I just put myself in Challenge Mode where I can pick for the incoming opponents some limitations in Spirit, Cards types etc. (according to my own deck of course so I can’t ask for a maximum 1K deck when I have a 10K one)
I could even ban some faction (No Songhai !).
Once I’ve set the limitations, I become the game mode and players can “queue on me” to fight me with a deck fitting my constraints.
Could be fun.
Could also display your w/r with a deck as long as you stay in this mode.
(You could even refine it by limiting cards, extensions etc. but there will be abuse, or put some Gold/Spirit at stake but it will be hijack to funnel money … 
)
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I wish duelyst had enough players to support all these seperate format ideas here.
Mtg has standard, modern, legacy, vintage, pauper, commander, brawl, limited sealed, draft, etc.
but they also have tens to hundreds of thousands of players, including me
advertisements would go a long way
Team needs money to advertise.
Team needs to advertise to gain players.
Team needs players to get money.
Team needs money to advertise.
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ONLY IF, it actually led to some good stuff. If I hadn’t seen the announcement for it, I would have never known that Bandai Namco teamed up with Duelyst because nothing big has occurred as a result of it, just same ol’.
If I have to deal with the most obnoxious click bait articles every time I logged in, there better be some VERY noticeable improvements.
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