Beyond 2023: New Cards and Rotation

Hello,

Obviously, the news of what will happen beyond 2023 with Gwent had hit many of us fans hard.

This is just me thinking out loud but here it goes…

I have been thinking about many of the comments people have left regarding how some games continue to find audience, even after the official support had ended. Warcraft 3 and StarCraft 2 are great examples.

The thing about these games is that the community continues to create more content and keep the game alive because they were given the proper tools to do so. With Gwent, we will be given limited tools to vote for balance changes, but what if the tools were expanded beyond that? What if the system in place would allow people to submit new card designs (maybe 12 to 24 cards, complete with art, mechanics, sound effects,…etc, and release conditions of course for legal reasons, all that jazz), and we get to vote which ones we would want to be added to the card pool? You would have a deadline of a 3 months mark beginning at the start of the year, and the next 3 months would be spent tweaking, balancing, and making it ready for the game. So, essentially you would have TWO card drops of 24-48 cards per year (even less is fine), completely designed by the community that are added to the card pool. Having lurked around the reddit and forums, I have seen many people who design Gwent cards just as a hobby, so why not give them a chance to do it in the live game? Of course, things are a bit be more complex than this, but I believe if the devs expand the capability of the tools they will be giving to the community, passionate fans will find use for them and do some interesting stuff.

The other idea is in regards to a rotation voting system. We also get to vote on which cards will leave the pool for any given year (doesn’t mean they can’t come back the year after for eg). I know this might be unpopular opinion for some, but I believe rotations can help with the balance of the game. Having listened to devs from other CCGs who are in charge of balance (yes, it takes a team to do it), they all agree that at some point you HAVE to do rotation if you want to have a shot at balancing the game. Otherwise, it’s pretty much impossible. Now, you can argue some people prefer Gwent to have the one ‘wild format’ of all the cards being there, and maybe that is less work, but I am pretty sure, having listened to so many people complain about balance in this game, they would be more than happy to have a system in place where they can have a more proactive role at balancing the game that will actually see drastic changes to how Gwent plays (rotation is that system).

Just some ideas….