Hello everyone. Lately, there has been a lot of discussion about what price should Conclave Arcana packs be. Not only on Splinterlands' discord but also in here. To me, the most important discussion is not the price of the pack by itself but the cost to build a full set at max level. Still, having the discussion of the price of packs is better than having no discussion at all.
Let's start by talking about the timing. The best timing for any change regarding pricing would have been with Rebellion. One of the biggest arguments in favor of keeping or increasing the price is to not devalue older packs. However, CL was already very overprinted and there was no way to save it. Past sets would all be in Wild after Rebellion came out. Adding to all of this, CL didn't cost $4 per pack, it cost way less. Ignoring the $16 vouchers during the pre sale, there were the usual bulk discounts, plus the team offered even bigger discounts privately to even bigger buyers. Packs we're also distributes in reward chests. And there was a special sale where the packs went for much cheaper. It was a missed opportunity. Regardless of missing the best possible timing, I still believe we need to do something about the cost of the game.
Untamed packs cost $2, there were bulk discounts, the burn value was twice what it is today, and they were included in ranked rewards. I have talked about CL's conditions and that was during the biggest bull run Splinterlands has ever seen. I know Bitcoin is higher now, but that effect has not entered Splinterlands and even Hive isn't as high as it was at the time. In fact, as I'm writing this, Hive is going down. Rebellion prices were too high and, now that there aren't bulk discounts, they should be lowered to match the sentiment and the overall economy state.
I think it's good that there aren't bulk discounts because that would create a situation where some people would buy just to sell in the secondary market to those who can't afford to buy in big quantities. But we need to consider this as well as not having these packs as prizes in the pricing.
To me the biggest question is the overall cost of the total set and the cost of the game as a whole. Before, players didn't need any SPS to earn, they could earn with ghost cards, they could earn packs and cards they could sell. All of that is gone. We need to invest much more to earn much less. The pricing needs to be adjusted to the new reality. We also have very recently added a bunch of overpriced promo cards that many players felt very much prices out and opted to ignore them.
In my opinion, the best way to solve the issue with overall cost of the game is, starting with CA, reducing the number of copies to reach max level on each card. Not only that, but I would also simplify the level system and make all cards have only 4 levels. With this new system it's also easier for new players to know which level they need each of their cards. Of their summoners are at level 2, they can play up to level 2 of every single card. It would also make it easier to not have overleveled cards. Going from Gold to max it very difficult. Commons at 220 bcx need 180 to reach max level but the best prices are often on max cards or other gold level cards. Same for the other rarities.
I would go for something like this:
Legendaries - 1 BCX per level which means 4 BCX would be level 4.
Epics: 1, 3, 6, 12.
Rares: 1, 5, 10, 20.
Commons: 1, 25, 50, 100.
It wouldn't have to be exactly these values as I know the reduction was bigger in lower rarities than in legendaries, but it's just meant to be an example. It would also mean that the design team wouldn't need to make 10, 8 and 6 different levels for non legendaries.
This change means prices could stay the same, the burn value per DEC spent in packs wouldn't be higher, but we would have cheaper sets that more players could afford. I honestly fear that with the current prices, especially after CL is out of Modern, we risk having a game where only a few whales can afford to play.
