We’re back again for another round. The newest EYE OF JUDGMENT expansion is shaping up to be much deeper than I thought. Lately, I’ve spent many late nights designing crazy combos in my new decks. With some of my favorites – check out these screens…
Thanks again for all the great comments and questions from the last EOJ post. I know a lot of questions were generated and I’m happy to throw in some more information for everyone. Unfortunately we weren’t able to get all your answers (yet) but we’re still tracking them down (Canada cards is still a priority for me). I’ll be reading over the weekend so jump in with your questions and I’ll get cranking…
So … some new info …
Different Races
Ok, if you were paying any attention to some of the comments on the first post, there were some hints of a new set of characters to enter the EOJ universe. Of course we will have new exciting additions to the current races, well, here they are – The Sacreds:
*Notice the anti-Biolith gameplay features* (MANY more pics on our Flickr site)
Promotional Cards
No deck would be complete without some slick promotional cards. Throughout the year be on the look out for these special cards so you can add them to your deck. They have been specially designed to actually form one image when placed together, so if you are FIRE Fans, these are a must have. Be on the look out at for upcoming hints on where these will be available (might actually do something on this blog) …
With that I’ll end with another addition to the Tritonan Water Queendom, Ship’s Surgeon!
Pricing
Finally, what most people are waiting for, the price … In the US, THE EYE OF JUDGMENT: Biolith Rebellion 2 (Expansion Set Two) download will be available on the PSN for $14.99 on March 27th.
We’ll be back next week with more updates and phantom card info. We’re open to any suggestions on the next topic too … just start your comments with “***blog post idea***”
Let the comments begin …
There’s members in our community that spend $98- 112.00 per booster box on average its 3.18 per booster pack x 36 which works out to $114.00 and some change.
I don’t hear them complaining. Its the nature of TCG games.
I personally was already budgeting (setting money aside for the big day March 27th) and to hear Its been reduced from $28.00 to $14.99 made be very happy? Thinking the money I have saved can now go towards more boosterpacks.
For the individuals complaining need to understand that the Data Infrastructure Sony has placed for us is free with regards to VOIP, Video Conferencing over IP however not limted to text messaging is free.
In addition to software patches that help resolve gameplay or operational issues are free.
However With EOJ, card design (new abilities, creatures, artwork, localizing text / naming, balancing), programming (new character models, animations, debugging the new set rules), testing and manufacturing and distribution (of cards), makes this game a completely different animal. And not limited to new audio voice tracks is content and therefore is not free.
I’m really confused on what you guys mean that it will be available for download on the PSN.
I thought it meant that we could buy a pack of cards for $15. What does the PSN have to do with that?
Good grief. Sometimes I wonder if everyone shouldn’t be required to take basic economics in high school so they would better understand how the world of money works.
First of all, you’re not required to buy the update in order to make use of Set2. My friend and I broke out our decks at his house once, and since he is without a PS3, we drew up fields on postcards, used dice to keep track of hit points and calculate dodges, and played an awesome game. (I won.)
What you’re paying for is the added value of being able to use your PS3 to help you play. It has all the rules built in, so that’s nice. It’s got cool graphics (although to be honest, I doubt many of us keep animation on for long). And best of all, it gets you access to PSN, so that you can really feed your addiction with a worldwide playing community.
The fact is, it takes a lot of money to develop software for the PS3. That’s why the original game cost so much – not only did they have to build the rule engine, but they had to do the animations, the interactions with the Eye, etc. This time around, a lot of that work is done – they still need to do some work on the rule engine, do the same amount of animation work, and implement any enhancements or fix bugs. To me, the pricing seems very reasonable.
On the other side of things, it takes a LOT of work by Wizards of the Coast to create an entire system that is fair and balanced. As has been pointed out, you can be very competitive with a basic theme deck and a few nice cards from boosters. Just the other day, I played a guy online who threw pretty much every fancy-schmancy Biolith in the book at my deck, and the only reason I lost was because I did a really stupid move. Now they’re adding in a whole new set of characters with new abilities and rules – they have to do a ton of work to make sure the game stays balanced, and that one or two cards don’t make for an unbeatable deck.
But at the end of the day, the market speaks. Do you think that is too much money? As a previous poster said, look at what you’ve spent so far compared to the amount of time you enjoyed with the game. Is it worth it? If not, don’t buy it. Don’t rant and rave about it, because it’s not going to change anything – or even if it did, it would only be bad. If they didn’t charge what they’re charging, they wouldn’t make any money. If they don’t make money, they stop investing. No investment, no updates. No new cards. The game stays static.
For those of us who do enjoy it, and think it is worth the money, thank you for all your hard work on this game, and for enduring the criticism.
Now, since I’ve written too much already, I’ll save my own irrational and unrealistic rant for how much I’d love to see this come out for the PS2 (with integration to PSN and everything!) for later… ;)
just picked up EoJ for my buddy who just moved to Singapore! We’re gonna throw down half a world away. Well… once he comes into town finally next week and I give it to him, lol.
@ Cpt.blu
no question about it. Kratos would be that trump card to pull out when you need to take over and shut the game down. lol.
Dear Mr. Valledor,
I’m a Spanish gamer who has just started playing EOJ some two months ago.
First, congratulate you for the game. I’ve always been a TCG lover, but got few chances to play. Now I get to loose two or three games per week :D
ON PROMO CARDS:
I would like to know a little about promo card distribution. You see, here in Spain I’m aware there were two promo cards available for the first set, yet where I live no one has seen one. While chatting on the European EOJ forums with other Spanish players I found only a handful of people actually had one or more of them. Now, 90% of these people lived in Madrid or Barcelona (Spain’s bigger cities) and, what’s even worse: most of this people got them in the same retailer. I mean, the idea behind “promo stuff” is “to promote”, right? I got very angry after spending close to 300€ in cards and not getting a single promo card simply because local retailers won’t have them. They don’t know about them at all. They got no promo materials AT ALL. And suddenly there’s this shop who has 500 copies of each card??? Which, by the way, once they discovered their rarity, were put for sale on eBay. As an anecdote, these retailers who were lucky enough to get the promo cards wouldn’t even give them to you UNLESS you specifically asked for them.
So, when I saw the new promo cards…and realized how troublesome it was to find a “simple” common alternate card such as the Elvish Archer…I started to wonder how much worse getting an ULTRA-RARE promo will be. Hence, I’d like to know if there will be any criteria as to how to get the cards, or if it will depend on sheer luck and/or bribes :) Seriously, if I’m not to get any because only a couple of shops nationwide will receive huge amounts of them, I will simply stop collecting, for I’m not particularly fond of being ripped off for some promo material I should be entitled for after spending some serious cash.
All in all, though, I wish the best for the game, and that it lasts the longer the better. And please, please, find a way to get to see combat animations without having to wait so much time, forcing us to disable them. Just watching a random flash of light when your favourite creature attacks is frankly disappointing, but waiting for the attack to develop is also unbearable.
Thanks!
You people still don’t get it, which is why developers are still able to gouge the consumer like they are so clearly doing here.
I fail to see how so many of you can continue to spout the same tripe about “car/gas” “computer/internet”, ESPECIALLY computer/internet! I’ve already stated that since PS3 online is free, the computer/internet analogy is moot. Car/gas has been effectively debunked, unless you just refuse to read my post (which is stupid considering how relatively short it is), in which case I hate you and you are, again, the reason developers are nickel-and-diming us.
And to those of you who are like “LOAL DONT MIND THEM THEY LOVE THE GAME THEY JUST DONT WANT TO PAY LOLOL” , you are so, so dense, writing is practically a waste of time considering I know you won’t bother to take in what I’ve said. But, for the sake of this game which, yes, I do LOOOVE, I will repeat myself: It is NOT the amount of money the developers are charging; it is simply the fact that we’re being charged at all for something that should be free! If you don’t understand how it should be free, you need to step back and let other people do the thinking for you, obviously, because you don’t get it. The whole concept is asinine. Game + cards + game expansion (which only allows you to play with expansion cards, doesn’t actually do anything but activate said cards) + cards + game expansion + cards ad infinatum, ad nauseum.
You people can just sit back and be totally complacent and lick these money-grubbers’ boots, but for many of us (most of which are probably more into the game than any of those who’d love to pay for intangible property) this kind of marketing model means the end of our loyalty to the developer and the game. There’s a thing called brand loyalty, and if you take that for granted, you might find yourself deep in a hole of your own digging.
I cannot seem to make it clear just how disgusted I am that you guys have chosen to take the low road here. I don’t care that your poor management skills caused you to make a bad deal with regards to your profit margins being shared in such a stupid way, if the previous poster stating that WotC makes money on cards and Sony on DLC was making a truthful statement. If this is true, you still have no right to take it out of your loyal customers’ pockets. This is highway robbery and you know it; for all the people that slam Xbox Live for being a **** service that charges obscene amounts of money for everything, you guys aren’t looking all that different right now.
You could have clearly gone about this in a much different fashion. You could simply release update sets for free, available to all EoJ players if they wanted to play with the new packs, and charged for the boosters, or even raised the price of the boosters. I wouldn’t mind one bit if I had to pay a little more for boosters if it meant not having to pay for updates, this is because I don’t care about the price.
I’ve been at
work all night and I’m probably starting to ramble, but either way I figure you get my point. If not, please close your browser, but not before you click on some of those “FREE PS3” ads and give some people from the Nigerian Lottery your info so you can claim your prize.
tl;dr: I still hate this money-grubbing BS, but I love this game and the ideas put into it, and really, REALLY don’t want to see the hard work you developers put into making this dream a reality be completely for naught because you pissed off your loyal fanbase. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate you or your game. I love it to death, which is why I don’t want to see it end like this. Please, please think twice about your actions, I beg of you.
Thanks for reading if you are, I’m assuming so because your reply was right after my previous posts. It’s at least a little encouraging if you’re taking into account what your player base thinks, even if it’s just a little.
I hope you guys understand what I’m saying here and how myself and many others are feeling like you’re alienating us. Thanks.
Why so angry about a game? I wished my problems were all about whether Sony is earning too much or too little and why or why not should they charge for the update.
No one likes to pay money for stuff, but it’s not *that* bad, is it? I can be angry at Sony because the game costs 99€ in Europe, which is 157$…But once I’m over that, I believe it is not so bad if they charge us some extra money for new content. Admitting my ignorance in all things game development, if the teams have to create new characters, rules, animations, sounds, etc, they deserve some money. Sure, the company could actually pay them without charging extra pennies to the user…but 14.95 is about the cost of a game deck. I don’t know, is it really SO bad? Let’s see if they charge 15€ here, and then I do will consider giving up, not because of the amount itself but because I feel like a second rate user who has to pay more.
But please, let’s not be so serious about a game!
Peace out from Spain
first i love this game and this post was great! havent had too much info on set 2! thanks! and BTW how would we get our hands on those promos?! (must have… :P)
I still think you guys are missing the point…
A map pack addition to Warhawk costs money. However, playing Warhawk IS FREE. That is still ‘free PS3 online’ but they aren’t just going to give away the addition of a new map pack. People worked hard on that, above and beyond what was in the original game…and those people need their jobs so that they can make more new cool content for the existing games that we all love. Wouldn’t it be nice if they made an update for “Insert name of your favorite game here” so that you could come back to it and play it all over again like it was new?
The set2 update is not free FOR THIS REASON. The software is NOT tied to the card purchase.
You pay money for the cards…you get the cards…and you can look at them…and shuffle ’em and play with them without the PS3 if you like.
Using the PS3 software for the Eye of Judgement is not a requirement to play the card game….it’s an added cool benefit.
When you play Warhawk and new maps come out…you can still play on the old maps…you aren’t forced to play the new maps or buy the update.
Likewise, when set2 comes out…you can still play set1 cards and you can still play online with the cards you have…and you can buy set2 cards and use them at home or not.
But, if you wanna play the new map/set2 WITH YOUR PS3 then you have to buy the new map/new animation.
I mean honestly….don’t get me wrong…I’d love to yell and scream ‘bad corporation! bad! shame!’ but I just think the bottom line is…the game IS expensive and some people are upset it is so expensive and it is creating a bias on the issue in some people’s thinking process.
There is no ‘matter of principle’ argument here. Lots of games come out with updates and optional updates….Oblivion…you didn’t have to buy Shivering Isles…Mass Effect just came out with an update….I haven’t downloaded that, but I can still play the game….pick any game with a map pack release or update. Call of Duty whatever….
The point is, if you don’t want to buy the update…you don’t have to. Maybe you can’t afford it right now…fine save up…get it later. If you don’t want it…you don’t have to get it….but don’t come on the boards and say….no one buy it!
No charge for the update = no motivation for Sony to make any more updates.
No more updates = dead game.
hey mark,
your invite to visit http://www.lbshooters.com is still open.
i would love to buy the new cards, and i think its fair to charge for the update as well, too bad i wont be able to play this game.. and spend my money on it, since canada is not supported, we dont get cards, they dont sell them in any store
great game, amazing potential, but something went wrong somewre distribution wise….
@Hansolo:
I’m not sure what you mean about the distribution…I realize you might not be able to find any cards in a physical store…but there are plenty of places to order online. In fact, that’s the only way to order if you wanna save money! I’m sure some might not ship international…but I’d be surprised if you couldn’t find a few that would.
Awesome news, I also hope we get a heftier manual & sturdy single player/story mode at some point, a couple of choices in the soundtrack dept wouldn’t go amiss either ! Still, psyched about the new cards & update pack !
I wish I could get one of those Promo cards…>.<
Hi Mark,
Thanks for a detailed info and all the updates regards the SET 2.
After finally receiving my SET 2 cards yesterday I spent several hours playing the game again and here is a couple of comments / issues I would like you to comment on / address:
1. Can you increase the amount of Decks you can create in game from 8 to at least 20? (I experiment a lot with new variants of decks and it’s really time consuming to re-register them all the time). Or add function to Export / Import to the file. Also – why is your Game save file “copy” protected?? I just hate to spent over three hours every week to backup the WHOLE PS3 hard drive to have the backup of EoJ save … :((( Surely it’s still account / specific PS3 locked anyway?
2. Since you’ve removed the status option from click access on shoulder button it’s quite annoying now to go to the status screen (and back) via Start-Down-X-Circle-Circle (and also time consuming during ranked games) … ! Can you please bring it back – at least as a selectable option or even better in user definable control? (Anyway – what’s this new trend about all PS3 games ignoring the user definable controls??)
3. The new updated status icons (during the game play) are indeed nice – I especially like the marking of element for each creature in the status field – BUT – now I’m missing the additional info which you need now to scroll to through 4 different screen (mainly Quickening or how is it exactly called and Invincibility / Invisibility statuses) which are not anymore on the “first” status option and you need to roll to second and than back again to first suing in total 4 key presses … :(( Again – time consuming mainly during the timed / ranked games.
4. Finally – the ranks seems to be not updated at the moment at the servers – it always says “Error sending rank date” (or something like that) although it seems to keep the ranking data locally …
Most of the above concerns are also reflected in the UK community forum at EoJ section – mainly the controls and ranking update errors.
Thank you.
Oh – yeah – forgot to mention:
5. Can you FINALLY get rid of that infantile “Press X to Continue” message about saving to HDD every time the game starts … ?! (It’s another new “trend” with PS3 games which is really annoying).
I can understand it at initial load of the game but then it should be either removed or at least optional (preferably with some tick box at the start up – “Do not display this message again”).
And one more addition to point 2. I’m not realy that keen on using the Status / Cancel cards either. One click Status is a real must here …
Hi,
I posted a thread at http://boardsus.playstation.com/playstation/board/message?board.id=eyeofjudgment&thread.id=48063 with an alternative idea to the current PSN payment method for expansions.
The basic idea being that when a new set of cards is released and an expansion is required to download from the PSN to activate that set, that Sony release “key decks” which not only contain a pre-built 30 card deck for the new set, but also a card containing a key on it.
That key is then entered into a form on the PSN to unlock the expansion and download it.
The key can only be used once, so it cant be copied or sold afterwards.
You could charge the same for the “key deck” (or what ever it is called), as you do on the PSN for the expansion. Except now the customer is getting a far better deal, by recieving 30+ cards for the new set too.
The “key deck” would still cost more then a stand alone themed deck, but its far better then playing £6.99 for nothing more then a tiny file and THEN having to pay another £4+ for a deck or five and then booster packs.
I realise you cant use this for set 2 as its already set in place, but how about for set3 and onwards?
hi all. I just downloaded the expansion from the European play station store but is seems that it is incompatible with the us version of the game. Since the games are region free i don’t understand how can the updates be region restricted. Has any one had the same problem . i also am looking for some way to contact sony in order to ask for a refund or to so that they may give me that us update but i can’t find a contact email. I downloaded the update it automatically installed but when i start the game it still says
set 1 version 1 and it pops up the message about version 2 .
Yeah – you’re not alone …
Somebody from UK with US imported version of game end up exactly like you …