What's the point of mirage master?

[ChiYoung]

I know that a lot of older players can get 15 Gran a day, but if the point of mirage master is to get people to come in every day, then why not just give players 10 gran after the first win of the day (even in the single player arena)? That way players don't just log in to grab 10 Gran, and it can introduce the game to newer players through wins.

Before you start hating on me for making a suggestion about changing the system, hear me out.

I know a lot of older players can get 15 gran easy, but some days it's really hard, especially when the cards keep turning up wrong. It make it frustrating, especially for newer players, to get the free gran. Especially when Mirage master has nothing to do with playing alteil, only to do with the shop system. In this case, the lure of getting gran to have people log in every day is outweighed by the frustration of have to beat the game.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have players get gran after winning a game of alteil instead? I know that it's pretty hard to do that too, sometimes, but if we made it so that people could get the win after beating an npc, I don't think that it would be too bad.

[Ropey]

With the intro of the free daily lotto I never do the mirage master as it's so frustrating, and lags as I recall . I suspect it has become redundant to a lot of players. Anyone got a good high score?

[Peralisc9001]

It only helps those still patient enough to do it or those that have wrote their scripts to do MM for them.

[WhiteDragon2]

-One match and doing free lotto -> about 10 gran gained in about 25 minutes and a lot of randomness in the reward (actually gain slightly less than 10 gran due to lower recycle rate than the value of the lotto)
-Doing an easy mirage master (intermediate 3 star) -> guaranteed 10 gran gained in about 1~2 minutes

Thus MM is more efficient that the daily lotto and you avoid the randomness of the lotto with it. Though the harder MM can be frustrating at times, it also helps you earn more.

A lot of online games also just give the reward just for logging in instead of requiring you to play a game to get it. I'd prefer that myself though it's not a big issue.

[VertuHonagan]

I actually have to do mirage master during the week when my internet isn't secure enough to let me play a game. I can sometimes finish mirage master. Even though it takes about 10-30 seconds just to load the cards up. Its pretty frustrating trying to do something at home, but MM will let me do it from time to time.

[Anima13]

I agree its annoying on long term (though I have a nice nostalgy now playing it again), but its the best way to increase your cardpool as it enables targeted purchases which is far superior to a random slot machine. Doing 15 gran MM regulary was enough in the last year to collect enough gran for prebuilts and ex packs in my chosen sphere, and this is a lot for a free player.
I would love any alternative to MM grind but there is none, and the free lotto is only intresting if has an increased rarity and if I miss enough ** from my cardpool.

[hexagram]

mm is better for gran and does not take too long as long as your willing to do it. Most people like myself are usually too impatient although I should really start doing mm again

[LoneKnight]

I haven't done any MM since reopen...

I should I guess but I'm too jaded for it.

[Peralisc9001]

BTW! i get lots of 1 stars from the free daily lotto, mostly only 1 stars and I DO HAVE most of the 1 stars, which means the daily lotto gives me 5 gran for playing for about 15 - 25 minutes most of the time anyway.

Now what's better a recycled 1 star that gives 5 gran or 10 gran which is easy to get in MM in under 5 minutes?

[MysteryMan]

Does anyone actually enjoy Mirage Master? I personally don't like the idea of it giving more gran than the daily lotto simply because "it's harder" and here's why -

At the end of the day we should really be focusing on incentivising players to do things that make the game better. While giving something that is more difficult a better reward seems like a good idea at face value, what we really have to ask ourselves is - what's the gain? What this really does in reality is try to force users away from playing and onto Mirage Master with the promise of a better ROI.

There are really two factors I care about here. First, does it give the immediate reward of a player enjoying the game more? I don't think it does (though I'm just one opinion).

Second, does it help the community? I think it actually deters from the community. The daily lotto increases the player base. It lets people try out new decks and add variety with a garuntee of a reward. It lets new players acclimate themselves with the game for a reward, even if it's against an NPC. The Mirage Master removes the daily lotto rewards for that day and gives nothing to the community or the player's long term understanding of the game aside from seeing artwork.

If it doesn't help the community, doesn't increase the user's enjoyment of the game, and isn't much of a learning experience I fail to see how the difficulty curve alone can justify the reward in this particular case.

I'd love to hear Logress's take on this once he gets electricity back (or I talk to him over the phone). I personally see Mirage Master as more of a hindrance than a benefit but not enough of one to remove from the game. What we really need is another reward that gives as much benefit to the player experience and the community as the daily lotto with as good or a better ROI than Mirage Master.