Snap no more
For some time, Marvel Snap was the only digital card game I could stomach. It was, and in many ways still is, a prime example of what the genre should be.
This game could not be physical. Each match relies too heavily on randomly selected locations and card effects, which (at times) would be impossible to track with cardboard and dice.
But it’s also simply an exhilarating experience at its core.
The bombastic gameplay is constructed with precise deck building, in-the-moment strategizing, and a healthy dose of luck (a key tenant of any good card game) that I frankly couldn’t get enough of.
As is so often true of gaming in the modern era, I’ve felt my desire to play Snap wane in recent weeks (just like many others) because of monetization. For the first time in well over a year, I have yet to purchase this month’s season pass (and currently have no plans to), nor grinded my way to the top player tier (Infinite).
I don’t mind some monetization, and generally, Marvel Snap has handled things well. There have been plenty of free-to-play ways to earn its premium currency (Gold) so you can purchase cosmetics (such as alternate artwork for your cards), and the only card locked behind a paywall each month was the Season Pass card – and it would become free to earn the following month.
However, subtle frustrations have been growing. There have become steadily fewer ways to earn Gold simply by playing the game and its events, there have been leaked datamined plans for the upgraded Super Premium Season Pass to include its own exclusive game piece (meaning two cards will be stuck behind a paywall each month), and during the recent High Voltage Overdrive event, the top prize was practically impossible to win without using Gold.
Some Reddit users did manage to play enough to earn this card (Kid Omega) simply by playing a lot, but to get a sense of how difficult this feat is, this player apparently played 42 hours and 38 minutes of Marvel Snap during the event and still had to dish out 100 Gold to afford the card.
