Marvel Snap players continue to criticize the card game's Collector's Reserve rewards, hoping to prompt a response from developer Second Dinner. Rewards in Marvel Snap have always been a focus of criticism for players. The game is built around a system that grants fewer rewards the more Marvel Snap is played. While the system is absolutely intertwined with Marvel Snap's monetization, it also is key to its gameplay design. Namely, Marvel Snap withholds cards with intent.
Perhaps the most meaningful decision Marvel Snap developer Second Dinner made while making the game was to not make the game a TCG. There are no card packs in Marvel Snap. Instead, players have a chance of unlocking a card via a system combining a time-gated premium currency named Credits. It creates that TCG feeling of innovative deck building due to not having every card, even at the game's highest level of competition, but without the stigma of card packs.
Yet Marvel Snap players are increasingly feeling like Second Dinner replaced card packs with something just as frustrating. A popular meme on Reddit captured the community's feelings recently, showing a comic with a Collector's Reserve saying, "You think you're better than me." The second panel then shows a Collector's Cache saying, "I am better than you." The idea being that Collector's Caches have a significantly higher chance of rewarding a card.
Collector's Caches are earned in Marvel Snap between the Collector's Levels of 500 and 1000. After 1,000, players earn Collector's Reserves. The idea is that Second Dinner wants players to build up a library of cards as they're learning the game. Once they have that library of cards, they want unlocking cards to be a rarer experience. The drop-off going from a 50% chance of a card every 12 levels just before level 1,000 to a 25% chance of a card every 12 levels is harsh, though.
Second Dinner has made some changes, of course. It replaced Boosters in Collector's Caches and Reserves with Tokens, which can be used to purchase specific cards. Still, to accrue the 1,000 Tokens necessary for a card takes 4-10 Token-dropping Reserves to be opened. It's very slow. Marvel Snap players fairly feel like they're caught in an endless struggle to get the cards they want.
While Second Dinner's effort to recreate the feeling of a TCG without the exploitative feeling of purchasing packs that may have absolutely no value, the new system is clearly with its own flaws. That's what happens when gameplay is so innately tied to monetization. Second Dinner can't give players Marvel Snap cards as fast as they want, because the slow cadence is what drives players to spend money and continue playing. There is no easy answer here, but it will be interesting to see what Second Dinner does moving forward.
Marvel Snap is available now on PC and mobile devices.
