Magic: The Gathering Arena Devs Reveal Plans For Game's Economy

The developers of Magic: The Gathering Arena have been hard at work trying to come up with an economy system that not only makes them money but also keeps the players interested. Today, they published a post on the M:TG site outlining their plans.

Currently, the developer plans to utilize two forms of currency in the game's economy: gold and gems. Gold is earned in game by accomplishing a variety of things -- game wins and the like. Gems are purchased for real money. The plan is that both gold and gems can be used to purchase all the same things -- with the possible exception of some cosmetic items being purchased using gems exclusively. Both currencies will be used to unlock packs, events, and other items. Of course... the selling point of gems is that they eliminate having to wait until you've earned enough gold to buy something.

According to the post, the purpose behind this system is to ensure that players don't spend their time in game doing things that are time consuming, but not fun, just for the sake of doing something. Because of this, they're working with a few principles that the above economy system will work with. Specifically, the devs plan to give players several ways to earn cards rather than buying them -- as well as make use of excess duplicates.

They've also created a way for players to get their hands on cards they want using Wildcards that can be exchanged for cards the player wants -- so long as they're the same rarity level as the wildcard the player possesses.

Of course, the system is a bit deeper than that and these are just some of the highlights. For all the details, you'll want to hit up the post on the Magic site.