Nix31: So I've played the single-player that's available so far (online, I did try to play it offline just to make sure and you can't even start the game), these are "challenges" (fairly easy ones) for you to earn some cards. It was alright,
fun even. But I am aware that as I get more and more into this game, the bigger the chance I'll be inclined to buy stuff with real-world money - I mean, at least if they balanced it "right" for it to make them lots of money.
Saying a f2p game's microtransactions are optional is missing the point. The fact of the matter is that these games are designed to tempt you to spend money, they are designed in a way that makes it seem worthy to invest money into the game. In GWENT, every keg (booster pack) comes with a rare or legendary card guaranteed. So if you buy a few dozens of those you'll get good cards easy. Maybe not the ones you want, but good cards (you can always just buy more).
As fun as this game is, I play it
aware that it's free-to-play trash. The incoming single-player campaign will most probably also rely on this microtransaction-enabled economy and that's a shame. I wouldn't hold my breath for a full-fledged offline single-player game, although that would be awesome. Playing a card game against AI is more engaging than I thought.
Anyway... It's a pity GOG/CDPR decided to stain their hands and franchise in f2p trash, but since they did, I really wish it was banished to be steam-only. It's a wild west over there already (and this game would probably be well-received).
As a side note, it gives me hope to have people still adamantly standing for the DRM-free principles. I feel like a blind consumer in comparison. I honestly have been learning and considering new things, like the whole thing about multiplayer being locked to a central server without lan options nowadays, never gave much of a thought about that; it's an option so frequently taken away/not considered nowadays that I just learned not to expect it, but didn't think about how devs just don't bother and give shitty excuses for not implementing DRM-free multiplayer options.
The game was designed to compete with Hearthstone, you can't do that if it doesn't have a robust online component and microtransactions. So then the next question is given the way it was designed, do you still make it available on your store (notice I didn't say 'sell', because there is no upfront cost to the game)? Despite what this thread is saying now, I can only imagine the outright shitstorm if Gwent wasn't even available to GoG customers when it was developed by their parent company. Also of note, just because GoG has certain DRM-free principles doesn't mean the exact same thing applies to CDPR, else they would went the EA/Origin route and only sold Witcher 3 on GoG.
The writing on the wall for all of this stuff happened the day Galaxy was announced. If you are going to design a multiplayer only game you need a good platform for said game. Enter GoG Galaxy.