Onigame, please answer me this question: why are you convinced this convoluted algorithm is necessary, especially for casual players? Have you played Dominion with new players a bunch of times using full random and had them complain that too many kingdoms weren't fun? Because I've never had that happen.
Your actual question is loaded -- it's confusing "new players" with "casual players".
Currently, I refuse to play full random with
new players. I pretty much hated the game after my first five plays or so, and that was just full random with base set. After I grew to like the game, I initially would play full random with new players, and I noticed a similar reaction. I have played probably around 3 games with players for whom they had played the game once with experienced players on full random, and felt that they just "didn't get the game" and weren't interested in playing it again. I convinced them to give it another chance, but with the First Game Starting Kingdom, and generally their feelings towards the game improved.
Casual players I define differently. Even though I've probably played the game a few hundred
times by now, I consider myself a casual player (although I'm definitely on the edge). The line that I draw is this: A serious player is looking to better themselves at the game and is willing to spend time improving their skills. A casual player wants a few dozen minutes of entertainment. The fun in Dominion, for casual players, is not about learning cute-but-rare interactions, or about making strategic decisions that increase your chances of winning by 1% at a time, but about playing the common interactions that most players who are no longer "new" know about.
I remember a discussion I had, not soon after Intrigue came out, in one of my regular gaming groups. Some players wanted to veto Saboteur and Torturer, on the grounds that games with them aren't very fun. David desJardins said something along the lines of, "Why aren't they fun? The purpose of the game is to win, why does it matter whether the winning score is 30 or 2?" That was probably the starting point of me noticing this divide.
I think it is likely that casual players are the "silent majority" of Dominion players. I would say that every single employee here at Goko is a casual player, which is why sometimes have to fight pretty hard about getting card interactions to actually work correctly. I bet if you put a poll within Goko, asking the question, "Is it important that when-buy and when-gain work correctly?", the votes for "Not really, but we should do it because the fan base wants it" would outnumber the votes for "Yes, because it's the right thing to do."
There was a period in my life when I played on isotropic regularly, maybe about 3 games a day. At some point I realized that I wasn't enjoying the overall experience. I hated getting crushed by high-rated players because I didn't want to invest the time into bettering myself. I kind-of enjoyed crushing lower-rated players but I couldn't get the full enjoyment because I knew there was another human on the other side that was losing. I hated going through "crazy" kingdoms.
Now on Goko, I get a much happier play experience. I play lots of bots and I don't have to feel bad about crushing them. I still suffer through the "crazy" kingdoms, but now that I actually got off my ass and wrote a generator that decreases them I play them much less.
I really don't feel that my play desires are that uncommon. I play in a local pinball league; few of the other players there spend time doing card games or board games. I know of at least three people there who play Androminion on their phone, against a bot. I've asked them if they would rather play on isotropic, and they say "no, I tried isotropic and all the players there are too good."
If you want it so that new players can get the hang of the game with some good kingdoms, Adventure mode already takes care of that. Hell, the fact that they can only play with the Base Set takes care of that. I've said it before: Dominion has become very popular without your fancy algorithm that reduces variety.
I'm not denying that it's become very popular without my fancy algorithm. But if you're trying to make an argument that giving people the
option of my fancy algorithm is going to decrease its popularity, it's going to require more than that assertion to convince me. Dominion is a popular game, but I want to see it reach the popularity of Farmville.
Why are you so convinced that there is a problem and that an algorithm of your design is the solution? You yourself have said that there are a bunch of other things you'd like to be working on. Why is this such a high priority? Every time you post, it seems like you're operating under the assumption that this randomizer is necessary for Goko. Why? Why can't you just tell them, "Hey, turns out this was a bad idea. Nevermind"?
I can tell them that, but I won't tell them that because I don't believe it. I do want to get user feedback into the next re-design, so that if it
is a bad idea, I can find out.
Then I will tell them that.
Again, the reason I'm so vehemently against your algorithm is that it only serves to reduce variety. In my eyes, Dominion's main draw for new players is that variety. I'm guessing your algorithm is more likely to make the experience of playing several games less fun for new players, rather than more.
Right, this is a fundamental disagreement between our philosophies. I believe that Dominion's main draw for players is a certain level of manageable variety, but then any additional variety added on top of that is lost on most players. I bet the most popular game on Windows right now is Solitaire. People don't play that because they want variety, they play that game because they know the rules already and it's a fun way to waste some time. (Did you know Windows Solitaire has six different ways you can play it? I believe most people don't because they're not looking for variety.) I want to try to get Dominion into
that niche.
(My favorite game, Race for the Galaxy, by the way, totally has more variety than Dominion. I think one big reason Dominion is more popular than RftG because Dominion has
less variety.)