Earlier this week, GameInformer spoiled that “Sharing Is Coming To SolForge.”

What is Sharing?

Trading / Player-to-Player Transfer / Sharing allows you to take a non-account-bound (now called “Shareable”) card and Share it to someone on your friend list. When you do this, your Shareable copy is replaced with an account-bound copy and your friend also gets one. That original card can no longer be shared by anyone, but you both end up with playable account-bound copies.

The system is more limited than some community members would like – not surprising considering Stoneblade’s previously stated plans to implement part of the system sooner, rather than the full system later. So what follows Sharing?

This is pretty much the form that trading will have. We plan to expand on it in the future. — Brian Kibler (@bmkibler) November 3, 2014

In a follow-up SolForgeGame.com news post Justin Gary noted, “we plan to add a more complex interface allowing players to better coordinate sharing back and forth – something akin to a more traditional trading system – but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the gifts you give and receive!”

Hopefully we see some further clarification of what future plans exist, as open-ended statements leave something to the imagination of players trying to understand how to best handle their existing (potentially Shareable) collections and acquire new cards steadily.

Other Upcoming Changes

Adding to the difficulty with that critical collection management issue is the announcement of other sweeping changes to card acquisition opportunities and the overall in-game economy. Stoneblade’s news post, “New Features Coming to SolForge: Sharing, Multi-Forging, Elite Tournaments, and more!” sounds incredibly appealing from the title – but the Devil is in the details.

The community has expressed major concerns with this announcement on topics including the the account-binding Sharing process, the viability of the new cost and payout structure of tournament queues, the incentives of Elite Tournaments, and the impact of a reduced motivation for a diversity of playstyles. It would be great to hear how Stoneblade developed the planned model, to give the community a better appreciation for where things are headed.

Set 4 News Feedback  – Frequently Asked Questions

• How do the changes impact the priority of spending Gold over Silver?
• Will people who used to queue frequently still be able to enjoy the game as they did previously?
• Will the goal of “going infinite” or improving to on-demand free tournament play (from paid / delayed play) still motivate players to spend money on Gold?
• What secondary market opportunities will exist now? Ever?
• How can players best manage Silver as an all-purpose resource?

While I can’t draw a conclusion from the feedback regarding the impact of the announced changes in the wild, it seems the perception of the changes is having its own effect. Managing player concerns prior to and immediately following release will be critical to the successful launch of Set 4. While we’re waiting though, it’s spoiler season!

Breadth of Community Response

Update Nov 6: Posts on this topic have expanded steadily to include suggestions of alternatives, further perspectives on other positive and negative elements to the changes, and SBE interaction with the community. I’m not updating this section further, however, the bulk of new comments appear to be coming through solforgegame.com/forum/general-discussion and reddit.com/r/SolForge.

Forum:

Analysis of the New Tournament Structure – Bleed/Gains and Comparison to Live

Sharing, Trading, Hoarding – Who, When, How?

TANSTAAFL – A look at the new cost of ConQ

StoneBlade: Please reconsider some of your announcements for the health of the Game

Who will use Competitive queues? Subscription Model Time?

New tournament Structure, more Pay2Win?

What the new patch means for 24thour streams

Any whales quitting?

With sharing, no trade system?

Question about hoarding tournament result packs for set 4

Antinomy (Alternate Art and Elite Tournament participation)

my thoughts on the changes to the game Trading Website?

Potential New Revenue Stream?

Poll time! Do you prefer the announced tourney payouts or the current ones?

All Gold tournament Prize Suggestion

Number of players in draft is going to plummet

SBEs Motivation – Some Blind Guesses

An idea solely for Draft/Constructed payouts entered with Gold

An analysis of the update news from a drafter’s perspective

So long, Stoneblade, and thanks for all the fish

Tournament payouts analyzed by the numbers

Expected value of an Elite Ticket

Competitive Draft Prizes seem to need alteration

Sharing is coming to SolForge — Set 4 news

Sharing- Darken is Confused and Wants to Know More

Reddit:

Constructed Payout Analysis and more

Flawed logic in new price payouts?

As a relatively new player, SolForge’s new draft payouts are a hugely positive change

Poll time! Do you prefer the announced tourney payouts or the current ones?

Will packs won with golden tickets contain tradable cards if opened after update?

A quick note in regards to players impacted by ticket bleed

Cash value (paypal/bitcoin) for cards

What would make Casual Draft more appealing to me Going Infinite, comparing the new and old systems

Analysis of the New Tournament Structure – Bleed/Gains and Comparison to Live

How to safely share?

Tournament payouts analyzed by the numbers

One more opinion on the changes

To Share or to Squat

StoneBlade: Please reconsider some of your announcements for the health of the Game

More news: “Sharing, Multi-Forging, Elite Tournaments, and more!”

Independent:

Stoneblade – Official Announcement

Dead on Board – Card Sharing and You

Game Informer – Sharing is Coming to SolForge

Ghox’s Socks – Share, Craft, Queue, Shuffle

SolForge community members on Facebook, Twitter, and Steam