Talk:Golden Rush/@comment-77.56.221.221-20200405084959/@comment-38998704-20200405130637

The MA was amusing the first time it was applied. The duel system had been set up; the WOF was just around the corner but we didn't know that. The values to run the MA were much lower and the sources of gears fewer; mostly they came from the duel chests. The times were playable -- so if you worked carefully you would have different colours of chests ripening in your duel house just in time to meet the next deadline. Yes, it was hell at the top where you might set an alarm clock to prepare a 0600 spin. It also meant that the 'buy out' clause on the duel chests suddenly acquired a use -- in the last minutes before the deadline you might throw 15 rubles to redeem a chest to get the needed points. At the time, the WOF hadn't flooded the market with rubles nor was there a duel reset, so if robles didn't come from your winnings in the daily tournaments (or presents from the devs when they confessed to a glitch) you might be tempted to buy some. This need of early duel chest redeeming would have given the devs a small but steady point of income (fair, if you ask me.)

The result of this sentral role in gears from duels was that expanding your duel slots became tactically useful -- the more slots the more parking spots for stronger chests to ripen in. Many who had accidently hit the wrong button and seen their valuable rubles disappear for another useless card-spewing slot were distraught -- (prior to the duel system it seemed impossible to gain dupes of desirable cards, now we suddenly had idiot cards all over the place.)  When the WOF was introduced the excess cards were now mercifully re-cyclable; and having more slots heavily desirable as a source of income. While the WOF was still spewing out its generosity (either above or below board) it made sense to increase your slots to prepare for the next MA.

However, by the time the second MA came around the bubble had shifted. A perceived imbalance in the distribution of MA awards had gotten many players pissed off:  all that meticulous calculation work to get there, and then to be subject to a non-scientific random spin that appeared weighted against them. Now, there were so many gold and silver boxes stashed in people's pantries that duels lost their relevance as a source of cards; opening silver boxes had become a perpetual wealth generation machine. Some stopped managing duels alltogether as much work for little pleasure. I cannot remember the detail here, but the second MA just brought forth the sense of injustice, without any joy of the intricate puzzle with duel chests and timelines. Since then the multiple sources of large amounts of gears and the short overheating periods and high prices for a MA spin have rendered the little detail in the value of the duels insignificant. One silver box, bought for less than 3 hrs and 15 mins worth of flag hits out on the island, is worth the same 150 Magic Beans as a gold chest built up over 2 days (and maybe saved for weeks).