Question about shiny versions of agents

I would like to ask agent enthusiasts.

During last Beyond the Veil interview with Tilty he confirmed that all these pink shiny versions of agents is fluff only with no extras. Or at least it was the plan. The pure and simple psychology behind the card collector games to offer something rare and fancy.

Excuse me, as I have never been into card collecting etc. but I am really curious. Does it really work for you? Are you really motivated to grind/buy purple shiny ones? There are no extras. There is even no different graphic. Which is “fulff” thing I would be able to understand at least. No stat bonuses but at least to have some nice different picture of my agent. Or unlock some extra gallery with nice pictures of agents. Or unlock some lore info about their background. Anything. But the current version with shiny effect only
 I cannot help myself, but it is laughable


So, does it really work for you?

Nope
I also found the effect underwhelming for how much more expensive they are on the AH and how much more rarer they are in drops.
It’s like a bit of sparkle
even pokemon gave more with recolors. Would be cool to get like alternate skins like the skins of museum stuff or so. Fluff only is fine but it gotta do more than sparkle a bit in white of all colors that I care. That said not going to pass up a shiny agent if it drops.

I understand fluff argument. For me, I don’t need any extra numbers. I am not minmaxer. If I would get some extra lore info about agent or as mentioned some nice picture of him, I would think about to get some purple ones maybe.

But this sparkle effect. First thing I though was they can’t be serious, It must be a joke


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I find the effect so underwhelming that I am actively avoiding special agents until I have a method of disabling it. Thinking of calling it Edna Mode.

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The shiny agents are very underwhelming (Lydia and Oleg). As there isn’t any reason to have them, I have zero intention of purchasing/pursuing more of them.

Edna mode - good name!

The ‘shiny’ effect actually looks ugly on the agent pictures, and if I ever accidentally use a foil version of an agent dossier then I would be willing to pay to remove the effect.

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My first online game was a TCG. That didn’t have shinies, but many TCGs later had.

The first time I was introduced to shinies, I was all “oooh, it’s so shiny!” and “it will take forever to collect all shines!” and “wait, I can probably get A LOT of cards I need for this shiniy that I already have a regular version of” and “why do we like shineis?”.

In later card games shinies often mean animated art. It’s cooler than just a glossy version, but it’s still just a shiny.

To answer you question: In general: It’s cool to have something rare, and it’s fun to show off animated cards, but I do not go out of my way to obtain them. If I get it, cool, if not, no biggie. As for the shiny agents specifically: underwhelming and I can’t really who them off in a match now can I?

Actual shiny treatment would be a bit silly too (high quality beard gloss, now available in 24 colours!), but I wouldn’t mind trading in the sparkles for some background art. Trade in the discount police photoshoot look for some location shots based on their bios, maybe sneak a few small easter eggs into the pictures. I recognize it’s a significant art investment though, so I’m not about to expect it.

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The more attractive they make the agent system, the more booster packs they’ll sell.

They can only make more money by investing some money.

I’m not a collector so my opinion doesn’t directly apply, but I actually dislike the effect. For me a foil agent isn’t in the “I don’t care” territory, it’s in the “I don’t want it” territory. I have already passed on a foil agent to sell on the AH and I didn’t buy the foil Lydia from Caligari.

Does Oleg Yablokov have a non-foil variant when you buy the SA Collector’s Edition? It should be an option.

As far as i can tell from my dealings with card collection fans, the point of foil cards is either to be uber-powerful (some Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, apparently), exclusive foil only (also some Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, apparently), or something to show off with (e.g. by having an all-foil Magic deck).
(Generally, virtual cards e.g. in browser games seem to fall into at least on of the three categories, usually the first and/or second.)

Funcom misses all three points: foil agents don’t do anything special, they’re not exclusive (aside from that SA CE one), and people can’t show off with them because there is literally no way to show of one’s collection.

I’d be amazed if anyone gives a damn about SWL foil agents, as that would require someone far more “collector for collection’s sake” than any real CCGer I have ever met.