When the change was made from action shots to head shots, the Huddle team talked about how a focus would be put on the gameplay more than anything. Over the last week, we have finally gotten a view of what that looks like, and I am a fan. The release of the Black Boosts is a change from the previous type of weekly format that we saw in Bunt, and it might be something that some of the users may not like.

I have seen a lot of posts recently about the value and economy surrounding the boosts, and I think its a bit unfounded to say that releasing a ton of them will kill the value. People tend to look at these like Sigs and other inserts, but fail to realize that points cards have something that other inserts have not – value outside of rarity. Because so many of the Black Boosts are big scorers, they will be valuable regardless of how many BBs are released.

There are some effects though, I will not deny. It becomes a game of how many BB the individual users can collect, and without spending money on the game its very difficult to obtain them. It gives a distinct advantage to the people that will pour coins into the boost packs upon release, and I think that can cause some issues. However, it is really no different than other situations, as those people that spend money would get nicer cards regardless of what was available – the BB mania just widens that gap a bit more.

Now, there is an unintended consequence to this, and that is the VIP black level boost, which now becomes less of a true reward. Before, when there were only a few cards at that level, getting a rare one was a more special event. Now, its a bit less special, but still provides a top point scorer that under 50 people will have. If I had my guess, this will be an orange boost next month.

When you consider the state of the game and how it is changing due to the head shots, I think we need to consider how these cards can make the game interesting again. Because the head shots dont really lend the same aesthetics to the inserts, there has to be something else that keeps people coming back. These Black Boosts are a really good way to bring back some of the magic. Just my viewpoint, but I know there are others who will have very good reasons to disagree.