Even if you’re not super-invested in Magic, you likely caught wind of the controversy surrounding the recent Marvel Secret Lair Superdrop. Everything that could’ve gone wrong went wrong here. The site experienced technical issues, players managed to cheat the system to buy product early, and even once delivered there were quality control issues with the drops themselves. The whole thing was a circus from start to finish. In an effort to address this, Wizards has put out a survey for purchasers of the Marvel Secret Lair drops. Clearly, a certain threshold of player anger has been reached here.
The Marvel Secret Lair Survey
Magic player AngelAlexG shared an image of the survey on the r/MagicTCG subreddit yesterday. Based on the discussion in the chat, it seems like it’s being distributed via email to those who purchased any of the Marvel products. This makes sense, but is also a flawed approach for reasons we’ll get into later.
In terms of specific questions and content, we don’t know a huge amount about the survey at present. That said, we can extrapolate a bit based on everything that went down. It’s very likely that the survey gets into the user experience of the Secret Lair site, for example.
“Is this for people that were actually able to purchase the drop? Because that’s would greatly limit the amount of pissed off comments they would receive.”
Rastalmp0sta
Many of those who had issues in this regard were unable to actually buy their desired drops. This may skew the data since the biggest complaints would come from those who couldn’t purchase at all. It’s likely that Wizards factors in the many, many complaints out in the community too, but this could be a blind spot if not.
Beyond that, the Marvel Secret Lair survey likely addresses the other issues that befell the drop, too. I’d be very surprised if there were no questions about the condition of the cards, for example. It’s hard to say for sure since this isn’t a publicly available survey, of course, but the fact that it exists at all is a step in the right direction.
“I recognize that everything maro has said suggests current management makes decisions based heavily off of study groups and other market research so this definitely matters.”
chaneg
Those who follow Mark Rosewater’s Blogatog will be well aware of his constant references to data and player feedback. These are tools that Wizards use to chart Magic’s future, so the answers players give here are vital. That Wizards is carrying out a survey on this specific Secret Lair drop speaks to the scale of the discourse surrounding it.
An Encouraging Sign?
It’s great that this Marvel Secret Lair survey exists. More opportunities for the community to make itself heard are always welcome, especially in such a turbulent time for Magic. The real question is whether the results of this survey will actually have an impact.
“These surveys are important. I don’t know why people have this notion that customer feedback surveys are just pandering. So much money goes into setting just one survey that they wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t worth it for them. Data is that valuable and if data says they should pivot, they will.”
_hapsleigh
Many in the thread agreed with the comment above; that the answers given here will, in fact, influence future Secret Lair drops. For my part, I truly hope they’re right. The current model is definitely more investor-friendly than it is player-friendly, prioritizing speedy sellouts over players actually getting what they want. Wizards could, and has in the past, address this by upping supply or switching back to a print-to-demand model.
Beyond these philosophical problems, Secret Lair currently has a lot of technical problems too. You can be waiting for upward of four hours in the queue in some cases. Many have reported being kicked out even after doing so, too. To make this worse, a newly discovered exploit has allowed some crafty shoppers to get in up to two hours early. Naturally, these are issues Wizards will want to address soon.
“No. It’s just to keep selling the lie that they care about customer perception only to follow with “but people keep buying so you’re wrong”.”
Anibe
Of course, some players are less than convinced that this survey will make a difference. Given how fast it all sold out the Marvel Secret Lair Superdrop is likely a success story for the company, despite all the surrounding issues. For that reason, Wizards may be hesitant to make changes, particularly to the supply side of things.
Whichever side of the fence you’re on, I think we can all agree that the survey existing is better than the alternative. Wizards may not listen to what players have to say, but at the very least they’ll have the chance to say it.
