RB: Acquire This

Scott Hardie | February 8, 2009
Last weekend, some of you noticed the new feature that lets you declare which bands in the game are your favorite performers. If you didn't, it's easy: Click on their card, then add yourself to the list of players who call it one of their favorites. I'm glad to see that some of you have already browsed through the Collection Guide and declared every favorite already, and I encourage those of you who haven't to do so now.

The main reason I added that feature is now done: The Acquisition Guide, which helps you find compatible exchanges with other players. For example, Johnny Cash is a favorite of Russ and I have it, and Santana is a favorite of mine and he has it, so the guide suggests a trade concert between us. I guessed that two ranks apart is as far as anybody would be willing to trade, but feel free to tell me otherwise.

Later, I might add in a link to swap cards in the Card Exchange, but for now I'd rather use this to encourage trade concerts. What's better to get players trading than knowing how to acquire their own favorite bands and entice potential opponents in the process? If you really want to swap without the concert, you can easily do so with a few extra clicks.

I'm still polishing the final outcome a little, but I wanted to launch this feature today and get players using it. I look forward to the temporary surge in trade concerts. If you have suggestions for improving this, I'd like to hear them. Thanks!

Scott Hardie | February 8, 2009
I should mention that the guide presumes that players will not be willing to trade their own favorites away, so it doesn't include those on the list. It does not bother to ignore exclusives, since almost all exclusives will be a favorite performer of the player. The other thing that it does not ignore, at the moment, are cards that are already tied up in concert or in an offered swap at the moment, but I might add that later.