User blog comment:AKFrost/Scarcity of Blue and Purple stones - artificial?/@comment-166.48.184.4-20130721045659

While your analysis of the current sealstone system is accurate and comprehensive, your solutions are lacking in depth which you showed in your analysis - here's my reply/take on this issue.

Much like events, sealstone collection represents a challenge for the players. While most of the earlier Sealstone Daemons are mediocre at best (hence availability of the corresponding sealstones are common), the "hotly-contested" sealstone Daemons are quite powerful. Completing one set is a personal achievement - completeing a full set is a momentous milestone, especially if one is a free player in the 81+ zone. Making sealstones easier to obtain in any way would diminish this accomplishment.

As for your solutions... trading system won't work. AGG is a Collectible Card Game, as opposed to Trading Card Game, meaning there never was, nor will there ever be, a trade feature in this game. Introducing such concept would open up the game to scamming and in worst cases, hacking and account theft, which I am sure most players would rather avoid. And the selling of certain types of sealstones won't work either, because silver by itself is a weak incentive to players. Accruing silver is a simple task for both low/high level players, and aside from fusion, Silver has no value in the game.

Still, what you've addressed IS a real concern in the game, and while moderate challenge serves as a motivation, severe one serves only as a frustration. However, the solution to this problem lies in the very foundation of AGG - balance between cash and free players. The only reason why certain sealstones are difficult to obtain is due to the huge power gap between the players: the weaker ones (cash minnows/free players) are preyed upon to the extreme by the whales, and as to avoid confrontation, the former puts off collecting rare stones until the end.

So what is a real solution? Close the gap. Will it happen? Not as long as Zynga remains greedy. What are the chances of that not happening? Close to zero.

We're out of luck on this one, I am afraid.