@fraggle - I have bought about 2500 credits (i think), and am also currently going for my masters degree in business with a concentration of marketing. I am interested in buying these missions, however, i myself (believe it or not) am on a limited budget, and with new cards coming out every other friday, I would much rather save my money for this. However, i would certainly purchase these missions, if the rewards were more substantial. I believe that giving the players nice cards (like a
Gibson or a
Jiro...or a
Toro) would make these missions more fun.
Even if you gave the credits back to the players (for obtaining gold standard) it would do a few things.
For one, it would make players play the game more, and invest more time into the game. Rule number one of any F2P model - Time is money.
Secondly, UR would get the credits up front, which is already "getting the money" to pay for such features, it would allow players with limited budgets whom want to get their money "back" to invest more time into the game, and time is money.
In my personal opinion, these single player missions should be aimed at newer players, whom wan to "earn" competitive cards for
ELO mode, and veterans like myself whom want to purchase "cost efficient" content (which does not necessarily have to affect the sales of NB packs).