Hearthstone promo: Blizzard clueless AND desparate?

[Deleted]

Well it is pretty funny way of getting new potential customers in, especially since anyone who wanted to play WoW would have already got a level 20 with a free trial account, they are more likely playing the nostalgia card i think

[Deleted]

Look, Hearthstone has way more players than WoW currently does. WAY, WAY more. They recently said that it has 30 million players. That's more than the whole population of all three Scandinavian countries combined. It's a huge mass of people.

Normally, this hero skin would cost $10, which many people consider a scam. It's pretty high price just for a hero skin frankly.

This promo is quite clever marketing. Because Hearthstone has such a massive playerbase, many people will try out WoW, and while majority will just abandon it once hitting level 20 with starter account, SOME might stick around.

And if the playerbase is 30 millions big, this "SOME" might actually be quite a large number.

Promotions like this are an effective tool to lure in some fresh blood. WoW has a big problem with almost complete lack of new players coming in. It thrives basing on existing playerbase and luring quitters back with things like WOD (on launch it was great, subs surged to 10M) or Legion.

[anakin57]

am i the only one who can't get into hearthstone? maybe its because i have never been into card games

[otro]

Just shut up already community, it's a cool (and free) way to make people xperience their other games.

I hate mobas and had to level my acc to level 20 just so I culd get my feat in game, and voila, I had a blast with some friends doing so (but I still hate moba) hehehe. Just don't whine for the sake of whining.... this generation man... I'm telling you.

[satimy]

This might make me unsub for good. Wow can't get a fuckin content patch while it has millions of subs gets dick all. Fuck blizzard they are EA tier of shit, I hope companies like that fail and burn.

[Ayperos]

How about the loyal wow subscribers, that already have a level 20, and paying monthly, get this out right? So stupid to level something to 20, when I already have a billion times.

[Eleccybubb]

This might make me unsub for good. Wow can't get a fuckin content patch while it has millions of subs gets dick all. Fuck blizzard they are EA tier of shit, I hope companies like that fail and burn.

Over a free card back? Kinda amusing. They can't win when they give you something really small for free and they can't win if we have to pay for it. Make up your damn minds already. You either want it for free or you want to pay for it in Hearthstone. And I doubt it took barely any resources to just stick a cross achievement in. If anything would have taken more to put the card back into Hearthstone.

- - - Updated - - -

How about the loyal wow subscribers, that already have a level 20, and paying monthly, get this out right? So stupid to level something to 20, when I already have a billion times.

I do agree would be better if retroactive though but on the other hand levelling to 20 takes very little time.

[Djriff]

Well you have the option of not doing it if you think it is pointless. Instead of moaning about having to put in an hour of work to get something for free in a game you casually play.

You missed the point entirely then. I've already put in the work, several times over. Why should I have to do it again?

Easily covered by the fact that you don't have to level past 20 and the achievement is open to trial players, no?

They want to primarily incentivise players to try out WoW who are caught up with Hearthstone, be them old or new. They chose a mid-road solution that takes less than an hour for just about anyone to accomplish. Not a bad compromise, tbh.

It is a good compromise, I just feel that since I've already put the time in to grind out to 100 on 11 toons that I shouldn't have to put the work in again.

If it was retroactive then people wouldn't need to resub to get it done.

True, would be very dirty if it required a resub to get done.


On a side note, these you were quoted notifications are awesome.

[Eleccybubb]

You missed the point entirely then. I've already put in the work, several times over. Why should I have to do it again?


It is a good compromise, I just feel that since I've already put the time in to grind out to 100 on 11 toons that I shouldn't have to put the work in again.



True, would be very dirty if it required a resub to get done.


On a side note, these you were quoted notifications are awesome.

Grinding to 20 is hardly work. People have done it in like an hour. I mean yes it should be retroactive I admit but still it's not like 20 takes any effort or hard work/energy to get to.

[Djriff]

No it's the not the effort I'm arguing about, mainly the principle of the matter.

I don't care that it only takes an hour.

[Deleted]

Any time I see a thread title like this, the first thing I do is check the started thread history of the person who posted it. It usually tells me all I need to know.

LOL! This is EXACTLY what I do! In this case it didn't fail me. Pretty generic Blizzard-bashing forum poster here, nothing too special or out of the ordinary.. Borderline troll-bait post tbh.

[Daws001]

It's fine. Liadrin's art looks kind of weird so I'm not chomping at the bit for like I was with Medivh.

That said, I'll probably level a toon to get it. Maybe...now that I typed that out loud I kind of don't want to lol

[Kalx]

meh. getting to 20 on wow is much easier than say, get to 20 in hots to get Graves. As a pet collector I still didn't get even close to this point because I despise mobas.

[palamanian]

I don't generally see what the big deal is. If you're like me and have been playing WoW for nearly 10 years, and you feel you shouldn't have to level to 20 for this, then don't do it? Odds are at some point you are going to level a new alt, and at that point you'll get the skin without bitching and complaining about it. I personally will level a new toon to 20 and enjoy the skin now.

[Deleted]

Since you can get the achievement on a starter account, you don't need to be subbed or anything, so yeah, why are ppl crying?

[Irian]

They said from the beginning that they definitely intended to have more cross-game features like this.

It has nothing to do with desperation, it has to do with clever marketing. They put stuff in each game to reward you for playing the other game as well to keep interest up in all of their games, and this is particularly useful when there's a new release or a game that requires payment to play. It gets new players to at least notice the existence of other games or even play a game that hasn't been on their radar for a while or at all.

Keep in mind, Hearthstone is by far Blizzard's most popular game at the moment and likely for the foreseeable future. They would be stupid not to do stuff like this.
If you play both WoW and Hearthstone, this is a win-win.
If you're a WoW player, this may spark interest in checking out Hearthstone more.
If you're a Hearthstone player, this will make you revisit WoW.
If you can't see why they'd do something like this then you have zero business sense and should stop spouting buzz words like "clueless" and "desperate".

[Deleted]

meh. getting to 20 on wow is much easier than say, get to 20 in hots to get Graves. As a pet collector I still didn't get even close to this point because I despise mobas.

Takes like a day or less to get to 20. Especially when you get the stim pack at lvl 10 ish.

[Baconeggcheese]

Pretty much as the title says folks.

The sub numbers must be down pretty dramatically below that 5 mil mark if they're trying to drive Hearthstone players towards WoW with card rewards. I'm just wondering, are Blizzard banking on the wrong end of the game? Unless a new player is lucky enough to roll an Undead, Goblin, Worgen, Pandaren or Death Knight, they're not really going to get an epic starting experience that holds up in 2016.

If I wasn't invested in the franchise I probably wouldn't be sold on WoW anymore by rolling an Orc, either Elf or a Human.

Should Blizzard have maybe pushed players towards a boosted start in a later expansion with a stronger story as their jumping-on point? Mounts from level 1, something like that? Just some thoughts.

Been saying they need to invest in early game for a while now, but that isn't exactly an easy thing to do at this point. Really they just need a clean slate to work up from.

If wow launched today and had its early game experience vs other games no one would continue playing it. Other mmo's flat out do it better these days... as they should because they were built much later from scratch.

[A dot Ham]

Pretty much as the title says folks.

The sub numbers must be down pretty dramatically below that 5 mil mark if they're trying to drive Hearthstone players towards WoW with card rewards. I'm just wondering, are Blizzard banking on the wrong end of the game? Unless a new player is lucky enough to roll an Undead, Goblin, Worgen, Pandaren or Death Knight, they're not really going to get an epic starting experience that holds up in 2016.

If I wasn't invested in the franchise I probably wouldn't be sold on WoW anymore by rolling an Orc, either Elf or a Human.

Should Blizzard have maybe pushed players towards a boosted start in a later expansion with a stronger story as their jumping-on point? Mounts from level 1, something like that? Just some thoughts.

I am curious about this as well.

But I am not nearly as ready to slay the beast that is Blizzard, like you are.

For HS it made sense, its a new game, get people to play a few games, reward them with a mount. That made sense and it worked. Get existing players to check out other titles the developer offers. But for the reverse HS players introduced to WoW... the game is old and I can't imagine the influx of players to low level zones is really going to make the game feel much more alive.

I am find the majority of players that are leveling to 20 for the achievement/card are existing WoW players. It leads me to believe there is something else going on here. Stress testing? Collecting data on existing players preferences of zone, class, race? Time 1-20? I don't know.

[palamanian]

meh. getting to 20 on wow is much easier than say, get to 20 in hots to get Graves. As a pet collector I still didn't get even close to this point because I despise mobas.

I agree, leveling to 20 in WoW is a few hours, could be much worse. I gave up with HOTS around level 14. I'll go back when I have time and finish leveling to 20, but like you I hate mobas.