Why not just implement this inside WoW?

[Andeus]

It wouldn't be F2P, for one, and for two, I think it would complicate an already huge and daunting game for someone new to it. On top of leveling and questing and dungeons and raiding and achievements and PvP and dailies we have a full trading card game? No.

That's a bit silly though considering that they already have a whole Pokemon game in there which will continue to grow, evolve and become deeper and deeper. The same excuse Blizz used for that applies here too: It's optional. You don't have to learn everything about it, or even learn anything at all.

The real excuse for not being in WoW, is money. As a part of WoW it won't generate any income at all, whereas as a stand-alone F2P game they can add a store and make a substantial profit. Also given it's F2P nature it will give awareness about Blizzard franchises to people that are strangers to everything Blizzard.
And let's not forget that WoW already has a ton of distractions for people to do when not raiding/PVPing -especially after Pet Battles- so Hearthstone's impact would be minimal in the game.

[Ragnarocket]

I'll agree that it's a bit about the money, but they could just as easily have added the store to this if it was tied to WoW. This just opens it up to a wider group of people instead of limiting it to only WoW players.

[Andeus]

I'll agree that it's a bit about the money, but they could just as easily have added the store to this if it was tied to WoW. This just opens it up to a wider group of people instead of limiting it to only WoW players.

No need for the "but" there. Your second sentence shows that it's more than a "bit" about the money. By going F2P it has access to a wider audience = more potential store buyers.

[sykke]

I think there is a money aspect to this but more likely the addition of Hearthstone inside WoW would have been too much. Hearthstone works better as a standalone game.

[Orby]

Is this an ipad exclusive or will it be on the PC?

[Anjerith]

The point was for them to prove to themselves they can make something *outside* of a currently established game that is both fun and fast.

Putting it in WoW would almost necessitate an expansion worth of data, not to mention testing with the in-game engine, all sorts of crap.

[Kelimbror]

Is this an ipad exclusive or will it be on the PC?

Both.

And putting it in WoW would have been a monumental mistake. If someone thinks that a paltry 10million people is going to be a bigger potential audience than the world wide tablet ipad and PC market...yeah, lol.

[sykke]

I am very confused by the first part of your post. "I think there is a money aspect to this..." Isn't there a money aspect to everything consumer based? Blizzard, being a business, is out to make money in the exact same way any other business does. By creating and then selling a product.

To be fair, I am simply quoting you to illustrate what I mean. This confusion extends to everyone who using the phrase "It's about the money." I guess I will never understand.

If Hearthstone was implemented as a part of WoW it would require an active WoW subscription and limit the playerbase to the WoW playerbase. With it being standalone Blizzard can make a lot more money from the store as both the PC/Mac and iPad playerbases are much larger. This is how I see it.

[Endus]

There's no real reason to put this in WoW;

1> If you want a mini-game in WoW, there's already pet battles.
2> They can easily make cross-game rewards within WoW from Hearthstone, via Battle.net accounts, if they want to tie them together, so not being within WoW is no loss.
3> You can play Hearthstone without being subbed. This A> adds a larger audience and B> potentially is a way to keep/bring back ex-subbed WoW players.
4> You can't play WoW on mobile devices (for the most part). You can play Hearthstone, though. More flexibility and mobility is a nice option.

You can play this alongside WoW with no additional cost. There's no really big reason TO integrate it directly, if it works just fine on its own.

[Deleted]

clearly targetting the "facebook/ipad" gamers.

those who are playing, angry birds, plants vs zombies etc.

Not especially, it's simply targetting EVERYONE, i havn't any tablet, i havn't even a facebook account, but i'll play this game.

[blackblade]

From a technical standpoint:

-> You would want the in-game app's cards, PC app's cards, and IPad app's cards to be sync'd. (Doubly true because you're paying real money for them)
To include in wow, you would need to:
-> Run a service that connects to battle.net's "Hearthstone" servers to acquire your decks, cards, etc.
--> This poses security implications; Outside of battle.net wide chat, the more intertwined your services are, the harder it is to secure.
Chat is the exception, because it's fairly easy to sanitize. You can only contact people cross-platform if you're connected by Real-ID, which cuts back on people using it to send spam.

-> Include a GUI, which would essentially add the entirety of the app to overall size of WoW's installer.
-> Also note that WoW exists primarily in your RAM while running. This is why modifying an Addon directly through the WoW folder doesn't show in game until your restart.
--> Which means that including this system to be accessed on a whim ingame, would have to require some serious implications to the size of the game.
--> The Pet Battle minigame, largely uses existing assets; And while most of the assets in Hearthstone are 2D, or based on existing assets (like the arcane missile animation shown in the reveal) changes to the game(Hearthstone) would need to happen to use WoW's assets in place of the assets used in the standalone app, in addition to moving the 2D card images over.

-> There's ingame transactions, "Booster Packs" are bought with real money. IF they did implement it into WoW, they would either need to set up a secure connection to a payment server (Again, security implications) or make you go around and buy the cards directly from your battle.net account info; (and at that point, why not just run the standalone app)
--> Some of the appeal and impulse purchases are lost if you need to jump through too many hoops to be able to purchase stuff.


-> It creates a toxic Multiplayer environment; It's very likely that players are going to be sitting in a queue for 10mins, playing hearthstone during the downtime, and likely bail in the middle of the match (or worse, try and draw out the queue timer and finish his match quickly, or try and continue the match while running LFD)
--> While this is still a plausable issue as a standalone app, I would imagine that planting it ingame would make it much more common.


-> They would also need to sanitize it against addons. WoW's interface is pretty volatile, there's plenty of places that could be used to undermine the game, manipulate the info moving between clients in a 1v1 match, and potentially give one user an unfair advantage over the other.

-> Implementation of new content would likely need to be tied down with WoW's own iterations. This means that the core app could only get new content when WoW gets new content. (Because again, if I buy cards from expansion X, and wow doesn't have the cards from expansion X yet, there's a problem.)


Ultimately, I think it's better to keep them separated. If you wanted to play WoW and Hearthstone at the same time, the only thing limiting you with this model would be your own system. Both titles are free to get updates as they please, and I would expect that the F2P model of HS means you'll be seeing constant updates. (New cards = new reason to buy new cards.)

[Deleted]

Blizzard will DEFINITELY implement an option to play this in-game or while on Battle-net.

[Deleted]

I'd rather it as a standalone to be honest - I have a lot of friends who will play this who aren't subbed to WoW and I'm guessing that making it inside WoW would also very much limit (or at least increase the development) the iOS side of things.

[Darsithis]

That's a bit silly though considering that they already have a whole Pokemon game in there which will continue to grow, evolve and become deeper and deeper. The same excuse Blizz used for that applies here too: It's optional. You don't have to learn everything about it, or even learn anything at all.

The real excuse for not being in WoW, is money. As a part of WoW it won't generate any income at all, whereas as a stand-alone F2P game they can add a store and make a substantial profit. Also given it's F2P nature it will give awareness about Blizzard franchises to people that are strangers to everything Blizzard.
And let's not forget that WoW already has a ton of distractions for people to do when not raiding/PVPing -especially after Pet Battles- so Hearthstone's impact would be minimal in the game.

I'm not saying that there isn't a financial consideration, just what I think is big when it comes to putting it in WoW. Plus, as Endus points out, it opens Hearthstone to a much wider audience.

[Valeron]

As others have said, it would limit the audience if they just put this inside WoW.

[grisset]

Blizzard will DEFINITELY implement an option to play this in-game or while on Battle-net.

Matchmaking will be handled on battle.net, as it says in the release. There will not be an in-game system. This will be stand alone.

[Mamut]

Because when I want play card game I dont wanna launch 25GB title to be able to play this.

[Z3ROR]

I think it will be cool if this game will be integrated somehow into WoW.

For example: You go to to one of the bigger inn (the ones with an actual building). There is a new NPC standing there to talk to.
Speaking to him launches the integrated Hearthstone-application in WoW (which will be installed if you got WoW installed on your computer) then you will play against players through the battle.net matchmaking or a friend or realmbuddy.

[Jeleh]

Because it can make more money as a standalone with minimal development and maximum micro transactions.

[Endus]

I think it will be cool if this game will be integrated somehow into WoW.

For example: You go to to one of the bigger inn (the ones with an actual building). There is a new NPC standing there to talk to.
Speaking to him launches the integrated Hearthstone-application in WoW (which will be installed if you got WoW installed on your computer) then you will play against players through the battle.net matchmaking or a friend or realmbuddy.

How is this in any appreciable sense different from just opening Hearthstone in another window?