Could this game be a reasonabe "E-sport"?

[NoxiousHearthstone]

It can't be considered an e-Sports the same way that Starcraft 2 is, obviously, due to the inherent randomness of card games. However, considering the fact that M:TG and other card games have had tournaments with thousands upon thousands of dollars in prizes, it's far from impossible that Hearthstone might just have a niche in the more "casual" e-Sports scene.

[Deleted]

Phenteo just confirmed that the medal and matchmaking systems are two separate things.

If you want to try out a new deck there is the AI both the basic and expert one. There is also the option to play UN-ranked matches (something they recently introduced in SC2 as well, because they realized people where hesitant to try out new builds in that game also). You could of course also play against friends which are just for fun.

---------- Post added 2013-05-01 at 06:02 PM ----------

It can't be considered an e-Sports the same way that Starcraft 2 is, obviously, due to the inherent randomness of card games. However, considering the fact that M:TG and other card games have had tournaments with thousands upon thousands of dollars in prizes, it's far from impossible that Hearthstone might just have a niche in the more "casual" e-Sports scene.

What about poker, people don't watch that card game because it's random?

[Deleted]

No, but every E-sport is retarded in my eyes so my judgement is kinda meh.

[BenBos]

It can't be considered an e-Sports the same way that Starcraft 2 is, obviously, due to the inherent randomness of card games. However, considering the fact that M:TG and other card games have had tournaments with thousands upon thousands of dollars in prizes, it's far from impossible that Hearthstone might just have a niche in the more "casual" e-Sports scene.

M:TG is not an e card game. Of course it was translated to be on line, but it is not streamlined enough to be successful in a big way as an esport.

Also M:TG is rather unplayable for a newbee in its unlimited form. Against a champ deck, you can play 1 or 2 turns and then watch as you are being killed with extreme odd combo cards. M:TG is a maths game and as such a lot of people don't like maths.

So HS adresses this with a user friendly and noob friendly game mechanic. Monster fighting with cards...

I think both products have their advantages and I think a lot of players will just play the 2. M:TG for real life play and HS on line.

On line will always be more interesting as opponents are always available. But the game has to be good or you'll dump an e game rather quickly.

[Zookini]

Also M:TG is rather unplayable for a newbee in its unlimited form. Against a champ deck, you can play 1 or 2 turns and then watch as you are being killed with extreme odd combo cards. M:TG is a maths game and as such a lot of people don't like maths.

Who starts out playing Magic in unlimited format? The most popular tournament format by FAR is Standard and that is played with the most recent (3 years ish) release of cards.

I don't really disagree with anything you said, but just hinting that newbies even try Unlimited is a joke.

[BenBos]

Who starts out playing Magic in unlimited format? The most popular tournament format by FAR is Standard and that is played with the most recent (3 years ish) release of cards.

I don't really disagree with anything you said, but just hinting that newbies even try Unlimited is a joke.

I see your only counter argument is about ..."newbies don't even play unlimited".

Nice. But it simply proves one thing: Magic the Gathering is a 2 year driven money printer that will give new players the vague hope ... they can be champions one day ... But the company doesn't tell you that to keep playing you will need to keep investing 300/400 dollars on each 4 month expansion to even have a fighting chance.

Past that 2 years "block period", you ll quickly enter the stage that 50% of your investment is no longer valid. Make that 3 years and you might as well stop playing and put all this spend money (2000/3000 dollars) in the garbage can.

Playing in a free style is useless as some card combos are so powerfull that it resembles playing chess with one King and pawn against a veteran having 10 Queens and a King.

It is even more painful: in Chess you'll be defeated in one move. In Magic you'll be tortured to watch the champ play for a 15 minute long turn before being sucked to death in the most boring math exercice you'll ever witness.

It just takes time before MOST players realise Magic is just a money printing machine with a math game underneath.

I hope Blizzard - certainly for the first year - will stay out of this. And like I said, digital versions of CCG's have a tendancy to not last very long. One of the reasons is that they get much more replay on the internet ... And if the game is not extremely good, it could have a very short attention span. Games like shadowera already proved this..

[Lovejoy]

i don't think blizz are trying to make this game anything more than it is, just a game to play in downtime don't imagine it to be a massive time sink

[Deleted]

In theory the game has the all the cards (badum-tish) it need to be an e-sport as it kinda follow their philosphy on how to design an esport (http://www.gdcvault.com/play/1014488...n-of-STARCRAFT)

as far as I can see the game is quite "easy to watch" the information needed to understand the game are presented in a very clear way and it is quite possible for non initiated, imho, to have an idea of what's going on during a match even without a deep knowledge of card games

[Daswolfen]

MTG has some streamed events but I doubt Hearthstone will get that treatment.

MTG players will look down on Hearthstone and it will become a "LoL vs Dota".

Actually, at it height of popularity, Magic the Gathering had the world championships televised on ESPN2.

[Xdega]

I just wanna weigh in here with my two cents. As much as I would LOVE Hearthstone to be an E-sport with coverage by MLG, ESL etc, I really don't see it going that direction. Maybe a few years down the road HS becomes a huge esport, but we shouldn't immediately get our hopes too high.

What I DO see at the very least, are annual invitationals at Blizzcon. To me, the Blizzcon thing would be a success, with inevitable player led tournaments throughout the rest of the year.

With the growing popularity of streaming services like Twitch.TV, I can see a lot of streamed events taking place. These streamed events will need to be careful, though, and have delays in place to prevent cheating.