Hearthstone Open Beta is Here!

[imabanana]

Hearthstone is a fun game but I think I'll give it a miss till launch.

Monetizing a beta doesn't sit well with me. I think it's a incredibly bad business model for consumers and don't want to see it in the future, it's the same reason why I don't purchase Early Access Alpha games.

The worrying thing is I appear to be in the minority on these kinds of issues.

Sadly that's the way lots of games work now.

Beta is soooo convenient for developers. They gain this magical almost unlimited joker "Oh yeah, the game is broken, but well, it's beta, not our fault".

Was mostly used on web applications for a long time (hi gmail), but seems to gain on the gaming developers. And I can understand that, they keep the best parts of both worlds (well, both parts for them) : money, and the magical joker for any failure on their side.

[twothe]

The worrying thing is I appear to be in the minority on these kinds of issues.

Maybe... but not alone.

Those starter decks from Trump seem outdated to me

I just had a look at the Paladin deck and that one was nothing but random cards put together. Not sure why anyone would play that deck.

[Elestia]

I think the Trump starters are pretty lacking-- they're the most basic of basic cards you get at the start. If you could update them or perhaps build ideal decks, that would be great. I tried rebuilding my druid deck with the recommended cards,-- not that I expected them to work, but to at least try it out. The deck was garbage. There's maybe 4 minion removal in the druid deck... the rest card-draw battle-cry with no attack.

Also as a few people have mentioned, there isn't a whole lot of strategy involved. Sure, you can predict what your opponent has, but most smart players of a class will have certain spells, so the game becomes predictable and a matter of luck. Examples: Playing as my rogue today against a warrior. I did a turn 3 alarm-o-bot with Norzdormu and 2 assasinates and a sap in my hand. That's gg, there's nothing he can do about it, except scramble a low cost 3:2 and hope to have a charge. Or when playing a mage, surviving long enough to cast your nukes. Or playing a priest, Mogu'shan warden with 2 divine spirits and inner fire (turn 4 -turn 5 gg).

The game completely gets boiled down to minion removal at all costs (part of why the starter decks are so bad). Mages and priests (arguably Warlocks too) do so well because they're spells are so powerful--cheap and straightforward. All classes have removal, but most actually require some planning to set up. For example, Swipe and FoK are useless without spell power. That's not to say Arcane explosion doesn't need SP, but having a spell power rogue deck? I've seen it done, but it weird. Imo, hero based abilities is great, but when it comes down to who has the better balance of removal with damage that they can sneak in, the game is lacking, the rules and latitude in strategy is stagnated. If there is an exception, its likely unique to one class or another, like brawl for warriors, or auchenai soul priests for priests. Even then, these are weak examples because they don't necessarily require detailed execution or ensure a win when pulled off. They just help kill minions.

I have fun playing so far. I've won amazing games, spent a few bucks for extra cards. ("Testing the store, lol." In a beta. -.-) Pay to win? Yes it is a thing. I've seen some of the most ridiculous constructed decks. Just when you beat an epic/legendary and think, 'oh wow that's cool they got that card' no sooner do you think that, they use another 5 of them during the game, either winning by the skin of their teeth, or vice versa, where maybe you happened to pull one. Definitely not a game to take seriously, and as such, probably won't be spending more money on it.

[peterpan007]

Very addictive. Never played a card game before and I'm really like this. Need more time to play ....