The fundamental flaws with Hearthstone

[Binko]

But they would lose half of their income that way *sarcasm*

IMO OP just listed some of the flaws of every single TCG, hence they're not counted as flaws.

Trouble is that Hearthstone is not a TCG or ever a CCG because you can't trade or give away cards. You buy or earn "cards" which simply unlock game play mechanics.

Every other online "TCG" that I've ever played had an active community that would commonly give cards to newbies to help them get started. Also you could trade cards to plug gaps rather than go through the grind of dusting cards and creating new cards which is fundamentally a single-player game mechanism.

The fanatic few who inhabit these forums jump down the throats of anybody who complains about the difficulties of being a new player. But if Bliz doesn't address the barriers to entry soon this game could simply turn into a playground for the hardcore.

[matt4pack]

I only started playing about 2 months or so ago and I've won enough to get the daily quest rewards each day. I've bought plenty of card packs and 2 wings of Naxxramas so far just from completing daily quests.

Most of the time I seem to be matched up against my level opponents although occasionally I'm completely outmatched but not enough to become frustrating.

[Chickat]

1. As a new player, you have nearly no decent cards.
2. To get decent cards you either need to spend $100+ OR grind for nearly a year
3. When you get decent cards, you beat new players with ease


The game has a horrendous barrier to entry.

Such a shame that this great little game has been ruined by economics.

Good players have made basic decks and gotten legend. As long as you can still get to rank 15-20 with basic cards, the games fine.

- - - Updated - - -

Trouble is that Hearthstone is not a TCG or ever a CCG because you can't trade or give away cards. You buy or earn "cards" which simply unlock game play mechanics.

Every other online "TCG" that I've ever played had an active community that would commonly give cards to newbies to help them get started. Also you could trade cards to plug gaps rather than go through the grind of dusting cards and creating new cards which is fundamentally a single-player game mechanism.

The fanatic few who inhabit these forums jump down the throats of anybody who complains about the difficulties of being a new player. But if Bliz doesn't address the barriers to entry soon this game could simply turn into a playground for the hardcore.

If the leak is correct, Hearthstone now has 75m players. I think they will be fine..

[Deleted]

If the leak is correct, Hearthstone now has 75m players. I think they will be fine..

Vast majority whom are all casual players on low ranks. The idea that HS is going to become some kind of hardcore haven laughable.

[Binko]

If the leak is correct, Hearthstone now has 75m players. I think they will be fine..

Not unless that 75m is defined.

75m that have downloaded the client? 75m that have played in the last week? 75m that have bought packs or arena tickets in the last month?

My guess is that's 75m downloads. Which means exactly nothing.

[mrgreenthump]

HS ain't doing bad though by no means. Sure we don't know the numbers(financial), but from all I've seen it's a massive success far beyond what Blizzard estimated. So it's all good.

Not unless that 75m is defined.

Mm, though as you said it's probably accounts or active players(don't know how they define it)

[Bapestar]

Trouble is that Hearthstone is not a TCG or ever a CCG because you can't trade or give away cards. You buy or earn "cards" which simply unlock game play mechanics.

Every other online "TCG" that I've ever played had an active community that would commonly give cards to newbies to help them get started. Also you could trade cards to plug gaps rather than go through the grind of dusting cards and creating new cards which is fundamentally a single-player game mechanism.

The fanatic few who inhabit these forums jump down the throats of anybody who complains about the difficulties of being a new player. But if Bliz doesn't address the barriers to entry soon this game could simply turn into a playground for the hardcore.

This is 100% spot on.

[Mormolyce]

Trouble is that Hearthstone is not a TCG or ever a CCG because you can't trade or give away cards. You buy or earn "cards" which simply unlock game play mechanics.

Every other online "TCG" that I've ever played had an active community that would commonly give cards to newbies to help them get started. Also you could trade cards to plug gaps rather than go through the grind of dusting cards and creating new cards which is fundamentally a single-player game mechanism.

The fanatic few who inhabit these forums jump down the throats of anybody who complains about the difficulties of being a new player. But if Bliz doesn't address the barriers to entry soon this game could simply turn into a playground for the hardcore.

IMO tradeable cards wouldn't do much to make the game more accessible. You could give everyone every card and it wouldn't fix that problem.

HS is a pure PVP game. In PVE games the monsters get steadily harder to ease new players in. In PVP you're playing against the community average skill level from the outset. How do you offset that? You can create newbie modes but there's no way to guarantee the people playing actually are of the same skill level. Best you can do is matchmaking, which HS already has, and that essentially enforces a 50% winrate in the long term regardless of your skill.

[mongoose6]

Because......

if all the cards were unlocked, you wouldn't have needed to put the time and effort into getting them either.....



then the game would be more about skill and knowledge of card selection than who has spent the most money or time on getting cards.

But then they wouldn't make any money off of the game, that wouldn't make much sense for them to spend money on developing a game and then just put it out there completely for free. It's a business not a charity.

I think that's where alot of folks go wrong with hearthstone. They think that everything should be 100% free and that Blizzard is evil for creating a system that promotes spending money. Grow up.

[Twoddle]

But then they wouldn't make any money off of the game, that wouldn't make much sense for them to spend money on developing a game and then just put it out there completely for free. It's a business not a charity.

I think that's where alot of folks go wrong with hearthstone. They think that everything should be 100% free and that Blizzard is evil for creating a system that promotes spending money. Grow up.

Which makes it a flawed game.

[Nikkaszal]

Because......

if all the cards were unlocked, you wouldn't have needed to put the time and effort into getting them either.....



then the game would be more about skill and knowledge of card selection than who has spent the most money or time on getting cards.

It already IS about this. You know how my mates started playing? They got through the tutorial then I took the iPad off them and cobbled together a deck full of very strong basic cards and advised them how to play.

Boom. Win, win, win, win, win...

[araine]

I don't understand why someone thinks they should have access to the same cards as me when they have not put in the same amount of time and effort that I have.

Just proves what i have said the whole time, it is a pay to win game.

[Super Kami Dende]

1. As a new player, you have nearly no decent cards.
2. To get decent cards you either need to spend $100+ OR grind for nearly a year
3. When you get decent cards, you beat new players with ease


The game has a horrendous barrier to entry.

Such a shame that this great little game has been ruined by economics.

I seem to be pretty damn well as F2P. Also, it's a Collectible Card game, All other games of this type require you to pay money even to be a beginner.

Magic doesn't hand out free basic decks, do Yu-gi-Oh, Pokemon TCG (Well the Online version does, but also requires real money like Hearthstone for boosters).

So its not the economics that ruins it, it is simply just you not understanding the genre.

[Mormolyce]

Just proves what i have said the whole time, it is a pay to win game.

You can pay to win or play to win. All paying does is speed up the card acquisition process, which you can do simply by playing.

If you think HS is P2W then I hope you never play an actual P2W game, your head might explode.

[mongoose6]

Which makes it a flawed game.

Uh...where was the flaw?

[Faltemer]

The game is designed to make money. The best way, really the only way to do this, is by selling cards/expansions for money. It literally couldn't be simpler.

This threads need to be closed on creation since they are clearly just trolling.

[Deleted]

Just proves what i have said the whole time, it is a pay to win game.

You buy all the cards in the game, spend all the money you want, get a full gold deck together, loads of legendaries, then go up against someone who has a deck with no legendaries, but actually knows how to play the game.

9/10 the person with actual knowledge will win.

The moral of the story is, if your going to give your game the ability to purchase something with money, you'd better be prepared for all the shit tier players to complain and whine about how the entire game is P2W, because they played however many matches they had to, to get the Hearhstone mount for WoW, came up against 1 or 2 legendaries, and instantly assume that because that deck beat them, it must be an amazing deck that can only be got if you've paid2win.

Frankly, I love these threads, and I love people like you, because it means i'll always have easy opponents at the start of the month, means i'll have an endless source of amusement on these forums, and its great watching Blizzard completely ignore anything and everything you say because they know how to run there own game.

[Twoddle]

Uh...where was the flaw?

The game is designed to make money. The best way, really the only way to do this, is by selling cards/expansions for money. It literally couldn't be simpler.

This threads need to be closed on creation since they are clearly just trolling.

You are absolutely right no one is arguing against that and that's what makes the game flawed. As someone mentioned it costs $1000+ to buy the game outright, up until that point there is a correlation between the amount you spend (or the time you've played) and the proportion of games you win. How does that not make a game flawed?

It won't end there either, just when you've played for a year and think you reached equilibrium Blizzard will dangle the carrot again with more expansion packs. The game is hard-wired into making money.

Btw I am not whinging or whining, I love this game. It's especially satisfying when I beat someone with a deck full of legendaries and epics vs my basic deck with a couple of G&G packs and 3 wings of Naxx and I've not spent a penny.

[Deleted]

You are absolutely right no one is arguing against that and that's what makes the game flawed. As someone mentioned it costs $1000+ to buy the game outright, up until that point there is a correlation between the amount you spend (or the time you've played) and the proportion of games you win. How does that not make a game flawed?

This paragraph right here has so much bullshit crammed into it i'm going to ignore the rest of your post and just rip this apart.

You are absolutely right no one is arguing against that and that's what makes the game flawed.

Don't understand this line, I think if I did I might end up a git gud scrub like you, so it's probably for the best.

As someone mentioned it costs $1000+ to buy the game outright

Yes, because until you have every card in the game, you can't play the game. This line of argument is so stupid, so beyond stupid its insane. Some of the best decks in the bloody game at the moment cost less a thousand dust to craft.

up until that point there is a correlation between the amount you spend (or the time you've played) and the proportion of games you win

No there isn't. You see the thing about playing the game, is that you get experience, you learn how to play the game effectively, how to use certain cards in certain situations, how to trade properly, how to predict what your opponent has in his hand, hell how to predict what deck your opponent is playing based on the current meta. That's what makes a player good, that's what gets you into the highest ranks, not having a full gold deck, or spending thousands of dollars buying card packs.

But no, because you are bad at the game, you assume that it's the games fault and that they must be hiding the cards that will make you win behind a paywall.

How does that not make a game flawed?

This sentence once again, being a repeat of the first sentence in the paragraph, makes no sense.

No one argues that it is a flaw for Hearthstone to make money, therefore it is a flawed game.

Ah fuck it i'm bored lets do the rest of your post.

It won't end there either, just when you've played for a year and think you reached equilibrium Blizzard will dangle the carrot again with more expansion packs. The game is hard-wired into making money.

A profitable game, a card game no less, putting out an expansion pack with new cards in it? HOW IS THIS A SHOCK TO ANYONE? DO YOU COMPLAIN WHEN ANY OTHER GAME BRINGS OUT AN EXPANSION? "Well i've just finished getting all the achievements in WoW- OH COME ON BLIZZARD WHATS THIS EXPANSION BULLSHIT THATS COME OUT OF THE LEFT FIELD"

Btw I am not whinging or whining, I love this game. It's especially satisfying when I beat someone with a deck full of legendaries and epics vs my basic deck with a couple of G&G packs and 3 wings of Naxx and I've not spent a penny.

Right so the rest of your post is arguing about the ability to buy card packs, the expansions and all that, and how you have to spend money to enjoy the game. And then you invalidate everything else you just said by claiming that you love the game and haven't paid a penny for it. And to top it all off, in the ultimate git gud scrub cliche, you make the mistake of thinking epics and legendaries are more powerful than commons and rares.

[Repefe]

You are absolutely right no one is arguing against that and that's what makes the game flawed. As someone mentioned it costs $1000+ to buy the game outright, up until that point there is a correlation between the amount you spend (or the time you've played) and the proportion of games you win. How does that not make a game flawed?

Well, how does it make the game flawed ... normal games, you HAVE to pay to play. That's the standard. You don't pay, you don't play. Now players see HS and somehow paying for that game seems like a travesty. The last GTA game, how much F2P gameplay did you get out of that game ? How much free gameplay did you get out of the last call of duty ?

Morons coming to forums baffled that games cost money to make. The shocker.