do you think

[Proskill]

do you think this game died from not being able to 'gg' your opponent after a game? cuz blizzard FORBIDS me from say GOOD GAME to the enemy team, eventhough i just want to appreciate their work
blizzard simply assumed the term 'gg' is toxic
just wow

[Cæli]

I think the game didn't catch up because the art style is dubious at best
models feels like clay with washed out colors, unlike models in classic wow for instance
I guess people who are ok with that care mostly about the gameplay, which you get tired of
it might also be an issue with the genre

[Thrif]

I'll go out on a limb and say it had more deep-rooted issues.

Like trying to ride the moba wave years too late with a dumbed down version nobody asked for.

[Littleraven]

It came too late. Had Blizzard gotten this game out like 1 or 2 years earlier than they did I think it would have had a good chance of being a bigger success. Whats crazy to me is that MOBAs were created within Blizzard games. Aeon of Strife in Starcraft initially and then to much wider popularity with DOTA in Warcraft 3. The fact that BLizzard didnt hop on it then is wild. And sure who knew the genre would explode like it did but its just funny that Blizzard was the last one to the party when the party started in their house.

[Stormspellz]

it was poorly handled from day one, calling it a "hero brawler not a moba", then locking hero talents behind hero levels, hots 2.0 where it made it harder to directly buy skins you wanted with real money (cause that makes sense), never advertised it, and on and on

[Viikkis]

I don't think that preventing chatting with enemies is the reason. Though I guess they could've allowed at least the GG emote to be used for good sportsmanship but meh enemy chat just creates even more flaming. Good thing we never had it IMO.

[ro9ue]

Way too late to the MOBA party was probably the primary reason.

[C20]

No, I don't think that's the reason why. I feel the reason they cut the crew down to the bare minimum was a financial one, and not one of passion. It happened very abruptly, so I figure someone high up looked at the figures and made the decision to leave it on life support. I think many of the team got moved to work on Hearthstone and WoW as both those have had significant amounts of content over the years since HotS was 'stopped' and evidently they make more money.

Let's be honest, unlocking all the heroes in the game can be expensive, but there's no continuous income being generated by it once that point is reached. Hearthstone has card packs (and hundred, maybe thousands of cards), WoW has subscription and microtransactions. Diablo is a bit of an outlier, but they were building new games in the past few years so they were almost guaranteeing some income from that in the future.

I feel they reached a point where they'd got heroes that cover every niche, and coming up with interesting mechanics for them without significantly overlapping another hero is a difficult task. I'd like to see new heroes, but that's just not likely to happen.

I'd also love to see new content, but that's unlikely to happen unless they add some sort of new modes. Maybe a single-player campaign that goes through different maps set in each of Blizzard' game universes? Maybe a mode where you've got what you have now, but multiplied 3 times (e.g. walls > walls > core > walls > walls > core > walls > walls > core)?

I'll say that I hope it never goes away. It's the only game I actively play these days precisely because I can jump into a game and be done in 20 minutes or less (I'm a vs AI sort of person because I find PVP in most games frustrating these days).

I'll go out on a limb and say it had more deep-rooted issues.

Like trying to ride the moba wave years too late with a dumbed down version nobody asked for.

I prefer HotS to any other moba, precisely because it's "dumbed down", but I'm also the sort of person who prefers playing against AI because traditional PVP frustrates me in most games these days.

[Thelxi]

I think it died because it's bad. It would never have been alive were it not for the Blizzard name. Everything about it is bad. The whole thing is in poor taste.

[Jotaux]

I still play hots almost every day.

[neik]

Being a side game, I still clock in level or two on most days. I personally enjoy it, it's fun and chill game.

[Aeluron Lightsong]

Late to the moba party, not something that has no relation like artstyle.

[deenman]

do you think this game died from not being able to 'gg' your opponent after a game? cuz blizzard FORBIDS me from say GOOD GAME to the enemy team, eventhough i just want to appreciate their work
blizzard simply assumed the term 'gg' is toxic
just wow

yeah the devs in every blizzard game have thig weird mentality,you cant even say sorry in hearthstone anymore

[Jonnusthegreat]

People just want to farm in a jungle for 45 minutes and then 1v5 an enemy team. That's why HotS failed. It's too team based.

[FelPlague]

I think the game didn't catch up because the art style is dubious at best
models feels like clay with washed out colors, unlike models in classic wow for instance
I guess people who are ok with that care mostly about the gameplay, which you get tired of
it might also be an issue with the genre

what the fuck kinda complaint is this?
The art style is great
washed out colours?
What the fuck even are you on about?

- - - Updated - - -

I don't think that preventing chatting with enemies is the reason. Though I guess they could've allowed at least the GG emote to be used for good sportsmanship but meh enemy chat just creates even more flaming. Good thing we never had it IMO.

ive played moba's where you can only speak in emotes to the enemy team... its not good, you still obviously get people who are toxic who then message you after. hell even in hots without being able to speak people troll the enemy team and mock them with sprays and
"shuffle hearthing"
(Where you spam the hearth button while moving making a weird spam effect)

[FelPlague]

But nah the reason hots failed is a few things


1. it entered the market way too late, with the big shots already out and full of players it was rare for newer players to go to hots, or players from the other games to move over, cause they already know that game, or their friends play it.

2. its free to play mechanics were shitty to start, they fixed some of the major problems early on but it was not great

3. some of the early press really fucked the game, the rune system which is something LoL had was intended, but people hated it so they removed it, but that idea being even a possability ruined the game for a lot of people

4. its a casual moba, it doesent have the complexity of the other games with items and last hitting and individual player power, and with that it brings in the casual players but well... sad to say it, moba in general is not a casual genre. Just like how MMO's are not a genre made well for people who cant/wont work in groups.

- - - Updated - - -

League is way more polished and the gameplay is better in general.

What? Literally when the fuck did i bring up league?

[FelPlague]

You...didn't? League success takes away from HotS. HotS is essentially League on training wheels. Game's bad.

No I did not, you need to get some reading glasses.

[FelPlague]

yeah the devs in every blizzard game have thig weird mentality,you cant even say sorry in hearthstone anymore

Idk man its pretty funny memeing on people with this.

[melzas]

The major issue is obviously it coming late to the moba party, it's kinda the same reason new MMORPG games fail - because it's very hard win players over games they have been invested in for years like WoW or LoL.

There is also a good chunk of fuck ups when it comes to game design as well, they wanted to reinvent the moba wheel and added a lot of mechanics that weren't in other mobas (like team shared xp or lack of items), that despite being very good in execution made good chunk of players not interested to even give it a try, admittedly I personally was also turned off by the idea of shared xp in moba and was close to not giving a game a good try because of it.

Same goes for catering to "casuals" in a genre that is supported by tryhard PvP players, carebear automated report system (people being perma banned for being rude in chat by automated system, where rude/toxic PvP tryhards are the lifeblood of the genre), horrible monetary system that gave out skins and heroes for free (I admit I would occasionally buy a skin or a bundle pre hots 2.0 and never spent a dime after... Skin revamp with shards/diamonds and craftable skins/lootboxes must have been a disastrous financial decision which in turn made the game a lot less profitable I'm sure), bad decisions when it comes to what heroes to add (Nexus original heroes... Really), high upkeep of game (I'm sure crating new maps with new voice overs and highly detailed hero models cost a lot more to create than new heroes in lol).

So yeah imo game failed because it was late + plenty of minor fuck ups that just grew to major proportions that eventually killed the game.

[Nerraw]

Amateur scene is still doing great. In Heroes Lounge we've just had the third-most teams ever sign up for the new EU season, despite this being the longest time without game updates in its history. Only two seasons with more signups were when Covid lockdown first went into effect and the last season before HGC got axed.