Edited. I initially thought that Chinese gamers specifically would prefer shorter matches (due to their time limits on gaming), and for that reason, we have this humungous power creep. Now, after further thought and help from Eulrich, I realize this is the case in all regions.
well you´d need statistics for who´s the biggest spending age-group.
i somewhat doubt it´s minors without much own income that spend a ton of money on a cardgame?
Aren’t most Hearthstone customers adults?
that would be my guess aswell.
ofc in times when people mostly play on their smartphones on the go there´s probably still a huge audience that prefers shorter games without much thought.
but i doubt the Chinese are to blame here anymore than any other nation in these fast living times.
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Come to think of it, it’s not uncommon for players here to express that they prefer shorter matches. It’s frequent that players want to climb as fast as possible, and so will use aggro. Maybe there’s something to that.
In retrospect, I shouldn’t have named Chinese people specifically. Although, I imagine there is some incentive on T5’s part to decrease the length of games for all regions for the reasons I mentioned.
What do you mean “decrease the length of games for all regions”?
Is it reference to a year-year/expansion-expansion comparison over the last 8 years?
or is a gut-feel only?
This is entirely speculation. I meant that T5 is incentivized to shorten the general duration of matches. This enables players to play more matches in X amount of time. I believe this is what the playerbase generally prefers. And so, that’s why we have the immense power creep we’re seeing now.
Again, entirely speculation.
I still don’t understand.
There is 2 points you have highlighted above.
How do you determined general duration of matches are shorten? based on?
Based on the former, the powercreep would then applies to aggressive card designs. Then, that conflicts with designs of Gruff or cards that expand the Health to 40, etc.
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I’m not basing my speculation on data. I may be misremembering, but it feels like matches often end in less time now than a few years ago when I began playing.
You make good points. This hypothesis is probably wrong?
My thinking was that shorter matches helps to bring in new players and please some of the old ones. Shorter matches means that players can fit more games into the time they have.
might also just be compared to the period when we only had renathal of the set.
games then genuinely lasted ~15min for me on average, now we´re back down to sub 10.
albeit it can be said that even then when people just wanted to play quick games murloc shaman probably won or lost all its games within 5min.
Which players are doing: playing aggro decks to have shorter matches. This is especially the case on the ladder for those that want to climb in the shortest amount of time.
Iirc there are some sites that also shows the average game time/turn during each period.
Without basing on data, personal bias can get in the way as personal preference of playstyle/decks changes along the way, affecting the perception.
While early turn has become more aggressive, the tools available to counter them also exist. Else, OTK/combo could not have exist meanwhile.
I am susceptible to psychological pitfalls like anyone else. What “feels” like matches are ending sooner than before, is likely that I am looking through nostalgic tinted glasses.
I appreciate your help in navigating my thought processes. I wouldn’t be shocked if matches are ending sooner than before, but it’s probably not for the reasons I thought.
@Reaver —Have you dabbled in any HS since we last spoke? I hope you’re doing well!
The only way is to find out the truth yourself via proper data reference and analysis.
Much like any rig thread or such, lay out the data and analysis method, and then you can see if you are right/wrong.
I am ok, free from HS but still stuck with forum.
Do you know where I can find turn length data for past expansions?
I am out of touch but maybe something the discord can help answer.
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I’m just here to see your post counter go to 10k 
Awe, shucks, that means so much to me. Thank you! It took a lot of spam to get to this point!
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Average game length is on hsr you can find it if you look around, things were steadily getting faster until they peaked at stormwind.
Alterac valley slowed things down a bit and then sunken city kinda slowed them more.
I haven’t looked at game length for this expansion yet, but let’s see
Implock, miracle rogue, and naga priest are all roughly 6.5 to 7 turn decks.
Skeleton mage, druid, and shaman are 9 to 9.5
Kind of a mixed bad there. 6.5 would be faster than we saw on average in stormwind, but 9.5 wasn’t really even possible then.
Basically you have a few classes with really powerful early tools and a few classes with tons of powerful lategame tools and demon hunter, warrior, and paladin are caught out in the wind because they can’t compete on either end.
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I went to meta but when I click on decks turn details isn’t there. I think it might be because of the limited data as the patch is new. I’ll look again in a bit.
But, yeah, I was admittedly going by feels and not facts. I’m usually pretty good about that. Shame on me. 