Hey there @Blizzard and Hearthstone community at large, prepare for a rant I guess? I have never posted on forums before in 13 years of Blizzard product use, I would like to preface this piece by saying that, and I played through wow Cata AND WoD.
I logged on today to play a quick game of battlegrounds, simple enough, having purchased a battle pass about 3 weeks ago now I’ve enjoyed a bit of a rekindling of content on an otherwise (IMO) stale platform, I used to play pretty loyal ladder hearthstone but I’ve come unstuck like many of you have, when i saw the battle pass being released after the beta came to live i thought well, yes it’s a bit @#$%ty that Blizz didn’t let us organically earn the pass through the mode we wanted to play but hell, they have staff to pay i get it. Fast forward about 8 weeks, i cave and decide im not gonna get another ~350 top four anytime soon, so i buy the pass, that was three weeks ago. Since buying the tavern pass and being able to play unhindered in a fairly pay to win system, i was happy and in that three weeks they even added 1 new hero and 2 new units. This is where I come a little unstuck. For my end of the deal i end up paying 28aud during a job crisis pandemic that is pounding my country and state into the ground, to receive 3 weeks of gameplay before Blizzard, without warning revokes my pass and launches me into a game with only half the champion pool (Lich and Jaraxxus cheers by the way).
Is it right that I can pay the cost of an expansion to be able to semi-seriously play a game that advertises as FTP?
What did you expect though? The Battlepass to be infinite? Im not a battleground player, i havent read up on the battleground pass, yet i expected it to be tied to an expansion…
Yes, the current battle pass system is kind of ridiculous. That being said, it is specified in the pass that the benefits are temporary, and only last as long as the expansion is active. That something is a bad deal doesn’t change the fact that you should’ve been a bit more careful.
It’s not like it’s hidden under layers of fine print, it’s right in the text of the pop-up window they show you in-game.
It’s four months, technically. Which is why your was so cheap: the first two months of an expansion you pay full price, the last two months you pay half price.
Still doesn’t seem worth the asking price, but I don’t play Battlegrounds so maybe that’s just me.
80 bucks a year and you dont get a single card Haha. But then you can drop 80 an expansion for the “great value” preorder. So about 400 a year for a decent experience and youd still miss a ton of cards.
Well, technically there is a better system: if you play constructed at all, pick an alternate server, and play Battlegrounds there. You can earn enough gold to buy the pass just by doing daily quests for 30-45 days. Sure, it takes a minute, but if you don’t mind the grind, you can easily earn enough gold over the course of an expansion to buy enough battle passes for the whole year. And you don’t even have to play constructed every day, once every three days to clear quests is enough.
If you don’t play constructed, then it’s even easier: just do the grind on your main server, since you don’t need to save gold to buy packs.
Tiresome? Sure! Beats paying $20 every four months though.
This should not be called a battle pass, with a battle pass you play and earn things as you progress and you keep what you get . This you pay2win bc you get the advantage to have heroes early and 2 extra choices of those Heroes per game, you don’t however get to keep anything you are paying for, not even emotes that you can’t even use sometimes. You are renting these pay2win mechanics on a 4 month basis and at the end of that time if you want to continue to use them you have to pay again. Pay2win is getting something that gives you an advantage over other players and you can’t argue that having heroes early that nobody else can use and 4 pick slots is an advantage. This, this is not a battle pass, this is a game mode still in beta mind you that you will have nothing to show for it at the end. You only get 10g for 3 wins With no rewards for reaching high mmr either. How do you monetize and charge for a game mode that has zero benefits of playing?
yeah, it’s just like being F2P on WoW, you can get all thing in the game, in a lifetime or to. But you know, blizz is’a a small indie company, it need some cash.
yeah yama this was my sentiment in a nutshell, for a player who now truly dislikes core hearthstone i dont know why im being punished if i dont rent playability 3 times a year haha
fact is even if bought at the right time, 80$/year is ridiculously hight for a game like that in 2020. I liked bg and got decent rating but there is just ton of game (like nearly every other game) you don’t have to pay that much. They should decrease the price and make long term offer like 3 years battle pass for 120$ (still incredibly hight).
I was perturbed at the introduction of the battle pass, yet decided to get it as I started preferring battlegrounds.
I’m 100% guilty of not reading closely- I thought the price was for a full year (the current “year of” or what have you). To find out my pass expired with the release of scholomance was surprising and laughable.
Perhaps my irritation is illogical or misguided. Nonetheless, I’ve removed hearthstone from my apps, and I doubt that is a hopeful outcome from the developers.
One other way to stop people from feeling cheated is to say so many days left on the battle pass in the purchase side. This way people know how long they are buying it for. Another way would be to say you get 3 months for your 20 dollars period if new expansion hits you still keep your battlepass til your days run out. Save the price changing midway thru the season.
