When Darkmoon Faire was announced, my first reaction was:
Now this happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8F5xLWy-fe0
For people who don’t want to watch the whole video, here’s a quick summary:
It’s about a parent, who doesn’t have reallife friends who play Hearthstone. 3 years ago, when the child was 6yo it started getting interested in Hearthstone. Now The child is 9 and the two are bonding over their shared hobby. However, since Darkmoon Faire released, the child keeps talking about King Krush and wants this for its birthday. The major issue here is, that Krush is not in the shop, but on the main screen. So it’s permanently visible to entice impressionable children. It’s animated too, to be more enticing. This led the child to cry over not having King Krush. Now the parent decided to not play Hearthstone anymore.
This story makes me sad. Games that are playable by minors shouldn’t involve gambling. As if that wouldn’t be immoral enough, the marketing is specifically tailored towards children. And it works.
Usually I preordered every expansion, and sometimes bought some bronze and/or silver bundles here and there. I stopped doing this months ago. I can’t bring myself to give Blizzard money anymore. I will keep playing, for now, but won’t spend a single € until this predatory child exploitation stops.
NO GAMBLING FOR CHILDREN!