No More Hearthstone Due to Art Changes

Community Discussion
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Learning about the new art changes has honestly left a bad taste in my mouth towards Hearthstone and caused me to not want to support it anymore.

I saw a similar art change happen to Magic: The Gathering way back when with the card Unholy Strength. It was a black card with a fiery pentagram behind a guy. And you know what, it was pretty cool looking! So what if there was a pentagram? The art fit perfectly with the name of the card. Where was the guy in the art getting the unholy strength from? Well duh…the Devil (que Puddy from Seinfeld with the Devil face paint).

MTG ended up removing the pentagram along with “demons”, because it was about to breakthrough into the mass market and wanted to avoid the mistakes D&D did when it broke through before them. And OK, I can see why Wizards of the Coast felt the need to remove their darker elements at the time but Blizzard what is your excuse? You are a well established, global company.

Changing artwork, as WoTC did, to open up their market does have drawbacks. If you remove the pentagram well then where does the “unholy strength” originate from? You can go look up the card and see the non-pentagram version for yourself, it just looks silly. And then look at the later versions of the card after the “minus pentagram version”. None of them are anything special and continue to ignore the source of the unholy strength. Little things like the artwork really added to the overall game too. You could get story background just out of the artwork and story text, but you lose that when you start removing and changing artwork. The story changes.

And now we are seeing this within our own beloved Blizzard. Not only did they change the artwork for the Succubus card, they removed the Succubus and changed the name. They have now written the idea of a Succubus out of Hearthstone. And I’m not going to do this kind of analysis for each of the card changes. I believe the general idea of their actions is clear enough and I see no reason for them to stop with just these cards.

Ultimately I have no more faith in the Hearthstone team or the game itself. Maybe they will follow a similar path as Magic did and eventually add these removed themes (sex and violence) back, but if it does happen it will be years from now and only because of some other cultural influence, not because of Blizzard. Blizzard could be the flag-bearer and set a tone of not removing artwork but has decided not to, despite their enormous empire and clout. I suspect if anything this reveals the vulnerable position Blizzard has found themselves in due to other factors. They must be losing out hard in some other area of the gaming industry that I’m not aware of. And I don’t think “boobies and blood” are the culprit. A lack of proper management of their titles is more likely.

As Jim Morrison said “money beats soul, every time.” Blizzard you are continuing to fail to connect with the heart and soul that you began with and replacing it more and more with what will only get you more money and I don’t want to support you anymore.

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Congratulations at answering your own question. WotC removed all demonic references to appeal to a bigger market, and Blizzard is doing the same. WotC did it because of puritan America, and guess what, over twenty years later, puritan America is still here. If Blizzard wants their pg-rating, they need to comply with the rules set by the rating office.

And hey, guess what? MtG survived. HS will too.

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The standards for the ESRB haven’t changed… so why change anything the game is rated 12+ for those exact reasons… magic the gathering is all ages so its no wonder they changed their art… what is blizzards excuse? that’s the point of his post. :stuck_out_tongue: Blood, fantasy violence, Mild suggestive themes… the art work of hearthstone is perfectly fitted for the 12+ rating… :stuck_out_tongue:

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https://pegi.info/search-pegi?q=hearthstone

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In the US, the ESRB rates Hearthstone as “T” (content suitable for children 13 and older).

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And in the EU, PEGI rates it as 7 (content suitable for children 7 and older).

Now, which has the bigger market? Ages 13 and up or 7 and up? And no, the answer is not China.

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I mean… the EU has about 750 million people. China has 1.2 billion. Sounds like China is the larger market, regardless of age.

Of course, the choice for Blizzard isn’t one or the other: they could easily be tweaking art to meet both goals (make Hearthstone more kid-friendly, and make Hearthstone better fit Chinese regulations).

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You made a lengthy post there, showing your concern about the art changes. As you put it, you dont want “sex and violence” to be removed. I ask you then, is “sex and violence” compatible with a PG 7 or PG Teen rating?

I dont think so. And i have absolutelly no problem in seeing why they remove said art, to better comply with their initial PG rating… To keep it friendly themed. If Hearthstone is about “sex and violence” to you, then i think you are missing the overall theme of the game.