Part 1:
(please read above article to get better understanding)
In summary,
THE PAY WALL - By establishing a clear divide between those who are willing to toss money for the game and those that aren’t
EXCLUSIVITY - players either fork out money to buy the item off the store or try their luck in the respective lottery.
THE RESOURCE GATE - fundamentally profit off our impatience
Take a look at earlier HS design, take a look at current HS design (whole game)
Discuss.
It’s definitely an interesting aspect of economy. Car dealerships do the same thing. It is essentially a proponent that exists because of capitalism too though, because the top 1% wealthy own a lot more proportionately.
Using a car brand as an example: Volkswagon
They firstly create tier’s to create exclusivity
You have their luxury brands exclusivity. Audi etc
You have their midrange brands. Volkswagen
You have their budget brand. Skoda/cheaper Volkswagens etc
All in all the cars cost only a few thousand different to manufacture between the most budget make and the most premium make.
Apply this to hearthstone
They create different entry points to buy in at because they want each consumer to feel the value in what they buy. Then they design the lowest cost cards to be uninteresting, it’s no design flaw, their whole game could be just as interesting as the most interesting parts theoretically with hardly any extra effort.
Then the average consumer doesn’t realize that they have a product line just targeting solely them.