You Don't Have to Play HS

(Look toward the end of this post for two suggestions for other CCGs you can try out that are both, in my opinion, worth the while.)

Here is the Wikipedia article on this subject that goes far deeper into the psychology behind this behavior. Link below.

A massive amount of players in expressing their feelings (namely in unkind ways) seemingly hate Hearthstone. From the simplicity of the game which, for some, equals that skill doesn’t exist. This is demonstrably untrue. I don’t have time to go into the statistics, but, the statistics gathered from large sample sizes examined by data analysts regarding Hearthstone very clearly demonstrate that skill exists. There are inherently decks (i.e.) Pirate Warrior that have, probably, the least skill required to play with successful results. Then I employ you to then look at other decks, like Thief Rogue and Poison Rogue and Mozaki Mage – these decks have very high skill ceiling. Meaning, they require skill, unlike Pirate Warrior and some other decks that also fall into this category, but I’m not going to list which decks play similarly to this Pirate Warrior. Just know, they do exist.


Now it’s time to discuss the sunk cost fallacy. For many, many players (even ones that seemingly hate the game), they for this psychological reason will not quit. Why? Because they have invested (oftentimes) money and a helluva lot of time playing this game. This makes it extremely difficult to quit or take a break. Realize that the money and effort you put forth in the past is irrelevant. This holds zero bearing on whether you should continue playing the game. Your best option (regarding the type of players I am speaking of) is to stop playing. It’s akin to gambling, where in you, the sunk cost fallacy is immensely present. These gamblers will lose more often than win, and have, but mistakenly believe that because they’ve invested time and money into whichever method of gambling they are participating, that they have to win. The truth is, the house always wins. You ultimately always lose. Past events do not necessarily affect future outcomes in situations like this. These people are suffering from the sunk cost fallacy and ignorance of statistics.


DO NOT FALL FOR THIS INSTINCT THAT YOU MUST PLAY BECAUSE YOU INVESTED IN THIS GAME. Ultimately, it matters not, whatsoever, what money and time you’ve spent on HS. Do NOT feel obligated to play.

You can take a break. You can even quit. If this game bothers you (referring to the myriad of players angry with HS) simply STOP PLAYING (even if only temporarily). You play games for fun. If this one isn’t reaching that goal, you shouldn’t be playing that game.


I’ll also add to the subject. Overcome the anxiety you might have by not playing HS. Over time, that separation anxiety will slowly, but surely, diminish to the point that you don’t even


If you’ve read so far, it may very well seem I am recommending players to play other games than HS – I am. Don’t forget: you can play more than one CCG. I’ll parrot myself here and say with simplicity, don’t fall into playing a game that frustrates you because you have invested potentially large sums of money and time into said game. Logically it does not follow that you should be playing Hearthstone if you do not enjoy it. In short, if you find yourself bored, or even wanting to quit – that’s entirely ok and a great decision for many players.

DO NOT PLAY HS IF YOU CANNOT DERIVE ANY FUN (the reason for playing).

Here are two popular and success digital CCGs you can give a try if your interest in Hearthstone is wearing.

(Magic the Gathering Arena)
https://magic.wizards.com/en

(Legends of Runeterra)

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Good point! I’m questioning myself sometimes - what’s the reason the ask for nerfs if someone could just try to play around the decks that stop them, looking for counters or techs or whatever. And the answer to myself was similar - when you don’t enjoy the game in general you won’t look for ways to move forward, there’s just zero intention.

By the way, yesterday I’ve ragequit one game thinking that an opponent in mirror have had a high roll and ten minutes after rethinking my turns I understood that I was actually able to deal with his board and most likely will turn the game opposite and had a chance to win. This would’ve never happened if I was overwhelmed with negative emotions on “how sick is meta/deck/HS/Blizz/a card/mr. President/whatever” which would’ve led to me thinking that this game is a coin flip (exactly how I felt pressing concede). :smirk:

What if the root reason is not sunk cost?
Do gamblers keep gambling because sunk cost is the root reason?

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The problem is larger than just the sunken cost when swapping games. You have to often play through another tutorial, relearn characters, get used to different hotkey’s mouse sensitivities, retrain muscle memory. Like I might not be terribly impressed with the direction hearthstone went in particularly with quests that I have virtually complained about quests through every quest expansion and they come back and the last set were designed in the worst way possible. That said if I swap to the online mtg I have 0 cards, there are too many rules since I played the paper version.

Though it was always a slight issue before, games didn’t used to be about microtransactions, back then the games were enjoyable to just casually swap between games. I still imagine that some authority will come in and recognize that the way games impact us psychologically are far worse than that back in the primitive gaming days and shift some sort of guidelines on it.

When I’m picking a new game now as an adult, I stay away from games that are grindy, so nowadays I wouldn’t even pick up a game like Hearthstone, but I still can play certain games from the past because I have already done the grind. Some grinds are worth maybe, like for instance I have most of the champions in league of legends and I obtained them at a faster rate than I really needed to swap and change.

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I’ve definitely stopped playing from time to time and it’s been great but I have felt at times were I WISHED I kept up with the reward track because I’ve always been enticed with the lure of a new expansion and I haven’t had enough gold to buy packs.

I actually have a new plan this year of fully being FTP and maining 1-2 classes. I’ve been fine with logging in for the quests, playing my own builds and some other peoples and exiting the game and moving onto Age of Empires (current casual PC game outside of Hearthstone for me).

So I’m still logging in to be relevant but I’m not hating the game right now so I’m happy doing that and enjoying Priest (of all classes!). Today was ‘Play or Trade 30 Tradeable cards’ so I made a Tradeable Priest build with a bit of DR thrown in.

I am definitely not suggesting you all jump ship to another game. I am only trying to articulate that if you (not referring to you specifically) partake in this, it is illogical to continue playing and paying for this game if you have mostly disdain for it. And maybe not the entire reason behind why upset players continue playing. However, this sunk cost fallacy is blatantly seen on this forum alone all of the time. You even find players that truly believe matchmaking is rigged. And guess what? They still play.

There truly is never (or very rarely) a single cause behind any effect. In the gambler’s case, certainly the sunk cost fallacy plays a role. What also plays a role is the gambler’s statistical ignorance, not realizing that past outcomes do not necessarily determine future outcomes. And so the thinking is long the lines of: 'I’ve lost ten times in a row, and so statistically I should be getting lucky soon. But, they’re entirely wrong. Their ten losses have zero effect on their next gambling endeavor.

I’n reminded of a quote I’ll paraphrase from Richard Dawkins. There is (nearly always) no single cause or root to a problem. There are a myriad of psychology effects going on in your brain that also help you to continue playing, even if playing for you is essentially counterproductive both in your time spent and the misery you feel in the end. And despite all of this, people continue playing.

I am hesitant to call it an addiction – but it really appears that many players are actuality addicted to Heartstone.

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As such, there will be no fruitful discussion(takeaway) thereafter.

Rather, the focal point of discussion maybe better directed at why players are unhappy with the game. From there, then can the Dev improve, or the players adapt.

I can appreciate that. Might I ask you, what guns do you own?

I feel like you need a bigger professional role, so that you are rewarded for your dedication.

I very much enjoyed FitB meta, hated UiS with a passion and have seen a glimmer of hope with FiAV. The week or so after the initial balance patch was the most fun I’d had in HS for over 4 months. Roguestone is boring af, but knowing there’s an upcoming balance patch gives me hope that the issues that weren’t initially dealt with in the first patch can be addressed on the 25th. I don’t need all classes/archetypes to be viable, but a little diversity goes a long way in games like HS.

UiS was the set that made we walk away from HS for a bit. Nearly made me quit. It was unfun on a new level for me. Taking a break was the best move I could have made.

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Great topic. I feel the same way about some complaints that I see here, like: “man, if you hate that much the format of the game, why don’t you think taking a break of it?”

Is not like abandoning forever, but if you have a habit that makes you feel so awful, why keep doing it?

it’s almost like stockholm syndrom, I don’t know

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Yes, skill exists in the same way a person flipping a coin has some measure of “skill” in how they do it. But ultimately, it still boils down to a coin flip, no matter how much skill a coin flipper can have to eke the coin to drop one way or another.

I would say the #1 cause of fallacious reasoning is drawing a false equivalence of some kind between the past and the future. There is no empirical evidence (yet) in the future. In the past, empirical evidence is something that can be sought out and analyzed, and this data is often used to forecast the future. However, no forecasting process is perfect, and things are always changing a little bit from the previous status quo.

The sunk cost fallacy of the OP is an example. In terms of the future, it makes sense to invest time getting good at a skill you plan on using a lot; that’s a good choice. But in the same way the empiricism is exclusive to the past, choice is exclusive to the future. You can choose to invest your future time in something else; you can’t choose now to have spent your past time differently. The heart of the sunk cost fallacy is acting as if you have a duty to choose now what you did then.

Great post from the one that brings the greatest posts to our forum.

I for one, will play, likely until I die or the servers are closed. I’m never angry enough or upset enough not to play. I love HS. I love our community. I love my HS friends. I love the fun and joy it’s brought me. I love my wife and she plays HS.
AND we named our 7 month old girl Alexstrasza. :heart: Yes, my daughter’s name is Alexstrasza.

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One of my kids is an Alex whose name had a dorky inspiration. But not Warcraft in our case; we named him after Final Fantasy’s Alexander.

Well, maybe I should say I named him. I think my ex was mostly thinking “cringe; we’ll just call him Alex for short, whatever.” Hope your marriage fares better than mine did.

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FYI, I have edited typos in the OP. I was very underslept when I wrote this, and so made grammatical mistakes here and there, as well as some incoherent statements. I appreciate all of the feedback and interesting discussion this topic helped to instigate. I’ll have to take the time to read your replies from the first to the last.

I’m also going to link to two other successful DCCGs in the OP for those that feel like it’s Hearthstone or nothing.

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I’m sorry about that. We do indeed have a strong marriage. We’re inseparable. And it was my wife’s idea to name our Daughter Alexstrasza.

Fun fact…people reading her name have provided us many opportunities for a good laugh.

Jeez. You must have the coolest wife around. Beautiful name for your daughter. And congratulations on having children.

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Most of us have fun, but there are a lot of problems. If there was any reasonable competition, many of us would have moved on. Kinda like YouTube- no competition, so we’re stuck with it. But yeah, nobody is forcing us to watch YouTube videos or play Hearthstone.

Check out the OP again. I’ve linked to two digital CCGs you might find fun: Magic the Gathering: Arena and Legends of Runeterra. I’ve played a fair mount of the former; I haven’t played much (really, at all) the latter.

No individual nor mob is making you play. However, human psychology does account for many players still playing. It’s half the sunk cost fallacy and half addiction, it seems.